Page 49 - BNB Fishing mag | May 2020

One of the author’s favourites, the NedlockZ andTRD CrawZ combo.
It doesn’t take much water to hold a flathead and finesse techniques can be very effective.
One of many creek bream that couldn’t resist the fiddler crab presentation.
The 2.5” Z-Man Slim SwimZ teamed with a NedlockZ to roll the flats and pick the pockets produced this 80cm flathead.
Flathead are suckers for the Ned rig, espe- cially on days when the bite is less aggres- sive and other presentations aren’t working.
Adding scent can attract predators and trig- ger more brutal and committed strikes.
* from P48
The two main plastics I fish are the
as the ‘swimming Ned rig’, which is ba- sically a NedlockZ teamed with a Z-Man 2.5” GrubZ or Slim SwimZ – so a plastic with more tail action.
Z-Man 2.5” TRD CrawZ and 2.75” TRD BugZ, both of which make excellent crab, yabby and crustacean-style presentations.
This allows me to slow roll (slow wind) over larger expanses of flats in search of fish while still having the ability to stall the retrieve and utilise the rapid stand-up of the Ned rig.
I then fish them accordingly to match the hatch, hopping, dragging and twitching them around mangrove edges, broken weed beds, rubble patches, drop-offs and drains.
This is perfect for covering water until you come across a sand patch, rubble or other structure that you wish to fish more thoroughly using standard Ned rig retrieves.
I also fish another combination I refer to
♦
A couple of winning combinations are the Orange NedlockZ and Greasy Prawn coloured plastic as a yabby im- itation across the yabby beds, as well as the Orange NedlockZ teamed with a Drew’s Craw or The Deal coloured plastic when fishing mangrove creeks where the banks are lined with fiddler crabs, which are natural/dark crabs with a bright orange claw.
This is basically a soft plastic finesse fishing technique, so I stick with a 7’, 1-3kg or 2-4kg spin rod and 20-30 size reel load-
Cast this combination tight to the edge, allow it to fall to the bottom, and if it doesn’t get eaten on the drop, hop it away from the edge.
If targeting finicky feeders in clear wa- ter, you may wish to decrease your leader weight, however where I mainly fish the water is quite murky and I have found big flathead love to inhale the Ned rig, so I like
the security 10lb leader provides.
ed withI leader.
6-10lb braid and 10lb fluorocarbon
If you’re keen to try a new technique in the areas you fish, check out the Ned rig and show the fish something completely different when they decide not to bite.
ting So O en ?
Boat Trailer
See a demo at
.boatlatch.com
& Happy....
See you on the water.
www.bnb shing.com.au
Bush ’n Beach Fishing, May 2020 – Page 49
Light spin combos are the go when fishing finesse plastics techniques.