DAIWA NEWS: My latest Sunday session Ballistic X spin By Andrew Badullovich

I didn’t hit the water as early this morning as I would have liked; however, it had appeared that I’d timed my run perfectly. The tide was high, and there was enough water covering this particular sand flat which I’d be eyeing off for a while. I hadn’t fished here before…but it just looked like it had the right stuff to hold a few bream. The flat consisted of silty mud and isolated patches of weed: and it was also scared with thousands of saltwater yabby holes…perfect!

I had a slight breeze at my back (10-15 knots) and had positioned the boat to set up a nice wind-drift. Anticipation was high, and upon my fifth cast for the morning, my Wise Minnow 50SP was slammed! The Wise Minnows dive to roughly a meter in depth, and I could feel my lure grubbing the bottom every now and then during the retrieve.

The first drift, (roughly 300 meters long) yielded three nice bream. Before commencing the next drift, I ventured into shallower water and positioned the boat for another crack at these flats-dwelling bream. This proved a master stroke, as this drift produced five more bream, with the best of them weighing 1.3kg! I repeated this process for the next three hours, and ended up boating 14 legal bream; with three of them weighing over a kilo…needless to say this flat is my new favourite spot! The technique was simple – cast and crank at a steady pace with the odd pause.

Before I called it a day, I ventured towards the mouth of the system to see if the local whiting population where there to play. I just love spearing the boat up onto the sandy river bank, and jumping ship to walk the flats while I flick a surface lure around. My lure of choice today was the ever reliable Slippery Dog 65. The whiting were a little tough to tempt, as there were quite a few anglers already working this particular area extensively. I did manage to hook and bag five average whiting before reboarding my tinny, and leaving for the boat ramp.

The two rods I used for my latest Sunday sesh were the under-rated Ballistic X spin 702ULFS (bream) and the Ballistic X spin 702LFS (whiting). These rods are awesome bang for your buck, and look great too! I like to run straight through fluorocarbon for bream spinning, as the hook up rate is much higher. It’s very rare you’ll lose a bream during the flight when using fluoro or nylon monofilament. On the contrary, I prefer braided line when working surface lures for whiting, as it’s easier to impart the action into the lure due to the braided lines responsive nature. I always add a rod’s length of 4lb fluorocarbon leader to the braid via a double uni-knot, before attaching the lure with a perfection loop knot. The reels were the Gekkabijin 2004 for bream spinning and the Ballistic EX 2000H for my whiting work.

I’m very lucky to be residing on the far south coast of NSW, where the fishing is bloody awesome; however, I’m sure there is a spot just like this in your local waterway…you’ve just got to get out there and explore.