7 WEEKS ON THE ROAD with THE MAD DOG

It’s been a while since I posted anything guys and girls and for that reason I'm sorry. And don't for one second think that I don't know all about it!! The bosses boot print in my backside from being such a slacker lets me know every time I sit down!!!

One thing you will notice (and part of the reason for the lack of written info) is that there are now video Blogs of me doing all sorts of things from skip casting to rigging, so if you haven't you probably should have a look!! (under ROYTERVISION)
Needless to say my life is never dull. Weather its where I go fishing or the trouble I get myself into while I'm there, there‘s always something going on that‘s not your run of the mill, day to day, 9 to 5!!

POST CARD 1
Mozambique is in Africa and all though a third world country still has a lot of jewels left in its crown. One of those jewels is a huge peninsula east by water from Maputo called Santa Maria or to the locals “Hell Gate”.
This is where you'll find a 4 star fishing lodge owned and ran by Earl & Linda Strydom. This truly is god’s country and the fishing is absolutely magic. At some stages of my time there I almost had to slap myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Tuna, trevally, mackerel, emperor, queenies, sea bass, cod as big as a car, it had it all and then some!!
All of this good fishing and not another soul in sight with any more than a hand line. We did put together a DVD for Pure Fishing South Africa which was the whole reason I was there! Good fun, great times, fantastic people and more fish than you could jump over even if you where riding a 58 foot kangaroo!! Happy days all round really!

This is a GT I caught off a bomby on 10lb FireLine,
a US Tactic 6-10lb rob and a Card 704 reel. Go the Gulp Grub!

POST CARD 2
The Barra Nationals, Daly River NT. Well to tell you the truth there was no real reason for me to be at this event other then to blow off some steam, catch a few barra and maybe see if we can climb up the board in the fishing results. This is a huge event! 5 days fishing from 7am to 5pm non-stop! Throw into this the night life and you end up with a good solid 3 hours sleep a night!! Ouch!!!
With a tournament such as this there are rules. Quite strict rules! For instance - No barbs on any lures. Catch and release only. Only barra count if they are size. And my personal favorite, no beer till you catch a fish!!
It was a great weeks fishing and having spent every night with 160 guys and girls that are all into having a great time. How could you go wrong!
At the end of the day we did manage to climb that very tall ladder and needed up getting Champion Mixed (interstate) Team and came 5th overall out of 60 odd boats. So that's not a bad job considering I can't remember anything on any of the days past 12:00 midday! Hahaha (seriously, what did you expect!!).

One of the average barra that counted on the list of many.

POST CARD 3
I had only just gotten home, kissed the misses and kids once or twice and the phone rang......."Royter....yeah what's up Mr Rayner.....get your stuff together where going blue fin tuna fishing". So I unzipped my bag from Darwin and upended into the washer, reloaded with cloths and pretty much walked back out the door (don’t worry about the power point presentation you needed to finish for NZ!! There are heaps of hours in a day....NOT!!).
Myself, Lee and Morns trucked it down to Port Macdonald in South Aust, oblivious to the fact that the weather man had got it all wrong. We speared the 550 EVO straight into the drink and after a hell ride out to the shelf (all 40+km of it in 2 metre seas with a 3 metre swell) we spotted some fish busting bait. We knock up a quick spread of and in about 100 metres of trolling we had 2 fish on and line making its way backwards into the hellish sea. Morns was first up and with some great boat handling by Lee and a swift and precise gaff shot we had our first fish on the deck. 20kg of tail thumping blue fin was quickly dispatched like it was heading to the markets of Tokyo. Next was my fish. Again boat control and patients played a big part in get this fish aboard live so we could tag and release it.
Blue fin tuna fishing........done!!

My first Blue Fin Tuna. Happy days!!!

POST CARD 4
Snapper, snapper and more snapper from the land of the long white cloud! New Zealand has got the worlds best snapper fishier bar none!! There are more snapper over there than sheep and that's a bloody lot!!
The first 4 days of my NZ trip consisted of taking people (retailers and media) fishing for snapper with Berkley and ABU products. New Zealand, all though only having Gulp for 3 years, has completely embraced the soft bait idea and now probably do it better then us here in Oz! It so good to see something that‘s earth friendly taking over from something that is not e.g.. Bait fishing (using natural resources) and PVC Plastisol soft baits (crude oil based products, not earth friendly).
Trust me; in the big schema of things it makes a big difference. Ok Royter get off ya soap box now and get back to the story!!!
Having rotated through 22 people in 4 days on the water giving the odd ‘how too‘ it prove once again the fishing with this method is not only productive but is awesome fun.
Everyone caught fish and we all had a great time. Although the weather was against us and there where no real big fish caught (10kg +) we manage to crank in a lot of fish between 2 and 8kg. Which does me just fine!!

One of the other toy you can play with in NZ
when your tyring to catch a snapper!

POST CARD 5
Volume 4 of the Berkley DVD series.
I probably should be posting this yet cause the DVD it self is still a couple of months away but what the heck!
This time where taking you north. Tropical north!! Guesty and my good self will be fishing for barra and an assortment of offshore species with a verity of new and proven tackle. So hold no to your hats cause here we come......all sweaty and sand fly bitten and most of the time looking like we just got out of bed....arrrr the beauty of it all!!!!
As well as that I’ll be taking you across to west to fish the Abrolhos Islands group. Goody, goody gumdrops!!!

You'll be seeing more of this bloke. Shane you are GOLD!!

POST CARD 6
Well you know what they say. There’s no time like the present! The day I got home from the shoot in Darwin I was off again to Portland in Victoria to shoot a DVD on catching Blue Fin Tuna. We had a 2 day window so it was now or never! Day one consisted of running around like headless chicken trying to find fish and covering some of the tech stuff we need to put in the can. Day 2 was all about the fish. With a helping hand from Matty Hunt on the direction we head straight out into one hot tuna bite!
To cut a long day short (and to make sure you buy the DVD haha) we caught 22 blue fin ranging in size from 18 to 25+kg on 8, 10 and 15kg line class.
The day ended with us driving off on fish that seemed to be getting more and more on the job!! Arrrrr.....those are the days!!!

One of those little pocket rocket that we love so much.

So that's what I've been up to in the last 7 weeks. It’s an exciting job I have but before you go jumping up and down, waving your arms around helicopter fashion and saying that you want to do that for a living it’s not all bells and whistles.
I practically live at the air port. I’ve got a Qantas kangaroo emblem permanently imbedded on my butt cheeks from so many miles in the sky. My kids really don't know who I am, apart from that strange man who drops in every now and then and try’s to tell us what to do. And to stop the misses from going insane I give her every cent I make when I'm doing it (must find out what all those pool cleaning brochures are I keep seeing on the coffee table. We don't have a pool!!)

So that's me done for now. I promise to keep more in touch on my Blog from now on and keep your eye on the video blog as well. That's really what I like doing the best!!

Good luck out there snapper heads.

Cheer

Mad Dog Royter.

Gulping 6" Grubs

I’ve never in my days seen a soft bait go from bag to boom-time so quickly! At least in my eyes it has! The 6” Gulp Grub is a bait that has slapped me in the chops and made me sit up and take notes. From the very first days fishing Port Phillip Bay to my most resent trip to Weipa, this gastronomic grub has smash the living suitcase out of everything in it way…..and I’ve got a feeling its all in the tail that wags this bad boy!

That mesmerizing single tail action, that as anglers we’ve grown to love because of the results that it achieves, has been lifted into the realms of Gulpdom.
In comparison to its closest fishing companion, the 7” Jerk Shad, the 6” Grub out lays so much more action for so much less effort. This means you need to move it less (keeping it in the strike zone longer) for more results. Perfect!! With the slightest wave of your favourite wand the 6” grub will come to life with its intrinsic, unwinding, cork screwing action that at almost any speed looks like the backend of a fleeing baitfish.
From PPB red snapper to FNQ gold snapper the 6" Gulp! Grub is a killer bait!!

Way back when the door got felt open by the soft plastic gods and the revolution started, it was the single tail grub that was first and foremost on everyone’s hooks. Now its looks to have come full circle and with a much larger foot print!
If you’re an angler that looks to catch fish of the larger persuasion then I can tell you no more than get to your tackle shop and tell them to bring out those infernal contraption post haste (in your best Monty Burns voice).


Coming in all the killer colours as you would expect
– Chartreuse, Pink Shine, Camo, Nuc/Chicken, Sardine and New Penny.

And as an added extra I’ve been keeping them in my Gulp! Alive tubs for that extra attracting power. Get that into ya!

Dog out.

Well, only 2 sleeps to go before I jet off to sunny Weipa in far north Queensland to try my very best to kill and destroy all the new gear that’s come out of the Purefishing stables this last year. That’s right sports fans its time to tighten up the drag with a pair pliers, put an extra half dozen granny knots into that Bimini twist and tie ya self off to the closest bollard cause things are about to get stretched! Really stretched!!!

So unless I get gobbled by a croc, chewed by a Noah’s Ark or sucked dry by 16 billion sand flies, I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to bring you all the gory details on what’s hot and what’s not!

Cheers

Dog.

TEC me up Scotty

TEC TOOLS 6” Bent Nose Power Pliers

Since I got back from the US Berkley 07/08 New Stuff Bonanza, I’ve been waiting to get my hands on a set of these!!!
Not that I didn’t have my hands on them at the show but it was the fact that they wouldn't let me keep them…or anything else I had crammed down my pants for that matter.

Anyway, I have them now and it’s time to give them a little bit of a workout Mad Dog style!

Q. How tough are the hook-out jaws?
A. Tough enough to turn a Saltwater Series 7/0 Nitro Jighead Hook into something that resembled a pretzel…..and then I proceeded to snap the hook in half. Yep! That’ll do pig…that’ll do!!

Q. How tough are the cutters?
A. First I got a length of 300lb single strand stainless steel wire and continuously cut it into 50 tiny pieces. No damage. Then a decent chunk of 400lb, 49 strand nylon coated wire and chop that up into bits….. No damage!
Going from one extreme to the other (as I do) I then took some 6lb Fireline and this can be hard to cut at the best of times, but these little tungsten cutters just sliced through it like Ginsu through cooked cow bum!
Cutters are a-ok!

Q.Grips??
A. Yes…. It has them! No really, the grips are very, very grippy in the wet and feel solid to hold when clamping down hard on your best mates nose cause he eat the last pie. They also have two lanyard holes for lefties and righties!!
Oh, and the handles pull off (with a little persuading) so you can clean the fish snot out of them.
Now, just in case you though you’d like to see what you can’t, cause your not Super Man and you can’t see through steel, I’ve taken the liberty of opening the pliers right up the guts for all to see…..lovely!!

Q. What else do you get?
A. A weekend in the Swiss Alps and 1 billion dollars…..arr no. Seriously, you get a lovely little pouch with belt clip and a wrist lanyard so you don’t go loosing it OB (over board).

Now for some ‘off the pack’ features –
· Dual-density Softorx handles (yes that’s right I said SOFTORX)
· Replaceable Tungsten Carbide cutters that are suitable for cutting up to 400lb mono and 180lb wire (and if your as nuts as me cut what ever you like with them cause they can).
· 45 degree precision-tip diamond pattern jaws.
· Oversized SS pivot with internal torsion spring for one handed use.
· Passivation-treated 420 stainless steel construction end to end, for extreme corrosion resistance.

Yep, I like a good set of pliers! I like em even more when they don’t cost $600. The proof of greatness, as you would expect, is in the using and it will take a good 6 to 12 months before I can put the Mad Dog Royter stamp of approval on them but from the off set, they sure look and feel the goods!!

Check’em out soon.

Royter out.

What's a little grub like you doing in a place like this?

If you’re a big fan of the 2” Tournament Grub in PowerBait formula and I know a lot of you are, then hold onto ya hats cause here come the bait you’ve been waiting for!
Gulp! 2” and 3” single tails called ‘Jigging Grubs’. These little rippers will certainly turn the tide on those hard to catch bream and curious trout.

With a tail shape that’s not far removed from that of a ‘Minnow Grub’, it’s the body shape that will help this bait excel. Having a thinner body allows for more water to pass by the tail giving better movement and will also help with drop speed when using light weight jigheads.

Originally designed for the Japanese market these Jigging Grubs will be just the trick to slide down the side of a pylon or to ‘shakin retrieve’ out of the dark from under a dock or boat hull!

Colours – Watermellon, Pumpkin Seed and Smoke (first of the semi-clears).

And if all else fails, chucks of the 2" model fits perfectly down an empty pen case for some hot-digity-dog pea shootin action…….and if ya mum asks…..I never told you that!!

Royter.

It's so alive its got a heart beat.

Gulp! Alive

Just when you though it was safe to go back into tackle shop, out comes Gulp! Alive.

Gulp! Alive is generation 2 Gulp! and it’s going to knock your socks off!!! Check out these advantages over standard Gulp!

• Gulp! Alive’s attraction formula is 20% stronger and more affective then regular Gulp! More bites….more bites….morrrrrrrre bites!
• Gulp! Alive baits come immersed in 100% Gulp! juice. No more bent tails! And constant immersion means plumper, juicer more ‘ready to go’ Gulp! baits.
• They’re RECHARGABLE! Gulp! Alive will reload with scent when returned to the attractant. Even if only for 5 seconds!! They’ll also rehydratable. Gulp! Alive will ‘bounce back’ after being dried out!
• Gulp! Alive has 34% better swimming action. They now LOOK more ‘Alive’ then ever!



• Gulp! Alive has up to 20% more fish attractant by weight of individual lures than bagged Gulp! shapes. There soaking in it!!
• Eco-friendly biodegradable Gulp! Alive wont harm the environment or any animals that live in it.
• Gulp! Alive maintains and preserves its natural shape and action dew to up-graded preservatives and the Gulp! Alive juice.
• The next generation in Gulp! technology looks alive, feels alive and tastes alive!

When you get your hands on these baits you’ll notes they feel much more real. The softness and slimyness of Gulp! Alive has to be felt to be believed!
Gulp! Alive’s Patent Pending attractant has been chemically altered to ‘switch on’ the chemoceptors of both fresh and saltwater fishes letting you take Gulp! Alive anywhere and everywhere you fish!
Gulp! Alive comes in a resealable, screw top tub with approximately 3 bags worth of baits in each. You can mix and match your colours (now colour fast) and put all the baits you’ll need for one days fishing into the one tub without any fear of colour swapping or contamination.

Gulp! Alive will be available in all the most popular patterns and colours from 2” to 4” in length from September this year. Supply will be up and down dew to the popularity of these new products so if your super keen it might be worth dropping in and making a back-order to your local tackle store to ensure you get you Gulp! Alive.

If you’re a Gulp! user, then not only will the extra volume of lures per tub be handy but all the fore mentioned add-ons are bound to turn a few fishes heads.

Not to be left out of the mix are some interesting Gulp! Alive sprays for all other types of anglers. Weather you chuck spinnerbaits, hard body’s, wobblers or you’re a good old bait angler, these new Gulp! Alive sprays allow you to ‘douse’ your offering in 100% pure Gulp! Alive juice!! Even if you’re using Gulp! Alive out of the bucket, these new sprays will enable you to change/upgrade the scent of original Gulp! Alive to one of the 3 different scents.
In the mix are GARLIC, NIGHTCLAWLER and CRAWDAD.
On day 3 of a tournament when every fish has seen and smelt a Gulp! of some description, one of these add-on scents might just make you stand out from the crowd and get you bites!!

The key features are –
• Water based – not oil.
• Easier for fish to detect.
• Doesn’t float to the surface like oil based attractants – Stays in the strike zone.
• Trigger spray bottle easily directs either stream or spray.
• Ozone safe
• You can have Gulp! Alive on any lure or bait you throw.
• Use to top up your Gulp! Alive buckets.

So if Gulp! is your thing, you wont know yourself after trying Gulp! Alive. It is without a doubt the very best of the best thing to help you catch more fish!

Royter.

The Pro's Tactic

Berkley Pro Tactic Series Rods

Coming off the back of one of the most popular range of rods ever sold in Australia, the ‘Berkley Drop Shot’ these all new super upgraded models are set to whack everything but your wallet!!

The Pro Tactic Series of rods where spawned from the modern day anglers need for better quality fishing equipment, without the need to get a second mortgage. Taking what we learnt from what the anglers of this country told us, the Australian division of Berkley selected tapers, marginally changed lengths and upgraded the graphite quality to create the foundation of any good rod; the blank!
Using IM8 (47 million modulus) grade graphite the blanks are now lighter, faster and much more responsive and sensitive then there predeceased IM6 Drop Shot cousins. This graphite upgrade produces faster rod tip speeds for longer more accurate casting, better hook setting properties, more bite sensitivity and much less casting arm fatigue. You would have to agree, using better quality graphite does have a lot of advantages!!

The rod grips have also had a reasonable overhaul with 3 out of the 4 rods having considerable ergonomic design changes. More so the two lighter spin rod. Using Fuji IPS winches and custom cork work, these grips are built to not only feel good but to perform well.
Rounding off the grips and winches are Titanium colored Fuji aluminum butt caps, winch accents and winding checks.



One of the best feature on these rod are the Fuji Titanium framed, Silicon Carbide ringed guides. These guides are 35 to 45% light than the equivalent size and shape Fuji guides. This weight reduction increases tip speed, rod sensitivity and lowers casting arm fatigue. The Sic rings are the smoothest guide insert available anywhere in the world today. And probably best of all, the frames are impervious to saltwater which means they wont ever rust! (And being that they’re made from Titanium they have great shape retention which means fewer guide breakages for knuckle heads like me!).



The Pro Tactic rods are finished off with three color binds and metallic copper blank coloration; all in all a snazzy looking creature!!



The modes of Pro Tactics are –
• 700 – Length 7’ Line Class 2 – 5kg Spin
• 700H – Length 7’ Line Class 4 – 7kg Spin
• 6010 – Length 6’10” Line Class 2 – 4kg Spin
• 680 – Length 6’8” Line Class 3 – 5kg Baitcaster

If you’re in the market for a new pole and you didn’t figure on hacking off an arm or a leg to get it, pick up a Pro Tactic and give it a run around your nearest tackle emporium. You won’t be disappointed!!!

Over and out!

Royter.

Is that a Lime Tiger in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Nuclear Chicken & Lime Tiger Saltwater GULP!

Just incase you didn’t already know, I’m a self confessed ‘new stuff’ junky. After all, who dies with the most fishing tackle wins yeah?
But this lot it seems, I did miss. So I’m now thinking, somebody had better slap me fairly hard in the chops for missing this one!

Anyway, for all the people who, like me, have had there head in the sand the last couple of months, this you could say is fairly new stuff!

So all be it late, there it is........

Not ground braking stuff by any stretch of the imagination but I think exciting enough to warrant a small write up. In hind sight, its not a bad thing to give a new product a bit of time to show its worth and after several touraments and countless fishing trips we're starting to get some very healthy feed back indeed!!

What we've got are two new colors in 4 new shapes in Gulp! Saltwater; goes a little like this!
• Colors - Nuclear Chicken & Lime Tiger.
• Shapes – 3” Minnow Grub, 3” Fry, 3” Minnow and 6” Sand Worm.


For all you fans of the 'Fry' and the 'Minnow', I have know doubt that you’ll love fishing these two new colors. Having an ‘In ya face’, ‘reaction bite’ color can really turn the tide on a day when things are slow or shut down!
The highly visible, contrasting colors of the Nuclear Chicken give it a visible attractiveness that's 2 to 3 times that of any other color in the range, allowing it to be sighted and attacked by both individual and schooling fish from grater distance in most water clarities.
The Lime Tiger can certainly hold its own in the clear water stakes and is making a good mention of its self in that lovely ‘clear-green’ estuary water that we all like to fish so much!



One of the lads, Shaun Clancy of Minn Kota/Humminbird fame scratched up this ripper on the 3” NC Minnow in amongst kick the teeth out of a whole heap of bream and flathead over the last couple of weeks in Victorian estuaries!
And to top of a great capture, this 83-cm Mulloway way caught on 3-lb Crystal Fireline!

There’s no two ways about it. I like new stuff! But I like new stuff that works even better!!

I feel like chicken tonight!!!

How about you tiger?!

Royter.