Little_Flatty

This home made lure thing has really got me good. Though the Foam Tile Thing (FTT) poppers look very rustic and the handiwork is rough, there is a lot of thought put into getting the action and 'hang' behaviour. Though my first incarnation caught fish, I really craved a bit more casting distance. So rather than one small ball sinker in the lure, I decided to put two. Then it was a matter of getting enough foam so that the lure floated. Thus far, I'd been aiming for a 45 degree hang angle, because Les Baker (the inventor of the Thong Thing that he sold in the 90s). So I was experimenting with weight placement to achieve this: But the problem I had was that the hookup rate didn't seem so good with the FTT Popper Mark I. One thought was that assist hooks were not on the original Thong Things. The difference in angle between the lure body and the assists troubled me. That led me to question: how does a slippery dog sit in the water? Slippery Dogs seem to have a great hookup rate, so it made sense that I emulated that. A Daiwa video gave me the answer - they hang almost vertical! And so that was decided, the FTT Popper Mark II would sit vertically when at rest. Changes made, it was time to go fishing. Got onto the water at Five Dock Bay at 5:45am this morning and started casting in the darkness. First few casts I heard a 'kiss' as a fish chased my lure. But then there wasn't any action after that. So I changed to an OSP Bent Minnow and caught a little chopper tailor really quickly. As the sun came up, I saw more action from feeding bream. So I tied the FTT Popper Mark II back on and got casting. As I got to a really shallow end of the flats (given it was a low-ish falling tide), something hit the popper and I was faced with a bit of a tussle. Another little bream: Still no legals yet, but to be honest I've only got one legal bream on topwater thus far. So next improvements for the FTT Popper will be: Longer body so that the assists don't foul the popper head on an enthusiastic cast - this is a problem because the foam is soft and will catch the assist hook. A new method to more precisely calculate the amount of foam required to float my sinker/wire/hooks, which will involve a bit of testing in a plastic box and a bit of revision of high school geometry (1/2 x base x height, plus volume calculations) If I get my calculations correct, this will give me more freedom to experiment with the shape of the lure whilst ensuring that the lure will float right once completed. This lure weighting business is somewhat reminiscent of correctly weighting a float when float fishing. Anyhow, so far so fun. In fact even after my tackle purchase embargo is over, I might well continue this project, albeit with more fit-for-purpose materials and tools from hardware and fishing stores. Thanks for reading.

Sorry to hear of your experience. Please PM any suggestions to @Birdy as per site rules.

You’re definitely right on the lighter jigheads Henry. Can be hard though with the current. That’s a real nice flounder you got there, and a good flatty too. Well done.

I was just thinking…a cheap salad spinner might well do the same job as a washing machine…🤔

I was intrigued by this idea: However I can’t think of a way of doing it without risking the peace in the household!😱😬🤣

No better way to thank @XD351 than to catch a fish with his gift and report on it. Well done!

Just watched this on the train today. Wow, I didn’t expect an hour long, highly informative 80s documentary! Though that kind of fishing is definitely not for me, I could watch, listen to and read about adventures like this all day! Thanks for the reminder @wazatherfisherman and for posting @JamoDamo.

Yes and I have read it. I missed the movie though, will watch it! For those who haven't seen Waza's story, it's here:

Gives us a good insight into what you were doing in all of your yarns, Waza!

That’s a nice report there Benny and well done on a couple of nice fish. Sounds like tough going but that’s the way it falls sometimes. Would love to one day get down to a comp like that, but will need to wait some years before I can even consider it. The idea of fishing for a whole weekend and learning off fellow fishos is what draws me in!

That took a lot of words to explain Derek…so you lose one lure and need to replace it with four…🤣 Here I am fishing with $1.50 home made FTT poppers…will give you one next time…another one to try😎 Great job on the bream.

It varies a bit. The flats on the western side are fairly shallow and are typical flats fishing. When you move further around past the canal, it starts to get deeper, maybe five metres or so. Most fish however will hit quite close in. I use a 1/8 to 1/4 oz jighead there, depending on conditions. @lhan I just thought of one thing. I did pick up one of those bream in the shallows on a cranka crab once, but casting parallel to the shore, far enough that the bream couldn't see me and I couldn't see it.

Yep I use a size 6 or 8 long shanked hook and mold the bread around it. I think a bigger bait gets the bigger fish. Apart from that it’s very tricky to not get the bait stolen, so I tend to fish bread baits unweighted and on a slack line, watching the line to move a fair bit before striking.

Some great sport to be had with a handline and a load of bread! It’s mostly Waza’s book, I just thought of the idea Cheers Rob, they don’t have to be big when there’s a fun way of catching them That said I won’t say no to a 45cm thumper 😎

Yes, could've been worse 😎 Good luck for your upcoming trip!

Yes, when I saw the headline, I was thinking oh no, do I have to use the again? 🤦‍♂️🤣 But thankfully it was very above board That said, those luderick anglers and their weed sources...

Nice work @Aussie_fisher. The Entrance fishes really quite well for all the pressure it cops. Good you got a mate hooked on fishing...let's see if you can keep it going

Good one Dave. A catch of blue spots at last!

Nice one @lhan, I really like fishing Rushcutters as well. I was actually there on Saturday afternoon but it was very, very tough fishing, with only one measly chopper tailor for a whole afternoon.

Thanks Dave, the lure may be ugly, but it works😎 Yes you’re in for a treat. Most of the basics with fishing bait on rod and reel applies to handlining too. It’s not nearly as cumbersome as you’d believe and a handline’s sensitivity will rival the best rod and braid out there! Yes Chris, they certainly don’t! If I ended up needing a visit to the doctor, that would easily have cost more than a slippery dog! Will think twice next time I get snagged! Yeah I agree, fish are often not nearly as picky as one would think, provided you get a few crucial parameters right. I’ve been listening to a podcast by a fly tyer questioning whether they see a shrimp fly as a shrimp or something else entirely. It’s probably more likely that they think ‘that’s the right size and profile, has tasty looking wriggly bits and it hasn’t seen me yet, so I might eat it’. Bit like how we might try exotic looking food when travelling, even if we might not want to know what it is!🤣 I remember sending a picture of a particularly nice breambo to a mate in north qld a few years ago and all I got was a one liner reply: ‘nice rat with fins’🤣 I’m not sure I’d have been able to go back to work if I was crashed tackled by a diamond python, not without a few coldies to calm me back down first! Imagine explaining that one to the boss!🤣 Have fun with it! It takes either a bit of confidence or extremely low expectations to fish with a lure looking like my one! Stick to the store bought ones unless you’re very bored, or in a bind with a limited budget. That said, even with store bought ones, you’d be surprised how often lures with a basic finish will outfish those with holographic and Uv colours. It’s mostly about size/shape, the way it sits in the water and it’s action.

Nice work James and Trent. Well-earned rewards after a fishless session the night before. Congrats on the competition win.

Nice report @linewetter. Those luderick do fight hard. I should've called you guys as I had a very rare afternoon off and fished two spots hard for three hours for one measly chopper tailor!

Nice work! A 30cm bream out of that area on 6lb is a great achievement…gnarly territory and dirty fighters.

Thanks Mike, some great photos there! Was glad you could join me for a session. Thanks Neil, I’m thinking we might need to make up some bigger foam gurglers for cod one day!🤔🤣 Thanks Waza, it sure is fun making your own stuff!

So @big Neil recently commented on how quiet it’s been up here, so I thought I’d pipe up to share my adventures with you all. The reality is that for me, the fishing’s been quiet, and I believe I'm not the only one (thank goodness for more successful reports like @Larkin's amazing Jetski Marlin). My humble results have not been for lack of trying though, and not for a lack of excitement either; two major milestones have been broken over the past week! The first is that I finally cracked the Meadowbank challenge of getting a topwater bream on a lure, and the second was that I got my first ever fish on a homemade lure. So here goes... CHAPTER ONE: THE MEADOWBANK CHALLENGE Last Thursday I had a big sleep in, so I couldn’t go far from home. So Meadowbank it was. Started out with a sinking stickbait in search of a flathead, but there were none to be found. So it was time to muck around and tie on a topwater lure. I had low expectations because I’d never caught anything on this stretch with a surface lure. Cast around a bit for nothing, so moved to the scouts pontoon. There was someone fishing off the pontoon so I stayed casting at the mangroves in the shallows. Miraculously a fish came up and splashed the lure. Another twitch, another splash and I’m on! Meadowbank topwater duck broken! That was it for that session, but that wasn’t the last of it. Next morning I was fishing over the flats and second cast, I was on again! Still not a big fish, but notable because it was my second in the area. Then disaster struck. A wayward cast put my slippery dog in the mangroves. That was the end of my session. I knew that water well, so I planned to come back on the low tide to retrieve it. That afternoon, I delayed my lunch break until the bottom of the tide, so I could retrieve my lure. Trudged out to the edge of the mangrove stand and started looking for the lure. Turns out it's very hard to find a lure in a mangrove tree! So I came up with the clever idea of shaking branches, in hope of hearing the rattle. Shake shake, nothing. Try another branch, shake shake, nothing. Move on. I was shaking a large branch when I heard a big buzz and the feeling of a WASP stinging me in the neck, and then the arm! I run for my life to get away from the tree before assessing the damage. Geez that hurt! Abort mission...the wasp can keep its slippery dog! High tail it back home and take antihistamines and apply stingose. Thankfully it settled down entirely within one hour, but it has since started itching. Not my first wasp sting, so I know it will get better eventually. CHAPTER TWO: HOW THE MEADOWBANK CHALLENGE WAS OVERCOME I know that I have long banged on here that it was impossible to catch bream on topwater at Meadowbank, and this was backed up by two bona fide topwater addicts in @DerekD and @Bennyg78. So why did I witness success on two separate mornings? The first reason, I suspect, is that I'm simply fishing topwater lures with a lot more confidence, now that I've had some success. I suspect that is 80% of the equation. The other 20%, I put down to environmental factors. For one, this year, I have struggled to catch flathead in my usual spots using my normal methods, whilst last year (flathead wise) I could do no wrong! I'm not sure what is causing this, but the difficulty I've had with my usual methods is uncanny, to the point where I've started fishing with different methods (including topwater). The other main change has been the completion of major stormwater engineering works in Shepherds bay at Meadowbank. Since this work has completed, I can't help but think something has changed about this bay. Both bream I caught where from this bay, and I am starting to think that this is not a coincidence. Time will tell and I will most certainly keep you updated. If the bream topwater fishing in the upper Parra becomes a regular thing, I certainly won't complain. CHAPTER THREE: THE FTT POPPER The loss of both my slippery dogs stung more than just by a wasp sting; my kids had made Lenten promises at school to give up various things they liked and insisted on me making one too. I had opted to not buy anything for fishing for the whole of Lent and donate the usual fishing budget to charity. So some innovation - and a little fun - was called for. Tying my own flies and being able to customise and change the design has led me to think that I could also make my own lures. I have templates for balsa stickbaits and poppers from the wonderful Greg Vinall, but I wasn't quite ready to embark on wooden lure making just yet as I have a number of projects that I still needed to finish*** (more below). So something ridiculously quick was called for. I have long known about 'Thong Things' that people were using long before the inception of Sugapens and Slippery dogs. There's even some raiders who have had success on these lures, and I was curious to give them a go. I didn't have any thongs that I could condemn to getting eaten by bream, and I wasn't allowed to buy any more (see previously made Lenten promise), so instead I used some foam tiling that I had lying around. Hence, the Foam Tile Thing (FTT Popper) was born: A bit rough, but my theory with all lures is that finish doesn't matter so much, but profile and action does. It took me quite a while to get the weight positioned so that the lure sat and swam just right. Soon it was time to get onto the water. On another note, it has been more than a year since @Mike Sydney and I have been able to meet up for a fish. With ideal fishing windows at opposite ends of the day (myself in the morning and Mike at night) and juggling work and parenting, it has been difficult to line up a session. But this morning, the opportunity arose and we grabbed it with both hands. We met at Tarban Creek in the early morning darkness and got casting. Expectations were low, but this session was more about catching up rather than catching fish. We saw very little action until sunup, after which we started getting follows and hits on our lures. We had cycled through a couple of different lures each, but eventually Mike settled on an MMD Splash Prawn and me an FTT Popper. Moving over the shallow flats, Mike hooked onto a chopper tailor. On the board at last! Then, after a good cast over the flats, I had a hit, and the fish found the assists. Up came a little bream, my first ever on a home made lure! Though it was only a small bream, it just made my day. It is just so satisfying to craft something yourself and catch a fish on it. No amount of money could buy that level of satisfaction and fulfilment; it must be earned. After a few more casts in the mangroves, it was time for Mike and I to part ways and head back to our families. Good session Mike, and we will need to do it again soon! Anyhow I've rambled on for long enough about the catch and release of three measly undersized fish, so it's time to sign off. Thanks for reading! Mike ps. ***You heard it here first: I'm working on compiling an article (book!) on handline fishing by @wazatherfisherman, with contributions from @DerekD and @Yowie. I have long thought that there was a real lack of good online information on fishing with handlines in Sydney. And as a fisho who started out with handlines, that's a real shame; they are a extremely low cost and effective method of starting fishing! As a result, some handline fishing reports will soon appear in the coming weeks, as I write my own contribution to this compilation and take some photos to accompany the words. Watch this space, there are some epic secrets shared in this article by some gun anglers.