Author Topic: Quick Transkei estuary trip (Read 15981 times)

Rods · « **Reply #20 on:** April 04, 2012, 08:34:10 PM »

Eish Tommo. What can I say? Excellent report yet again.

shagnrelease · « **Reply #21 on:** April 04, 2012, 09:15:57 PM »

As always its a pearler with some great food for thought. cheers!

Manuel Junior · « **Reply #22 on:** April 04, 2012, 10:50:04 PM »

Nice Report!!! Tommo

MahiMahi · « **Reply #23 on:** April 05, 2012, 01:36:16 AM »

:shre: - Awesome info!!

strandloper · « **Reply #24 on:** April 05, 2012, 10:22:47 AM »

Great Report Tommo!!

After seeing one of your shows and the assist hooks on stick baits for sailies I have started switching out the trebles on most of lures. But unlike you, I cannot at this stage comment on the effectiveness there off

Like the idea of assists on the smaller lures.

Would be interesting to see whether the assists hooks changes the action on a X-rap or something similar. Time to play in the pool, me thinks

Tommo · « **Reply #25 on:** April 24, 2012, 09:53:45 AM »

Went back on Saturday to go and have another session in the little estuary. We got onto the water at 7.30am (should have been 6am, but due to unforseen circumstances it didn't happen). The weather was perfect and saturday was spring tides, so we had an outgoing tide, which was already quite low. (low was at 9.45am).
I started with a lure that I had found lying in a box in my storeroom during the week. I had been given a couple of these plastic prawns from Australia, called Prawnstars about ten years ago. They are quite different... I had never had too much faith in them, and hadn't ever actually fished one. They have a hole through the head where the line goes through, and then passes through the eye of a treble hook in the belly of the lure and you tie it to the eye of a treble at the tail of the lure. The idea is that when you flick it the tail has a snapping motion, something like a real prawn swimming. The only problem being that real prawns swim backwards when they flick their tail, and this one goes forwards. Anyway, I decided to ignore that little detail, and give these lures a go, as there have been a lot of swimming prawn around in the estuaries and the fish are eating them.
I tested these prawns in my pool a few times last week, and was quite impressed with what I saw. They have two little lead weights set on the underside of the head/thorax region, and you can remove one, depending on the water depth, to get a more natural sink rate. What I liked about the lure is that it sinks horizontally, much like a live prawn drifting down, and actually looks quite good in the water while sinking. I battled to see the tail flick when I gave it a twitch, but then realised that it is a very fast action, and I am unlikely to see it happen with the naked eye, while looking from outside the water.

Side view of the lure, you can see a split in the middle of the tail in front of the back hook, where the lure bends when it flicks.

View from below showing the two removable weights. For water 2m deep or less you can remove the front weight and the lure sinks a bit slower, and more naturally.

Front view of the lure, showing where the line goes through the head.

Anyhow, I figured I had learnt enough about the lure's action in the pool, to feel confident that I could make it look enough like a prawn in the water to hopefully fool a fish, and I had decided to give it a good go on Saturday, which is why I started with it.

I did half a dozen casts, allowing it to sink right down and giving it a flick, then a few seconds to sink again, as I had been practising in the pool. I then saw some splashes on the surface behind me. I quickly flicked the lure in that direction and gave it a very fast retrieve, keeping it just below the surface, while flicking it quickly. There was an immediate boil on the lure and I was VAS. The fish took a bit of line, then the hook pulled. I quickly flicked it back to the same area and repeated the quicker retrieve. Again the lure was hit within seconds, and this time the fish stayed on. It gave me a lovely fight on the 8lb tackle that I was using, and we netted a little GT next to the boat a few minutes later.

I was quite chuffed to have at least caught something on the lure. To be honest, I was still not totally convinced, as I hadn't been using the action that I had felt would work best for this lure when I hooked the fish. Also when the kingies are in little shoals and feeding, they will eat almost anything that is moving fast. So I felt I still needed to work with the lure slowly and see what happened.
In the meantime Cliff was casting his fly and he got into a little bigeye kingfish in the same area.

No monster, but fun on the fly!

The water was getting quite low, so we moved down closer to the mouth area and carried on our fishing. I changed colours of my Prawnstar, to see what the other colour would look like in the water, and it looked quite nice and natural to me. I stuck with it and started working it slowly along the bottom in a deepish channel, giving it a flick every three or four seconds, then allowing it to settle again. It got hit very hard and I was on. Now I was chuffed, as this was the retrieve I had been hoping would work. The fish fought hard and deep, with some head shakes. I thought it may be a small kob, but was surprised when I got it up and we saw that it was a Cock Grunter. This was great news, as the prawn had obviously been lifelike enough to fool a real prawn eater!

That fish really made my day, it was the culmination of a plan, and my scheming at the poolside at home had borne fruit! I love it when a plan comes together!

The North Easterly got up pretty strongly after that, making it very difficult to get our drifts right. We went far upriver, to try and get some shelter from the wind and find some fishable water. Right at the top, where we could go no further due to rocky rapids, I managed to catch a perch right in the rapids on a little Rapala, which also gave me a lovely pull in the fast water.

I really love perch, they are such amazing fish. They are aggressive enough to hit a surface lure at the right times and always give a good account of themselves. Being resident fish, you know that they are there, so when the fishing is tough you can go and work at them, and sooner or later you should get one.

Anyhow we decided to call it a day after that, the wind was blowing hard, and we figured we had had the best of the day. We packed up and drove home, already talking about the next trip and what else we can try out.

PH · « **Reply #26 on:** April 24, 2012, 10:02:24 AM »

Thanks, Tommo. Very interesting prawn, that. It looks very well made as well. It's interesting how one must learn and practise to achieve the intended action from specific lures.

Poenskop · « **Reply #27 on:** April 24, 2012, 10:03:22 AM »

That is some awesome fishing. Interesting lure that.

Gregf · « **Reply #28 on:** April 24, 2012, 11:23:07 AM »

Great stuff thank you :shre:

Tommo · « **Reply #29 on:** April 24, 2012, 11:35:27 AM »

A pleasure! I have ordered some shrimp imitation lures from Bass Pro in the States, looking forward to getting them. I have always said that prawns are a major food source in our estuaries especially in late summer/autumn. We don't have many prawn imitation lures in our stores though. I have collected a few over the years, and done pretty well with them.

Poenskop · « **Reply #30 on:** April 24, 2012, 12:30:08 PM »

Tommo

What do you think of these. I've been looking to get some of these and some mirrolures.

http://www.basspro.com/Yo-Zuri-Crystal-3D-Shrimp/product/10215425/231832

Prego · « **Reply #31 on:** April 24, 2012, 01:35:15 PM »

That grunter must of put a huge smile on your face, mission accomplished

umvahed · « **Reply #32 on:** April 24, 2012, 02:00:32 PM »

This is my homepage on Google Chrome.

Tommo · « **Reply #33 on:** April 24, 2012, 05:46:25 PM »

Poenskop, I had a look at those shrimps. They are very pricey, and I felt that I was more keen on some of the soft shrimps, such as the DOA range and some other similar ones. That hard YoZuri one is still really a jerkbait, with a swimming lip. There are some very cheap versions available locally from Strike Pro, which I am trying out. I have modified them a bit. (cut off the soft rubber feelers on the back hook, and glued on mono feelers onto the body and put on single hooks.) I do prefer the soft shrimps though, and working them with a jigging action, rather than a jerkbait acion.

The mirrOlures on the other hand.... I ordered half a dozen, and had to stop myself from ordering more, they are just so good, and the prices are brilliant. I got some more 7MR series, and some of the suspending Mirrodines and the Mirromullet and a Mirrominnow.

Poenskop · « **Reply #34 on:** April 24, 2012, 06:21:30 PM »

Thanks Tommo.

I will have a look at the soft Shrimps. I hear you about the Mirro's. I've already got 12 but can't help myself.

Tommo · « **Reply #35 on:** April 25, 2012, 09:32:11 AM »

Here are a few pics of some of the other shrimp imitations I have in my tacklebox. I look forward to my order coming from the USA to add to them.
Firstly here is the hard jerkbait shrimp from Strike Pro that I have modified slightly. Only cost about R50, if I remember correctly.

The one below is a Rio's Prawn, from Australia. I have caught some nice fish on these. It is also a hard resin, and works like a slow sinking twitchbait. Very realistic. I am not sure if they are still made.

This next one is a softie from Storm, no longer available in SA. Unless some stores have old stock. I like the look and action, just wish that the legs pointed straight down.

Hopefully I will be posting some pics soon of the new lures, when they arrive. Then hopefully a few of them sticking out of the mouths of fish!

Bushbuck2 · « **Reply #36 on:** April 26, 2012, 08:37:47 AM »

HEy Tommo, love your posts makes me very jealous living down in the cape.

I just wanted to ask how far south you have found the snapper. Bream i have caught on bait in the bushmans river but never targeted them on lures. The eastern cape rivers are normally quite long and a mission to get to the top.

Going to the breede river this weekend and going to try my luck with a grunter on surfice. No luck yet and last weekend they were elusive. the bait guys only got one or two. the little leeries couldnt leave the jelly prawn alone which was fun

Tommo · « **Reply #37 on:** April 26, 2012, 11:03:55 AM »

Hi Bushbuck 2, The furthest south that I have caught River Snapper is the Kobinqaba river, at the bottom of the Transkei. I know that they have been caught further south than that though, certainly around East London area. I haven't targeted them in any of the rivers further down the coast, but I am sure that if you find a river with some nice rocky structure you could find snapper probably close to PE somewhere...The Transkei rivers are ideal, as many of them are really short, with lovely rocky structure and pools at the top end.

Have a blast at the Breede, I hope you get some grunter!

Bushbuck2 · « **Reply #38 on:** April 26, 2012, 11:18:28 AM »

Thanks tommo.

I must say i have only in the last 2 years got into saltwater lure fishing and tagging, absolutely amazing. I have converted all my bass lures and dont think i have been bass fishing since. I have mainly you and your articles in the various magazines to thank

.

Fishing Yourself Single is one of the best books i have read, couldnt put it down

Tommo · « **Reply #39 on:** April 26, 2012, 11:23:29 AM »

I am pleased that you are enjoying the saltwater lure fishing scene. It is great fun and very challenging. It reminds me a lot of bass fishing, but with more variables thrown in, such as tides, different species etc. It is never boring!
Great that you enjoyed the book and articles too, thanks for the kind words. It makes it worthwhile if it is motivating someone out there to get enthusiastic about the fishing game!

Author Topic: Quick Transkei estuary trip (Read 15981 times)

Gregf