Salmon on the Rattlin Rapala

A couple days before having my mate over, I purchased five of the Rattlin Rapala lures to use for Flathead and barramundi. These lures are a sinking, lipless crankbait that can be fished in nearly every way for casting twitching and trolling, to vertical jigging. The lures are 7cm long with a shad profile body, which produces a very effective vibration while working the lure, and a very seductive fluttering action on the fall. The lures have a very prominent and loud rattle noise that attracts all predatory fish and causes them to aggressively strike at the lure providing a solid hookup.

My mate and I chose Ross Creek to test out a couple of lures on the local Flatheads. On arrival it became obvious that the flathead were a bit shut down and were not going to take any of our lures, so we tried casting on the beach side of the break wall. The water was not very deep, approximately 2m at the deepest where we were casting out, and 30cm at the bottom of the wall we were casting from. My lure of choice was the Silver Blue coloured Rattlin Rapala.

The Rattlin Rapala and the first fish of the day.

On the first cast of the lure, I used a steady lift and drop retrieve in hope of a big flathead waiting for a sick or injured herring to drift by. As the lure neared the wall I saw a silver flash follow the lure before shooting back out to sea. I then tried a much faster straight retrieve which quickly hooked the ‘silver flash’ that was following my lure. The fish turned out to be a stealback salmon which was hooked neatly in the corner of the mouth. The fish was landed with my Okuma lip grips, and then safely released after a few quick photos.

Stealback Salmon No.1



It wasn’t long before my mate managed to stir a few more salmon out of the deeper water using a surface stickbait. I tied on my Rapala X-Rap walk lure which produced many hits, but just like my mate the fish had a lot of difficulty hooking up. From there I went back to my Silver Blue Rattlin lure, which in no time had hooked up on a second stealback salmon.



Salmon No.2



By the time I had taken a few photos and safely released the fish, the tide had managed to go out enough to draw the fish away. I cast my Rattlin lure over the sandy channel made by the outflow of Ross creek and worked it across the bottom. I hate to admit it but my new favourite lure managed to hook a rather unhappy sting ray, hiding under the sand, which took off once the lure hooked into its wing. I think I was just as surprised as the stingray when it leapt out of the water just before breaking my line off.

Slightly depressed about the loss of my new lure I switched to my all-time favourite soft plastic lure, the Storm wildeye twitching nipper. This lure can be used for almost every fish in the area, it just requires the right retrieve. For flathead casting the lure over sand banks and twitching it just off the bottom, while for cod, twitching it from the bottom to the surface at a steady speed across rocky structures is the best. All of the fish were very laid back and were not aggressive enough to get a solid hook up, except for a baby goldspot rockcod which I hooked just off the edge of my rocky platform.

All in all, it was a beautiful day with almost clear water that produced a few solid fish. I can’t wait to use my other Rattlin Rapala lures and test out the newer model, the Rapala Clackin Rap. This Clackin Rap features the X-Rap holographic finish, holographic eyes and a much more affective sound chamber which is second to none in the modern era of lipless crankbaits.

For any inquiries, please feel free to email me at rhettthorne@gmail.com or for information about products use the links to the right of the post.

Tested: Storm Wild-Eye Twitching Nipper

While packing for a quick soft plastic session down at the local estuary and beach system of Ross Creek, I decided to put my favourite soft plastic to the test. This would have to be the Storm Wild-Eye Twitching Nipper.



Storm Wild-Eye Twitching Nipper Lures





Ross Creek is one of the family friendly fishing hotspots at Yeppoon because of its convenient access and wide variety of fishing opportunities. Whether you are fishing under the bridge for rock and estuary cod or casting at bream and whiting, there is always an opportunity to wet some line and have a good time.



I first started casting my little Storm Nipper along the rock and sand edge opposite to the beach, but close to the bridge, working my way up every few casts. While keeping an eye on the other fishers casting out live mullets, prawn sections and soft plastics it quickly became obvious that the dreaded toad fish were on the prowl, scoffing down baits and tearing soft plastics to shreds. Nobody, except a young boy who caught a minutely small bream, was able to hook up on decent fish, but managed plenty of toadies instead. While I got close to the end of a rock spit, I felt a subtle bite without a solid hook up. Half of my Nipper was missing, leaving me no choice but to tie another on.

 I cast the new nipper in a large rocky and sand patch with no currant and commenced my retrieve. The best technique is to let the lure sink to the bottom, give it a few twitches, then let it sink back down. Always reel in any slack, especially on the pause, because fish commonly hit the lure as it sinks back to the bottom. While twitching my little nipper I felt the smallest bit of tension on the pause and quickly lifted my rod to set the hook. Within a few quick seconds, a flatty was pulling line off my Okuma Flame 30 reel and put a nice bend in my Okuma graphite Travel rod. I landed the flathead with my new Okuma Lip Grips, which prevented me from getting a hand full of spikes. After a few quick pictures, the flathead was released without harm.



My Storm Nipper hadn’t sustained any gashes from the flathead so I continued to cast it amongst rocks and over the sand flat. Just a bit around the rock wall spit I was fishing off, I soon hooked a rather large, pesky toadfish that inflated it’s self while I was fighting its toothy beak for my Nipper. I got it back without any harm and recommenced casting.  Another nice flathead grabbed the lure just off a rocky edge and tried to snag me and break the line. He didn’t get to far before I cranked up my drag to stop him in his tracks and bring him back to my rock wall.





It wasn’t long before I had hooked up again on another Nipper munching flathead. I was able to see the flathead follow my lure to about 2 meters off the rock wall I was fishing from, before he smashed it right in front of me.



Flathead No.3



At this stage the Storm Twitching Nipper had raised a few eye-brows of the other fishermen throwing soft plastics without any success. Not long after being asked about my lure I cast it at the same sand flat where it succeeded to hook yet another flathead. 





49.5cm Flatty No.4





The score was four nil with the Storm Twitching Nipper clearly the go to lure for soft plastics. The four flathead measured from 37cm to 49.5cm in length and were all released without harm to fight another day. For additional information on the Twitching Nipper, go to the Storm Lures website link at the right of the blog page.