The curse continues

[Little_Flatty]

This morning I had a big sleep-in and got down to Tarban Ck at quarter to seven in the morning. But I needed to get a session in before the rain came.

Water looked great on arrival with something disturbing the poddies in the shallows. A few casts to no avail.

There is one snag I cast at here where I get a topwater hit nine times out of ten. Threw a slippery dog dangerously close, having to carefully manage the belly of the line to avoid it getting tangled. This could end in tears I thought. 

As it turns out, this cast would be one of the nine times out of the ten, as a fish came up and walloped my slippery dog. Some deft footwork had me clear the fish of the snag and soon a 30-something bream came into view. Only trouble was, I was on 4lb straight through fluro and the fish simply touched the oysters and was gone, taking the slippery dog with him. He hung around for a moment getting his breath and I got the landing net out to see if I could get him, but he read my mind and was off.

Damn! That'll teach me to stick to my home made lures!

Put on a home made popper which I made some mods to recently. Cast it around and got a savage strike which didn't connect. Suspect a rat king as I saw a few around.

Got to the end of my run and changed lures to a sheep's wool fuzzle shrimp jighead I had tied recently. It's like the fuzzle shrimp pattern fly I've been tying but just tied on a jighead so I can cast it on conventional gear. This thing doesn't cast great - it's not very aerodynamic - but looks great in the water. Second cast, a little flatty takes it:

Better than a donut. Released after a quick happy snap.

Tried a few lures, including a little 3g micro jig for nought.

[faker]

Great fun fishing for those but gotta hate losing lures especially slippery dog. They aren't cheap 

Edited June 1 by faker

[lhan]

Nice catch and pity for slippery dog. Great to see topwater still works in this season. I was hesitant to use it while fishing for salmon yesterday

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, faker said:

Great fun fishing for those but gotta hate losing lures especially slippery dog. They aren't cheap 

Yep, good fun but not cheap! Trying to come up with a ‘good enough’ diy stickbait but so far not saving any money. The crafting is good fun in and of itself though.

3 hours ago, lhan said:

Nice catch and pity for slippery dog. Great to see topwater still works in this season. I was hesitant to use it while fishing for salmon yesterday

Yeah I’ve been surprised. Definitely quieter than in summer though. I expect a donut these days and catching any fish on topwater at all is a pleasant surprise.

[Yowie]

A fat little flattie is better than none. 

I like cheap lures, not so bad when one comes off, then again do not use a lot of them other than mainly small metals for tailor, salmon, etc. 

Chewed off hooks are cheaper than lures. 😁

Good to see you are still getting out there.

[Little_Flatty]

23 minutes ago, Yowie said:

A fat little flattie is better than none. 

I like cheap lures, not so bad when one comes off, then again do not use a lot of them other than mainly small metals for tailor, salmon, etc. 

Chewed off hooks are cheaper than lures. 😁

Good to see you are still getting out there.

Totally agreed on all three counts 😎

Yes it is good to get out there.

[faker]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

A fat little flattie is better than none. 

I like cheap lures, not so bad when one comes off, then again do not use a lot of them other than mainly small metals for tailor, salmon, etc. 

Chewed off hooks are cheaper than lures. 😁

Good to see you are still getting out there.

you will enjoy the joys of buying cheap chinese lures off the internet. I just switch the splits and the trebles and i save myself a decent penny. For instance i found that cranka has many knock offs in their crankbaits and atomic as well.

 

@Little_Flatty I am not sure if you use any of the stuff but i have been binge using chinese knock off jigs off the rocks to great effect

[Larkin]

Love all the experimentation with the home made lures. And they’re catching fish. 
You ever try tying crystal flash/flashabou on the jig head? Or blend it in together with the wool - for a bit of flash too.

[Little_Flatty]

11 hours ago, faker said:

you will enjoy the joys of buying cheap chinese lures off the internet. I just switch the splits and the trebles and i save myself a decent penny. For instance i found that cranka has many knock offs in their crankbaits and atomic as well.

 

@Little_Flatty I am not sure if you use any of the stuff but i have been binge using chinese knock off jigs off the rocks to great effect

Cheers @faker. I have some cheap lures but not a lot. I’ll look into it more if I need a break from lure making.

39 minutes ago, Larkin said:

Love all the experimentation with the home made lures. And they’re catching fish. 
You ever try tying crystal flash/flashabou on the jig head? Or blend it in together with the wool - for a bit of flash too.

Thanks Chris, yes crystal flash features in pretty much all of my flies. It has occurred to me I could dress the hooks on my lures too, the way that is sometimes done with jigs. I’ve only had a little bit in my year or so of fly tying and I still have most of it left!

Sheep’s wool is a strange choice of material for fly tying as it turns out, but I got a massive bag of offcuts for very cheap a while ago. I learned that it is very buoyant so it’s of limited value for fly tying other than topwater. That said, it’s great for dressing jigheads and the lure pictured was tied using this wool.

[Larkin]

1 hour ago, Little_Flatty said:

Cheers @faker. I have some cheap lures but not a lot. I’ll look into it more if I need a break from lure making.

Thanks Chris, yes crystal flash features in pretty much all of my flies. It has occurred to me I could dress the hooks on my lures too, the way that is sometimes done with jigs. I’ve only had a little bit in my year or so of fly tying and I still have most of it left!

Sheep’s wool is a strange choice of material for fly tying as it turns out, but I got a massive bag of offcuts for very cheap a while ago. I learned that it is very buoyant so it’s of limited value for fly tying other than topwater. That said, it’s great for dressing jigheads and the lure pictured was tied using this wool.

I’ve noticed when jigging for livies some of the flash on jigs catches more fish than others - even though the brands of jigs look almost identical with similar looking flash.

have been curious to add this to a soft plastic around the jighead to see if it would increase catch rate.

[Little_Flatty]

13 minutes ago, Larkin said:

I’ve noticed when jigging for livies some of the flash on jigs catches more fish than others - even though the brands of jigs look almost identical with similar looking flash.

have been curious to add this to a soft plastic around the jighead to see if it would increase catch rate.

Interesting! I have noticed with my top water lures, fish seem to mostly attack the assists, which have sili legs and/or crystal flash attached. Might well be something to your theory!

It’s very quick, easy and cheap to dress jigheads, you should try it sometime.

[Little_Flatty]

Better luck this morning with the home made stick bait. No lures lost this time. A small tailor and a just legal bream caught and released, again at Tarban Ck. Also had a bigger pelagic of sorts boof my lure. The lucky snag was not so lucky this time...no one was home.

What a difference a day makes. With the deluge we had yesterday, the creek had turned brown and the current was raging.

 

[jenno64]

They call it silly string for a very good reason! Nice work on the homemade👌

[Little_Flatty]

7 minutes ago, jenno64 said:

They call it silly string for a very good reason! Nice work on the homemade👌

Thanks Rob, yes, silly indeed, especially with kings about! But I thought it might give me an edge as the weather cools.

Enjoying the lure making, still a lot to learn on that front. Trying to mostly focus on using my own creations for the next good while.