Dancers of the Sea!!

                       DAY 1

 So yesterday i headed to the Offshore expo day at All boat business(4 Hocking rd).
Had a great day with free refreshments and food (fresh dolphin fish, YUM!!!) as well as a 15% discount of everything except Team Daiwa rods!!!
So 180 dollars turns into bream lollies!!

YAY!! I had everything i needed, Vibes, Diving hards, Plastics and Surface lures. Now i go and test them out on my local Whiting. So on goes a  Zipbaits Tiny Popper ( i call my Surface Lures "Tiny Dancer"!!) and after a few casts i land my first Whiting for the day.

A Good start and I discovered how good the "Tiny Dancer" is. I love the way how you can Walk the Dog but still be able to pop with the same lure!! Very versatile!!

 Well i still had a swag of lures with me so on goes a Daiwa Gekkabijin 5F in Red. this is a great walk the dog lure and it nailed its first fish after a few casts. I discovered my inner marksman when i flung the "Tiny Dancer" into a flock of Seagulls only to pin one in the wing!! Now this thing went nuts!! it took three people to get it under control so i could pull the hooks out!! The Bird gave a squawk and flapped away. By now the fish have gone of the bite so the surface dancers and I head home.

DAY 2

 With the Dancers in hand i headed of once again. This time though i tied on a Cranka Crank in Pink Bit's. I tried for the Whiting to no avail and tried the "Tiny Dancers" as well. I tried for the ever so present herring but they weren't there either! Now i was wondering what was going on.
So i thought i may as well try and nail some Bream. I tied on a Damiki Vault 35 which looked the go in the overcast conditions. These lures work best with seductively slow lifts as there metal bodies produce a Vibration that Fish pick up on and find irresistible to resist, hence the nickname "Slow Dancer". I was experimenting with a few different retrieves when a Bait ball   about the size of three cars, rounds up into a corner of a Bridge. I instantly thought Tailor or Herring so in goes the "Slow" one. Just as i am about to lift the lure out of the water, two Bream zoom in after "Slowy" and my instant reaction is to drop the lure. This of course spooks the Fish. Well at least i know that there are some Fish worth pursuing here now. Next cast I flick it under a little jetty, right next to a Pylon. Perfect recipe for Bream!! The "Slow Dancer" makes it to the bottom. I start the retrieve with a flick and pause. I notice a big flash and i strike!! But no Fish.... "Slow Dancer" makes its next decent and as i go to flick my rod goes crazy as a good Fish goes under the jetty. The drag does its thing and i start to bring the beast out. another run and then it reveals itself. All glistening silver with a mottled black hue. Big blue lips with a Vault hanging out its mouth!! This fish is over a Kilogram and over 30cm!!(Which is big for me considering all my previous Bream have been 25cm MAX!!)

 The "Beast" hangs at the surface while i think of some way to pull him up the 4-5m wall in front of me. I decide to go for broke and belt it up to dry land!!
The Fish goes into the air and swings around, violating a Chinese guys bag that got a bit to close to the action!!
i get the Tape out and it pulls it back to 34cm!!
A new Personal Best!!!! I was so happy and the Fish was my first ever on a Blade!!!







The variety of "Dancers" performed in conjunction with each other to create invigorating and awe-inspiring moves to keep me entertained!!


                  Cheers, Callum......

Whiting on Lures!!

This fish was plucked from a school of herring with a Halco Scorpion

Whiting are one of the iconic species that call Australia home. They can be caught just about through the whole of Australia.
I am going to run you through how to catch yourself some whiting for either the table or just for fun!!
Whiting are bottom dwellers and prefer sandy bottoms.
there are a few different types of whiting that can be caught from 30m+ to 15cm deep.
I will be mainly focusing on the Yellowfin Whiting.
These fish love shallow, calm bays with lots of sand and weed.

A solid fish taken on a Surface lure

Its the patches of weed that hold the key to catching consistent numbers of fish. Small crustaceans and worms hide in the weed. The Whiting target these areas and often gather in schools to "patrol" the weed patches. Large flats(areas of very shallow bottom consisting of sand and occasionally weed) are great places to target whiting as they are free from predators and provides a great hunting ground!!
 

My PB Whiting at 33cm taken on a Scum Dog

                                                                           LURES
I have had good success using surface lures such as the Berkley Scum Dog on these flats. A constant walk flicked over the top of a weed patch should see boils and splashes behind your lure. Just keep "walking" the lure until one of them hooks them self. I usually add another split ring on the back of my surface lure to aid in my hook-up rate. The picture to the left shows that adding an extra split ring aids in hook-ups.
Soft plastics have accounted for Sand and school Whiting in deeper water where they congregate over sandy bottoms.
Numerous Hardbody's have also produced Whiting for me. The Halco Scorpion 35 caught me my first Whiting on a diving Hardbody.
                                                                              GEAR

A Daiwa Regal 2000 spooled with some 6lb Braid

Whiting aren't going to rip 100m of line off in 1 minute so your 1-3kg or 2-4kg setup will suffice and will allow you to cats those lighter lures much further.
For line i opt for 4lb Fireline. Braid around 3-6lb is best because it allows you to cast lures better and have a better hook-up rate because of the no stretch factor. Where i fish for Whiting there is no structure so i use about a 4-3lb Fluorocarbon leader(Fluorocarbon is practically invisible underwater but Monofilament is more likely to be seen underwater.) but have caught fish on heavier leaders. A 1000-2500 size reel is a good size reel to get the best out of these aggressive fish.

These fish are very aggresive despte there size!!

A rod around 6'8"-7'6" and with a 1-3 or 2-4kg rating is good as it allows you to throw lighter lures and allows you to be able to give you a better chance to stay connected as they have fairly soft mouths.








I hope you have learnt a bit about Whiting and how to hook into some of these quality fish!!!

Cheers, Callum....

Shoal Cape 2010-Plastic haven!!

 Ok so last year around November, December my Dad, Mum, Brother and his wife, Sister and I went to a remote little camping spot called Shoal cape. Its about an hours drive from the town of Esperance.  

The bay is crystal clear and has an amazing 10m drop off which you can see forms a large channel.

The large sand flats and patches of weed make awesome flathead territory and my brother and I got 3 solid(60cm+) Blue-spot Flathead in one day!!

Here's a picture of one of the smaller models that were kept for the table. Along with the numerous flatty's there was a large number of Herring around and had a "soft spot" for a Plastic.

In fact all fish were caught using Soft Plastics. Skippy were around but not to prolific.
They were usually found in conjunction with the Flathead
THE SALMON HOLE
Probably the most amazing part was catching little Salmon in a little Gutter/Hole. These fish were going crazy for a 3" Gulp! minnow.  Here's a link to a Video of mine showing how feisty they are!!
I love the way they take to the air!

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VUpraobSNs

Cheers, Callum....