Luringbream Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 (edited) This morning was an early start, we were on the water by 5am and decided to troll around kurnell on the way outside. We knew that the fish would be up feeding on the surface by sunrise, and at the hint of very first light the pelagics started! It was a massive school of frigate mackeral..the fish covered an area as big 2 football fields and the more we ventured out, the more we found. Costa was equipped with 4lb spinning gear with a 3" berkley bass minnow in prl/wtrmln and i stuck to a 3" Zoom 'Tiny Fluke' in a Baby Bass colour which have caught me over 100 pelagics in the last few outings(a mixture of bonnies, kings, tailor, frigates and salmon) . First cast and the 'Tiny Fluke' got slammed, and a minute or so later a nice frigate was landed. Second cast, i got slammed within seconds of the lure hitting the water. This was repeated on the next 5 consecutive casts. By now Costa had only landed one fish on the Bass minnow as opposed to my 7 on Tiny Flukes. I gave him a Tiny Fluke and on his very first cast he hooked up!! And so did i..DOUBLE HOOK UP!! This repeated for the next half hour or so until we decided to target kings and bonnies which we have been giving an absolute thrashing recently. The Frigate tally was around 30-35, half of which we kept for bait for the snapper season. Today the kings and bonnies wern't as thick as they have been in previous weeks, and with the frigate mackeral saturating every corner of the bay, finding them wasnt so easy. A quick circle around the breakwall and then we were off to the hot water outlet where we were met with another feeding frenzy. I stuck to the Baby Bass colour whilst Costa tied on a Ark Shiner colour. First cast and and kingies are fleeing from every direction fighting for our lures. Next cast and i'm on followed by Costa hooking up a split second later! It was a kingie of around 55cm and he was quickly released. Costa's fish was slightly better at 59cm but once again released to fight another day.. The action really started to heat up and a heap more rats were boated. I could see a few bonnies out wider so i moved a little closer to them. They wern't up for long and we managed 3 before they were out of sight, we also managed a 3kg salmon! These Zoom Tiny Fluke soft plastics were absolutely going off today, and they outfished Berkley bass minnows 7-1. The Tiny Flukes are a very small profile lure and 'match the hatch' of the baitfish that are around at the moment. Having a lure that swims straight is a crucial factor in tempting these pelagics into slamming your lure, they didnt have those indents that you often find on other minnow type lures hence your lure will swim straight every time. I was really impressed at the durability that these lures had, some lures would catch up to 5-6 fish before they had to be changed. Heres another pic.. Enjoy Edited February 18, 2007 by Luringbream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mik Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Great report mate & well done on the pelagics! Looks like you got the plastics sussed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildfish Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 yes great report, great fishing! exciting reading! sounds like theres a plague out there! which also excites me! cant wait till i get my new boat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewhunter Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 How much fun does that day sound?! Top session mate. Light tackle pelagics are great fun. Nice report & pics. Some interesting info on the plastics as well. Cheers, Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 (edited) Looks like you got the plastics sussed Indeed i do! An average day would usually see me going through 3-4 packets of other plastics. Today we didnt even go through half a packet of Zooms for almost double the fish! yes great report, great fishing! exciting reading! sounds like theres a plague out there! which also excites me! cant wait till i get my new boat! The frigate mackeral are absolutely everywhere!! We were at the hacking yesterday and we caught a heap there as well! I've noticed that the schools of kings and bonnies are slowly fading though How much fun does that day sound?! Top session mate. Light tackle pelagics are great fun. Nice report & pics. Some interesting info on the plastics as well. Cheers, Grant. It was a top day on the water and i've seen many days the same of late. The surface fish are still around in good numbers, get into them while you can! The Zoom Tiny Flukes come in packs of 20 and at $8.90 they are great value for money (especially when your getting up to 5-6 fish per lure). If you'd like any more info on the plastics, contact Tony from Fishfinder bait and tackle and im sure theres an additional fishraider discount for members. DAN Edited February 18, 2007 by Luringbream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aero Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Nice work on mate, We've been having a ball with these guys too ! Tell me, what do you do with all the frigates? Apart from being a top Marlin skip/swim bait I've found no other use for them. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netic Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Well done, Great fish and a great report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 Tell me, what do you do with all the frigates? Apart from being a top Marlin skip/swim bait I've found no other use for them. All the frigates were kept for snapper and trevally bait. We just filleted them and salted them up much like you'd do with the bonnies in an air free bag and freeze them. Also the remains of the fish, such as the frames and heads will be used for the crab traps. (We didnt get a good run of crabs this season ) Costa and I were actually talking about using them for marlin, have you ever had any success with rigging one live? By the time most of these fish got to the boat, they were bleeding internaly and died almost immediately. DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Nice report sounds action packed, I gotta give them Tiny Flukes a try and hopefully get results like yours. penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 Nice report sounds action packed, I gotta give them Tiny Flukes a try and hopefully get results like yours. penguin Penguin, they are definetly worth a try. Costa had only hooked one fish on Berkley Bass minnows until he swapped over to a Tiny Fluke and in no time he caught up to me on the fish tally. Theres nothing worse than having an acre of boiling fish on the surface slashing everything that moves and throwing everything you have got and not being able to hook up to one. Time after time, people will come up to me after we have been continuously hooking up asking what we are catching them on because they can't connect to a fish. It can be devestating at times for these people, but a Tiny Fluke can quickly cure that problem! DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Sounds like a fun session Dan Those tiny flukes look awesome I especially like the arkansas shiner its the spitting image of a whitebait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako1 Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Sounds like a top spin session. Those lures look really good too. Pleanty of great baits from the frigate fillets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_steve Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 great report some pretty hot action there well done steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 This morning was an early start, we were on the water by 5am and decided to troll around kurnell on the way outside. We knew that the fish would be up feeding on the surface by sunrise, and at the hint of very first light the pelagics started! It was a massive school of frigate mackeral..the fish covered an area as big 2 football fields and the more we ventured out, the more we found. Costa was equipped with 4lb spinning gear with a 3" berkley bass minnow in prl/wtrmln and i stuck to a 3" Zoom 'Tiny Fluke' in a Baby Bass colour which have caught me over 100 pelagics in the last few outings(a mixture of bonnies, kings, tailor, frigates and salmon) . First cast and the 'Tiny Fluke' got slammed, and a minute or so later a nice frigate was landed. Second cast, i got slammed within seconds of the lure hitting the water. This was repeated on the next 5 consecutive casts. By now Costa had only landed one fish on the Bass minnow as opposed to my 7 on Tiny Flukes. I gave him a Tiny Fluke and on his very first cast he hooked up!! And so did i..DOUBLE HOOK UP!! This repeated for the next half hour or so until we decided to target kings and bonnies which we have been giving an absolute thrashing recently. The Frigate tally was around 30-35, half of which we kept for bait for the snapper season. Today the kings and bonnies wern't as thick as they have been in previous weeks, and with the frigate mackeral saturating every corner of the bay, finding them wasnt so easy. A quick circle around the breakwall and then we were off to the hot water outlet where we were met with another feeding frenzy. I stuck to the Baby Bass colour whilst Costa tied on a Ark Shiner colour. First cast and and kingies are fleeing from every direction fighting for our lures. Next cast and i'm on followed by Costa hooking up a split second later! It was a kingie of around 55cm and he was quickly released. Costa's fish was slightly better at 59cm but once again released to fight another day.. The action really started to heat up and a heap more rats were boated. I could see a few bonnies out wider so i moved a little closer to them. They wern't up for long and we managed 3 before they were out of sight, we also managed a 3kg salmon! These Zoom Tiny Fluke soft plastics were absolutely going off today, and they outfished Berkley bass minnows 7-1. The Tiny Flukes are a very small profile lure and 'match the hatch' of the baitfish that are around at the moment. Having a lure that swims straight is a crucial factor in tempting these pelagics into slamming your lure, they didnt have those indents that you often find on other minnow type lures hence your lure will swim straight every time. I was really impressed at the durability that these lures had, some lures would catch up to 5-6 fish before they had to be changed. Heres another pic.. Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingsRule Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Wow , i gotta get hold of some of those zooms!!, Frigates are one of my favourite fish Awsome bag of fish guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flattieman Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Well done on the pelagics, mate! Hmm... I'm not a stickbait fisho, but maybe I should give some a try... Out of interest, how did you work the plastics? Flattieman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aero Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 All the frigates were kept for snapper and trevally bait. We just filleted them and salted them up much like you'd do with the bonnies in an air free bag and freeze them. Also the remains of the fish, such as the frames and heads will be used for the crab traps. (We didnt get a good run of crabs this season ) Costa and I were actually talking about using them for marlin, have you ever had any success with rigging one live? By the time most of these fish got to the boat, they were bleeding internaly and died almost immediately. DAN That makes perfect sence to me, Since you were fishing with lures (like I normally do) it didnt even cross my mind how good they would be as cut baits, especially with the amount of blood in them. As for baiting them, they're a good bait if you can crank them in fast with minimal damage. rigged with a bridle and towing them around at a couple of knots works wonders. They are a Tuna in essence so you need to keep them moving otherwise they cark it pretty quickly. I've seen some big sydney kings come on live frigates, they only ever lasted a few minutes before they were either inhaled by a king, or dead. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Great fishing. Those frigates go hard. Great fun.....cheers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted February 19, 2007 Author Share Posted February 19, 2007 Sounds like a fun session Dan Those tiny flukes look awesome I especially like the arkansas shiner its the spitting image of a whitebait Funny you mention that, i had actually taken a photo of a whitebait next to the Ark Shiner colour. They were identical in every way imaginable, they even held an identical slim profile of a whitebait! Wow , i gotta get hold of some of those zooms!!, Frigates are one of my favourite fish Awsome bag of fish guys! Zooms = Frigates! You will definently get onto many frigates with them! Those Frigates can be weird at times. You can actually skull drag them to the boat in the first few seconds of the fight and land them providing havnt taken theyre first run! Alternatively, if they take theyre first run before you get them to the boat, then you will experience many blistering runs and they account for a very good tussle on light gear. Well done on the pelagics, mate! Hmm... I'm not a stickbait fisho, but maybe I should give some a try... Out of interest, how did you work the plastics? Flattieman. Flattieman, i know you love to target flatties so stay tuned, i'll be testing them on the Bream and Flattie population. The retrieve was really simple, i'd cast out to the middle of the school, let it sink for a second or 2 and then crank it in as fast as i could . Another method which worked wonders on the kings was to let it sink a little deeper (around 4-6ft) and then give the lure 2 viscious jerks. That makes perfect sence to me, Since you were fishing with lures (like I normally do) it didnt even cross my mind how good they would be as cut baits, especially with the amount of blood in them. As for baiting them, they're a good bait if you can crank them in fast with minimal damage. rigged with a bridle and towing them around at a couple of knots works wonders. They are a Tuna in essence so you need to keep them moving otherwise they cark it pretty quickly. I've seen some big sydney kings come on live frigates, they only ever lasted a few minutes before they were either inhaled by a king, or dead. Chris I never thought of that, rigging a frigate for a sydney hoodlum. Will have to try that very soon. DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stafford Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Flattieman, i know you love to target flatties so stay tuned, i'll be testing them on the Bream and Flattie population. DAN Hey fellow fishos, When I introduce Tony to the Zoom Tiny Flukes specially the Ark Shiner, Tony and myself where amazed at the bite and hook up rate we were experiencing in the upper Georges, specially when he was using the watermelon pearl Bass minnow and I was using the Ark Shiner and Baby Bass flukes, the flukes out fished the bass minnows 3 to 1 on the bream 2 to 1 on the flatties , in the few hours we were out there I only used 7 Flukes to Tony's packet and half of Bass Minnows , I was averaging 4 to 6 fish for each fluke used. A much cheaper alternative to the Bass minnows for those fishos with families that would like to give soft plastics a go. Now we are testing the 3 inch Brush Hogs with some mixed results but a must for the tackle box seeing that I'm a soft plastics junky. Plus a cheaper alternative is always welcomed. Stafford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR@ZY OS@M@ Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 top report mate. go the soft plastics,well done,i gotta get some of those. well done on the catch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilk fish Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Nice work on mate, We've been having a ball with these guys too ! Tell me, what do you do with all the frigates? Apart from being a top Marlin skip/swim bait I've found no other use for them. Chris frigate fillets turn out to be exceptional for sushi, just keep them in good condition from the time you catch them, you wont be dissapointed (as long as you like sushi) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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