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Lockdown list: your top 3 softbaits
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Great input Strx7 - very interesting observations. I believe you're right re harbour fishing over sand (observations up at Rangaunu and at home in the Waitemata). Fish feeding exactly as you describe tend to hit after the bait has landed on the bottom and sat for a couple of seconds, or during a slow hopping retrieve, with pauses.
Work up conditions would be the exception (under achovy bust ups - I don't get out far enough for pilchard work ups).
But around rocky coastlines the fish are feeding differently and 'the drop' seems to be much more important. Perhaps they sit in the kelp and ambush prey when not grazing on kina etc.
These are the gold curly tails I was mentioning, 5,7”
Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job - Paul Schullery
Nice natural colour, quite 'squidy' in the water, i imagine.
Not Gulp or Zman I take it, given the sizes?
 Downtown wrote:Haven’t used the 8” a lot but have caught snaps to around 10lb on them. Have just used 7/0 mustard or headlocks jig heads 8/0 would be better but haven’t seen any locally.  These would be more of my regulars |
Mate, you might be interested to see this YouTube vid from an American guy fishing out at the Mokes and pins back towards Auckland.
One of them used the 8" Mag Swimz (in your Calico Candy colour) and ZMan Heroz 10" kind of speed jigging up from the bottom. Seemed to do as well as the guys using knife jigs on the kingies. Looks like he was using 4oz Berkley Nitro jigheads.
I really like white. When Kmart had a closing sale of its fishing gear I bought about 10 packets of white gulp 5 inch shads for $2 a packet. They worked really well.
Recently I've found stock of white crazylegs which are working awesome too. I'm also a fan of the humble 4 inch minnow. They are quite durable for a gulp and sink really fast.
So my 3 top baits
1- gulp white 5 inch jerkshad/crazylegs
2- gulp jigging grubs or curly tails 3 or 4 inch in either chartreuse or brown
3- zman 4 or 5 inch paddletails in various colors.
Recently I've found stock of white crazylegs which are working awesome too. I'm also a fan of the humble 4 inch minnow. They are quite durable for a gulp and sink really fast.
So my 3 top baits
1- gulp white 5 inch jerkshad/crazylegs
2- gulp jigging grubs or curly tails 3 or 4 inch in either chartreuse or brown
3- zman 4 or 5 inch paddletails in various colors.
Can't argue with that selection - I also got a packet of the White Glow crazy leg jerk shads recently. I've done well on all the colours (have never tried sapphire shine, though), but I've noticed watching YouTube clips that the Aussies love using white/pearl softbaits so i thought I'd give them a go.
Got some 2oz 8/0 TT Lures HeadlockZ HD from Marine Deals. A good fit for my larger Hogy soft baits. Should cast well. Can't wait to try them on surface kingfish.
that looks like a really nicely balanced rig. Pink is supposed to be a killer on kingies, not that I can vouch for that unfortunately!!
As per my post just up above, it'd be worth trying over deep spots as well as surface, with a bit of a mechanical jig action.
- TT Headlockz seem really good from my use so far, particularly the hook in comparison to Lightbulbs.They don't have any UV spot eyes, but as others have mentioned, you can DIY that effect - and if the whole lure body is blasted with UV, i can't see that UV eyes would make a difference.
Cheers. What's strange about the bigger HeadlockZ is that the hook shank doesn't come out the jig head in the middle. It make rigging a little harder to get right. Don't understand why they are designed like this.
I am no engineer, but I think it's because the Gamakatsu hooks the heaviest TT lures jigheads are based on are a fixed design in terms of where the 90 degree bend below the hook eye is (you can buy the hooks without the lead on for 'weedless' rigging in estuaries etc in Oz). So they have to fit the lead on however they can and there's more on one side of the hook shank than the other.
And incidentally, for Gulp fans, you might like to do some L3 retail therapy from local jet ski fisho Andrew Hill's website - he's got some excellent deals on the bigger Gulp patterns at the moment. A fair bit cheaper than even Marine Deals in some of the shapes.
i have no connection to him, but have bought some jigs off him once and it was a reliable service.
| The Tamure Kid wrote: As per my post just up above, it'd be worth trying over deep spots as well as surface, with a bit of a mechanical jig action. |
Good advice, I think that's going to be killer!
| The Tamure Kid wrote: I am no engineer, but I think it's because the Gamakatsu hooks the heaviest TT lures jigheads are based on are a fixed design in terms of where the 90 degree bend below the hook eye is (you can buy the hooks without the lead on for 'weedless' rigging in estuaries etc in Oz). So they have to fit the lead on however they can and there's more on one side of the hook shank than the other. |
You are a knowledgeable man. It doesn't help, but interesting nonetheless!
Fascinating read. I seem to go against the grain but this seems to work for me...
I fish almost exclusively zman 4" curlyz on sand, shallow, deep(30m) and wash fishing in whatever color is cheapest as i came to the conclusion a while ago that the best color is which ever you believe in most.
I noticed with myself at least that i used to love pink lures and if fishing was slow i would change color and style but didn't put the same effort in or persevere as much with it as i would a favorite color.
I mostly fish the drop casting ahead of my drift but by fishing the drop i mean that in 10m deep water ill let the lure drop to 7-8m then do a quick vertical jig type retrieve to dart the lure up a few metres then allow it to drop down to 7-8m again. Weird i know but it works.
I'll fish curlyz with 1/8th even, Thursday just been i was kayak fishing bream bay in 12-16m over sand/sandstone bottom. Kahawai and Snapper all through the water column.
Early morning 3/8th oz in coconut ice was getting the snapper on the drop down near the bottom, the bite died of considerably. I made the change to 1/2 oz, Kahawai quickly became a nuisance so made the change to 1/8th oz... from then almost every single cast resulted in a good snap of 4-8lb in the top half of the water column, some i would even say were even within the top 2m of water column and no more Kahawai.
Meanwhile my mate was fishing 5" jerkshad on 3/8th oz in nuked pilchard and was getting most fish on the first few flicks after hitting sand but i got the better sized fish for sure.
In no particular order.
Zman jerk shad 5inch bruised banana
Zman jerk shad 7inch, nuked pilchard
Squidgies Flick bait, flash prawn colour.
Zman - atomic sunrise, motor oil, coconut ice etc all good too
Squidgies - slimey colour or pearl- great on kingfish
Mustad or tt lures jigheads.
Those are my go to ones anyway.
| Fishy11 wrote: In no particular order. Zman jerk shad 5inch bruised banana Zman jerk shad 7inch, nuked pilchard Squidgies Flick bait, flash prawn colour. Zman - atomic sunrise, motor oil, coconut ice etc all good too Squidgies - slimey colour or pearl- great on kingfish Mustad or tt lures jigheads. Those are my go to ones anyway. |
you don't get many Squidgies fans over here these days, so it's interesting to see you still use them. I have a few packets that I picked up or was given in Australia, including some curly tail ones.
I saw an old Matt Watson vid the other day and he used the Squidgies as I think they were distributed or owned by Shimano. He seemed to do pretty well.
I think Squidgies has stopped making the flick bait - they don't have them on their website.
I should give mine a go.
Yeah those squidgie flash prawn work really well. It is like a lighter shade of new penny.
The Tamure Kid wrote:
you don't get many Squidgies fans over here these days, so it's interesting to see you still use them. I have a few packets that I picked up or was given in Australia, including some curly tail ones. I saw an old Matt Watson vid the other day and he used the Squidgies as I think they were distributed or owned by Shimano. He seemed to do pretty well. I think Squidgies has stopped making the flick bait - they don't have them on their website. I should give mine a go. |
Yeah first colour i ever tried in them years back was the flash prawn in 110mm, actually casting landbased up Coro when it was too rough to get out in the boat. Worked well so got a few other colours and larger sizes. I fish topwater and jig way more than i softbait but is still good fun giving it a go especially when the fish are on the chew.
Marine deals still have some stock and can still get them from Aussie shops online.
Zman curly tails, 4 or 5 inch (preferably 5 inch, however they arent
sold in NZ) has to be the single most consistent softbait I've ever
used. A close second is the atomic sunrise 7".
5" curly tail. The 4" type works well too. I've noticed these ones seem to do well when the fishing is a bit tough, and not much is biting. Any colour works well in this shape but coconut ice is always the standout.
28lbs on the atomic sunrise 7". This colour and shape is defenitely the best for fishing 30-40m foul through the spawning season. We've had days fishing the atomic sunrise getting 10-17lb snappers every drop with the occasional 20+, meanwhile no action on different colours and shapes.
wow, those are superb fish.
As you'll see right at the top of the thread, I too love the 5" curly tailz - my favourite is the Midnight Oil, which is Motor Oil with gold flecks. That and the plain Motor Oil have accounted for my best snapper so far on softies, and a decent kingie on the retrieve. Also some solid trevs up north.
If you straighten out the tail it's actually longer than 5" and with the fat body it's got a fairly decent profile. I get mine from Australia, well worth the postage when I get a few packets.
Sea Reason posted a pic of a donkey Tiri snapper on the Atomic Sunrise jerk shad in spring. There appears to be something special about it at that time of year, and what you've said reinforces that.
Great post.
Yeah motor oil has been good for me too, will have to try midnight oil. Hopefully Ocean Angler brings them to NZ, they brought the 8" jerkshads in which have also been really good for big snapper, so the 5" curly tails might be next on the list.
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