Fishing the TT SwitchPrawn+

By Ryan Fogg

Nothing excites an angler more than shiny new gear, and when a parcel arrived with some soon to be released presentations, well let’s say it was a quick trip to the post office. The team at TT have been working tirelessly behind the scenes developing new gear to suit the needs of us anglers. When I first saw the TT SwitchPrawn+ I started to think of the scenarios where I could fish it and what species to target. Let’s just say it was a long list. Whether it be land based or from a watercraft, these vibes are going to produce in both the salt and the fresh.

I have found the TT SwitchPrawn+ to be very effective in all depths of water and tides. With multiple attachment points you can adapt the lure to suit your chosen style of fishing and water depth. The UV-reactive eyes and a hefty vibration will be perfect for those pre-dawn starts; however, they will work equally well when imitating injured baitfish over the estuary flats or on shut down bass sulking below the thermocline.

The night before my first session I tied on new leaders, both running the Platypus Hard Armour Supple in 10lb, with approximately two rod lengths of leader to a Uni knot to attach the SwitchPrawn+, tying directly to the supplied clip. I rigged the 44mm, 8g SwitchPrawn+ on a 1-3kg TT Red Belly combo and the 50mm, 13g SwitchPrawn+ on a 2-4kg TT Red Belly combo. Both combos are running Okuma Ceymar HD spin reels, spooled with Platypus Pulse X8 Braid. As you would expect, both cast like rockets and enabled me to cover plenty of water.

This session I was fishing the last of the run out tide, so I positioned myself just off a draining flat, that dropped into 1.2m of water. This area has some broken weed patches that you can fish over or around, and I have noted on previous trips that it holds good amounts of bait. This positioning also enables me to turn and fish the deeper main channel, which has produced flathead in the past.

I started with the 44mm, 8g SwitchPrawn+ in Onyx Tiger colour and, after coating it with a healthy dose of Pro-Cure scent, I first worked parallel to the weed edge. With the light and sensitive rod, it was very easy to work the vibe and you get fantastic feedback as you work the presentation. Being that this was early in the season for flathead and the water hadn’t warmed much, a short, slow lift of the rod tip, followed by a long pause of 8-10 seconds, was the retrieve that I chose to begin with. I always test lures in my pool after tying them on. I found that the SwitchPrawn+ sat upright on the bottom and that the assist hooks, with the coloured skirts and flash material, moved in the current.

After working the bank, I chose to focus on the deeper channel, hoping to find the flathead that had moved off the flats and into the main channel. The tide had all but reached dead low, so I made a nice long cast and waited for the presentation to reach the estuary floor. I employed the same slow lift retrieve and worked the water in a 180-degree arc, whilst keeping my vibe in the bottom third of the water column.

It didn’t take long before I felt some weight when working the lure, followed by some solid runs and strong headshakes. After setting the hooks I backed the drag off slightly as I didn’t want to risk tearing the hooks out of the soft mouth of the flathead. After what seemed like an eternity a big dusky appeared from the depths and into the waiting net. The assist hooks had pinned the flathead right in the corner of the mouth, with only minimal scuffing of the leader. After a few photos I watched this beautiful big dusky swim off, wondering what had just happened.

The TT SwitchPrawn+ has a great flutter on the drop and I have spent some time targeting steep vertical weed banks on the first of the run out tide, hoping to find some hungry predators patrolling the edges. For this scenario I set up my kayak to drift slowly along the edge, about ten feet off the bank. I then dropped the SwitchPrawn+ along the weed edge and allowed it to sink with the bail arm of the reel open. This is quite visual as I am fishing in about two metres of water and can see the bottom.

Once my presentation has hit the bottom it is allowed to pause with the assist hooks extended away from the body of the lure. Once paused for long enough, a very slow roll gives the impression that the baitfish or crustacean is slowly crawling along the bottom. Most of the time it is a typical flathead bite, a very subtle eat and I only felt the bite as I lifted into the fish. I managed to catch a mixed bag of cod, bream, and small trevally, with the ever-present flathead making up a lot of the fish that I caught.

With the water warming and the impoundments starting to fire up, I can’t wait to fish these in some standing timber for bass, yellowbelly and maybe even cod. Fished vertically or dredged along the bottom, I will have at least one tied on before the start of every fishing adventure.

The SwitchPrawn+ is available in 20 awesome colours, from the darker silhouette colours to natural prawn crustacean colours.

Hope you find some fish when you next hit the water.

Cheers, Foggy