Vortex Jigging for Pulau Jarak

3 more days! 

And it's off to Pulau Jarak! And what a welcome break it would be from the office work!

I'm already preparing for the GT and Big Eye Trevally action and hopefully some deep water jigging for bottom dwellers too. Loaded up plenty of Bluefox Herring Jigs and Williamson Abyss jigs in the 100g-250g range.

FG passed me some nice new toys (YES! AGAIN! Yippee bippee!) in the form of Williamson Vortex Jig. Conceptually, it looks pretty cool and has a unique design. Not too sure about how it will perform in the water so I will only be able to tell you once I get back from Jarak. Hopefully the next time it appears in RapalaInsider will be hanging out of the bucketmouth of a nice GT! *dreaming...dreaming* 

But design wise, its supposed to spin like mad when jigged causing erratic flashes from the holographic stickers. It's got a concave shape on one side and a concaved other side which is supposed to create that 'Vortex' spinning action. Throw in a nice ball bearing swivel and VUALLA!! You've got a vertical spinnerbait. 

Now I'm also a fan of Williamson's Gyro Jig which was a darling in the previous Pulau Jarak trip. Lets hope this baby works the magic again like the Gyro.... 

3 more days!!

Vortex Jig - comes in 100g, 150g, 200g & 250g sizes and pre-rigged with VMC hooks

Nice, smooth, clean and shiny on one side

Watch that bling!

Flip it around and it's another finish

Check out the curves on this baby - should flutter nicely on the drop

Again, flip it around to show the holographic flash finish

Another key ingredient to the rotating flash action - ball bearing swivels. Dont leave home without it!

There's Something About Twitchin' Lures

YH's favourite Twitchin Rap produces again!

There's just something about bibless twitchin lures that seem to separate them from the conventional swimming lures. Especially if you get one that has a good slow-sinking action - wow man, you are in business! The idea is to keep the lure as natural as possible, and that includes the sinking part in between retrieves.

Oh ya.... and a tip: Try twitching the lure slow and softly sometimes instead of a fast aggressive twitching action. You'll be surprised sometimes it works when fish aren't biting.

Temensis looking at the Twitchin' Rap that fooled him

Chartreuse works early morning

Storm Flutterstick Madflash also finds its prey

Williamson Jet Popper - 5 inch

Glad to know that the Williamson Jet Popper now comes in 5-inch size, 2 inches smaller than its big brother Jet Popper 7-inch. Sometimes GTs will prefer to have smaller offerings rather than chunky plugs and this 5-inch'er will be certainly most welcome to my popping arsenal.

Most timely indeed too as in 2 weeks' time I'll be fishing on board GT Chaser and I do hope to try out the castability and action of this big headed chugger. That is if the GTs are still there when I head up! From the looks of it, VMC hooks have been upgraded to 6X with extra strong hardware to handle the brutish GTs pure power - however its strength has yet to be tested out. We shall see when we have a GT hooked on - again, hopefully if they are around.

According to the packaging, here's some distinct features of the popper:

- 55.5g / 2oz

- 5-1/4"/13.5cm

- Equipped with 200lb swivels

- Jet holes in the popper's cup face to create bubble trails as it is cranked in (be prepared to crank hard!)

-  Flash foil body

- VMC 6X strong "Fish-Fighter" hooks

Big head design looks like some alien from X-Files

Boasting 200lb built-in swivels

Interesting form factor - has an X-Rap-like construction

Big 3D eyes to look the meanest GT in the eye

The flash foils on the body. Honestly I hope this doesn't crack under the raw power of the GT's jaws. If it does, it will definitely be a swimming lure rather than a surface popper. 

The holes on the face of the popper's cup that pushes the air bubbles when cranked

and forces through the holes at the back of the head to create the bubble trail

View from the top (literally bird's eye view)

Rotating swivel is supposed to allow free movement to avoid fish throwing the hook due to leverage

How to fish it - manufacturer's guide and tips

When You Lose A Brand New Lure....

Don't you just HATE it when you lose a brand new lure just out of the box? What more if its the first few out there in the market? Darn it!

I had a rather fun time trying out the Xtreme Shallow Slashbait in the form of Rapala's X-Rap Shad Shallow. The X-Rap revolution did not stop since it was introduced back in 2005. From then onwards, plastic holographic lures are the mainstay each year with new products introduced.

Supposed to swim around the 3 feet range from the surface, it moves around like its slimmer X-Rap minnow cousins - aggressive darting action in a stouter body. Think of an X-Rap minnow adding a few pounds if you may.

I tested out this lure by twitching one afternoon - no need to cast far... the fish were around a piece of wooden structure. Just by twitching the rod tip every now and then nearby attracted some fish to hit. Sad to say, I lost this new baby to a nice fish that just took off with it and broke the 8lb braid like thread in a split second. 

I kid you not... check out the video clip at the end ...

How I lost my brand new X-Rap Shad Shallow

More New Stuff: Clackin' Rap

More new stuff!

Boy with so much new stuff, it's gonna be fun trying out these new toys! Are the fish in trouble now or what? Although similar somewhat to the  Rattlin' Rapala, the Clackin' Rap is constructed with the X-Rap body factor - all 8cms of it complete with holographic scales and all. The rattles however, are enclosed in the little metal-like tube inserted across the body. So instead of producing a rattling noise, the side-by-side wobble of this bibless fellow creates the "clack, clack" sound from this metallic insert, hence its name. It's a lower, chunkier sound than a rattle if you may.

I would have thought any name would have been better than 'Clackin' Rap'! If only it was something more cool like X-Mag or Mag-Vibe or something. But fishes don't read or speak, do they? As long as it catches fish, I'm sure whichever name will still be - cool! 

Clackin' Rap in all its glory

Armed with VMC Sureset hardware

A broader head and bulky body gives it a bit more beefy action than the Rattlin' Rapala

Notice the metal inserts? The chasm that produces the "CLACK CLACK"s!

Closeup