Royter's Ramblings

7 WEEKS ON THE ROAD with THE MAD DOG

2008-06-08T13:46:00.004+10:00

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

2007-12-17T22:27:00.000+10:00

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.

2007-11-21T12:26:00.000+10:00

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

2007-07-27T16:12:00.000+10:00

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?

2007-07-25T12:59:00.000+10:00

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.

2007-05-28T21:09:00.000+10:00

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

2007-01-15T18:54:00.000+10:00

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?

2007-01-15T12:10:00.000+10:00

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.

Hangin' with the crew!

2006-11-02T20:33:00.000+10:00

Well, this years AFC Outdoors is set to be an absolute rip snoter! The boats, the anglers and the fish are back and bigger than ever. And for me, a slightly different roll this year as I come to you as a commentator rather than an angler!

Roll call at 8:00am first day and I was firing on all 32.6 cylinders. First things first, gotta get in a chopper and shoot some aerials for the opener.... COOL!!!!

The big bad ball that is the AFC was well on its way to rolling as the pace picked up and the days turned into weeks! The anglers.....well they just turned into anglers!!

Some serious blows where dealt out by the fish to the anglers as Scotty Towner came to grips with the fact that some bream are just to big to stop in those racks!!

Even camera men need to sleep!!!

The sound man Azzy steps off the boat...."oow that's a bit soft!!... followed by the camera man (100kg of bloke + 30kg of camera) "look out" he sinks up to his ankles!!
Then..... You guest it.... Starlo......

arrrr!! It's all fun and games on the AFC tour.

hahahahahaha

Royter over and under and well and truly out!!

On tour AFC style!!

2006-10-25T10:14:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the delay in writing folks!!

I'll be back on line soon to give you all a taste of what happened behind the scenes on this years AFC Outdoors.

Royter.

Torpedos armed and ready!

2006-09-15T11:35:00.000+10:00

When I first said, ‘Matt Fraser’s been getting a tad too close to the lead fumes’ I really meant it!!

The mental giant that is this crazy hook wielding, lead spiting monster has done it again!! With a no holes barred attitude and a ‘I’ll do what the hell I like’ temperament, the cogs churned and the smoke bellowed up and out of the fire and brimstone came the TORPEDO.

If I was to tell you that I like it, I would be lying, cause I love it! But wait there’s more!! I not only love the Torpedo but I love the Fat Torpedo as well!!! After all, how could you not.
These little hunk-a-chunk-a burnin loves (in your best Elvis voice please) do several things better than any other micro weight or enclosed weight jighead system on the market.
Firstly, because of the way the hook is driven into the plastic, the lead is completely concealed inside the bait which allows the fish to consume the whole bait without feeling the exposed lead of a standard jighead. This equates to fish holding on longer and you getting a better hook set!
Secondly, is the way the Torpedo swims. Because the toe point is behind the face of the bait, the small amount of plastic that sticks out ahead of this point creates a ‘bib’ type affair that transpires into some of the most ‘life like’ dieing bait fish action you’ll ever see!
Thirdly, is the ‘Anti-Pantsing’ pointed tip! Anti what?? Anti-Pantsing!! If you’re retrieving your bait and a fish grads a hold of it and misses the hooks, there’s a good chance that the fish will immediately retune to have another crack! That is unless you’ve had your plastic pulled off the keeper and down around the hook bend. Obviously this will make your bait swim around and around is circles and not look like it did when the fish first hit it! This is know as ‘being pantsed’ (pants pulled down). So, Anti-Pantsing is all about keeping your plastic where it should be strike after strike until the fish gets a good hold and you ‘get ‘em on’!!
The Anti-Pantsing part of these jigheads refers to the ‘point’ just forward of the eye.

If you look at this shot you’ll see how the point won’t allow the bait to be pulled backwards. Bloody ingenious!!!! (Told you he was a freak)

Looking at these shots you can see how the same weights differ in the way they’re applied to these baits. Shot A has two 3” Power Minnow in Galaxia Green with both 1/32-oz Torpedo and 1/16-oz Fat Torpedo inserted. Shot B has two 3” Power Minnow in Pearl Watermellon with a standard Bream Pro jighead arrangement also in 1/32-oz and 1/16-oz.

The Torpedo (especially the Fat Torpedo) gives the these baits a lovely ‘semi head down’ spiral drop as apposed to the more acutely angled, ‘straight down’ jighead drop!

Starting at 1/50-oz and ending up at 1/11-oz there's bound to be a weight system to suit all your needs. If you're into ‘finesses’ or clear water spooky fish type fishing or just hate being pantsed, then have a look at these little rippers. They’ll gob smack ya for a week!!!

“Torpedo in tube 1 ready to fire sir”.

Over and out.

Royter.

PS. All the sink rates are listed on the back of every pack of Berkley Nitro jigheads. No more guess work!!! Sweet.

Big GULP!

2006-09-14T20:25:00.000+10:00

Sorry its been a while since I last posted but boy have a been a busy beaver!!

Between now and then has been the Aust. Fishing Tackle Association’s tackle trade show where retails and wholesalers get to puff there chests out and say "get a look at this"!

One of the most notable entries to the field was the new Saltwater Gulp! range. This included creatures like squid, ells and sea lice but the one that everyone was hanging out for was the 7” Jerk Shad.

The new 7” Jerk Shad has the same body profile as the 5” with the split tail and the belly slit but it’s just bigger and nastier than before! It also comes in a new range of colors.

This is what The 7” Jerk Shad looks like in comparison to the 5”-

Now some of the new colors -

And then nicely rigged on one of the new Saltwater Series Nitro 7/0 jigheads. mmmmmm yummy!!!! And on a WGW Hook (Wide Gape Worm).

So if you want to catch the Denison of the Deep this season, get a hold of some of these big babies and let’em have it!!!

It’s all Gulp! it’s all good.

Royter out.

...and on the 5th day he made it clear!!

2006-08-08T11:10:00.000+10:00

You’ve all seen those NRL ads where nanas’ and poppies are tackling each other and old mate on stage pulls a ripper dummy pass on the bloke doing Shakespeare and winds up working his scull in the Baltic Pine floor boards! Well, picture me as the whole back line and the TNT deliver man as the bloke who as the ball! But he doesn’t have a ball……. No, he has a package…….. Yes! I want, he has!!
No need to bore you all with the finer details of the drycleaners bill for Mr TNT’s work shirt and pants but what you really should be asking me is “WHAT”S IN THE BOX???

Fireline, Fireline, Fireline! And it’s new and it’s clearish and it’s so thin and, and it’s……… well it’s…… perfect.
It’s been so long since we’ve had something as monumental as this to play with. You won’t really understand just how good this new line is until you’ve spooled up and that first cast is sailing off into the distance! Or when you start getting bites where before there were none! Or when you no longer need to tie a leader on!! Haharrrr!! That woke you up didn’t it. Yeah well slap me on the bum and call me sweetheart cause it all good, it’s real and it’s all true.

Fireline ‘Crystal’. It’s everything you’ve wanted in a polyethylene fiber line and more!
I’ll start with the most obvious of differences between the new Fireline Crystal and regular Fireline, the 3 new diameters. 1, 2 and 3-lb make an appearance (although you might need to squint to see them) and let me let me tell you, if you thought 4-lb was thin and cast a long way, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!! If we pull the microscope in for a closer look at the 1-lb version I’ve done a few breaking strain tests on it and the words ‘thin’ and ‘tough’ don’t even touch the edges!!
We have here 5 new Crystal Fireline’s (it comes in 1,2,3,4,6,8,10,14 and 20)and as you can see; the 1, 2, and 3-lb are as thin as a sand fly’s whisker! In my very unofficial breaking strain tests on the 1-lb Crystal Fireline broke at an average of an impressive 5.4-lb. Yeah you did read that right, 5.4-lb for the 1-lb (not surprising really when you look at the figures of 20-lb Fireline. It brakes at around 55-lb).

Raw PE is of a clear to opaque type color so we’ll say that it’s non-colored (dyed). The secret with this new fiber is in the thermal fusing department. Berkley has called it ‘MicroFused’ and that’s about as much info as we can get.
The sheer diameter of this line is outstanding! Coupled with this amazingly thin line is its ability to become virtually transparent underwater. Throw into the mix all the other statistics about Fireline and you got yourself one hell of a line!
For all of you that have climbed aboard the 2-lb ‘mono’ wagon well this is where you can get off! You’ve got here a line that is thinner than 2-lb mono and has all the fantastic non-stretch characteristics of Fireline and it goes translucent!!

Let’s have a close look at the diameter. The bar code you see here is the one from the front of a spool of Fireline. How’s that for thin!!

Now let’s look at its transparent qualities. Here we have between 20 and 30 strands of Crystal Fireline laying next to each other in weights 1-lb, 3-lb and 6-lb.

Now keep in mind that when it’s dry, this line will look whiter than when it’s wet! I don’t know too many people that catch fish on the side walk so I shot it wet as if it where submerged.

So what does all this new string mean to both the nuts& bolts guru and the weekend tangler?
One of the most hotly talked about prospects of this line will inevitably be ‘to leader or not to leader’! This will of course take some time to get a good handle on but from the limited fishing I’ve done with this line (all with out a leader) it seems to be the goods. Also from the fishes point of view it’s probably going to spook less of the unseen, over shot fish because of its color and as far as casting is concerned, it’s guaranteed to cast the same weights further and allow you to cast things you never had the ability to before!
And before you start up with the “you said we had to use colored line” any color that’s not black, gray or dark green can be seen from above the water so you can still see all you bites on the drop!

Just when you though it couldn't get any better!! Berkley’s US team has once again sharpened up the piscatorial pencil to rewrite the book of fishing line.
Personally, this new line will open doors to different fish and fishing styles that we haven’t even thought of yet and or couldn’t get to simply because of line diameter.

Bring on the thinness.

Adam ‘Mad Dog’ Royter

Viva la Fry!

2006-07-30T22:43:00.000+10:00

It was quite some time ago that I first saw the 3” Gulp! Fry. I was doing the weekly rounds of the US Berkley site when I came across this fascinating little chunk of bio rubber. From memory it was in the Salomon & Steelhead department of the now renovated Berkley site and to tell you the truth, it was just what I was looking for!!
For the past few years I had been more than happy fishing the 3” Gulp! Minnow under boat hulls and docks with the aide of a little lead and a good Jap hook. But something needed to give! I was looking for a more all-round plastic. Something I could fish just under the surface with that crazy ‘Shakin’ retrieve but could also let it hang and sink, sometimes all the way to the bottom!
Not to say that you can’t do that exact same thing with the minnow but on those long drifts to the bottom, I was thinking that I’d like a plastic that could do just a couple more things a little bit better!
The specific things I was look for where - 1/ On those long drifts to the bottom I was looking for a particular shape lure that would sink in a more horizontal fashion, rather than the semi spiraling I was getting from the minnow. 2/ Once I had let the plastic sink to the desired depth (usually the bottom), I was looking for a body shape that would allow me to swim it off the bottom with a 'slower then normal', 2 part rod lift. This motion was to be non-obtrusive, slowish and subtle. The sort of rod lift retrieve that says to the fish ‘I’m not sick, I in good health, and I can’t see you coming’!!

The body shape of the Fry does exactly that. It’s thick enough in the back end and not so fat in the front so that it has a more ‘level’ sink rate which allows a more ‘glide’ style action and quite simply a better retrieve.
On the 2 part lift retrieve this little cheese stick gets up the most beautiful little tail shimmy you’ll ever see. You see, the tail is slightly bulbous and flat which is what gives it that slight shimmy. It’s this tiny amount of tail action that will account for quite a proportion of your bag on the days when the fish are playing hard to get!
All in all this little lure is proving it’s self to be quite a winner! From ABT top 10’s to AFC top 2’s, this 3 inch long Gulp! French fry is without doubt one of the biggest little sleepers of all time.

And don’t you worry about that!! I’ve been spanked like a $3 pony from most of the anglers I’ve given this plastic to! It seems there’s more than one way to skin a cat and more than one way to fish the Fry!! Good mates of mine have been doing the rounds with this thing and its proving it’s self to be some sort of ‘go to’ plastic.

I do smell some sort of trend emerging here so I’ll leave it to you crew to make your own assumptions on how your Fry’s are cooked. But if one thing is for sure, mark my words, this 3” wonder will be coming to a bream, or any other type of fish, near you real soon!

So go the Fry revolution,

And Viva la Fry.

Royter.

Berkley Nitro Jigheads are world beaters!!

2006-07-12T16:00:00.000+10:00

Hi there snapper heads,

I've finally got my hands on some of the new Berkley Nitro Jigheads.
Sweet, sweet, sweet!!!
If these an't the best the jigheads in the world I will go it for tiggy. Matt Fraser has out done him self once again. Not to say that he wasn't already making the finest jigheads under his own brand Nitro but to bring these two powers together and throw the rains to Matt Fraser was for shore a god sent!

Using Matt's incredible knowledge and experience in the design and manufacture of jigheads coupled with the power of a brand like Berkley, you can only expect one thing. Excellences!! From the super tight molding process that creates those wicked smooth lead head sections to the superior quality of Owner hooks. That's right, I said OWNER!!!!
All new Berkley Nitro jigheads come standard with a various range of Owners hooks including there world renowned 'Cutting Point'.
To start there will be 5 different types available. All Terrain, Bream Pro, Saltwater Pro, Torpedo and Fat Torpedo.

Something else Matt Fraser has been working on is a jighead with a hollow back side! This alows the head of your plastic to be inserted into the hollow cavity making a much better fit and more stream line profile. These have been extensively trialed with the 3" Gulp! Shaky Shad, one of the countries most popular flathead baits.

I'm sure that a lot of other PowerBait and Gulp! models will benefit from these unique jigheads! I'll keep you posted on their release date.

The line up of weights go something like this -

1/50 - 1/40 - 1/32 - 1/24 - 1/16 - 1/11 - 1/8 - 1/6 - 1/4 - 3/8 -1/2 - 5/8 - 3/4 - 1oz

And in hook sizes from 4 to 7/0.

My tip is that this will keep you occupied for a least a little while or until we can stop Matt from fishing and get him back to work on more!

So there you have it. Berkley, Owner, Nitro, the mind of Matt Fraser. This is going to good.... really, really good!!!!

Bombs away,

Royter.

It's the Craw..... "THE CRAW" mmwaaahahahaha

2006-06-22T13:21:00.000+10:00

Well, well, well! What do we have here!!

We have the Gulp! Craw 3". 'Hot Diggity'!! and yes, you guessed it, it ROCKS!
But why does it rock Mr 'everything that's fishing rocks' Royter? Well, if you look into the amount of predatory sports fish that we catch, you'll notice that there are a lot of crustaceans in their diets. Weather it be a prawn, shrimp or yabby, most fish on a good day wouldn't think twice about slurping back a Craw!!
So we got the Gulp! Craw down...... what about the prawn.... or shrimp??

Watch as I magically transform this wonderful 3" Craw into some sort of weird prawny thing!!

Tadarrrrrrrrrr!!!! Hay bloody presto. Hay!... Hay!... Not bad..... ah!!

Don't cry it’s not rocket science. You'll need a pair of scissors and a very small part of your brain to 'get him on'. This is totaly all good and you can do it with any of the 'Hawgs, Craws or Nymphs' in the Berkley range. It's so good and soooo easy I thought I take a quote from one of mine and many others child hood hero's... Mr T. "I pity the fool that don't try my home boy Royt's Tidy Prawn" "FOOL".

We love you Mr T

Royter out.

PS. And we love you too 'Shrimp Man'.

I get by with a little carp from my friends.....

2006-06-17T23:45:00.000+10:00

“Go Dougie go!!” What a catch from my young mate. A fat old 5kg carp. Top work to your pal for helping you hold that big old slug up for the pic!

My old mate the carp. Indestructible….yes! Noxious….yes! Pain in the backside…. I think so! Good fun to catch on soft plastics weather you’re a mini mullet like these two or an old snapper head like me…… you bloody bet!!! Carp are a plentiful pest that can teach any new comer to the sport of angling the valuable do’s and don’ts of things like drag systems, rod loading, correct knot tying and good pump & wind technique. They can be found in abundance in almost all suburban ornamental lakes and park dam and are now even easier to catch thanks to Gulp!
If you’ve caught carp before then you’ll know about there ability to find food by using there nose. With Gulp! and its super strong scent release, (400x stronger and faster then regular soft plastics) the carp have no trouble finding this irresistible soft bait and they just love the feel of its extra soft, biodegradable body material. “yum, yum, yum”
Weather you like to bait fish it on the bottom or retrieve it back with a ‘lift & drop’, Gulp! is with out doubt the number one carp slaying lure!!
So kids and adults alike, do yourself a big Aussie favor and grid a few carp into the veggie patch this year. Your tomatoes will never look so good!!!

Carp….. a big pain in the bum…… but really good fun!!!!

Over and out.

Royter

So big its got its own TV network!!

2006-06-16T15:04:00.000+10:00

Well done Bunga old mate! That’s a great PB bream. A whopping 44-cm fork and estimated 2+ kg. You legend!! Unfortunately you don’t get any goodies like young mate Brad. Because I know for a fact that next time we fish you’ll rifle through my bag and get what you want anyway!!

And you got him on the good old Turtle Back in Pumpkinseed!!

Love ya work.

Royter out.

Clears going great guns!!!

2006-06-13T23:49:00.000+10:00

Some pics of the first couple of fish caught on the new colors!

Gotta love this!!!

2006-06-13T20:45:00.000+10:00

It's not every day you see something like this.
What a fantastic capture from a land based position! And not only that, it was caught quite a few clicks up a river (somewhere), smack in the middle of a city with a name that starts with an M and ends in an E!!!

Well done to Brad Hodges for his super catch.

There's a pack of plastics coming your way for your great efforts.

Cheers

Royter

Little squid little squid.... let me in!!!!

2006-06-08T20:11:00.000+10:00

I was just think right......

What if you had a squid jig that you could insert a Gulp! Bait onto!!!

I wouldn't have said anything about it but I can't help but think it would have to be the best squid jig in the world cause of the way those bloody squid go your Gulp!
They're like a starvin dog in the Pal factory!!! You can't keep 'em off it.

I don't know....... maybe it would work..... maybe not!

I'll see and report back

Over and out.

Royter.

Something about line

2006-06-08T17:34:00.000+10:00

Iv been using polyethylene fiber lines (braid, super line, gel spun, Spider Wire, call it what you will) for well over a decade now and its true to say its had its up’s and downs! This super fiber, originally designed to take the place of Kevlar in US army flack jackets, has had only 2 upgrades in performance (strand diameter decrease) in the last 15 years within the fishing industry. But in saying that, it has been pulled, melted, braided, twisted, spun, polymer coated and dyed all in the name of fishing. You name it, its had it done!
The fact of the matter is that the fiber is and has always been the right stuff for the job. It’s how we use it and what we do to it that’s continually making the manufactures go back to the drawing board to help over come the ‘next’ big problem!
Going from a braided polyethylene (PE) to a thermally fused PE was one of the biggest things to happen the sport of angling!
This ‘thermal fusing’ or heat treatment, gave the once ‘limp’ braided PE some memory, much like the lines we had used before like nylon monofilament (normal fishing line). The thing about nylon fishing line is that it has its own memory. It’s able to hold its self on the spool loop for loop until its time to be cast off! By thermally fusing the limp PE line it to was able to have a memory and act the same way. This allowed us to start using our thread line (spinning) reels again with out the ever-present trouble of casting tangles or as it’s commonly known ‘throwing a bunch of grapes’.
The first and still the best of the thermally fused PE lines is Fireline. It started well and continues in the same fashion today. We’ve had a couple of color changes and even a processing upgrade (XDS) but no matter which way you turn Fireline is still to this day Australia’s most popular super line.
Once you get to know Fireline and how it works its great stuff to fish with. It, like all PE lines, has it hick-ups. It’s stiffer out of the box then you would like it to be but seems to remedy its self after 1000 casts. With prolonged use (using it after it should have been changed for new line) 4lb can get to limp and start acting like no-memory gel spun PE.
These little traits we can easily put up with because of what Fireline can and does give us in returns of angling success.

But!!! There was always going to be a but!! Since fishing a tournament with an old mate some weeks back I noticed that he was fishing a slightly different line to me. When I asked he said ‘you idiot’!! How can you not know about this stuff??
The line in question is Spider Wire ‘Stealth’. After looking at it I seem to think it will be quite the line!
It’s not built the same as Fireline. Where Fireline is lightly spun then fused, this line has 4 fused lines then it’s spun! This should result in fewer tangles in casting straight out of the box and a more manageable line throughout its life. It should even tie a better knot!!
We’ll see. Iv spooled up with it and will be testing it over the next 6 months.

Stay tuned.

PS. It’s also Teflon treated which should make it cast better!!

Royter.

I've seen the light!!!!

2006-06-01T21:10:00.000+10:00

Guess what arrived on my door step today…… new color Power Minnows!
Hot-digity-dog plastic pushers they look hot as!!
I can’t wait to swim’ em. I don’t know what to attack first…..bream…. trout….. snapper….??

Names are Casper Clear, Gray Ghost, Galaxia Green and Bullhead Brown.

I’m choppin….. I’m cheerin…. I’m bloody big Kev…… oh year baby I’m excited!!!!!!

One happy Royter, over and out.

Color me up!!

2006-05-29T16:56:00.000+10:00

Hey snapper heads,

Did you know that you can color your own Gulp!
Oh yes, yes, yes you can!! And just how easy is it Dr Royter??
It's as easy as tootaling off down to the shops and picking up yourself a bottle or three of un-flavored food dye. If you get the 3 primary colors (red, blue and green)then your set to create almost ever color under the sun!
Then all you need to do is either dip individual Gulp! baits in the bottles or just put a few drops into a bag. It's that easy!!
So knock yourself right out and get into the customizing of your own baits. Its great fun and can turn the tables on those scaly blighters we love to chase.

Cheers

Royter

Clear Water Weapons!

2006-05-27T23:01:00.000+10:00

Hold the phone!!!
I've just got confirmation that a new range of PowerBait Power Minnows Have arrived.
There specialty is for work in extreme clear water situation! The minnows are all very natualised in there coloration with lots of clear involved. The samples I've seen look awesome!!
There's 4 new colors and they come in 3" and 4". They have no 'Scales' (that glitter that's inside the pack, that gets all over you and makes you look really sexy when you go to get your lunch at the shop after a days fishing) and from memory only one of them has any 'fleck' inside the body material!
You should start to see them in stores from next week (01/06/06).

Spook me up Scotty

Royter.