loomylover

Nick we fish in around 20-25 metres mate, although intend to experiment in the deeper stuff shortly. I prefer using 1/4oz heads, with 3/8oz being the maximum ill use. The slower sink and drop of the plastic is what catches most of the better fish so fish as light as possible, with heads and line weight. I was using 4lb pink fireline and 18lb leader, i'd probably beef up to about 10lb fireline though on a dedicated snapper outfit and retain the leader.

Me and the usual partner in crime - pete, headed off in search of reds on plastics today. After only landing one size fish in our last effort, the confidence levels were slightly tapered but we were keen for redemption. As we punched out over the bar, the conditions were ideal - things were looking up. 20 Minutes in i hook up to an absolute beast only to have the jighead bent, dissapointed but confident, i retied and sent the plastic into the depths... Within a couple of minutes, the opening fish of the morning was pulled aboard, only a fish around the kido mark, but a nice confidence booster regardless. Then tragedy struck.. my stick was nearly ripped out of my hands as quick as my leader knot popped - definately a fish around the 7-8kg mark judging by the velocity of the strike. Note to self, purchase a dedicated snapper spinning combo!! The morning wore on and me and pete loaded up the livewell with a nice steady stream of snapper up to around a kilo - nothing bigger. I was beginning to think i blew my chance at a decent fish for the day when the raider loaded up nicely and the drag started peeling viciously...this was a definate PB on plastic i thought. Pete was cursing in the background why he couldn't hook a decent fish on his new dedicated snapper outfit. When up came this little puppy - 3kg of pure snapper muscle ..

The 5 bags are sold guys (they seem popular), thanks to those who enquired.

Cheers for that input Jeff - i live in port so ill be giving them a solid run around that area. I've just bought a bulk lot of 10 bags (because it was cheaper) so im letting 5 bags go, at $5 a pop if anybodies interested.

Cheers Mike, Yeah i knew berkley made them, but wasn't sure if pure fishing australia distributed them because i've never heard anyone rave on about them when they look like a lethal finesse bream lure. I've got 10 packs coming over from the states in an awesome goldy/prawn colour - might sell 3 or 4 when they arrive, see how it goes.

Hey guys, Does anyone know if berkley bring out the power hawgs in a finesse 1" size? I've seen the nymphs a while back, but yet to see the hawgs in 1". Any thoughts appreciated. Cheers Anthony

Mate smiling jacks are a seriously underated bream lure - at about $4 a pop you grab 10 for about the price of two SX-40's. They have a secret underground following that noone really talks about because for the price - theyre so damn effective. I think they run to about 5 feet - standard bream diver really.

Did they have any 7' 1-3kgs in the pro in stock do you know? Cheers Anthony

If your comparing the freams to the domestic symetre - go the freams anyday! I find the symetre (well all shimanos in fact) bulky, poorly designed, and not even smooth. The freams is essentially a japanese capricron so really your comparing apples with cherries. Go the cherry - get the freams for sure. You should be able to land one for about $160ish.

Daryll, How's the job position looking mate - whens the big move up north?

Matt, Please note that the twinpower youll find in aussie shops is one that has been custom done for the aussie market and as such is second-par to the japanese twinpower if you were to import one yourself. I think you can get a twinpower imported for that price so keep that in mind also. I know that if i was playing with those funds, i would definately be looking at getting one from japan. Alternatively, if you want to spend a bit less and want quality and equal performance to the mentioned reels - have a look at the quantum energy. I just got myself one with 2 more on the way - for the money theyre awesome reels. Alot of guys that browse the internet forums will back the energy and a number even rate them higher than their sustains and the like.

Darryl - im based in port mate - actually 15 minutes south. The fishing is great, with your standard array of species on offer. Trust me when i say you won't regret accepting the job. Out of interest - what sort of position is it? Regards Anthony

ATG - that is a quality snapper mate!! Puts my little 2.5kg jobs to shame! Seriously top fish - it looks like theres some nice snapper fishing to be had down Nowra way. What sort of water depth were you in? Im assuming the good ole berkley jerk shad done the damage on that puppy? Cheers Anthony

MM - man are they soft? Thats what attracted me to them - the ultra softness, in fact theyre almost tooo soft! Seriously though, theyre twice as soft as berkley plastics. They areh however - unscented. They do have a nice "oily" feel about them though. The gold colour is called sand and is a pretty awesome prawn imitation colour. Haraka - great point! They arent made of biodegradable material but then again 99.9% of the market isn't. I don't think we will see good ole quality plastic erased from our lures for quite some time. Ill continue to use plastic lures - when you think of what else is dumped into our estuaries in the form of urban run-off, plastic usage is really nothing. That however - is an entirely different topic.

ATG - im pretty sure at this point in time - only the finesse estuary based scene is covered, although i heard heavier "saltwater" models are on the way - time will tell i guess.

Yeah Hooky - the shakebait is identical to one of the good juro models - however i think juros have 8 in a pack - xstreams have 15 - nearly 100% more. MM - Most shops will sell them for around $7.95 mate which i reckon is pretty good value when compared to alot of plastics on the Austrailan market at this point in time.

Hi Guys, Just thought id give you a view of a new range of soft plastics that have hit the nation - Xstreambaitz, if you havn't already seen them in your local tackle shop. Ive gotten a selection of the "whitebait" and "shakebait" models - both are finesse smallish stickbaits, the whitebait with a straight tail, and the shakebait with a forked tail, bass minnow style. hmm sweet sweet plastics 2.8" shakebait in bloodworm - awesome deep red colours 2.8" shakebait in green melon - another awesome natural colour 2.8" whitebait in "gloss pearl" - the best whitebait plastic on the market without doubt! since its the favourite - close up of it. Great attention to detail Looking forward to giving them a bash next weekend

LOL yeah ive taken better pics - especially the first

Mate it's actually a bit of both to be honest. The most important thing is to NOT take the sp out of the strike zone. Once on the bottom - jerk it erratically, but don't retrieve the line. After a couple of twiches, let it sink back down again. Ive caught most of my fish using this technique however a couple of fish (actually the bigger ones) have hit it on the way to the bottom or with the plastic just being moved by the boat. Actually that PB in the pics was caught whilst i was a bit sea sick - just barely holding the rod and imparting no action on the lure at all. Before i knew it fireline was peeling off and i was on to an angry snapper.

Hi mate, We got the snapper off some reefs a couple of K off Port Macquarie. Once ont he spot - we would drift until we were about 100-150m off it, would then motor up again and do another drift. No berley actually - me and Pete discussed that for future sessions we might have to get the berley happening - it might increase the catch rate even more.

OH THAT IS ONE HELL OF A SNAPPER!! Any idea on what plastic he pulled it on? Where abouts was it pulled from?

Mate its everybit as good as you can imagine, bream and flathead spinning just never compare again once youve done it! Petes boat is a 4.3M Bermuda Centre console, im not sure of the exact hull name though. Its a great versatile boat that has seen action a fair bit offshore, all the way up the rivers chasing bass - wish i owned one.

Hi Scotty You might have noticed my last couple of reports on reds on plastics - i've only chased em twice, but ill give you the info and knowledge that ive learnt in both of the eye-opening trips. As for rods - well its bream gear all the way. The last two trips out ive used my heartland Z 631LFS matched with a quantum energy Pti 10 (lighter outfit) and my second outfit is a shimano rack raider 6'8" matched with a capricorn 1500. This is pretty insane gear to be throwing at reds, and if you get a fish up around the 4Kg plus mark - you could be in trouble. The biggest fish weve managed over the last two trips has been 2.5Kg and thats given us a hell of a fight on this sort of gear. As for pete, well hes using similiar sort of outfits. Outfit one for him is a strudwick softbodz matched with a quantum energy Pti 10, and outfit 2 is a custom samurai (not sure of model) matched with a team daiwa sol 2000. Petes running 8lb fireline on his, im (stupidly) running 4lb pink. In the leader department we generally beef up to around 15-20lb. For the record, Pete has been using 14lb fluro i think and ive been using 20lb triline mono. Ideally, for this sort of fishing - you want a 4-8kg stick, matched with a 2500 or 3000 sized reel. Also, something around 7'6" in length is ideal, you really need that leverage on big fish. In fact i think shimano have released something along these lines in the raider line up - the "snapper" raider, have a look at it. I think for the price, theyre pretty hard to go past.

After my first ever session on snapper on artificials a couple of weeks back - Pete and I finally arranged a date to go hunting these artificial smashing red bandits again. We were at the ramp by 5:30 and hit the spot "busta" at 6am. It didn't take long for Pete to get the first fish on the board - a nice just legal pinky. He then added to the lead with 2 more fish, one similiar to the first - and a nice solid fish. We resisted the temptation to get an immediate picture, as the action was just too hot. I was beginning to think it would be "one of those days" when i finally got on the board - a nice solid red that had the hl-z and quantum energy combo stretched. Pete however, not to be outdone - extended his lead with another solid fish! I knew the only hope of redemption was to pull the best fish of the day, shortly after..the prayers were answered! A PB plastic snapper of 2.5kg Two happy boys...Pete and I with our 2 best fish each Pete ended up pulling one small fish just prior to leaving due to the ever-increasing swell - bringing his total for the 2 hour session to 5 fish. All in all - it was a very satisfying way to spend an early morning session. To pull quality snapper on plastics in two consecutive sessions proves theres definately potential with these fish on artificials. Looking forward to hitting them up again next weekend