StreakZin’ BreamMixing up MinnowZGrubZin’ NoosaBETS 2013Kinchant BarraFlathead on Blades

StreakZ Breamin’By Cameron Cronin

At almost four inches in length, you could be excused for saying that theZMan 3.75” StreakZ isn’t exactly your typical bream lure. In fact, until veryrecently, I have also been guilty of thinking the same. While I have spentcountless hours using this lure for larger, more aggressive species, theStreakZ have sat patiently in my tackle box while I targeted bream, there“just in case the pelagics show up”.

So the question begs, how did this lure go from something I would “maybe”tie on, to a lure worth writing an entire article about? Read on to find out…It was April last year and after a great session on the bream. A large shoalof whitebait, sheltering near the pylons at our feet, was discovered by apack of hungry pelagics. Fortunately, the predators didn’t seem too keen toswim underneath the dock, preferring to use lightning quick bursts of speedto dart in and pick off the hapless baitfish one at a time. This gave me afew moments to hastily rig up my favourite Shiner coloured StreakZ on a1/4oz jighead with a larger (3/0) hook, that was promptly launched into theflurry.

Cameron with anice bream on a3.75” StreakZ inShiner.

After landing a few bonito and tailor, I was burning the lure through the massof baitfish when the StreakZ was stopped dead in its tracks, presumably byanother tailor or bonito. You can imagine my surprise when I saw that the fishwas in fact a decent bream that had chased my lure down, at almost maxspeed and managed to eat the StreakZ rigged on a 3/0 jighead!

After a few quick photos the fish was released and as the pelagic actionbegan to heat up I would have probably forgotten about my ‘freak’ capture ifit wasn’t for a string of big bream smashing the StreakZ. This in locationswhere I could rarely tempt even a small fish on my usual presentations. Atthis stage the switch flipped and I realised I could be onto something, so Imentally flagged the StreakZ as a potential big bream lure to try another dayand continued on fishing.

It took a few months for me to get around to it, but after a painfully slowsession in the same location, I decided I had nothing to lose and tied on thesame Shiner coloured StreakZ. This time I rigged it on a far ‘breamier’jighead, a TT tournament series 1/20oz with a 1/0 hook. The result wasinstantaneous and in a few casts I had a small bream flipping about on thedock. Despite being barely legal, the bream had not only taken the lure, butmanaged to completely inhale the entire presentation. After carefullyremoving the lure, I began to walk back to my bus stop, firing casts intoareas I had worked with other lures earlier on… hoping for a result on mynew presentation.

If the bream are feedingon baitfish, give theStreakZ a run.

By the time I had reached my stop the StreakZ had surprised meyet again. I was 6 bream up, from an area that I couldn’t even pulla single fish from before and although most were small, manyhad managed to inhale the plastic like my first fish had, indicatingtheir fondness for the lure. It was a long bus trip home in peakhour traffic but the time flew by as mind started to piece togetherthe technique that has since become one of my go-to methods oftargeting bream.

Fish on!

Since I started using the StreakZ on bream, I have trialled it in allof my local systems, while fishing a large variety of differentenvironments, including sand flats, mangroves, marinas, rockwalls and of course the docks where the events I just describedtook place. What has surprised me is that although the bream inall these places all behave very differently, they have all been justas keen to nail a well presented StreakZ. For those of youinterested in giving the StreakZ a go, the technique is veryflexible, although I will outline how I like to fish this cool littleplastic.

The great thing about the StreakZis that because of its super softand flexible ElaZtechconstruction, the lure will simplyfold away when hit by a bream,resulting in a great hook up rate.Because of this I tend to rig thislure on fairly small (size 1 - 1/0)TT Lures HWS (Hidden WeightSystem) jigheads, which seems tobe the best size for the bream’srelatively small mouth. Althoughnormal jig heads work well, theslow, horizontal sink of a HiddenWeight jighead is hard to beat, notto mention the great skip castingcapabilities of this jighead / lurecombo. If you’re struggling to geta lure into a tight space, this is theone to try!

Although there are no restrictionson retrieves, there is one specificaction I use on the StreakZ thatthe bream seem to really like.When fishing the StreakZ forbream hanging high in the watercolumn or in shallow water, I liketo use a retrieve that I like to call‘slapping the slack’. To do this,make a cast and allow the lure tosink to the desired depth, whileallowing the line to stay semi-slack as the lure sinks. After this,begin a series of small but sharptwitches with the rod tip, but donot wind the reel as you do so. Bydoing this you are effectively‘slapping’ the slack line andcausing the lure to erratically dartfrom side to side over a very shortdistance.

Shiner & Watermelon Red are acouple of Cameron’s favourite’s.

For this retrieve I love using the shiner colour (although most have beensuccessful), as the twitches cause the lures pale underbelly to catch thelight and ‘shine’ (hence the name), triggering aggressive strikes fromotherwise shutdown bream. I have also employed this technique onbream in deeper water, using slightly heavier jigheads and although itdoes take some patience, to allow the lure to sink down, the rewards canbe very sweet.

Ever since I have added the StreakZ to my regular bream line-up, I havebeen experiencing some great results on bream, when nothing else isworking. So next time the bream aren’t on the bite, why not tie on aStreakZ… you never know, you might be able to turn your day around!

A Watermelon Red 3.75”StreakZ did the job onthis solid bream.

After years of chasingflathead on larger sizeplastics I decided totarget some fish on thesmaller profile of the 2.5”ZMan GrubZ. The area Idecided to targetconsisted of some mudflats that had about fourto six feet of water overthem and with the lowtide around three hoursaway I was confident Icould find some fish. Withthe run out tide you willgenerally find theflathead pushing backdown to the deeperwater, where they wait forthe tide to turn beforepushing back up onto theflats.

GrubZin’MaroochyRiver

By Andy Gunn

Rigging the 2.5” GrubZ in Motor Oil colour on a 1/6oz TT HeadlockZ HDjighead allowed me to send out long casts to cover more of the areas whereI was expecting to find some flathead laying, waiting to ambush bait fish.

After landing a couple of smaller flathead I was hoping to see if anythingbigger would eat this plastic and it wasn’t long before halfway backto the boat I felt a solid bump on my plastic, which wasquickly followed by a good solid run. After a few more runs Islowly worked a nice flathead to the side of the boat. I wasonly fishing 6lb fluorocarbon leader, so Ihad to take it easy until the flathead glidedsafely into the net. I was rewarded with a77cm flathead and after a few quick pics theflathead was back in thewater and swimmingaway.

The Zman 2.5” GrubZhas accounted forsome big flathead.

With very little run left in the tide I decided to go and have a look at anothersection of river where there were some deeper holes around the five metremark. I was curious to see what was sitting in these holes and with very littlecurrent I was still able to still use the 1/6oz jighead and get the plastic to thebottom, where I was hoping to find some more flathead.

Casting up into the shallows and hopping the plastic back into the deeperholes was my approach and it wasn’t long before I had hooked up onsomething solid again. This time the fish fought with harder, longer runs and Iwasn’t sure what had eaten the ZMan GrubZ. Being a different fight to that ofa flathead, I wasn’t game to call what I had hooked. After a few anxiousmoments I had a nice 43cm mangrove jack at the side of the boat and whilebringing it into the boat I could see it had totally engulfed the plastic. It wastime for a few quick photos and then back over the side he went… too good tocatch just once…

Since this trip I have used the 2.5” GrubZ in a variety of colours and havecaught a host of different species on them, from estuary cod to bream,trevally, tarpon, jacks and flathead.

Andy is all smileswith a nice jack onthe ZMan 2.5” GrubZ.

ZMan GrubZ - WatermelonRequests from the Tackle TacticsPro Team, along with other anglershave led to a couple more additions to the ZMan range - 2” and2.5” GrubZ in Watermelon.

Watermelon is a classic colour that has proven deadly overmany years of social and tournament fishing, so it is a greataddition to the range. In its first week of release it was part of atournament winning bream bag and it is sureto be a favourite for bream and bass anglers,along with those targeting a wide rangeof species, with over 70 recordedspecies being taken on the 2.5”GrubZ so far.

The ZMan 2” (3113) and 2.5”(2926) come in a pack of 10and are available now.

NE

W G

EA

R WatermelonGrubZ

tournament winning bream bag and it is sureto be a favourite for bream and bass anglers,along with those targeting a wide range

Vortex spinnerbaits - Now fitted with stinger hookTT Lures Vortex spinnerbaits have been a popular option forbass, yellowbelly, saratoga and a range of other freshwaterspecies for many years. This popularity is due in part to theircompact frame design, Mustad chemically sharpened, fine gaugehook to maximise hook penetration and other quality materialsincluding silicone skirt, ball bearing swivel and 24K gold platedblade. Another reason for their popularity is the colour range,designed for Australia, that includes Red Nightmare, WhiteBoney, Purple Blue Scale, Fire Tiger and BabyBass, to name a few.

Now the Vortex will tick the box for even moreanglers with the inclusion of a stinger hook,pre-attached with Bait Buttons so that it is readyto fish, straight out of the pack.www.ttlures.com.au.

Mixing it up with MinnowZBy Jay Noble

ZMan's 3" MinnowZ would have to be one of the great all rounders, fromtheir smaller, slim profile, to the aggressive tail beating and body rollaction that is often too much for most fish to resist. The smaller size ofthis action packed plastic really punches above its weight, producinganything from bream and bass to jew, jacks and barra, along witheverything in between. This makes it a very easy inclusion in the kit forguys that love to flick a plastic.

MinnowZ

MinnowZ

Some of the reasons they do work sowell include a great profile thatreplicates a baitfish very well and aswimming action that is extremelynatural. Matching the bait in the areathat you are fishing is often a keyfactor when trying to trigger that strikeand with over twenty different coloursin the range it would be hard not to findone to suit the bait in your area.

Like all ZMan plastics in the range theyare made from an extremely tough, yetsoft and supple material calledElaZtech that is up to 10X tougherthan a standard soft plastic. TheElaZtech construction of these plasticsis also very buoyant, so you can fishthem on the surface, roll them back,hop them along the bottom. Thisbuoyancy is also a great feature of theZMan plastics because, when at reston the bottom, the tail will stand upand wiggle in the current, still fishingfor you even when at rest, and thisfeature triggers a lot bites.

Being 10X tough, fishing with the sameplastic all day is hardly a challengeand it eliminates the need to changeover lures due to a damaged lure froma solid bite. Even Fishing for toothieslike tailor and mackerel is not aproblem for any of the range. In short(more fish per bait) and easier on thehip pocket.

The range of fishing techniques andrigging options with the MinnowZ isjust about endless with the range of TTjigheads on the market. Let’s take alook at a few.

Lucky it’s10X Tough!

Jay with a nicebass on theHoudini MinnowZ

Jacks loveMinnowZ!

HeadlockZ HD and Head Hunter Extreme jigheads are an effortless wayto present a lifelike baitfish imitation that can be hopped back, slow rolledor even high speed retrieved to imitate a fleeing or injured baitfish.

Using a HeadlockZ HD jighead with a TT Jig Spinner works well, creatingextra flash to attract the fish to your plastic for those sometimes fussyspecies like bass and even bream.

Snakehead jigheads allow you to fish into the nasty country withmaximum action, getting right in close with less snags. This rig allows youto fish country that with other jig heads you would not even bother duethe threat of losing gear.

The SWS (Snagless Weight System) has a couple of applications that Ilike to use when fishing for bass and rigging up with a 3" MinnowZ. Firstlyyou can rip it across the top and fish it along the surface to attract thefish’s attention and secondly you can simply flick into heavy structure orlet it slowly sink with maximum action from the plastic. The best bit is thatthis is without changing rigs, meaning you’re keeping your lure in thewater for longer.

The TT Lures ChinlockZ jighead is another option that does away with theweight on the belly of the hook, making it ideal for weedless surfacepresentations or a dead slow sink.

Jay with a quality bass ona ZMan 3” MinnowZ andTT Lures SWS (SnaglessWeight System) jighead.

Everyone has a favourite lure or plastic in their kit, a lure that when thechips are down and the fish hard to come by you pull out and fish it withconfidence. This is a lure that will often change your day. For me it hasbeen the 3" MinnowZ that has been my confidence lure, producing regularresults on many different species. In the last few months the bigger brotherof the 3” MinnowZ, the 4" DieZel MinnowZ has also been producing somecracker fish.

By using all of the same techniques as used with the 3" MinnowZ, thenewer 4" DieZel MinnowZ has proven to be a great lure on the Gold Coastfor the mangrove jack fisherman, using either a slow or quick retrieve backto the boat.

So whether you enjoy fresh or saltwater fishing, from a boat or land based,the results achieved by these action packed lures speak for themselves. Ifyou’re just starting out fishing plastics the MinnowZ are an excellent optiondue to their inbuilt action and the small amount of effort you need to putinto these plastics to start catching fish. Flick them out, roll them back andhang on!

Hope to see you out there on the water soon,Jay Noble

The 4” DieZel MinnowZ isalready making its markas a go-to jack plastic.

BETS 2013 Grand FinalOn

the r

oad to

theEarly in 2010 the Bets Bream Tournament hit the scene, with achance of fishing four rounds to try and make the Grand Finallater in the year. I had been competing in a few comps the yearbefore and so I decided to team up with Bill McGuire to fish thisevent. It was during these first four rounds that I had a chancemeeting with another couple of passionate anglers by the namesof Dave Tosland and Jorg Van Hussen. Even though both teamshad limited success that year Dave and I decided to form TeamPflueger/David Tosland Building. The main reason behind thiswas that Dave and I could always get time off to pre-fish thecompetition locations, before fishing each of the rounds and wefelt that this continuity would help us gel together as a team anddo well in each of the rounds.

In 2011 we finished 23rd, just missing out on a place in the grandfinal. In 2012 it was a year not to remember and from memory Ithink we finished about 64th, out of a field of about 150 teams.When 2013 rolled around though we did make the grand final in19th place.

By Gary BrownGary with a brace of bream- one on a TT HWS jigheadand the other on a TTSwitchblade.

During the six rounds of the BETS 2013 competition the events were heldat Lake Macquarie, Sydney Harbour, St Georges Basin (2 rounds), Fosterand the Hawkesbury River.

Throughout these rounds we fished areas that had oyster racks, rockwalls, vast flats, drop offs, rock washes, weed beds, breakwalls, artificalreefs and deep water. The techniques we tried out were working surfacelures, slow rolling hard bodies, soft plastics and blades, working softplastics in shallow to deep water and also working blades in just aboutevery place we could. I lost count of how many hours we spent on thewater fine tuning these different techniques.

After 3 years of hard work it was a great feeling of relief that all of ourhard work had paid off and we both couldn’t get over the excitement thatwe had made the Grand Final! What a great thrill it was to be fishingagainst 19 other highly experienced teams. Once we had realised whatwe had achieved, it was down to the business of planning our assault onthe grand final.

When we are targeting bream around boats, Dave will usually cast to thefront and I will put a cast in at the back of the boat. If nothing happens oneof us will put a cast into the middle.

Dave and I caught up a coupleof weeks later and sat down toput pen to paper in terms ofwhere our go-to spots were andto also plan when we wouldactually go out on the Harbourto pre-fish these spots. Thetides for Saturday the 2nd ofAugust 2013 were a high tide at5.54am and a low tide at11.29am, Sunday’s tides werea high tide at 6.39am and lowat 12.14pm and on both daysthere wasn’t a great deal oftidal movement between thelow and high tides. It was onlya difference of about 60cm onboth days and the fishing timeon Saturday was from 7am to3pm and Sunday fishing timeswere from 7am to 2pm.

So that we didn’t pressurize ourfavourite spots and hook everybream we came across, wewould also be on the lookoutfor other spots where thebream may have been holdingup. So while we were out pre-fishing we would also take noteof where the bait anglers werecatching their bream, the timeof the tides they were fishingand what baits they were using.All of this type of information isessential when putting a plantogether for chasing bream withartificals. While out on theharbour we were also puttingtogether a couple of backupplans in case our ‘Plan A’ fellapart.

Dave couldn’t make all our pre-fishdays so on this day Bill came alongto help me locate a few bream.

It pays to have a good wing man.

Over the few weeks leading up to the Grand Final we tried so manyplaces and so many different techniques that we decided that our mainlure of choice would be the blade with a backup of soft plastics.

Four of the main techniques that we employed while using blades duringthe six rounds and the pre-fish leading up to the Grand Final are asfollows;

1. Cast out as far as you can in the direction you are drifting and allow theblade to hit the bottom. Allow the blade to sit for about three to fourseconds before slowly lifting it off the bottom in a series of two or threesmall hops. Once again allow the blade to rest on the bottom, beforerepeating this process over and over again until the blade is directlyunder the boat.

Pre-fishing is a must before each tournament and sometimesit means an early start to find where the bream are hiding out.

2. Lower the blade directly belowthe boat to the bottom, take upthe slack and then it is just amatter of slowly raising the rod tipupwards to feel the vibration inthe blade. Once the rod tip isabove your head you need toquickly drop the rod tip back downto just about the water’s surface.Once on the bottom it was just amatter of repeating the processover and over again. The bitesmainly happen when the blade isfluttering back down to thebottom. This is where the MinnKota I-Pilot came into its own.Once we got a hook up Davewould set the spot lock on the I-Pilot so that we stayed within fivemetres of the hook up and if wedidn’t get another hit we wouldmove on until we managedanother hook up.

3. Once again lower the bladedirectly to the bottom below theboat. Instead of taking up theslack, give the blade a couple oflifts, then fold the bail arm overallowing line to come off thespool. The blade then fluttersback down to the bottom. Again,give the blade a couple of hops,then once again fold the bail armover and allow line to come off thespool. This process is repeateduntil you’ve let out about thirtymetres of line, or you had a hookup. The only disadvantage withthis technique is that you do getsnagged a bit on the bottom.

Another pre fish partner Terry hooked onto this jewfishwhile working a TT Switchblade in the ParramattaRiver.

By catches are very common when fishingtournaments.

Sometimes our by-catch of flathead doesn't getreleased. Dave can not only catch bream he can alsocook.

4. Cast out as far as you can in the direction you are drifting and let theblade hit the bottom, allowing it to sit for about three to four seconds. Then,as fast as you can wind, wind in a few metres of line (about four to five turnsof the handle), stop and repeat the process over and over again until the lureis directly under the boat. Once the blade is directly under the boat, slowlywind it back to the surface, with a few pauses along the way. Some of mybiggest hits have come when using this technique.

On the first day of the Grand Final the first area we hit was a drift in deepwater from Cockatoo Island to Long Nose Point at Birchgrove. The depth ofwater here varies from 9.1 to 14.9 metres and the bottom varies from sand,to mud, to broken shells and muscle and cockle beds. All of the blades weused were smeared with the Pro-Cure Super Gel (Bloody Tuna or Shrimp).

For the first hour Dave managed to catch plenty of legal sized snapper,flathead, whiting and two or three small bream. Now, as for me, I nevercaught a thing for the first one and a half hours! I didn’t even get a snag! Sowe decided to move to the opposite side of the Parramatta River and fish theentrance to the Lane Cove River and see what that would bring us. It was onthe first cast that I caught our first legal bream of about 600 grams and wewere away. It wasn’t long then before our second, third and fourth breamcame aboard. All we needed was our fifth bream and we could startupgrading. By 9am we had our bag of five, with the biggest being 37cm tothe tail and the smallest was 26.5cm to the tail.

We just love using blades.Take a look at where thetreble is, this fish wasn’tgetting away.

It wasn’t until about 1pm that we started to upgrade our smaller fish, notby millimetres, but by centimetres. So much so that we actually had threedouble hook ups in a very short time.

After the weight-in at 3pm we were placed 6th with a bag of 3.4 kilos. Thiswas 790 grams from first place and we felt we were within a podium finishon day two if everything came together.

Sunday arrived and we were sure that we could put together another baglike Saturday’s, so off we headed to the entrance to the Lane Cove. Theplan was to get our bag of five, then go and look for upgrades at our otherspots where we have caught fish. What a difference a day makes. Duringthe first hour of the comp I managed to boat three legal bream and wethought, here we go, we are well on our way to getting a bag of five.

Then, all of a sudden, everything turned sour. One of our biggest fish diedand it was as stiff as a board. Now we were back to two bream in the well.Not good! The only thing I can think of is that it came out of the depth (14to 15 metres) of water we were fishing in too quickly.

The objective is to get a bag offive bream. This particular baghad a kicker fish of 1.125 kilos.

It was then a number of things really started to go pear shaped… westarted to miss bites by working the blades and soft plastics too quickly.The blades also started to roll in the air as we cast them out and gettangled up. This was also causing us to not concentrate on how tight theline should have been going onto the spool, which was causing loops onthe spool and then allowing extra line to come off when we cast. At onestage Dave had so much braided line over him I thought he was going tostrangle himself with it… and as for me, I couldn’t stop getting knots in thebraid.

In short we had both lost the plot and started to second guess ourselves.All of our hard work of pre-fishing, our back up plans, everything hadgone to mush. We even had the offer from another team to fish wherethey were so that we could at least get three more bream, but that didn’twork. The horse had bolted as they say… even though we only weightedin two bream and we dropped from 6th to 12th on the final day of theGrand Final.

87cm of duskyflathead that doesn’tcount when fishing ina bream tournament.

If you would like to see what the final results were for the BETS BreamGrand Final 2013 you could click onto the link below:http://www.betsbream.com.au/rounds/grand-final/final-results/Or if you would like to view some of the great photos taken go to thefollowing link:http://www.betsbream.com.au/gallery/grand-final-2013/

The gear that I used throughout the six rounds and the grand final whenusing blades is as follows:

Outfit 1. Pflueger Medalist PFLM-7P70LDS, 2 to 4 kg rod, mounted witha Pflueger 2500s spinning reel spooled with 6.6 pound FirelineExceed.

This outfit was mainly used when fishing blades in deep water.Outfit 2. Berkley IM6 Dropshot DS4721-24, 2 to 4 kg rod, mounted with

a Pflueger Abor 7430SW spinning reel spooled with 3.3poundExceed.

This outfit was mainly used when fishing over the flats, when plenty of distance was required.

This silver trevally wascaught while fishing thedeep water in SydneyHarbour.

We also used 1/8th,1/6th and 1/4oz TTLures Switchbladesin the followingcolours; GoldNoggin’, GreenBack, Golden Boy,HS Mango, BrownMongrel andPeacock Blue. All ofthe blades werecoated with Pro-Cure Super Gel(Bloody Tuna orShrimp).

I would like to thank Gareth Williams and his crew from Tackle Tactics fortheir support over the years. Without their help we wouldn’t be able to dowhat we do. Thanks again from both of us.

I couldn’t do without DavidTosland my partner in crimein the Bream Tournaments. IfI'm not catching bream he is.

We have lost count of howmany bream we havecaught where the hooks arenot in the mouth. This isdue to them being so sharp!

Pushing the BoundariesWith the popularity of kayak fishing over the recent years, many kayakfishing anglers have experienced some exhilarating, adrenaline pumpingmoments, pushing themselves to the extremities of the unknown, all inthe hope of catching that fish of a lifetime. Whether they have taken theirfishing to the outermost limits offshore or in the upper and lower reachesof a coastal estuary, to even out west of the Great Dividing Rangetargeting monstrous Murray cod, one thing that this type of fishing has incommon, it can and will surpass all imaginings when the stars align, soexpect the unexpected.

By Dave Brace

Dave with a nice barrafrom the weed ofKinchant Dam.

There are many reasons whyfishing from a kayak has itsadvantages, however there aretwo reasons that immediatelyspring to mind; it allows you toaccess waters rarely fished oreven seen by other keen anglersand it also allows you to beextremely stealthy, a keyingredient in catching manyspecies including one particularfish, the mighty barramundi.When you do find your fishingniche, the passion to exceed, toadvance yourself as an anglerand to better that last fish youcaught, can becomeoverwhelming and extremelyaddictive. Being a passionatebarramundi angler, there is noexhilaration that comes remotelyclose, for me personally, thanexperiencing coming face to facewith a spirited, vivaciousbarramundi at water level fromthe seat of my kayak.

There are many barramundistocked impoundmentsthroughout Central and NorthernQueensland, and these makeideal locations to target theseregal fish, with relative safety.However, targeting barramundi inthe many coastal rivers andestuaries along the southerncoast of Queensland is also anoption and a fantastic place tochase these fantastic fun fish. Bemindful though, the further youtravel north, the more crocodilescan become alarmingly apparent.

From experience, targeting these fish using a high end graphite rod, froma kayak, is a miscalculation either when casting or trolling. It’s when youfind yourself in a close quarters contest, trying to tame these hard fightingfish, these graphite rods can snap like twigs. Using a Silstar 6’6” Crystal6-10 kg Powertip spin rod, matched with a Shimano Stradic 4000 spinreel, gave me so much more confidence in landing these brutes andbringing them yakside, as the rod finds itself deep within the top layer ofwater and at very peculiar, acute angles many times during these battles.

The Stradic is spooled with 30lb braided line, with no less than 80lb monoleader attached. I personally prefer to use an Improved Albright Knot tojoin the main line to the leader and as always, a Loop Knot to attach theZMan lures that I use.

The soft plastic lures used in conjunction with TT Lures range ofweedless jigheads, including the ever reliable Snake Head and ChinlockZjigheads, were predominately the ZMan 6” and 4” SwimmerZ, the 9”GrubZ for sub-surface fishing and of course the 4” Hard Leg and PopFrogZ for all of our surface action.

Dave in the action with aZMan SwimmerZ and aFrogZ rigged and readyon the other rod.

The areas I prefer to target theseawesome fish are mainly in theshallows amongst the weed and withinthe vast areas of lilies, so weedlessjigheads are most definitely beneficial.Constant checking of the knots, leaderand the chosen soft plastic lure is alsoa necessity, being vigilant not to leaveany weak links in the equipment. Youhave no time for complacency as thewindows of opportunity, when thesefish are in feeding mode, cansometimes be short and in minimalnumber.

On one occasion, whilst castingadjacent to a patch of lilies late onenight, I had the rod cocked over myshoulder and had almost pulled thesoft plastic from the water for my nextcast when it was absolutely inhaled bya huge silver body of barramundi. Itwas an absolute heart stopper, whichshook me to my very core, as I nowfound myself tussling with this fishfrom the wrong side of the kayak andit had just swum with thrusting pace toopen water, after smacking the bottomof the kayak with its enormous caudalfin. The sound of braided linescreaming off the reel, which was nomore than 10cm from the water, as Ilooked on helplessly, was exhilaratingto say the least. As I glanced over myshoulder, I managed to catch aglimpse of this massive fish jumpingclear of the water, with the moon’srays reflecting iridescent colours fromthe large scales as this magnificentfish glistened in the dimness of theclear night.

Surely nothing is more exhilarating for an angler to witness than thisextraordinary visual exhibition, the explosion of water erupts as a metreplus fish with flared gills launches, trying to dislodge a lure and no morethan ten metres away! Escalated levels of adrenaline now coursethroughout the body, leaving the angler a little shaken. With a gentlebreeze blowing through the tightly strung line, stretched between everyguide of the rod and the fibreglass blank beginning to sing after animpressive encounter, I soon had this 121cm mass of barramundioverpowered.

Countless fish were caught on this particular trip; however onememorable morning was had when four solid barramundi were landedfrom the kayak, all of which were over a metre in length and within fortyminutes of being on the water before sunrise. The combination ofemotions, the euphoria, anxiety, excitement and the adrenaline, keeps thepassion burning. There is no preparation that would have readied me forthe experiences I encountered on this particular morning, pushing theboundaries and leaving me with thoughts that will be clear in my memoryforever.

Dave is all smiles during anothersuccessful session on the ZMan9” GrubZ and TT Lures SnakeHead combo.

Fishing the Maroochy River on a weekend during the school holidays,with the increased boat traffic and just enough rain during the week todiscolour the water can be less than ideal. I was still hopeful aboutwanting to head out and chase a few fish in the upper reaches of theriver; by doing this hopefully I would avoid a lot of the holiday boat traffic.

After a thirty minute run up the river I arrived at one of my favourite rockbars, hoping to pull a few fish off it. Opening up the rear casting deck, Ifound that I had left my HeadlockZ jigheads back on the lounge at home!

Ok, time for ‘Plan B’. I had some TT Switchblades in my tackle box anddecided to go with a 1/4oz model in Pink Bimbo. I went with this colourhoping it would stand out in the dirty water and improve my chances of ahook up. After my start to the day I also applied some Pro-Cure scent inBloody Tuna flavour to the blade to increase my chances.

Flathead on BladesBy Andy Gunn

A ‘Plan B’ can be oneof the most importantthings in an angler’sarsenal.

Positioning the boat over some bait I sounded up holding close to the bottomin the deeper channel, I made a cast. By casting up current and allowing theblade to sink to the bottom, then hopping it back to the boat with a series oflifts of the rod tip, allowed me to keep the blade near the bottom where thebait was holding and the predatory fish would be. After a couple of bumps andone fish I pulled the hooks on, I was confident it wouldn’t be long before I hadsuccess.

A couple of casts later and I came up tight on a fish that took a couple of runs.Before long I had a nice flathead at the side of the boat and having a ‘Plan B’had paid off.

I was surprised how aggressively the flathead were hitting the blade. It wasonly a couple of casts later that I had hopped the blade up off the bottom andthe rod loaded up with what felt like not too bad a fish. After a couple moreruns I was very surprised to see another nice flathead of around 50centimetres beside the boat. I managed a couple more flathead out of thisarea before I called it a day, happy with my ‘Plan B’ and with the Switchbladeas a flathead luring option.

One of Andy’s flatheadon the 1/4oz PinkBimbo Switchblade.

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