Micro Tackle Capabilities

[miles]

What bait did you get the Garrick on?

Gavin, when we fish for the leeries, i prefer throwing surface lures at them. However, wifey was 8 months pregnant in the first leerie photo's, so i didn't want her to exert herself and thus we fished live-bait. Throw out a live mullet, under a small float and sit in the deck chair, whilst enjoying a picnic. Easy fishin'.

I however tend to fish for leeries with slightly heavier tackle, 15lb braid on Shimano Stradic FJ 5000's on 8' Aerocasts, throwing 1.5ounce chiselnose plugs or 28gram Abu Toby spoons. The 15lb braid simply takes the abuse of 100's of casts better. When the leeries are thick, then i'll switch to 8lb and 6lb braid, just for a bit of fun!!

Some of these fish were on 6lb and 8lb ultra light outfits, some on 15lb braid outfits. I forget which ones.....

























ps. every single leerie was released!!

[Ziggy]

Miles - how long is your trace and what hooks are you using - I have found that I keep hooking the grunters deep in their gullets and difficult to remove without damaging the fish


Where are you fishing for those grunters?

[MIKE PIKE]

Miles , fantastic , decent size fish on such lite tackle , just shows you how we under estimate the capabilities of what we use with all the new technology available  , one small question , the braid to swivel connection , do you use a bimini or other knot.. ??? , i use the bimini and it seems to work well  + i catspaw to the swivel for added strength , peace of mind , thanx Mike .

[miles]

Ziggy, i fish with a 40-50cm flouro trace of 5.5kg's. I usually fish with the rods in the rod holder, whilst wifey fishes hers in her hands. She tends to outfish me!!

We RARELY gut hook the fish. No1 or 1/0 hook, baited with a single prawn. The rod normally just screams off!!

When i fish from the river banks, with a drift line, when the grunter picks your bait up, you usually BOW the rod towards the fish, then set the hook. In these situations, we often gut hook the fish. Here, i use cheap hooks, so that they can rust out quickly. Simply cut the trace, take the photo and release the fish.

We're fishing in the breede river.


Mike Pike, Swivel to braid connection - 9 turn Uni Knot.

Braid to mono leader - spider hitch in the braid, then 9 turn Yucatan knot. I use this connection from 4lb braid, all the way to 80lb braid for yellowfin tuna and have NEVER had it fail.

Just remember, when using flourocarbon, it knots very differently to mono, which is why i prefer using a swivel........

[Lofty]

very good catches there... seems as if your wife is a fishing machine... good technique while fighting the fish,you taught her well... thanks for sharing...now I gotta go search for that spider hitch and yucatan knot again... gotta get to the Breede...never been there..but the grunters/leeries/kob/elf are in the Gourits and Kleinbrak rivers too... to you and your wife...one last thing.. but could you maby show how you rig the float thingie for leeries and how big is the float..?do you use a circle through the top lip for livies..?

[miles]

Lofty, you have some PHENOMINAL rivers in your area!! Heard they were slaying the kob on artificials down your way, with some idiots killing all they catch..........

Anycase, my rig for the leeries is very simple. Tie a swivel to the end of the mainline. Then tie a trace of 60-90cm long. Now slide a small float onto the trace. I use those small day-glo orange floats that the rock and surf anglers use for elf/shad. Then tie on the hook.

The float thus moves between the hook and the swivel, but can't go pass the swivel.

The small float on the left of the photo is what i use:



I also use small floats, as it must just show me WHERE my live-bait is. If the fish are being really finnicky, i'll remove the float and fish drift line.

In the estuaries, i've found that if you fish too long traces or fish the mullet off the bottom, the cuttlefish and sharks and rays tend to hammer your baits. That's why i fish them relatively close to the surface.

Sometimes one will find the leeries in very shallow water, normally on the low tide, smashing bait on the grass/mud flats. Here i will use a VERY short 20cm trace, as this stops the mullet from swimming and hiding in the grass.

Many anglers use circle hooks with very good effect. I prefer J-hooks. Once again, i use very light, cheap hooks, so that should the fish be gut hooked, you simply cut the line off as close to the fishes mouth and the hook will rust out quickly. Over the last few seasons, i've crushed the barb on my hooks, and haven't lost any fish to this, but it makes the hook removal just so much easier......

[MIKE PIKE]

Thanks Miles  , interesting connections from braid to mono leader , and the braid to swivel , i'll give them a try as well .

[Ziggy]

I have just serviced my Daiwa BG 10 and brought out my 5'6" Berkley Lightening ultrlaight rod with 6lb mono - going to try and catch one of those 4kg grunters in Durban harbour - waiting for the right weather and tides

I did not find any grunter this morning - but I did catch this on that small 5'6" Berkley Lightening ultrlaight rod with 6lb mono


sorry about the bad pics - SWAMBO was the photographer - and, yes, I know about the spike on the tail.....was holding down tightly - did not want to stick my fingers where I would hurt the thing.......


About the wrong side up pic? - when I had turned it right side up - and I said take a pic of it, wifey said she had already done that . but then she doesn't know what is right side up on a skate.....later she said, "are they all that white on top"???????????


The guy on the  boat next to me hooked up on a skate  a few seconds after after me - and while I was bringing my skate in, my two other rods went on - the one came off and the other I handed to my wife and told her to try and bring it in (because I had the other one on the little rod and couldn't deal with two skates) .....but, even after instructing to not lift the rod high, and let the drag do the work.....she did exactly the opposite and the line snapped (8lb braid). The other boat reckoned a school of skates must have swum by and scooped up all the baits.


Later I caught a sole and also had a few large strikes that took the hooks right off - not sure what they were


I need to give wifey a few lessons in taking pics and landing fish!

[Lenny]

This is an super post 




Some stiff competition from the ladies in life it seems 


Breede is just s Magical place ....

[WalkersKiller]

Awesome fish Ziggy, now those things must be tough to land on the ultra light stuff 

[RobinF]

  Wonderful Thread!