Nathan Richards and Dylan Matthews

On Saturday it was one of those days that I won’t forget for a long time. The reason being, on that day I finally landed my first Saratoga. It doesn’t end there! I was blessed enough to land two on that glorious day. It was an early morning start; we got up at 3am ready and raring to go. Which is ironic, when I struggle to get up when my weekday work alarm goes off 6:30 am! Once we arrived at the spot our plan was to fish the morning surface bite. Earlier in the week we had received some new lures from Ecogear to try out and we were not disappointed. We  received the Treju 50 and the Nories Zag Bug.

The Treju has a very interesting look, it resembles a small baitfish and has an amazing action but most importantly it catches fish. We didn’t have a good chance to properly test out the Zag Bug because the action on the Treju was awesome, however we did manage to have a few flicks and we loved the action. It works a bit like a combination popper/walk the dog lure.  The first few fish to fall victim to the Treju were the mighty sooty grunter, and throughout the day we landed one after another.

On this trip Matty decided to try something new and brought a hand line along. He had the line tied to a float with a piece of steak hanging about 300mm below the surface floating behind the kayak. I was doubtful about this and thought it would just get in our way and the last thing I expected was that he would catch any fish on it at all. If anything, maybe a catfish or a small sooty grunter. However, I stand corrected because the hand line went off and a beautiful Saratoga was at the end of the line! After a brief battle Matty landed the Saratoga and after some photos it was sent back to the depths.

So, as previously mentioned, I finally landed my Saratoga. This one has been on my to-do list for some time. Matty had already landed one Saratoga and he was over the moon, but on this day it was my turn and my first Saratoga was the most impressive. The kayak was positioned a few meters back from the tree line, which overhung the water’s edge. I casted my Treju 50 in the shade of the tree and started to work it back using a "three twitch then pause" technique.

The lure was only about two meters from the kayak when the Saratoga attacked.  The way the fish attacked the lure was an amazing sight. It was like a lion attacking its prey and with this vicious strike it was fish on! Normally I use my Daiwa Sol outfit but it was getting repaired so instead I was using a 1000 series Stradic with 6lb braid. I was nervous and felt a little under gunned but the Stradic pulled through and I landed my first Saratoga. They are such a beautiful fish and put up an amazing fight. I was nervous during the fight but with Matt’s support we landed the fish. After a few pics we released this 73cm beauty. I was shaking from the adrenaline but have never been so happy to land this prehistoric looking fish.

The day continued with both Matty and I landing some nice sooties. One sooty attacked our popper with so much aggression it got air born and was a sight to behold. It was a while between landing my first and hooking on to my second. Now I am sure this has happened to many fishermen, I cast out and it was way off from the snag so I was retrieving my popper at a rate of knots and as I was doing this I saw something. I thought it was a strange looking log, when all of a sudden that weird looking log attacked my lure and scared me! Before I could process what had happened, a Saratoga leapt out of the water. After a great battle we landed the ‘toga’, another 73 cm fish and I was over the moon.

Overall we had a great day on the water, the only disappointment was losing the GoPro off the kayak mount so all our awesome footage was sadly lost. I have to say however, that I am so hooked on chasing toga that we are already planning our next trip. Finally, I would recommend having the Treju surface lure in your tackle box if you want to catch these stunning fish. If you would like any further information on the Treju head on over to http://www.jml.net.au/.

Until next time when we see you on the water!

Thanks,

Affie and Matty