Mike Laubscher

Lure casting with light spinning tackle is one of my favourite ways to fish, especially when using my Z-Claw. I just love the way this lure moves and still remember the first time that I saw it and imagined all the fish I would get with it, perhaps I just understood this lure immediately and knew what to do with it. Since then my Z-Claw has produced some good catches and today was no exception.

I feared that I was going to fish in the rain again but when we launched at 15h00 the weather was stunning with a light NE wind, we decided to shoot quickly off-shore and cast lures for some Kawakawa and hopefully we could find a Yellowfin Tuna or Dorado lurking in the shallows. The sea was gorgeous and the weather stunning making a lovely afternoon and a superb evening.

It was not long before 1 of the guys hooked up a nice Kawakawa on drop shot, but he came off. I cast out an 8 inch McArthy chartreuse minnow and decided to let it sink and whilst the boat was drifting I fed out a fair amount of line and then proceeded with a slow jerk retrieve and when I was about halfway up; BANG the reel started to scream and my Aerocast had a serious bend to it, unfortunately there was not enough butt power in the rod and I was not able to put enough pressure to turn this big fish without breaking the rod and when the spool was empty and still peeling I decided to straight stick and break off instead of loosing a spool of braid.

I then decided to put my Z-Claw on once I had tied on a new leader and shortly after I was ready 1 of the guys hooked into a nice Kawakawa with an Onda Onda.

The Z-Claw produced another Kawakawa hook-up and a Garfish hook-up.

By now the tide was falling and we decided to go into the harbour to try for some Springer (Lady Fish) and King Fish (Jacks).

Once back in the bay and within a few casts 1 of the guys hooked up a nice Sand Gurnard (Flat-Head).

Then as the sun started falling I put a long cast onto the sand bank and hooked up a nice sized Sea Pike (Pick Handle Barracuda) on the Z-Claw. This was not the end because the Z-Claw then produced 2 little GT's (Giant Trevally).

Shortly after this another decent size Sea Pike was landed on a BassArrow.

Fish Species: Sea Pike, Giant Trevally
Bait Used: Z-Claw Lure
Tackle Used: Shimao Aerocast + Shimano Stella
Method Used: Lure Casting
Water Depth: 3m
Water Temperature: 24.5deg.C
Wind Direction: NE
Wind Speed: Light
Sea Pike (Pick Handle Baracuda)
Sea Pike (Pick Handle Baracuda)


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Mike Laubscher

About The Author: Mike Laubscher

Company: Blue Water Charters - Durban

Area Reporting: Durban. KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Bio: I have been fishing since I was 5 years old in Durban and have fished many places around the world and in South Africa, but Durban is my home waters. I fished competitive for many years and I have been running my own charters since 2008 with 2 companies and 2 boats, fish a variety of styles and target a variety of fish species in both Salt and Fresh water, have many published articles in several magazines on fishing. Love nature and outdoors, Am very conservation minded and have a passion for birds. I am crazy about big Tuna, Marlin Fishing and Game Fishing, and also love light tackle spinning, am a total lure junkie. Represented my province in fly fishing for many years and am also pro staff for Rapala/Shimano. I want to write a book on fishing one day. 3 items left on my fishing bucket list, guess then a new bucket list will be in order. As a writer I have my own quote: \"I love taking people fishing because it releases their inner child, and in doing so keeps my inner child alive.\"

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