INNOVATIVE PRODUCT FOR CATCH AND RELEASE

The Truth Mat

A 54cm Dusky Flathead On The Truth Mat

Picture a scenery in the out stretches of a River System, Estuary or Blue Ocean Water, that brilliant battle between noone but you and the fish that engulfed your lure, either on the surface or deep below. That struggle and immense barrage as the fish scrimmages and tests your ability and strength from below. Or that humble but victorious finesse catch. To ask any Angler this is what fishing is all about, but those epic stories are all nothing but legends without validation. A picture tells a thousands words,

A 35cm (To Tail) Bream On Truth Mat

I have recently been asked to join the team at Tackle Ware in Hervey Bay to test and review their latest creation being “The Truth Mat”
A Poly Vinyl competition measuring mat with signature benchmark design. This measuring mat has it’s own personal and innovative layout composing both your fold out sizeable unit of measure being in Centimetres but also comprising that with their own ruler on the side of the mat as a quick reference when folded for those brief and expeditious catches that you know are not your PB’s, but curious as to what size the fish is, which I think is very productive, theses days I do a lot of fishing from a Kayak and this idea of having a ruler on the side of the mat is much easier as most Kayak Anglers know that it is quite hard to roll out a mat and place a fish on a it and keep it still to receive a correct measurement. It is growing very popular and a very deviceful tool to any angler on the water.

27cm Sand Whiting On The Truth Mat

The Mat Comes in two sizes 80cm with a 30cm Side Ruler, For any Angler that chases small Estuary fish like Australian Bass, Trout, Bream, Flathead, or Whiting, this mat is ideal. I chase quite a lot of Bass in the river systems of NSW and the 80cm Truth Mat is always in my tackle bag for chasing that PB Bass, but also to measure a fish that you know is under 30cm, the side ruler is an easy to use measure.

50cm Dusky Flathead On The Truth Mat

The mat also comes in 140cm with a 40cm side Ruler, Anglers that chase the larger species such as Mulloway, Barramundi, Murray Cod or Kingfish a 140cm mat is definitely not common as most measuring mats only come in 120cm, although it is impressive when a fish hangs over your mat but definitely does not give you a quick and correct measurement of your catch.

33cm Australian Bass on The Truth Mat

With the ever so growing prevailing promotion of “Catch and Release" is becoming known to Australian Angler’s as the  greatest contribution to Marine Conservation, and so it finally should, a lot of Anglers are finally catching on that the fish stocks in Australia is decreasing not only due to commercial fishing, but over fishing from recreational fishermen. These days people don’t need to take a catch home to prove to people of their lastest conquest, in fact it is a growing trend that a lot of Tournament angling events are strictly photo’s on measuring mats. This is a great contribution to promoting Catch and Release. Thanks to measuring mats like The Truth Mat that make this possible.

28cm Rock Cod On The Truth Mat

Quick Measure Ruler On The 80cm Truth Mat

Another Great Feature to the Truth Mat is they offer an option to create a custom Truth Mat available in bulk buys. If you have an independaent Tackle store this is a great option to promote your business as you can have your Tackle Store's logo printed directly on the mat. An ample way to giveaway to loyal customers, or to be resold.

35cm Australian Bass On The Truth Mat

68cm Carp On The Truth Mat

The Truth Mat also has numerous common fishing knots printed throughout the mat including the Albright, Double Uni and Perfection Loop knot. Upon order it is possible to have either a Barramundi, Bream, Bass, Trout or Murray Cod printed on your personal mat. With Fishing becoming very popular in the females, The Truth Mat is also available in Pink for the fashionable Girls that chase fish.


                                             Here are the options of the Truth Mats available

Trout Truth Mat

Ladies Pink Truth Mat

Australian Bass Truth Mat

Bream Truth Mat

Murray Cod Truth Mat

Barramundi Truth Mat

Example Of An Independent Tackle Store's Custom Truth Mat

Contacting Tackle Ware for purchasing the Truth Mat use the following links. Or contact me and I can refer you to Tackle Ware to obtain their great and innovative product. I am very proud to be apart of this great idea!

Hervey Bay QLD 4655
Ph: 07 4124 6357
Mob: 0439 654 903
Email Info@Truthmat.com
Facebook :  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Truth-Mat
Youtube: http://youtu.be/9ngMY73i-8A

"POUND FOR POUND"

Fraser Coast

Debatable from some, skeptical from others, but most  often the topic of strong fish or "Pound for Pound" fighters, from speed bullet fish like  Wahoo through to Acrobatically known leapers such as Billfish. Most fish fight differently.

So what do Anglers head out on trips for? Is it the thrill of fighting the fish? Or is it the glory photos after landing it? Personally I believe that there is no debatable conversation when you speak to any Angler about there own personal addiction to Angling. I could nearly find myself, or more to the point to be actually a man that chases a great fight from fish. Either chasing Bass on 1000 reels and 2 pound leaders and beginning a battle between me and the fish, with the chance of a Bass burying his head and draining my spool to head for snags and actually giving the fish a chance to fight back. Or trolling tirelessly with large reels with 80-120 pound Leaders for Fraser Coast Black Marlin. But either way I'm always chasing that battle!

Lontail Tuna 15 Kilograms

But what I can't get my head around is the variety in different fish strength's and durability of having a spool squeal with fish like Mackeral or Wahoo's "First Run" or to mention head shakes from a wide diverse range of fish like Snapper and Bream. But going back to my previous quote of "Pound For Pound" fish that a seriously just torpedoes of muscle, and in my bag of fish knocked off my bucket list was on Queensland's Fraser Coast, as many of my articles on TheFishCure are on Fraser's Coast just because of the waterways that leaves this place an icon, some say a "Fishing Meca" or "Fisherman's Paradise" but my "Pound For Pound" fighter is the Longtail Tuna.

Releasing The Tuna

I recently came back from a trip to Hervey Bay with my Girlfriend to visit a Family member being Scott Mitchell. Heading out in search of juvenile Black Marlin that definitely do not make there presence in Fraser's waters annually, but in fact roll through around every six years pushing up right on the golden sand flats and balling up bait fish in tight balls of shimmering Silver at Roonies  point in Fraser Island, Fly Fishing Anglers from all around the world travel to these flats for sight casting on the Golden Trevally.

Definitely was a surprising and special moment when Black Marlin were clearly visible to sight cast a lure to land right directly in front of the marlin's bill. In fact a few people in Hervey Bay have successfully fought and landed some of these  Extremely exquisite and impressive fish.
 But after raising and hooking a Black on a skipping Garfish that Scott carefully threaded the night before, only to have been busted off through 80 pound braid that broke at the spool. It was either a great Black Marlin with some sizeable weight or the braid slipped in behind the spool of the Shimano Talica overhead reel and broke off. Either way I lost sleep that night!

This Is One Of The Most Spectacular Fish Anyone Can Ever Battle

With my head hanging with disappointment we began the Hour and a half journey home in Scott's Haines Signature 485SF. Only to find a heap of bait balling up on the Lowrance Sounder followed bit a spectacle of bust ups from tuna destroying the surface of the water with very impressive explosions as they snapped up the bait. I flicked my Soft Plastic in the middle of the bait Bust ups, and brilliant witnessed my the tip of my rod Buckle.

So Amazingly Sleek In Design. Built For Speed

Now I have caught these fish before and I never do I underestimate Longtail Tuna, as for a fish that fights "Pound For Pound" and feels like you have hooked your lure on the back trailer of a Mack Truck the Longtail Tuna is a fish that fights right up until it is lying helplessly out if his fighting ground on the bottom of the boat, and for this, the Longtail Tuna gets my respect. As I said before and many times, if you find a fish that you love catching, try chasing this certain species on lighter gear. I began my battle with this tuna on my snapper outfit, a Shimano Terez and Stella FE 4000. But these Tuna can strip a Stella 4000 of its line faster than you can blink on nearly locked up on 13Kg of drag power. As for weight it fights well above its weight of muscle on light gear, this Longtail was a healthy 15 Kg's of pure red flesh. Battling a fish that leaves you gasping for air and your arms hanging, this is definitely nothing surprising when coming to these species

Black Marlin In Mid Flight

Early morning rises in the second day to chase these Black Marlin's. Looking in depth to tide changes and wind direction and speed the night before then rigging up skipping Garfish with wax threads and floating circle hooks. As far as im aware Marlin take great effect to the feeding on the Tidal changes, but to some recreational Anglers seem to forget that alot of great fishing comes from learning the Tidal changes. After all it is Nature and Science does take effect in some shape and form. We began our one and a half hour journey up the Island for another shot of the beautiful creatures.

Nothing Is Better Than Releasing A Fish Such Like This One

The plan of action that Scott planned out was to troll with our Snapper outfits with 20 pound Power Pro braid and 80 Pound Wind-on leaders with the bail arms of our Stella's open and after the fish strike, let him run with the Gar in his mouth for a good 10 seconds then flip the bail arm over and let the tension take it's own slack, and pin him in the jaw with the circle hook. As Marlin have very tough jaws hopefully this would stick in the jaw.
After Trolling for hours and sighting a fair amount of Marlin right up in the shallows but not having any outfits ready to sight cast them is definately a heart breaking site, we raised a fair amount of them from their depths and had the chasing either the Daisy Chain Teasers and striking the Pushers or chasing the Gars but then turning their heads with no strike. catching us off guard a Marlin began to rise from the depths and chase the Gar on the end of my line. sticking to our plan we let him swallow the bait then close the bail arm. Nearly instantly he began to peal line from the spool of my 4000 Stella.
Words cant began detail or elaborate the site of a Marlin fighting from the air, with its amazing Jumps and arcrobatic skills in any fearful attempt the spit the hook from its jaws. After what would have to be proclaimed as one of my epic but very different battle of any fish i've tackled so to speak we had him beside the boat. But this was definately not your most common capture, he had got him bill stuck inbetween the wax thread that had been used to tie the gar, and the circle hooks were not penetrated anywhere on this fish but was floating on the thread. After having a few photo's with this fish that had given me a smile from Fraser to Sydney was swam beside the boat and successfully released to fight another day and migrate out of the Bay when he actually found his way around the Island on his journey

As lucky as I felt to have the chance to enjoy marine life and giants of the Ocean, this Juvenile was only around 12 months old and already 25 Kg's. But taking into account that these fish have the potential to grow a staggering 1,700 Pounds and a massive 16 feet in length, which makes this fish a special and precious deal in marine preservation and I would not have had it any other way then to watch this fish and personally release it. In fact It would have had to be my most pized moment in fishing. So I would definately also have to add this species to my list of "Pound For Pound' fighters.




Cheers Dale Ward      "Man I Love Fishing"