Video Report: Sydney Winter Flats on Soft Vibes & Hardbodies

[jdanger]

Hi all,

Hit the water the Sunday before last before the second round of storms were due to roll through. Was fishing with a mate who's due to head overseas for a few months and we wanted to make the most of the flats. Despite the forecast, it was glassed out with only the odd drizzle.

I was armed with a freshly spooled roll of straight through Sunline Super FC Sniper 3lb fluro which is as light as I've ever gone, as well as some new and expensive soft vibes from Jackall (Mask Vib Gene 55 if anyone is interested in specifics). Having never tried the soft vibes before, we were keen to see how they'd go in the traditionally quiet winter. Nick had a slightly better insurance policy, opting for 4lb braid and 4lb Sensei FC leader.

After Nick hooked a cranky seagull early on, my fears about the 3lb fluro were realised after busting off on a mid-range fish over some shallow rocks. One hardbody down early on and I'm reconsidering tying on the $28 lure...

Fortunately, we made the call to head over to some more snagless flats and within a couple of casts on the new lure I hooked a good fish. After two nervous minutes up came a 40cm blue nose which picked up the lure off the bottom. Cheers were shared and in next to no time, Nick had made the switch too.

After some moving around we found another patch of fish and my Jackall found a snag. I almost considered going for a swim but the two of us agreed that the first and only fish was more than enough to compensate the dent in the wallet.

We fished until mid-way through the runout and bagged a half dozen flathead to 55cm and 4-5 bream between 27cm and 40cm. Not bad for a Sunday session we were about to pull the pin on!

The Jackall definitely outfished the other lures but the fish were still happy enough to take my hardbodies while Nick continued with the rubber vibe. We also found S-Factor made a difference, especially when dead sticking between lifts.

Still not sure how I feel about fishing straight-through fluro though. The extra stretch is definitely noticeable which means plastics would be hard to use, but I suppose the results speak for themselves in terms of increased bites from old and wary fish.

Anyway, here's the vid.

https://youtu.be/9cSNoJPDHHI

Edited July 2, 2016 by jdanger

[bluefin]

Love it ! thanks for Posting. I have been doing the same latley, but from a small tinny. The Atomic Blue gill ? has been my go to hard body. As for soft vibes I have been using the Sanaki Viblicous 10 gram with great success, and the Jew love them. But it hurts when I loose one or two every session! My brother in law gave me a couple of packets of Fish Candy 7 gram vibes, 2 in a packet. A little lighter and smaller, they look the goods, but I am yet to thy them. I use Sax scent. Scent for Me is a must!

Regards Howard. Edit Ghost Gill Brown. the one with the blue on it in the video.

Edited July 2, 2016 by bluefin

[savit]

Interesting video. Just wondering why are you using the small landing net all the time? The rod should be able to lift the fish.

Sent from my couch using Tapatalk

[jdanger]

Love it ! thanks for Posting. I have been doing the same latley, but from a small tinny. The Atomic Blue gill ? has been my go to hard body. As for soft vibes I have been using the Sanaki Viblicous 10 gram with great success, and the Jew love them. But it hurts when I loose one or two every session! My brother in law gave me a couple of packets of Fish Candy 7 gram vibes, 2 in a packet. A little lighter and smaller, they look the goods, but I am yet to thy them. I use Sax scent. Scent for Me is a must!

Regards Howard. Edit Ghost Gill Brown. the one with the blue on it in the video.

Cheers Howard!

Yeah, the GGB is my go-to colour for sure and the Atomic 38 strikes the perfect balance between price, castability and reliability of action.

Keen to try the Samakis as they seem cheaper than the Jackalls, but I don't think they make anything smaller than 70mm. The Samaki Thumpertail looks pretty good but again, a little big for the fishing I mostly do (shallow water for bream).

Interesting video. Just wondering why are you using the small landing net all the time? The rod should be able to lift the fish.

Sent from my couch using Tapatalk

Thanks Savit. The reason we use a net is not because of the rod, but because of the line. If I'm fishing 3lb and catch a decent bream (or flathead, or anything else for that matter) chances are the fish will be heavier than the breaking strain of the line. Add to that the fact that any knot almost halves the breaking strain and suddenly there aren't that many fish that you can dead lift.

I've lost more than enough fish (and lures) trying to do that.

[savit]

Thank you jdanger. For the same reasons - love of fish and lures I had to increase my leader rating. Does 3lb makes much casting distance or bite quantity difference comparing to 6lb?

Sent from my couch using Tapatalk

[jdanger]

If it's just the leader you're uprising to 6lb then I don't think casting will be too affected unless your leader knot is on the spool and causes interference (smaller knot means the line comes off the spool easier).

Bites definitely increase the lower you go though. I was fishing an 8lb leader recently and wasn't getting any bites.

Switched it to 4lb and caught two fish in two casts straight away so yeah, I think you'll get more action on the lighter line

[big Neil]

Great report and video too jdanger. Good onya mate

[Baz..]

Cool vid boy's,

and a great release on the seagull.!!

[W4z]

Nice video mate and I like the editing

[PRED-ATOR]

great report mate. really good to see all the old spots still firing. i never thought about targeting bream on those soft vibe good to see they work.