Spaddler fishing techniques

Data sheets

The 'black' theory

OPINION: It's often said in the fishing media that black is a great colour for surface lures because it gives a strong silhouette against the night sky. It's arguable that the colour of a lure is irrelavent in these conditions. Hold a light coloured lure up to the night sky, on a river, away from man made lights, to see for yourself. A silhouette is a silhouette!

Regardless, black will always be a popular colour because it imitates crickets and black cicadas. Coupled with Spaddler's luminous bib, it is a potent fish attractor.

Limitations

Due to the shape and surface area of the bib, surface lures aren't the most aero-dynamic members of the lure world. When you get down to very small sized surface paddlers, casting can become even tougher.

Surprisingly, Spaddler and MicroSpaddler cast remarkably well considering their weight and shape. We attribute this to two things...

The fine contours of the body - less wind resistance
The relative density of the lure in relation to its volume.

Spaddlers sit low in the water - an advantage in itself - indicating that their body density is greater than some competitor lures which sit higher in the water.

How far can a Spaddler be cast?

Naturally this varies considerably between anglers with different skill and equipment levels. However, our field test results are very encouraging to the average angler.

Using an ultra-light baitcaster reel (Shimano Bantam 2000 ULS) and 6lb gel spun line on a light 1.55m rod, we can consistently cast Spaddlers a measured 15m in calm conditions. That's almost 3.5 boatlengths (Quintrex Hornet 4.35).

Now a baitcaster reel is rarely the reel of choice for casting a lure that weighs under 4 grams! Most anglers fishing such ultra-light lures will opt for a spinning reel and a longer rod than we have used for our tests. Distances of 20m or more will be possible for most anglers with spinning equipment and fine line.

The 'Spallette' !

FACT: With 10 colours to choose from, there are bound to be a few that will suit the fish in your area. Dealers! - all MinMin colours are available, but the 10 shown here are the standard range. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image.

BassSpaddled!

TIP: The Australian bass is a very surface oriented predator. During the warmer months when insects are prevalent, bass are suckers for a small, imitative surface lure. In the brackish reaches, Spaddlers can draw strikes at those times of the month when prawns are running and being harrassed from below.

Floating leader

TIP: When fishing Spaddlers with a slow, stop-start or let-sit-for-a-while technique, they will be more responsive to your rod work if you use a floating leader material (e.g. nylon). Fluorocarbon leader material sinks and the resulting drag impairs your ability to finesse the lure.

Slim tail

BENEFIT: Unlike other brands of small topwater lures, Spaddler has a thin tail section that hangs down in the water and gives maximum hook exposure. Another example of Predatek's maximum efishency in design. When a fish hits, there is less chance of the body contacting its jaws before the hook barbs bite.