Fishing from the trees - Topwater Saratoga and sooty grunter

In this episode we head out west of Mackay to tangle with one of Australia's coolest and most ancient fish species - Saratoga. These would have to be one of my favourite species to target due to the fact that you can 100% target them sight casting and they will eat a well presented topwater lure all day long. They are also an extremely difficult fish to catch due to their bony mouth, wild jumps and the places you find them aren't friendly for casting and presenting a lure, let alone landing them... which is all part of the fun!

Watch as Myself and Barefoot Billy stumble through the bush getting tangled in spiderwebs and catching fish out of trees (bonus points if you can count how many spiders feature).. The river had recently flooded making it slippery and difficult to fish with the water a filthy brown colour which had the fish forced to the surface to hunt for food. A lot of the fish we found were out in the open water in the middle of the river, making use of the current which bought food that had been blown from the trees or swept downstream by the receding flood water. All this was a recipe for a technical but super fun topwater session, which tested my balance as I climbed the overhanging paperbarks to present my lure to the target.

We are playing with some new camera gear and Billy was on the lens which brings some cool new angles, some are shaky and slightly out of focus but bear with us as we learn to use all these new gadgets as I'm sure we will get better at it as we progress...

Fishing gear used in this clip is as follows
Rod - Dobyns Champion Extreme 701SF
Reel - Shimano Vanquish Limited 2500HGS
Line - Sunline Siglon Pe 0.8 (10lb)
Leader - Sunline FC Rock 20lb
Lure - Lucky Craft Gunfish 95 and G Splash 80
Terminals - BKK Fang 621SS #4 (front) BKK Shore Patrol + Large (rear)

With Saratoga, terminal tackle is super important and I often find when the fish are timid like they were in this clip, a set of super sharp, fine gauge assist hooks like the Shore Patrol + help to increase the hookup rate on topwater lures. Mainly due to them hanging a bit lower in the water and they also hang on better than trebles which helps keep the fish on during the fight, especially when the fish are jumping alot. Due to their bony mouths and ability to spit a lure faster than most species a fine gauge hook finds its mark a lot easier and I use a BKK Fang 621-SS on the front, this is a fine gauge treble hook with BKK's Super Slide coating which assists in penetration on fish with bony mouths. If you're going toga fishing I highly recommend this terminal setup for your topwater lures!

A solid thanks to MVTINY for the banging soundtrack which suits the theme nicely, if you're a streamer or Vlogger then check out their large assortment of FREE music on Spotify. They also have a Facebook page for anyone interested in staying in the loop, just search MVTINY.

Anyway that's it for now, go and count the spiders and watch out for the one I didn't notice at 11:13 (🤯☠️😰) If you got any questions hit up the comment section and while you're here, if you like what I'm doing please hit subscribe!!

Peace!