Longtail TunaTT Snagless Weight System Switchblading NZ Deepwater ZMan Snapper Switchblading Inshore SnapperJungle Perch Switchblading the Tropics

Tackle Tactics - Pro TipsSwitchblade TipsHere’s a few tips from the Team TT Pros forgetting the most out of your Switchblade.

� The gill slots and grooves around theSwitchblade’s head are ideal forholding scent

� Vary your retrieve from moreaggressive hops followed by a sinkback to the bottom, through to smalltwitches while slow rolling until youfind what the fish want

� When casting, pulling the cast up shortcan cause the blade to roll and catchthe line - so get the cast distance rightand allow it to fall naturally

� If you are using the same attachmentpoint for a period of time you canreplace the clip with a split ring - thisminimises the chance of fouling andallows you to pull up the cast whentargeting structure

� When fishing snaggy country you canrun a single treble in the centre of theSwitchblade and even upsize slightly,while ensuring it still retains itsvibration

� In snaggy country you can also replacethe trebles with lure singles tominimise snagging

� Try downsizing your Switchblade if tapsaren’t turning into hook-ups. Dizzy’sfavourites for inshore snapper are the1/6 and 1/4oz

ZMan TipsHere’s a few tips from the Team TT Prosfor getting the most out of the ZManPlastics

� ZMan plastics are super tough, butalso super soft and flexible formaximum action - so if you find theplastic slipping on smaller jig heads,a tiny dab of super glue is ideal forlocking them in place and the proshave been doing it for years. Thismeans:

� More fish per lure

� Less time re-rigging

� More time fishing

� Get a bite and you can beconfident the lure is still sittingright…so keep fishing!

� Don’t be scared to modify yourplastics - the pros have been doing itfor years. Cut them down to reduceprofile size, cut them thinner, chopoff heads, legs, claws and being 10Xtougher the ZMan won’t tear easilywhen modified

� ZMan plastics are constructed froma scientifically designed superplastic and it’s important not to mixthem up with other soft plastics asthey don’t play well with others andwill eat them…seriously!

By Declan Williams

See the fish, catch the fish! Some of thebest fishing is visual, Bass and Barramundiblasting ZMan frogs off the surface, aStreakZ XL 8” getting engulfed off the topby a big Kingie or GT and the adrenalinpumping action of casting metal slugs atLongtail Tuna!

Brutal strikes, screaming runs and powerfultussles are the signature of the Longtailand one of the most effective ways totarget them is retrieving metal lures atspeed. The age old saying is ‘match thehatch’ which means match the lure to thebait that the fish are feeding on and metallures allow you to drop to a tiny baitfishprofile while still being able to cast farenough to reach these at times spookyfish.

The TT Lures Hard Core Assassin is one ofmy favourite slugs when chasing tuna andthe 30g Hard Core is my go-to size when Ifirst find a patch of fish. A good place tostart, gear wise, is with 7’ 8-12 kg spinrods, loaded with 30 lb braid and 20-40 lbleader, 60 lb if there is a chance of doingbattle with a Spanish Mackerel. We fishwith 30 lb braid in case we come across amonster Longy but also to make the fightreasonably quick to give us maximumchance of reviving and releasing the fish. Ahigh speed spinning reel, with a gear ratioof 5.7:1 or quicker makes it much easierand less fatiguing to cast and retrievemetal slugs for an extended period of time.

if you can tempt any predators below. If theydon’t hit the lure on the drop as it falls belowthe school, they will often smash the lure asyou take up the slack and commence yourretrieve. Species you may connect with usingthis technique include Mackerel, GT’s andGolden Trevally.

Spinning for Longtail Tuna is heart stopping! 20kg+ fish throwing themselves from the waterand smashing bait off the surface…you positionthe boat perfectly, throw a long cast across thefront of the school, start to crank the Assassinback quickly, a couple of solid Longtail breakfrom the school and start pushing water behindyour lure like a couple of big, blacktorpedo's…eat it, eat it…the water explodes,the rod buckles over, drag starts screaming andyou look over at your fishing mate with amassive grin on your face…oh yeah, this isLongtail fishing!

Tuna will often feed into the wind or tide andare commonly scattered on the run in tide,making the run out tide a better option as thetuna tend to come together in schools andterrorise bait balls. When approaching schoolsas they are busting up on the surface, it’s easyto spook them so we have two main methods oftargeting a school. The first method is to workalong slowly, a cast distance behind the schoolusing the electric motor and cast over theschool working the lure back through oralongside the school. The second approach is toobserve the direction the fish are travelling in,position the boat in their line of travel and a bitmore than a cast ahead and then cast your slugsback to them as they come into range.

Anglers quite often crank the lure as fast as theypossibly can, which sees it skipping across thesurface. From experience we have found thatthis retrieve can quite often excite the Mac Tunaand these fish are great fun, but it can befrustrating when you keep working to get theboat in the perfect position for a shot at aLongtail Tuna and instead it’s one Mac afteranother. Try mixing the speed up a little as wehave found that the Longtail Tuna often prefer abit slower retrieve with the lure below thesurface.

When fishing tuna that are busting up on thesurface, other species will often lurk below theschool cleaning up dead and injured baitfish andalso eating the occasional tuna. It’s worth lettingthe slug sink below the school sometimes to see

Unlocking theSnags with theTT Lures SWSBy Justin Willmer

There’s some big fish in those mangrove proproots…I know they’re there but the trick is how am Igoing to get my lure to them and then get it backout without snagging. There is an answer to thisquestion and it’s three magic letters, SWS.

The TT Lures SWS (Snagless Weight System) allowsyou to cast that plastic right into heavy cover andwork it back out with a pretty good chance of it nothanging up. It consists of a worm hook, allowing youto rig the soft plastic snagless and a centre weighton the shank of the hook that gives you the castingdistance and sinks the lure slowly and with aseductive, natural drift down into the snags.

I recently fished Hinchinbrook, an area loaded witha myriad of species including Barramundi,Mangrove Jack, Cod and Fingermark. It’s also anarea that is loaded with structure, predominatelythe prop roots of mangroves that form cages thefish call home. Fishing in cooler weather meant thefish were holding right up inside these cages and itwasn’t going to be easy to draw them out of thesnag…we needed to put the lure right in their faceto get them to eat it.

Our weapon of choice the SWS rigged with aZMan 3” ShrimpZ or 3” MinnowZ. Tough plastic,snagless rig, it was time to hit some snags. Whenfishing shallower water or less run we fished the1/8 oz with a 4/0 hook and when the tide washigher, the run stronger or wind blowing weswitched to the 1/6 oz 4/0 for increased castingdistance and slightly faster sink so that we couldstay in touch with the lure.

Applying a tiny amount of superglue on the shankof the hook, near the eye, will lock the plastic inplace and stay in position and swim correctlyeven after a strike. With the durability of theZMan and the snagless presentation, we wereable to land 20 or more fish on a single lure.Our approach was to target open water snags onthe flats when the tide was higher and then workthe mangrove edges during the second half ofthe run out tide and first half of the run in. Castthe SWS right into the structure, targeting laydown timber and especially any forks in thistimber, areas of dense branches and sticks asthese always seem to hold bait and also gettingthat lure into the cages of prop roots.

There were a couple of retrieves that workedwell for us. Firstly we cast the SWS into thestructure, allowed it to sink for a second or twoand then gave it a sharp lift and wound up theslack as the lure drifted back down. Wecontinued this lift and drop back to the boatbut it was often on the first or second lift thatthe lure was belted by Barra. This techniqueproduced plenty of Barramundi and as the luremoved further from the snags the Queenfishand Trevally took over, which was great fun.

The other retrieve we used involved castingthe SWS / ZMan combo tight into thestructure, allowing it to sink to the bottombefore lifting the rod tip sharply in a longtwitch of the plastic. We then wound up theslack as the lure drifted back to the bottom,paused the lure on the bottom for a secondand then repeated this twitch, pause and sinkto the bottom back to the boat. This retrieveproduced most of our Mangrove Jack and Codas we were deeper in the snag. Anytime you hitthe water though it’s a matter of varying the

Destination New Zealand by Steven RidingMy mate Michael and I recently found somecheap flights to New Zealand online anddecided to head over to try to catch a Trout orSalmon. The closest either of us had been toone of these fish, was when our wives cooked acouple of cutlets from the local supermarket.Hmmm, there was also a time when I had someat restaurant, oh and you can’t beat themsmoked.

So, with absolutely no idea how to catch one ofthese fish we loaded up the tackle tray with ourfavourite bream lures. The selection included arange of crank baits, stick baits and quite a fewblades. Among the blades were the AussieGreen & Gold coloured Switchblade andGhostblade. I actually thought I would includethese in our gear as it would be pretty cool tocatch a New Zealand fish on a lure from anAussie company in Aussie colours…“suck onthat All Blacks!”

We had no itinerary for the trip, but we decidednot to fish too long in each location as we onlyhad five days and two of them would becompletely taken up by the 640km drivebetween Christchurch and Queenstown.

After flying into Christchurch we drove ourcampervan to the Tekapo region in the centre ofthe South Island. This area has several hydroelectricity canals that hold some huge trout.

Our trip coincided with a period of heavy rainwhich reduced the visibility in the lakes, riversand canals. Even while we were there the raincontinued and in one night the region receiveda month’s rain overnight. Our campervan stayeddry but there was localised flooding!

After having a chat to a few locals we decided ourbest chance of getting a fish was in the canals. Westarted fishing our bream lures but the current in thecanals was seriously fast and we couldn’t get them tostay in what we believed to be the strike zone. Wethen changed to some soft plastic minnows includingthe ZMan Minnows on 1/6oz, 2/O TT jig heads. Theseswam very well in the current and we cast themupstream allowing the current to swing them aroundin an arc downstream and then we slowly woundthem back against the current. I had a couple of hits,solid enough to pull the tail back off the head of thejig and also had a follow from a cracker of a fish. Ireckon I would still take some soft plastics with me onthe next trip but a dab of superglue on the jig headand some stinger hooks would be my only changes.

I started to think that the poor visibility was thereason for the short hits on the softies, so I grabbed ablade and gave it a go using the same technique.When it was swinging around in the current I stayedin contact with it so I could feel the blade vibratingthe entire time. At the end of the arc I slowly jiggedand retrieved the Switchy against the current so itwas vibrating aggressively. The first fish I hooked Ithought was a snag as it hit the lure and just sat thereholding against the current. I put some pressure onthe fish and after a spirited fight I slid my first NZ troutup onto a small bank between the rocks of the canalwall. A NZ trout caught on an Aussie Green & Goldlure, I was stoked!

We ended up with a few fish between us before oursupply of blades were gone. The canals are popularwith fishermen chasing a feed and they seem to feelthe need to do this with 40lb line. This meant thebottom was littered with snagged line and our 8lbbraid was no competition against that whippersnipper line when we snagged up. I could feel theblade moving against the stretch of the line but nomatter what I tried I couldn’t get them back.

On my next trip to NZ or any trout water I willdefinitely be taking some blades with me. If Michaeland I could score some trout on them, then they willbe deadly with a bit more experience or in the handsof a gun trout angler.

Chasing big snapper offshore in deep water is awesome fun. Bail arm open, braid feeding outas the jig head and plastic plummet into the dark blue water… that is until the line speeds up,you flick the bail arm over and all hell breaks loose as that big red realises it’s hooked, thesolid head shakes start and the fish starts powering down toward the wire weed. Big snapperreally are a trophy fish in Australia and plastics are an extremely effective method of targetingthem, let’s have a look at what has worked for us when targeting snapper on plastics in deepwater.

When chasing snapper in deep water the sounder is your best friend and we generally targetledges, wire weed and bait patches. We have been successful targeting snapper in waterdepths from 40-140m, but focus most of our attention around the 80-90m mark. Fishing inthese depth demands the use of reasonable quality gear, especially when by-catch mayinclude kingfish, amberjack and cobia.

In up to about 90m of water we fish 30lb braid on 5000-6000size spinning reels and 20-40lb rods. When fishing beyond 90mwe up the braid to 50lb spooled on an 8000-10000 sizespinning reel and fished through a 30-50lb rod. Fish in thisdepth aren’t leader shy, so by fishing 80lb leader it makes iteasier and safer when handling kingies and other fish off theleader and also provides some insurance when the snapperhead for the wire weed.

By Declan Williams

Plastic and jig head selection is important assnapper will generally rise to a slowly fallingplastic and eat it on the drop. The lighter the jighead the better and jig head selection willoften be dictated by depth, wind and current. In40m we commonly start with a TT LuresTournament jig head in 3/4oz, 7/0, but havehad a couple of magic days when the weatherhas glassed out and the current has been lightenough for us to float our plastics down on1/2oz jig heads. As you step into deeper water,a TT lures Extra Heavy Duty Tournament jighead with an SL12 hook is perfect. A goodstarting point is 2oz in the 80-90m depth rangeand 4oz once you get beyond 120m.

Soft plastics that have been doing the job forus include the ZMan 5” Jerk ShadZ, which hasbeen dynamite from the shallows through toabout 60m and then we tend to step up to theZMan 8” StreakZ XL, which is a monsterjerkbait in deeper water. These ZMan plasticsare constructed from ElaZtech making themsuper soft and flexible with a great action,while also being 10X tougher than a standardsoft plastic, making them perfect for theoffshore environment as they stand up to thepickers, toothy critters and the power of bigsnapper.

When fishing around the 40m mark we allowthe lure to sink to the bottom, if it makes itthat far, give the lure a few hops, wind it up15m, pause and drop it back. Once it starts toget too far from the boat we retrieve it rapidlywith a few pauses, just in case there is ahungry kingfish in the area. In 80-90m we dropthe lure to the bottom, again if a snapperdoesn’t smash it on the drop, give it a fewflicks and work it up 20-30m, allow it to dropback down and repeat. Again once the lure istoo far from the boat retrieve it rapidly with afew pauses. If you are continually beingharassed by small pearlies and juvenilespecies keep the lure off the bottom. In 120mof water use a similar technique to whenfishing 80-90m, but remember in this depth ofwater it is crucial that you use your sounderand work the lure through the bait andsnapper… it’s a long way down and back upagain, especially if you keep missing the fish!

We drift when fishing plastics and it’s important to pay attention to your line as the plasticsinks. If the line stops, twitches or takes off it could be game on. Flick the bail arm over, windand strike. If there is no weight, pause the lure as sometimes the fish will come back. If notallow the lure to continue its descent.

By-catch when fishing deep water plastics may include kingies, amberjack, pearl perch,sweetlip and cobia. Peak bite times are generally dawn and dusk and remember to keep aneye out for mid-water bait balls as these attract snapper and a range of other species.Chasing snapper on plastics in deep water is great fun and extremely effective. There are alsoplenty of epic by-catch and memorable moments including dolphins, flying fish and multiplehook-ups.

On a recent mission targeting deep water snapper on plastics we were driving over a show onthe sounder 10m down in 80m that we believed to be kingfish that were balling bait to thesurface. We dropped our plastics and were met with a triple hook-up of kingfish, absolutemayhem. Our jaws dropped as 5 Spanish mackerel around the 25-30kg mark leapt from thewater with fusiliers in their mouths! Stunned we all just looked at each other in disbelief andthen simultaneously commenced a crazy dance to try and shake the kingies off our plastics sowe could get a shot at the Spaniards… to no avail… the jig heads held firm, so no mackerel forus, but still a triple hook-up on solid yellowtail kingfish isn’t bad. We then went on to have a hotsnapper session on fish up to 6kg, along with kingies, amberjack, cobia and pearl perch, withthe ZMan StreakZ XL 8”, in glow, bubble gum and opening night doing the job.

Declan Williams with a solid sunset snapper

Depending on the angler we all have our own list of fish species on the must catch list, mineare mostly species that aren’t in my local area and require extensive travel and favorableconditions, along with that magical window of opportunity. On a recent business trip toCairns I had my one day window and an opportunity to cross Jungle Perch off my list. Whenyou think Jungle Perch, you think images of cool mountain streams cascading into rockpools of gin clear water engulfed in rainforest. Without the luxury of a boat, but the help ofGoogle earth, we selected a section accessible by foot were I could pickpocket my waythrough some pools up or down the river.

We headed to a section of the Mossman River north ofPort Douglas and after a short 20 minute hike throughsome amazing rainforest I could finally hear and seeglimpses of the river. We arrived to find an awesomesection of rapids spilling into crystal clear small tomedium size rock pools. I decided to climb a largerock for a look over the rock pools and to locate thebest place to flick… bad idea, as I stood up 3 or 4little shadows darted off into the rocks. The water isthat clear it’s hard to even tell how deep it is as youcan see every rock and piece of structure on thebottom… a more stealth approach was needed.

Armed with an assortment small minnows, surfacelures, cicadas, frogs even a spider imitation, Iregrouped and moved up to next pool ducking anddiving around the large granite boulders until I hadgood scope on the pool. I could see some smalljunglies just out of the main flow and they appeared tobe sussing out anything that was getting washed downthe rapids, darting in and out of the current and to thesurface when anything floated past. I thought this willbe easy pickings… 100 casts later and I had nothing toshow except a few follows by some tiddlers. I triedswitching between surface, sub surface minnows etcfor no reward.

I moved up to another pool with a similar set up; fastrapids cascading down a ledge into a single 10 metrepool. This section had a lot more eddies andbackwaters, with another small group of jungle perchdarting around again as food was carried down withthe water flow. This time I could see some largershapes down deeper in the fast water but I was havingtrouble keeping the surface lures in the zone and myselection of small minnows weren’t handling the fastflowing water and couldn’t get deep enough. Anotherthing I noticed was that everything I threw at themseemed to be larger than what they were feeding on.

After another scrimmage through my tackle box I tiedon a TT Lures Ghostblade in Green Spook, three castslater and fish on! My first JP, at only around 15cm nota big fish but a solid fight for its size and andawesome looking fish in great condition. I pulledanother 3 small fish from this pool and got smoked onlight line by another in the deeper faster water. I couldflick the Ghostblade across and through the fastflowing water and into the back eddies, keeping it inthe feeding zone. I could also drop it into the base ofthe rapids and hop it across the bottom with the flow.

Even in the crystal clear water the transparent profileof the Ghostblade was virtually invisible, promptinga lot more interest as it seemed to better mimic thesmaller items the fish were feeding on. After a fewmore hours in this pristine environment and a fewmore small JPs landed, I was flicking the blade to abackwater between a rock and the main rapid andbang! On the drop and about a foot under the waterthe blade got smashed by a half decent Jungle Perch.They’re quite a handful for their size, especially onlight gear and in the fast flowing water. As I foughtthe jungle perch I was imagining all the underwaterrocks they dart through and after what seemed likeforever I had an awesome specimen at my feet.

Again in excellent condition with awesomemarkings, they are quite a thick fish for their size andthe coloring really blends with the granite coloredrocks, shadows and clear water they inhabit. Theyare a cool fish to stalk and catch, not to mention theamazing country you see while chasing them, butunfortunately my window had now closed and it wastime to get back to real world and then maybe crossanother species off that list. I have another windowopening in the next couple of weeks on the wayhome and a GT or similar would be nice!

How Goods AustraliaRobbie Wells

www.sun2seauvprotection.com.au

SWITCHBLADINGTROPICALSPECIESBy Cy & Kerrin Taylor

The Switchblade from TT is a great littlelure. It continues to demonstrate that it’sa fish catcher, and not just on southernspecies, the success of the Switchbladehas travelled north and spread into thetropics. Here it’s found a home amongstthe strong currents and hefty fish speciesthat swim through them.

These lures are tough. Other types oflures such as soft plastics will damagequite easily but these blades are able tokeep on catching fish. Virtually he onlyway you’ll lose one is if you becomesnagged or your leader material issnipped through by a sharp-toothedfish…or maybe your mate might slip oneinto his pocket when you’re not looking!However, if you’re looking for durability ina lure, you can’t go past the Switchblade.They come in a perfect range of sizes too,with different weights, so there’s aSwitchblade to suit any tropical fishingthat you’re into.

When you dream of fishing in the tropics,it’s hard to keep your thoughts away fromthe pelagics. A large GT, queenfish, goldentrevally, mackerel or tuna is always awelcome encounter when fishing in thesaltwater.

Pelagics love nothing more than chasingdown a baitfish in distress. Whether it’sslightly injured or just in a vulnerableposition away from the safety of cover, abaitfish in danger will always get attentionfrom predators.

When a baitfish senses that it’s in avulnerable position of being attacked, itsswimming motions change. It will oftenkick away madly with quick stop-start,darty movements. This sends out signalsto predatory fish both visually and throughvibrations in the water that they feelthrough their lateral lines. The speedy tailmovements of a panicking baitfish wouldbe quite similar to the strong, rapidvibrations of a blade.

This tea-leaf trevally wascaught pulsing a 1.5oz TTSwitchblade HD down asteep rocky ban

The largest model of the Switchblade is theHD (Heavy Duty) and these are great choicesfor targeting large pelagic species. These areavailable in 1, 1.5 and 2oz versions. The bestareas to use these lures are around deepwater spots. Because these lures sink quitefast, you‘re able to get them right down deepand work them on or close to the bottom.This means they’re perfect for targetingpelagic species hanging around deepstructure such as wrecks, shoals and reefpatches.

In this situation, you can look for baitfish orpredatory fish on your sounder and simplydrop your blade straight over the side of theboat. Then, sink it down to where the fish areand work it with either pulses of the rod or afast straight wind back up to the boat. Youcan even use a combination of jerky rodmovements and fast winding to get an evenmore stimulating retrieve.

Coral trout seem to have aliking for the HD – this one wascaught casting to some shallow-water coral bommies

We recently found a large school ofqueenfish on our Lowrance HDS 8 sounder.They were hanging together 10 metresdown in 15 metres of water. The techniquejust mentioned worked a treat – almostevery cast there were about 4 to 8 bigqueenfish following the 1.5oz Switchbladeup to the boat. We caught about 7queenies and then ended up taking thehooks off so we could just watch all of thefish chasing and engulfing the blade – itwas cool to watch!

When targeting smaller sized pelagics, youcan downsize to the 1/2oz or 3/8ozSwitchblades. For example, if you’velocated a patch of mid-sized golden trevallyfeeding on the flats a smaller blade willgive you better results. The size range ofSwitchblades really covers all bases.

These blades have also been producingsome interesting results on reef fishspecies. Emperor, sweetlip and inparticular, large coral trout seem to have aliking to the Switchblade’s enticing vibes.

These images show packs of Queenfishattacking a 1.5oz Switchblade HD whilevertically jigging under the boat

Moving in closer to shore, the tropicalestuaries are prime places for blading.These estuaries attract a range of species– anything could show up. The range ofsizes in the Switchblade (1/8, 1/6, 1/4,3/8 and 1/2oz) means you can matchthe size of the prey the fish you’retargeting.

Any deep cover or structure such as dropoffs, rocky ledges and patches of rocksare perfect for blading. Fallen logs andbunches of mangrove roots are alsoprime spots to fish but aren’t perfectlysuited to blade fishing as the lure caneasily snag-up against the branches.

If you’re into tropical fishing, make sureyou pack a few TT Switchblades into yourtackle box. The blade has recentlybecome a popular lure choice and the TTSwitchblade would have to be the best onthe market right now in terms of quality,size choice and wide-ranging fish-attracting capability!

The best sizes seem to be the 3/8oz and1/2oz when targeting average size fishand for chasing bigger fish, the HD is thebest bet. We’ve been surprised howeffectively the HD version has beentempting larger-than-average coral trout,not just from the deep water but theshallows as well.

Large rocky boulders that have fallen intothe shallows and large coral bommies in 4metres of water and shallower are oftenoverlooked spots for big coral trout andyou’d be surprised how many large troutare lurking underneath these shady spots.We’ve been catching some nice sizedtrout by casting these HD blades tightagainst this cover and working them backwith a fairly fast, two-hop style retrieve.This basically means pulsing the rod twiceto make the blade dart and vibrate andthen winding up the slack line andrepeating.

The Switchblade HD has become apopular lure choice for targeting funsportfish like large Queenfish.

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