Stick Baits

[davester28]

Hi all,

Been reading a lot about stickbaits recently in the various fishing magazines. Apparently they're magic for catching anything from bream to GTs (obviously using different sized stickbaits!). I've read such claims as stickbaits outfishing poppers 5 to 1 on GTs in the Coral Sea (on Nomad Charters).

Being an inveterate tackle junkie, I immediately stocked up in preparation for the upcoming pelagic season. I must have bought 30 or 40 of the suckers: from the little 4 cm Smith Towadis to large-ish 18 cm Daiwa Saltiga Sliders and just about everything in between, in both floating and slow-sinking models. I intend to mainly use the 10 - 14 cm (15 - 50 g) sizes on Harbour kings, bonito and sambos.

One slight snag, though ... I don't really know how to fish them. Some of articles I've read say to fish 'em with the rod tip held high, some say twitch 'em side to side and yet others say snap the rod tip down and away and take up slack. All very confusing and contradictory!

So, after the long-winded pre-amble, my questions are: Has anyone used these babies on Harbour kings/pelagics? How effective were they? How did you work them?

Thanks for your responses!

[The Iceman]

Both those methods work but they are for different styles of fishing The snap the rod tip down and away method is used for fishing snags with lures such as gold bombers keeping the lure dancing in the strike zone

The rod tip high method is called walk the dog and will work on kings bonito and salmon in the harbour immitating garfish using stickbaits like husky jerks in open water Works well in washes

[caranx]

Stickbaits are great lures. Hard to get in sydney with only very few stocking the decent ones. And then, only the common ones. How you work them depends on whether they are sinking or floating versions. You will need to experiment with the different types you have . They will dart around either on top or under the surface looking like a sick or injured fish or one fleeing a bigger fish. With floating ones keep the tip up high, and sinking ones low and sweep side to side. Takes a bit of getting used too if you havent played with these lures before. They vary in size, but some are 21 cm long or so and weigh 100 + grams which make them ideal for casting good distances and getting nice sink rates. Dont be shy in using the larger ones either.....big fish dont get big eating constant tiny baitfish...

[davester28]

Thanks fellas, makes sense.

If anyone wants some of those stick bait articles, PM me your e-mail address and i'll attempt to send you softcopies.

cheers,

dave

[wakd]

I got plenty of kings last summer on them, and I fish them two different ways (this is for floating ones by the way). First way is just to flat out crank them so they skitter across the top, and occasionally just stop them dead in the water. Kings will often slam them when they stop dead. If a king doesn't hit it within 3 or 4 seconds start cranking it again. The other option is to walk the dog. The way I do this is to point the rod tip at the water and "whack the slack" - fast downward stabs with slack in the line - I've got no idea how you would walk a bait with the rod tip high???. This makes the lure zig zag across the top, and you can do this at varying speeds. You can also mix up the two - rip for a couple of meters at speed, stop dead, then walk. Kings can be picky with what retrieve they want, so I keep mixing it up. Awesome way to catch fish as its so visual, I'm sure other lures (ie Sluggos) would work better some days, but I just love using stickbaits. Bring on summer!

Ben.

[The Iceman]

It can be done Ben Something we used to do chasing queenies and trevs using gold or silver bombers

[wakd]

Fair enough Andrew, I wasn't having a go, I have just never seen a rod tip high technique. Then again, I always thought stickbaits were lipless baits like Zara Spooks, Tango Dancers, Zippin Ziggies, River2Sea Morans, Towadis, Raphaels, Lucky Craft Sammys, Jackal Mocassins etc. Found this on Youtube which is pretty much how I do it:

Ignore the bit were he says to use heavy mono and avoid braid, believe me, braid is fine. It is worth pointing out with smaller stickbaits you may want to avoid a fluoro leader as it can sink the nose of the bait too much. With smaller stickbaits or any topwater I use mono leader cause it floats.

HTH,

Ben.

[davester28]

Thanks mate - great info there and an excellent video!

Out of curiosity, what types / sizes did you use on the Harbour kings?

Edited August 7, 2007 by David L

[TheDiko]

Using mono on the smaller baits is fair enough.

But for everything else Flurocarbon all the way

I love the action of the lure, looks irresistible

IFS

[The Iceman]

Ben I always thought of any long slender lure as a stickbait bib or not Im sure I read an article in modern fishing about it sometime in the last couple of years

We used to catch queenies and the others back in the late seventies using ABU Killers I still have a couple of them

Edited August 7, 2007 by The Iceman

[davester28]

The stickbaits I meant are the bibless ones exactly as Ben described - eg. Smith Towadi, Owner Tango Dancers, Daiwa Saltiga Sliders etc. Nomad #####ing make their own (at $60 a pop unrigged) and Carpenter sell hand-made ones for about $130 a pop!

The Carpenters and Orions are the go for GTs apparently, with the Carpenters better when conditions are calm and the seas glassy, and the (slow sinking) Orions the better option when there is a bit of chop.

Smith Towadis ... killer on bream:

A few Orion Bigfoots and on the far right, a Carpenter Gamma:

Daiwa Saltiga Slider (I have a stack of these!):

Owner Cultiva Tango Dancer (I also have a stack of these! ):

Orion Crazy Dog

GT on an Orion

Edited August 7, 2007 by David L

[caranx]

and these..about 20cm long. I think this one is 80-90g...but the others I have are close to 120g. Orions are nice too, and at the cheaper $$ end are the sliders. Though, they arent much cheaper.

Edited August 7, 2007 by caranx

[The Iceman]

Gees I dont think I would be throwing a $130 lure around at GTs

I do remember using a stickbait imported from the US cant remember the brand but it had screwin eyelets which lasted one cast and one fish came back with no rear eyelet again back in the late seventies gave that up as a bad joke might have been a cotton cordell

I have used towadis but find them to light rather use poppers or smak skywalkers

[wakd]

David - mainly used Zara Spooks and Tango Dancers. Can't remember exact size of those - around 10cm.

Those serious Japanese GT poppers are damn exxy - pretty scary throwing them at GTs, I find it bad enough throwing Tango Dancers at Kings around structure - its not a cheap exercise when you could be throwing Sluggos...

Andrew, everyone seems to have different names for everything when it comes to fishing! I would call long slender bibbed lures like bombers jerkbaits personally - but that I think is the yank convention. I remember seeing Aussie mags referring to bombers as stickbaits too. I would describe a sluggo or bass minnow as a soft stickbait just to confuse things!