Just back from an overnight mission on the Murray River, Fishing With DJB ran two topwater sessions on the same stretch and managed to keep a stable of his own homemade lures glued to the surface long enough to draw the fish out.
DJB has been building wooden surface baits in his shed for the past few weeks and decided to test them under tournament-style conditions: pre-dawn starts, repeat presentations on the same banks, and no second-guessing. He set himself a deliberate constraint when he started the build.
"I set myself the challenge to not watch any tutorials on how to do this. I've just been winging it and sort of learning from my mistakes, but I think they're coming pretty good," he said.
The lure that took most of the punishment was already battered before the trip. "It's already got teeth marks in the top of it, so you know, it's a good one," he said, holding it up to the camera.
He also admitted the early prototypes didn't swim. He'd been gluing the bibs upside down on a whole batch before he caught the mistake. Once he flipped them, the action came good and every lure in the box now tracks straight.
"I would have stopped winding there," he said after a swirl. "I reckon he's going to come back. Slow it right down, slow slow down. Keep twitching it though, otherwise it will just stop."
The second cast did the job. A yellowbelly came up and started slapping the lure rather than eating it. DJB stayed on the cast.
"I don't think he's keen on eating it. I think he's just keen on hurting it," he said. "He's got to get a face full of hooks."
It eventually committed. The fish measured out around 60 cm and came in on a custom-painted homemade bait that, in DJB's words, was a "little homemade lure" he'd been afraid would fall apart on the first decent fish. Sunday morning produced a smaller cod for a mate fishing from a blow-up boat alongside, with the bigger fish landing in the net before the line got near the timber.
For anglers chasing surface bites on the Murray system, DJB's takeaway from the trip is that homemade lures don't have to be perfect to get hit. The fish were keying on the splash and slow profile rather than any specific factory-made action. The follow-up cast after a strike was the single most important habit on the session, and it's the lesson DJB pinned to the top of his post-trip notes.
His next batch of garage-built baits is already in the rack, teeth marks and all.