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.