What fish species have you caught while using TT Jig Heads?  

Previously I have written 3 technique articles on how and where to use TT Lures

Jig Heads. They were chasing Kingfish with TT Lures Jig Heads, chasing bream

in the estuaries and how to get the best out of your Tackle Tactics Jig Heads when

targeting flathead.

 

I have covered techniques that have involved fishing from an anchored and drifting

boat, while jigging, twitching, shaking and slow lifting. There have also been

techniques on how to cast at fixed or floating navigation markers or buoys using

the hard and fast retrieve, the lift and twitch and shaking methods.

 

Other types of places that were covered were estuary sand flats, weed and

seagrass beds, rock bars, drains or run-offs, fallen trees, oyster leases, bridge

pylons and floating pontoons. All of which not only hold yellowfin bream, dusky

flathead and kingfish, but also can hold luderick, whiting, silver trevally,

leatherjackets plus a myriad of other fish species.

 

In this article I will list the species that I, and other anglers who have fished with

me have caught while using TT Lures Jig Heads. I will also describe the

techniques we were using at the time and the type of plastic that was used. Over

the years I have caught yellowfin and black bream, dusky, sand, tiger and rock

flathead, tailor, Australian salmon, Australian bass, sand and king George whiting,

bonito, yellowfin, fantail, chinaman, six-spined, rough and mosaic leatherjackets,

numbfish, shovelnose rays, stingrays, sergeant baker, painted grinner, long tom,

nannygai, eastern red scorpion cod, red gurnard, silver and Bigeye trevally,

yellowtail, Samson fish, slimy mackerel, dolphin fish, snapper, mulloway, luderick,

diamond fish, stripey, sweep, morwong, mullet, yellowfin and river pike, crimson

cleaner wrasse, flounder, toadfish and porcupine fish.

 

Now some of these fish species that we have caught you maybe would not go out

a specifically target them.

 

Over the years I have had the opportunity to fish with many different anglers. Some

who I have met through my writing, the tackle industry, some with fishing clubs I

have belonged to, bass, bream and flathead competitions, the odd angler who I

have struck up a friendship with from my fishing classes and last but not least my

family.

 

        

        I find that if you are a newcomer to using soft plastics and jig heads you could not go wrong if

              you try targeting dusky flathead, or any other flathead. You could then try targeting bream

 

Dusky Flathead and Tailor

 

As with most kids at an early age it is hard for them to sit and wait for a bite. If you

tell them not to touch the rod while it is in the rod holder, they will usually pick it up

when you are not watching and start winding it in. The same goes if you get them

to cast it out and tell them not to wind in until they get a bite, they will keep winding

it in saying they are always getting a bite. After a short while of repeating this

exercise they will usually get bored and will look for something else to do.

 

To over come this I brought both of my kids a closed faced reel, rigged them up

with a TT Lures Jig Head and gave them a few soft plastics in a variety of sizes,

shapes and colours. I then informed them that they could change the soft plastics

as many times as they liked and that they could cast and retrieve it back as many

times as they could, on one condition. They had to see the line go slack before

they could slowly retrieve it.

 

I will always remember the time that I took my son (Chris) and daughter (Alissa)

out for their first time at using soft plastics to target dusky flathead. It was in the

Woronora River, near the bottom of the tide, just before the onset of winter. I don’t

know who was more excited, me or both the kids as they had a double hook-up.

Chris managed to get a 54cm dusky flathead and Alissa caught a 42 cm tailor.

Not bad after only 15 minutes of casting and retrieving those soft plastics.

 

The Squidgy 10cm Black Opal Shad mounted on a 3/0, 1/4 once Wobble Head

Jig accounted for the dusky flathead and the tailor was caught on a Berkley 4 inch

Turtle Back Worm mounted on a 3/0, 1/4 once Tournament Series Jig head. Both

were cast up onto the exposed sand flat and then slowly retrieved in a soft jerking

action back towards the boat. Both fish nailed the soft plastics as they reached the

deeper discoloured water.

 

   

   Carlo with his first ever dusky flathead       Tailor will normally chop up soft plastics,

                                                                         but this one fell foul to a lightly twitched

                                                                         curl tailed grub on a 1/16 once TT  jig.

                                                                         Chris was very lucky not to be bitten off

                                                                                                by the tailor.

 

 

Yellowfin bream.

 

I have been running fishing classes at various tackle shops in Sydney for well over

10 years, and during that time I have struck up a number of friendships with some

of the participants. One that comes to mind is Aaron Truesdale, who came to not

one, but two of my classes at Windybank’s Bait and Tackle at Mount Colah.

Aaron is the type of angler who is willing to try new things to broaden his horizons

and to increase the number of fish species he has caught and after completing

the first fishing class Aaron took a liking to using soft plastics.  

 

He tried casting them from his boat, out of other angler’s boats, from the shore

or just about any where he could chuck one out. But, to no avail, Aaron could

only catch toadfish. After the end of the second class and several phone calls I

met up with Aaron at the ramp in the Cooks River.

 

As we were motoring along Aaron was eyeing off my collection of soft plastics

and jigs heads and ask me “Which one are we going to use first”. My reply was

“Not quite sure until we get to the first spot”. Upon arriving at the first breakwall it

was decided to rig up with a 1/0, 1/20 once Tournament Series Jig head on mine

and a 1/0, 1/12 once Tournament Series Jig head on Aarons. My choice of plastic

was a Berkley Camo 6 inch Sand Worm (cut in half) and Aaron put on a Berkley

3 inch pumpkin Minnow. 

 

It wasn’t long before Aaron realized that you needed to land your jig head and

plastic pretty close to the strike zone to get a response from the yellowfin bream,

as I had already landed two keepers already. The larger one pulling the scales

down to 990 grams. Once Aaron got the idea where you had to put the jig and

plastic he managed to get a dusky flathead and a tailor.

 

It went a bit quite for a while but we managed to get 6 yellowfin bream to 990

grams, 2 dusky flathead to 40cm and 2 chopper tailor to 31cm. Aaron’s total

was 2 yellowfin bream, 1 tailor and 1 dusky flathead. Not bad for someone who

had only caught toadfish before.

 

The strike zone that I mentioned early was to get as close to the rocky shoreline,

without getting snagged or a close to the side of the boat as you can. Aaron did

manage to get some in the strike zone, but a number of them either fell short or

sailed right over the top. How accurate you become will depend on the practice

and time on the water that you put in.

 

   

 

    It may not be the best way to hold up yellowfin bream for a photo, but the author was running

    out of hands to hold them up.These 3 were part of a catch of 15 bream on a combination of soft

                                                    plastics and Tackle Tactics Jig heads.

 

    

Aaron Truesdale with a pigeon pair of yellowfin bream. Aaron now catches a variety of fish species

                                            on soft plastics and Tackle Tactics Jig heads. 

 

Silver trevally.

 

Many, but not all of the anglers that I come across have two thoughts about silver

trevally, the fight hard all the way to the end and they are not very good on the

plate. Well, as far as I am concerned they are correct in the for instance, but

completely wrong in the second. Over the years I have caught hundreds, if not

thousands of silver trevally and yes they do fight right to the end, but they are also

great on the plate. That is if you look after them once you have put them in the net.

 

Due to the softness of the silver trevally flesh you will need to bleed them straight

away, put them in an ice slurry, fillet and skin them and then cover the boneless

fillets in egg and bread crumbs. Once you have either lightly cooked them on the

barbeque or in a small amount of olive oil you will keep coming back for more.

 

Anyway, enough of the cooking recipes, you would like to know how to go about

catching them. Most of the time it is no different to what I do when I am fishing for

bream.

 

Usually when I am fishing for silver trevally I am after a bit of fun and a feed. So,

most of the time I will be at anchor, laying out a berley trail of chicken pellets and

smashed up old pilchards, while at the same time feeding either an unweighted

or lighted weighted peeled prawn, pink nipper, fillet of pilchard or small strip of

squid. Once I have got enough for a feed I will change over to a soft plastic and

start feeding it down the berley. If I had no response to the lightly weighted soft

plastic after feeding out about 20 to 30 metres of line I will start slowly retrieving

it back to the boat in short bursts.

 

The take off the silver trevally can be very timid or you will just get smashed. So

you will need to be ready no matter what happens. I have also picked up bream,

tailor, bonito, Australian salmon and kingfish while doing the same thing. Okay,

berleying may not be the done thing when it comes to fishing with soft plastics,

but why don’t you try it once it’s great fun.

 

I find that stick baits rigging onto a 1/40 or 1/28 once, 1/0 HWS Tournament

Series Jig head or a small curly tail plastics mounted onto a 1/20 or 1/16 once

TT Jig will do the trick when it come to targeting silver trevally with soft plastics.

 

                         

               A silver trevally that was caught by the author after a

            session chasing leatherjackets with pieces of peeled prawns.

 

Whiting and leatherjackets.

 

Over the years a lot of the whiting that I have caught on soft plastics have been by

catches while fishing for bream, flathead and silver trevally. But this has changed

over the past year or two, especially when I became more confident in catching

them on soft plastics. During the summer months in Sydney I will go out during the

day and target whiting on the sand flats and at the edge of the drops offs in the

Port Hacking and Middle Harbour. I have found that it doesn’t matter whether the

water is running fast or slow. Just as long as it is moving.

 

Gary Brown

 

Author of Fishing Guide to Sydney - Hawkesbury
              Beach and Rock fishing Australia
              DVD - A Day on the Bay