Purefishing Pro's

Pflueger Supreme XT 2000S Reviewed by Royter

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:38:00 +0000

Well, where do I start? Let’s start with where it all began shell we! Some 4 years ago Pflueger introduced us to the first of their MG or Magnesium body and rotor reels called Supreme MG. These where quite a break through for the US reel manufacture as they where on par with some of the lightest reels in the world for their size at the time. Bring it all forward about 18 months and they released the Supreme XT, the platform for the XTS!
Now for the outside you would say that there has been some significant Japanese styling done to this reel and would be right. I’m not sure where in their culture this amazing ability to create beautiful looking fishing reels comes from and I don’t really care, as long as they keep doing it!! You have to admit, this is a sexy looking reel. From the XT to the XTS there is only few things have changed. Let’s look!
From the outside in you have the obvious deep chocolate brown and gold cosmetics that quite convincingly stamp Japan as the country of origin.

Probably the most significant outside part on the reel is the handle. This thing is a work of art! The whole thing weighs just a few grams with two very important features. Firstly is the carbon handle shaft. This lowers the overall weight of the reel by as much as 15 grams. Why all reels don’t have this feature is beyond me! Second is the EVA handle knob. Very comfortable indeed; in fact, if I could I would make every reel I own have one of these EVA knobs. Hidden inside the knob are two of the 9 bearings which make it feel effortless to wind. Other less noticeable parts are the alloy main pin and machined main pin body.

The spool is quite the piece of work as well! Aside from its pretty little holes and funky looks it’s a tournament spool. What that means is it takes only one shot of 125 yards to fill. Not 300 yards where 200 of that will only ever see the light of day again when you de-spool it to change the line! Plus it’s a ‘braid direct’ spool meaning that you can tie your braid directly to the spool without the fear of the whole lot spinning. It does this with thin rubber elements that run opposite to the line laying.

Tucked away inside the spool is the drag. Water proof of course (there should never be another reel built in the world that doesn’t have a water proof drag!) and instead of the Carbon Matrix drag the Japanese designers have opted for one of the most reliable and smoothest dargs on the planet, oil soaked felt and stainless washers. And I know what you’re thinking; you want the carbon drag right? Well before you get all huffy about it let me tell you a few things about the old school felt washer! This is the most common drag system used in reels today. Why? It works! Both the 2 big players Shimano and Daiwa have built (and still do) more reels with this drag system than any other. It’s so reliable smooth that there’s been nothing else to take its place for 30 years or more. Another good thing about the material is you can change the type of grease that’s in them to change their characteristics. The thing is about this type of system is that if you’re not heating them up with 100+ metre runs and really cooking it than it will stay smooth as ever for ages and when it comes time to change them its cost cents not dollars!!

Moving right along we have some really nice parts next. The MG or magnesium body and rotor is where this reel gets most of its weight savings from. This material is an alloy and is 2/3’s less dense than aluminium and a little stronger. This material has been used in the manufacture of fishing reels for many years and is still one of the best we have today for making ultra light, rigid bodies.

The drive train is a very nice simple and strong layout; titanium main gear, pinion gear, rotor bearings & anti-reverse assembly, oscillating gear, oscillating slider and main shaft. Neat and simple! The thing that makes the XTS feel so smooth is the oscillating gear and slider. The gear runs on a bearing which takes out unwanted drive-train lag and metal-on-metal friction of the surfaces between the body and the gear. The oscillating slider is also given a hand to stay straight and true by the way of a capture plate that guides the slider back and forth not allowing any torque that so often happens in other reels.

Other features include a weight tuned main gear with radial pie cuts for less rotational mass, hollow alloy bail wire, Ti plated line roller & spool lip, sure click bail cam and did I mention dead sexy lookin!!

Just before I go I had better talk about something that’s dear to my heart. Corrosion Resistant Ball Bearing! These are by far the biggest advancement in reel technology since the invention of the compression bail spring! These little rippers are saving your reels every day. By beating back corrosion and not allowing it to form the humble bearing is still rolling and not all furry, brown and disgusting. Lucky for the people who have bought or are about to buy an XTS because the 3 main bearing in this reel are CRB’s! There’s 1 in the rotor assembly and 1 on either side of the main gear, keeping your gear box in-line and smooth. It quite easy to tell a non-CRB from a CRB; the CRB’s have a blackish tint to them. This blackish material is chromium. Chromium is what makes stainless steel not rust!
Well there you have it, the inn’s and out’s of the new Pflueger Supreme XTS.
Get down to your local and have a look. I know you’ll like what you feel!

Cheers

Royter.

Switch baiting squid

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:16:00 +0000

It’s generally pretty hard to drag me away for the Bream fishing but sometime I promise my wife a fresh feed of tasty calamari. When squid fishing, I like to use a technique we call switch baiting. Switch baiting is when you attract the squid with a lure or bait and then drop down a squid jig which hopefully the fired up squid will attack.

Switch baiting is particularly successful when fishing with a partner. Select one person to cast a squid jig and the other to cast a plastic. I have 2 preferred plastics when searching for squid, the 4” Powerbait shrimp in natural and the 4” power minnow in smelt or watermelon.

Switchbaiting squid is extremely good fun and very exciting. Just recently my brother and I had a fantastic session chasing squid. My brother (Brent) was throwing a Power Egi squid jig in olive pink and I was throwing a 4” minnow in watermelon. At first the fishing was tough, until after 20 minutes I felt the distinctive lunge of a large squid. This is where the fun begins. It’s very unlikely to have successfully hooked the squid with a single jighead so very gently I started to apply pressure to try and get the squid to within eyesight. Meanwhile Brent had quickly retrieved his jig and was ready to cast as soon as we sighted the squid. Once the squid was sighted, Brent lightly cast his jig just in front of the squid and allowed in to sink. As his jig reached level with the squid I gave a sharp flick of the rod tip to pull the plastic away from the squid, (I like to leave the plastic in the water to keep the squid interested) Brent was lifting and dropping his jig to try and tempt the squid to switch his aggression onto the jig. Watching a large aggressive squid, light up, serge and rap his tentacles around the jig is truly as exciting as any other form of sight fishing. This squid obliged and we had fun trying to net the squid without being inked.

The next squid I hooked on the 4” minnow was followed by 5 of his mates. It can really get hectic when this happens. This time I held my plastic with squid attached down deep to try and encourage the others to hang around. Brent quickly dropped his jig behind the squid and was immediately hooked onto a large squid. We quickly netted it but left the net dangling in the water as Brent dropped his jig back down. I got a bit greedy and grabbed my spare rod with jig attached and dropped that over the side as well. We both hooked up and without any spare hands to wind or unhook the squid we had line and ink flying everywhere. This pattern of schools of squid following their mates continued for the next couple of hours. We had an absolute ball and took home some very tasty calamari.

I use a Berkely Pro Tactic 6’10” 2-4kg for squid fishing with either 2lb Trilene straight through or with an extra long leader of 4lb Trilene attached to 2lb/3lb Crystal Fireline. I always have at least one rod rigged with a Berkley Power Egi jig ready to cast and I’ll also have another trailing out the back of the boat. It is amazing how many squid the stationary jig will catch.

The Berkley Power Egi comes in a range of sizes, weights and colours so try a few to find the ones that work best in your favourite squid patch. The added bonus of the Berkley Power Egi jig is its scent. It has a very distinctive prawn/shrimp smell to it which the squid just love. When working the Power Egi I have a couple of retrieves I like to rotate through. The standard lift and drop will work well but I like to be a bit more aggressive than that. Once the jig has sunk to within a metre of the bottom, I like to give the rod tip 2-3 sharp flicks, this will swim the lure from side to side. Then let it swim back to the bottom. The squid will strike when the jig is drifting back to the bottom. Good luck and don’t forget to try switch baiting.

Hodgey

Amazing catch on ABU Tracker telescopic rod.

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:12:00 +0000

Abu 6’6 Tracker – what a legend! Having owned telescopic rods as a little kid I never really had much faith in them, but gee they have come a long way since then. My recent purchase of a 6’6 Tracker came from a passion of fishing and a need to fit a rod and reel into my laptop bag for my work which involves flying around the islands of the Torres Strait. Having purchased it down in Brisbane this Christmas I dragged it along as a spare rod on a trip to Moreton Island. To cut a long story short – during a squid fishing session with mates I landed a 25-30kg Cobia (scales only went to 25kg which it made easily) in 45 minutes. We were all blown away by how the rod stood up to the challenge and helped make this fish my greatest ever catch. The next week my brothers, father and mates all bought Abu 6’6 trackers!

As head of Marine Education for the Torres Strait (18 schools and TAFE) I am pretty well known for being an obsessed fisherman – getting stuck into everything from Billfish to Barra in what has to be some of the most extreme fishing locations around. A lot of the gear we use is pretty good stuff and a lot of the gear we buy also never lasts long with blown reels and busted rods a continuous hassle. For a laugh we are going to see what we can catch with the 6’6 on upcoming trips to the shelf (440 km round trip this weekend coming) – if you need extra photos or video footage we can forward it on. We are by no means expert fisherman but we happen to fish in places where it does not matter.

I am running 30lb superbraid and a fairly cheap Shimano reel on the Tracker as well.

Regards,

Andrew Denzin

Berkley Flickershads outperform.......!

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:02:00 +0000

hello

i recently purchased one of the Berkley blue tiger frenzy flicker shad lures and i just wanted to say that it is LEGENDARY !
at first i was using some other hard lures and i fished with these for about 2 hours and they were crappppp, not one nibble, not a bite
then i puled out the flicker shad and rigged it up and caught 5 red fin all roughly 30cm long in about 10 minutes. they just kept coming up, it was amazing i thaught to myself that's it i have found the ONE, i am never lending this lure to anyone !. the best day of fishing i have had in a long time, i wish i had bought one earlier. im going out again tomorrow morning to hunt down some yellowbelly.

cheers
mark lopez

Mark has also advised us he did go fishing again using the same lure and caught more Redfin.

Why don't you get onto the Berkley Flickershad range?

dinger.

Queensland Wild Bass Mayhem

noreply@blogger.com (Colonel's Capers) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:56:00 +0000

As much as I love to fish the dams for bass, you can't beat catching them in their natural envoronment. In Queensland, few bass anglers take advantage of the great wild bass fishing on offer. Many of these quality Australian bass have escaped from impoundments when the dams have spilled over. With so many mature bass now swimming in the creeks and rivers below the dams, we have an awesome fishery just waiting for anglers to enjoy.
Finding bass in the river and creeks is quite easy during the summer months. The fish follow their natural instincs and head upstream. I decided to hit one of my favourite holes recently. I had given the fish a good spell of over 6 months so I was keen to see how responsive they'd be to our lures. Tagging along was my brother Kerry. It was Kerry's first trip to the secret hole and he was keen to see what I had been raving about.
We slid the bathtub shaped twin hull boat into the water and set off using the electric motor to the upper stretch of the narrow winding hole. There was plenty of duck weed floating on top which could make catching fish difficult. The duck weed tends to trap heat in the water and we were looking for fish in the cooler shaded water. Too much duck weed can make the water too hot and the fish hard to come by. The weed had blown into thick clumps and was quite broken along some of the better looking banks. My first cast that was able to reach to shaded bank was quickly intercepted by a healthy bass.
Wild bass fishing can produce some explosive strikes. Many of the bass can be seen as the rush out to smash a lure. We started whacking fish on beetle spins. The beetle spin consisted of a gold blade on a wire frame clipped onto a 1/4 ounce Nitro Dam Deep Jighead. These jigheads were fitted with 2.6" Powerbait T-tail Minnows.
The beetlespins were effective as we worked our way up the creek but on the return trip I thought the fish might be looking for something a little different. Wild bass can be so aggressive that on the first pass you'll sting most of the fish. When continuing to fish them, you can fool them with a different presentation or more accurate casts that find their way right into their home. I had the lure setup that would achieve both. I found success on a weedless rigged 3.5" Powerbait T-tail Minnow. Rigged on a 1/16 ounce weighted worm hook, the lure skimmed beautifully. It would skip cast all the way back into the guts of the overhanging bottlebrush trees and come straight back out over the limbs, roots and floating weed. At first the action was slow as Kerry continued to pick off the occasional bass with his beetle spin rig. Then the pattern started to unfold and I was soon buzzing the lure out of the shade and watching bass explode on it. One fish even leapt clear of the water as it nailed the plastic. The bass were so aggressive that they weren't missing the hook buried in the weedless rig. The skinny profile of the 3.5" T-tail allowed the hook to easily find its mark when the fish hit. The sun was now high overhead. This had created some excellent shadows below the overhanging trees to explore. Our lures were still working but we pulled out some hard bodies to try our luck. These floating lures could be tossed right back to the shoreside structure and twitched on top keeping them in the strike zone longer. Some bass nailed the lure soon after it landed while others drilled it after it started to swim. I recall one bad cast smacking the water with an almighty splash. It had landed in an excellent spot but made a hell of a noise. It didn't deter a hungry bass from launching clear of the water as it sucked the lure from the top seconds after the splash-down. After we'd finished the morning session, we had boated 22 wild bass. The biggest 4 fish were over 40cm to the fork of the tail. Kerry managed the biggest fish with a fork length of 45cm. What an awesome morning. And...... there are so many more spots just like it waiting to be found.

My wild bass tackle consisted of:
- Pro Tactic 7" 2-5kg spin rod
- 802 Abu Cardinal spin reel
- 6lb Spiderwire Stealth Camo Braid
- 15lb Stren Fluorocarbon leader

PFLUEGER ARBOR – A reel difference!

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:35:00 +0000

It must be said that reels that have this spool configuration have been around for a long time; like a really long time! Back when these other reels where around people where having the same problems and where looking for the same results as we are today. We, as they did, are looking to the spool shape to help take away line twist and enable a longer more efficient cast.

If we think back to what anglers of old had to put up with it was stiff gut and even stiffer nylon. But this day and age we are facing off against line that’s the opposite. Most lines the people want to fish are very loose and limp braids.
For those of you who like using standard braid (none thermally fused) then this reel is for you! The new Pflueger ARBOR brings back the technology that has helped us cure our casting woes.

The technology behind it is quite simple. The larger the arbor, the less rotations of line needed to come off the spool to get to the desired distance. Keeping in mind the every loop of line equals a percentage of line twist. Less loops; less line twist. Also there is the friction created as the line comes off the spool and has to run over the spool lip. The less rotation here will generate less friction giving a further cast.

The large arbors oscillation stroke length (the spool as it goes up and down) also adds to the anti-tangle affects throughout the cast. Being that the rotor spins only 4 times per stroke, this very short stroke takes away the amount of rotor spins and therefore the amount of line that can be ‘grabbed’ by the forward running line and smashed through the guides causing what is known as a bunch of grapes!

Pic 1a-1b/ Spool dimensions are – Spool lip = 50-mm. Spool stroke = 10.5-mm.
Having a 50-mm ID spool also allows for a large drag system. This is a twin disc drag which is and has always been one of the most consist ways of manufacturing a drag so that it’s smooth and strong. The added bonus with the Arbor is the primary washer is a Carbon Matrix washer some smoothness and durability come second nature.

Pic 2/ Twin disc drag system. Both the washers are 25-mm in diameter.

Pic 3/ Like most modern day spinning reels a small rubber washer is added under the drag knob to keep out water and foreign objects.

Pic4/ Stabilizing bearing on the main shaft. This is something we’re seeing more and more of. The bearing is place under the spool to help keep it aligned with the outer most point of the spool. This in turn will help to keep your drag smooth and stop horizontal spool flex.

This reel has a very small gear case for the size of the rotor that it swings. After pulling the side plate off I almost had to stab myself with the screw driver to make sure I wasn’t dreaming! The gears in this thing are massive. I should have known, that like a lot of other reels built these days it’s all about minimizing the body and increasing the size of the gears and the Arbor is no exception!

Almost the entire box is filled with the main gear and pinion, the two gears that you want to have substantially built if any. Keeping it simple (something I like in a gear box) is the oscillating gears and slider. The oscillating gear has a bearing in it to keep it straight and running smooth. Something I think you can feel when you first wind this reel.
That’s it!! That’s all there is in there. Less is defiantly more when it comes to making reliable and strong gears boxes. One other thing you’ll notes about the Arbor is how slow the gear ratio is. It’s 4.3 x 1 in both sizes. It feels a little weird to start with until you get it on the water and see how much line you are picking up with that 50-mm arbor!

Pic5/ Your gears Sir! That’s them in all their nakedness. Now for a real of this size, these are some mean gears let me tell ya!!

Pic6/ Here we have the oscillating gears and slider. Note the bearing in the oscil gear and the ‘S’ track in the slider.

Ball race type ball bearings are very important to the inner working of all fishing reels. The Arbor has 7 in all and although most are quite small, the ones that matter the most are very large for this sized reel. The 3 bearings in question are the most important in any threadline reel. The two that are on either side of the main gear and the one that surrounds the pinion gear. These large bearings will serve two purposes; firstly they will stop any major gear wear from occurring within the opposing angled main gear and pinion gears and secondly the sheer size of them will keep everything in line for years to come.

Pic7/ One of the main gear bearings and the pinion gear bearing. Check the size of them against a 5er!

Some of the other nice add-ons on this reel are things like an over sized bail wire for distortion free use, a screw in/screw out handle for a tighter feel, short reel stem for index finger line control, one way clutch bearing for the anti reverse, light weight alloy/graphite body and rotor, braid ready spool (spool has hard rubber lugs that the braid bites onto so it doesn’t spin), double anodized spool, Sure Click bail open, ratchet click drag knob and some pretty sporty looks!
All in all, this reel is a little ripper. It’s put up with my abuse for over 6 months now and is still going strong. I’ve fished it in some pretty adverse conditions and at times haven’t washed it in freshwater for two weeks and it’s still running without a service.

If you’re right into fishing super thin braided lines then I can tell you that you’ll have to spend a hell of a lot more cash to get a reel that will probably not fish it as well as the Pflueger Arbor.

Adam Royter.

Girl Power - Morgy's Monster

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:29:00 +0000

Not to be out done by her brother Fraser, Morgan decides to get in on the fun.

This is my eldest daughter Morgan who is 15 years old

After listening to her little brother rave about all the fun he was having Morgan thought she better come with me tonight.

This was cool to watch , once hooked it made a run for the middle of the dam and took almost all the line with 5kg of drag like it wasn't even on , I checked twice to make sure we hadn't wound it the wrong way.

You should see the lure , Bib broken off , front treble bent all over the place , back treble GOOOOOOONE, altogether and the eyelet pulled clean out of the lure , middle treble and split ring spaghetti , whacked to bits.

She was very excited as you could imagine , we both were , there is only one thing better than catching one of these yourself and that's watching your kids do it , this one was 1.17m long and we got it swimming and back into the water after a couple of photos.

Hope you had a great weekend as well

Simon.

Fraser lands a monster!

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:51:00 +0000

Hello

My name is Simon Steele and I live with my Family in Mackay Queensland where my young Son Fraser and I have
just started to fish for Barramundi.

living in Mackay we are very much spoiled with some great wild and impoundment Barramundi opportunities.
I started taking the kids to the rivers edge in June last year and for Fraser this is where it all started , on his second only cast while
I was still tying my lure on he hooked a great Barra that jumped just 6 feet in front of him , I had to grab him by the belt to keep him on
land.

Many Trips to BCF later we have all the gear and a second hand tinny and Fraser and I get away to either Teemburra or Kinchant dam
as often as we can , I have done as much with him as possible while they are off on school holidays.

Fraser uses a Shakespeare Tempest I-M6 graphite 5-10kg fitted with an Abu Garcia 6600c4 reel and has become quickly adept to casting
with his first overhead reel.

On this Monday night after dinner we made our way up to Kinchant dam to try our luck , shortly after arriving and with a big moon rising
I caught a nice 70cm Barra and Fraser was right there with the net for me , it was a good sign because as you know some times in the
impoundments they just wont bite and nothing you can do seems to work. It was all quiet for the next hour and we were just talking about
moving when he said dad I am on with real excitement in his voice.

Well , true he was on alright , the first jump the fish made was in the dark out of the reach of our cap lamps but by the splash it made I knew
this was not a small one. Fraser fishes with 20lb braid Line and 40lb leader so we let the fish take line and boy did it take some , the next jump
was nearer the boat and we both got a look at the massive fish at this point , it had taken his Killer Lure Barra bait front on and there was no
sign of it , it was very well hooked.

The big fish had us from front to back of the boat twice and gave the poor little bloke the workout of a lifetime in the process , Fraser is 37kg
the fish ended up weighing 35.5kg so it was very nearly a pound for pound battle. I didn't touch his rod right through out the 20-30 minutes it

took to fight the fish , he ran the drag as he wished and really showed what he had learned.

As a father watching all this by his side will be a moment in time I will just never ever forget , I just kept praying that his little rod didn't break because it had
some ridiculous curl on it at times.

Long story short , we got the net under her and into the boat where we both just stood looking and smiling , he gave me a huge hug and said
thanks for the help with the net , he was shaking like a leaf. We measured it at 1.24m long , his dream and constant waking hope of one day
catching a metre long Barramundi had come true and the smile in the photos says it all , its Friday now as I write and he is still on high revs.

Just before he went to bed I told him I would write to you and show you his fish , he said what do you think they will say dad ? he is very excited
to think that you would look at it , he said tell them about the leader and how close we were to not landing it. when we got the lure out and had
a look at the leader it was hanging by a proverbial thread , one more good shake and it would have been all over , some things are just meant to be Hey !!!

We just wanted to say a sincere thank you for the great rod and reel , I am sure that other equipment would have turned inside out with a fish like this on the
end of it , instead of any performance issues my little son landed a fish that many only dream of , he sleeps with his rod beside his bed and I think it may be that way
for a long time to come.

Our sincere thanks and all the best for 2010

Simon and Fraser Steele.

All Terrains in the Shallows

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:19:00 +0000

With the barra season still closed, I have been resisting the temptation to flick hardbodies at snags so a lot of my trips have involved chasing mangrove jack, reef fish and pelagics around rocky points and shallow reefs. Weipa is loaded with rock bars so finding the structure isn’t the issue but getting tackle to work well amongst the stones is the trick.

I have often taken the lazy option and tied a popper on and skipped it over the top of the stones but a Gulp Shrimp worked on a 1/16oz head has proven to irritable to everything that swims the estuary systems of Cape York. Rigged on a standard jig head, the little prawn was doing its job but after numerous re-rigging episodes, I tied an All-Terrain head to 15lb Trilene fluorocarbon leader and turned what was looking like a knot tying session into a red hot bite.

I’m embarrassed to admit that it has been a couple of years since rigging with All-Terrains. Not having an exposed hook will reduce the hook-ups but getting in amongst the gravel without snagging up produced some excellent fishing.

It was a number of years ago now but I fished with some of the first All-Terrain jig heads to come out of Matt Fraser’s moulds and loved them. The originals were small 1/32 and 1/24oz heads designed for the bream and bass fishing scene. Matt and I spoke about the potential for a bigger version for fishing breakwalls and shallow reefs. Not long after that conversation, I was fishing with 1/4oz All-Terrains in the Gold Coast Seaway and landing everything from jacks to kingfish.

The reefs that I have been targeting in Weipa are little more than a metre deep but are loaded with so many species that unless it comes flying out of the water early in the fight, it is a real guessing game as to what you have just hooked into to. I seem to be excellent at catching cod but every now and again, I manage a nice coral trout or mangrove jack so certainly worth putting up with hard hitting estuary cod.

The technique I use on the shallow reefs is simple. I can’t ever bring myself to used heavy tackle so it is 8lb braid with 15lb leader. I do get smoked from time to time but love the sport of it all. A light threadline reel with a seven foot 2-4kg rod is my preferred outfit which sounds extremely light for Cape York but by going gently on big fish, I regularly land barra around the 70-80cm mark. Although to be honest, this particular trip with the All-Terrains saw me lose a big barra that managed to wear to leader down on the rocks but being closed season, I am happy to see them go while still in good condition.

Working the All-Terrains allows me to keep in touch with the bottom. My preferred plastic is a 3” Gulp Shrimp which suits the larger All-Terrain heads. Allowing it to settle on the bottom before doing a couple of small hops before allowing it to settle again is all I do. Keeping in touch with the bottom tends to lure the fish out of the little rock caves that they hide in, which is why I catch so many cod but this is where coral trout and mangrove jack tend to hide as well. The technique reminds me of a gentle version of flathead jigging. Species caught this morning in a single session on the All-Terrains were barramundi, queenfish, cod (seems like hundreds of them), mangrove jack, stripies, moses perch, trevally and parrot fish. Unfortunately no coral trout or fingermark but they are a real option on these shallow reefs. The A/T jig heads do have a slower hook-up rate than standard heads however, while the hook-up rate might be halved, keeping the lure down in the strike zone means the bites are tripled.

Wardy

Pirtek Fishing Challenge - Sunday, 11 th April 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:44:00 +0000

Once again Pirtek are hosting Australia’s biggest national fishing competition and it is open to everyone in each State and Territory across the country.

The aim of the Fishing Challenge is to raise much needed funds and awareness for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. Stephen Dutton, General Manager of Pirtek Fluid Systems Pty Ltd, commented, “Following on from the success of last year’s Challenge, we are excited to be again hosting this event and supporting the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. 2010 is a landmark year for Pirtek celebrating 30 years since the company’s inception.

Fight a fish to fight prostate cancer is our catch-cry for this year’s competition. Sunday, 11 th April 2010 is about getting out with your family and friends and wetting a line. Myself and everyone at Pirtek wish all competitors the best of luck.”

PIRTEK WELCOMES BACK EVINRUDE, LOWRANCE AND BERKLEY

In this tough economic climate we are delighted to yet again have the support of associate sponsors Evinrude, Lowrance and Berkley, names synonymous with the highest quality boating and fishing equipment.

Every State and Territory will win BIG CASH and terrific prizes. Pirtek together with Evinrude, Lowrance and Berkley have amassed a massive prize pool in excess of $100,000. Each winning target species is worth $4,000 cash with great prize packs for second, third and junior anglers. In 2010 we will see the addition of extra target species giving competitors even more opportunity to win.

NISSAN /LG MAJOR PRIZE DRAW
This year, thanks to Nissan and LG Electronics, we have a fabulous major prize draw and everyone can be a winner just by entering.
Nissan have kindly donated the ultimate 5 night winter getaway to Hotham Alpine Resort for 2 people, including return flights, transfers, lift passes, ski and boot hire. LG Electronics have also come on board with a 50” HD plasma television and home theatre system.

JVC CLUB CHALLENGE
To further bolster participation and community spirit, JVC will be hosting the JVC Club Challenge.
The club which enters the largest number of paid registrations in its State will win a JVC camcorder. There are eight to give away – one each for Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and two for New South Wales/ACT.
Taking part in the JVC Club Challenge is easy. Simply ask the members of your Fishing Club to provide the full name of your Club in the space provided when registering for the Challenge and your club is on its way to winning a great prize.
We hope to encourage some friendly rivalry between fishing clubs, or perhaps run a BBQ or combined outing.

The competition will be held on Sunday, 11th April, 2010 between the hours of 6.00am and 6.00pm. Each State’s target species will be revealed after 6.00pm on Saturday, 10 April, 2010 via the website

http://www.pirtekfishingchallenge.com.au/

How to Enter

To register for the competition simply log on to http://www.pirtekfishingchallenge.com.au/, read the rules and pay a registration fee of $20.00. Entrants will be sent a Pirtek Fishing Challenge cap and brag mat.
The registration fee is contributing to the goal of raising much needed funds and awareness for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

All competitors need to do is catch their State’s target species, photograph the fish on the Pirtek brag mat along with their registered angler number and send the photo into www.pirtekfishingchallenge.com.au
The idea is to catch, measure, photograph and let your fish go.

In 2010 we will have a fresh water species for New South Wales and Queensland.

Pirtek Brand Champion, Michael Guest, who is the keenest of fishermen commented, “Fishing is a huge part of my life and after seeing such a tremendous response to last year’s Challenge I’m looking forward to an even greater result in 2010.”

“We all love to get out and go fishing. To be able to raise a few dollars for a fantastic cause and have the chance of winning some great cash and prizes is a no-brainer.”

The winners and runners-up for each State and Territory will be posted on the website on Saturday, 17 th April, 2010.

To enter the Pirtek Fishing Challenge go to http://www.pirtekfishingchallenge.com.au/

Basstastic Extreme Timed Bass Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:25:00 +0000

12th and 13th December 2009 at Borumba, Qld.

Well what a great weekend! This was the last competition for Bass for the year. There were 6 individual comps. of 2 hours each. Lots of pressure!

My Dad, James and I haven't had the opportunity to fish together much this year so we were looking forward to it.

The first two sessions we used blades and grubs. Fishing was difficult and there were not too many fish weighed in. Only two anglers got their bag.

Half way through the second session I tied on a new MF50 and decided to try this. This caught us a few under sized bass which at least alerted us to the fact that the fish were attracted to this new lure.

I then set up three different rods with different coloured MF50's and Dad stuck to the Blades. Half way through the third session Dad said "You had better give me one too." By this time I had caught about 15 fish. After I won that session Dad won the next using the MF50's.

In the fifth session we found a patch of fish in nice, clean, open water at about 35 ft. So we both went to our 2 and 3 pound Berkely Fireline with six pound Vanish leader. By using this lighter line we new that the lure would have a better action and we would have a lot more fun. The fishing just got better catching over 30 more fish between us for the session.

For the sixth session the fish shut down and we had to go and find another patch. With ten minutes to go the sounder lit up and I nailed two legals in two casts on MF 50's, then headed to the finish line. A very successful weekend - 3 firsts, 2 seconds, 2 thirds and a fourth.

With confidence in the MF50 lures we decided to go back to Borumba two days later. The previous night I thought I'd try a few modifications on one MF50. I took off the back treble and replaced it with a little, fine skirt and a couple of floating stinger hooks. This I thought would improve the hook up rates as we were getting a lot more hits than hookups. We caught about 20 bass that morning and 10 fat yellowbelly. The yellow belly seemed to take a liking to the modified MF50.

Lake Macdonald is only ten minutes away and has been fishing well of late. Can't wait to get on the water and an MF50 in it!

Thanks for sending us up the lures John, they made us look good.

Merry Xmas to all!

Happy Fishing!

Cheers,

Callum Munro.

Callum is a Purefishing Junior Pro angler, based in Qld.
Callum has successfully competed in Bass and Barra tournaments during 09.
Look for more of Callum's reports in 2010.

ABT Barra Tour 09

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:01:00 +0000

Well what a trip! I fished with Ian Baker as Team Berkly/Nitro R&D and competed in the Southern leg of the tour. This comprised of two comps at Lake Awoonga and one at Lake Monduran. The aim of this trip was to test various modified Backbone jigs and modified 5" Power Mullets. To see if we could improve hook up and conversion rates. Also to have fun and catch barra!

Awoonga Night Championships
The planets aligned for the first Awoonga Event, this event ran from 4pm Saturday until 8am Sunday. Thats right a 16 hour mega-session. Not only a fishing comp, but an endurance event! The Conditions were fantastic with hot Northerly winds, increasing water temps and a full moon looming, things were looking very conducive to a good bite.

We started off slowly, trying a few spots that were productive on previous trips. None of them fired early, we finally settled back on a point just before dark, determined to stick it out there, convinced the fish would come on at some stage during the night. As the sun sank and the moon rose, the bites did come.

I think i got the first fish on around 7.30pm, and from then till about 9.30 we landed two or three each including a 103cm for Ian and a 106cm for myself. It went quiet for an hour or more, before a secondary bite period kicked in around 11pm to midnight. The last fish for me was just after midnight, and it thumped the 5" Hollowbelly and just shook its head before powering off on a long run. I was fishing an ABU Soron STX40 with 20lb fireline, and I called to Ian to throw the anchor bouy as I was getting low on line. Fortunately the fish stopped, and I got some line back, she had one more big run though, which had me a little worried. But I pulled her up, and then set about getting her to the boat. I backed the drag off a fair bit and played her out on a light drag, as heavy drags mean pulled hooks on barra. It was a good while before we got our first look at the fish, then it jumped near the anchor rope - and I thought holy sh#t, this is big! A few more nervous moments were had before Ian got her into the big net.

Whoo hoo! It was a two man lift to get her in. On the mat she went 120cm an equal PB! We fished on till about 1.30am for now more bites. Our tally at this stage was 5 to me and 3 for Ian. We set an alarm for 3.45am for the sunrise bite. The sunrise bite didn't happen, so we headed up Iveragh Ck, looking for more fish before the end of the session, this payed off with a 90cm fish to Ian. That was it for us, but it bought our tally to 9/10 for the session.

There were stories emerging at the tag mat, and boat ramp of some awesome results. Some teams absolutely cleaned up! I thought I was doing alright with 5.08m, but in the end that barely put me in the top ten. Daniel Gretch had a massive 5.83m, followed by only a cm by two of his mates including Jason Crofts with a 126cm fish!

Still some teams struggled, but overall it was a hot bite, and many ABT records were rewritten. We ended up 7th team with 9 fish for 866cm, so we were pretty happy with that.

Tactics - Our tactic on Karma was – anchored in 12 – 14 feet of water fishing into the weed edge at 8 – 10 feet, slow rolling 5” Hollowbellys. We were experimenting with stingers mounted forward of the main hook. And we only dropped two on these jigs all night, both on first jump before we could back off drags.

Between the comps we visited the Gladstone Fish Hatchery, where Kurt had barra breeding in full swing. It was great to see tens of thousands of baby barra destined for the dams.

Awoonga 2 day Evening Event

This event was held from 3pm till 10pm over two sessions. We had a bit of a look around at a few spots for no result before finally anchoring back on our point. A lot of teams had done well in the previous event fishing Berkley 5" Power Mullets, so we rigged some of these up and not long after arriving I hooked up on a Mullet that had only just hit the bottom when it was engulfed. I managed to land it and it went 109cm. Ian then hooked up on a Hollow Belly, before I had started fishing again, but it spat it first jump. After that I struggled big time, and never got another hookup.

Ian was going well though, he did drop another one, before keeping the hooks into his 3rd and 4th bites. The bite time kicked in about 8.30pm that night for most of the teams, but with check in at 10pm, everyone left them biting. Our night one result was – one for me, two for Ian. It seemed retrieve speed was a definite trigger, and I just couldn’t crack the right speed to get the bites that night.

The second session saw us heading up Iveragh Creek first, as our point hadn't been firing until late, so we went looking for some daytime spots. It produced one fish for me at 93cm, before we headed back to our point. It was the windiest night by far, the wind had changed direction as well, so we took a few goes to get the anchor to hold, and to get the right position. On the last attempt, we couldn’t even make headway against the wind, on electric, so had to start the main motor.

That night, was again fairly tough for us, I managed two more, and Ian got one. We ended up with seven fish overall for 675cm and placed 15th.

Jason Wilhelm took out the Evening Championships with 10 fish for 1010cm, another record. Big barra was a 121cm model taken by Sam Haig on Berkley 5" Mullet.

That was it for Awoonga, Unreal to see it fire up for the first comp and produce so many big fish.

Monduran Afternoon Championships.

We travelled the hour and half South from Awoonga to Mondy, and got in a day and a bit of prefishing. From this we determined that it was going to be much tougher than Awoonga. Apart from a couple of catfish, we only got three decent bites, one spat it on the jump and the other two I busted off in the timber, trying to go to hard on them.

So going into the comp we only had one plan, one spot, so we went there and spent all day in the timber covering an area about 300m long and 100m wide. In the prefish we got all our bites on 5” Hollowbellys in the prefish, so what does Ian tie on first – a 5” Mullet. We pull up and electric into casting position, I start ragging him for tying on a Mullet.

He says I’ll just give it 5 minutes, first cast Bang! On! Bullsh*t, Ian’s going hard on the fish, I’m driving hard on the electric. It was frantic heart in your mouth stuff, but somehow we got him to the net, and it went 99cm! Not a bad effort first cast, his Mondy pb.

Ian went on to hook another shortly after, we chased and fought it again, had it up a couple of times, before it found a log to wrap itself around and bite through the leader. Damn! The Mullet got another 2 bites for Ian, but the other two threw the hooks first jump.

I threw the Mullet a fair bit as well after Ian’s results, but only got a couple of bumps. My only hook up came on the Firetiger 5” Hollowbelly, again in tight timber. This time I used a lot of free spooling and then light drag settings, Ian was chasing hard on the electric, we knocked down three small trees in the fight, at times the fish was jumping about 30 to 40 metres away, while we still had 3 or 4 trees to negotiate to catch up. Finally we get a net shot, and she goes 103cm, a Mondy PB for me as well.

So only one each on day one, but enough to put us in 11th and 13th, Ian was cursing his missed opportunities. I was stoked to land my one and only in the circumstances.

Mondy Comp Day 2
Straight back to our spot, but the action was a little slower. The Mullet didn’t fire for Ian, but I managed five bites for the day on the Firetiger 5” HollowBelly, somehow three didn’t stick – they were fair dinkum thumps. The other two stuck and after the tree dodging routine, complete with passing rods around trees, and smashing Ian’s Nav lights. I landed a 99 and 100cm fish for the day, everything from Mondy for me was on 20lb fireline in the timber!

Final result was 3 for 3m neat, and an 8th place. In a tight comp, it could have been anyones, but Cy Taylor did it again, Narrowly holding out Carl Jocumsen. Just about everyone in the top ten lost fish that would have won it for them. As a team we ended up placing 6th at Mondy and 6th in the Southern teams AOY.

The presentation at the Gin gin pub was a great way to finish the tour, it was great to have a feed and a beer and meet a few more people and share more stories of the trip. The whole tour was a great social event, meeting new people and swapping yarns with old mates. The barra fishing was an improvement on the past couple of years. All in all it was a fantastic trip, lots of fish, I caught 12 fish for 1195cm - average of 99.5cm. 11 on 5" Hollowbelly, and one on a 5" Mullet.

Gear used
Spin - Berkley Dropshot Tournament Pro GEN II 6'10" 6-8kg Snapper Spin, ABU Soron STX 40 spooled with 20lb Fireline and 60lb Stren Fluro leader
Baitcast - Berkley IM6 Crankstik 6'3" 10 -15kg, ABU Revo Inshore spooled with 30lb Stren Sonic Braid, 60lb Stren Fluro leader
Lures - Berkley 5" Hollowbellys, Gizard Shad and Purple Tiger and night, Firetiger at Monduan during the day. Rigged on 1/2 Oz 7/0 backbone jigs (with stingers). Plus Berkley 5" Power Mullets Holographic Gold Shad.

Cheers,

Matt

Powerbait Hollow Belly = BIG Flathead

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:53:00 +0000

Lake Macquarie has some of the most picturesque shore line that I’ve ever seen anywhere. With oyster encrusted rocky shelves, sand and weed flats one could be forgiven for pointing the boat to the shallows and following the edge all the way around the lake, cast after cast. However sometimes it pays to keep a close eye on the sounder when travelling across the lake.

While travelling from one point to another, dad and I stumbled across a shallow sand flat in the middle of Lake Macquarie and although there were bream, pinkies and tailor on offer it was the monster flathead that I really wanted to catch. Coming from Melbourne and fishing in Port Phillip Bay where a monster flathead is anything over 45cm I was overly excited with the prospect of hooking up to 60cm plus fish.

After a hot day of 35 degrees, dad and I had a short evening session that saw him boat, 3 consecutive personal best flathead measuring 62cm, 70cm and an 83cm “croc”. We thought we had the bite pattern sorted and were looking forward to the next morning. Unfortunately the bottom fell out of the barometer over night which made for some tough fishing conditions the next morning.

As we struggled to get the flathead to commit to a strike, out came the tackle bag and the myriad of Gulps! and Powerbaits to try and tempt one of the big girls to bite. After trying some minnows and grubs I found a packet of hollow bellies in ayu. I rigged it on a 1/4 ounce nitro saltwater jighead and alternated between 2 different retrieves. The 1st being a long slow draw that would give the bait plenty of wobble and hang time. The 2nd was the burn a kill, where you point the rod straight at the bait and do2-3 really fast winds of the reel and then let the lure sink back to the bottom under a tight line. The burn and kill did the trick, the short blasts out of the sand with the paddle tail working like crazy was enough to get the sulking flathead to strike. Although the fishing was tough the rewards were well worth the effort.

We used 4” hollow bellies in ayu and purple tiger. We used standard jighead with a 3/0 hook which gave a high percentage of hook ups with plenty of gape showing. We boated close to10 flathead over 60cm including 2 fish over 80cm.

The most interesting difference between the 2 sessions was the fighting power of the fish. On the evening session with a high barometer we had the double hook up that lasted close to 4-5 minutes which saw us each land a 70cm plus fish on 4lb line. However after the barometer dropped sharply, the next morning the fights didn’t even last 20 seconds, even a 80cm fish didn’t put up much of a struggle. This just goes to show how sluggish they had become and even so, the hollow belly with its thumping tail still invoke an aggressive strike and caught us plenty of fish.

Hodgey

Team Pflueger Wins in Tassy.

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:23:00 +0000

The 2009 Spirit of Tasmania Trout Classics were held over two rounds in Tasmania’s central highlands.
Round one was held on Great Lake, a massive waterway with both rainbow and brown trout and round two on Arthur’s lake which is smaller in size with its population made up of brown trout only.
The tournament is photo based similar to the ABT barra series. The goal is to catch, measure, photo and release as many fish as possible in the standard 7-2pm fishing hour on lure and fly.

Round one we battled strong winds with gusts over 40knots making fishing challenging to say the least! I was teamed up with Andy McCarthy from Victoria and despite the conditions we chose to fish a shore with the wind pushing onto and down the shoreline. Riding metre high waves all day long was brutal on the body but the fish didn’t seem to care! Casting 2.5” Black and gold Powerbait T-Tails on 1/16th and 1/8th oz jig heads tight in on the rocks proved to be a winning formula. The fish were tight in on the shore looking for any items dislodged by the wave action. At the end of the day we had caught 21 fish for a total lenght over 10m with second place coming in with 12 fish and 6m+. Interestingly, many seemed to stick to hard bodies but the results show the humble T-Tail was the pick of the lures on the day!

Round two was held on Arthur’s Lake with calmer but much wetter conditions. For much of the day we battled wind and thunderstorms. The fishing however was reasonable with three teams finishing on 19 fish apiece. Like round one we opted to fish a windward rocky shore early and had instant success. Again fishing Black and Gold Berkley T-Tails we had managed 12 by 9am and things were looking good. After the fish went quiet we moved location to the Western side of the lake.
Fishing some standing timber in 12-20 feet of water I decided to give a sample MF50 a run with the fish choosing to lay low. The result was instant success! For the rest of the day most of our fish came on the MF50’s unfortunately we also dropped our fair share including one that came out of the water and spat the lure back at me in disgust…

We managed to miss out on the round win by only a few centimetres, however with a 1st place finish in round one we took out the overall series. Interestingly the results for Arthur’s proved how good Berkley lures are:

1st – Powerbait T Tails – Black and Gold
2nd – 3” GULP minnows – Moldy cheese and smelt
3rd – Powerbait T Tails – Black and gold/MF50’s

I think it is fairly clear that Trout have a weakness when it comes to Berkley products! I can’t wait for the MF50’s to be released. The smaller version is deadly on the trout and it seems the 50’s might be even better!

For much of the series I used the new Pflueger XTS Supreme and it performed flawlessly. Light, smooth and tangle free. These are sure to be popular amongst tournament and weekend anglers alike.

Pat Sullivan

MF50 Bass baits close now

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:27:00 +0000

After the highly successful release of the MF40 bream bait, we are about to receive the new and bigger version, the 50mm MF50 soft vibe.

This bait is sure to be a winner on the deepwater bream and flathead and a smash on impounded bass.

The longer deeper body has increased the vibration on this bait and real information is transmitted through to the rod tip and your hand.

Check out the attached pic and see the four new colours now in the range, bottom line, they are Bunyip, Quoll, Grasshopper and Neds Ghost.

Look for these baits to be in store late December, 2 baits per pk at around $15.00! That's value.

Berkley Power Egi Squid Jigs

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:05:00 +0000

Designed by Japanese squid anglers, Power Egi jigs are at the forefront of squidding technology, featuring a powerful prawn scent that's comes via a unique inbuilt PowerBait 'skin' packed with prawn scent. Pick one up and have a sniff, the prawn scent is obvious!
Adam Royter has been testing the Power Egi in Victoria with great success (see article Egi Master in the November Fishing World) and the Fishing the Edge team has a you tube clip on PFTV on using the the Power Egi jigs.

Why do they work so well? Read the article below by Purefishing's Dr Keith Jones for a lesson in squid senses.

Taste and Smell in Squid
While diving, it takes only one encounter with a squid in the wild for you to realize there is something special about these animals. Along with their close cousins, octopuses and cuttlefish, squid belong to a unique group of invertebrate animals called Cephalopods. Like other cephalopods, squid are truly amazing creatures, rivaling some vertebrates not only with their brain power but with their sensory capabilities as well. Most people, especially egi anglers, are well aware of a squid’s ability to see. After all, it’s hard to miss those two big eyes looking back at you when you stare into the face of a squid. Fewer people, however, recognize that squid also possess other senses, such as vibration detection, hearing, touch, and well-developed senses of smell and taste, or what scientists refer to as chemoreception.
Scientists noted long ago that, although cephalopods are mollusks (i.e. related to clams and snails), they are more functionally designed as fish. This similarity to fish extends to the array of senses present in these advanced mollusks. Among these are the chemical senses, those senses that constantly monitor the animal’s chemical environment. In fact, squid, cuttlefish, and octopuses are equipped with the three standard chemical senses common to vertebrates: a general chemical sensitivity of the skin, distance chemoreception and contact chemoreception.
The first of these, the general chemical sense, refers to the sensitivity of the skin. Along with having a keen sense of touch, squid skin is sensitive to a variety of chemical stimulants across the entire body. So, if a squid happened to encounter a cloud of, say, a mild acid, the squid’s skin would quickly detect the irritant, and the squid would promptly propel itself out of harm’s way.
Far more sensitive, however, is the squid’s ability to detect dilute water-borne substances through its sense of smell, or olfaction. All squid are equipped with a set of olfactory organs located slightly behind and below the eyes. These specialized organs, appropriately stationed by the animal’s water funnel, are designed for distance chemoreception, meaning they analyze the odors of objects lying some distance away. In this capacity, olfaction, or smell, is not only used for avoiding predators and detecting the sexual odors of reproduction, smell is also actively used in squid feeding, helping the animal to stalk and assess prey at a distance. Whenever a squid encounters a whiff of fish, shrimp, or other prey, it knows it within a split second.
However, perhaps the most advanced cephalopod chemical sense is their capability of contact chemoreception, what we would normally call taste. In squid, octopus, and cuttelfish taste reception is located primarily on the suckers lining the arms, as well as the area surrounding the mouth. Taste reception in squid and other cephalopods can be very intense. For example, the species Octopus has about 10,000 primary taste receptors on each sucker. With over 200 suckers per arm, this equips an adult octopus with around 16 million receptors in total. Due to their different lifestyle, squid tend to have fewer suckers and fewer taste cells per sucker. Nevertheless, their sense of taste is still exquisite.

Again, combined with their keen sense of touch, cephalopod contact chemoreception – “taste by touch” – is uniquely designed to analyze the feel and taste of captured prey. It is known, for instance, that cephalopods can readily discriminate between objects soaked in the basic tastes of sweet, sour, and bitter substances, and some species can discern these differences at concentrations of 10 to 1,000 times lower than can humans. With this much sensitivity, squid and other cephalopods almost certainly use their taste by touch to discern between even very small differences in the objects they grasp.
Which is why, of course, the use of attractants and scented lures in squid fishing is so compelling. Since the squid brain is designed to combine sensory information from the olfactory organs with information from the eyes, squid readily assess the difference between scented and non-scented baits. To a squid, an object that fails to release an appealing scent is not nearly as attractive – chemically or visually – as one that releases an alluring odor. Smell is used to draw the squid within striking distance of its prey. Smell also is used by squid to confirm that what it is seeing is, in fact, food, not just an inanimate object. The same holds true for when a squid grasps its “prey” within its arms, conveying the object towards the mouth. Captured objects are subjected to an instant “taste-test” to determine if they are food or “non-food”. If a captured object is tasteless, or worse, has the wrong taste, then the squid quickly realizes that it has captured a “non-food” item and promptly moves to release it. Many a squid has been lost simply because the animal failed to detect the savory flavors it was looking for, releasing the bait before the angler could apply the hook.
So, the next time you go diving and get within close range of a squid, stop to think what its sensory world is like. It’s not only seeing you; it’s probably testing your smell as well. Move close enough, and it may sample your taste as well.

Snapper time in Melbourne!

noreply@blogger.com (Bunga) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:37:00 +0000

The Melbourne cup has been run and won, now there's only one thing on saltwater fisho's minds....Snapper!

Compared to most years, the major annual influx of snapper into the bays was delayed slightly due to the late burst of cold weather and rain we thank fully got and needed here in Melbourne which helped keep the water temperatures down, but over the last two weeks air temperatures have jumped into the 30's which has pushed the water temperature up by around six degrees and the fish have switched right on with fish averaging 3-4kg and plenty of bigger 7-10kg models about as well.

As with most areas around the country that hold snapper bait fishing is the mainstay but attitudes are changing. Where's in years gone by snapper anglers wouldn't believe stories of fish being caught on lures, now anglers are grabbing a pack or two of soft plastics and slowly giving them a try. Putting in some time casting around the boat whilst your waiting for a bite or just leaving a plastic out to bob up and down in a rod holder has accounted for a lot of snapper over the last few seasons. Most anglers are using braid on their reels these days so there is no need for any specific lure outfit, just tie on a jig head and away you go.

The bulk of my snapper fishing these days is done using lures, whether it's using 3' lures for the smaller pinkies throughout the year or up sizing to 5' & 7" Jerk Shads for the bigger fish at this time of the year it's a great active way to fish and cover ground. Economically it's pretty good as well, you buy a few packets of plastics and some jig heads and your away, you can even re-seal and use them the next few times you go fishing, compared to bait that you would spend $40 or so on each trip and is cactus at the end of the day.

The Jerk Shads come in a huge range of colours including the new Pilchard that was specifically designed for Port Phillip Bay and Banana Prawn which i think imitates small flathead and whiting really well, this colour is my favourite at the moment and catching a lot of fish!

Well there's the late mail, the fish are biting, grab some lures and get out there.
Washing off a bit of gulp juice shure beats having stinky pilchard fingers for a few days!

Cheers

Bunga.

MF 40 rocks Weipa.

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Barramundi on MF40

Waking to an uncomfortable 20 knot breeze, I started to think that I was destined for another day up the creeks. In the build up to the north’s wet season, fishing the creeks produces a lot of barra as well as a lot of sweat. Hot, muggy creeks are fine but after about a month of constant wind, I was starting to get sick of them.

Never the less, I hitched the boat to the back of the car and drove the couple of hundred metres down to the end of my street and launched the boat. My local ramp has a small man made rocky break wall so deciding to stay away from the creeks, that was where I stayed.

Half expecting a queenfish or trevally, I started out with a 3” Bass Minnow and soon had a school of those very annoying small queenfish jumping all over it. I love big queenfish but little ones play up way too much, jumping around like lunatics and with a nasty habit of bleeding that, when combined with the exaggerated flicking, coats the boat and angler with little red spots of blood.

Thinking that there may have been something bigger feeding under the queenfish, I broke out my first MF40. I did play around with a couple of prototypes when Matt Fraser was first designing the MF40 but that was done on bream and flathead in Southern Queensland so it was time to play with the real thing in Far North Queensland.

Rolling the lure slowly along the bottom with the odd pause to keep in touch with the rocks and broken weed beds below, the little MF40 was soon nailed by something a little more substantial then a rat queenfish. Connected to the fish via 4lb FireLine and a 12lb leader, I was giving the fish all that I was prepared to give when the head of a good sized barra came out of the water.

After I spotted the barra, I adjusted my technique, more so to get my MF40 back than land the fish. I’ve spent a lot of time catching barra on light bream gear due to flicking 2”prawn Gulps at snags with tiny 1/32oz jig heads. I was in fairly open water, apart from just a few submerged rocks but the further we got into the fight, the more we drifted into wide open water so the drag was backed right off, to the point that the only way I could gain line on the fish was to place my finger on the spool, pull the rod back while being conscious of keeping it low to avoid the fish leaping and then winding in as the rod returns back to it original location. If the fish turned to dart off, I could release pressure from the spool and let it run. Having a firm drag on the 12lb leader could spell disaster if it ever comes in contact with the fish’s razer sharp gill rakers so releasing a lot of the tension saves the line from being cut but enough tension has to remain to insure the lure doesn’t fall out.

I’m not sure if it is the bright green Polycraft or not but for some reason, as soon as a fish spots the boat, it gets its second wind and is out of there. Eventually the barra was exhausted and came gliding into the net. I was a little disappointed with the size once it was placed on the ruler. I think that after such a difficult fight, the fish looked a lot bigger in the net but the truth stick revealed 78cm of barra. Still, landed on 4lb main and a light leader made it a better fish that what the ruler suggested.

I went onto land another barra, get still another follow the MF40 all the way to the boat and also land half a dozen blue salmon along with more rat queenies than I care to remember. Never has my bream gear provide so much excitement, all within a cast from the end of my street.

I hear people talking about the fishing in north Queensland in terms of sheer numbers of fish but when I eventually leave Weipa I will remember it by the exciting light tackle sportfishing that exist here. Unless you are fishing tight into structure, never upgrade your terminals, just downgrade your line class. Bring on the bigger versions of this lure Matty.

Mark Ward.

The larger MF baits that Mark refers to are the MF 50, due for release December 2009 and the MF60 due for release March 2010. Both baits will be available in more colours [one picturede here] than the MF40.

Test fishing has once again proven their worthiness in any serious anglers lure kit.

Dinger.

Sharp Blades!

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:08:00 +0000

The long awaited Berkley Big Eye blade in size 46mm is here.

This longer version is sure to be a hit with bream tournament anglers and general fresh and saltwater anglers alike.

The new baits feature the sonic rattle that makes these lures stand out from the crowd.
Add to that the lifelike 3D eye, holographic finishes, super sharp trebles and multi adjustable tow points.

In stores now, 8 colours to choose from including Midnight Tiger, Watermelon Pearl, Mango Ripple, Gold Ayu, Wakasaki, Turbo Herring, Silver Back Shiner and Sunrise.

Should be around the $14-$15 mark per lure.

Check em out now.

Dinger.

The IVCB is here!

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:58:00 +0000

From Abu come the all new all singing Morrum series round body baitcaster reels.

These are the best things yet from Sweden with lot's of Japanese input. Just check out the features.
The red reel - Morrum ZX 1600 BJ IVCB-4
Ultra light Duralmin one piece machined frame and sideplates
Wide range brake block adjustment all from outside the reel body
IVCB-4 brake block system
Ultra light shallow duralmin spool
HPCR corrosion resist bearings x 10
Infinite A/R bearing
80mm speed handle
Saltwater use

The Blue reel- Morrum ZX 1600 IVCB-4
Machine cut one piece Duralmin frame and side plates,
IVCB-4 brake block system adjustable from outside the reel
Ultra light Duralmin spool, shallow
HPCR corrosion resist bearings
Infinite A/R bearing
95mm power handle
Saltwater use.

Gorgeous reels, limited availability and not cheap. But you get what you pay for.

Look for them in better stores soon or order one so you don't miss out. RRP is around the $800 mark.
Capacity and ratio is same for both models, 120m/3kg mono and 6.3:1.
Enjoy!
Dinger

Testing, 1.2.3.........

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:43:00 +0000

It was my good fortune to recently spend 6 days wide off Mackay, Qld in search of all things that take line.
The area fished was approx 220km out and with an 80' live aboard and our own 20' sportfisher to play with all week.
Primary focus was GT's, Mackerel and anything that would eat jerkshads.
Mission one was accomplished in the first few days with about 16 GT's to 27kilo'.

I was lucky enough to score a Penn Torque SV7 from the States to test and although we are not yet selling Penn reels, I can tell you this new mega spin reel is the equal of anything I have previously fished. See GT pic and the reel is beside fish tail. 40lb of super smooth drag, 400m/80lb braid, strong and powerful, it passed all tests in a pretty tough environment. The rod was also a prototype of the new Venom series coming in 2010.
The model, "Viper GT", 7' two piece, drag rated to 25kilo, 80lb braid. The combo was awesome, easy to use casting big poppers and stick baits and handled the fish easily.

Jason Kennedy who was filming for his Fishin Trip show was also on the test trail and utilised the jig rods we are bringing out in 2010. At 1.83mtrs, they were surprisingly good casting rods and worked well with the Torsion 80 reel on the GT's.

If you are wanting the latest in rod design and technolgy, look for our new Dreadnaught and Venom rods in early 2010.

An interesting comaparison was raised during the week on trolling lures. Looking for Mackerel, we fished the pasages with trolled minnows and the Berkley Frenzy Mungo 18 deep was a standout among highly rated contempory's. Fished alongside the well respected X-raps of similar size, we constantly got the bites only on the Frenzy. Possibly this was due to the extra depth this lure runs. It was fouling bottom in 45' [15mtrs]. I know of no other lure that can get that deep.
At under $15 retail compared to 30+, Mungo's have to be one of the best value tropical troll baits available.

A great session on the last day on plastics and the best Golden snapper I have seen. In two drops we bagged a 6.75 and 7 kg pair. The plastics fishing was frantic with everything from Cobia to Red Throat Emperor, Cod, Large mouth Nannygai, Sweetlip and the Goldies.

Typical outfits for tropical plastic fishing was aPflueger 7' Asaro 6-10 spin rod with Pflueger Infusion 50 reel and some 30lb braid. 7" jerkshads, 1oz jigs and you are ready to go. We fished depths to 40mtrs using these outfits and had no trouble getting the fish up.

Prior to the trip I was shown how to tie a new knot. This knot has now become the only leader knot I will ever use in heavy tackle fishing. Called the Mid knot, look for it being tied by Brent Delaney on PFTV, the links for same on our homepage.
This knot when tied correctly does NOT EVER break. Amazing but true. Learn it and you will love it and what is even better, no need for stupid doubles in braid which have a nasty habit of grabbing guides.

A great week and as always, we learned some usefull things that will make for better tackle in the future.

Cheers, Dinger.

Impoundment barra breakdown

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Over the last couple of months I have made two trips to Lake Awoonga to tangle with the lake’s big barramundi. After speaking to several groups of anglers, I realized just how tough they were finding the fishing. Some of these keen fishermen had travelled all the way from Victoria to experience Queensland’s impoundment barra fishing. If you are planning a trip, there are several items you should include in your gear if you want to find success on any barra impoundment. Let’s take a look at these and some handy pointers for using them.

Poking Around Weedy Pockets
Awoonga barra can be tough to tempt during daylight hours. Apart from finding schooling fish out in the deeper water, the only other option is to work lures around the weed beds. At the moment, most of the weed visible near the surface drops away to the bottom where there is little growth at all. Placing a cast close to the visible weed and allowing it to fall to the base of the weed before retrieving is the key to working these vertical edges.
Tip: The better fishing locations will have broken weed patches. These form pockets to cast into and are more likely to hold fish. Using a pair of polarized sunglasses will cut the surface glare from the water and make the weed easier to see.

Night Time Sessions
Daylight hours are the best time to choose a night time fishing spot. As night approaches, barra activity increases and the fish are more willing to move around. An ideal spot would have the boat quietly anchored within casting distance of a shallow weedy flat, bay or point. The more submerged weed and weed reefs that can be worked from the position the better. Choose water between two to four metres deep and pick a lure weight to suit the depth you are fishing. A steady retrieve should see the lure just bouncing the tops of the weed and getting fouled occasionally.

Tip: When anchored and in position move around the boat quietly to avoid scaring the fish. Turning off sounders also reduces noise in the water. Sessions when the moon is lighting the water make it easier for both the angler and fish to see.

Barra Lure selection
As with any fishing, it pays to carry a selection of lures to suit different scenarios. Berkley Powerbait 5” Mullets are one of my favourite lures for targeting barra that are holding deeper. The Mullet is a great choice when fishing the base of the weed during the day.
For shallower water and slower presentations, you can’t go past the Powerbait Hollowbelly range. Hollowbelly swimbaits come in 4, 5 and 6 inch sizes and a range of colours. Unlike many other barra plastics, these baits are unrigged. Hollowbellies can be fitted with a specially designed Nitro Skeleton Jighead. This system allows the angler to choose the hook size and weight to suit the lure size and area they are fishing.
Hollowbelly swimbaits are set apart from other plastics because of their ultra-soft bodies which come to life with the slightest hint of movement. The Hollowbelly can be rolled dead slow or burned back fast making it one of the most effective and versatile barra lures on the market.

Line Choices
Braided line is the best option when chasing barra on soft plastics. Braids low stretch nature transmits a better feel as to what’s going on at the business end. With braid you can not only feel the lure touching the weed but more effectively rip it back out. Braided lines of 20-30lb are ideal for both spin and baitcast outfits. In a snaggy situation, you might choose to use 50lb braid but usually this is not necessary. A visible line like Spiderwire Stealth Code Red is ideal especially when trying to see your line during a night time session.
Leader material is also a vitally important part of the equation. There are stacks of leaders out there but it’s hard to go past Vanish and Stren Fluorocarbon in 60lb breaking strain. These lines are perfect all-rounders and suited to different lure types and all the situations you are likely to encounter. The beauty of these lines is their superior abrasion resistance. Barra are well known for biting and cutting through leaders. It is usually the monster fish that do this so a quality leader is well worth it.

Once you’ve got a selection of the right gear, it’s just a matter of planning your attack. The barra have been quite willing to play the game over the past weeks and the action should only get better over the coming months. The full moon period is a productive time to be on the water but it is also the busiest. Finding a quiet spot to yourself or fishing when there are fewer boats around can really work in your favour. Until next time, buckled rods from the Colonel!

2009 Flathead Classic

noreply@blogger.com (Nige) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:38:00 +0000

I’ve had an interesting week or two that has had me cover a lot of territory and a lot of fishing opportunities. I’ve been pulling together some technique DVD’s for AFN and they saw me chasing impoundment barra at the beginning of last week and culminated with some filming at the Flathead Classic on the Gold Coast where we reviewed some of the latest tournament lure techniques for flathead. I’d like to cover some of the learnings from the Flathead Classic.
I fished the event as part of Team Pflueger/Berkley, and fished with Steve “The Wizard” Wilson and a Sunshine Coast angler with a name longer than the Arabic alphabet – we will refer to him by his nickname – “Zig” for the purposes of this blog!

The Flathead Classic is a long lived catch and release tournament that sees a lot of good flathead anglers gather to contest prestigious personal and team placings. The event awards points for total length of fish caught and also awards for longest bycatch species.

October typically has some sizeable flathead schooling in areas close to the estuarine entrances along the Gold Coast waters – due largely to spawning influences. These waters are often quite deep and contain good current flow, and as such require a specific approach and technique for extracting some of the better fish. Without a prefish, we decided to fish some of the areas commonly expected to hold fish at this time of year. These areas consisted of the Jumpinpin and Gold Coast seaway locations. These areas hold several deep water locations that are home to structure and concentrations of food sources that attract the schooling flathead. The aim was to fish these areas around the tide changes as they become very hard to fish as the current starts to flow during mid tide periods. As the tidal flow grew stronger, we ventured to sand banks further up the estuary and fished in shallow water for smaller but good point scoring fish.

For much of the tournament, we were targeting fish in 6 to 12 metres of water which alleviated some of the issues of pressured fish. Being that we fished deeper water, the tackle consisted of 10 to 14 lb braided lines, with 12 to 20lb leaders. We fished a mixture of Spiderwire Code Red braid, Stren Microfuse and Stren Sonic braided lines. The leaders were typically Stren Coral material. Our jigheads for the deeper water consisted of ¼ to 5/8th Oz, with ½ Oz the most commonly used jighead. As we fished with 6 inch plastics a lot, the hook size adopted was the 3/0 size. Steve fishes with the Pflueger range of rods, while I fished extensively with the Berkley Dropshot Pro in 6 to 8kg size for the deeper water. The rod provides a stiff quality that enables effective working of the plastics in deeper water. As we ventured into shallower areas during periods of stronger tidal flow, we started to use lighter equipment such as 2 to 5kg rods. To compliment the lighter rods we used 4 to 8lb braids and 10 to 14lb leaders. We matched current flow with jighead weights that enabled us to bounce plastics along the bottom adequately.
In the deeper water, the choice of soft plastic consisted of the 6 inch GULP grub in nuclear chicken and chartreuse colours. These fluttering, brightly coloured soft plastics proved very effective on local flathead, tailor and jew! In the shallower water, we fished 3 and 4 inch soft plastics in the GULP shrimp and powerbait minnow ranges. Steve fished one of Matt Frasers prototype MF (soft plastic lipless crankbaits) lures and did really well until we sacrificed the supply! Keep an eye out for these on the shelves. In all sizes these are dynamite on the flathead.

We employed two retrieves for much of the tournament. Both kept lures close to the bottom throughout much of the retrieve.
The MF lures were slowly lifted off the bottom and then left to sink again under a tight line until the bottom, or a fish was detected.
The soft plastics retrieve involved fishing jighead weights that kept the lure close to the bottom with all levels of tidal flow. The plastics were aggressively hopped off the bottom and then allowed to sink back under a tight line. We focussed on likely looking lies that were detected on the sounder, or by using the eyes to detect drop offs etc.

We employed a fairly active approach whereby we were always moving to find locations of fish. Having found fish, we would work them until they ceased to bite, or the tide conditions became unfavourable.
Considering the boys were hamstrung to some degree by the fact we had a camera on board – we consistently scored points each day to finish a credible 6th. We also took out two of the bycatch categories by landing the longest tailor and jew. The 113cm jew belted a 6 inch GULP grub in the seaway and took some time to subdue. The fish should make some great footage on the DVD – where you will be able to see more of our technique and all the great results. Thanks again to Steve who was a top rate guide and Zig, who put up with all my banter for 3 days in a row! He truly is a patient man. I look forward to next year’s event which should again be well worth competing in.

I was hassled at a recent ABT event by one of the tournament fraternity – that I have been too slack regards getting my blogs on to the site; so Mr Torley – this one is for you. I promise to try harder in the future..

Happy Fishing,
Nige

Of Shrimps and Pheromones.

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:19:00 +0000

There are many colour requests that come across my desk that "must" be made into this or that shape.

"I'm telling you mate, this will be the hottest thing yet" is something I hear a lot.

However, the realities of a complex engineering and production sytem mean that not all colour mixes can easily be produced. We continue to play with colour combos and rest assured, when that next hot thing does come along, Purefishing will be the first kid on the block with it.

While new colours are high on the must have list of most plastics anglers, we should not forget the old tried and true.

Camo is a consistent seller and producer of great fish. The 6" sandworm in camo is still one of our biggest selling baits.

Now, the 2" Gulp shrimp is available in this classic colour. Plenty of stock in the warehouse, just get your retailer to order it in.

Now for something to think about.

There are several products on the market extolling the virtues of the pheromone additives within the bait that "excite feeding activity" in fish like no other can do.
RUBBISH!

Pheromones are not feeding stimulants. Pheromones cannot stimulate feeding activity in fish or any other animal!

Pheromones are chemical messages animals use to communicate within their species. For aquatic animals, one member of the species [the sender] passively releases into the water a substance [usually a complex chemical mixture] that triggers a specific response from one or more members of the same species [ the receivers]

Receiver responses can either be a delayed, long term change in the receivers physiological state or an immediate behavioral response. Given their high chemical sensitivity, fish not surprisingly rely on pheromone communication in several areas of their biology, including sex and reproduction, migration, conspecific recognition, offspring recognition, social status and predator avoidance. Each function requires a different pheromone [sex pheromones for example don’t act as anti predator pheromones] and generally only closely related species share similar pheromones even for the same purpose. For example, whereas a sex pheromone for carp might work on goldfish, it would not work on trout or bass or yellowbelly or cod or even any other distantly related species. Very few pheromones [mostly goldfish] have ever been chemically identified.

So, what does Gulp and for that matter Powerbait have that is so good and does excite a feeding response in fish?

Gulp is a water based protein that allows highly concentrated scent to leech into the water very rapidly. The scent is rapidly diffused through the water column and picked up by the fishes olfactory receptors - similarly with Powerbait, a powerful scent is contained within the bait.
The difference is these baits are made from plastisol, an oil based product. Given that oil and water do not mix, the scent release is slower than water based baits, but more efficient than non scented plastisol based baits.
If said fish is/are actively hunting, your chances are good you will connect. But, like all animals, fish are not constantly looking for food and the use of scented baits is no 100% guarantee you will catch fish. You just have a higher chance of catching fish using Gulp or Powerbait.

That concludes today science lesson.

Next lesson is what is Bio-degradability??

cheers, Dinger.

HollowBellys Rock On!

noreply@blogger.com (Dinger) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:43:00 +0000

After their outstanding debut on the barra market last year, Hollow Bellys have now cemented their place in barra anglers' tackle boxes as they continue to catch outstanding fish, when other lures are struggling. I've recently returned from a week at Awoonga Dam, Gladstone where Hollow Bellys were again the gun lure. Rigged on Nitro Skeleton Jigs, these lures accounted for many metre plus fish.

One slight difference from previous trips is that the 4 and 5" HollowBellys outfished the usually consistent 6" model. We dont know what to put this down to, but when one lure is working - you work it. Consequently the 5" (in Gizard Shad or Purple Tiger), rigged on a 3/8Oz #7/0 stayed on my main outfit all week.

This outfit was one of Berkleys IM6 Cranksticks, the 6'3" 10 - 15kg model mated with a ABU Revo Inshore and spooled with 30lb Code Red Braid. This is a great barra outfit, it made thousands of casts and didn't miss a beat.
The fishing varied during the week depending on water temps, the hotter the water the hotter the fishing! As we move into spring and early september the fishing will continue to improve. I'll be keeping an eye on the forecasts looking for a window of opportunity when Northerlies kick in and temps spike. Because no doubt the barra will again respond.

Anyway check out some of the pics of Hollowbelly caught barra.

Tight Lines, Good Knots, Smooth Drags!

Matt