The range of Venom Land Based Game rods
are the latest release from Wilson Fishing’s
Live Fibre Sportfishing Series. On a recent
trip to the legendary Steep Point in Western
Australia I got the chance to dish out some
serious punishment with these powerful
rods. The Venom LBG rods come in three different
models: PE3, PE5 and PE8. For this trip into
the remote waters of Shark Bay I decided to
use the Venom LBG PE5 (RLFVLBG5). This
model is perfect for gas ballooning and is
ideal for targeting hard running pelagic
fish such as Spanish mackerel, cobia and
longtail tuna.
Steep Point is the westernmost point of the
Australian mainland and is located in the
remote Shark Bay area. The stunning cliffs
that make up this region are known as the
Zuytdorp Cliffs and during the beginning of
each summer the Leeuwin Current pushes hard against this prominent headland. The
warm currents funnel through the south
passage between the mainland and Dirk
Hartog Island creating a ‘super highway’ for
a host of migrating pelagic species.
Gas ballooning is a unique method of fishing
used by land based anglers to target a
wide variety of surface cruising gamefish.
This technique was developed on the West
Australian coastline in the early 1980s and
works by using strong offshore winds to
propel large skip baits hundreds of metres
out to sea using a latex balloon filled with
helium gas.
baitfish such as garfish, snook , mullet and
whiting. The key to getting more strikes
and getting the most out of this technique
is all about finding the perfect weight ratio
between your bait, balloon and strength of
the wind. The desired result should see a
skip bait dart across the surface and make
huge splashes as it lifts in and out of the
water. Spaniards and many other pelagic
During this trip we mainly used common species love the commotion created by a
perfectly weighted skip bait.
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