Lures at Night

Hi Peeps,

Here's a good question for you all. Do all lures work at night??? Do soft plastics work at night? If so, are they as deadly at night as they are in the day???

Interesting stuff. I must admit i dont flick lures at night as much as i should but a few of my fishing mates love flickin lures at night. They have good success on the regular species of bream, flathead, jews and whiting. But from my limited experience i would say that not all lures work at night. Some are more deadly than others. Lets see some exampleas and why...

1) Soft Plastix are a good allround performer. I would say that they are the best of the night time lures for salt water estuary species. But within the range of softies some perform better than others. Usually in the day i mainly use stickbaits or jerk minnows. The in-built action of shads, fish tails or grub tails can turn shy fish off the bite in the day. The in-built action in the lure transmits a vibration that attracts fish from long distances. This is extremely helpful at night or in murky low-vis water. So using a plastic with some tails action seems to catch more fish than subtle presentations of jerk minnows.

2) Top water lures are also another good night time producer. Usually they are used for aussie natives like bass or perch but some switched on anglers are starting to use poppers at night in the brine. Once again the attraction is the noise the lure makes as its worked. Also another consideration is popper colour. As fish look skyward for a meal a black or dark lure sillouettes better with the light of the moon making it more visable.

3) Metal blades are also making a splash at night now. I mentioned in an earlier blog that some guys are catching blackfish at night. Once again the vibration these lures transmit make them a deadly weapon at night. i dont think colour matters here, just as long as the lures is working correctly it will attract fish.

There we have it. I think the lesson is a clear one. Lures that make noise, vibrate, rattle or hum will catch more fish at night than quiet finesse lures.

Get out there and give it a go. Im sure you'll be surprised at the results.

Sydney Harbour Kingfish

Hi People,

Just want to highlight for you all the remarkable kingfish numbers that have filtered in to Sydney harbour this season. If you live in sydney you would be no stranger to the fact that the kingfish are so thick you can walk across the water and not get wet! Seriously the fishing has been phenomenal...

The overall size of the kingys have been small. There are no doubt good specimens around but the ravenous little rats are beating the bigger, more weary fish to the lure or bait. Livies are getting the better quality fish but the fun factor is still squarely with chucking lures. Nothing beats the flick of the lure only to be met witha crunching halt and a screaming drag. My good mate Sami Omari helped popularise the concept of flicking poppers for kingys in the harbour. In the December Fishing World he penned an article highlighting a few techniques. Since that article came out poppers sales have gone thru the roof in sydney. Every marker in the harbour has been hit with every top water lure imaginable. The fish are starting to wise up to things. They are increasingly becoming gun-shy and catching them requiring more cunning and stealth.

Funny thing is even Sami is finding catching the kings harder. Dunno if he will be giving away so much gold to punters in an article next time!

The recent performers have been Halco Roostas in 110mm, Cultiva Tango Dancers and Cotton Cordell pencils. But in saying that, the trend has been that lures that the kingys havent seen have been getting atention. Basically get out all the old top waters you havent used in ages, dust em off and get ready to throw some lures at some markers.

Also softies are still donking a stack of fish too. The technique is to sink the lures down past the marker, give a few twiches and retrieve back to the boat. The kingys are also busting up here and there so keep a keen eye out for bird activity.

So basically, if you live in sydney, or close to it, get off your arse and get going. While the fish are mostly undersize, on bream gear they are a heap of fun. Just goes to show that after 5 years of removing the kingfish traps haow impressive the fish stocks have rebounded. How can they tell me that rec fishing decimates fish stocks???

Viva la kingfish....

Hawkesbury Marine Park Proposal Update

Hi everyone,

I don't want to get too political on this blog, but after all if we dont try to educate now, chances are i will have nothing to write about later...if they lock us out of our fishing spots.

An email circulated last week, one which i posted a copy of here on this blog, to contact the premier and carmel tebbut to voice your disapproval of the marine park proposal for the hakesbury bio-region. I also took it upon my own to email Clover Moore, the sydney mayor, who is supporting the proposal with very strong language and a heap of gusto.

I emailed clover to ask where she got the quotes she was using as she didnt reference them on her website where they were published. Admittedly i didnt expect a response from her. I was delighted this morning to find in my inbox a response to my email. It read;

Dear sender

I refer to your email about my support for a marine park for Sydney.

I have supported establishment of a marine park following extensive consultation with community groups, stakeholders and scientific experts to ensure that protection is achieved. The proposal would include a number of different management zones and only the areas declared sanctuaries would totally ban any extraction of sea life.

I share widespread community concern that the Government should protect marine ecosystems, including addressing damage caused by urban development, agriculture, pollution, climate change and other major threats. While marine parks can play a vital role in protecting marine biodiversity, I believe that a multifaceted response to all threats is the best way to ensure the long-term sustainability of our waters.

You may wish to contact your local MP to express your views about this matter.

like all politicians the response answered nothing and in a long winded way only highlighted how deficient clover's knowledge is of the current state of our fisheries. I like how she stated in her response "I have supported establishment of a marine park following extensive consultation with community groups, stakeholders and scientific experts". What a complete load of crap. The only consultation clover has had has not been with community groups or scientists, but rather with the EPA to get herself well versed in the rhetoric needed to run a campaign like this....complete bullshit.

Anyway. I emplore all readers of this blog to send clover moore an email requesting her to identify where her quotes are sourced from and what scientific studies, relevant to sydney waterways, she is referring to. I'm curious to know if she knows who she is quoting. My fear is she has no bloody idea.

Clover Moore [Clover.Moore@parliament.nsw.gov.au]

Bladed Lure Review

Hi All,

Xmas break is coming up. For me that means 3 weeks of solid fishing. In that time i am going to be trying out the variety of bladed lures on the market today. It's no secret the blades have gained alot of popularity and are catching good fish in a variety of situations. I blogged about them last month and discussed a fvew different variations in design and effect.

What i hope to achieve during this break is a total review of all the bladed lures on the market. I have sourced 12 different brands for the review ranging in size, colour, weight and materials. These are a combination of local manufactured product and imported models from various countries in asia.

While i wont give too much away in this blog, i will try to give some insight on the findings. I do however have to be careful as this review will be printed in an upcoming Fishing World article in 2009.

I think the key areas for examination will be;

1) Will the different lures fish differently?
2) Are they all just as effective as each other?
3) What are the design differences and how does this affect lure action?
4) Does colour matter?
5) Do the local lures fish as well as imported ones?
6) Does size matter?
7) Does the construction material benefit or detract from the lure action?

All these questions will need to be answered. I will fish blades almost exclusively for 6 weeks and use every lure in similar scenarios to try and compare apples with apples where possible. I know it sounds like a tough job... but somebody's gotta do it.

Hawkesbury Marine Park Proposal

Hi All,

It's with great regret to announce that the greens have finally tried to invade the last frontier of the NSW marine region. The Hawkesbury mrine bio region spans from stockton beach in port stephens past sydney all the way down to wollongong in the south.

The greens have some serious clout this time. They have luminaries like Valerie Taylor, the hag who got bitten by a shark 20 odd years ago. Too bad it didnt finish her off. Clover Moore... enuf said, and other political back benders and rubber armers. The greens obviously know they will need some clout this time round cause it will be a big undertaking. Sydney has over 1 million anglers and if mobilised could counteract this movement. But as has been shown in the establishment of other marine protected areas, anglers are an apathetic bunch. Unity in voice is not thier biggest strength. Unfortunate. Drama is, unless anglers are directly affected, they are loathe to unite. We could be an immense political power, able to create our own legislation and govern our own sport.

The Hawkesbury bio-region will unite a large percentage of anglers, thats for sure. But now is the time to act. Everone must write and lobby against this proposal before it gathers momentum. If there is enuf backlash the ruling Labor party will not jeorpadise thier already unstable government and try to implement this. 1 million voters swinging the other way will overthrow them...along with the greens.

So lets do this.
YOU CAN HELP STOP THIS WITH 2 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME.

1) Copy and paste the text below into a new email
2) In the subject line put "Hawkesbury Marine Park"
3) Include your full name on the bottom of the email where it says
4) Copy the recipients:
To: dp.office@tebbutt.minister.nsw.gov.au
Cc: thepremier@www.nsw.gov.au
5) Click ‘Send’


Dear Premier & Ms Tebbut,

As a recreational fisherman I vehemently oppose the proposal for a Hawkesbury Marine Park. I feel so strongly about this issue that should it go ahead, I will not vote Labor at the next State Election.

A Hawkesbury Marine park has mobilised the one million strong recreational angling community and you can expect to feel the political backlash on an unprecedented scale. You would be best served to dispel any speculation by immediately announcing that a Hawkesbury Marine Park will never happen under a NSW Labor Government.

Regards,

Weekend Report

Hi everyone,

Just a quickie today. Its late in the day and im coming off the back of two days in bed sick.

I hit the Hawkesbury river on saturday with two local tackle store gurus. The main aim was to hit a nice jewie on sp's. Been doing well recently and i put it down to s-factor. The new squidy scent is dynamite for turning lookers into takers. I used to sound out jewies all the time but would only have a 30% strike rate even once sounded out.

Now the s-factor has improved that equation. I reckon i'm hooking 60% of the jewies i sound out. Big call...but it seems that way at the moment. Only time will tell.

So we did manage to wrangle a samll soapy out of a new hole i havent flicked before. It looked the goods, had a nice colour change, a deep drop off, reef bottom, an eddie and panned out to a nice mud flat. All the ingredients for a good bag of fish. Sure enuf we got our mark. Also throw in a couple of good flatties as well.

Admittedly it was a tough day. Mooney ck was devoid of life and wind showed up....again. Seems like November 08 will be remembered for the gail winds and lack of fish. No surprise really. November in sydney is typically bad. But the good news is December usually fires up so bring it on.

I made a personal goal at the start of the year to knock over a jew over 20kgs on plastix in 08. Ive got 1 month to go. So far all i've got is a 11kg model. Cross my fingers.

Not The Right Knot!

Hi all,

I love talking knots. I wouldnt call myself a knotologist (can't believe they made a knot tyer an ologist of some description - funny stuff)but i would refer myself as an anal knot tyer. I enjoy tying good knots and get a degree of satisfaction out of tying a good looking knot.

There are some knots that i reckon are unsurpassable i certain situations and reckon that, if you dont alredy use them, you should try and learn. So i will try and lay it all out for you. Now knots are a personal preference so if your more comfortable tying other knots and feel more confident, chances are you will tie them more successfully anyway...so stick with em. These are purely my personal observations and if they help...all the better.

1) Main Line to Leader - Usually in lure fishing the main line is usually braid and the leader usually fluro or mono. The diameter differences make tying good slim knots that dont get caught on the guides problematic. There are 2 knots that are mainly used, the double uni or the improved albright. I use the improved albright 100% of the time. The double uni is harder to tie, takes longer and is a bulkier knot. Admittedly the knot strength is better with the double uni but i feel it still is a second choice. The albright can be tied in low light, is extremely slim and can be tied with lines of vastly different diameters. As i said the knot strength is not as good but with a light drags on spider web braids it makes little difference. In the heavier line classes the knots bites well and knot strength is improved. However really thin braid can cut into the leader at times.

2) Leader to Lure - In most situations the leader knot to a lure is usually a loop knot. A loop knot allows the lure maximum movement without being restricted by a direct knot. Lures that benefit from a loop are soft plastics and diving hard bodies. This makes up about 95% of the fishing i do. My favourite loop knots are lefty's loop knot or the perfection loop. Either are great knots and are nearly similar. Both have great knot strength too.

As i suggested, there are some leader to lure scenarios where a direct knot is preferable. These include using top water lures like poppers and walkers. Other lures include spinnerbaits and techniques like dropshotting. The best direct knot is either a blood knot or a uni knot. Both are easy to tie and retain nearly 100% strength.

3) Doubles - When fishing for the big stuff connecting single strands of line will not provide enuf security. This may be cause of shock to the line from a surge of a powerful fish or for abrasion resistence as two strands gives that extra security to land a fish in tiger country like fishing for big barra in the sticks. Normally folding over the last foot of main line creates a double strand of line. This is then connected to a single strand of normally very heavy leader. There a few double knots that can be used but my preference is the famous bimini twist. Once the twist is completed and the double is created in the main line, i attach this double to the heavy leader using a standard albright knot not the improved version.

There are literally hundrerds of variations to the knots i suggested. And trying to describe how these knots are tied would be difficult in print. So i suggest if you are interested to learn these knots either ask your local tackle store of buy Geoff wilson's book of knots. Geoff is a master of tying knots and his illustrated books are well written and easy to follow.

Hope tis helps a little.

ALBRIGHT KNOT


BIMINI TWIST

Popper Time

Hi All,

The summer sun is starting to rear its head...blue currents are feeding into our estuaries... and the fish are looking to spawn. This only means one thing..... crack out the poppers.

I just love these topwater lures. The visual aspect is exciting, the vicious takes as well as the gentle slurps off the surface as the fish nails the lure. Wicked stuff. As with any current craze there are some myths that need to be dispelled as well as some techniques that need to be elaborated on... Lets look at some of these now in readiness for summer.

1) Use heavy leader - Typically a heavy mono leader will aid in the popper staying on top of the water. Flurocarbon naturally sinks and will pull the nose of the popper down restricting the action. As mono floats, using a heavier line class will help the popper track straight and stay on top of the water. Also use a short trace too. Long traces are not neccessary and will also restrict the action of the lure.

2) Fish Shallow Flats - Now contrary to belief, you dont actually have to fish water super shallow. I have caught bream and whiting in water over 5ft on poppers last summer. The craze to go super shallow is fine but dont think the depper drop offs are out of bounds either. Fish patrol these areas and will willingly hit a lures 3 ft off the bottom.

3) Fish Broken Ground - I have had my best sessions flicking poppers over a mixture of sand and weed. Pure sand flats dont seem to produce quite as well. I get a lot of follows over pure sand but the fish seem more timid. Add in some patchy weed ans see what happens. It turns lookers into takers. The skittering popper resembles a fleeing prawn and prawns live in weed.. so the reason is quite simple. Even flick poppers over the top of dense weed beds too.

4) Walk the Dog - If things are tough and the fish are ignoring of just following a popper try a switch to walking surface lures. Walk the dog lures dont have a cupped face, just a tow point, and sometimes arched in appearence. When twitched correctly the lure will have a zig-zagging left to right action. It doenst displace any water like a popper but still resembles a fleeing prawn or fish. It a much more sublte presentation and can turn the fish on when a popper scares the fish

5) Colours - This is a very easy one to remember. Basically dark water dark lures, clear water clear lures.

6) Fish High Tide - I have found that fishing the incoming tide has provided the best results. Perhaps even the first hour of the run out too.. the shallow flats come alive with life as fish get to prospect for food on flats exposed at low tide.

There we have it...6 tips to maximise your popper fishing this summer. The benefits of this exciting new style of fishing is simple...tasty fillets of whiting... you cant get much better than that.

El Nino

Hi All,

As your reading this have a quick look out your window. I bet theres no wind, not a cloud in the sky and barometers at a steady 1115... and you wanna know why??? Cause its a bloody work day and we cant get out on the bloody water. Burn!

Nothing frustrates me more than having one day a week to whet my fishing thirst and being delivered the crap we were dished up on the weekend in Sydney. The report said 18kt winds on saturday. Now i cop 18kt winds...barely but it can be done. We opted to fish a section of the hawkesbury with protection from the wind due to the high cliffs... but what we didnt cater for was the real weather report. Instead of 18kt winds try 80kt winds... just an absolute joke. How can the weather report get it sooo wrong??? Usually i wouldnt even bother going out if the report of wind is above 20kts.

Anyhow we battled on. We did manage 3 flatties before the apex of the wind storm really hit. To make matters worse i had a greenhorn on board and it wasnt really the day for tuition.

These unpredicatble patterns are set to continue i feel. The only drama is that right now, looking out my work window overlooking sydney harbour the conditions are perfect... go figure.

Fishings No Exact Science

Hi Fishos,

Just a short blog today...bogged down at work so i dont have the luxury to write up anything substantial. One thing i do want to disuss is the notion of how exact a science is fishing??? Its an interesting question and one that begs some consideration.

Personally i have come to the conclusion that anything that happens in the wonderful aquatic world will never surprise me anymore. By this i mean i have seen so many new things that the mind boggles at what is possible or what will come next. 5 years ago if you told me that whiting were a willing lure taker and not just by-catch i would have laughed...but a willing lure taker on poppers??? Now that something else.

How about some stories i been hearing about some gun north coast locals bagging out on blckfish using the blades...at night i might add. These guys are actually going out there specifically targeting these fish at night on lures and doing really well. I think we are only experiencing the tip of the iceberg. As lure manufacturers improve designs and create new stuff more fish, not known as prime lure targets will start to succumb. The species on the hit list will increase and the lure fishos arsenal will resemble something of a well stocked tackle store....i know my collection already is larger than average tackle store will have in stock.

The learning process will never stop. The puzzle will always be too large to configure accurately and fish will wise up to lures in heavly fished waters(god forbid). The science will never stop and will never be exact. But in reality thats the mystique of fishing. If we knew what we would catch evertime we went out and we knew everything there was to know....where's the fun???

I dont know about you but im anxious to see whats next.

Bladed Lures

Hi All,

Just got back from a weekend away at Port Macquarie, aka, the Hastings River. It looked a remarkable piece of waterway. The structure was everywhere, from a monsterous breakwall, to bridge pylons, oyster racks, sand bars, rock bars, mangroves, canals, marinas and weedbeds just to name a few. So the million dollar question is....did i fish???? Yes i did, but not seriously. I was on a weekend away with the cheese and kisses so my available time to wet a line was seriously jeorpardised.

I managed to have a few casts but it was half-hearted. I did see some boats doing well on flatties. The locals i spoke to said they have being doing well on jewies in the river. To be honest i wouldnt expect anyting different either. The enterence is vast and deep, the food looks abundant and the river seems clean enuf. After speaking with them the lures they are killing em on are the 'new' bladed lures on the market today.

Like all lures, they are not created equal. I have been using the Ecogar VX-35's for some time now. They have been doing well on bream, EP's and bass. Fishing World mag publishd an article about melbourne fishos doing well on the blades for jew just 2 months ago. It seems momentum is gthering. The issues that face these lures seems to revolve around the minimum speed at which the lure will commence to vibrate. The Ecogear for example takes a swift up-sweep of the rod to get the lure to work. This may be fine when the fish are on the job but that's not always the case.

Newer versions have come out and perhaps improved on this design. TT launched the switchblade. I dont think this was an improvement on the Ecogear but more affordable at 12bux instead of 20bux. Then came the E.J Todd Jazz. This bladed lure was a drastic improvement in materials and thus allowed the lure to vibrated at much slower speeds and attracted fish shut down. Mooching the lures off the bottom accounted for an ABT win at Pittwater this year. The winners stayed within 500m of the ramp and worked the lures deep and slow.

Now the newer polycarbonate models have arrived. The new bushy version and Koolabung's X-Ray transparent blade. As usual Bushy's lure looks like absolute crap and looks like it wouldnt catch a cold in the middle of Tibet. There is some hype surrounding the lure...but it is funded by shimano, so the tackle giant has some clout to make sure us the fisherman think this is a shit hot lure....only time will tell.

The Koolabung lure looks the goods though. Well made, great colours and a definate improvement n the original design. It vibrates at increadibly low speeds and has a seductive wobble on the drop. This the lure Port Mac fishos are swearing by up north. Lets just wait and see if the Sydney jewies think the same thing????? Once again only time will tell.

The one thing i do know is that these lures are a MUST have, another feather to the quiver... and they are dead easy to use.

Of Dollars and Scents

Hi Fisho's... what's new in your world today??? If your anything like me, your sitting in front of your computer, bored shitless with work, and dreaming of screaming reels, hard pulling fish and monumental bust-ups... I only wish!

Today i wanna touch on a few grey areas in fishin. The topic is not a new one but still warrents some healthy debate. Is the use of scents cheating??? Is putting on an additive to lure considered ethical to notion of pure lure fishing??? Also is using scents built into lures or lures made from biodegradable material or food stuffs considered a 'real' lure????

All these questions are subject to personal opinion. 1 fisho might advocate the use of Berkley Gulps, for instance, while another might scoff at the idea of using a lure made of eadible food. One things for sure, if you don't use these lures in bream comps these days you are seriously doing yourself a major dis-service. They work particularly well on all species, even though they look like absolute shit out of the packet. And this where my point of contention lies. They look like shit, swim extremely poorly, have terrible colours....but catch a heap of fish. The Gulp formula is meant to attract fish and the fact that the lure is made of food stuffs, similar to food fed to fish in aquaculture, means the only thing attracting the fish to take the lure is its bait-like qualities. The deception is not in the anglers ability to trick the fish into believing the lure lie but rather triggering another response in fish...smell not sight.

What about lures made of plastisol??? If you apply scent to these lures do they work as well??? Is this considered cheating??? Once again in tournaments, the testing ground for a lot of our retail products,allow the use of scents in comps. In the infancy of comps the scents were quite poor and yeilded next to no benefit, maybe only angler confidence, thats about it. The scents were spray based and made of smells of garlic, prawns, aniseed etc etc.

Then came along Ultrbite a new kind of additive. This was a pheromone based scent undetectible to humans. It apparently stimulated the fish to feed. One of the main issues was when you apply the scent to the outside of plastic lures, re-application was needed quite regularly, same with the older style of scents. Some people swore by the pheromone others, like me, didnt see any increased fish catches by using it.

Now, we come to the goodies. Recently Squidgies released thier pro-range of lures. Inside each packet comes a scent t apply to the lures bought called S-Factor. Without doubt this is the best scent to date. I have noticed a drastic increase in certain fish catches and re-application is not as often due to the gooy texture of the stuff. I have noticed a big increase in jewie catches but not needed for flatties. Just depends on how the fish attack.

Apparently the main difference with S-Factor compared to other scents is that S-Factor is water soluble and fish can taste the lure from a range of 1 meter or so. The comp fishos are going crazy over the stuff and it seems every secong angler is using the stuff. Well done to squidgy for fighting back against Gulps.

While i reckon the purity of lure fishing is being lost somewhat in plastix fishing, theres no denying they are being created more deadly every season. As i said its personal preference whether you think its cheating or not, but one things for sure if you fish comps you cant do without em.

The Leading Edge

Hi All,

Time to talk about leaders...no im not talking about the men who run our countries either... but rather the business end of our tackle. More specifically leaders used for lures rather than bait...sorry bait fishos...but get with the program!

The current craze is obviously to fish with flurocarbon. It has so many advantages over mono that it makes sense to use it most of the time. Some of the advantages are;

1) Light Refraction Index - Very wanky terminology for a simple meaning. Basically fluro line has the same light refractive properties as water meaning once the line is submerged it becomes virtually invisible. The benefits are obvious especially if your using pink or green braid.

2) Abrasion Resistence - Some pundits believe mono has better abrasion resistence than fluro. In some brands this may be the case but as a whole i refute this somewhat. I reckon fluro is inheritly stiffer and harder than mono, therfore lends itself better to wear and tear.

3) Aging - Mono has a tendency to brake down over time. My early indications are fluro has a longer shelf life than mono. The colour, although virtually non-existent, doesnt bleach or degrade, or even go milky as some brands of clear mono seem to, like Maxima and Platypus.

Even though Fluro does have its advantages there are some fishing situations where Mono will out-perform Fluro. And there are some upsides to using Mono too, these are;

1) The Price - Mono is much cheaper than Fluro. For the tight arses out there mono makes commercial sense, especially 600m of Jarvis Walker for 4bux! In my opinion the best thing this super cheap line can be used for is backing...on reels that will never see the backing ever. On reels that may catch fish that might empty a spool, i use better quality line.

2) Knots - The one area that i will conceed to mono is in tying knots. The line pulls up better than fluro line. The fact that fluro line is stiffer and harder does hinder the knot tying process. More care needs to be taken to ensure the knots bed down snuggly and lay evenly. The extra stretch in mono has an elastic effect of tying snug knots that pull up even tighter under the load of a fish.


These are the built-in features and benefits of the two leader materials. In fishing situations though the use of one over the other has its place too. Lets see some examples;

1) Mono has a tendency to float. In a fishing situation where you require the light lure to hang high in the water column, such as fishing boat hulls, the mono will aid in keeping the lure bouyant. Fluro has a tendency to sink so in reverse, if you want to fish light lures a bit deeper, which would be the majority of times, Fluro aids the sinking process to get the light lure deeper, quicker.

2) Fishing with Mono leader of hard pulling fish. In situations where braid is used zero stretch in the line can mean more pulled hooks. The use of mono can put a little bit of elasticity in the system pretty much like a shock absorber. There are Fluro lines now made with a stretch factor to cater for this exact issue.

3) With poppers mono aides in keeping the popper on top of the water rather than digging in. As i suggested fluro sinks and therefore can have a negative effect on popper action.

4) 80% of my fishing revolves around deep water cast-and-retrieve. In this scenario Fluro is the way to go.

So in rounding up...there are times to use fluro and times to use mono. Understand the inherit characteristics of each and this will aid in your selection. Don't get caught up using only one type either.

Some of my current favourite lerader are;
Fluro
Sunline Basic FC - in 4-12lb
Sunline Hard Rock - all lines classes
Siglon FC - 10-20lb
Varivas Shock Leader - 20lb

Mono
Platypus Super 100 - 4lb-10lb
Penn 10X Pro Line - 6lb-30lb
Platil Universal - All line classes

Results of the 2008 Hawkesbury Classic

Hi Everyone,

So the scorecards are in, the fish have been weighed and the boats are cleaned and packed away back in the garage. The classic is over for another year. All the hype, anticipation and nervous sweat that goes into it ends in either excitement of sweet victory or the taste of hollow defeat.

In years past the taste of hollow defeat has been the subtle pill i have had to swallow. I have come close on occasions, seen my fishing partner bring home the bacon and even been cleaned up by fish that would surely have won the whole thing...but it wasnt my time.

So in 2008....yep you guessed it....it still wasnt my time. Sorry if you were expecting me to say i won. I didnt. But i did do a few things that gave me a glimmer of hope moving forward. I caught the 5th biggest jewie of the comp. Ok so thats not particularly exceptional as 4 fish weighed more but it was the only fish of substance to be caught on a soft plastic. The 4 other jewies were all caught on live bait.

So how big were the fish i hear you keep asking??? The winning jewie weighed 19.5kgs cleaned. The same angler caught the second biggest fish 15.7kgs and 3rd place weighed 13kgs. The 4th biggest weighed 11kg and my little puppy weighed 10kgs cleaned. Not a bad effort as i said, especially on 8lb braid and 20lb leader. The winners were probably using 30 or 40lb mono leader and 60 to 80lb leader...sporting??? I think not. I'd still be happy to catch one on anchor rope regardless but the light line really put my heart in my mouth.

The fish took 25mins to subdue and gave a brilliant account of itself. I orginally thought it to be better than 11kgs whole, thinking to be 13 or 14kgs...but my excitement over-rode my ability to judge and it weight alot less.

We did catch some other notable fish too. We caught a stack to flatties...probably 60odd fish in 2 days but none were real monsters...the best was 2 fish at around 2 kgs each...nowhere near big enuf to win comp. The results of the winning fish were;

1st Heaviest Fish - Jewfish 19.5kgs
2nd Heaviest Fish - Jewfish 15.7
3rd Heaviest Fish - Jewfish 13kgs
Flathead - 4.2kgs
Bream - 1.18kgs
Whiting - .450g
Jewfish - 11kgs
Biggest Other Species - 2.8kg kingfish

The low light was seeing all these 50-60cms jewies weighed in. Now all the fishos knew that the fish wasnt going to win the comp...so why keep em??? Why pilfer sooo many juvenile fish out of a system that is constantly raped by the commercial fleet??? It makes no sense...but is a typical reason why the mighty Hawkesbury River is little more than a shadow of its former self. It devoid of life and the sad reality is the noose is being pulled tighter...no managemet plan is in sight and the over-harvesting of its resources will surely be its downfall.

Next year i will not be fishing for flathead either. The winning fish is always a female...so why bother??? Keep a breeder for the possible chance of noteriety or give the system an opprtunity to re-stock. 1 breeding flathead will put over a million young into the system per year...its only a small step but one im prepared to make.

Time to cahnge to more ecological practises i think!

5 Must Know Things About Soft Plastics

In thinking why soft lures are so successful i wanted to also try and highlight what would be the 5 most important things i could teach a greenhorn in order for them to hit the ground running. Its always easier to be pointed in the right direction otherwise the journey is a slow and painful one.

So here are my 5 must things to remember about using soft plastics.

1) Be patient - It astounds me to see people flick lures for all of 5 mins only to put a dirty old pilchard back and lob it out. Not all lures work all the time. Not all fish eat all the time. Lulls in the bite is common and even the gun fishos out there weiding a lure cannot profess to catch fish all day long every time they go out fishing! What the gun fishos will do is know the habits of a fish and time their fishing with peak activities such as tide changes and low light etc. This will tilt the odds in you favour for success but even still some days are diamonds some days are stone. Stick it out, be patient and have confidence the lure your using is the right tool for the job.

Also be patient on the retrieve too. Too many newbies wind back thier lures at too brisk a rate. Aim to bounce your lure off the bottom with methodical hops and twitches. Mid water will rarely catch your chosen estuary species, except up north with speedsters like trevally and tunas.

2) Fish Light - The finesse concept is a highly publicised facet of flicking lures. The trade off is like most in fishing. Fish too heavy and get less bites or fish too light and get dusted up more often. Usually a happy medium should be reached but on the tough days light is the only way to go when fish are shut-down.

3) Use the Right Gear - I've seen fishos believe that any old glass rod is still sufficient for flicking soft plastics. I'll tell you now graphite is the only way to go. Glass rods are too soft, dont set the hooks as well, have reduced casting distance and less feel for the subtle bits that occur with lures. On the flipside graphite has the exact opposite features. It has a fast recoil rate helping set the hooks better, increased casting distance for the same reason, more sensitivity to feel bites and a stiffer tip to work the lures more accurately. mated to braid and a decent little threadline reel makes for one super sensitive integrated system ready to catch fish.

in my opinion fused gel spun is better than braid on thredlines and definately use flurocarbon leader as well. The correct knots should be employed as well (see Mondays article for the right knots)

4) Have a Reason to Fish a Spot - Dont just pull up somewhere and start chucking lures. If u wanna catch fish you gotta fish where the fish are. Use your sounder if you have one. Barring that use your knowledge of the system. Fish known fish holding locations and look for vital signs of activity.

If you cover enuf of the right kind of water, results will follow.

5) Stay Mobile - Probably the most important reason of all, keep on the move. Drift, walk, use the electric, do whatever you can to cover water. When fish are found stay with em till the bite shuts down again. The beauty of lures means you can put your lure where you want it in as many places as you want it...utilise that fact.

They would definately be my 5 must things to remember if i was re-learning to use soft plastics. While theres a heap of small details i consider important they basics must be mastered b4 any of the trick shots can be used!

November Rain

Hi People,

Just a quick blog today. Dunno if any of you have noticed but the weather patterns these days a crap. You cant bank on weather reports being correct, wind forecasts are just plain outragous and even tides are inconsistent.

Pretty much what this equates to is crap fishing conditions. Now only a few blogs ago i wrote that if you waited for the ideal conditions to go fishing you probably would never get out on the water. So in this inconsistency and ill-advice why is it that the Hawkebury Classic, always held on the first full weekend in November has rained 5 years in a row???? Sweet Jesus, give me some respite please. I only have a bass/bream boat, so no cover. Its not the ideal rig for over-nighters, especially in torrential rain. Last year we took on over 200 litres of rain water in one night.

To cut a long story short they have predicted rain again. How can it be that the only week of the year that has any consistency in weather is this one...anyway...enuf whinging!

So whats the battle plan??? I have always held the desire to beat the live baiters with lures. The Hawkesbury Classic is a gut and gill comp. All fish are weighed gutted and must be in edible condition. All the gun local jewie fisho's come out of the woodwork this time of year. Ive heard some absolute crackers being caught too in the river...some around 25kgs plus an 18kg jew caught on sp's while the rod was left in the rod holder...gotta be joking.

So this year i will be doing a combination of both live baiting and flickin sp's. I will eventually get to the point where i will only flick lures but my fishing partner is a die hard live baiter. This will change.

Anyway it starts on Friday and weigh in is 2pm sunday. I'll report the comp first thing monday morning, and highlight what techniques were supreme and how many fishos scored good fish.

New Lures Old Techniques

Fishing is a unique sport. Technology plays a huge part in the overall popularity of what's in vogue, what's considered old and what is determined a must-have. Lures are probably subject to most of this hype. Now i say hype cause thats exactly what it is. In my opinion all lures catch fish, in the right hands of course, but lures are not all created equal. Lets see what i mean...

First of all most lures that are becoming the modern go-to lures, and especially so in tournaments, are really only a rehash of an old design. Add a new rattle, some holographic colours and new packaging and 'wallah' new gun lure. This is typified by the current bladed lures on the market now e.g TT Lures Switchblades and Ecogear VX-35's... These things are the must-have in the arsenal of a bream luring fisho. The fact is they have been around since adam was a boy. Bladed lures were somewhat more 'agricultural' than what they are now. But as i suggested thats the whole premise. Get an old design and tweak it a little then market it as the latest and greatest.

What extent is this hype manufactured and what is real??? Do they really catch more fish than the lures that came previous??? My theory is that a successful lure is always a successful lure. By that i mean no lure dies in potency. It's all about ratios. If three quarters of the fishing population start to use a hyped lure most of the time the reality is they are not using another lure most of the time. Remember this point, you will catch most fish on a lure that is in the water the most time. Simple. A successful lure will never be the one gathering dust in your box. But pull that lure out and fish with it most of the time and see what happens.

Same with plastics. The sp's i was using 3 years ago will still work today. Just that since then i have acquired other gun sp's and rarely dig around to the older ones. Give a lure time to work and it will work.

These ideas do come with some conditions of course. Dont pull out a lure meant for flatties and try and catch a bream. It will eventually work but not the same as a lure designed for a certain species.

Its not all marketing though. New lures do come along. The new hybrid lures that utilise both hardbody and soft body ideas are an interesting phonomenon. Still getting my head around it all. Not convinced.

So don't get caught up in the tackle industry machine...its hard to get out, trust me i know better than most. Don't try and keep up with the Jones', who cares if high profile fishing 'experts' are raving on about this lure or that. Take it with a grain of salt. Work it out for yourself. Otherwise you just end up having a great collection of redundant lures capable of catching fish yesterday!

Soft Plastics

There's no gold medal for realising i just LOVE soft plastic fishing. It has totally revolutionised my fishing. Dont get me wrong. I fish other techniques too but none quite have the possibilities and versatility of soft lures. Take for instance the ablility to work the whole water column, re-size heads to suits current, depth, species, line class and catsing distance, or perhaps change plastic to suit all of those same conditions!!!

The versatility is astounding. This can be a drawback for a novice as knowing where to start can be a little confusing. The tackle stores dont help either. Walls are lined with so many brands, colours, sizes and patterns that sometimes for a greenhorn its easier to buy that old packet of pillies than to try and de-code the soft plastic puzzle.

All that aside, why are soft plastics so successful? A million new soft plastic anglers can't be wrong about em. They really have entrenched themselves as a must-know technique to catch fish. So why are they so deadly??? What is the catalyst? Can anyone pick up a rod and be successful???

First of all soft plastic fishing, like any other form of fishing, is subject to the current conditions. You cant catch fish that simply are not there. No use trying to catch a whiting in winter for example. It can happen but the odds are stacked against you. Knowing where to fish and what fish are available will assist in applying a gameplan. Bait fishos transitioning to softies will find the transition fairly easy i would assume. All the same priciples apply to baitfishing as plastix, fish the same gutters, structure, eddies etc. Also baitfishos will have an understanding what food fish eat. These items can be replicated using softies..

But knowing fish behaviour and diet is only part of the success. The most important aspect of why softies are so successful revolves around the method or delivery of such lures. By this i mean plastix fishing is sedentary. Its an active form of angling that requires in the most part for the angler to be active and cover a heap of water. In a given session you might cover an area 20kms long. While you wont cover all that with a fine tooth comb, you will pick out the hotspots in that area and cover those more thoroughly.

A bait fishing, apart from drifting, will anchor up somewhere and wait for the fish to pass thier boat. The use of berley can assist in drawing the fish to them, but really are subject to fish picking up the berley trail for success. The effective water they are fishing is a radius of perhaps 20m around the boat. Now you cant really compare 20m to 20kms of water coverage.

The whole premise of why plastix fishing is so successful is cause the angler hunts the fish, covers a stack of water and presents an offering close to the natural food item of the fish. Sure its not a live bait, or not even a real food item, but its all about the deception. This usually takes some getting used to. Rod manipulation is very important and will develop over time. Once fish are located, stay with em.

For the novice, just drift. Use drifting as your means to cover water and eventually you come across fish. The other benefit of drifting is that your lures are continually in the strikezone unlike cast-and-retrieve where you cast, wait for the lure to touch bottom, then commence the retrieve to the boat. While i prefer cast-and-retrieve cause its more active, and if done right can actually cover more water than drifting, it does require some ability to know where your lure is and deal with the slack line that happens on a retrieve. The biggest issue i see with novices is a lack of patience, not allowing the lure to sink to the bottom. Thus the retrieve is done mid-water, and usually no fish.

Due to being active we come across alot more fish. Our catch-rates on plastics are far exceeding those on bait. Im not trying to say lures catch more fish than bait but moving your lure, or bait for that matter, past the nose of as many fish as possible can only increase your catch rates. Sitting back and waiting for fish to come past your boat is a thing of the past. You've gotta go to the fish.

So to reiterate, be active. Its the biggest factor for success. Move around, try different spots, different depths, different structure. Find the fish and then try and deliver what the fish may want to eat. Its a simple philosophy...but sometimes alot harder to put into practise.

Fishing the Right Conditions

You hear all kinds of myths in fishing. Its one of those sports where people have thier own idea just where and when is the best time to go out and catch thier fish. The variables in fishing, but more so in the conditions relevant to fishing, make putting it all together a litteral jig saw puzzle, to use a well coined cliche. Trying to make sense of it all makes your head spin.

I liken it to horse racing. You can study all the variables like distances run, wet weather galloper, favorite tracks etc and can and over think the whole issue. Then a woman who knows nothing rocks up and selects a horse based purely on the cool name and picks the winner paying 20bux. Does you head in!

So lets look at all the variables in fishing and try to put some sense into all the mystery.

Tides
Probably the most contentious topic in all of fishing. I hear agruements all the time whether a fish bites best on the rising tide or on the falling tide. Sometimes its the slack water at the bottom of the tide or the slack at the top??? What complicates things further is that the same species can bite better on different tides in different waterways...the mind really can boggle.

Time of te tide can be dependant on the food sources available too. If your targeting bream that are feeding actively on the prawn run, an outgoing tide will be better. If your chasing bream feeding on crabs, then a big high tide will give the bream access to new water anavailable at low tide. Either can be targeted to good effect. So perhaps knowing what the bait movements are can help decide what part of the tide you need to fish.

There are however some traits on fish that can give a relative idea about where fish will be and when they'll bite best. use flathead as an example, you can bank on em feeding more aggresively when the tide runs out. As an ambush predator they use the outgoing tide to thier advantage. As flats drain all baitfish HAVE to exit the flat...in comes the flathead. As i said though, its not always the case. Some of my hottest flatty bites hve been on the incoming tide. It pays to be reactive to the situation at hand.

Low Light
Some people put stock into the low light periods of the day; either sunrise or sunset. The theory being predatory fish hunt more actively on the dark than at full light. Also the baitfish seem to be less flighty at low light too, so they can be hunted better. This can be true for Jewies who's massive pink eye is suited to seeing in low light. But dont fall into the trap of thinking jews can only be caught at night. Daytime is my preferred time.On the flats or in shallow water low light can be a blessing too as fish will cease to be timid.

The drawback with low light is it doesnt hang around long enuf. If you based your fishing purely on this you would fish 3 hours in a day! Sure its beneficial to fish sunrise but its the starting point of the day. fish caught at this time can set the tone for the day.

Moon Phase
this can go hand in hand with low light at times. The moon phase is another hotly contested fishing variable. Some old salts swear by the 3 days leading into the new or full moon and the 3 days after as the prime time to chase Jew. I've heard that the actual day of the full moon is very poor though...too much light??? Who knows. Fact is the lunar cycle definately has an effect. That's about as much as i can relate. Once again i've caught fish thoughout the lunar cycle so no time for me seems to be obviously better.

It's more likey the effect the moon has on the tides than the moon itself. The moon does produce light though, so the theory of low light does have merit too.

Barometer
This one can confuse me at times. Bass fishos will swear by a rising barometer over 1015 (i think)and if it falls under 1010 they wont bother going out for a fish. Other theorys ive heard say a falling barometer is better for fishing, especially after a thunderstorm. I can certainly agree that some our best days fishing have been in the build up of a storm, which indicates a rising barometer. Some days killer days have come preceding a storm and a get a few days consistent rain. This indicates a fallen barometer then a levelling out, perhaps at, say, 1000.

So no categorical evidence there to suggest you should live and die by the barometer too.

Seasons
Perhaps the only thing you can probably bank on is time of year. although global warming is having its effect. For example the annual summer whiting run, which typically started in Nov every year now commences in Feb. The transitional months of autumn and spring seem to be the best producers of fish numbers, most prob due to change over of species. The winter fish are moving in while the summer fish are moving out. The demarcation is not sudden so autumn and spring allows you to catch good mixed bags.

In a nutshell, dont bank on anything. If you live and die by any condition you may as well not go out. Any time is good time to catch a fish. Only requisite is you need to have your line in the water!

Shimano V's Daiwa

Ahhh the great debate.
The old Ford V's Holden argument. While this is purely based on personal preferences i do however think there are some facets that can either tilt the odds one way or the other...all depends how you view fishing.

With all things the margin for improvement is minimal when you consider how good fishing reels are by todays standards as compared to the ugly wobbles of 20 years ago. In the upper range of both Daiwa and Shimano the cost of reels rises significantly as extra corrosion-resistant ball bearings are added, new composite matrials are used, and new technologies are introduced. much of this is out of the league of most anglers budgets, and to a certain extent, would be pretty much lost on the average punter anyway.

take for instance a fisho whose new to lure fishing, would he recogise the benefits of having a reels with aero wrap II or a over-sized tubular bail arm which allows easier line pick up which feeds onto the roller bearing more efficiently??? Probably not. I would go so far as to say even an experienced angler will have problems determining the benefits of these features, especially in liu of the price tackle companies ask for these features.

For some paying upwards of 800bux for a spinning reel capable of catching snapper and kingfish sounds a little obscure. Some people even pay as much purely for catching bream. To non-fishos this will sound a little crazy. Sounds crazy to me too...but i still pay the bux anyway.

So which is the best reel??? The answer is not and basic as the question sounds. I will outline my observations here and hopefully steer some of you in the right direction. To preface this, i am in no way affliated to any tackle company and actively buy both Daiwa and shimano. I havent figured this out for myself yet.

1) Smoothness - Straight out the box i feel that Daiwa is a smoother reel. The Digigear technology is superb and feels quite robust. The reel handle is a one-touch design and takes next to no inertia to wind from start-up. The gears are well meshed and designed to be strong which usually has the effect of making gears cluncky.

Shimano make a smooth reel too, but only the reels manufactured out of Japan. The new designed reels out of Malaysia are not my favs.

2) Wear and Tear - an interesting point. There are a few reels i am currently running up against each other to gauge certain aspects, one of them is longevity. Early indications are Shimano have a better wear factor. I base this purely on the bearing wear and tear. Shimano have sheilded bearings in the handle as opposed to daiwa's unsheilded. If your reels are susceptible to salt spray...as mine are with a low-sided boat... the daiwa's loose thier inital smoothness quicker than shimano. things like good maintenance will prolong this but a simple baring swap will sort this straight out.

Wear and tear on gears is no issue as both rate very well here.

3) Functionality - Up until shimano re-designeed thier spool lip daiwa killed them in cast ability. Shimano were notorious for wind-knots, especially in the 1000 size. They have sorted this out somewhat now with the new FD stella's. Daiwa also seems to lay the line better, especially under minimal tension, as most retrieves do using plastix. loose loops are a downside with all light lure fishing but daiwa seem to show less hassles here.

4) Warranty - A huge factor these days. If you have to re-mortgage your haouse to afford a new reel, you want to be sure the company will fix it if something goes wrong. I have had the misfortune to send reels back to both suppliers. Here shimano rules the roost. The warranty is hassle free and completed in quick time. Daiwa on nthe other hand is a diff ball game. I sent a reel back in warranty period with worn bearings (see wear and tear)and they tried to charge an arm and a leg for repair. Now i understand bearings are a perishable part but geez, 4 months to wear out a set is a little excessive in my book.

So there you go. Just 4 quick points to consider before buying a product. Daiwa are smoother out of the box but wear quicker, whereas shimano are not as smooth out of the box but last longer. I still havent figured out what suits me yet. I just can't seem to go past that initail smoothness daiwa has, but shimano will always give value for money. That's probably why i seea need for both types.

For your reference i am testing a few reels against each other currently;

Daiwa Certate V's Shimano Sustain
Daiwa Exist V's Shimano Stella FD/ Shimano Aspire
Daiwa Luvias V's Shimano Stella FB

Next test;

Daiwa Zillion V's Shimano Chronarch

Stickbaits

Just in case you've been living under a rock and havent dialled in on the revolution that is 'soft plastics' then this blog won't help much.... but for those of you that understand at least the basics of plastix and the difference between the type of plastix that are available you might actually get something out of this...

Stickbaits, jerk minnows, jerk baits... call them what you will, and usually that will be a name inherited from our yankee mates, these lures are without doubt THE most deadly soft lures you can use.

My assuption on this revolves around attack triggers in fish. Fish have in-built or natural instincts. For most species a natural instinct is predation. Fish must eat but in the process if this can be achieved with minimum fuss the better. So if a fish can sense another fish injured or dying, the natural instinct is to snaffle that fish, which renders itself an easy meal...

The stickbait mimics a wounded or dying bait fish superbly. In fact i would go so far as to say it does that better than any other lure i know. What's interesting is that the lure in itself has no built in action whatsoever. Its basically a long streamlined piece of plastic, unlike fish or worm profile lures that have tails that swim or flutter when the lure is worked.

Where the stickbait gains its movement is in the jighead. Usually jigheads used for stickbaits are angular or shaped heads that resemble a bullet. If you've ever watched a James Bond movie and seen baddies shooting bullets into the water. You would have noticed the effect water has on the trajectory of the bullet. It basically maked the bullet deviate violently as the water catches the shaped edge of the bullet. same premise with the jighead. When twitched, and sometimes violently, the jighead darts off in erratic fashion. The lure and jighead combo then has the effect of mimicing a wounded fish....which basically does the exact same thing when its dyaing or wounded.

Unlike other plastix with in-built action, which require little imput from the fisho to work, the stickbait requires a good deal of imput from the angler. Its truely a matter of deception, and really, isn't that what using lures is all about.

Working the lure is at the discretion of the fisho. My old man tweaks the lure gently where i probably am a little more violent. You can do 1, 2 or 3 up-sweeps of the rod, side- sweeps, downward sweeps...really the only limit is your imagination.

Also these days i wipe S-Factor all over my lures. The scent is actually water soluable and fish can taste the lure without even having it in thier mouth..im told from a range of up to 1 meter??? Cool stuff.

So there you have it. The 101 on stickbaits. There's still a heap i havent covered but the fun is getting out there and learning something for yourself.

Baitcaster V's Eggbeater

Hi All,

Once again i had this little question rear up in coversation. Some fishos advocate baitcasters some advocate spin reels. So which is a better fishing tool????

I'll try and give you my synopsis on the subject but im no means an expert on baitcasters. I do however use them when i feel its going to do a better job than a spin reel. So when when is this the case????

Fishos up north in the tropics live and die by thier baitcasters and probably use them for more purposes than i do. I was born and bred on spin reels and as such feel more natural in my hands. Usually i will use a baitcaster though in these scenarios.

a) Fishing for bass with diving lures or moderatly sized top water lures - I find that i need a minimum of 7grams to effectively cast a baitcaster. There are some gun casters out there that can flick feather weight lures on baitcasters but i aint one of them. I get too many backlashes, or better known as a birdsnest.

b) Flicking lures for Jewies - I tend to use baitcasters here with lure weights over 3/8thoz jigheads. If you've spend hours on end for days on end flickin heavy jigheads with big plastix on 7 foot rods you will know how the wrist and elbow feels after the punishment. Using a shoter rod, which is typical of a baitcast rod will allow better leverage and assist in jerking the lure with minimal angler imput.

This can also be the case for big flatties as well. If your chasing crocs in deep tidal water then the heavy lead you need will also neccessitate the use of a shorter rod.

c) Flickin lures up north for Barra - Pretty much the mainstay of baitcasters here in OZ anyway. This needs no explaination so i will just say that if you used a spin reel to throw around a few gold bombers up north you might raise a few eyebrows...its an elistist thing, as baitcasters or more so fishos that use them have a perception that using a baitcaster requires more skill.

To some extent this may be so. A baitcaster requires more skill initially to cast well without birdsnests but still has some flaws of thier own...

Some of these are;

a) Difficult to cast light weights - especially into the wind. This can be a real pain in the arse. Spin reels are far superior in this dept. and in the right hands can weild spin equipment with frightening accuracy.

b) Not friendly to beginers - As mentioned, they turn off southern anglers who have grown up using spin reels as first choice. They can seem a little foreign and take some getting used to to cast well.

C) Cast distance - Contrary to belief baitcasters, in general, lack cast distance. Now i say this with some hesitation as most distance casting champs use overheads in comps. But lets face it, how many grass roots fishos are able to cast a reel like a distance casting competitor. Its a bullshit comp that proves very little, and in no way indicative of actual fishing scenarios.

Spin rods are usually longer and the ease of use with spin reels means the average angler can make longer casts and fish further from the boat etc. You cover more ground this way too, which usually means more fish.


While there may be a heap of other arguments, these are the ones that are most prominent with me. Is one better than the other??? I dont think so. Each system is just another tool for the toolbox. I try to use whatever tools are best for the job and each fisho will have his or her intepretation of what the best tool is.

My only advice is to experiment. I go thru phases as well, so what i use for a particular application today might not be the tools i use for it next month. Its just a matter of fine tuning and basically how you feel on the day.

Good luck. Hope this helps clear the air a little on the subject.

2008 Hawkesbury Classic

Hi Guys,

Just dropping a quick note today to chat about the 2008 Hawkesbury Classic. I enetr this tournament/competition every year and ahve been bridesmaid too many times to mention.

I have missed out on the podium by a couple hundred grams a few times and it just might be the year im promoted from bridesmaid to bride. I fish the comp with my uncle Andy, a prolific jew catcher in the local waterway. But this hasnt meant a podium finish, far from it. While we catch our fair share of jewies in the Hawkesbury it just doenst seem to happen on the first weekend in November. Bugger!

The comp is an all species gut and gill comp, which i have a slight issue with. In this age of ecologically friendly practices surely they can devise a system where fish are photographed and released instead of donked on the back of the head and dispatched. This is especially so for flathead where the bigger specimens are breeders. Makes no sense really.

The comp has different sectors, a heaviest fish section, then heaviest species section, bream, flathead, whiting and jew. Usually the heaviest fish is a jewfish but any fish other than sharks and rays can qualify.

So the gameplan is to fish live baits at night for jewies and during the day flick big 6 & 7" plastix around for either jew or flatties. That was the plan last year and we nearly done it. Hope this year the gods are smiling on us!

I'll keep you posted on the results.

Mulloway on the Central Coast

Hi People...

So here it is, the fishing report from the weekend. I dangled the carrot about the mind blowing action we witnesses over the last weekend past and i see no reason why this is likely to stop anytime in the immediate future...

Friday 10th October

I was feeling a little under the weather on friday so i decided the best remedy was a bout of sun. Where better to get vitamin C than on a boat. We hit Brisbane Waters pretty early with the last of the run-in tide. The first half hour produced little but as happens, someone flicked on the switch.

Initially we were hooking undesirables, rock cod, black spot estuary cod, undersize snapper, jackets etc but soon a few tastier fish came over the side of the boat. My mate hit a good 70cm flatty and rightly released the girl to go on her maternal way. Shorty after i had the tel-tale tap tap of a jew. It amazes me every time i catch one on plastix how timid the take is...

Sure enuf an hour later and the tide starting to get into a decent run-out we had 3 jewies in the boat. We also missed 2 other amnd pulled the hooks on a further 2 fish so the tally could have been much higher.

Once the tide became unfishable we retreated to shallow water and hit some table sized flatties before calling it a day. In the end we hooked 12 different species for the day. The best multi-species day we have has so far on plastix. The list included, Jew, Flathead, Snapper, Tailor, Rock Cod, Black Spot Cod, Jackets, Squid, Trumpeter, Flounder, Puffer and bream...Notable captures were 2 70cm flatties and 2 65cm flatties. The jew ranged from 2-5kgs.

Plastix of choice were 6" Atomic Jerk Minnows in either glow white or green watermelon/gold belly. I love these lures and attract tiddlers to monsters. I ran these on 5/8th oz nitro jigheads in depths of 30-100ft of water.

Saturday 11th October

On saturday we visited Brisbane Waters again...and again the jewies were on the bite. We repeated our friday effort and snarred another 3 fish. All fell in 60ft of water. Same lures did the damage again. The atomics are currently my favs but really have been for a long time now.

Other notable captures on sat were an 80cm flatty and a bumper whiting ona 3" stickbait.
The jew ranged from 1-4kgs. Not large but good catches on light gear.

Delivery System for Big Bream

Hi Dudes,

This is the last installment for my big dirty bream in deep water blog. We have looked at how to target em, on what lures to do it and what techniques are favourable.... Now we will look at the delivery system...

By this i mean how do i present my lures for maximum benefit? Simply drifting is the prime method. Working light finesse lures in deep water takes a heap of patience. Waiting for lures to sink the desired depth will effectively waste a heap of fishing time in a given session. Im all about having my lures in the strike zone for as long as possible. Makes sense really. No good having your lure where the fish aint.

Drifting will allow you to cover ground without the need to fan your casts around. Watch out though as too much drift and your lures will raise out of the strikezone. Too slow a drift and you wont cover any ground at all.

Another factor to consider is placing your lure in fishy water. What i mean here is look for healthy markings on the sounder before you deploy your lures. No good just pulling up somewhere and hoping for the best. This may work and at times is a good way to go for a search and destroy mission but i woundnt advise it for consistent success.

For full details and pics keep an eye out for Fishing World Mag early next year. The article will detail this technique in greater detail than i can here.

Tomorrow...the weekends Jewie onslaught...remember 6 jewies in 2 days...dont miss out!

Techniques for Big Bream

Hi All,

Sorry for the two day delay but i have been out doing what i do best...no prizes for guessing what either.

First up i will finish off my techniques for deep water bream. It really has been a true revelation in bream luring so make sure you give it a go. Later in the week i will wrap it up with a quick report on my weekend. This will surely whet the appetite for a mid-week sickie. 6 jewies in two sessions....log in for this one.

Techniques for 'Deep Water Bream'

As i discussed, long streamlined lures are beneficial to deep water applications. The assumption is that the fish are foraging in the deep so lures that mimic food sources that are found right on the bottom will appeal to the bream better. So in comes the lures that can mimic a worm. They are a prey item that lives right on the bottom and when worked correctly are almost irresistable to breambos.

The whole premise here is to mimic a worm as suggested. So work your lures with minimal movement. I mean slow it down guys. You actually cannot work the lure too slow. Once you feel like you've slowed it up....then slow it up some more. The long profile of the lures will actually flutter in the current without any rod manipulation from the angler. So in essence the lures is working for you without doing too much. Its basically one step up from the 'do-nothing' retrieve. So lets call it the 'do-sfa' retrieve. This is a family program so i wont elaborate on 'sfa' if you dont already know the meaning.

So now you get the idea to work the worm imitation slow, you know to look for water over 30ft, the next step is how to get the best out of the technique...Unfortunately you need to log in tomorrow for that....

Big Bream on Soft Plastics

Hi All,

Been sussin out some new bream fishin techniques lately. Thought it might be a good time to share a few thoughts and findings with you all.

As some of you may or may not know i write for Fishing World magazine. I have a article coming up early next year on fishing for bream in deep water. So while i will divulge a few secrets i won't give too much away and give you all no reason to buy the magazine. After all i need you guys to buy the mag and keep me in a job:)

I have been working on some new techniques that target bream in deep water. By deep i mean water over 30ft. Yes, 30ft! This wouldnt come as a surprise to bait fishos that regularly target breambos in water substantially deeper than this. Its just in our current fad to fish light jigheads and finesse softies or tiny pint sized hard bodies we are targeting water at times no deeper than your knees.

Savvy tournament anglers are now unlocking a 'new' fishery in open water that sees substantially less fishing pressure than the fringes of an estuary in which fish have had every lure thrown at them imaginable. In a quest for tournament succesxs invariably the cunning successful anglers are trying new tactics to unlock a few jaws.

In comes the deep water tactics. In essence the technique is a simple iteration of standard bream techniques currently in use. Where things change a little is the type of presentations used. Typically a standard bream softy is 2 or 3" in length. For deep water action longer more streamlined lures are preferable. Look to plastics in the 4 to 6" range. Some examples are Berkley 6" Sandworms and Berkley 4" fry....

Log in tomorrow for how to use these lures in the deep stuff.

Do Fish See Colour??? - Part 2

Hi All,

Here is part 2 of 'can fish see colour?'. I hopoe the first part was a help in understanding how fish interpret colour and maybe the colour of a lure may not be as important as we might think. So without further ado. Here is the second part.

Do Fish See Colour?

Part 2

It is important to understand that you are encased in the light from the sun, passing though the atmosphere and falling on the land and the surface of the sea. When you look up at the sky, on a clear day the sky, or rather the atmosphere is blue, and that indicates that our atmosphere is, like oceanic water, a blue filter. The light that falls on the ocean is filtered by the Ozone layer and the atmosphere over many kilometres, filtering and attenuating the various light wavelengths until the predominant colour is blue.

The atmosphere also collects and holds water vapour in the form of clouds, which are really just water droplets which refract the coloured photons, like little prisms, and produce white light. So the clouds are white. Often the water droplets are large, and absorb the light photons and the greater the absorption the darker the colour, ie storm and rain clouds. The darker the clouds the greater the light attenuation and the lesser the amount of light which falls onto the ocean surface. But looking down on the clouds, regardless of the type, the colour is white.

The Atmosphere
Those things that affect you, the night/day cycle, the seasonal changes, the variations in the weather conditions, winds, storms, rain whatever, all affect the passage of light into the oceans, rivers and lakes. The fish, their vision and their day to day activities are affected by the same things that affect us.
In the rivers there are variations relating to bank vegetation, which is varied by sun angle, seasonal growth, wind movement etc. If you understand that, and can modify your fishing to accommodate these changes you are more than halfway there.

Light is modified as it passes through the atmosphere depending on latitude, time of day or sun angle, and cloud cover all of which produce large variations in the amount of light that falls on the surface of the sea. Rain causes surface distortion and wind causes surface waves which move in relation to the direction and force of the wind.
These things also affect our visual distance but, in reality, the only thing that drastically reduces visual distance for humans is thick fog or smoke, which puts a heavy particle content into the atmosphere.

Light Penetration
High level surface activity, strong swells and breaking waves introduce great amounts of bubbles near the surface, which further decrease the amount of light transmission into the water, as well as creating very strong grating light. All of these things effect the transmission of light from the atmosphere into the water column.
There will be surface reflection which will vary from 2% for vertical incident light, noon, to 100% for light striking the surface at the critical angle for a smooth surface, i.e. sunset and dawn, and will also be effected by surface conditions and irregularities.

As well as these effects the light varies with the seasons, as the sun angle moves from the north to the south over time. This varies the transmission angle and the spectral illumination. The effects of illumination change due to seasonal effects is also affected by the location, ie the actual latitude and longitude of the specific locations.

Snell's Window
Directly above the fish, as it looks up and swims around in that area close to the surface, is a bright spot of light called Snell's window. This spot covers an area, a cone, of about 97 degrees, relative to the fishes eye.
It is a result of the refraction of light passing through the water surface. If varies in size, brightness and shape depending on the depth of the fish in the water column, light intensity and the position of the sun and is visible not only to fishes but also to divers looking up at the water surface.

The edges of Snell's window are clearly defined and outside the area of the window the surface appears to be a mirror. Photons arriving from deeper water at angles greater than 48.5 degrees are totally reflected back into the water column creating a mirror effect.

Any object, regardless of its colour, a lure, a small fish whatever, which is on the surface in the bright Snell's Window light, will appear to a viewing fish looking up, as dark, or high contrast. Basically a body illuminated from above and viewed from underneath will appear dark, or black.
The underside of lures, or fishes, is not illuminated by light from above, it is in shadow and is viewed against that very bright circle of light. That makes it appear black.

This is what causes baitfish to hide under boats. The boat represents a very large black blob, and the bait fish a smaller black blob. A small blob under a large blob means the small blob can actually disappear. It is also the reason for baitfish balling up, they present a large dark blob to pelagic predators, such as Tuna, mahimahi, marlins and mackerels, which are blue/green dichromats, and red colour limited. There are no individuals just a large black blob, which may itself, disappear inside a bigger black blob presented by a boat hull.

Banded Light
Light passing through the surface appears to be transmitted in beams, some lighter and some darker and this can cause objects to appear banded. This is modified by sea state because wave action causes a flicker effect underwater. Surface waves focus sunlight at different depths and causes illuminated objects to flicker. The rate depends on wave height and frequency. These grating effects are very visible underwater and become obvious when one observes underwater film footage and the effect is well known to divers and underwater photographers.
Added to this is the fact that the refractive index of air is one, and the refractive index or water is 1.6, and the sea water is 800 times denser than air. The variation in refractive index means that while fishes see things in the correct perspective, since their eye has a refractive index of 1.6, humans, with an eye refractive index of 1.0, in the water, see objects as 30% larger.

At the same time, fishes, refractive index 1.6, looking out through that bright Snell's Window hole into the atmosphere, with a refractive index of 1.0 see the reverse effect. If they see anything at all, because what they do see is moderated by the surface conditions, and the outside hemisphere, of 176 degrees is condensed into the small circle on the surface. The only time the fishes vision could be as clear as a bell, is if the sea surface was as flat as a large pane of glass. This is not an every day situation.

Common sense tells us that if the water surface, fresh or salt water, is ruffled or disturbed by wind, rain or waves the picture would not be clear or coherent.

During the time of full daylight through twilight and sunset the brightness of light changes by a factor of one million, and through the period from sunset to dark, light is further reduced by a factor of one hundred. This effect is also apparent in the ocean.

Water Purity
Passage of light through water is effected by the water itself, chlorophyll, breakdown products of plants known as Gelbstoff, other organic matter such as plankton, and the sea state, since wave action, height and frequency can effect the available light.

Photons striking particles and water molecules are reflected and scattered randomly, and light becomes diffused underwater. The effect of these things provides a wide variation on light transmission and spectral irradiance at different depths.

When light photons are scattered they travel further through the water to reach a given point. As a result of this random scattering and filtering every direction, or line of sight, is a source of photons so the water appears to be coloured in all directions.

Space Light
This is referred to as background "space light" and it varies with the line of sight direction. It also varies with the particle content, which determines water colour and filter frequency which effects the background space light colour.
Fish must detect objects, food, against a background space light that has a relatively constant colour along any particular line of sight. Therefore, considering the fishes optical system the appearance of objects can change in contrast depending on the line of sight, whether it is vertical, horizontal or at some other angle.

Under the water surface things are entirely different from our gaseous atmosphere. The fishes live in salt and fresh water which can be clear, filled with organic particles or almost mud. These conditions cause varying degrees of light transmission or illumination attenuation, and varying degrees of frequency attenuation relating to depth.

Violet and Indigo are heavily attenuated as is orange and red. That in itself is important for, while anglers understand that red light is heavily attenuated they are generally unaware that indigo and violet are attenuated equally as heavily.

Colour and Illumination
The water appears to be blue with a maximum frequency of 470nm and illumination exceeds 400 metres. In these waters, at 60 metres, spectral irradiance is only 5% of the available surface light.

In water that has green organic matter, or other particles, such as coastal oceanic and fresh water dams the frequency attenuation is different and the maximum transmission shifts from blue to green/yellow with a frequency maximum of 520 nm.

The water colour appears to be green and the maximum illumination shifts from 400 metres to 150 metres depth. Spectral irradiance is 5% of surface illumination at 20 metres.

In dark or brown water light is greatly attenuated and the colour range shifts to the red and infrared with frequency maximum of 680nm.

Most colours, violet/indigo/blue/green/yellow are heavily attenuated. Illumination is limited to a depth of 5 metres. The spectral irradiance 5% level of available light occurs at 1.5 metres.

In general, in clear oceanic water, of the total light that arrives from a clear sky at noon only 45% remains at 1 metre depth, 15% remains at 10 metres of depth and 1% remains at 100 metres. Ultra violet and infrared light is heavily attenuated at 1 metres and red and orange light are absent at 10 metres.

The colour of the water surface, as we see it, is the reflection of light photons of that colour and is a pointer to the underwater conditions i.e. the colour attenuation and light transmission in that particular body of water.

Because colour vision depends on high illumination and the spectral irradiance varies depending on water colour, or particle content, the cut off point for the illumination level, or threshold, for acceptable colour vision must vary with the particle content. In some areas because of the water colour and minimum levels of illumination the fishes colour vision may not be a viable option.

Polarisation
The light underwater is generally polarised and is the reason that anglers can see underwater objects with greater efficiency when using Polaroid glasses. Sensitivity to underwater polarisation could provide oceanic pelagic fishes with migratory information relating to sun angle and attitude. This could enhance their ability to navigate in an environment without significant landmarks.

For a fish with polarisation sensitivity the relationship between time of day and sun angle could provide high visual acuity with increased contrast which could determine feeding times. This could relate to the solunar tables used by anglers to indicate times of peak activity.

Fishes are different from humans in that they never stop growing, and as they grow the eye becomes bigger and the retinal packing density increases, which means that the vision becomes more acute. It also means that the fishes can repair injuries to the eye.

Some fishes, because of their specialised feeding habits have different visual acuity in different areas. Fishes which feed off organisms which attach themselves to rocks, like barnacles, oysters etc, would need to have very acute close up binocular vision, more so that a very long range acute horizontal vision.

Trevally on the other hand need to have acute horizontal vision as well as binocular vision, because of the feeding habits of that species. These variations are categorised by the different areas of increased retinal density of the eyes of different species.

Lure Visibility
The light photon reflection theory effects lure colours underwater, particularly deep diving lures or jigging lures. The deeper the lure below the surface the lower the photon density and the lower the reflective effect.

The lighter and brighter the lure the greater the number of reflected photons and the standard white reflects all light photons and black absorbs all light photon theory applies but directly in relation to the spectral illumination. In other words lures are as bright as the underwater illumination allows.

The visibility of lures is totally dependant on water colour and presentation depth, which is related to particle content, which effects the numbers of photons striking the lure which effects photon reflection which directly effects the visual distance.

Everything affects the fishes vision. The atmospheric conditions at the time, the amount of particle content, the greener the water and these effects change from minute to minute as the atmospheric conditions change.

All of which means that the effective range of a fishes vision can vary quite drastically as it swims around the ocean, as it gets deeper in the water column, as the particle content increases, the water gets dirtier, or as the surface conditions vary and surface bubble content increases.

Nothing is static in the ocean; these things change rapidly and often. But the fish is not insensitive to these changes in illumination and it can, and does, regulate its depth to maintain eye comfort, that is to keep the illumination level in the comfort zone.

Vision Specific
This can be a barramundi in tropical creek water, where the surface illumination is low because of particle content and the fish is operating in grey scale mode. Under these circumstances the fishes will be at a comfort zone depth, where they are most comfortable. Under these circumstances colour is irrelevant, since the fish is not going to see colour.
The facts are that you live in atmosphere, the air around us, the fishes live in water, a totally different medium, with totally different characteristics. The underwater illumination is directly effected by the atmospheric conditions, and also by the underwater characteristics. Our eyes are geared to our conditions, the fishes eyes to their situation.
There is but one human species, and 25,000 species of fishes. We have a single visual system; the fishes have many visual systems, depending on their lifestyle, their habitat in the water body they live in, the depth, their food source etc. We are not fishes, and we need to understand the vast differences between our habitat and the habitat of the fishes. Without that understanding we are just guessing, and sadly, most of our guesses are wrong.

These articles on "Colour in the Fishes Eye" are a very brief part of the story, a mere smattering of bits of information out of a subject that needs, to get a complete picture, a lot of research.

Science and the Mumbo Jumbo
Fishermen generally do not know enough about this subject; they seem to regard science as mumbo jumbo. Some do not even know that this research has been going on continually for many years. But it is a solid fact that the so called "Mumbo Jumbo" got man fishing with some very sophisticated tackle and lines. It was not done by observation, although observation may help in its usage.

Observation can be helpful, providing you understand what you are observing, particularly in regards to the water colour confronting you, and your fishing will improve, because you will know what the fish is going to see of your offering. How far it might see the fly or lure, and whether it can see things in colour or not.

Sitting in front of someone lecturing on the subject, is not a sure guarantee that what you are hearing is worth listening to. What is a sure guarantee is to do your own research, find out "de trute" rather than "de furfy".

Over the past few years Dr Julia Shand PhD of the WA University Zoology Dept has been researching the visual systems of West Australian black bream, with particular reference to Swan River black bream, from the time of spawning to adulthood. Bet there is some surprises in that paper, especially for adherents to the "mumbo jumbo" theory.

You could try the following. From your local University Library.
Scientific American Vol 246 1982 "Colour Vision in Fishes" by Joseph S Levine and Edward F. MacNichol, Jnr."Light and Life in the Sea" 1990. Ed's P.J.Herring, A.K.Campbell, M. Whitfield, C.L.Maddock. Cambridge University Press with particular reference to Chapter 10 of that work, "The Colour Sensitivity and Vision of Fishes" by J.C Partridge."The ecology of the visual pigments of snappers (Lutjanidea) on the Great Barrier Reef", J. N.Lythgoe, W.R.A. Muntz, J.C. Partridge, J. Shand, D. McB. Williams."Adaptative Mechanics in the Ecology of Vision" Kluwer Achademic Publications Netherlands."Specialisations of the telost visual system: adaptive diversity from shallow-water to deep sea". Shaun P Collin 1997. From "The Visual System of Fish" Ed Douglas & Djamgoz 1990 Chapman & Hall London.