North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

G’day all

In recent light of lots of forum members chasing Bill fish I thought I would give you a simple & cheap option to increase your Bill fish captures using the humble old cork, red wine cork, white wine cork doesn’t matter, 2 Rods may be a good source of both corks.

The dribble

In a nut shell what you are making is a rough version of a pusher head except when you rig your skip bait you place a skirt in front of the skip bait as you normally do & the cork then slides down over the shirt, the recess helps hold the bait & skirt in place & gives the skip bait a better action.

Fishing Broome, Groote Eylandt & Darwin, the same rig has accounted for probably 95 % of the Bill fish coming on the bait rigged with the cork first, both on Sails & Marlin, unfortunately Tuna & Macs like them also but they cost frig all to make other then your time if you have gear lying around. I’ve used soft heads & every other product & I’ll back the cork any day for a higher percentage rate.

You can make these as rough as you like & or spend as much time you like making them look like a commercial product, but in the end the rougher version will produce better results. The reason being the quality of the corks are usually pretty ordinary, using fillers & products to provide a quality finish makes them heavier & harder when the Bill fish mouths them.

Tools required will vary, if you have tools like die grinders, routers & router bits etc they make it a lot easier to work the cork due to the speed those tools produce which works better on cork, having said that basic tools like a drill, drill bits, counter sinkers, a dremmel etc will all work, just not as clean a cut as the high speed tools. On the paint finish I use auto acrylic paints with an air brush, mainly because I use it on my lures & it dries straight away, but spray cans & or dip them or hand paint them would work just as easy.

Corks are readily available either through consumption of the product & or any place you go for a feed that has a wine list should be able to give you a stack of them. The tube to go through the centre of the cork can normally be picked up pretty cheap at most places, but in the end it’s optional if you even put a tube through, it just extends the life a bit, if not using a tube a small hole through the centre will do, with cork the hole may run off centre but that’s no drama either, just makes them more erratic & that’s the difference between cork & the soft heads, plastics & resins used by commercial interests.

I will go through the steps I use & all you will have to do is modify the steps to suit what ever tools you have available or have access to.

The method

The cork I use most is the straight cork out of wine bottles, they are usually about 45 mm in length & about 20 mm in diameter, but it really doesn’t matter, just use what ever size they are. I hold the cork in a vice or similar with soft foam either side with just enough tension to stop the cork from being flung out when drilling the recess in one end of the cork. I have a die grinder mounted in a small portable drill press. Personally I use from a 12 mm to 16 mm curved router bits which I drill a cavity in the one end of the cork to approximately 25 mm in depth. I usually make a stack of them in one hit, the width & the depth of the recess can vary to suit your needs, you can router a cup face on the other end of the cork if you want more splash, but I have found leaving it flat is just as effective. Once I have enough corks routered out I use a drill to drill a small hole through the centre of the cork, the diameter I use is 4 mm which allows a small tube to be inserted in the hole with a small amount of epoxy to hold the tube in place, leave until glue dries & spray cork whatever colour suits you.

I have found pink & purple is the most consistent colour on both Sails & Marlin. I also use the Champagne corks for larger versions of the cork head.

Other options

If you want to make pusher heads out of the wine or Champagne corks you can follow the same steps as above & then use a drill & tek screw with the head cut off fitted in a drill, just twist the cork on the tek screw, switch on at lower speed & sand to required shape & finish as with the other cork heads.

The corks also make great teasers especially if they are rigged in a long daisy chain of teasers, just set them up so you can easily add replacements, as Macks have take a liking to them.

On safety issues, follow safety steps as per tools & equipment you are using, wear a dust mask & I hope the finished product works as well for you, cheers Balls.

Awesome post Balls....

Do you hase any pics you could throw up....

Second that.....................Some pics would go well with that explanation.

The idea is great..Anything to keep the cost down in chasing those pelargics leaves something leftover for

love it mate will have to give it a bash for sure. some pics would be great if you get the time

Harmsey

Mal Miles of www.darwinbluewater.com.au uses the little plastic sticks out of Chupa Chups on the corks, reckons they are perfect. Just need a crew willing to suck lots of Chupa Chups when the fish are on

Here's a couple of pix I took on the last Kimberley trip with Mal, where the billies were thick at Cassini ...

G'day Matt

Yep they are some of the ones I made & gave to Mal, on the skip bait I have the skirt over the Gars head & then the cork, the skirt actually helps hold the skip bait together & the skirt slides nicely into the recess, I've also had a few fish destroy the skip bait & come back for the cork & ended up with a tag in them, good bonus!! In these photos Mal has rigged them differently while he is testing different hook patterns & methods to determine the best hook up rate for him, last conversation with Mal was the jury was still out. The Chuppa sticks are designed to give him some distance between the bait & the circle hook & kids teeth to drop out, as with all bait rigging there are heaps of options available, its just whatever works best for you. I'm catching up with Mal this arvo when I finish work so to give him some consealed chin sinkers (coming soon to home grown) I'll see if he has a verdict on his methods. The little Black Marlin was caught on one of the champayne corks covered on blue glitter. Both the Blacks hooked in John Cooper's boat in the Bill fish classic last year snavelled the corks also, don't have to look good, just have to work.

I'm also happy to show anyone how to make any of the gear just so long as they can work in when I am not on shift, guiding & or fishing. I'll be doing a lot more on the home grown for Billies , lures etc when I have a chance, cheers Balls.

Here are some photos of the work that Ballsy (aka the Doctor) does with his corks. As mentioned in his post they can be used as a pusher style or for skip baits which is what I use them for. These corkheads have accounted for the hook up of 2 blacks in my boat off Darwin and more recently a Sail down off Dundee. If you look at the photos some of the corks look a little worse than others and I don't mean any disrespect to Ballsy by this as these would usually be the ones we would use first due to their sometimes irregular motion which may be more enticing. In fact our last trip to Dundee saw us raise more Sails on a cork head which had been belted earlier which saw it crushed but also gave it a very distinctive skip on the surface.

I have been lucky enough to spend probably 15 days on a boat with Ballsy during Billfish comps and what I have learnt from him is invaluable. Keep up the good work with sharing your knowledge Balls!

Sheez, how good are they!! I'll def be knocking a few of those together before my next billy trip, I like how the baits are done, great info guys.
Cheers, Daisy

Really nice work