Salty Ponding

Once again, we've developed the 'itch'. We regularly find that pocket of hours on our busy schedule to fix that itch by hitting our local salt water ponds nearby and stir up some of its nicely stocked dwellers.

Say hi to our friends from the deep.

Hybrid groupers find it hard to resist when you slowly work that Apia Bagration lure in front of kisser.

Quite a versatile lure, work it fast, you get GTs smashing that flashy action Bagration.

Cousin worked a medium depth crank to stir up this feisty GT by the bank.

Jackall's Gillcra crank is the go to diver for light lines to dig deep.

Fast taper rods fully loaded with a Stella to tame the fighter.

Another GT decided to smash this effective Jackall Gillcra, excellent fast flash for a light weight diver.

Another loaded up shot of a fast taper rod.

Rocket fish cobia.

IMA's rundam twitches too sexy for the cobia.

Switching back to Apia's Bagration found me this willing GT. Smashed it hard and fast.

Goal keeper GT took the Jackall Gillcra and nearly took the lure with it.

Found another lunker from the deep with Apia's Bagration stirring stuff up in his face.

A nice Queensland grouper, harder to fool but this one's not too shay for a photo.

Another feisty GT found feeding by the bank.

Till the next itch develops, tight lines!

Selfishies Salt Fix

Time for some shameless salty pond fix and sel-fishies collected over the past few months.

Charger red drum tamed using the new Shimano Conquest paired with a heavy MS-X rod.

IMA Melty Nymph chomped hard, light hops off the bottom.

A small Barramundi easily lifted out of the water using my trusty ML MS-X matched with a shallow spool pimped up Shimano Metanium.

Poor aim by the Barramundi, IMA Koume 40 sinks under the jaws for a secure hook up while the rear opens up a little bit.

Another small Barramundi fooled.

This time the aim was spot on. IMA Koume does the job with a steady retrieve.

Barramundi's getting smaller by each catch. Time to switch ponds.

The smallest IMA Survivor does a very convincing job being a fleeing bait fish.

Pond and lure switch resulted in this small but brutish GT being a willing taker.

The IMA Bta is an amazingly versatile lure for shallow retrieves. It will even trigger a bite when sinking slowly.

Another lure and pond switch, no hesitation from this bigger Barramundi.

Bigger lure bigger fish perhaps? Jackall's TN is a must have in my lure box for search and destroy missions.

Meanwhile over at the brownies pond, it takes a while to tame this smallish grouper.

IMA Bta Moge secures the hook up while twitching around the bottom.

Some days, the GTs are willing popper takers. A few anxious moments ensued especially with an ML setup.

Feed's Bell8 messed with this GT and this is the result.

Back to catching small Barramundi, with a small lure.

IMA Sukari looked too tasty for this Barra.

Back to the regular brownies, this was a fat fella, notice the belly bulge?

IMA Sobat dugged the bottom and looked like a tummy filler for this fella.

A decent size brownie fell for soft plastics hopping about.

Jackall Dragon Bug does the damage. It's important to have heavy gauge wired hooks to deal with brownie brutes like these.

Red drum was hungry and took a while to tame with an ML rod.

ZipBait's Rigge Dimly looked dim, Red Drum was wrong.

Another hard charger Red Drum with several anxious moments.

Zipbaits Rigge Dimly fooled another Red Drum.

When the Red Drums stop biting, switching ponds and lure resulted in this decent grouper.

With large mouths, there's no escape for the APIA Punchline sinking pencil.

The soft plastic tallying up some brownies too.

Jackall's Cover Craw found this grouper with poor aim.

Back to small lures, small Barramundi. Medium to fast retrieval stirred this little fella up.

Small Barra courtesy of this tiny twitchy DUO Spearhead Ryuki.

Just to prove the point, small lure, small Barra.

Another small Barramundi fell for the erratic DUO Spearhead Ryuki.

Another similarly sized Barramundi?

DUO's Spearhead Ryuki proved too hard to resist when twitched.

The Barramundi seems to be getting smaller now.

Good aim, DUO Spearhead Ryuki in the gob.

Small lure, biggish Red Drum. Slow retrieval is key for finicky fish in this pond.

Solid hook up by Zipbaits Rigge Raphael.

A bigger specimen this time while using the same lure and technique of slow retreival.

Zipbaits Rigge Raphael found its way in to the mouth of this Red Drum.

Back to the grouper pond, managed to coax this small but fat fella out using a lift and fall vibe.

Jackall's TN Vibe wins the stare down contest.

There were still a few MJs around and this one well for a tiny vibe on the drop.

IMA Koume triggered a bite from this injured and yet feisty MJ.

That's all for this round of shameless salty pond sel-fishies.