TOP TIPS FOR SPRING • FISHING TACKLE EXTRA INSIDE NEW FIND THE
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Features
QLD
Catch a feed off the rocks • Top tips for better fishing • Kayaking Swansea flats • Howqua River fishing • Harmony for Corner Inlet •
NSW
Tried & Tested
Daiwa Bait Junkie soft plastics • Sea Jay 590 Titan with Yamaha 150hp • Lowrance Ghost •
WA
Location Spotlight October, 2020 ISSN 2652-5798
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INSIDE
Gary Brown takes us rock fishing
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CONTENTS
OUR COVER October 2020, Vol. 1 No.6 TAS
QUEENSLAND Gold Coast 14 Southern Bay 16 Brisbane 18 Northern Bay 20 Noosa 22 Hervey Bay 24 Bundaberg 26 Mackay 27 Whitsundays 32 Townsville 33 Hinchinbrook 34 Cairns 35 Port Douglas 36 Cooktown 37 Cape York 36 Freshwater 38 NEW SOUTH WALES Pittwater 46 Sydney North 47 Sydney Rock 48 Sydney South 50 Ballina 52 Coffs Harbour 54 Hastings 56 Forster 57 Port Stephens 58 Central Coast 59 Illawarra 60 Batemans Bay 61 Bermagui 62 Tathra 62 Albury/Wodonga 68 Batlow 69 Hunter Valley 70 New England Rivers 70 Canberra 71 VICTORIA West Coast 80 Warrnambool 81 Apollo Bay 80 Cobden 81 Geelong 82 PPB West 84 PPB East 85 Phillip Island 86 Lakes Entrance 86 Gippsland Lakes 88 Marlo 89 Mallacoota 89 Robinvale 90 Wangaratta 92 Shepparton 94 Bendigo 90 Crater Lakes 94 Ballarat 91 Eildon 96 TASMANIA Hobart 97 6
OCTOBER 2020
From the editor’s Desk...
WA
Vera Cummings (8yo) took out junior first prize at a local fishing comp. The trout measured 58cm and she won a kayak for her effort. A Cara Cummings image. Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.
It’s been a busy month. Actually, since COVID, they have all been busy months. First it was condensing the magazines into the one title. Then it was learning to produce our live show, ABT Lockdown Live, for the sister company ABT. Now it’s full on back into boat testing and reviews. But we love it. Not just that the job is always changing and that we have to learn new things to get it done, but as we complete each new project, we learn a lot as we go. Take the 20lb braided line test that we completed this month – it’s in the Tackle liftout in this edition. There’s a whole lot of work that goes into each of these: from sourcing the test product to borrowing the testing machines, doing all of the studio photography and then creating a test regime that will stand up to the rigours of a lot of interested companies. Initially we were super keen to produce pile of lists, from the cheapest per metre to the most abrasion resistant lines
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WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance 100 Augusta 101 Busselton 102 Bunbury 102 Mandurah 103 Metro 104 Lancelin 106 Geraldton 109 Exmouth 108 Broome 110 Karratha 110 Freshwater 112
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126 Whittley Marine
FISHING MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Qld Fishing Monthly Pty Ltd
REGULAR FEATURES Fishing off the rocks 8 Starlo’s back to basics 12 Sheik of the Creek 31 Tech Tricks 40 Kayaking Swansea flats 66 What’s New Fishing 72 Harmony for Corner Inlet 76 How to fish Howqua River 78 Trout fishing with kids 79 WIRF 98 Recfishwest 105 Tide page 115 Trades and Services 116 Tournaments 118 Track my Fish 122 Boat Test: Sea Jay Titan 590 124 COMPS AND OFFERS Find the logo Sub page Fun page
through to the strongest per diameter. But instead, what we learnt is that there’s so much variability in the description of the lines that it just wasn’t a fair fight. Did you know that there’s no spools of 20lb braided line that we could find that actually broke at 20lb? The lightest broke at around 23lb and the heaviest at over 50! Same with diameters. Companies use as many ways to measure diameter as there are line companies. So we measured it ourselves. And let’s not talk about abrasion resistance. There’s even more ways to measure that and let me give you a hint, if you want to start a spirited discussion about methodology, just talk to a few line companies about the best way to do that. But we did it. And we analysed the results. The full story is in the article in the Tackle Guide, but in short all we really discovered was that with most of these lists, it’s not really a fair fight. There’s such a discrepancy in labelling that the tests weren’t apples-for-apples. Even when we compared our own results, we found that there were correlations between diameter, strength and abrasion resistance. In the future, we’d probably ignore what’s on the label and compare lines of the same diameter … or lines of the same breaking strength. Does it mean that there needs to be a standard for measuring braid? We think so. Don’t hold your breath waiting, though, and in the meantime, please enjoy the rest that the magazine has to offer.
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Rock fishing for bread and butter species tidal conditions, as it will govern whether you need to change or adjust your rigs to suit the conditions. When chasing luderick, you will need to change the depth of your float; for bream, trevally and drummer it’s just as simple as changing the weight of your running sinker or maybe rigging up a paternoster rig so that you can cast out further onto those sandy patches. One thing that is in
SYDNEY SOUTH
Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au
Not everyone has the opportunity or equipment to go and chase marlin, tuna, kingfish, cobia and other larger fish species off the rocks, but everyone can chase what I class as ‘bread and butter’ fish with the minimum of time, effort and gear. Yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid are predominately what I class as bread and butter fish. You don’t need to have a lot of gear, they are usually readily caught in many safe spots off the rocks, they give you a great tussle and they are great on the plate. So, you ask what type of gear do you need? It can be as simple as a rod and reel, a few small
Weather and Sea Breeze. I find them much better than a tide chart from your local tackle shop as you can type in the area that you are going to fish and get an accurate time. INFLUENCE OF THE WEATHER Before any fishing trip that you make to the rocks you will need to pay close attention to the current weather reports, as well as the long-range forecast.
First and last light is usually the best time to fish off the rocks. Don’t forget to go on those overcast and drizzling days as they too can be very productive.
If you keep it simple when fishing off the rocks you will be able to move from spot to spot easily. All you need is a bucket with some berley, a shoulder bag to put your small tackle box in and some bait.
ball sinkers, some hooks and your bait! In this article I will endeavour to cover what works for me when I am targeting yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid off the rocks. Covering areas to look out for, gear to use, what type of baits and techniques that have worked for me over the years. THE INFLUENCE OF THE TIDES For me, the tide and the variance in the lows and high are what I concentrate my fishing off the rocks around. In most populated parts of Australia there will be a tide change around every six hours and the difference between the depth of the low and high water will depend on at
what stage the 28-day lunar cycle is at. For example, you could be fishing Windy Point in Southern Sydney for yellowfin bream, drummer and luderick at the beginning of the month when the moon is in the first quarter and you have a low at 80cm and a high tide of 1.4m. Then come back and fish the same place when there is a new moon and find that you have a low tide or 20cm and high tide of 1.9m. What this does is to allow the fish to forage further up onto the rocky areas that they normally won’t be able to get to during the much higher tides and push them further
The author bleeds both his drummer and trevally, before he scales and guts them. Once they get home he carefully fillets, skins and debones them. This assures that the meat stays in tip-top condition. anglers’ favour is that the tidal movements are very predictable and can be forecast well in advance, making it much
This will give you an idea of the sea conditions you can expect at the time that you are planning to go fishing. It’s better to be
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OCTOBER 2020
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These fish were caught while fishing beside a stormwater drain. The same species, plus bream, tarwhine, drummer, trevally and salmon can be caught while fishing those gutters that run right beside the rocks. out off the rocks when the tide is near its lowest. Anglers need to take note of these different
easier to plan that next fishing outing. This can be achieved by checking online with BOM, Willy
safe than sorry. Way too many anglers have come unstuck by not doing their research before they go.
While the angler in the distance is fishing the deep water off this ledge, the other angler is checking out the conditions before he decides to have a fish. There is a particular spot that I often fish on the south coast of NSW. The rock’s ledge is about a metre off the water and it’s not safe to fish when there is any type of swell about. Having no swell at this spot makes it a hard place to fish, unless you take the time to berley up with plenty of stale bread and allow the current that passes through there to take the berley away and bring the fish to just below your feet. It’s just a matter of fishing very light. Sometimes the weight of the bait is enough to cast it out into the berley trail. These very slight conditions can occur when winds from the west have been blowing for a while. This tends to flatten them out. Or you may look at a weather map and see that the isobars are very close together. This type of weather pattern usually means that you are going to experience a lot of high winds for a few days in a row. It could also mean that the seas could rise with the incoming tide.
Care does need to be taken as many anglers will be led into a false sense of security seeing that the water is flat. What is actually happening is the wind is pushing the swell out to sea and once the blow has eased the swell will come back to the shore. These rather large swells are what we call a ground swell. TIDES AND THE LUNAR INFLUENCE OFF THE ROCKS A few years back I fished a rock ledge where a very small gutter lead into a large and open hole at Fingal Bay for yellowfin bream, drummer, luderick and trevally. It’s a place that the fish can only access when the tide is around 1.8m and the swell is running from the north. The moon had to be two or three days either side of its fullest and still out during the early part of the morning. On that same headland there is another small gutter that can only be fished near the bottom of the tide and there has to be a bit of a southerly swell
a few more recent photos. After organizing with a mate of mine to go and chase bream, trevally and some salmon, I needed to do a bit of research into what the weather conditions were going to be like. The night (11pm) before, Willy Weather said that the winds were going to be coming from the south. We decided to fish off a small rocky outcrop at Jibbon, due to the fact that they faced north. Getting up in the early hours of the following morning the forecast had changed as a high pressure had come through and now the wind was going to come from the NW and gust up to 30-knots. Change of plans. It was off to the northern
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Look at how simple it is! A couple of outfits, a few squid jigs, a knife and a bucket. running and the moon is not on its back. To put this article together I had to go and get
If you are fishing an area and keep on getting snagged, try using a bobby cork and suspend your bait under it. The 3/8 A-Just-a Bubble with a No.2 running ball sinker and fresh cabbage enticed these drummer out of their caves.
end of Coaldale. The conditions were prefect. The swell was very low and spaced wide apart, there was enough wash to create some cover for the fish. Arriving at 6.30am was two hours of fishing time before and after the high tide at 8.30am. Perfect. This resulted in a couple of salmon and two yellowfin bream. All were caught on peeled Hawkesbury River prawns. SUGGESTED OUTFITS TO USE Initially a rod was supposed to be an extension of your arm, which offered some line control when fighting a fish. The springy or flexible tip would provide a cushioning or act as shock absorbent. This meant that you could use lighter line to fight much bigger fish. Then came the fishing reel which is a cylindrical device attached to a fishing rod used in winding and
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To page 10
OCTOBER 2020
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Make the most of the countdown HINCHINBROOK
Ian Moody info@ianmoodyfishing.com
Getting into the business end of the barra season now with not much longer to go – closure begins at midnight October 31. We had our first taste of the warmer weather right at the end of August, with 25ºC water temps in the morning. Most of my usual haunts had quickly populated with good
numbers of big barra and right on cue. Clients have started to enjoy good captures of fish ranging from 72cm up to my biggest for the year at 107cm. Not to mention we had two more close calls on metre-plus barra that we could not seal the deal on. Both live baiting and handcasting hardbodies have been doing the job nicely. However, around the beginning of September a long lasting southeast trade wind developed which
blasted us with cool winds and showers, therefore dropping the water temperature dramatically once again. It can be frustrating to finally see that glimpse of red hot big fish action only to get push backed again thanks to the weather. The weather forecasters have been warning us of a big La Niña weather pattern this year, which we will see longer and stronger wind cycles, more rain and cyclones. I guess we will
Make the most of the end of season barra. There are still plenty about like this 87cm specimen.
New
find out how accurate they will be. One thing that I’ve always noticed growing up in the far north is that years of colder winters have bigger wet/cyclone seasons that follow them. I think we are really due for a big one as I’ve never seen so many areas in the mouths of rivers and creeks so badly silted up in my life. In some places I’m seeing mangrove forests reclaiming areas I’ve never seen before in my life, areas where I once used to catch fish are now almost high and dry and full of metre high mangroves. This month I anticipate that the water temperatures will increase more but it’s going to be erratic with the windy weather patterns. Making the most of areas in the early morning before the wind jumps up will be a factor I’ll be using a lot during October. Some areas I love to fish for barra up at Hinchinbrook love that south-to-southeast wind flow but if it gets too much easterly in it, it shuts them down and narrows my options for the larger fish. Keeping an eye out for those surface feeding boofs is where I’m always focused on during the day, as quite
Brad Hill with a 107cm barra he caught near the rocky headland not far from the boat. often if you cast your lure close to the same area where one occurred there is a high chance there is a barra still very close to the spot. This was exactly the case for the 107cm we caught very recently on charter for angler Bradley Hill. Upon seeing a massive ‘boof’ on a rocky headland not far from the boat, I quickly motored up closer to the spot on the electric and within six casts she took the lure. October also sees the tide patterns increase in size, which I find makes for more enjoyable lure fishing scenarios. I much prefer the larger tides at Hinchy as quite often it helps us interact with the larger fish travelling out on the flats a lot more.
• If you’re looking to try your luck at ticking that metre-plus barramundi off your bucket list, it is best to get in and book early for 2021 as the good tides often get snapped up by my regular clients. February, March, April and May are also prime times for Large Barra. We are now operating charters for up to three clients abiding by social distancing laws. Gift vouchers can also be purchased if your looking for birthday or Christmas gifts. You can email us at info@ ianmoodysportfishing.com or phone us on 0402 339 459. Barra season closes midnight October 31, so get in early to secure a booking for this year or even for the 2021 season.
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OCTOBER 2020
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Red hot fishing to be expected CAIRNS
Dan Kaggelis dkaggelis@gmail.com
There has never been a better time of year to be fishing the Cairns Net Free Zone so get your fishing rod and get up here fast! With warmer days comes warmer water temperatures and this spells the wake up call for many target species in the Net Free Zone. Barramundi have already started biting consistently in all systems with some huge fish coming out of the Trinity Inlet. If you are targeting these larger fish, you want to be fishing the deeper bends of the inlet or the mouths of some of the creeks on the run-out tide.
The NFZ is on fire, so get up here.
Jacks are chewing hard on small paddle-tail plastics. work better. In cleaner water, I prefer green colours. Speaking of jacks, these red devils are also firing up in a big way. With clean water around, they are smashing lures all over the place. It is best to target
jacks over the incoming tide, especially if you are luring snags and structures. Jacks will be close to structure so a weedless soft plastic fished as tight to structure is your best bet. I have been having the most success using the Molix RT Shads in 3” fished over a 1/4oz weedless rig. Just pitch them into the snags and then employ a slow roll retrieve back to the boat. You will come up tight, usually in the first metre, so be ready to thumb that drag and get them away from structure. Golden snapper have also been biting well in the NFZ,
especially the Inlet. Those anglers fishing the wrecks and rocky shoaly bottoms out the front of Hemmingway’s Brewery with fresh herring baits have been finding fish up to 80cm. You can also target these fish using soft plastics as well. It is best to fish these spots on the neap tides as they are in the channels and therefore have lots of current. The Cairns Recreational Fishing Group will be launching their Net Free Zone Facebook Page shortly with some awesome competitions for those who like our page – so stay tuned for its release.
Having a quality side imaging sounder will help you find those fish. Live bait is always a good idea but large vibes and prawn style imitations are also producing the goods in these areas. If the weather is reasonable the headlands along the beaches are holding some big fish, but they are a little harder to target as they move up and down the coast. There have been plenty of
smaller barra on the chew as well, with all systems right along the NFZ, which are promising signs of good recruitment and stocking. These smaller fish can be targeted by casting at snags along the banks of creeks. To specifically target barra in these snags, it is essential that you use suspending hardbodied minnows, such
as the Jackall Squirrel or Lucky Craft Pointer. These lures allow you to swim them down to a depth then leave them suspending mid water. You can then twitch them slowly. This gives the barra time to see the lure, stalk it then bite. Unlike jacks, they often need a little more time to make up their mind so these styles of lures
When the weather is being generous the headlands are producing some good barra.
OCTOBER 2020
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WHAT’S NEW DUO BAITS
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The Duo Australia lure range has released a host of new offerings in its revamped line-up for 2020. Whether it’s trekking for trout in Tassie, working lipless crankbaits for bass and yellowbelly in the eastern states, or jigging down deep in WA, the Duo Australia range has you covered in the fresh and the salt, and inshore and offshore. Lipless crankbait anglers can welcome new models with the Realis Apex Vibe 100 and Vibration Nitro 65, super-tuned and designed for optimal performance and bite response. Finesse jerkbait anglers are in for a treat with the Realis Minnow 80SP, tuned and balanced for enhanced casting performance, while its refined hydrodynamic design produces a distinct darting action on the retrieve. Fans of the Realis Pencil topwater series welcome a new 65mm model, which is sure to become a hit with light-tackle surface junkies. For offshore anglers there’s the Press Bait Saira, tailor-made for pelagics with its longbodied jig minnow design that’s irresistible to tuna and kingfish. Saltwater jigging anglers will love the Drag Metal Slim and Slow ranges, with their eye-catching colours, robust construction, and refined design equally suited to impoundment bass. www.daiwafishing.com.au
MERCURY BRAVO FOUR S
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PRODUCT GUIDE
SHIMANO SPECTRUM PLUS
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The new Shimano Spectrum Plus series replaces the previous Eclipse range, and it’s set to be a popular choice with entry level anglers looking for a reliable rod at an affordable price. The rod features a glossy black and white fibreglass blank, durable ceramic ring guides and shaped EVA grip section for comfort and feel. Ideally suited to bait fishing, the tip provides great sensitivity and allows you to easily detect the faintest of bites. This series incorporates many of the popular Eclipse models, and Shimano has also added extra models to round out the range. The Spectrum Plus series is hard wearing rod that is affordable for any entry level angler looking to chase a variety of species, either by land or by fishing off a boat. With 22 models in the series, there’s a rod to suit every fishing style and target species. If you like to travel or easily store your rods, the seven telescopic models offer great versatility. Shimano recommends pairing the new 2020 Spectrum Plus series rods with a Shimano Sienna or FX spinning reel. Price: SRP $29.95-$59.95 www.shimanofish.com.au
OKUMA CAVALLA OVERHEADS
Okuma Cavalla lever drag reels contain the key concepts of Okuma’s industryleading lever drag overhead platforms, taking shape in a more compact and accessible package, and radically advancing the power and performance that is available to everyday anglers. Built tough, the Cavalla’s one-piece, fullymachined, rigid aluminium frame is designed to tolerate more pressure and torque, and it also comes equipped with a Carbonite drag system with Cal’s drag grease, for smooth stopping power, and 17-4 grade stainless steel main and pinion gears for strong, reliable performance. The Cavalla is available in a variety of models in both single-speed and two-speed to cover everything from vertical jigging to live bait fishing, and casting to light trolling for species such as mackerel, kingfish, tuna and billfish. To see the Cavalla in action, check out the ‘Tackle Tactics TV’ YouTube channel. Price: from SRP $499.00 www.okuma.com.au
NEW GOMOKU KENSAKI SIZES
ZEREK LIVE MULLET COLOURS
The popular Gomoku Kensaki jig from Storm is now available in three new sizes – 40g, 80g and 120g – allowing anglers to target even more species. The Gomoku Kensaki, with its superior knife-tip design and asymmetrical shape, has been designed to cut through the water and get down deep like no other micro jig. Keeping the jig stable during its descent are the inline eyelets that enhance the fluttering action under a slack line. When using a ‘lift and fall’ slow-pitch technique, the Gomoku Kensaki will dart aggressively and enticingly upwards as it gets lifted. This is then followed by a very tight horizontal flutter on the fall, pulling in nearby predatory fish. The Kensaki is equipped with two VMC assist hooks, is available in seven colours, and comes in six sizes ranging from 40g to 280g. http://storm.fishing 72
OCTOBER 2020
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Mercury Marine has launched the Bravo Four S forward-facing drive with Smart Tow controls, elevating the art of crafting perfect wakes for wakesurfing, wakeboarding and other tow sports. Digital controls coordinate ballast, surf tabs and propulsion settings under a single user interface. SmartCraft digital technologies, including an upgraded Smart Tow system, come standard with the Bravo Four S drive. These controls allow customisation of the tow sports experience with just a few taps on a Mercury VesselView touchscreen display. You simply select the desired tow sports activity, and the Smart Tow system will display the appropriate controls to dial in the perfect launch acceleration, towing speed and wake characteristics. Other features include enhanced manoeuvrability, especially at low speeds; SmartCraft Digital Throttle & Shift system for precise control, a selection of five props, and more. www.mercurymarine.com.au
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Zerek’s school of Live Mullets just got larger! Three new colours have been added to the range of Zerek Live Mullets, and they are three colours that designers have been badgered about for a while now. The colours are: • DA - dark ale, a clear black with gold flecks; • FB - flying bear, a predominantly white colour scheme; and • OBT - orange belly trout, a spangled perch imitation. The three colours bring the total colours to 13 for the Live Mullet range, a range of lures that features a tough TPE construction and a unique, Kevlar webbed tail to provide the ultimate in realistic action. These three colours will be added to the 4.5” and 5.5” Live Mullet range, and are available now. www.wilsonfishing.com
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TESTING BOOTH
Lowrance Ghost put to the test When my new Lowrance Ghost arrived and I opened the box, I wasn’t disappointed. It was obvious that this motor was made strong and, like other cable steer motors, had a reassuring weight to it. The motor was easy to install on the front of my boat. To connect the Ghost to my sounder unit, I needed the NMEA 2000 network, which required a starter kit from Navico. Again, this was easy and quick to install. The Lowrance Ghost will connect without having the NMEA 2000 network on your sounder, however you won’t get to use all its features and capabilities. You can still use the anchor lock, and steer and drive the motor via the foot pedal. I followed the provided instructions to connect the foot pedal and the GPS aerial to the carbon unit, and then downloaded the Lowrance app for my phone. This app is excellent, it lets you know when your software is out of date for your Ghost, as well as your sounder units. I also received the hand remote, which does not come standard with the Ghost.
The sounder interface is user friendly. Water test As per the manual, I calibrated the GPS and offset of the Ghost. With this done I was ready to go and fish the lake. The first thing I noticed was the good response from the steering using the foot pedal, and how much thrust it had. I rolled the speed dial to maximum, and noticed it had more thrust compared to others I have used in the 24V series. After doing a little bit of fishing I started to play around with the anchor lock. The anchor lock tended to be overly sensitive as it tried to keep me in place. When it was not windy the head of my electric would turn rapidly to try to keep on the spot. It is a common problem on most motors that have anchor/spot lock. Lowrance have done an update, which I downloaded to adjust this problem. A sneaky breeze started to blow in the afternoon, which provided an opportunity to see how well the anchor lock would perform, and again it did not disappoint. The next thing I proceeded to do was to send the Ghost to waypoints, ones I had made prior to that day’s fishing, which was easy to do. Next, I played around with setting a path for the Ghost to follow.
The Ghost has a gas strut to help deploy and stow away the electric motor with ease. On the head of the electric there is a hook, where the pull cable will sit to help control the speed. This is a very handy feature; it’s a small thing but so useful. The Ghost comes with a support leg and Velcro strap so that it doesn’t bounce around while travelling on the trailer or on the water. The next time I took the Ghost out on the water, it was on an electric-only waterway so I could see how efficient this motor was on battery power. I spent a whole day on Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast, fishing and travelling between spots, and at the end of the day I still had plenty of battery life. I also used the hand control, in conjunction with coarse lock. Course lock is a feature similar to autopilot. When it is in this mode you can steer from the hand remote as well as from the sounder unit. When turning the motor in this function, the motor makes slight adjustments when steering. If you try to turn with the foot pedal it will turn off this mode and the electric motor will stop. I also tried heading lock, which is like constant propulsion. When in this mode the hand controller will steer the boat sharply, with a similar response to the foot pedal. Hand remote The hand remote is basic – it has speed up and down, and steering left and right. There is a pulse button, which also activates the anchor lock when held down. The hand remote has all the functions that I need for a day’s fishing. When I am doing my ABT BASS Electric competitions, at take-off I can turn on and change the speed and steer while I am turning on my transom-mounted electric motor. Unlike other hand remotes it does not have
The Lowrance Ghost is very easy to install and use. The foot pedal provides responsive steering. The hand remote is an optional extra. Smooth operator The foot pedal is exceptionally smooth under foot, not heavy like traditional cable steer bow mount electric motors. This makes a day’s fishing a lot easier on your back. The motor is not loud and doesn’t make an annoying sound when it steers, or beep every time you put your foot on the propulsion button. The foot petal has key buttons that can
The gas strut helps you to deploy and stow away the motor with ease. an LCD screen. Therefore, when in anchor lock mode or in heavy winds you cannot tell at what percentage or what speed the motor is doing, which is essential when you want to keep check of the battery usage. Mind you, cable steer motors never had hand remotes before this new wave of next generation GPS spot lock cable steer motors. The hand remote works well with everything and is easy to use.
Lowrance have put a huge amount of R&D and testing into the new Ghost.
be set to different functions. There are four key buttons found on the foot pedal. One is set with the anchor lock as standard and the other three are used at your discretion via your sounder in the settings for the Ghost. I have set one of the buttons to mark waypoints, as my sounder is in the middle of my boat, not up front on the bow, so it is easy for me to make a waypoint when fishing and out of reach of my sounder screen. It is more comfortable with the foot pedal counter sunk into the front deck of the boat because, with all cable steer foot pedals, they are taller than the steer bow mount electrics. Overall, the foot pedal is great. I love the key buttons and mode you can set to them. Bring it to life with NMEA When the Ghost is networked with NMEA 2000 to my Lowrance carbon unit, it really brings it to life. There are lots of features you can access when this is connected to the sounder unit, such as control motor via sounder screen, send to a waypoint, set a route for the Ghost to follow, and lots more. It is so easy to go out and find fish on your side scan, mark a waypoint and then send your Ghost to that waypoint and automatically anchor lock. Instead of making a waypoint, you could go and try to sit your boat on top of it. This feature makes it super easy; it is the first
time I have had the ability to do this on my boat and I find it so convenient. When in anchor lock mode, you can use the jog feature, which means you can slightly fine-tune where you are anchor locked, by either using the controls on your sounder unit or using your remote by simply pressing the up-down or left-right buttons. It will move your anchored spot to the direction that you choose. The Ghost will move very slightly so if you want to move a decent distance away, you will have to push the button a few times to get the motor to move off your original anchor spot to where you want to go. This is very userfriendly. It is so convenient to be able to move the anchor spot over a little so I can stay on schooled bass. 360° breakaway This electric motor also has a 360° breakaway spring on the shaft, so that you don’t break your shaft when you run into underwater obstructions. This mount was designed to take the force of the hit, then to flex and deflect you away from the obstruction and reposition itself. This will save a lot of people from breaking their shafts. I was able to do a few tutorials on this and uploaded them to my YouTube channel, ‘Nishi style1’. Feel free to watch in your own time if you are curious to learn more about the Lowrance Ghost. I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with the Lowrance Ghost this year while in tournaments and in casual fishing with family and friends. It’s amazingly easy to install and use. This electric motor is part of the new generation of bow mount electric motors that are on the market today. If you are looking for the newest and greatest bow mount, you must check this one out before deciding. - Charles West
This motor has a 360° breakaway spring on the shaft. It’s designed to be flexible and deflect underwater obstructions.
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Daiwa releases its new Bait Junkie soft plastics range After their live-launch of Bait Junkie in July, Daiwa sent some pre-production samples of their new Bait Junkie soft plastic baits to key anglers right away. Being bream-focussed a lot of the time, I got a bag of their Minnow and Grub baits to test. And although I used them occasionally through the BREAM Queensland Open and while social fishing, it wasn’t until we decided to do a live review of these baits that I really got to focus on giving them a thorough test. You can watch the 30-minute highlights via the QR code hereby, but here’s what I took from the day. The idea was to do a circa-three-hour livestream, fishing exclusively Bait Junkie baits on the popular Gold Coast spots. These fish see a lot of pressure, so if the Grub and Minnow patterns worked well on these fish,
bait. Does the tail have more action at lighter speeds? Yep. Is it as tough as other marketleading brands? Nope. The losses are acceptable, though. I went through only a couple of tails in the three-hour session. You should still get several sessions out of a pack. The second way I fished these was with a 1/16oz Hidden Weight System (HWS), threading the weight up the middle. This rigging skips beautifully and lets you get into the darkest corners like a pro. Like most successful bream plastic presentations, this gets bitten on the drop a lot and I’m sure the action will still be great on lighter weighed options. Overall, the grubs build upon existing product offerings for Aussie bream anglers and you should be confident that they’ll work on your local.
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30-minutes of highlights from the live testing session. There’s no doubt that these baits catch fish. This one came on the day the author borrowed Tom Slater’s boat for a day on Sydney Harbour. there’s a pretty good chance that they’ll do the job in the rest of the country as well. Also, by being live, there’s no chance to hide. Everything we saw, you saw – and there was the potential to bring home a donut. Starting on the Trawlers – a spot famous since Michael Metcalfe won the BREAM Grand Final there in 2000 and more recently through its exposure in the Hobie Worlds 2019 – I took the time to show some of the ways I wanted to rig the baits. I fished my way upriver and had a pretty fun session. Grub Broadly, there’s nothing new about the grub. Single-tail plastics have been around since before Daiwa’s Bait Junkie developer, Tom Slater, was born, however there are certain modifications on this bait that were intended to improve it for our fish and the way we usually fish it. I rigged the grub a couple of ways for testing. The most popular way Aussies fish them is on a simple jighead. Because of the nature of the plastic these are made from, it should be one with a detached hook keeper, like the TT HeadLockz to stop easy ‘pantsing’ of the bait. I chose a 1/16oz and a 1/20oz version with a #1H hook. I would have preferred a lighter hook, but my local was out of stock on the day-before supply run. There’s an indented line on either side of the bait, which helps you choose an exit point for the hook while rigging. This is pretty helpful. Also, you’ll find that the tail of this grub is quite thin and delicate. It means that the bait will create action with the slightest of current movement, or on the drop with a very lightly weighted head. This turned out to be true, however it is at the cost of longevity of the 74
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These are the two ways that the author rigged the Grubs – on a jighead and a HWS hook.
the Australian Open ABT Comp I fished basically one bait the whole session. Don’t forget UV Something not visible to the naked eye is the UV component of these baits. Plenty of models have a UV component, and some anglers swear by it. It’s marked on the packet and it is definitely worth noting whether the most productive of your colour pics have this addition. Packaging All of the Daiwa Bait Junkie baits come in a two-piece clamshell package which makes me cringe a little at the plastic waste, but definitely do the job when it comes to ensuring that your baits are 100% when you take them out to use. No more do you pick out a grub and have half of his mates come out with him! By the time this magazine hits the shelves, the Bait Junkies should be on the shelves as well. With a suggested retail price of $11.99, in my opinion it’s definitely worth spending a few bucks and finding out how the fish in your part of the world like them. - Steve Morgan
According to the author, the WA Rig is the best way to fish a Bait Junkie minnow like a prawn. It makes the bait sink horizontally. Minnow For me, the Minnow was a greater challenge. I’m not the best plastics angler by a fair way, however I found it extremely difficult to rig the Minnow straight on a jighead most of the time. You guys may be more skilled in this area than me, but I have an excellent work-around that was taught to me by West Aussie angler, Graeme Kovacevich, while sneaking out for a Swan River bream fish one day while wagging the Perth Boat Show. I call it the ‘WA rig’, and it uses the same Hidden Weight System that I used for the grub. You thread a tiny bit of the head on the hook and then pull it up and over the hidden weight. Once you’ve swivelled it around to sit under the eye of the hook, just push the hook up through the bait through the middle (which is much easier than nailing the threading). The result is a bait that sinks horizontally (like a prawn), skips magnificently, and still has an open hook. And you can adjust the weight for the areas you fish. Drop it down to near-nothing for pontoon fishing where you want the bait to sink slowly, or ramp it up if you want to fish deeper or in faster flowing water. The Elastomax plastic that the Minnows are made from most definitely take the punishment of being rigged this way. In
AND NOW FOR THE REST by Peter Jung While Morgo focused on the 2.5” Minnow and Grub lures, I turned my attention to the four other models in the Bait Junkie range: the 3.2” Minnow, 4” Grub, 5” Jerkshad and 7” Jerkshad. To see more information for each bait, including the number of colours in each model, see the factbox below. I was charged with focusing on another bread-and-butter species that really comes to a fore as the weather and water warms up: flathead. 3.2” Minnow This is a profile and style that has really taken off in the soft plastics market. It’s a true narrow profile baitfish imitation with a paddle tail. It is almost an in between bait, as it is small enough to be used for bream or whiting, but is also large enough to be very effective on larger species. I love this style of lure if I am fishing shallow water (3-10 feet) or if I am fishing from the shore. The paddle tail creates plenty of vibration to attract attention and the lure size imitates the food generally in these areas. My preference is to fish either 1/4oz to 3/8oz jigheads depending on water depth and although I agree with Morgo the Elastomax material the Bait Junkie plastics are made of, lends itself to using a jighead with a detached grub keeper, I didn’t do so. The odd pantsing did occur, but you do find that if a flathead
Another mulloway hits the deck for the author on the wagasaki 5” Jerkshad.
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flats with big plastics using minimal weight will take to this lure. The natural buoyancy and that little kink in the lure I have been mentioning results in a lure that can be seductively fished in the shallows and for those in the know re this tactic, the results are BIG flathead. I have had a go and can see the potential, but lots of snot weed on the flats while I have been fishing has resulted in more frustration than fish. I am sure that with a bit more time on the water I will enjoy the 7” Jerkshad as much its smaller brother. I am also sure there will be plenty of offshore soft plastics guys who will be over this part of the range.
wants your lure, it is not grabbing the tail of the plastic. What you do quickly realise is how much the paddle tail works on even the slowest retrieve. These plastics are incredibly supple, add to that a kink between the main body and the tail of the plastic and you have a lure that is working for you as soon as it enters the water. I am sure that when Tom Slater was doing the R&D for this lure he had Australian bass in the back of his mind. I can see many bass anglers rolling these through those bass schools that form up every year and having plenty of success. 4” Grub Of all the plastics in the range that I have tried, I think that this plastic will be the one that will appeal to the most anglers,
Three of the colours in the 4” Grub range. From left to right: BP iwashi glow, red bait glow and banana split. I have been asked many times what style of plastic suits each situation when fishing for flathead, which really is like asking how long is a piece of string. However, I do have some fundamental rules I follow. In deeper water with current I prefer jerkshad style lure. They have less water resistance, so they get to the bottom where the fish are faster, they move less when you hop them keeping them in the
The new Daiwa Bait Junkie range comes in six different shapes and plenty of colours.
DAIWA BAIT JUNKIE RANGE Model
Length Length (mm) Qty per pack Colours Price (RRP)
2.5 Grub 2.5 Minnow 3.2 Minnow 4 Grub 5 Jerkshad 7 Jerkshad
2.5” 2.5” 3.2” 4” 5” 7”
63.5mm 63.5mm 80mm 88mm 124mm 172mm
8 8 6 5 5 4
15 18 18 15 15 15
$11.99 $11.99 $11.99 $11.99 $11.99 $11.99
especially those that maybe haven’t fished soft plastics much before. A curl-tail grub of this size provides maximum action from minimum movement. As long as you select the correctly weighted jighead for the depth of water you are fishing, that tail will be working for you whether at rest or while being retrieved. It is the perfect plastic to use when there is minimal or no flow in the water and the only thing to really to keep in mind is to rig it as straight as possible with the tail in an upright position (a visible centreline is on all the Bait Junkie plastics to assist with this). This ensures the plastic runs true when retrieved. If I can go off on a tangent just for a moment,
very realistic in the water and does grab plenty of water while creating maximum movement. This combined with the high buoyancy of the plastic means I have ended up using a slightly heavier jighead when using it. It just helps getting your lure down and keeping it in the zone especially in slightly deeper water. 5” Jerkshad The Bait Junkie 5” jerkshad has slightly deeper body than most of the jerkshads of this size that I have tried and like the minnows they have a kink or indentation where the tail meets the body of the plastics. That kink does provide a little bit of action on the straight retrieve, which is a nice bonus. Like all jerkshads it is very important to rig them straight. A lure spinning like a top as you retrieve it is unlikely to catch a fish. I did find the rigging guide on the back of the packet very helpful to assist with this. In the end rigging is always a little bit of trial and error, but anything that minimises the error is much appreciated. In the relatively short time I have had these plastics the 5” Jerkshad has proven to be my favourite. On its first outing fishing with Aaron Dunlap in a known deep water big flathead area, we didn’t catch a flathead, but the mulloway and giant trevally made up for it. We caught multiple fish on multiple colours (in fact at least one on each of the four colours I was given). The plastics held up well to the needle like teeth of the mulloway too. It was an impressive first outing and they have continued to impress ever since. 7” Jerkshad These are big baits and I am sure that the flathead anglers out there who like fishing the
Aaron Dunlap joined in the testing process and found that the 5” Jerkshads were mulloway magnets. Other observations I am a huge fan of scents and using them while fishing with soft plastics. The Daiwa Bait Junkie plastics have a product called Amino X added to them during the construction process. The marketing says this creates a lure with a natural flavour and scent. It attracts and makes the fish hold on longer. I am not a fish so I can’t confirm or deny this but when you open the packets the scent is very much that of fresh squid and we all know most fish love eating squid. The feel (to touch) of the plastics is also quite unique, it feels strange to write it but they don’t feel like soft plastics. This may well mean the fish hang onto them longer. Steve did already mention the use of UV in many of the colours, I am a fan and there are plenty of colours in the range to have we UV fans champing at the bit. Hopefully between Steve and I we have given you an insight into this new range of plastics from Daiwa Australia. The full range can be seen on the Daiwa website www. daiwafishing.com.au and more than likely in your local tackle store. Go and check them out.
Pearl watermelon will be a popular colour amongst the bream anglers out there.
If you are a fan of UV colours, there are plenty in the range. This colour is yabbie UV.
right zone longer and they are a bigger profile, which hopefully means bigger fish. As already mentioned I like a paddle tail plastic when fishing from the shore and in shallower water presentations or areas of medium flow. The tail grabs enough water to be an attraction but not enough to pull the lure out of the zone to quickly. A curly tail plastic is best suited when you have no flow. They can be fished slowly and deliberately. No matter the retrieve the plastic is working on your behalf. Once you have water movement the tail can grab too much water, making it difficult to keep the lure in the zone, so little or no flow is the go as far a curl tail is concerned for flathead for me. Back to the Bait Junkie 4” Grub, its tail is The flathead proved to be harder to catch than the author hoped during the testing process. He still managed to get a few to the net.
Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au OCTOBER 2020
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BASS Series presented by
BASS ELECTRIC SERIES
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Tough times at Hinze Dam series opener The Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam hosted the first round of Casino Outdoor BASS Electric series, brought to you by Green Energy. Thirty-five eager anglers took to the water for what would be a tough day for most. NSW angler Chesley Lennon stood out from the rest, compiling his 2/2 limit for 3.24kg and also taking out the Casino Outdoor Big Bass at 1.63kg. Lennon made the long run down to the dam wall were he had previously located fish. The fish hadn’t moved, as on his first cast he landed the $150 fish. Lennon’s roll
continued, catching around 60 fish for the session and continually upgrading throughout the day. The technique was textbook wintertime bass fishing. Tie on a Halco Twisty, sink it to the bottom in around 60ft of water and Scan the QR code to watch Chesley Lennon Interview
slow roll it back to the boat. Lennon’s choice of gear to throw the Twisty on
Chesley also weighed the event’s Big Bass of 1.63kg that earned him an extra $150 voucher from Casino Outdoors.
Chesley Lennon took advantage of an open border to come and take the win at the first round of a COVID interrupted BASS Electric season. was a Dobyns Champion Extreme rod paired with a Daiwa Certate 2500 reel spooled with 15lb braid and 10lb leader. Second place went to Carindale’s Mark McKay who weighed in his 2/2 limit for 2.48kg. McKay’s morning started off very slowly after visiting his first two spots without boating a legal fish. After a move to the dam wall area, McKay located some fish off a sunken point in around 40ft were he starting throwing a 20g Palms Slow Blatt. This technique proved to work as he caught around 20 legals
for the session, upgrading through the day. McKay opted to use baitcasting
RESULTS Place Angler 1 Chesley Lennon 2 Mark McKay 3 Keith Sheppard 4 Paul McHugh 5 Adrian Wilson 6 Charles West 7 Dylan Bedford 8 Tom Reynolds 9 Mick Horn 10 Pete Bostock
tackle, matching a Daiwa Tatula Type R up with a Samurai 302.
Full results at abt.org.au
Fish 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2
Weight(kg) Payout 3.24 $400 2.48 $250 2.17 $180 2.08 $150 1.84 $120 1.65 $100 1.39 $80 1.35 1.23 1.17
Windy Moogerah rewards Wilson Strong August westerly winds h a m p e re d competitors on both the practice day and the day of the BKK Hooks Moogerah BASS Electric event, the second in the Casino Outdoors BASS Electric Series. Electric veteran, Adrian Wilson,
however, converted an ordinary pre-fish to a win on the stingy lake, which is usually known for its fat bass in spring. Opting for a baby bass coloured Slider Grub on a 5/8oz jighead, Wilson would roll the lure as slowly as possible to get
bites. He only got a handful for the day and landed three fish. “I found plenty of suspended fish, but they weren’t biting and I concentrated on the creek beds that were filled with bony bream to target bass that were sitting close to the bottom. I couldn’t get the suspended fish to bite,” he said. Scan the QR code to watch Adrian Wilson Interview
Pete Bostock won the Big Bass at the BKK sponsored round and took home a $150 Casino Outdoors voucher for his efforts. It weighed in at 1.36kg. 118
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Wilson fished the lure on an Edge 704 rod, Daiwa Certate reel, Sufix 832 braid and a length of 8lb Sunline Shooter 8lb leader. He edged out young Lachlan Reynolds, who was on course to be one of the youngest anglers to ever win a BASS Electric event until Wilson dropped the winning bass on the scales. The event’s Casino Outdoors Big Bass was won by Pete Bostock with a 1.36kg fish. All competitors enjoyed a sample pack of BKK hooks, trebles and assists, that were provided by the event sponsor.
Adrian Wilson converted an ordinary pre-fish into a great tournament and won his 4th BASS Electric Qualifier on a windy Moogerah Dam.
RESULTS
Full results at abt.org.au
Place Angler 1 Adrian Wilson 2 Lachlan Reynolds 3 Brent Murphy 4 Daniel Kelly 5 Liam Dutton 6 Peter Bostock 7 Daniel Fogarty 8 Christian Manolea 9 Nick Nutley 10 Tom Reynolds
Fish 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 1/2 2/2 1/2 2/2 1/2
Weight(kg) Payout 2.315 $400 1.915 $250 1.705 $160 1.410 $160 1.390 1.360 $150 1.135 1.005 1.960 0.602
Samaki BREAM Qld Open down to the wire We have seen some close finishes in the past with the BREAM Queensland Open. Several anglers and teams have taken the trophy with a margin of less than 50g, but the most recent iteration – brought to you by Samaki – went down to the wire. Scott Sandilands and Charlie Saykao were so close that at the end of the Scan the QR code to watch Day 1 Highlights
COVID border closure) competition was hot for the $3,500 winner’s cheque. GOLD COAST FIRES Nobody would have guessed that the late winter bite on the Gold Coast would have been so good. At the end of the first day, nearly half the field logged 3kg+ bags on the ABT Tournament Series app and the live scoreboards on the abt.org. au website shifted by the minute. Scott led the pack at the end of the day with a solid, 3.34kg bag. Scott filled his bag early on Sovereign Island and then headed to the lower
BREAM OPEN presented by
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Scott Sandilands was the last angler to enter the Samaki BREAM Queensland Open and he left the event with $3,500 and some cool trophies. rough heading across, but coming back was lumpy. We left an hour to make the run and headed across at 20-30km/h.” Scott did his damage on a shallow, Jackall Suji Shrimp Chubby that he
his loss, is the fact that his $2,000 prize money will be spent on a handbag and not another few Millerods for the quiver. Visibly frustrated with the deadlock, Saykao vowed to get it all together ‘soon’.
He parked himself in the lower Nerang between the Sundale Bridge and Benowa Bridge and caught nearly all of his fish on his favourite ZMan Grub motor oil and TT jighead combo. He fishes these on a Millerod XF Classic and found on the practice day that there were plenty of fish hanging off the numerous Scan the QR code to watch Day 2 Highlights
Charlie Saykao fished hard but couldn’t find that final big bite to vault him ahead of Sandilands. second day, their scores were equal. We had to revert to the tie-breaker to crown a champion. That champion was Scott by virtue of the biggest bag over the course of the event (5/5, 3.34kg on Day 1). The Samaki BREAM Queensland Open is contested on one of Australia’s biggest arenas. It runs from Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast to the top of the Nerang River behind the Gold Coast with literally hundreds of kilometres of waterway to fish in between. Adding to the challenge is the fact that you can’t fish the same area twice. The arena is divided into two at the Logan River powerlines. Competitors fish the northern part on the calmest day and the Gold Coast on the roughest. With a 100% payback and 13 of Queensland’s best breamers entered (interstate entries were curtailed by a
Nerang River to upgrade several times. “It was one of the best day’s fishing I’ve ever had on the Gold Coast,” Scott said, “I had a limit at Sovereign in 30 minutes and then worked my way up the Nerang. After a 34cm fish at Mackintosh Island, I relaxed and ended up with 35 or 40 legal bream for the day.” His main weapon was a Scan the QR code to watch Winners’ Interview
1/28oz TT HWS jighead with a Gulp! Crabby. On Day 2, Sandilands headed to Redcliffe. “It was a different day and I only landed 5 legal bream all day,” Scott continued, “It was a little
BOATER RESULTS Place Angler 1 Scott Sandilands 2 Charlie Saykao 3 Shane Wolhuter 4 Blake O’Grady 5 Steve Morgan 6 Jamie McKeown 7 Luke Rogan 8 Mark Palazzi 9 Peter Cashman 10 Wade Walker
This is the look you have when your $2,000 prize cheque is destined to end up buying a handbag for your fiancee. fishes on a Samurai 203 rod, and Daiwa Certate reel. When asked what he’d invest the $3,500 on, Scott suggested a bathroom renovation. We expect him to gain permission to fish the Open in 2021 a much easier process than in 2020, where he was a last minute entry. SAYKAO STILL WINLESS ABT stalwart, Charlie Saykao, must rank as one of the best ABT breamers to never take a win. And, as agonising as the closeness of
rock walls in the system. “Bernie (Kong) and I found that on the Friday … there were lots of fish on the walls and the ZMan was the best way to catch them,” Charlie said, “ I caught one legal on a Damiki Crackerjack but that wasn’t the deal for me.”
CASHMAN’S BIG BREAM
Full results at abt.org.au
Bag 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
Weight(kg) Payout 5.34 $3,500 5.34 $2,000 5.25 $1,000 5.13 5.13 5.06 5.01 4.42 4.28 3.23
Peter Cashman was rewarded with the event’s Big Bream. A 35cm specimen from the Jumpinpin. He earned a Samaki rod for his efforts. Peter Cashman, fresh from his Bribie win, scored the event’s Big Bream and a sweet Samaki rod to match it. It ate a soft plastic presentation at the ‘Pin. The BREAM
Queensland Open is open to all breamers – put down your cash and have a crack if you think you have what it takes to get ‘Geoff’ (the name for the perpetual trophy) to visit your fishing room for a year. OCTOBER 2020
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BASS PRO SERIES
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Bass bite hots up at Somerset round Lake Somerset, which is known for its XOS bass, hosted the Megabass round of the Sufix BASS Pro Series, which would be the final Qualifying round for the 2020 season. The dam did not disappoint, with near-ABT-record size bass being brought into the weighmaster. One angler that stood out from the field was John Scan the QR code to see John Ciancio Winner’s Interview
Ciancio’s session didn’t start off well, but returning to the prime spot saw him and his non-boater experience consecutive double hook-ups. “We were shuffling fish like crazy – upgrading them as quick as we were catching them for about 30 minutes,” he explained. This flurry of fish filled out their 5/5, 5.870kg final day limit, which sealed the deal. Being versatile and adapting to the conditions was key. Ciancio’s technique during the first day was to retrieve his Nories Wasabi Spoon with a long, slow retrieve, were the fish would
All it takes is five Somerset bass like this each day and you get paid. But easier said than done. Ciancio, who took out his maiden win in the boater division, weighing his 10/10 for 12.615kg. Ciancio is familiar with this lake, as last time the series visited Somerset he was in a similar position to take out the win, however, he stumbled on the last day, which made this victory all that much sweeter. Although Ciancio covered plenty of water during the weekend, the one area that was most productive was the ‘Bay of Plenty’ (just around the corner from the starting line), which definitely lived up to its name. Filling out a 5/5 limit on the first day for 6.745kg had him in a great position going out on the final day.
Scan the QR code to see the on water highlights.
heavier spoons he opted to use ABU KRX 2-6kg rod matched up with a Roxani 2500 spooled with 20lb mainline and 20lb leader. MUM DREAMED OF WIN Taking out his maiden win in the non-boater category was young up-and-comer, Brody McNeish. Compiling his 8/10 limit for 12.2kg, McNeish was destined to win after his mum had a dream before the tournament that he was going to win. He was blown away when he was crowned champion non-boater. Over the weekend he
threw a mix of deep cranks and spoons to fill out his limits although he said the spoon spinning reel combo was what got him over the line. McNeish wanted to thank his boaters that he had over the weekend, which proves testament to the shared weight format that ABT offers. Scan the QR code to see the Brodey McNeish Interview.
You know that you’re going to do well when your mum dreams that it’s going to happen. Well done, Brody. eat it on the move. Sunday was the polar opposite. The fish would hook up on either the pause or when the spoon was free falling back to the bottom. Another key was locating and following the fish on the Garmin Livescope. “It is the best investment I have made. It shows you everything and it just doesn’t lie,” he concluded. John’s tackle included
Place Angler 1 John Ciancio 2 Graham Ford 3 Shaun Falkenhagen 4 Tom Deer 5 Nick Anderson 6 Matt Langford 7 Matt Johnson 8 Jason Ehrlich 9 Keeghan Painter 10 Mark Lennox OCTOBER 2020
an Abu Veritas 3-5kg rod, Shimano Sustain 2000 reel, Sufix Aqua Nano 8lb braid and a 12g Nories Wasabi spoon. FORD COMEBACK FALLS SHORT Narrabri’s Graham Ford had to settle for second place with his 10/10 limit for 12.1kg, with his big final-day bag of 7.89kg not being enough to take out the win. Ford really changed it up a gear on day two and he really found the fish he
VMC BIG BASS BOOM!
BOATER RESULTS
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John Ciancio broke through for his maiden ABT event win and loved every minute of it.
needed to catapult him up the leader board. Nothing really changed for Ford, just the bigger fish bit on Sunday and he converted the bites he needed during a hot flurry of fish, were he landed over 20 bass in around an hour. Ford’s approach was very simple, just throw spoons and slow roll them back where the fish would hook up. His spoon of choice was a 30g Halco Twisty. Casting these
Full results at abt.org.au
Fish 10/10 9/10 7/10 10/10 7/10 7/10 4/10 6/10 6/10 5/10
Weight(kg) Payout 12.62kg $3,300 12.10kg $1,800 10.69kg $1,300 10.39kg $900 8.54kg $700 7.92kg $600 7.65kg $500 7.59kg 6.78kg 6.67kg
Now THAT’S what anglers come to Somerset for – 3.81kg of VMC Somerset Big Bass by Trent Collins. Somerset didn’t disappoint with the VMC Big Bass weighing in at a whopping 3.81kg. Caught by Trent Collins on Day 1, he landed this giant on a
NON-BOATER RESULTS Place Angler 1 Brodey McNeish 2 Felippe Gapski 3 Tony Neal 4 Barry Reynolds 5 Aiden Richter 6 Shane Richards 7 Beau Eveligh 8 Michael Thomas 9 Luke Sticklen 10 Matthew Flynn
Fish 8/10 6/10 8/10 7/10 5/10 7/10 8/10 7/10 5/10 6/10
Palms Slow Blatt jig 20g in colour MG530. Anglers now await border-opening information to find out when the Grand Final can be run and won.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) Prize Pack 12.2kg Bassman + Sufix 9.21kg Megabass 9.07kg Megabass 8.65kg Megabass 7.89kg TT Lures 7.81kg TT Lures 7.46kg Lucky Craft 7.16kg Lucky Craft 6.745kg Ecogear 6.63kg J-Braid
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OCTOBER 2020
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Sea Jay 590 Titan with Yamaha 150hp 4 stroke - SC
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extensions that fit between the bunks and the helm chair bases. Time will tell if this is an elegant or clumsy solution. If it worries you, just buy the 6.3! Of course, the test rig was supplied on a Sea Jay
Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au
We like it at Fishing Monthly when we get the heads-up about new models on the way. And we like it even better when we get to ride in them. So when I got the call to duck up to Bundaberg to take a couple of new Sea Jay hulls for a run with Sea Jay and Yamaha staff, I pointed the truck up the highway and headed up. The Elliott River is a pretty neat place to test boats, too. Half an hour south of town (and the Sea Jay factory), it’s a clear water estuary with easy access into the ocean. You can do all of the performance stats in the calm water and then take the rig for a bash out in the rough stuff. And the test day SPECIFICATIONS Length.............. 5.82m Beam................ 2.45m Depth ................2.11m Bottom.sheet .... 4mm Side.Sheet ......... 3mm Capacity .... 6 persons Floor.ribs ................15 Hull.weight ...... 895kg Rec.HP ..................130 Max.HP .................150 delivered, with a sporty northerly making anything unprotected lumpy indeed. “The Titan is a new rig built on the famous Samurai hull,” Sea Jay National Sales Manager, Garry Fitzgerald said, “It was created after talking to lot of Sea Jay 124
OCTOBER 2020
supplied by Bundaberg Marineland, but your local Sea Jay dealer can quote you up a price on your preferred iteration of this hull. As tested, this rig came in in the high $60,000 range, but you’d be spending a little
PERFORMANCE RPM.........Speed.(km/h)....... Economy.(km/L) 1000 ............................7 ............................ 2.3 2000.......................... 12 ............................ 1.6 3000.......................... 31 ............................ 2.1 3500 .......................... 41 ............................ 2.1 4000.......................... 48 ............................ 2.0 5000.......................... 63 ............................ 1.6 5900 .......................... 76 ............................ 1.2 Main: The Sea Jay Titan 590 was created after plenty of customer and dealer feedback. It’s a mean fishing boat with plenty of fishing space and the ability to get out of the weather when you’ve had enough. Photo courtesy of John Hooson Above: Supplied on a Sea Jay trailer, you’ll get an extra year of warranty and the peace of mind that everything is set up properly and fit for purpose. dealers and customers. They wanted a walkaround with a proper cabin and that’s exactly what this is.” The 590 is the middlesized boat in the Titan range (you can also get a 5.5 and 6.3m version) and was fitted with the maximum horsepower. In this case, a mechanically controlled, 2.7L Yamaha 150hp 4-stroke. Put together just after the launch of Yamaha’s HelmMaster EX system, I was half expecting this test rig to be fitted with the technology. It’d work great with it, but it was fitted with a plate for an electric motor. As far as walkaround rigs go, the Titan’s pretty easy to get around – no sideways shuffling is required – and there’s room to fish along
the walkaround as well. The cockpit it big and the transom is smooth. The transom door and folding steps are standard and necessary. With a 2.45m beam, this rig sits on top of the tandem trailer and that’s basically the only way into this boat (either on the trailer or in the water). The helm part of the cabin is interesting. There’s a small, hard top that is more like a baseball cap peak and a gap to the windscreen. Air flow is wonderful but you will get a little wet when quartering a sea. We drove it all ways through the mess outside the mouth of the Elliott; could drive the rig to avoid the pounding but not necessarily the spray. It has a big, flat dash
that will hold all of your electronics or MFDs and the lack of length in the cabin is compensated by some bunk
designed trailer that will give you an extra year of warranty on the hull. For me, you’re crazy if you don’t buy the dedicated trailer and the maximum horsepower on any rig, but I may just be someone that likes the power when you really need it and likes trouble-free boating. The test boat was
more than that to truly make it a turn-key fishing machine. I’d be opting for a 100lb+ electric and 12” MFD. For more information, watch the video boat test (and thank you to COVID for training us all how to do it through your smartphone camera) or visit www. seajayboats.com.au.
The 590 is a proper walkaround – not a shuffle-around – and caters for all styles of fishing, especially with a trolling motor fitted for’ard. Photo courtesy of John Hooson
The Titan is built on Sea Jay’s proven Samurai hull.
The electric motor bracket is now a standard feature on plenty of boats, although there’s all the gear to set an anchor as well.
The mini hard-top gives you some shade and folds down, but don’t expect it to save you from all the spray or assume it’ll fit into a standard garage when it’s folded down.
The transom bait station will get plenty of wear on offshore trips and complements the transom fitted live bait tank.
You can quite easily step up and fish right in the middle of the walkaround. You can’t do it that easily in all boats of the same design.
Powered by a mechanically controlled version of Yamaha’s 2.7L, 150hp 4-stroke, the test boat was fitted with maximum allowable horsepower, just as it should be. Photo courtesy of John Hooson
Fitzy isn’t the world’s tallest man, but even he needed the bunk extensions to fully stretch out.
We love when a boat has enough room to flush mount the electronics that we know most buyers will install. This dash will swallow them up.
The windscreen is the right height to look through (while seated) and over (while standing), unless you’re Fitzy. Then you have to always look through it.
The transom is enclosed, apart from a couple of access points for the batteries.
You don’t necessarily need a selfdeploy electric here. You can easily walk up and manually deploy one.
Sea Jay’s livewells are always simple and selflevelling. This one will keep plenty of your baits alive. OCTOBER 2020
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