Rick s bait-caught dhuie and it was his first ever. He was stoked.

Rick s bait-caught dhuie and it was his first ever. He was stoked.

Bait VS Artificials OFF CAPE NATURALISTE By Ben Derecki What started off as a friendly soft plastic session turned into a challenge to see what was more successful bait or artificials We try to get down to Busselton at least once a year for a family holiday. With two young kids under ten Busso is a great location for just about everything a parent could want farms, great beaches in sheltered bays, top locations for family-friendly fishing, and a ready supply of quality wine and boutique beer for when the kids head to bed. But every parent understands that we all need a bit of time on our own, even on a family break, so when the opportunity arose for me to head out for a day of fishing off Cape Naturaliste I was given a leave pass on the proviso that a couple of table fish made their way back home. I was more than happy to work within these constraints and so at 5am, on what was looking like being a cracking day for fishing, I met with Steve (Buz) and Rick at the Quindalup boat ramp. The three of us had never fished together before so after Steve had given us an overview of his boat and the associated boat rules we were on our way south heading to fish some ground around the Cape. On the way out Steve gave us a run down on his plan for the day s fishing and what we were hoping to catch dhuies and anything else in between dhuies was the plan. Of course we all knew it wasn t going to be as easy as that but Steve mentioned he hadn t fished a few of the spots we were heading to for some time, and that in the past they had produced the goods, so we were all pretty hopeful. The conversation naturally then moved to tactics and we found we were all keen to leave the bait in the icebox and try using a mix of artificial techniques. I had a range of new jigs and a couple of plastics I wanted to use and Steve and Rick both had a bunch of plastics they were keen to get wet. So it looked like being a fun day with an added challenge of hooking up on fake fish. So what sort of lures were we all planning on using? Before I go any further I want to put up front that this article will sound like it s sponsored by McArthy plastics, but it by no means is. We all purchased our plastics from local tackle stores and it was done independently of each other. It just so happened that McArthys were the soft plastic of choice for us and they turned out to be very productive on the day. www.fishingwa.com 21

Epic conditions to travel home in, what a way to finish the day. Steve getting stretched by a pup samsonfish. This little fella came up and went straight back down in his stripey pyjamas. Steve was pretty excited about using the big 11-inch McArthy Mambas. These plastics are huge, nearly the size of a school ruler! But you know what they say - big baits (or lures) catch big fish and this was the plan he had in mind. one of the problems with this truth is that big lures tend to miss the small to medium sized fish and added to that, because of their length, Steve believed he d lost fish in the past. Given the average large jig head has hooks maxing out at 7/0 or 8/0 it still leaves a large section of lure which can be attacked without the threat of being hooked. On occasions the tails of his plastics had come up with teeth marks and scrapes down them and having fished the area for a long time he knew that these scars weren t from small pickers having a go at the plastic, but were from big fish that grabbed the tail and then let go. As a way of working around this he attached an assist hook (the hooks tied to Kevlar which are normally found on jigs) onto the jighead hook and then embedded it further down the lure as a stinger. Time would tell whether it would be a success or failure. Rick had never used soft plastics before. He had a mix of 7-inch Berkley Gulp jerk shads which he was going to give a go. For myself, I d recently bought a bunch of light demersal jigs which I wanted to try. In particular the Sea Falcon Ukari, Shout Lighten and Evergreen Caprice jigs were going to be dunked. As I only had light jigs, if the wind was too strong I had some 7-inch McArthy Bullhead Minnows that I would send down on large jigheads. So with that all out of the way we reached our first drop. We were going to be fishing depths between 35-45m for the day. The sea anchor went over the side and as our drift slowed all our lines went over and we worked our artificial magic over the lumps on the sounder. But to no avail. This turned out to be the pattern for the next hour of fishing with a few small hits on lures being the only thing that registered any excitement for the three increasingly disillusioned anglers. Rick was the first to re-rig and make the move to bait. He changed over to a standard paternoster rig - snapper sinker on 22 www.fishingwa.com

The conversation naturally then moved to tactics and we found we were all keen to leave the bait in the icebox and try using a mix of artificial techniques. the bottom, two snelled hooks just above and then a single hook at the top all baited up with some nice strips of occy. Meanwhile Buz and I resolved to keep going with the artificial approach. This suddenly turned into a bait vs lure challenge of sorts with neither side wanting the other to prove their form of fishing was more productive than the other. The first fish finally came on board and it was the ever reliable sea sweep followed up shortly afterward with another one. Both went to Rick s bait tally. While the fish weren t a particularly fun fish to catch, we d now been fishing for around two hours and they were the only fish we d caught so bait was fast becoming a more attractive option. Buz decided it was time to change setups and rigged up to fish with baits which left me even more resolute not to cross to the dark side but of course I could probably be convinced if more fish started to come up on his and Rick s lines than mine though. As Murphy s Law would have it about the same time that Steve changed over to bait I pulled up my first fish on jig, a 40cm breaksea cod fell to the Sea Falcon Ukari. It was a good feeling to finally get something up but then a few drifts later things started to heat up. Rick s T-Curve rod suddenly buckled over followed by mine a few seconds later. I could tell mine wasn t a big fish so I went with a slow retrieve to make sure whatever it was didn t blow its swim bladder and Rick had a good fish on that wasn t in any rush to come to the surface www.fishingwa.com 23

A reluctant photo but one for the record nonethe-less. Steve s sambo. Buz opened his tally with a small pink snapper, followed up a few drifts later by a rampant fish which was not at all interested in coming to the surface either. Finally we both saw colour under the boat and eventually realised we d had a double hook-up of dhuies. My little fella checked in at about 30cm and he fell to the Ukari jig again. After a few photos he was quickly popped onto the release weight and sent back to the bottom. Rick s fish on the other hand was a beauty just over 70cm and 7kg in weight and it was his first ever dhuie! There were high-fives all round and after a load of photos on cameras and phones (of course you ve got to text your mates and have a brag!) the fish was quickly dispatched and put on ice. We moved to a new spot where Buz opened his tally with a small pink snapper, followed up a few drifts later by a rampant fish which was not at all interested in coming to the surface. After a good fight and some manoeuvring around the boat to make sure it could be landed a smaller samsonfish was finally netted and brought aboard. Buz was reluctant to have his photo taken given it s not the most prized of fish species, but eventually he relented and after a few snaps the sambo was released. The pressure was now building on me, with only two fish raised as opposed to the five on baits I decided to stop using jigs and try soft plastics. I grabbed a McArthy and threaded it onto a 3-ounce jig head before dropping it over. Once it reached the bottom I began jigging it along the seabed. I d brought the lure about three feet off the ground before dropping it back down again while at the same time rubbing sunscreen from my stinging, watering eyes. When I d restored my eyesight again I flipped the bail arm over and began to jig again when I realised I was on. It didn t take long to bring a beautiful but dangerous (they have a suit of armour made from razorblades!) red snapper to the side of the boat. I was wrapped; it was a great looking fish and it fantastic to have a new species crossed off the list. I d caught a reasonable amount of nannygai when I lived in South Australia but this was my first of the closely related red snapper. 24 www.fishingwa.com

Twenty-four hours later the stinger hook proved its worth The first visitor to the soft plastic tea party. But my fun wasn t about to finish there. We finished off that drift and then decided to move again. Once settled at our new location I dropped the placcie down for another go and after a few drifts over the new spot felt my Ajiking rod load up under the pressure of a nice sized fish. I started calling it for a pinkie but Buz called it for a dhu straight away. After a couple of minutes we all saw that Buz call was correct, 6kg of dhufish came to the surface, was netted safely and pulled into the boat. What a great way to boost your tally by hooking the last dhu available under the bag limits. I was pumped, the persistence with jigs and plastics had more than paid off and had shown them, on this trip at least, to be the better of the two methods for chasing fish. While the baits had caught a better total of fish, the lures had caught the better quality fish. Not that we were counting We fished a few more spots but without any real conviction, the day was getting on and we had our limit of fish so we eventually decided it was time to head in. It was a good feeling heading back; the afternoon was heating up, the water was glassing off and there were people everywhere. We d had a good day on the water, made some new friends and shared some great experiences. When you re fishing with lures, I find it s easy to feel like you re the person who is more likely to be unlucky than the people fishing with bait they re the people using something natural, something that smells, feels, tastes and looks like it belongs underwater. While everything has its day, the flipside to this feeling is that a lure can be made to look incredibly life-like and, thinking as a fish, surely it s got to be more tempting to nail something that is moving and lifelike, than something drifting and lifeless?! One of the interesting observations from the day was that each of the lure-caught fish had taken the jig / plastic on its descent. It didn t occur when the lure was heading away from the rocks like a fish in flight, the predators made their move when they saw their lunch heading back down to earth. www.fishingwa.com 25

My dhuie after it inhaled a McArthy Bullhead Minnow and wouldn t return it. Whatever the reason was they must have been watching the lure to decide whether to hit it or not, rather than just an impulse strike. When they had decided it was worth taking they nailed it when it was at its most vulnerable. Herein lays the fun and reward that comes with lure fishing. If the fish are around it s impossible to get bored with it the rod always has to be moved, jigs or plastic colours / styles can be changed which can pick up and change your outlook the moment the lure is dropped over. The reward comes with the success the knowledge that you mastered the fraud, that you pulled off the con-job, in convincing the fish that your piece of metal or plastic was real and was good enough for tea. For more information on fishing with jigs check out the Back To Basics column on page 53 or email ben@fishingwa.com. Epilogue: Steve went out again the next day determined to try his stinger-hook rig on the McArthy Mamba. His first drop hadn t been down for more than two minutes when he hooked up to what ended up being an 8.2kg dhufish. This was followed up a few hours later by a 60cm dhu on a 7-inch plastic. AUSTRALIA S FIRST L.E.D LURES T: 1300 334 741 E: sales@balista.com.au 26 www.fishingwa.com