A visit to FishingBuddy

Today i'm on leave from work thus, after waking up and getting things done around the house i decided to go pick up some new toys. It has been years since i visited the local tackle shop FishingBuddy. I first stepped into this store about 9 years back when i was still a student in secondary school. Today the shop sits at a store front across where the older and smaller shop was, the staffs in the store has come and gone but amidst the new faces i spotted a familiar face.

After a brief chat with this old friend and enquiring about another; the boss, who is out on errand.  I spotted a few shiny Daiwa T3 Airs sitting on the shelf, i couldn't help but took the chance to caress this new holy grail of Bait finesse reels. The Zaion body with generous portings of the shell allowed a good decrease in weight of the reel. The T-wing levelwind, KTF spool, looks and works fantastic and overall built seems pretty sturdy. However i'm still not fully a fan of the Zaion material as it made the reel feel cheap in your hand due to the resin compound but ironically it costs nowhere near the word cheap. I wasn't fully bought in even though i'm such a huge fan of baitcasting finesse tackles. So i decided to keep the card sitting firmly in the wallet this time. I may revisit this reel if my PX68 eventually gets sold.

As i walked around the shop i spotted what i was here for, a new finesse rod. After looking at several higher end rods available at local tackle stores and still unable to find one with my preferred blank action i decided to try cashing in on a moderately priced piece, which from my research may just offer that bend to mid blank.

Monsoon is here.

It has been a hectic month throughout the entire November; amidst the mindless revisions for my college exams i was given the opportunity to change my personal car from a Suzuki Swift Sport to my childhood fave; the Toyota MR-S. Juggling studying, dekitting/selling of the parts from my Swift, to viewing and dealing of the MR-S, it was not hard to see why my tackles have been sitting in the dark. However now that the dusts have settled, it was time for some rod bending good times.

 December marks the beginning of the north eastern monsoon and downpours occur almost everyday. I decided to visit a heavily overfished location which is fairly unaffected by rain to help my cousin in landing some peacocks, hopefully.

We arrived later than we supposed to, which translates to a very short fishing window; about 45 minutes of fishing to be exact. I rigged up the tackles quickly and after a brief run through of simple ways to work a Keitech Swing impact, my cousin was all set to do some serious luring. My cousin has been fishing with me on and off for the past 10 years however he has never tried serious luring; he would at times chug a couple of plastics out there, but without much serious thoughts. I directed him to some possible fishy hideouts and after several casts a successful hookup was had!

 

Rod: Abu Garcia Rocksweeper 2-4lbs

Reel: Shimano Sephia BB 2000 

Line: Berkley Fireline 6lbs

Lure: Keitech Swing Impact 3.5"

I was very much hoping for slightly larger peacocks to give him a better run but in such pressured waters it will have to make do! On the brighter side, my cousin is using my ultra light spinning tackle and with very low drag settings, the humble sized peacock managed to make several spirited dashes and put a smile on my cousins face.

My cousin went on to landing another similar sized fish whilst i managed to match his two fishes with whatever remaining fishing time we had left. Hopefully i will be able to get more time on the water in the coming months and maybe you'll see more catches from my cousin. Here's the bigger one of the two from me.

 

On my usual setup and my new Jackall Boil Trigger 77 in Skeleton Lime colour

 Couple of days ago i tried and failed to pick up one of these bad boys as it was sold out.

 

priced pretty steeply at about 700usd!

 

If you are as much a finesse fan as i am, you will know that you can never have enough of finesse rods thus i will be to acquiring another mid range finesse rod to tryout really soon so stay tuned!

Hey Sunshine!

It was one of those lazy days where i struggled hard to lug my arse out of the house to get some fishing done. However it has been almost a month since i put anything up for you readers out there thus off i went, all packed for a short hour's trip before dusk. As hard as i tried the peacocks were just not biting nor even showing up on the surface, thus all i have to show is a nice vividly colored orange cichilid. I had 3 taken that evening. Not a great catch by any means, but the fun buzzing bites still wrapped up my day on a light hearted note. Till next time.

Rubbers saved the day!

I had a morning to spare, and so decided to sacrifice some much needed sleep in exchange for a chance to bend some rods. Woke up at 6.15am and headed out to meet a colleague of mine.
Arriving nice and early with the crisp morning air around us, cast after cast was fired out. The water level was extremely low and there was very little surface actions, even at daybreak. 2 hours into the morning, after countless lure changes and not a single take or even a chase. Both of us were pretty disappointed and eventually my friend had decided to pack up his tackle while i decided to rig up a mebaru rubber just to try and hookup something. After several cast i felt a tug and set the hook. Up came a fiesty little bugger.

After several more casts, my friend had to take his leave due to urgent matters and so i walked slowly back to my car. While walking along the canal leading back to my car, i slowly scanned the area for activities and did some sight casting. At the very last moment i spotted a pair of peacocks swimming by and made a quick cast in the direction and made several twitches. A familiar yellow flash swoop out of the weeds and had a go at my tiny mebaru rubber.

Nothing huge, but at least a sizable fish which managed to put up decent dashes to make the entire trip worthwhile. Alas, rubbers saved the day once again.

Fly!

Hi guys apologies that this place has been left hanging for awhile. Have been busy with quite a fair bit of stuffs. Of all the other things cluttering my life, one was my new 2wt fly setup.

As much as i'm a hardcore finesse luring freak, seems everything finesse attracts me when it comes down to fishing. Having been doing much of flyfishing in the past year after i discovered the joys of baitcasting finesse and so over the past month i have been doing alot of flyfishing with several buddies of mine and have landed quite a fair bit of fishes but i'll just upload some to tease.

 Double hookups

 Gurglers are great fun to use

 Native water tilapias, fiesty buggers but seldom taken on lure

 One of the many peacocks that fell prey to one of my most attractive patterns; The Flashbelly

Temensis taken on a orange Chenile Charlie

A Haruan also on the Flashbelly

New Aldebaran BFS XG!!

Hey lurers! Sorry there has been a bit of downtime on Lurerstyle as i was away on vacation in Phuket, Thailand. Unfortunately there was no fishing done on this trip, even though a mighty tranquil creek lies right in front of the resort i was staying at.

As Daiwa rolled out the T3 Air featuring collaboration efforts With K.T.F to cover the new niche trend of bait finesse fishing, Shimano Japan has decided to put up a new contender to the table; The 145g Aldebaran BFS XG!

The Aldebaran BFS XG with a new Sleek matte black finishing

One of the new feature of the Aldebaran BFS XG is a redesigned profile known as the Corefit Body which supposingly gives the reel a much better palming profile for bait finesse application.

The BFS XG comes with a blistering 8.0:1 Gear ratio

 The new drag star on the BFS XG

The BFS XG comes with factory Yumeya BFS spool and a new SVS unit with 8 brake blocks for further fine tuning of braking force for bait finesse application.

Does this reel not resemble my bfs core?! I'm certainly picking one of these up this year after the release to add on to my stable of BFS reels. I'm looking forward to the release of this reels' marketing video by Shimano Japan to check out the reel in action and to find out more information! Till then, keep drooling finesse fans!!

Shrinking

I shot right out of bed at the first alarm note this morning. I arrived at the reservoir nice and early but was faced with a questionable start. The usual area which i started from had produced not a single bite, the water was calm and not many rises were spotted. I decided to remain optimistic and proceeded on to the other side.

After several switches i clipped on a Duo Pocopoco and started popping about. I noticed a pair of faint shadows in the water about 60ft out which seemed like Giant Gourami of sort. I started to aim my cast towards the fish and on the second cast the lure which landed about 5ft behind the pale shadow was engulfed in a gigantic splash, the take was immediate as the lure touched down catching me off guard. However dramatic the take was, the fish was not hooked up, leaving both me and the lurer by my side staring in disbelief. It was probably a giant snakehead lurking about.

After the excitement died down i decided to proceed further up after making several more casts. The entire ending portion of the fishing area was covered with weeds and there was no takes or significant rises. As i proceeded down the stretch, I met another lurer and took position a slight distance beside him. It wasn't long before i hooked up the first fish of the day which was a juvenile Giant Snakehead.

After releasing the fish i continued casting and moving along the entire stretch. I missed a good take near the edge of a weed clump but eventually hooked up the first peacock bass for the day.

As i approached deeper waters where the amount of weeds drastically declined, i decided to clip on my trusty Zipbaits Rigge jerkbait and tossed it out. After a little more moving and casting i hooked up 2 more peacocks from a single spot.

Such beautiful spawning color and finnage 

After landing these 2 beautiful peacocks i was now nearing the start of the stretch and had decided to proceed back to the ending area for a few more casts before heading for breakfast. The first lurer which i met at the start of the day, too, walked to the starting area and began casting his lure. The area was still pretty dead with no bites, rises or any signs of chases at all. As i walked near the exit, i noticed a rise under the highway bridge and decided to go under the bridge to take a few parting casts.

I always enjoyed fishing under the bridge as it was a small tight space with not much of headroom and the width of the tunnel was probably about 8-10m wide. I always enjoyed fishing structures like this way more than open waters, however the chances of larger fishes swimming up the tunnel was pretty low, though i did have several catches in this area. As i walked into the tunnel, my footsteps disturbed a group of small garfishes hanging near the edge of the embankment and their leaping about on the water surface attracted a nearby predator strike, i immediately took a cast and felt the take. However it turned out to just a juvenile peacock no more than 12cm in length.

It only took several more paces to reach the end of the tunnel, a cast along the end attracted a pair of mating peacocks to charge ferociously towards the bank crashing into the edge however missing the lure. As they retreated into deeper water, I cranked up the lure at max speed and fired out a cast into the direction which the pair U-turned towards and was duly rewarded with a solid hookup.

The peacock was swiftly unhooked and allowed to return to the sides of his mate, thus marking the end of the trip.

As i was walking back to the car i wondered to myself about the recent catches. The catch rate has been pretty consistent and the fishes landed were all pretty similar in terms of size and weight. However their sizes recently have been a lot smaller compared to the peacocks we were consistently landing in the past. The peacocks landed recently are all in the 1lbs size range while it was normal to land several 2 pounders and above in the past. It had me wondering if the smaller fish size was due to the wrong fishing season or due to my switch to bait finesse gear. However in my defense for BFS fishing, i was happily landing decent sized fishes back than when i was fly fishing and these flies were usually no larger than the lures i'm using recently. Food for thoughts.

6 pounder on a fly smaller than my pinkie landed in 2010. Took me into the backing on the first blistering run.

33

No biggies today =(

Lure Review - Zipbaits Rigge MD56SS

It's been awhile since the last lure review, and since it was my first fishing trip after a long break i said why not? The latest lures to hit the shelves of my frequently visited tackle store are the new batches of Zipbait lures. I was showered with a huge array of finesse baits from the Rigge series. And so, the selected lure of choice for today's review, the Rigge MD56SS.

Zipbaits Rigge 56SS

Length: 40mm

Weight: 3.5g

Slow Sinking 

Design: The Zipbaits Rigge MD56SS is a medium slim profile jerkbait which comes with Zipbaits proprietary  Mag Drive system which allows optimal casting and retrieve balance. The Mag Drive system is essentially a weight transfer system, which unlike something like the ball bearing transfer in Yozuri/Duel's Aile Magnet minnows, the Mag Drive features a MZ-19 (custom designed gravity Tungsten weight system) which slides along a bronze bored shaft; sliding to the rear during cast for long and balanced casting, and sliding forward during retrieval. The MZ-19 features a magnet at the head of the weight which locks on to the steel plate at the start of the shaft enabling a stable retrieve with no unpredicted movements. 

Mag Drive system

Color choices

Casting: Weighting at 3.5 grams, the Rigge MD56SS casts like a breeze hitting acceptable target ranges effortlessly on a finesse setup. The MD56SS is able to hit the 80-90 feet ranges on my tuned up Core 50mg7 spooled with 6lbs Sufix 832 paired to a Majorcraft volkey 652UL/BFS. Flight path was straight and true. Casting was good and reaches adequate fishing distance but nothing mind blowing. 

Action: The Rigge MD56SS has a tight wiggling action on constant straight retrieve but the X-factor of the lure comes from fast constant twitching retrieval. 

Fast twitching enables a provocative darting action bound to attract predatory fishes. Aside to the action, the MD

56SS is one of the most effortless-to-twitch lure and has extremely low water resistance; just enough for you to feel connected. You can work this lure all day without ending the day with an aching wrist, and that's definitely a big plus for lurers who enjoys working jerkbaits all day.

In conclusion: Priced in the lower regions of typical JDM offerings, this is an effective jerkbait that casts effortlessly and well but the major plus point of the lure comes from the fast darting action from hard twitches and the complete lack of effort needed to work this jerkbait. Nothing particularly huge was landed today during the test thus nothing much can be commented about construction durability of the lure, Nonetheless, the paintwork and construction, visibly, seems plenty legit. However the hooks supplied with the lure, though superbly sharp, was of a pretty thin gauge and disappointingly opened up pretty easily to these small peacocks no larger than 400grams. 

'

Opened hooks!!

Examinations suck!

Some materials to excite me, coming back from a long break away from the water

Finally!! The examinations are over and my tackles locked away deep within my wardrobes shall finally see light. The blog has seen no updates over the past few weeks due to intense studying and the separation of me from my tackles.

Just as i had my tackle bag packed for an early session tomorrow morning to cure me of the withdrawal symptoms, lightnings are flashing, thunder crashing outside my bedroom window right now. Seems my hopes are dashed as the water at my planned fishing ground will be a murky brown by tomorrow morning due to the overnight rain.

Nonetheless fishing shall be done soon. Stay tuned.

Good day turned bad.

At 6+ PM i recieved a called from home, informing me that my "package" have arrived. I couldn't contain the excitement within! After a week of searching i finally decided to pull the trigger on yet another finesse rod. This time, one that could not be found locally. After several emails with the japanese online retailer, the rod was shipped

After i receiving my bill i found the shipping to be dirt cheap. As expected the rod was shipped without a PVC protection tube. And this has caused a magnificent day to be turned around; when i discovered....

Upon opening of the package i heard an uncomfortable clanking noise. Unfortunately the worst had happened, the event i was so afraid would happen unravelled right in front of me. My brand new unused rod came in 3 piece instead of 2.

The only tiniest bit of consolation was that i did not put my hard earned cashed on the twice-as-expensive Qu-on super dynamis series rods and opted for the mid end trickster series. Now all that is left is the wait for a reply from the tackle store to aid me in getting my money back. =( on a side note, the qu-on trickster turned out stiffer than i expected thus if i could get my cash back instead of a return i'd definitely opt for the buck and this time, wait patiently for the right rod. A painful lesson indeed.

Hat-trick

It was a pretty bountiful night out. I managed to hit 3 different species that night. 

Project BaitFinesseCore

Volkey VKC-652UL BFS 3-10lb

Sufix 832 6lbs mainline

Berkley Vanish 8lb shock leader

Rapala Ultralight minnow UL6

 Project BaitFinesseCore

Volkey VKC-652UL BFS 3-10lb

Sufix 832 6lbs mainline

Berkley Vanish 8lb shock leader

Ima Foxy Fry

Project BaitFinesseCore

Volkey VKC-652UL BFS 3-10lb

Sufix 832 6lbs mainline

Berkley Vanish 8lb shock leader

Ima Foxy Fry

Little fishes

Decided to join my colleagues for a short session today right after night shift. Weather was good however the water condition was really poor due to discharges from the canal causing the water to turn milky brown. The bite rate was poor and amongst the 4 of us i was the only one landing fishes, albeit small ones. Fun day nonetheless.

Raid Japan

Another sick trailer

Shakedown.

My Baitfinesse Core is finally complete with the arrival of my Semperfi finesse platinum carbon handle. I'm overall really satisfied with the finalized product in terms of looks and feel however performance on the water would be the most important and final trial to determine success of the project. Thus it was time for a final shakedown and a test of it's ability.

Project BaitFinesseCore

Volkey VKC-652UL BFS 3-10lb

Sufix 832 6lbs mainline

Berkley Vanish 8lb shock leader

It took about 3 casts to finalized a balanced casting setting without really pushing it, resulting in a user friendly, moderate thumbing setting. I clipped on a Zipbaits Rigge 46S and the first twitch upon landing resulted in an instantaneous bite. Hook was set and the fish was on. What a great start for the day and the reel.

I tried casting a range of lures from 1/16oz jighead rigged mebaru rubber to several plugs ranging from 2.3g to 2.8g. Casting of the BFC was superb and i have to say i was pretty much blown away. It exceeds my px68 in every way (both reel spooled with same line, leader and paired to the same rod however the px68 finesse spool has not been tested yet). The overall distance was quite a bit further while maintaining controlled, smooth and effortless casting. 

The high retrieve ratio on the shimano HEG gearing made retrieval a breeze and provided lots of power. While Daiwa reels had a very direct mechanical feel whilst cranking, Shimano reels emphasized on buttery smoothness. Neither offered any form of edge over the other as it boils down to preference of feel. 

The bite was plentiful today however nothing of notable size was landed thus the drag capability have not been put to the test as yet. However i'm extremely pleased with the reel and can't seem to shake off thoughts of going fishing and using it again.

Some of my good buddies catches for the day.