South of the Border – May News – Mark Gerkovich

With an extended run of very ordinary autumn weather allowing for the tuna blinkers to come off for a while, it gave me a chance to do something else during the month of May. Something we used to do a lot at this time of year before May became tuna time, walk the local freshwater rivers.

With my young lads finally being old enough to wander a river I’ve been enjoying getting back to the basics, just arming ourselves with a handful of lures and some light spinning gear and trekking off across a paddock.

May is a great time to do this for a number of reasons. The cooler weather sees the likelihood of encountering snakes diminishing, the browns are just beginning to become more aggressive with their spawning urge, the freshwater EP are schooling up in preparation for their spawning journey downstream to the estuary, the water is still clear enough for visual and finesse styles as opposed to the dirty water/big lure scenario coming later in the winter and there is often a few freshwater bream around to also add to the variety.

The new range of TD Minnows and Presso Minnows are perfect for all these species in this scenario. 60mm long and slender in profile, they are a great match for the local galaxid population these freshwater species predate on. The main difference between the two is one is silent suspender the other a floater with a slight rattle.

Differing from the original Presso Minnow, the new model has a far wider variety of colours as well as the addition of the new Saqsas hooks. These super sticky hooks walk the perfect line between strength and finesse. Fine and sharp to penetrate the harder mouth of a bream, but also strong enough to cope with a thrashing brown, they are truly an impressive design.

The new Pressos also seem to cast better than the old ones, but I’m only going to have to go on memory from that one as my eldest son stole my last one a few months ago and lost it on a big brown on a fishing session with a mate, so I can’t compare them! At least he is definitely getting an appreciation for river bank wandering with his mates, although I can see many more lures disappearing out of the shed without my knowledge in the future.