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The big day out.
Being something of a self confessed novice, with only
a year or so experience in the gulf, I had been wooed into the idea that
maybe the secret to success was going to be softbaits. So many articles
in fishing news prompted me to give this a go. This was going to
increase my chances of having the bin full and not half full for my days
of toil on the water.
Armed with may plastic card I went to trade in some
hard earned cash on the “ plastic softbait” rod, reel, braid videos and
of course soft bait. Listening to the various sales pitches in store
became rather confusing as some advocated the smell, some the action and
some the colour. Well there had been so much noise about Gulp this was
my first choice. Smell must guarantee success. Best of both worlds I
thought.
Well after hours of drifting around the gulf waving
my rod about trying to copy the bods on the video my best result was
nibbles from small fry which seemed to enjoy destroying my expensive
soft bait. It was me Gulping and not the fish. My fish bin was now empty
rather than half full.
Time to try something else. No luck. Ones with hooks
ones without. Rainbows of colours and shapes that looked great to
me….but not to the fish.
Having known Grant for some years and having traded
fish stories with him for some time I let him known my thoughts in
language that fishos seem to understand well. His response was come out
with me and try Catch….but no bait allowed on the boat.
A day on the water is not something to pass up so I
readily agreed and with a degree of reluctance left the bait in the
freezer.
After a bit of tuition on “how to”, which did not
seem to be particularly different to my previous attempts, we were into
it. Cruising half the gulf turned up no sign of birds working and so it
was a case of try our luck and here looks good.
Well maybe it was beginners luck, maybe the weather,
maybe the tide, maybe the moon and maybe a zillion other fish theories
but by the end of play we had snapper, gurnard, John Dory an my crowning
glory was a King fish. My first and caught on my 4kg braid and softbait
rod. We used a variety of Catch softbaits from Squid to Crayfish. Blue
Pichards to Pink Piper. For me the squid did well landing a couple of
snapper a John Dory and finally the Kingfish all on the same bait until
the kingie destroyed it in the struggle.
So what makes these softbaits work where others
didn’t do it for me. I have no idea. They do appear to have more
movement and are more flexible than others I have tried…maybe that is an
answer. Maybe. All I know is we had a great day fishing with very good
results using Catch softbait and you can’t ask for much more. So for
catching fish… for me it is Catch. No question.
The down side to the day was I had to eat humble pie
and admit that catch soft baits really do work.
Bruce Duncan
27 Nov 2008
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