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 They were originally made for the micro jigging market in Japan, but since being brought to oz have really taken off as a great jig and plastics rod for inshore and light offshore use.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

Sharking it up for summer

Summer is well and truly here and that brings one thing, endless days and nights chasing sharks. I don't know if it's just the way they fight like maniacs all the way to the bitter end or the fact they are just a beautiful toothy critter that always draws me to chasing them. After organizing a trip earlier in the year chasing them up at Ledge Point and only having one hook-up to get totally smoked by the mysterious fish it was time to organize another.

With all the rods, reels etc loaded into the car the drive north was underway. A weeks fishing in the Midwest was on the cards this time and with the added possibity of many different species landbased including baldies, bluebone, pink and black snapper the mind was just drooling at anticipation. 

The first and most important part to remember when fishing these areas up north is to fish the high tide, that cannot be stressed enough. Before I went up I read a fair bit on this and after experiencing the fishing first hand it's very good advice indeed, if you're not fishin it then your just wasting time.

After driving around and scoping out a few different spots, I finally found what looked like a nice gutter that would hold some fish. Since I wanted to have fun on this trip my 20lb and 30lb combos were going to be used, you can be surprised how big a fish you can land on light gear. 

The baits weren't in the water longer then 10 minutes before I landed my first fish, a small black snapper, followed by two just undersize pinkies. With this type of activity I knew i was going to be in for a good session. 

What makes shark fishing for me is that first blistering run they make, even small ones fight like absolute brutes, couple that with the light gear and it's just insane fishing. Just as I was getting onto the good fish the first shark hooked up. Not a monster but still put up a nice 10min fight and up washed a nice shovelnose.

Once one shark arrived then they all come, shark after shark after shark all round the 1-1.5m mark made for and entertaining trip. 

I lnow when targeting sharks a lot of people swear to use wire but what I found with these smaller ones is the heavy wire seemed to scare them off a little bit. I don't know if it was the fact it was heavy wire or the bait was wrong but it seemed I could only get a hook-up on the mono rigs. This was no ordinary mono, Schnieder line on the 80lb mark was the choice as it just seems to have the best abrasive resistance than any others around and this was proven to me when I managed to land 6 sharks on the same rig before being bitten off.

The best thing about this trip wasn't the fishing but the fact I got to enjoy this with my partner and that is big thing that I believe draws most people to the sport. There was nothing more enjoyable than watching her fight, running up and down the beach and reel in her first big fish, being able to show her this is the reason I'm out most weekends doing this.

As much fun as they are to catch they are also quite good on the chew. Catch care is important and putting a shark down as humanely as possible is the key. If you do keep one for the plate I'd suggest getting a shark tamer bat. I picked up one just before I left and it does the job great. 

They are made from a solid piece of aluminum with the end bored out so are light yet strong enough to swing with ease. They are also made locally on Perth so you know your supporting local shops when you pick one up.

All these fish were caught in the space of a few hours on one day, with the rest of the week getting even better each day. I can definately say that this fishing trip was one of the best I've had by far and I cannot wait to be getting back up there in the near future.

Tight lines

Reece

Braid - my choices

With all the different styles of fishing out there like jigging, spinning, bottom bashing and trolling and with all the types of braid out there, what's the difference between these. Does getting the higher end line make a huge difference from the lower market stuff.

Since getting into the sports side of fishing and not chasing a feed all the time I've switched from mono to braid. A great thing about running braid is the capacity you can hold on a reel at one time, being such a thin diameter most beach reels will hold 300m+ of braid quite easily. Secondly is that braid has no stretch

or memory, what this means for a fisherman is when your out drifting around bottom bashing in 50 meters if water and you feel a bite, striking the hooks if you lift that rod up half a meter then your hooks move up the same. The no memory is great as when you get the line tangled, with normal mono once it's kinked or twisted it will always want to stay like that while braid won't, stopping tangles.

I've been fishing with braid for years now and have used dozens of different braids on many different reels. Here are just a few and what I think of them.

Rovex Viros Braid

What I really liked about this braid when I first started using it was it small diameter, smaller than most braid. What that meant was 50lb viros was equivalent to 30lb of the other brands.

I have used this up north at steep point a while back for spinning, being such a small diameter it was a beaut to cast and of all has the least wind knots, but I found it didn't have as strong a strength as others I've used. I still managed to land fish just I wasn't able to go as hard as I thought I would. 

FINS Braid

I am currently using this on my 18000 Spheros running 50lb and this has proven itself over and over again. Many sharks and rays have been landed on this line and the amount of strain that has been out on this line has been immense, yet it's never faulted. This braid is thicker than most which I think gives it it's strength, with 30lb breaking much higher then one would expect. It's been the only braid I've used for beach fishing just for the fact a spool usually lasts me quite a while without any faults.

This is my main line that I use when up north walking the reefs bottom bashing for those baldies and other type of fish that hang near the rocks. Although most people will use mono for this I've just found running a long wind on leader with this has me being able to muscle most fish from there holes.

Instinct Zulu Braid

After purchasing my sustain 5000FG I had it spooled with 20lb Zulu braid. This line is also made by fins in the US that's made from their bulletproof specter fibre, meaning it has a high abrasive resistance and incredible ability to hold a knot. One thing that drew me to this line on my light tackle outfit was that it came in either 200yd or 400yd spools, with 200yd and backing fitting onto my spool nicely giving me that extra bit of peace knowing I've got that little but more to play with. 

Since using it I've landed dozens is pink snapper and a few few big eagle rays and it's held up flawlessly. It ties great, had enought strength for what I need and  it's never failed yet. On the spinning side it casts nicely but as yet I haven't given it a proper test.

YGK Power hunter Braid

Of all the braid I've used this is one

Of the best get. This was used on my saltiga game 3500 in the pe2 range. This is a colour coded braid which means every 10 meters it changes clour, perfect for jigging so you can tell where roughly your jig is. When using it you could feel the quality in the line. Of all the braids I have used I would say that it's been the best, never once failed and would cast perfectly with no wind knots.

There have also been other brands I've used over the years that have not quite been up there, wether it be from poor manufacturing faults causing it to break or just being not suited to certain types of fishing i do.

If you need any more info on braid or want to get a more indepth feel about a certain braid I would strongly recommend  jumping onto www.paulusjustfishing.com as it's got all the info you would need on most brands of braid. 

These are just my thoughts on the brands and what I think of them, I hope this helps you out with your next purchase. 

Feel free to comment with your experiences with different brands and what you think.

Tight lines

Reece 

Light tackle reel, shimano sustain 5000FG review

After getting into the light tackle aspects of fishing I decided to pick up a mid range reel and what else can I say except for, what a totally awesome reel. For the price there is not much out there that can match it. 

After using it extensively over the last few months this is what I've found about it.

This reel is loaded with all of Shimano's new technology including x-ship, paladin gearing and aero wrap II just to name a few. This stuff was normally resigned for the higher end reels.

The drag system on the reel as absolutely smooth and slight turns on the drag knob  allows to fine tune during the fight. After having a Shimano Spheros where the drag becomes quite sticky after a time this had yet to faulter.

The 5000 model comes with 8+1 bearings and 10kg of drag with is more than enough to tackle most fish. I've loaded mine with 200yd of 20lb Zulu braid, this is more than enough to tackle most big fish without the risk of getting spooled, and with landing many snapper round the 7kg mark it still performs great.

One other part that I really like about this reel is its foam handle. After purchasing it I thought that the foam would become very slippery after a lot of use and was going to change it, great thing I didn't as it's just so nice on the hand while constant spinning and even after a day it was still dry and comfortable to use.

So if your after a very nice mid range light tackle reel to chase snapper and sambos, or for light jigging I cannot recommend this reel enough. Definitely go out and pick one of these up if your your local tackle shop next

Tight lines 

Reece

Early morning tailor session

A great thing about working shift is the ability to fish the weekdays when others are at work.

Today was one of those days when I was able to get out for a nice early morning fish. With the weather reports stating a bit of wind and swell I thought I'd try my luck for some tailor.

A quick drive up to a favorite beach spot showed I would be up for a good morning, very nice chop and swell that would surely hold a few fighting fish. There was a bit of weed around but the gutter was still fishable with it only occasionally clumping up on the line.

With a bait in the water just as the sun was coming up the bites started. A few small tarwhine to begin with, then the fun began. The next hour and a half was full on with good bites nearly every cast with tailor and herring landed.  The average size if the tailor being round the 45cm mark with a nice 48cm being my best.

Most were released with two kept for the table. I find with tailor that they are a nice eating fish but only fresh. Trying to keep these fish in the fridge or freezer for a time they turn to mush. A good thing about that is I've always got a good reason to head out for another fishing session.

Mulies were the bait of choice on a set of 3/0 ganged hooks, 60lb leader was more than enough for these smaller tailor. If I was up further north where the bigger ones are more common I'd be running 5/0 gangs and wire, but these metro ones were easily sorted out on the lighter stuff.

If this morning is what the few months are going to be like then I will be putting in a few decent hours beach fishing. 

Hope to see you out there

Tight lines 

Reece