Plastic Fantastics for Oceanics

Like a lot of our readers I had some friends in town over the break. Doug and Richard are from California, where they usually chase stream trout. Those are hard to find around Sydney so Bonito Alley was our planned area of operations:

That’s the nickname for the coastal stretch between Sydney’s South Head and the Macquarie light house. Steep cliffs (which provide shade, early in the afternoon), deep water close in, and a rough bottom attract and hold predators. Because we only had time for a half day run I needed everything to be right- to get results for these visitors. Especially as regards tackle. Bonito Alley abounds with tailor, salmon, bonito and kingfish in the 1-3 kilo range. Small fish but a reliable fishery ideal for first time fishos. School fish, meaning that if you hook up on the troll a good cast will often produce a second strike. There’s always the chance for bigger fish in the mix. Putting it all together I needed some light combos with good casting capability for light lures, some grunt in the rod in case Mister Big turns up, and a super smooth drag. Our 802 blue combo checked all those boxes:

The older I get, the more I realise how important distance casting is. See our black popper, in the picture above? I was casting that 20 gram popper 50 metres, as measured by the colour change braid. That’s a fantastic distance for such a small lure. Off we went towing tiny skirted lures down Bonito Alley using a couple of these 802 combos. The action came thick and fast. Here’s Doug:

And here’s Richard, with his first ever bonito in a death grip:

So our Yankee visitors had a great old time even though we didn’t catch – or even target – any big fish. When I got back to the office it was time to get focused on an exciting new development. Regular readers will know that fishing off Sydney was pretty tough, in winter 2017. We found some good fish when we were able to get wide. But mostly, we couldn’t get wide, because of relentless windy weather. Rather than let the weather beat us and stay at home when we should be out fishing, we started looking for alternatives. The obvious one was Australian Salmon, which appear in huge numbers around Sydney Harbour during the cooler months:

Why? Perhaps due to the massive bait schools. Check this out, late 2017, twenty seconds of gold:

It’s been so good to have a reliable supply of hard fighting sport fish when other options fail due to the weather:

Best of all, on the Facebook page, we have friends and clients regularly sending cell phone video and pics showing where the fish are operating. But that doesn’t mean success is automatic. It’s common to arrive at a working school on the water to see it surrounded by boats. Blokes trolling around (or straight through!) the school. Casting metal slugs, soft plastics or minnows into the rolling fish. And quite often, getting no hook ups at all. Wouldn’t you think that, after your lure has been retrieved fifty times past thousands of feeding fish without a strike, you’d try something new? Apparently not. But there is a way. We didn’t discover it, and don’t take credit for it. It’s deadly. Meet our new soft plastic lures:

Greg wrote, after I put a pic on the Facebook page:

What’s really going on when you see a big school of salmon rolling on the surface? They are feeding on whitebait. These tiny bait fish are too small to out swim predators. Their only defence is in numbers. The salmon attack from below, forcing the bait to the surface. From there, the only escape is downwards, where the salmon are waiting. Meaning that:

No retrieve is needed, because the bait fish we are trying to imitate are weak swimmers. The salmon don’t see a lure moving faster than the bait they’re feeding on, as food;

The lure has to be as close as possible in size to the bait fish they are chasing. Because all the bait fish are the same size - as you will see, when a captured salmon coughs some up, on your deck;

The lure should be operating in the top one foot of the water. Because that’s where the bait fish are operating;

If possible, the lure you use should be very light weight. Salmon are notorious for jumping, then snapping their head left or right, and tearing the hook out. In many cases, you actually see the lure flying through the air. It’s a lot harder for them to do that when the lure is very light:

Casting distance is important because the salmon can assemble suddenly and just as quickly disappear. Thankfully there’s an easy way to cast a four gram mini soft plastic a long way - and then keep it in the strike zone, within a foot of the surface. That’s where the bubble float comes in. I started out using them on carp:

If you haven’t seen one before, this is a clear plastic egg shaped float. It has a central plug through which your line runs. The plug can be withdrawn while the float is held underwater. You let as much water into the egg as you need to provide the casting weight you want. Then, you close the plug. Water is trapped inside the egg but it still floats. This means you have a small compact casting weight which will float when it touches down on the water. And you can make long casts with it. Fahrettin writes:

Note that it’s not just salmon. Clients have been scoring big on bonito:

Kingfish:

So what’s the deal?

You can check out or purchase the whole package of rod, reel, braid, leader, bubble floats and SPs here. It’s only $110 delivered:

802 Blue combo

Or you can buy a ten pack of the SPs for just $21 including hooks and delivery. Pic shows one colour only but we send an assorted pack:

These are 7.5 centimetres long and have an internal prismatic sleeve which makes them shimmer like a real bait fish. But the biggest benefit is that they have an internal passage, making hook installation super easy. You don’t have to try to guess where the barb will come out, like you do with ordinary soft plastics. With this one you get perfect hook placement every time:

Here’s specs: Length 7.5cm Weight 4 grams Flexible soft plastic with paddletail Internal prismatic reflective panel Internal channel for hook – alignment is perfect, every time 10 soft plastics in each pack 5 matching hooks in each pack Delivery included in price Send $21 to https://paypal.me/downrigger That’s a steal. Get back to me by email or phone, if you have any questions whatsoever? Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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