The Archerfish From BarraGuru.

Hi there,

I have been very lucky and have been offered another great handmade lure.
Carved from timber the lure was produced by BarraGuru, and this one is fashioned to look like an Archerfish.
A common prey of the Barramundi, in the top end of Australia.
And the lure do look like an Archerfish:

The BarraGuru Archerfish.

At first sight, it could be mistaken for a rattle spot or some kind of vibe lure. But the bib and tow point on the nose, are sure hints of a different type of beast.

Weighted in the belly, the lure stand upright in the water, even when not moving.

Thus it will enable these very slow, twitch and pause kind of retrieve, so effective when fishing for Barramundi. It was clearly created with one fish in mind.

The paint job, is very subtle, and the colours change in a dramatic ways, depending of the incidence of light on the lure. His large sides will send some nice flash underwater.

And should be very efficient in some of our dark and murky rivers, along some mangrove edges.

View of the belly.

It is signed under the belly, and you can see how the colours change with a different angle of view, compared with the first image.

From another angle.

I just like how the colour can change, and the overall finish of this lure.

Just imagine it shivering above a snag habited by an old, hungry mama Barramundi...

Ready for action.

This is a lure that I am very happy to have, thank you Tony.

Once again Tony, the maker of the BarraGuru lures, has worked hard to make a beautiful lure. A lure that could easily stand in a collector display, with no shame.

Yet, I think that I will have to swim this one, and give it a chance to catch me a nice fish.

I know and I fear it: it might come back full of scratch, with some very damaged colours...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Dundee Rocks.

Hi there,

We went fishing on the rocks at Dundee, full of hopes...
And we came back with empty bags...

Yet it was a really good time to catch up with my friend Seano, and we did do a lot better than the last time that I went there.
The previous time that I was fishing on these rocks, it was freezing (well as much as it can be cold in the NT of Australia) and the wind was ferocious.
As a result we hadn't caught anything.

This time the weather was better, but it is not summer yet, and the cold winds were working against us.
Still it is a very beautiful place to spend some time in the morning.

The Dundee rocks.

When we arrived we saw another car and two tents where we parked.

As it was just day break, we made as less noise as we could, to not wake up the happy campers.

We started fishing for not much than a few half hearted hits.

At one point as Seano was at the most extreme point of the rocks, he was casting in my direction, and we were having a small chat when a wave, that I swear I didn't see coming, just drenched Seano, from head to feet...

I did apologise for not seeing this one coming, and we laughed about it.

Well, mostly me...

Not long after that, we had just moved a few meters along the rock, when from the corner of my eye I saw Seano take a step back on the rock, but all at my fishing I didn't gave it the attention it should have deserved... 

And this time, I was the one on the receiving end of a wave, and got pretty wet.

We laughed about it.

Well, mostly Seano laughed about it...

We both changed our lures one more time, trying to find the lure of the day.

Seano asked me what lure I had tied on? 

I replied that I had a DUO Tide Minnow 120MD, and that it was the first time that I was using it, so I had never caught a fish on it yet.

And just as I finished my sentence, I felt the sharp jerk on the line: I was on!

It didn't seems to be a huge fish, but still, he was alive and kicking and gave a good account of itself.

Once landed I saw that this was a small Blue Salmon ( Eleutheronema tetradactylum ).

Little Blue Salmon.

If you look with attention, you can notice that this fish sports on his belly and on his back, some very recent scars. It may have escaped a toothy predator, not long before going for my lure...

I guess that the poor critter was having a rough day.

So I put it back in the water, I think that he deserved it.

And also, it was still very early and full of optimism I was sure that I would catch a better one...

How could I have been so wrong?

I have fished for long enough to know that this is not because you catch a fish, that you will catch another one...

Yes this is right, this was to be my last fish landed for the day, and I released it...

Not long after that Seano saw a little rat of a Barramundi going for his lure, nearly just under his feet.

We both casted in the same spot a few times, alas for no results.

We moved a bit more along the rocks, and I threw another cast in the same direction, and sure enough I was on this little guy.

He made one jump toward the right, and spat my lure on the left...

Yes I know this is all part of Barramundi fishing, but I was slightly disappointed nonetheless.

And after that, no more action for the day...

As the tide was receding, we decided to do the same and walked back to the car.

As we arrived near our vehicle, I recognised one of the campers, it was Tissy, from the FFF forum.

We made small talk, they hadn't fished yet, and we had nothing to brag about...

So in the car we jumped and drove towards another spot, were we spent a few minutes casting for not much more, so it was time to head back home.

To me this was a great morning fishing in a very beautiful place, where I would not be able to go on my pushbike. So thanks you for the trip Seano.

Even if I haven't caught a Barramundi yet, on my new fishing rod...

But hey, it cold be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

10 Lures From My Sponsor.

Hi there,

Yes I just received ten fishing lures from my sponsor WildBait Lures.
A young Australian fishing lure company.
You may remember not so long ago, when I said that I had been selected among the people to be sponsored by WildBait Lures, and how happy I was.
Well I was even more happy when the lures arrived in my  mail box.
Not just one or two, but ten of them!

Look at that:

In a nice little lure box.

Ten nice fishing lures.

As you can see, ten lures, in two different sizes and four colours.

the biggest ones are about 7 cm (2.7559055 inches) and the smaller ones are around 6.5 cm (2.5590551 inches).

The longer ones are Minnow and dive to a depth of 2 metres (78.740157 inches).

While the shorter ones are Stalker and swim between 1,5 and 2.5 meters (59.055118 and 98.425197 inches).

Here comes some portraits, enjoy the beautiful models:

WildBait Minnow 7BRT.

WildBait Minnow 7BBT.

WildBait Stalker 6G.

WildBait Stalker 6VBG.

This is the two sizes and four colours that I received, beautiful!

WildBait Lures, as already stated is a relatively new comers to the fishing lure industry. The company is Australian, but the lures are hand made in Poland.

A country where I have travelled extensively in  my youth. I am sure that fishing with these beautiful little lures, will bring back some fond memories to me.

I think that they would be very efficient for billabong fishing, where we usually fish with much smaller lures than in rivers or the sea.

They should also produce some good results fishing the many rock walls along the Darwin's shores, with bream and maybe even whiting on the sandy beaches...

Lots of place to go and test them, how exciting is that!

Yet I can't go fishing today, and will have to wait as patiently as one can, a few days before being able to test them. Hard life ...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My First Pflueger.

Hi there, 

This is the short story of how I got my first Pflueger fishing lure.

Some people collect postal stamps, motorbikes or airplanes…

I collect fishing lures. And sometimes in the world of lure collecting, a random act of kindness happens. I promise not to laugh anymore when I see a bumper sticker about it.

One day out of the blue I received a message from Damian (whom I had never met), a member of the FFF forum offering me my first Pflueger lure. On one condition: that I would keep it, and not resell it. To which I replied that this was actually part of my problem: I don’t sell any of my lures, I keep them all and room is starting to be scarce… So you guessed it, I said “Yes Please!” (Thank you Damian).

The lure is a Heavy Duty Mustang Minnow made in Akron, Ohio, U.S.A, circa 1939 by Pflueger. A company that started to make fishing lures in the late 1800s. Later on Pflueger was taken over by Shakespeare and made a lot of different fishing reels. From bait caster to spinning with some fly-fishing reel thrown in the mix.

Anyway back to the lure… this 5 inch long lure was designed for saltwater use and it features metal plates on the back and belly, like a bulletproof vest. The colour of the lure is #9540 also known as Sunfish Scale Finish and is in very good condition. It’s a real beauty.

And here it is:

Yes it came in the box.

Just teasing, ready or not, here it really comes:

Open box.

My first Pflueger.

Yes the eyes are pressed in the wooden body.

Armor plate on the belly.

From above.

With a view of the armour plate on the top of the lure.

Catalogue in the box.

Yes it even came with the Pflueger catalogue:

Front of the catalogue.

On the front you can see that the colour of this lure was made after the printing of the catalogue, so they had to get it on top.

Back of the catalogue.

How nice is that?

The whole shebang is there: box, lure and catalogue. All in very good condition considering the age of this lure.

And you can't appreciate it, but I can tell you that even the smell of it, when you open the box, is very pleasant. I was telling it to one of my work colleague when I was showing her the lure, and she said: "Ho my god, it reminds me of my grandpa!"...

Yes I do feel a bit privileged to now have this lure as part of what I affectionately call my little collection.

After doing a bit of research on this beautiful timber fishing lure I stood there contemplating it, when it hit me: This lure is older than my dad! 

I am not really sure that I will ever have another lure, as old as this one very soon...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.