Starlo’s back to basics

NSW STH COAST Steve Starling

www.fishotopia.com

Adding a few simple tools and little tricks to your line-up can make a world of difference to both your fishing results and your enjoyment of the sport… not to mention saving you money!

The more you fish, the more value you’ll find in having a few simple time and money saving tools on hand. One of the most basic is a couple of offcuts of PVC pipe with one end cut at an angle. These can be easily pushed into the sand when beach fishing, or jammed into a crack or crevice on the rocks, breakwall or jetty to hold your rod and reel combos: either spare outfits, or your main set-up while you’re baiting up and re-rigging. Using these simple tools will greatly extend the working life of your reels by keeping them up out of the sand, grit and salt. There’s no excuse for not having a couple!

Another essential but often-overlooked tool is a lure de-snagger. Having an effective de-snagging tool on board your boat or kayak can literally save you hundreds of dollars a year in the form of recovered

lures that would otherwise have been lost, and left in our aquatic environments to potentially entangle wildlife or endanger swimmers.

There are several effective forms of de-snagger. Heavy weights fitted with short chains or loops and attached to a length of strong cord can be quickly clipped to a snagged line and slid down to (hopefully) entangle the lure and pull it clear. These work well, and offer the advantage of being applicable in deeper water (limited only by the length of the cord). However, these sliding weights can’t be used to reach up into trees if your lure is snagged above the waterline! For that purpose, telescopic poles with a pigtail of spring wire at the end that can be twisted onto your snagged line and used to poke the lure clear are perfect. These also perform well on snags below the water line, but are limited to the fully extended length of the pole. For this reason, many keen lure fishers carry both types of de-snagger.

Split ring pliers are another immensely handy bit of kit, and almost essential for quickly and easily replacing or upgrading the ‘hardware’ on lures. But there are good and not-sogood split ring pliers. I was first put onto the Xuron brand some time back by master lure-maker, Paul Kneller, and I now regard them as an essential addition to my fishing tool kit.

Adjusting the weight, balance and buoyancy of lures – especially floating/ diving minnows and plugs – is a very handy trick than can boost your strike rates in many scenarios. There are several ways to add a

little bit of weight in order to slow the ‘rise rate’ of floating lures on the pause, or even to turn them into ‘suspenders’ or slow-sinking offerings. Upgrading to heavier hooks and rings may do the job, but sometimes you need a tad more weight. This can be added in the form of moldable putties or adhesivebacked lead sheet, such as SuspenDots. I always have a few packs of these nifty little add-ons in my lure boxes.

Finally, there’s simply no substitute for having sharp hooks in every form of fishing, regardless of whether you use baits, lures or flies. Check your hook points regularly by touching them lightly against the ball of your thumb, or dragging them across a fingernail. They need to be ‘sticky sharp’: in other words, instantly grabbing at any surface they come into contact with. If they’re not sticky sharp, replace or sharpen them! Sharpening stones, emery boards, fine grained files and purpose-made hook hones of varying coarseness grades (often using diamond-based abrasive coatings) are perfect for touching up hook points. Pack at least a couple of these in your kit: ideally one in each major tackle box or tray.

Carrying and regularly using the sorts of simple tools described in this column are exactly the sort of cutting edge habits that separate the ‘ten percenters’ – those who consistently catch 90% of the fish – from the rest of the fishing pack. Get on it!

Two different approaches to tweaking lure buoyancy: lead foil SuspenDots (left) and Knead-It putty. These are old Bushy Stiffy Minnows, which are sadly no longer made.

Starlo is a stickler for sharp hooks. Carrying a couple of fine files or hones like this handy Eze-Lap model can make a world of difference to your catch rates. Fine-tuning the buoyancy of your floating/diving lures can help tweak their actions and catch more fish. There are several ways to add weight, from mold-able putties to stick-on weights.

A few offcuts of PVC pipe make excellent beach fishing rod holders, and will greatly extend the life of your reels by keeping them out of the sand.

Split ring pliers make replacing or upgrading lure hardware much easier. These Xurons are the best Starlo has used.