August 26, 2012

Lure Report: DUO Toto 42, Bivi, Storm Flutter Stick 4cm

As I wrote on my previous post, my fishing trip was a disappointment in terms of catches. The good part was the testing of new lures and equipment. My first part of this review series will be focusing on some ultralight lures that I tested in the Egean waters.

DUO Tetra Works Bivi


This is a micro vibration lure that has really surprised me. I have to admit that I am not a frequent user of these kind of lures so I don't have much experience.  I wanted to try the lure for some bream and garfish fishing and to see the cast-retrieve action.

Cast:  This little lure is 40mm long and weights only 3.8 g. but it casts like a bullet. With my 7.4ft 0.6-8g rod and 0.4 PE I was able to reach 25-30 meters with ease.

Action: It is a vibration lure so it does vibrate and rattle. The lure is tiny and the vibration surely would attract fish. In my case I got a couple of chases from garfishes in the last meters of the retrieve but no attack. I think it is a versatile lure for breams for when the water are moving and foam is produced.

As usual, the details and the quality of the paint is superb. Need to be tested again in some white water and faster current.

 DUO Tetra Works Toto 42



A great micro minnow from the Tetra Works series. This is a regular minnow that can be used in all conditions and a great variety of small sized predators.

Cast: It is 42mm for 2.8. The presence of a lip and a 1g. difference is noticable in the casting. It doesn't get as far as the Bivi but I was able to constantly hit 20 meters with ease.

Action: It is a sinking minnow that has a tight rolling action. I enjoyed twitching it and changing retrieve speed. I think with fishes like garfishes is better to get a fast retrieve and use is slower in white waters for bream and other predators.  The rolling is irresistible and a couple of garfishes have actually assaulted the lure with no hook ups.

It is a minnow that I enjoyed a lot. More than the Bivi but mostly because I enjoy fishing with small minnows and I feel more comfortable in giving some action with rod twitches. It might have some great potential with mackerel inside port areas as well.


Storm Flutter Stick 40mm

Storm Flutter Stick 40mm


This lure was a great surprise. I like fishing with lipless minnows but this was the first time casting a micro model. I consider lipless minnows very fun to fish with given the fact that you can manipulate and animate the retrieve as you prefer.

Cast: 5 grams per 40mm are very good numbers. no surprise that this little lure casts like a bullet and surpasses the Toto42 and the Bivi, although the difference with the latter is really minimal.

Action: A lipless that needs to the animated with the rod. I enjoyed retrieving it fast with short but quick rod twitches. The small lure shines under the surface and has a very tempting action. Almost a WTD subwater. The twitches causes the lure to roll and give a nice reflection. Looked a lot like a injured small bait trying to survive in the water. I got two garfishes and several hits on it. I think it performed very good and I will use it again, maybe skipping it in order to fool some bluefish. Definitely an interesting lure.  I tried a very slow retrieve and the flutter stick responded with a steady wide wobbling. Very good indeed.

The second part will be about a PE braid that impressed me a lot. The YGK G-soul X-3




August 21, 2012

Back from the Trip!

Well, I am back. I feel a little depressed right now. As usual, hours spent on the water with no significant catches. I had blog follower emailing me wishing luck for my trip but I am going to disappoint them.
Sorry for not being able to tell you a nice fishing catch story "again". However I had the chance to play with some new tackle and lures.  These 3 days have allowed me to test my new equipment and I will spend the rest of the week updating the blog with some reviews.
What did I test?  Here is a short preview:

Tackle:
Custom St. Croix Rod
Nissin Atlas LG LRF rod
0.4 PE  YGK X3 Soul Line
Elf 2000S reel
LSD Designs Tackle Hip Bag

Lures:
Seaspin Mommotti 180
Tide Minnow 90F
Bay Rauf Manic 115
Tetra Works Bivi
Tetra Works Toto 42
Storm Flutter Stick 5cm
Seaspin Pro-Q 120
Smith Super ULM
Skagit Design Jet Bait


In the meantime some cool photos:

A great DUO of lures!

View from the port.

My fishing ground. Poor of catches.

Seaspin Mommotti takes the spot at sunset

Great combo: Mommotti 180 + new custom rod + LSD hip bag

The Toto 42 has shown some great potential.

By the way, do you like the new layout? I had to change a little bit because the right column was getting too crowded. Please let me know your feedback. Thanks.



August 18, 2012

The Vagabond Fisherman Blog in English

Good news for all my friends who enjoy extreme popping and tropical lure fishing. My friend Alessandro has decided to post in his blog both in Italian and English. Make sure you follow his blog! Lots of great info and superb reports, the kind that we always dreams of about :)





Source: The Vagabond Fisherman

August 15, 2012

Preparing for the Trip Part I

Finally this weekend I will take a 3 day fishing trip in the Aegean Sea. I haven't cast a lure in a while so I am super excited about this trip coming in a few days. This evening I took out my lure boxes and start to pick those that I consider essential for this trip. I will be aiming at seabass, Leerfish and probably some barracuda. I expect to use topwater and shallow runner lures plus some LRF lures for gars and horse mackerel. This is one of the boxes I will take with me. You can notice mostly DUO lures : Tide Minnow, Bullet DC-9, Realis 120, Spearhead Ryuki and Larus Project.
I want to test them and review them here on my blog after the trip. I will be bringing more lures with me. The other box will include Seaspin, DUO and Tackle House lures mostly.
Wait for more info and photos soon...


August 12, 2012

A very nice blog: Braidrunner

This is a very nice and professional blog that I have discovered last week. The author is an expert angler and most important of all a great photographer. The stuff you can see on his blog is outstanding. Amazing photos and very interesting fishing articles make this blog a must "visit" for all the angler out there.
I think we need more and more blogs of this quality on the net, it just shows the artistic side of lure fishing the way that I like and always try to convey in my blog.
Very glad for this recent discovery. Please have a look:

Braidrunner

The layout is simple yet crisp. Looks very professional.



This is a great photo take from the blog today. The setup is just as original as it gets.
The lure is a DUO Tetra Works Pocopoco F

August 5, 2012

Touching the Soul

This is a nice fly fishing trailer. I wish we could see more projects like this related to lure fishing.
Great Photography.




Touching the Soul (BC section trailer) from Troy Costa | Unified Productions on Vimeo.