CURRENT
MOON
 |
|
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
| There has been a huge surge in anglers adopting the use of ‘artificial baits” particularly soft plastics to catch fish around WA. Most if not all of the fishing periodicals (including this one) across Australia over the last 4-5 years has expressed the virtues of fishing soft plastics for a range of fish normally targeted with bait. However there is still a lot of anglers out there who when confronted with a packet of weird looking rubber instantly think fishing witchcraft. Obviously this ‘new’ angling technique has been around for a while. I remember buying my first ‘Mr Twister’ tail and jig kit from a Denmark service station owner in mid 1980’s. It was after enquiring about whether he had blue bait for catching local flathead, that he offered me a packet of strange looking iridescent yellow rubber things. He told me that local anglers were snaring 2+ kilogram flathead in the Wilson Inlet with them and they were “better than blue bait mate”. With some scepticism I brought the rubbers more interested in their cool colour (remember this was the 1980’s when fluoro board shorts were all the rage) than whether I would catch a shovel head size Wilson flatfish.
20 years later soft plastic lures have evolved into a potent angling tool, with some wonderful looking ‘jellies’ being produced by companies around the world. Some are so good at imitating the real thing, that they have really started to cloud angler’s minds as to what is bait and what’s a soft plastic. Tackle company Berkley’s range of ‘Gulp’ hybrid soft plastics aren’t real plastic but imitation bait made from moulded protein attractant. The lifelike ‘Gulp’ 5” Sandworm has really excited some sports anglers. Because of its incredible likeness in colour and texture to the real marine worms, you can catch anything you would expect to catch on a real sand or bloodworm. Rigged correctly they are dynamite on a wide range of traditional rubber lover critters like black bream, but it’s the other incidental catches which gets the heart beating faster. When I first laid eyes on them I thought, here is a huge sports fishing opportunity to target my favourite metro table fish, whiting on ‘artificial’ bait. And I’m not talking about poddy sandies, which when on the chew will pretty much eat any little morsel below a piece of red straw. No I am talking about worm sucking, elbow slapping sovereignty - the mighty King George. Back in the December issue we talked about prospecting for King George around reef and seagrass areas with traditional bait and burley. Here I hope to share what I have learnt over this past summer and autumn fishing for KG’s with these unique ‘lures’ for fishers looking for maybe a new piscatorial challenge. As with other types of soft plastic fishing you need to fish light, preferably with something like 4-8lb Fireline, which helps you feel every little bump or nibble. If you already fish lures for flathead or bream this gear is perfect for presenting rubber worms to KG’s in shallow water. I have found using 10-15lb fluorocarbon leader won’t spook the fish and will standup to the sometimes gnarly limestone reef found frequently by hard running fish. First impressions after opening the packet (other than the peculiar teenage smell) may have anglers thinking this rubber is way too long and skinny to rig effectively. If it was a real blood worm you would want to chop it into 3 pieces. Trust me, a King George can suck down big long worms with ease.
If new to the game of rigging soft plastics and feel a bit overwhelmed with all the hardware, there is an equally daunting language which is used to describe different rigging methods. Don’t be intimidated as its just jargon, which once explained won’t be as unfamiliar as you might think. Let’s start with the Carolina worm rig. This is just a slick way to say “a bullet head sinker free running on a mono trace, terminated with a Gamakatsu Worm G-Lock in size #4 or #2”. Some people also thread a small glass bead onto the mono before tying off the worm hook, as it helps stop the weight snagging on the hook knot. You don’t need to use bullet head weights, a 00 size ball sinker will work, though bullet heads don’t seem to snag as much on weed and algae on the super slow retrieve. Another way to rig these worms in latex lover lingo is Texas rigging. Here you just use a running sinker down the mainline to an appropriate swivel before connecting with a short mono leader to a suitable hook. This rig seems to give the worm more freedom of movement and keeps it off the bottom when slowly retrieved through dirty country. Gulp Sandworms have no buoyancy, so you need to use the lightest hooks and weights possible. If concerned by short takes I have refined this rig by using a sewing needle to thread the mono leader through the head, 20-40mm down the middle of the rubber before tying off the work hook. Texas rigging is good for anchoring up on deeper (10-16 metres) sand patches (letting the boat sit back just off a weedy reef patch) and running out a burley trail. Cast out to a likely looking edge between the sand and weed, letting it slowly sink, drop the rod tip and with the slowest possible retrieve drag it along the bottom. Because the worm isn’t directly connected to the weight you can stop the drag, let it sit for a moment and then give it a few little short light flicks with the rod tip to instil some life like movement into it. Or just simply place the rod in a rod-holder and let the roll of the boat bring it to life.
Lots of different fish like these ‘baits’ so expect to loose a centimetre or two off the tail each cast. This can be solved by tying on a light #4 suicide or drop-shot hook to a short piece of 6lb fluorocarbon leader. This is attached to the eye of the jighead- after measuring off, so the hook pierces just the surface of the worm about 20mm from the tip of the tail. Hopefully the pictures help best illustrate what I have tried to explain. Give them a go or experiment with you own rigging methods using weighted worm hooks or lead wire twisted around the top of a extra long shanked hooks. I’ve had mixed results using a paternoster (Drop-shot) rig in deep water, so give that a go as well if you are out deeper. I haven’t got one but a saltwater Riptide electric trolling motor you might be using to hunt bream in the estuaries would work a treat in picking holes in the seagrass meadows in front of Garden or Carnac Island. Other wise like me you can make effective use of a sea-anchor or drogue to control your drift across the sandy flats. It’s wise to still use burley as you would when fishing for KGs with bait, this will help your hit rate when starting out. But because it is a more ‘active’ method of fishing, you tend to move the fake bait around more than you would soaking real baits, you soon start learning where the best places are to cast. Unfortunately the blowies can hammer ‘rubbers’ out on the sea grass meadows as much as the Swan River. If you have been going hard on the burley expect a few to find you if staying in one place for too long. We all like to set challenges or fishing goals so why not have a crack at some KGs on rubbers the next time your plan to drift the flats for a feed of whiting. And you don’t need to know any Black magic tricks.
|
