Test Drive Hardbody Lures

Catch Report 19/8/2006

Wake up a bit late today as it was saturday so I thought might as well sleep in. Had been itching to go luring this week but the tide wasn't ideal so waited till the weekend to do some fishing. Sms'ed Jialiang and Justin as it's been awhile since I last went luring with them. Didn't get a reply from Jialiang. Justin had to do some music rehearsal for his church and he couldn't make it in time. I went to Iron Cove anyway. Was first using a bloodworm bm near the drain but there wasn't anything, not even bites. Then, I switched to hardbodying and tried a lure I bought cheap from ebay. It's a Rapala Jointed Shad Rap and it's like its second time in water. Probably until the 5th or 6th cast I got a sudden take which was very near where I was standing. This 36cm flathead was weird, as it decided to body roll itself and wrap around my 6lb leader and trapped its own tail. Thus, it rendered itself un-swimmable! As you would have know, I was just reeling in a dead weight without even the slightest struggle!

Then, a disastrous thing happened! While I was reeling in the rapala lure, I felt some weed clinging onto it, then a stupid move was made as I started to crank it back fast. Suddenly it got stucked! I was terrified, as it was not quite a cheap lure (AU$9). I tried my usual lure retrieval methods but it seems like gone for sure. Then I walked further and did one pull and suddenly it came free! Thank God!

Later I moved away from the drain, and proceeded to the joggers stretch. Changed to Smilin Jack pink and on a few casts later, a 24cm bream was caught. The take was strong as well but the fight was unspectacular. The beauty of using hardbodies.

It was almost getting dark. I then changed to GULP 6" sandworm rigged with 1/0 Gamakatsu hook on 1/16th jighead which Chen helped me buy it from ebay. Man, this GULP is awesome, almost every cast I can feel bites, with a few occasion of a big pull but no hookup. It was very frustrating as there were occasions I felt some bites were like from breams. Anyway, somehow it broke in half when the part I glued with superglue came off. Then I tried with a watermelon bm and moved back to my starting point. Along the way I saw some surface action quite near the drain. One particular cast I decided to jig slowly near the bottom. I felt some bites and slowed down my twitch. When I felt the bites were stronger, I striked, and a half hearted fight from a 28cm bream was experienced and brought up for a camera shot.

The light was almost gone by now. I had a dinner appointment with Choong Han and Maurice at 7pm in chinatown. Thinking I still had about 15 minutes to spare, I went back to the drain again. Since it was dark, I didn't want to risk a soft plastic. I tried with a bright coloured lure which I bought in Singapore. It's a River2Sea Humbug 65SP. It's probably it's 3rd time seeing the water and I knew this lure couldn't dive deep as it has a very short bib. So I thought might as well kill the 15mins and anyhow crank the lure and I cranked it very fast. Around the 3rd/4th cast, it had a take very near where I stand! This flathead gave a good fight taking some line out and I was totally blown away! I tried to lift the fish out by my rod but I felt it was kinda heavy and still struggling. So I grab the leader and lift it out. I was so happy that this lure can catch a flathead as Dexter told me this colour is killer for Peacock Bass and Humbug is damn popular for them, never expected it to work in Australian waters. Took a shot of its underbelly as the lure was actually stucked below its mouth in an awkward way. She was 46cm.

Somehow it was a good feeling to see that Humbug catch quite a good size flathead. But because of the flathead's relentless head shakes while lifting her out of the water, the Humbug sustained some paint damaged and now it looks battle scarred. Doesn't matter, hehe..

Ronald