Softbaits & Bozo Soft Plastic Lures

Geoff got a nice one!

It was just one of those days when the forecast 10knot south-westerlies were in fact about 20knots with gusts to 25knots.  The Hauraki Gulf can be a bit like that  according to Damian Clayton, our skipper and host for the day. We were out on ‘Divercity’ with Damo, Greg & Don from Sportfishing NZ and their guest, Phil the man behind Bozo soft plastic lures. Pete Francis from Fishing News and Geoff Muir, the man behind a camera, completed the group.

Don, Phil and Greg

The plan was to fish in close around Little Barrier with Bozo Lures (a soft plastic lure rather than a softbait), trying particularly in the wash areas around the rocks, targeting Kingfish and snapper.

Phil is an interesting guy and appeared to have researched lures and what works/doesn’t work extensively. He retired from his printing business a year or so ago and decided to pursue his true love in life, fishing.  In August last year Bozo’s were marketed and there’s now a complete floor in a Chinese lure manufacturer devoted to churning out packets of these things in all manner of shapes, sizes and colours.

Apart from the obvious question (where did the name Bozo come from Phil? “I wanted something that people would remember easily” was the reply…..) I asked Phil to give us his view on the key attributes of a lure or bait in attracting fish.

Pete Francis hooked up on a rat kingi

Colour

The ideal colours are the reverse of how most fish are put together – i.e: most fish have a light underbelly and are dark on the top. Reason – as most divers know well, when you look up from under the water a light colour is hard to see. And looking down from above, darker colours blend in with the bottom. All that makes sense if you don’t want to be on the lunch menu.  So it follows that anything that stands out or is the reverse of how fish look has a greater than average chance of being attacked and eaten.

“Eyes and Ears”

Eyes in lures are important – vision and ‘hearing’ through the lateral line is important when predators are looking for food. Bozo lures have particularly fine eyes and some of the larger ones feature rattles inside the lures.

Scent

Very important in the process of fish feeding and there’s no doubt about the ability of the right scent to bring the fish around and on to the bite. Basically that’s what a decent berley will do as the oily fish scent disperses in the current.

Bozo’s are scented with pure garlic juice currently (Garlic is well known as a fish attractant along with aniseed however garlic is even better. Garlic leaves a trail in the water and it's believed they hang on longer enabling a better hook up) but Phil is working with the CSIRO in Australia on the scent angle and has made some interesting progress. The other key role of a scent is to mask any 'negative or un-natural' tastes or odours on the bait and encourage the fish to devour it rather than spit it out.

Motion

A good tail motion to resemble a baitfish and some lateral movement.

The gear

Carbon fibre rods and good quality spinning or bait-casting reels. Smooth drags become more important as you get lower in line weights.

Braid with a 1 to 2m fluorocarbon leader. Bozo jigheads come in a range of weights and the hooks are chemically sharpened and strong. The consensus among the team seemed to be a bimini twist in the braid then a surgeons knot or no-name knot to join the doubled braid to the Fluorocarbon. I’ve found a uni to uni knot was quicker and fine if you’re using heavier braid – e.g: a Uni/uni join is fine for say 8lb braid and 20lb fluorocarbon, but with lighter braid you’ll need to try one of the others.  Pete Francis showed me the no-name knot and that’s easy to tie and is what I’ll be using going forward. A perfection knot or other loop knot to tie on the lure is Phil’s choice but I must sat I stick with my old favourite, the Uni knot.

The Results
And how did we do?  A couple of rat kingfish, a handful of small pan-size snapper and one particularly nice snapper at around 10lb plus was the tally for a big day out on the water. Damian was a great host and went all out to get us on to some serious fish but it was just those days when in spite of having the best of gear and plenty of angling talent, the fish just hadn’t read the script!