Territory Lad

Sorry to hear about all your situations lads, truely a harsh time for a significant number of people. Hopefully, everyone can hang in there long enough for things to turn around again

Im sure there are some dusty lures around people would happily donate for a refurbish.

Glad to hear it. Your progress has been impressive. Magnif!!! Cant wait to see your progress in this area, especially if you managed to get your hands on some of the larger 95mm blanks. Keep the updates coming, always exciting to see.

Your finishes have really improved sBT! Some cracking looking lures there

Looking good mate.

Looks great! Its the small touches and finishes that make all the difference.

Some good finishes there mate. That top one looks good hey

@MIKECATTS How do you find the FG Knot Tool to use?

@doobie no dramas. Everyone has been quite helpful to me in the past, so happy to return the favour when I can.

The main thing is to be organised. Less is more and what you have you need to be able to access easily. When I first started I had a small, standard backpack and I found it quite difficult to access my gear and get the lure I wanted whilst wading. I soon moved to a "sling bag" (there are a few out there, I went with the rapala version). This allowed me to easily slide/swing the bag from my back, round in front of me without having to take it off. Other options would be bum-bags (black magics come to mind), small satchel bags (Diawa), the Alvey wading bags, and even fly vests @Meppsta

Yes Doobs, your over complicating it. Haha Each of the methods, as with the others outlined, will work - its just some work better than others depending on the species your targeting. With YFW you can use swivels and clips / loop knots and still catch fish. But your strike rate will increase significantly if you ditch them, instead tying your braid directly to the leader and your leader directly to the tow point of the lure with a tight knot. This is because it improves the presentation of the lure in the water. Personally I run the below: Braid > FG Knot > Mono

Happens regularly unfortunately. Always pays to double check.

Had the chance to run a couple of these in my last two session and below are some early thoughts. I'll also continue to post back in here as the summer goes on. To start with, im coming from a view where the Sugarpen is the gold standard in my eyes. The Pen casts like a bullet, skips across the water beautifully, is quite a flexible lure in terms or its applications and has a success rate that is widely accepted as high. So every commen / view I have on sBT's stick bait will be relative to the Pen. That being said. 1st impressions: On the RHS are the 4 "Bangas" as I h

Nice! Some interesting patterns in there, seems like you have tried a few different things in terms of the patterns that run down the top/back of the lure. Can see more than YFW falling to these, surely a few Bream will get tricked

I fished it once when on holiday there as a teenager. Fished off the jetty, caught a handful of small spanish flags. Had a hungry cuda latch onto one mid fight. Interesting, but very one sided fight on 2kg mono Depending on time of year I would imagine you would get a range of different fish (GTs, travaley, cuda, mackeral, flathead, estuary cod, Jewies, bream, flags etc). Whether they are there in numbers or they just the odd one floats through it a whole other story though.

Christmas is coming!

Agreed, even if it was just to freshen up your well used and abused HBs.

Not bad Doobs. Looks like they will definately do a job.

Testing YFW lures? Its like Christmas! Hahaha

@AquaticResearch1 old mate from the Sandflat Fishing Australia youtube channel has the same view as yourself mate. Its quite interesting to see everyone's point of view. I think like all things its a personal preference really. @Softy seems to be a common theme. Your either in one camp or the other. Thanks mate. Appreciate everyone's input on this by the way

@Yorky I actually bought a pack of those a while back, in the 25lb size purely switching between Squid Jigs and baited rigs when out in the boat with my mates. Havent been out since, so havent had the chance to test them. Im heading over to Yorkes middle of next week, I might take them with me to see if I like them for flicking HBs or not. @piratepom I think at a minimum ill be removing the split rings from all my HBs moving forward. Might have a play over the remainder of Spring and then Summer to see what I prefer in terms of straight loop knot or snaps. You'll laugh PP, 5 min

Thanks HBt and Yorky, greatly appreciated. Do you notice much of a decline in fish strikes with the clips in place? Especially wary fish like Breambos?

Thanks mate. Im leaning towards simply removing them at this stage, unless there is an overwhelming consensus to do something else.

Anyone else had issues with their loop knots passing through the split ring on the tow point of the lure? I have had this happen once or twice in the past, but always managed to notice it before it cost me my HB. Not today though. Brand new 70mm S/Rap.......R.I.P. This sort of thing common or more of an anomaly? If its common, I might either start removing the split rings all together, or maybe try some snaps. Cheers TL

Agreed, they look fantastic.