# SA I am converted!



## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

A combination of timing and poor weather has meant a long time between drinks for me in the kayak. Awoke early Saturday to find the water and wind a little calmer than expected so dragged the yak over the road and hit the water not expecting much. You see I am a bottom bashing bait fisherman from way back and bait was the one ingredient I was missing when I made the late decision to head out. I had a couple of hard bodies though and scrounging around found a pack of Z-Man grubs I bought last summer. It had been my one and only foray into plastics, flicking around the river with no success. Just as I had suspected!

So I paddled out a few hundred metres with my plan to head South trolling for a couple of kms and then drift back. I threw out a hard body on one line and a grub on the other. A few minutes down the track and I could see that something was striking on my rod with the plastic on but not quite hooking up. I kept my pace constant and finally I hooked up. A good little fight and brought alongside a nice fat snook in the 70's. My first ever fish on a plastic! Another followed soon after and I changed to plastic on my other line too. The hook ups kept coming and I was surprised how well the grubs held up given the teeth that were nipping at their tails.

As I went further South the snook dropped off, which was fine as I had taken all I wanted plus released quite a few, and I was now over reef. Still trolling and picked up a few feisty salmon trout plus also hooked something much bigger that took some line and was a good fight before it managed to slip the hook close to the boat. Didn't get to see colour but it felt weighty like a snapper however fought differently (no head shakes). I'm intrigued now to work the area again with plastics as I have fished it quite a lot without finding much variety as far as large fish.

Anyway by now the wind had picked up so I turned around and drifted back, finding the plastics were just as effective on the salmon trout and surprisingly the snook despite the low speed. In all a great morning on the water and all without any stinky bait in the yak or in the freezer!


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## Stealthfisha (Jul 21, 2009)

Brilliant


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## suehobieadventure (Feb 17, 2009)

Well done, toothy indeed those snook. Often twirl like a ballerina and tangle the lure too. Good fun though.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Nice bag Sean! I love how much abuse the ZMans can take; a Squidgy fish'd lose its tail pretty quick, and a gang of big snook'll mince up a gulp or two before the Z shows one tear. The grub style lures flick their tails nicely at low speeds too.


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## Geoffw (Jan 23, 2011)

Well done. I spent the weekend paving and wishing I was fishing. Hope you dont mind if I share your excitment.


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## eagle4031 (Jan 29, 2010)

Well done
great v report


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## OldDood (Nov 6, 2008)

Nice haul of Snook Sean,
I also took home three Snook, three squid and a ST for the cat on Sunday morning.
I caught the fish on one only 5" pearl ZMan Minnow and a 4/0 1/8oz jig head. Those Zmen really can take a beating and still go back for more!
Smoked them all up for Sunday family dinner plus a few crumbed squid.
I used the honey, garlic and salt recipe that is on the forum somewhere.
The snook were delicious. I will need to target Snook more often now as I expect to get a lot more requests from the extended family.
Mark


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## Zilch (Oct 10, 2011)

Nice work Sean 

Steve


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

I like to hear of conversions. Ah,it might be time to start another of those threads....only kidding folks. :lol:

Congratulations Sean on your plastics conversion. That is certainly a good hook-up rate for a beginner. If you would like some cheap Z-Mans, I have about 20 packets at 1/4 price?.... I'm serious.


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

So Sean - it sounds like you were just trolling the soft plastics with the rod in a holder like you might with a bibbed hard body lure - is that what you did ? If so, you could try holding the rod and working the lure back and forward (assume you were in your PA and not the Tarpon) - you might get a few more strikes and hook ups once you put a bit more life like action into the soft plastic. Any way - well done on the conversion ! Wait til you get your first SP snapper !


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## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

solatree said:


> So Sean - it sounds like you were just trolling the soft plastics with the rod in a holder like you might with a bibbed hard body lure - is that what you did ? If so, you could try holding the rod and working the lure back and forward (assume you were in your PA and not the Tarpon) - you might get a few more strikes and hook ups once you put a bit more life like action into the soft plastic. Any way - well done on the conversion ! Wait til you get your first SP snapper !


That's right Andy. The plan had been to troll down the coast and then when I turned to drift back take the rod out and try to put some action on it. Best laid plans but the wind had sprung up and it was a full time job just to try and keep the nose of the PA pointed in the right direction to stop my lines getting tangled. Will certainly look to do as you suggest next time..... and yes would love to get a snapper that way. Which leads me to a question. Do SP's work at night time???


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## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

kayakone said:


> I like to hear of conversions. Ah,it might be time to start another of those threads....only kidding folks. :lol:
> 
> Congratulations Sean on your plastics conversion. That is certainly a good hook-up rate for a beginner. If you would like some cheap Z-Mans, I have about 20 packets at 1/4 price?.... I'm serious.


Thanks Trev. Yeah, might be interested. Take me a long while to get through that many. Do they have an shelf life or basically last until they get used?


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

GlenelgKiller said:


> Which leads me to a question. Do SP's work at night time???


Caught a snook on an SP at night once. Another night I think a neighbouring boat was catching snapper on SPs, Zilch was with me at the time and knew the crew.


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## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

OldDood said:


> Smoked them all up for Sunday family dinner plus a few crumbed squid.
> I used the honey, garlic and salt recipe that is on the forum somewhere.
> The snook were delicious. I will need to target Snook more often now as I expect to get a lot more requests from the extended family.
> Mark


Smoked mine up to using the same recipe plus a little soy sauce. They were fat fillets so ended up needing to double smoke them. They have come up a treat!


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

"Do SPs work at night?"
The new manager at the caravan park I live at in SA is the current Aus Fishing Champ (multi-disciplinary) and apparently his success in the beach fishing section came from catching mulloway on SPs (big ones, drifted through a rip) at night.
But he's obsessive about fishing, not like anyone here ;-)


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## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

RhubarbTheYeti said:


> "Do SPs work at night?"
> The new manager at the caravan park I live at in SA is the current Aus Fishing Champ (multi-disciplinary) and apparently his success in the beach fishing section came from catching mulloway on SPs (big ones, drifted through a rip) at night.
> But he's obsessive about fishing, not like anyone here ;-)





Squidley said:


> GlenelgKiller said:
> 
> 
> > Which leads me to a question. Do SP's work at night time???
> ...


Very interesting. Thanks guys.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Those fillets look delicious Sean! I've enjoyed your brine recipe quite a few times now. Did you substitute out some of the salt when you used the soy this time?


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## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

Squidley said:


> Those fillets look delicious Sean! I've enjoyed your brine recipe quite a few times now. Did you substitute out some of the salt when you used the soy this time?


Yeah, I did Chris. The idea actually spawned through not having much salt on hand. I think they are my best yet so the soy may be here to stay. Although perhaps it was that i let them cool down then decided they weren't done enough so double smoked them.


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

RhubarbTheYeti said:


> "Do SPs work at night?"
> The new manager at the caravan park I live at in SA is the current Aus Fishing Champ (multi-disciplinary) and apparently his success in the beach fishing section came from catching mulloway on SPs (big ones, drifted through a rip) at night.
> But he's obsessive about fishing, not like anyone here ;-)


Unfortunately for him, part of the reason he and the wife are now managers of a caravan park in the Adelaide Hills is to remove the temptation to spend all his spare (?) time fishing. Now with a 2yr old and a new baby he has to face the reality of life (  ) and won't have the opportunity to defend his title, but still, for the time being, he has the trophy in pride of place


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

salticrak said:


> White ones have had a massive strike rate up here with the tuna last season, who would have thought that?


FTFY (several spelling and grammar mistakes). You may thank me.


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## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

Good to see another overnight convert to soft plastics, Sean... and you picked the toughest type to use... ie tough for fish to destroy. Nice snook, too.

Even though I'd been a soft plastics user for some time, I just couldn't perceive whiting being caught on them although I'd heard that they worked, but was convinced the first time I tried with Gulp worms. I haven't used real worms since.

Power to the plastics!

Jimbo


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## Zilch (Oct 10, 2011)

Squidley said:


> Another night I think a neighbouring boat was catching snapper on SPs, Zilch was with me at the time and knew the crew.


100% correct.

I think Greg and his crew caught and released well over 20 Snapper that night. Chris sorry about Greg's crew that night, even I was getting [email protected]@ed off with the yahooing :twisted: every time he hooked up.

In my opinion any lure that works during the day will work at night. Several of you know where my mates and I use to catch metro Mullies (15kg - 25kg), most were caught on live bait but several were also caught on hard body lures and the original Scrounger (soft plastic, white), if your old enough to remember them.

PS. if anyone has any original scroungers in white and wishes to sell them, please PM me.

Sreve


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