Joined: 22 May 2008
Location: Auckland
Status: Offline
Points: 1555
here's the pics of my 2 workhorses, i've had these 2 lures over 10 months now and they're both caught a few fish though it's kinda chicken and egg with how good they actually are i reckon, it's sorta like "do i fish them the most because they work best or do they work best because i fsh them the most?" haha hard to tell, anyways:
rapala x-rap extreeme action slashbait 6cm suspending in silver:
can see some of the teeth marks pretty clearly, there's something i find cool about a chewed lure... can also see where a couple of cracks have formed, the makers didn't even intend this for salt water use, let alone species like our snapper which crush and chew food, so it's to be expected really, replaced the front trebble today with a size 6 vmc as that snapper above managed to snap off one of the points, between that and the fact it's not a through-wire lure I am wondering what will happen if something decent gets it's jaws around it, but i'm willing to cross that bridge when i come to it. can also see where i've added a split-shot to the front tow point, as above it's been designed with fresh water in mind, so it'll suspend (neither sink-nor float but hold at the same depth) when paused in fresh water, but because the density of salt water is a bit different it needs a smidgen more weight to suspend in salt water and as Craig W duely observed if it floats up the snapper that were stalking it sudenly loose interest, but if it stays level or sinks slowly they strike. Might also note a little rust around the tie off point, totally my fault, neglected to rinse it after an outing, need to remember to do that each time, just like with your rods and reels, i've taken to smearing a little bit of ocean angler "secret sause" on them as a rust protectant after use, works like any grease, except i know it doesn't put fish off. I got a rapala CD9 magnum sinking the other day from rod'n'reel in new market which is actually designed for saltwater and built tougher so keen to give that a go next outing, the smaller cd7 size of the same should be good also.
here's the other favourite: Sebile flat shad 66xhsk (66mm extra heavy sinking) in blue althea, for land bassed purposes a regular sinking model would perhaps be a bit better, gives ya more fluttler/swim time on the way down, and that's when most of the action seems to happen, they are out there/available in shops but most are the extra heavy variety for boat anglers, but hey this is great in areas with a bit of current going by.
here's a flat shad re-rigged with single hooks, the only place i know of that stocks single hooks of this size with the eyes in this orientation (called in-line eyes) is go-fish tackle in northcote, the added flashabou and maribou has it partly there because some of it is glow in the dark and/or uv reflective, but also because lures get designed to swim properly with the size and weight of hook they come with, for some lures (flat shads are less affected than some others) changing hooks can have a drastic effect on the lures action and presentation, so when changing hooks it's often important to make sue the replacement has a similar weight and water-drag as the hook you've just pulled off, so a single hook with fly-material added is aiming to have the same water drag as a trebble.
Browndog: yeah going from braid to fluro i tie FG knots, kinda fiddly and slow, but it's the best, great strength and superb casting, spend a bit of time infront of youtube following along and tieing the knot 4-5 times in a row one evening and you'll know it for life, there's a method which uses the reel on the rod with the line going threw the guides that i find works best for me, see if i can find the vid for ya fish i posted it a while back, **WARNING WARNING** don't have you drag up tight when you do this, it'll point load the rod and break it!!
the advantage of doing this is if you get terminally snagged and bust off it's generally the knot at the other end that pops, so you get to keep the leader and can get back into it quickly, though with hard bodies it's generally just a trebble in the kelp, or if it is hooked up to rock the trebble will often straiten before anything breaks for me (20lb braid 30lb leader)
next best is a slim beauty knot done with 6 turns up and 6 turns down, casts reasonably and decent strength. I'm generally running 10-12 foot leaders to keep the braid out of harms way when a fish goes to ground, so swivels aren't an option really, and unless your using a lure that spins they're not needed, braid deals with the line twist that comes with string being taken on spin reels much better than mono.
connection to the lures i often use clips just so i can chop'n'change between different things, here's the 2 i use most, i don't use genies simply because i cant get 'em inside the cupped face of the small poppers i have:
the one on the left i got from yehaa and it's brought in by holiday tackle, works well for most things except softbait jigheads, because it's a double thickness of wire it kinda jams in the eye of a jighead and doesn't swing around, but otherwise good and versatile, the one on the right came from a place called Oscarma fishing internatinal in dominion road, i couldn't tell you the brand name as i can't read chinese charectors, but it's a fairly common design world wide, bit fidly to get inside the cupped face of a popper, but otherwise quiet versatile.
also i'll run a uni-knot with it loosened to give a loop, some don't like this method saying it causes friction when it tightens on hookup and kills the line (fluro is especially succeptable to heat) i've not had that problem myself, but then again i'm an anal ******* on that knot when i tie it, if every wrap isn't in the right place i cut it off and start again, it slides alot smoother when the knot is tied perfect. I'm not a fan of lefties loops and/or rapala knots i've never gotten great strength out of them, but all likely hood that's just me doing something wrong somewhere, thousands of fish are landed on that knot world-wide every year, so go with whatever you trust, but yeah leave space for the lure to swing about in one way or another.
Smudge: not sure what my plans for the weekend are at this stage, but once things sure up i'll let ya know, i like the idea and it'd be a whole heap of fun, so yeah will let ya know.
Kieth: so true, that's what i love about fishing, there's no 'pinacle' to it, and no one right or wrong way to go about it, you can keep explooring new fish species, methods and tackle endlessly. Nothing i've said above (or anything anyone's ever described as a fishing method) is nessecearily "the" way to do things, it's just what i've been doing and what's given me some success so far so i'm passing on what i've learnt in hopes that some of it's usefull to someone else. I always like hearing new ideas and theories and testing things, the great thing about how global the world is now is that i can jump on amazon and get a book from the NE coast of the states, a book from the gulf of mexico, a book from the US west coast, a book from the UK, a book from south africa, a book from the uk and a book from australia, watch videos from japan all on shore bassed lure fishing, and gain something different and useful from each and every source that i can apply to fishing lures from the shore here! it's great!
Joined: 05 Jan 2010
Location: Pukekohe
Status: Offline
Points: 943
Thanks for sharing the info Michael, I'm finding this a really
challenging and interesting way to fish, lots of fun learning and
trading knowledge.
Went up to Orpheus Point yesterday and fished
for a while on an outgoing tide, managed a really nice Trev on a Salt
Water X-Rap SXR08 (see below). Stoked as its my first fish on a Rapala
since I started buying them last year. I was interested to see that you where using the smaller Rapalas and having success on them, I've mainly been focusing
on larger Max Raps (110mm), with no success, after reading your posts
decided to drop down a few sizes, also slowed my retrieve rate down,
with no twitching, so just a simple retrieve. No picture of the fish as
the hook came free as I was lifting him up out of the water. But its a nice feeling to persist with something and have it finally show a result, or close to it!!
h
Got this off Ebay, although I've seen the odd saltwater Rapala available on Trade Me.
Make sure you take Smudge up on his offer, his little spot goes off!
Good on you for getting the trev Brown Dog! Pity he slipped off.
Great thread MJ! My best take-away (as I'm really a born-again fly fisho now) is using Secret Sauce as a rust arrester. Great idea.
Those in-line hooks from Go-fish look great. I have a whole lot called "Trouting Singles" from Japan via Aus that you're welcome to if you want them. They are very rust prone.
Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Location: Whangaparaoa
Status: Offline
Points: 3621
That aussie fishing show "Adventure Bound" had en episode where thhey were trolling minnows on downriggers for snapper, using light spinning gear. Looked like a lot of fun.
Joined: 22 May 2008
Location: Auckland
Status: Offline
Points: 1555
That's great Paul! hopefully it's the 1st of many more to come.
Yeah having fish drop off is all too comon with hardbodies, those trebbles don't always get a good hold, gotta keep 'em razor sharp to convert as many bites into hookups aswell, I'd learnt to fight fish as gently as possible and have a net handy always early on aswell
out of interest, does that x-rap float, suspend or sink?? what kinda depth does it run at and what depth were you fishing? (basicly did it get hit close to the bottom, mid-water or up high?)
Joined: 05 Jan 2010
Location: Pukekohe
Status: Offline
Points: 943
Those X-Raps are a suspending bait Michael, the 8cm in the picture has a running depth of 3-5ft, although I think 5ft would be absolute max.Dont know if you have ever fished Orpheus but it gets pretty shallow at low tide, when I was fishing there I'm picking the water would have been between 8 - 10 feet deep, so I'm about midway in the column.
Is that a split shot on the belly of that X-Rap Shad? Or are you placing the extra weight on the trace near the tow point?? Bought a couple of those today, silver and yellow perch, guna give em a try out this weekend, time permitting. Check out Marine Deals, they have XRS6 and CD7's for $14.99 each.
Joined: 04 Jan 2008
Location: New Zealand
Status: Offline
Points: 2535
Good stuff Mike, great to catch up at the boat show last week, your enthusiasm and dedication would put a lot of us boat owners to shame, well done on showing us what happens when you stick to your "fish your feet"plan.
Dont take life too seriously.....no one gets out alive any way.
Joined: 22 May 2008
Location: Auckland
Status: Offline
Points: 1555
cool thanks for sharing that info brown dog, it came in handy yesterday, we had a solid trev hanging around in the berly and i was determined to get it on a lure, unlike snapper it was happy to cruise around in mid water and approach and swipe the lures there, also it was more interested by bigger/faster movements rather than the subtle ones that interest snapper. that's what i love about sight fishing you can learn so much if your watching what's happening. Fustratingly it was racing up to the lures (rapala cd5, rapala xrap, sebile flat shad) and just kinda kissing/nudging them and then turning away, seemed like it was testing them and the deciding they weren't food so not trying to eat them. should have smothered one in secret sauce to see if it was a taste issue or texture issue (hard plastic feels different to it's normal food obviously) but didn't think of that at the time, eventually got it to take a pink-shine gulp jigging grub only to have the hook pull strait away, doh!
yeah the split shot is on the belly, where i typed "tow point" i meant hook attachment point hehe.
Thanks Fozzie, good to see you there and chat too. one disadvantage land bassed anglers have vs boaties is if the fishing is slow in the spot we've chosen we can't just pull the anchor/drouge and whizz off elcewhere quickly/easily, that forces us to sit it out threw slow fishing untill things do start to happen, and/or keep trying different things/approaches. if your observant to what's going on it teaches you alot.
got a wee rapala cd5 from Rod'n'Reel in New Market the other week, it went really well, although there was only small snapper around whilst the sun was up, what was around got stuck into it that's for sure, probably the best/more consistant bites/hookups i've had on a lure so far.
Hey fellas just had a small TAS moment & got one of the Sebiles articulated magic swimmer sinking to 6-9' lures. What do you guys think or anyone used them before? Cheers Pete
Had a couple of follows by kingis this season with mine but no takers yet.They have worked well overseas for me with a few coral trout,red bass & small GTs finding them hard to resist.As Brown Dog says they have a great swimming action.
Joined: 22 May 2008
Location: Auckland
Status: Offline
Points: 1555
nice one! that was a cool video paul, what was it filmed/edited with?
was in coromandel over the weekend, other than lots of poppering/stickbaiting for kings that never showed up on the final day didn't use alot of hard-boddies, i did however do a bit of shore-jigging. Buggered if i know where this photo would actually belong, so i'll just put it here haha!
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