Yorky

Just thought i'd put a thread up of some of the other lures i have painted up at the moment. Originally my main goal was to mainly paint the topwater Lures for YFW and sell them just as an hobby sort of thing. However after watching countless hours of Youtube and reading forums I now know there is alot more i can paint/create and not to pump them out quantity wise. Instead getting creative and painting for Quality and doing it more for myself.
Unfortunately I have painted up most of the blanks I originally had. I have a few hundred dollars worth of blanks, films, stencils and bits and pieces i have purchased being held as  the coronavirus hit most of the areas I purchase my gear from. So am waiting for freight companies to resume there services so i can start painting up new lures..
My main blanks I am planning to paint will be for the upcoming season. So will mainly be Trout, Redfin and Salmon lures. I have a range of Stickbaits, and metals for the Salmon. The Trout and Redfin will be a range of minnows perfect for both dams/lakes and creeks and streams.   I will keep you all up to date with the processes and what I create.  In the mean time here are a couple I have painted over the last month or so ....
 





 

This was from a few weeks ago, tough spin session in the Mersey River with the trout surface feeding..
cheers
Adrian
 

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 have affectionately named them. On the LHS are the same 4, mixed in with 4 Pens to give you an idea.
- the blank is almost exactly the same. Same length, same profile/shape. The only differences I can ascertain are (1) a small "scale" finish as opposed to the Pen's lateral dots, and (2) the casting weight is marginally further back in the Pen.
- the blank has a rattle, where as the 70mm Pen doesn't. This appears to be due to the blank having the casting weight in the "chamber" as oppsoed to right at the tail end of the lure like the Pen does.
- the assist hooks they come with look good. Size wise they are maybe a #6 equivalent, possibly even a #4. The braid / assist robe used actually glows bright orange under black light/UV
On the water:

- the blank sits differently in the water at a stand still. Where as the Pen sits almost 45 degrees (head up, tail down), the blank sits realtively flat with no discernable difference in buoyancy between any end of the lure. One of the blanks sat upside down at rest - maybe it was just a dud - but the others seem to be fine.
- casts well, much like the Pen does. To be honest cant tell the differece in that regard.
- seems to swim fine. Ever so slightly different action to the Pen, but this could also be due to the lack of belly trebel on the blank. Might pull the trebel off one of Pens then compare like for like.
Importantly - Results:
The plan I have used is - find the fish with my normal toys, then throw the "Bangas" in and see if they bite.
Trip 1 was pretty tough, nothing in my kit bag really got the job done. However the blank did seduce a couple of roughly 24 models.
Trip 2 was also tough, the wind was up and I wasn't confident the blank would create the water disturbance I needed. Normally in these conditions I would be throwing the larger 95 Pen. However I persisted and nailed an early to mid 30s!
RHS is Trip 1 (~24cm), LHS is Trip 2 (30+cm)
Note - I have cut the dangly bits off. I found they looked like weed and once I removed them I got more engagement for the fish.

@southie THE BANGA overall a good blank and very comparable to the Pen.
More feedback / photos to come over the remainder of summer.
Cheers
TL

Hi all..
Recieved some lures in the post.. Nicely done and with assist hooks as well.. Couldnt ask for more.. Top bloke.
I had to go and see how they worked. I went this morning ( see my other write up).
They work well.. As good as the sugarpens do, basically the same action etc.
I only had the one on me.. Red head, green stripe underneath, some sparkles and stripes..
There were only small ones around today wanting lures..  This lure got the fish of the morning @24cm... They were smashing this, But being a lot of small ones about.. Was hard to get the bigger ones.
I used it for a bit and it held up well to the abuse..
Done well my friend. Im happy..
ALL CATCH AND RELEASED
Mike
 

@nicksfishin666
Squidgy flick baits are only available in the Bio-tough range unless someone is holding stock of the old model, they have been discontinued in the other ranges so a lot of favourites are now gone
Cheers
Yorky 

Just a quick update. 
Been trying my best to pump a few out over the last week... 
Works been a pain in the arse. Will pump a few more out before i start to give a couple out.... but heres some I've done so far..

Here's a video of one of my trips to the upper Mersey River chasing trout in clear water here in Tasmania..
Perfect day for being in a river even though I would have preferred overcast conditions..
cheers
Adrian
 

Thanks for all the interest!!! Still waiting for the Blanks to rock up to paint. But in the mean time here are a couple I have painted up.... 
Sorry for poor Quality photos. Haven't had time to take proper pics....
 

Today was a total success.. the A-team ran like clock work as usual.. cheers to the good day with plenty of laughs, even if they where at the expense of Doobie.

If anyone would like to help out on the strike hook bbq at an event let us know, it's more fun then work.

KS and Doobie working hard... Or hardly working?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

Hey all as the title states I am looking for a handful of people that Regularly chase YFW on Top water lures....
I have sourced and custom painted a few and would like a couple people to test them out. As well as getting opinions and  feedback on them....
If interested let me know.
Conditions of getting your hands on one are:
You must actually chase Yellowfin Whiting on Lures
You must be able to give me feedback on them and pictures of the lure catching fish.... 
Im not going to release anymore information as of yet until I get some feedback and see what hardcore Lure Fishos think as if they seem like an popular item i will be putting these up for sale.
If interested hit me up.... I will leave this here until next Wednesday and will select 5 people from who ever has applied. As i have limited quantities at the moment...

Well I finally caught my 10.000th Tasmanian wild trout since we moved here back in March 2000..  it's a milestone I never gave a thought to until the start of this trout season when I was going through my end of season reports when I noticed I only needed 129 trout to reach 10,000 trout here in Tassie.. So yesterday and only needing another seven trout I reached it, actually caught & released fourteen all up..
cheers
Adrian
 

These are the fastach clips I use, they are available with or without swivel I use the ones without a swivel to lessen the added weight even when I have removed the split ring. Notice they are rounded where the lure attaches which allows the lure to move freely.
They are available in 5 sizes from 15 - 100lb, I use all sizes depending what lure I'm using for what species, I have used the 100lb when trolling for Tuna with no loss of action to the lure

These are the fastach clips I use, they are available with or without swivel I use the ones without a swivel to lessen the added weight even when I have removed the split ring. Notice they are rounded where the lure attaches which allows the lure to move freely.
They are available in 5 sizes from 15 - 100lb, I use all sizes depending what lure I'm using for what species, I have used the 100lb when trolling for Tuna with no loss of action to the lure

@Territory Lad I haven’t noticed any decline in strikes or hookups for the species I fish for but I don’t fish for Bream so can’t answer regarding them 
Yorky 

I remove the split ring and either tie straight to the lure or more often than not I will use a small Mustad fastach clip that way I can change lures fast without having to re-tie. I've found that removing the split ring & adding a clip hasn't affected lure action even in small light lures i.e. Yellowfin 3-5g lures, I like the Mustad fastach clips because they are rounded & allow the lure to move freely. I mainly use the Mustad fastach clips in 25lb this may seem way overkill but the smaller ones in 15lb are to small for my eyes & fingers 😁😂 so I only use that size when I have to. the 25lb ones are still small and light & I know their strong cause I also use them with my salmon lures
Yorky

I remove the split ring and either tie straight to the lure or more often than not I will use a small Mustad fastach clip that way I can change lures fast without having to re-tie. I've found that removing the split ring & adding a clip hasn't affected lure action even in small light lures i.e. Yellowfin 3-5g lures, I like the Mustad fastach clips because they are rounded & allow the lure to move freely. I mainly use the Mustad fastach clips in 25lb this may seem way overkill but the smaller ones in 15lb are to small for my eyes & fingers 😁😂 so I only use that size when I have to. the 25lb ones are still small and light & I know their strong cause I also use them with my salmon lures
Yorky

Chasebait  "Flick Prawns" have hooked me lately. I use them in shallow drains and shallow drop-offs on flats. They drift horizontally, life-like, and I've caught flatties, estuary cod and pikey bream on them with more or less a "do-nothing" retrieve. However, they are snag-prone, even if rigged weedless, and are not cheap. Good old gold bombers continue to catch barra for me night (Tinaroo) and day (shallow drains in the  Hinchinbrook mangroves), but YellowDoor's Sebile Magic Swimmers need some more time on the field up here. They look sooooh good in the water.

As a keen COARSE/FRESHWATER angler I find I can't get some of my prefered tackle in Australia so I have to buy it online from the UK or make it myself, so as promised I will share some of my favourites over time in this set of posts...
FLOATS... I am addicted to making floats, I love giving them away to people who fish like I do and HATE losing them. 
Most of my floats are wagglers, straight or bodied, as you can see from the photo they are all slightly different depending on what they are for, or where I am fishing, some can be used in saltwater for Gar and Tommies etc as well as in freshwater. The bodies are made from balsa wood which I turn on a small lathe, but you can also easily whittle then to shape with a sharp knife or stick them in a drill chuck, I always finish with fine sandpaper and fine wire wool. Carefully one end needs to be drilled to accept the stem, which I make from peacock quill or even better native reed stem (I always use the type of reeds that have the fluffy top and the stems are like mini bamboo, there's masses on most river banks (must be dry and brown not green) Always cut at a node so the tube is buoyant.   I superglue this into the balsa body. At the other end I glue in a short piece of bamboo skewer ready to have a safety pin eye whipped on and the whipping superglued.
To strengthen the main shaft, as you can see from the photo I do some decorative whipping nearly to the top, this does strengthen it considerably, we are now ready to  apply a base white top (cheapest way is to get some flat white acrylic paint, a sample pot from Bunnings is ideal) The florescent top is just a can of that Hi Vis stuff they spray on the road to mark where they are going to dig holes etc. I shake it well and spray some on a bit of paper or the like a use a small brush and paint over the flat white base down to almost the end of the white.. it dries very quickly!
Now all you need to do is varnish the whole thing, any varnish will do as they are not exposed to the weather much, I use a stain varnish (walnut) as this gives me an attractive brown effect.
As you can see all the floats are different, it's good to experiment and see what suits the type of fishing you want to do, they are so cheap to make and work much better than bought ones.
Hope you like that.... have a go, it's great to catch a fish on home crafted gear as I did today a 17+lb carp... any questions please don't hesitate to ask, and if you ever meet me on the bank please ask for a FREE float I will be only too willing to let you have one.

Fishing 👍👍, the outcome of the game will be publicised, watching it won't change the outcome.
Fishing is like sex, every time you miss out on it  you never catch it up 😂😂
 
Cheers
Yorky
 
 
 

Fishing 👍👍, the outcome of the game will be publicised, watching it won't change the outcome.
Fishing is like sex, every time you miss out on it  you never catch it up 😂😂
 
Cheers
Yorky
 
 
 

Fishing 👍👍, the outcome of the game will be publicised, watching it won't change the outcome.
Fishing is like sex, every time you miss out on it  you never catch it up 😂😂
 
Cheers
Yorky
 
 
 

Fishing 👍👍, the outcome of the game will be publicised, watching it won't change the outcome.
Fishing is like sex, every time you miss out on it  you never catch it up 😂😂
 
Cheers
Yorky
 
 
 

Beautiful spring day, tried for some trout on fly in the hills. A few spotted, but not alot of action. 4 fish landed. Ran into a group of SAFFA gents, having a bbq and and catch up, along the heysen trail. When i got back to my car there was a letter and a contact number for the Association . Jolly o