frankie machine

Hey Raiders, Horrible weather in Sydney today - plenty of showers and a cold sou'easterly blowing - BUT, have a couple of days off work, and after getting kids off to school and wife off to work had to take the opportunity to get out. Went down to Dolls Point with the soft plastics and it was real tough casting into the wind so walked out on one of the small rock groynes to cast a few. Had a couple of little bites, then a real lovely tug. Thought flathead, but it gave a couple of really good runs so was thinking trevally but then got it to the rocks and it was a ripper flathead. It took off again a few more times before I was able to cradle it onto the rocks. Got out the measuring stick - just over 80cm - my best ever. Unfortunately didn't take the camera with me because of the rain. Put the old girl back in the water and she just swam off leisurely. Forgot all about the rain and cold wind, I was rapt. And then I was lucky enough to pick up a nice 30cm bream for my dinner - who needs sunshine and warm weather? Cheers

Hey Raiders, A mate had been having a bit of luck at Bondi Beach chasing whiting so convinced me to get up early this morning. It was a cracking morning and the water is still a lovely temperature for April. We had some live worms and rigged them on a size 8 long shank with a piece of red plastic tube sitting on top of the hook. Plenty of tappity-tap-tap action from the moment we started. From a two-hour session I'd landed seven whiting (four keepers) plus an undersize flathead. My mate landed four (three keepers) - a brilliant autumn morning. Another mate had a rented a flat up at Narrabeen so I took the tin lids up there for the day on Thursday. We took all the kids for a swim at North Narrabeen and he chucked in the classic holiday house rod (it needed a splash of WD40 to get the handle moving!) spooled with about 8lb mono that Moses probably used fishing in the Nile, and a bag of frozen pillies. No further than four metres off the sand there was a school of small mullet - easily more than 150. He cast in and on third cast his rod was bending over. The water was only knee-deep and crystal clear and I could see it was a massive flathead. He nearly got it to the sand four times before it took another run and I was sure it was going to snap or gnaw through the line, but he got it to the beach. It measured up to 66cm - a couple of happy snaps and then released the big girl back to gorge on a few more of those mullet. Cheers

Lads, Brilliant day out, good report and great haul. Well done

Thanks Crash. Straight out from the carpark at Dolls Point, walking along the shore.

Hey Raiders, I posted on Friday about bonito at Yarra Bay (I've added pic to this post), but had a bit more luck over Easter. Went down to Wollongong on Saturday to see the in-laws so up early on Sunday and dropped down to Windang. Have never fished there before but it looked like a promising spot. Headed to where the lake exits to to sea and was throwing a zx30 shrimp blade around but with no luck. Spotted another (friendly) fisho who had just landed a nice flathead who was using a small bibbed minnow and he told me he'd got three with the same lure the day before. I had a Viking minnow in my backpack and tied that on and after about 20mins had a nice 40cm flathead in the bag. Had to start heading back and the wind was up so tied on my trusty 1/4 Switchblade in Mango Ripple and was lucky enough to land another 38cm flattie on the walk back to the car. Back to Sydney on Sunday night, so headed out to Dolls Point this morning. The Switchblade was still on the rod so decided to keep it on - glad I did. Within the hour I had three nice trevallies - all of them fought the good fight before I was able to land them. Dropped another - it felt like a flathead - but with dinner in the bag there's no way I could be unhappy. So from three outings the Switchblade accounted for a bonito, a flathead and three trevallies - don't let anyone tell you that blades don't catch fish! Hope the rest of you managed to score a few too. Cheers Frankie

Brilliant fish Hodgey. Good luck in the comp and look forward to your report

Hey Raiders, Hoped to throw a few soft plastics into Yarra Bay at La Perouse this morning, but on my arrival the strong southerly doused that plan. Put on the biggest blade I had (a switchblade 1/4 in mango ripple) and tried without any luck for about 20 minutes and kept getting weed on the blade. Saw there were three boats all positioned down in the corner near the breakwall so trekked down there to try my luck off the cement. Wasn't really sure what I might be targetting so kept the blade on and about 15 minutes in got a nice 'whizz' happening from the reel as the lure got swallowed by something. The fish put in about four really good runs, fantastic fun on my light gear, before I got it in - a nice 42cm bonito, first one I've caught. Hope the rest of you have some luck over Easter. Cheers

Hodgey, Sounds like a brilliant day out. Good work, fella. cheers

Brilliant fish and thanks for sharing details about rig you bagged it with.

Lads, Thanks for your advice - plenty of ideas there. Cheers Frankie

Hey Raiders, I've found when I'm using blades fitted with trebles I get the hook ups, but the blade is thrown more often than with soft plastics fitted with single hooks. Do many of you replace the trebles with the double 'W' hooks or singles? If so, what brands? Any advice appreciated. Cheers Frankie

Hey Raiders, Was up at Patonga on the central coast on Saturday with some friends - beautiful little town, first time I've ever been there. Armed with a bit of advice from the Central Coast guru Ray R, I flicked some soft plastics over the flats at Patonga creek early in the morning but only came up with a pike (!) which went straight back in. Took the boys out on to the wharf in the afternoon and we caught a few small bream and a couple of tailor - all good fun but nothing for the pan. After they got bored I walked back down the beach to where the inlet hits the surf. The tide was quite low and spotted a little sandbar where I thought a flathead might be hiding on the drop-off. The wind was quite strong so changed from softies to a yellow ZX35 shrimp blade. About 5 casts to the spot got a nice tug and was able to land a nice 40cm flattie - he'd inhaled the blade and one of the hooks nearly bent straight trying to remove it, so changed to a TT Switchblade in mango. About another five casts to the same spot and another hit, got this right to the shore when he threw the hook (damn those trebles). Went back to the same spot and bingo, on again and was able to get this one to the beach. Had my dinner, so walked back to the house. Great spot - good pub up there, too!

Aqua2, Have a look at this article on the site http://www.fishraider.com.au/fishing-articles/soft-plastics-for-bream-flathead.php It was the first article I ever read about soft plastics and it contains some brilliant information. Cheers

Well done mate. Those lures look good and most importantly they obviously work!

Thanks lads. And it tasted mighty good pan-fried for dinner last night

Roberta, That's a brilliant report, full of fantastic info. I'd love to get a yak and have a go, but unfortunately at the moment the bank manager won't let me. You should have your own television fishing show! Cheers Frankie

Hey Raiders, Like the work on the site - thanks to all the hard work of the moderaters. Was down at Dolls Point this morning, thought I’d flick a few 2 inch shrimps (banana prawn colour) in hope of getting of flathead. First hour all I did was lose tails to the pesky toadfish, but then got a nice hit. It was too active and pulling too hard to be a flathead and when it got close to the bank I got a sight of silver so thought it was a trevally, still all good. However when I got it on the sand it was a thumper whiting. 43cm worth, on a soft plastic – couldn’t believe it. Two casts later another strike, a bit more silver, thought for sure a trevally this time – turned out to be a kingfish! Only 25cm, but it put up a great fight on my light gear before I put it back in the drink. First time I’ve ever caught one. Then about 10minutes later I thought I’d got a bit of weed on the hook. Was reeling in and it was a squid holding on to the SP. Got it right to the shore before it let go and shot off. No flatheads but a very interesting morning out.

Hey Raiders, Down visiting the folks at Kiama just before Christmas so took the young fellas over to the river for a swim while I had a quick go for some whiting. Picked up some live worms and hooked them up on a size 8 longshank with a red bead and piece of colour tube sitting on top of the hook. The water was crystal clear and you could see the whiting snooping around on the sandbank. After I narrowly missed stepping on a dinner-sized plate stingray(!) I just walked the sand tossing the worms in - every cast there was some action. Inside 60 minutes I had bagged nine whiting (four legal, the others went back in) and a garfish. Brilliant way to spend a sunny afternoon - and was popular with parents when I turned up with something for their dinner. Hope you all had a great Christmas.

Jenno, No, mine still holding together okay, but I was wondering how resilient the connection was between the hook and lure. I got a nice trevally with mine against last weekend and it held together okay. Cheers

Jenno, Be sure to let us know how you go with them. Cheers Dusky, The zx30 is the lure in the photo above. Cheers

Yes Jenno, they do cast well - about twice the distance of a similar weighted soft plastic.

Hey mate, I know nothing about that rod, so maybe other raiders can help you out. But on the reel a size, 1500 to 2500 is the way to go. If you're going to use soft plastics then gsp or braid is essential (6lb rating will just about handle anything you'll catch) and match with a fluorocarbon leader (10lb). Cheers

Hey Raiders, Picked up a zx 30 a couple of weeks ago (I guess like most of us I'm as susceptible as anyone to a shiny new thing) and had a few casts with it last week and caught a small flathead and a flounder(!) so I decided to keep my favourite softies in the backpack this morning and go with the blade. I'm glad I did - maybe it was just beginner's luck, but inside 80 minutes I had two nice flathead and a trevally in the bag and had released another smaller flathead. I was using a retrieve with two short flicks and a pause trying to imitate a fleeing prawn. Both the flatheads (the largest was 50cm) hit the lure right on the pause. The single hooks were very effective - both penetrated the mouths of all three catches. They're expensive (mine cost $21) and the hooks appear to be attached to the lure with a nylon-type substance, so it'll be interesting to see how well that wears. But if continue to get results like this morning I reckon it'll repay the cost easily. Cheers

I wouldn't complain about a bag of calamari! Can't wait to see your first photo of your first flathead caught with a sot plastic

Reese, I can only endorse the other Raiders comments. The articles that Hodgey linked to were the first I ever read on soft plastic fishing and are incredibly informative. I've only been into lures (and fishing in general) for a couple of years and catching a fish on a lure is a great buzz. What I love about using lures is that you're always actively involved - either thinking about how you're retrieving the lure, or deciding what shape or colour to use, rather than just sticking a bait on a hook and throwing it out. If you're looking for some more reading, I found two books really informative - On Soft Plastics and How To Use Them (Steve Starling and Kaj Busch) and The Book of Lures (Ron Calcutt and Tim Simpson). Cheers