Gomoku Storm - anything but child's play

Walking into a tackle shop you always come across all these fancy high end rods that just get the mouth drooling, but there are alot of us out there that don't have that luxury of mortgaging the house to get one. The gomoku rods are a fairly new rod on the market and range in sizes from PE 0.4 up to PE 3. They are a nice rod that fill the gap between the low to high end, going as far as replacing some high end sticks I'd say. Although they may look like a cheap little child's flick rod they are far from the case as I have found out using these.

My first introduction to these was a day out on a mates boat, being told to bring light gear and use jigs/plastics to see if we can entice some tasty table fish. Arriving at the jetty to load up all the gear I see this little white rod with green handles sitting in the corner, jokingly saying "we chasing some bait on the way out". Getting to the first spot and seeing a jig being tied to it I was thinking to myself had my mate gone mad, does he know what he's doing, does he like donating his gear to the ocean?! Well I was quickly put in my place once the first drift was underway, something big hit his jig and the little green gomoku was buckled over for most of the fight looking like it was just going to explode from all the stress on it. Yet it refused to give in, eventually beating the fish and bringing it in. Not once not twice but all day doing it and never looking like faltering. Straight after getting off the boat I was down to get me one for myself and have never looked back.

The gomoku rods come in three sizes, green (PE 0.4-1), red (PE 0.8-1.5) and blue (PE 1.5-3) and in both spin and overhead setups with a black (PE 2-4) to arrive on the market soon. They were originally made for the micro jigging market in Japan, but since being brought to oz have really taken off as a great jig and plastics rod for inshore and light offshore use. All top components are used from the Fuji reel seat to the Fuji Alconite guides and graphite blank, when you see the price it's really hard not to grab more than one. Being able to jig from 10g right up to 160g they suit any form of fishing, matching up to a 3000 to 5000 size reel these become a real deadly combo indeed having accounted for some seriously impressive catches.

Whether it be sambo jigging or chasing sailfish these have landed them all and more. At a price of around $150 AUD from most shops it's really hard to say no to them. I could just load this article with dozens of photos of fish I've personally landed on these great rods, but the best advice I can give about these rods is go out grab one and give them a try. Even if you are a bit sceptical, as once you use it you'll be keeping it as your go to light tackle rod. 

Hope to see you out there gomokuing hard, tight lines and stay safe.

Reece

Chasing the bill- Vent Right Skirts

just couldnt resist a vent right skirt, took a dozen swipes before being hooked

The pinnacle of game fishing has to be landing a billfish. The explosive speed and awesome aerobatics display while hooked is something to behold. Seeing one dance along the water with your skirt in it's mouth really gets the heart pumping.

Being a first timer chasing these I was quickly confused with the amount of skirts on hand to chase these. You are faced with a wall of different brands when walking into a shop to buy one, but what works well? Some of the skirts in selected shops can easily run over $100 AUD each and that's before you start putting hooks onto them. 

Thankfully there is a new skirt on the market that's easily half price of most others and works just as well, in fact better I believe as I found out. Vent Right skirts are machined aluminum heads, anodized in various colours and come with basically any combination of coloured skirts you can think of. Even a novice like me can use them, and landing both marlin I hooked on them just proves how easy they are to use and how much the fish loooove them.

solid heads with Hawaiian UV skirts

one of the many different types of jet head skirts available

After taking a heap of these up on a recent trip to exmouth it was clear the pelagics were definately in favor of these over everything else we ran. When you have a spread of four lures being a Vent Right skirt, a skirted Ballyhoo, a Richter skirt and a Rapala SXR14 diver and 80% of the hookups over the trip on different species are on one brand of lure the proofs in the pudding as they say.

With a variety of heads and sizes available in the range and being either jet heads or solid there is one for practically any type of fishing you like doing. We found trolling the jet headed ones around the 7-8kt range to be the most effective. They would shoot water out from the holes then darting back under the water again, popping back up and doing it all again you can see why they are so effective as any fish in the vacinity would come and see what the commotion is. Some of the larger heads have even been tested at speeds of over 20kts and still perform excellently with no rolling or spinning of the lure, all you need is to bump into a fish fast enough to catch it.

even the bycatch can be great fun

It's not just billies these work great on but a whole range of pelagics. They have accounted for dolphin fish, Spanish mackeral, longtail and yellowfin tuna just to name a few and with many more to be added to that list. Even when you do bump into a mackie or wahoo and it tears the skirt to bits unlike other types of skirts where it's destined for the bin, with these it's just a matter of pulling off the old and replacing it with a new one by just sliding it onto the grooved edges that secure them on. From only a short time being out these have definately made a mark as one of the must have lures in my tackle box when planning a next trip. 

So Definately go and check these out next time your in the market for a skirted lure.

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Tight lines 

Reece

Landbased spinning rig- haywire twist how to

There's nothing worse when fishing to lose a fish to a bust off, or even more a bite off. Spinning landbased along the northern stretches of land you come across more of the toothy critters and heavy mono just doesn't cut the mustard.

What's the solution? Running a wire trace to stop the teeth cutting through. With all the different wire, multi strand, black coated etc I've found using single stand to be the best for this type of fishing.

Use the following:

105lb single strand wire 

Pair of pliers

100lb crane or bearing swivel

100lb crane clip swivel.

1 meter length of 60lb or Heavier mono

Firstly cut a length of single strand wire approx 20-30cm long. 

Thread one end through the swivel with the clip. This end will be tied using a haywire twist, below is the following way to tie one.

Holding the swivel put 4-5 long twists into the wire.

With the long twists, use the pliers to grab the wire and kink the tag end to 90 degrees.

Holding it make 4-5 small tight wraps along the wire, this will anchor the wire into place. Cut the tag end off.

Grab the other end and make another loop in the wire.

Grab the mono and through the loop tie an Albright knot, pulling tight should look like the one above. Then tie the other swivel to the end of the mono and you're ready to fish.

All that you need is to hook your favorite lure on and you'll be in with a fighting chance of landing those mackies and other fish in no time without that stress of being bitten off.

Making a dozen of these can be done in no time and can be rigged up when one is lost.

Cheers and tight lines 

Reece