Fishing DVD – Tathra Flathead

Andrew Badullovich has been filming in the Tathra area with the team from Fishing DownUnder, and we find out a bit about the story from John Haenke, the producer.

There is actually a fair bit of planning that goes into the shooting of each and every one of the stories that we shoot for Fishing DownUnder. Firstly, we depend and rely on the fishing knowledge of our presenters, they are the ones who know what’s happening in their local area, and it’s through their knowledge of locations, conditions, tides, time of year and past history that we base our shoots, and then their pre-fishing before the shoot to know if the fishing is good enough to shoot the story. There are never any guarantees, but AB has never let us down!

So the 90+ centimetre Flathead didn’t just materialise or “happen” on the day, the planning started with AB months ago, initially over the phone. When I suggested targeting large Flathead on hard body lures, Andrew mentioned one of his favourite South Coast NSW rivers where he was confident we would get one – and the planning and his confidence paid out!

We also rely and depend on quality fishing gear, and using Daiwa Rods and Reels ensures our gear never lets us down! The wide range of gear gives us plenty of options when it comes to choosing a specific rod and reel for any of the stories we shoot. In this particular story, AB upped the size of lure he normally uses – we both agreed if you’re targeting big Flathead, go for a larger lure. The rod needed to be able to throw a heavy lure, and yet be fairly soft in the tip as Andrew uses very light braid and leaders. A quick look at Daiwa’s website made the decision easy: a Generation Black Supercaster 5 -10 kg rod with a nice fast action, perfect! The reel was (can you find out from Andrew what it is please) and the thing I remember most about the fight was the number of long runs this fish made, fairly tense moments for all of us until it was landed. On light gear this could have easily been the one that got away if not for the smooth drag on that reel.

It was a team effort in the end – one thing’s for sure, we wouldn’t be able produce such great stories if we couldn’t rely on quality gear and talented anglers like AB!

For more information about Fishing DownUnder, you can visit their website.