DAIWA PRODUCT FOCUS: Daiwa Wise Minnow by Matt Caldwell

From the tiny streams such as Diggers Creek, to the often thunderous torrents of the mighty Thredbo River in spring melt, the New South Wales Snowy Mountains has some of the finest trout waters on the planet.  For the avid trout angler, the beauty lies in their proximity to each other – fishing twig streams in the morning then drive 15 minutes and fish the mighty Thredbo River with at least twenty other options in between! The choice is endless! There are already lots of airborne insects out and about and some fish are starting to look up! The larger rivers still have quite a bit of water moving and its looking like we might see some fantastic summer condition with plenty of water flow for most of the summer.

My lure of choice without question would be the Daiwa Wise Minnow 50SP. The Snowy Mountains Streams and Rivers have a handful of weed beds and rocky edges especially on the lower reaches of the Thredbo River, which are littered with Yabbies. The Yabbies have a very similar profile to the Wise Minnow 50SP, and the Caramel Sauce Wise Minnowis the perfect representation of these yabbies, Trout seriously can’t resist them. Other colours that have been producing plenty of fish have been the Brown Iwashi, Iwana and Black Sniper.

The Wise Minnow 50SPweighs in at only 3grams, which is ideal for the tiny twig waters of the snowy mountains high country. Even though it is a light lure it still casts like a missile, especially when featuring a tungsten weight system. The Wise Minnow 50SPis also highly recommended for clear water fishing where fish are commonly intimidated by bright or flashy colors or patterns.

When looking for a cruising trout with a hard-body, most guides advise to cast two or three meters ahead and two or three meters beyond its line of travel. This gives you room to pull the lure into the sight of the trout without the splash spooking the fish in the first place. This technique is time proven and works well. I have been casting slightly away from a sighted fish and then watching what really working the lure does. As expected, most of the time the extra pulse in the lure grabs the trout’s attention and they swim over – sometimes from a fair way off –
This is the guts of this technique. When you can’t Polaroid a fish, such as when it’s windy, overcast, simply “twitch” the lure and confidently assume that nearby trout will come and investigate.