It’s late December now and we are almost a month into summer. Blazing Heat!
Merry Christmas to everyone who’s reading this blog and I wish you all great holidays and hopefully get to wet your lines !
Pelagics are now fully abundant in the harbour now and they are busting up and terrorising the microbait everyday.
Here’s a quick recap of a nice topwater session one of our staff Jason and Sydney Angler Nabu (His Youtube : GogogoFishing Nabu Channel) had a week ago.
Jason’s Tackle:
Rod: Xoox Mobility Game GRIII 865M PE 1.2 Max
Reel: 23 Shimano Stradic FM C3000HG
Braid: Shimano Grappler PE1.2 24lb 300m Multi Colour
Leader: Duel Pink Flurocarbon Size 6 22lb 2m
Nabu’s Tackle:
Rod: Majorcraft Crosride 5G 962mh
Reel: 24 Shimano Twinpower C5000XG
Braid: Varivas Avani Jigging 10x10 Max Power X9 PE 2.5
Leader: Duel Pink Fluorocarbon 40lb
We arrived to the local spot at sunrise around 5 o’clock to set up our gears and camera. During the low light conditions there wasn’t any hard bust ups that we kind of expected but we could see some fleeing baitfish.
Jason brought his new 5 piece Xoox Travel Rod today in 8’6 which hosts PE 1.2 max and have a max cast weight of 28 grams. It’s perfect for casting those 15-25 gram poppers at busts-ups inside the harbour.
While he was still setting up, on the third cast Nabu was already onto two fish on lure ! He managed to get a double hit on his tackle house feed popper CFP 121 in the clear by doing quick long side sweeps. One bonito on each of his treble!
It's a sign of the pelagics being very active today.
Within a few casts in Nabu is on again on his Tackle House feed popper. This time a single bonito around 45cm. Jason on his next pop had hooked up with a decent bonito that had struck his 105mm Maria popqueen in the clear colour. Good fun on the PE 1.2 Set up!
Next up Nabu decided to rotate through different floating stickbaits and sinking pencils in his tackle box to see which ones are more effective towards these pelagics. Numerous casts in and there wasnt any reaction at all to the lures with solid colours but he managed to hook a decent tailor on his Duel Monster Shot 125mm Clear colour while searching through the water column.
As Jason was observing the action of the Bassday Sugapen 120 from doing short rod twitches he watched his lure get smacked. He’s onto a better one this time which felt heavier and initially he thought it might be a rat king which chased his lure in a few casts earlier.
He has his drag set tight and after a minute he managed to bring in a bigger bonito at 50cm which was the biggest of the day.
After that Nabu switched to a Palms Rushdive 140 Clear colour and first cast in he pulled out another bonito.
Clear Colour stickbaits and poppers was the most effective colourway and lure type today which even beats the sinking minnows. The clear colourway allows the lure’s actual sihoulette to be camoflouaged when you work your lure.
When fish are feeding on micro bait, it is the best colour to use, whether your lure is a big profile or a smaller one.
And that was end of the short 90-minute session! In total, we managed to get ourselves onto 8 Bonitos and 1 tailor. It is early summer but seems like pelagics are very active now around the harbour and its time to wet your topwater lures for them!
For the Maria Popqueen 105mm, Jason prefers to switch the front trebles to a Owner Cultiva ST 66 so its heavier in the front and helps the popper dive and swim and create a better bubble trail when long sweeped.