Choosing Your First CWolf Needlefish
Some practical guidance for newcomers to needles to help you make a start, understand your options and get the most from your CWolf needlefish.
Understanding Needlefish
Most fishing lures have a built-in action, largely determined by their shape and design. Needlefish are different. Their main characteristic is that they have very little action of their own.
Rather than imitating a baitfish that is constantly darting and moving, a needlefish is intended to represent something more docile — an unwary baitfish that may appear to be an easy meal.
This makes fishing with needlefish a little different from using many other lures. The way you control your line and the movement you give the lure become much more important. Much of the presentation comes from the angler rather than the lure itself.
Choosing a Starting Point
In relatively calm conditions, ideally during daylight, I would suggest starting with a lighter needlefish and concentrating on the water close in. Make your first cast perpendicular to the shore, take up the slack and maintain just enough line tension to make the rod tip dip slightly. Watch and feel how the conditions are affecting your presentation, allowing the needlefish to swing naturally with the current.
If the needlefish is swinging around too quickly, moving along the shore in the direction it is travelling can help control its movement across the current and allow for a more natural drift. If you feel the lure isn't being influenced by the current, try a slow retrieve, maintaining line tension and a slight dip in the rod tip.
Once retrieved, fan out a few more casts to cover the water immediately in front of you, repeating the process and gradually increasing your casting distance. This allows you to build a picture of how the water is moving and how your needlefish is behaving.
As you become more familiar with the conditions, consider whether a lighter or heavier needlefish might improve your presentation. Vary your casting angle, retrieve speed and style until you find something that elicits a response.
Weight and Sink Rate
Choosing the right weight is important because wind, swell and current all affect how both the lure and your line behave. You need enough weight to maintain contact with the needlefish and feel what it is doing, but without making it sink too quickly.
If the lure is too light for the conditions, wind and current can catch your line, sweep the lure around and sometimes even wash it back towards the shore. On the other hand, a lure that is too heavy may sink too quickly and drag along the bottom.
The aim is to find a weight that allows you to maintain control while presenting the lure at the depth and speed you want. Casting direction in relation to the wind and current can also be used to your advantage.
The sink rates provided in my comparison guide are intended to help you compare the different models and weights, rather than predict exactly how a needlefish will behave in the sea. The figures are averages from ten drops in one metre of fresh water with a slack line. Water salinity, temperature, line diameter, clips and hooks and a host of other factors can all influence the actual sink rate when fishing.
If you're new to needlefish, I would suggest starting with one weight, getting used to how it behaves and then using the comparison figures to help you understand the differences.
You can find the figures on the Needlefish Sink Rates page.
Maintaining Contact and Feeling the Lure
Maintaining contact with the needlefish is important, particularly when fishing in wind, swell or current. You want to be able to feel what the lure is doing and make adjustments to your line control when necessary.
Line control is an ongoing process of maintaining the lightest possible contact with the lure while it is fishing. There are times when you need to retrieve line and others, such as when fishing down or across a current, when you may want to release line while the needlefish is fishing.
Generally, you want to maintain a relatively straight line between the rod tip and the lure, but there are times when allowing a bow to develop can be beneficial.
For example, when casting across a current, a controlled release of line to create a bow can help the lure travel some distance down the current before increasing tension causes it to cut back across the flow towards the shore.
The same approach can be used when fishing in a crosswind. Allowing a bow to develop in the line allowing you to fish the needlefish parallel to the shoreline, perhaps following a trough rather than being pulled directly towards you.
Line control also influences the depth at which the needle fishes. The amount of tension you maintain, how much line you release and the speed of retrieve can all be used to influence its running depth.
Your own movement along the shoreline can also influence the presentation. For example, walking in the direction the lure is travelling reduces the rate at which it pivots around from its original position. This is something I use regularly when fishing surf beaches, where moving along the shore also helps me search out likely fish-holding features.
It is worth remembering that presentation isn't just about the retrieve. Your position, movement and control of the line all play a part in how the needlefish travels through the water.
Finding the Right Presentation
One of the things I enjoy about fishing with needlefish is that you have plenty of scope to experiment with the presentation. Rather than relying on the lure to provide all the action, you can influence how it behaves through your retrieve, rod position and line control.
I would encourage you to try different approaches rather than settle on one method. Start with a natural drift or very slow retrieve, then introduce a little more movement or speed if you feel it is needed. Sometimes a small change can make a difference, while on other occasions the original presentation may be the one that works.
Pay attention to how the lure responds and build your understanding through experience. The more familiar you become with its behaviour, the more confidently you can adapt your presentation to the conditions.
Choosing Where to Fish
The following is a brief introduction to some of the features and conditions worth looking out for when choosing where to fish with a needlefish. It is based on my own observations and experience, rather than being a definitive guide or a set of rules. Every mark is different, and conditions are constantly changing. The aim is simply to help you recognise potentially productive areas and give you a starting point. There is plenty more detailed information available, and I've included links to further reading where you may want to explore a subject in more depth.
Reading the Beach
Finding fish is key. It doesn't really matter which lure you select if you can't put it in proximity of where there are fish to detect it. If the bass aren't there, you won't catch them.
Surf beaches are constantly changing, and taking time to observe the water before you start fishing can be very worthwhile. During daylight, working birds such as gannets, gulls, terns and cormorants can give clues to the presence of baitfish. It's also worth looking carefully at the wave patterns and the shape of the beach in relation to the water. At low water take note of any features that may hold fish as the tide pushes in.
Look for differences in where the water washes up the beach. Areas where it reaches further up the sand can sometimes indicate a slight depression or trough where baitfish may collect. Washed-up seaweed and other debris can also provide clues to the potential concentration of food.
Sandbars and troughs generally run parallel to the shoreline, while cuts provide a route through the sandbars, often formed by the movement of water associated with rips.
You can often identify sandbars by watching where waves break and then reform. Waves may flatten or lose their shape as they pass over a deeper trough, before breaking again on the next sandbar further inshore. Cuts can appear as breaks in this normal pattern, where waves continue towards the beach relatively unaffected. You may also see agitated water flowing back out through a cut against the prevailing swell and across the direction of flow along the troughs.
At night, it is often possible to see waves breaking some distance offshore. Variations in the surf pattern, including gaps and areas where waves behave differently, can help you identify these features. In practice, they are rarely as clear-cut as they appear in diagrams, but with time you begin to recognise the signs.
Further Reading: Fish holding features on surf beaches - Talk Sea Fishing
When fishing a surf beach, I generally start close to the water's edge rather than immediately wading out or making long casts. I use a relatively lightweight needlefish and make a few casts to cover the water immediately in front of me.
Bass can be surprisingly close to the shore, particularly at night, when they may be feeding in water barely deep enough to cover their backs. It is always worth fishing the water at your feet before moving further out. I would hate to think I had walked straight past fish without giving them a chance to take the lure.
Rocky Marks and Rough Ground
The same principles of presentation apply when fishing rocky ground, but moving around can be more difficult, particularly at night. There is no worse way to start a session than putting an expensive lure on and losing it to a snag on the first cast!
If you're new to needlefish, I would suggest avoiding particularly snag-prone areas until you have a better understanding of how the lure responds to your input and have developed confidence in managing your line.
A good starting point is a slow-sinking version, working it close to the surface. For example, a 16g Long Nose can be worked slowly with the rod tip held high, keeping the lure away from the worst of the snags. Assist-style hooks also sit close to the body of the lure during the retrieve and are less likely to catch on rocks or weed.
There will always be a risk of losing lures when fishing rocky ground, but understanding how your needlefish behaves and being aware of the ground beneath you can help reduce that risk.
Deeper pockets can also be fished effectively, particularly during daylight. I would look for gullies and allow the needlefish to descend slowly under control, occasionally adding a slight twitch of the rod tip as it sinks. This allows you to explore deeper areas while maintaining some control over the lure.
At night, I would be much more cautious. You really need to know the ground extremely well and be confident about your positioning and presentation before attempting to fish these areas. Familiarity with the mark is particularly important when you cannot clearly see the rocks and weed beneath the water.
Estuaries and Strong Currents
Estuary mouths are particularly worth considering when choosing where to fish. Bass can often be found holding in depressions or around structure where prey is being carried past by the flow of water.
Needlefish are well suited to this type of fishing. Rather than always working against the current, you can allow the flow to influence the lure and carry it naturally through the area. Maintaining contact with the line while allowing the needlefish to move with the current can produce a very natural presentation.
Harbours and Inland Tidal Reaches
Needlefish can also be useful in harbours and inland tidal reaches, although I don't tend to use them in these locations as often as I do on beaches, rocky marks and estuary mouths.
Where bass are feeding on the surface at some distance from the shore, a tail-weighted needlefish can be a particularly useful option. It will generally outcast most surface lures and can also be worked easily across the surface.
It's another example of having different needlefish profiles and weights available, allowing you to adapt your approach to the conditions and the feeding activity you encounter.
Why Having a Choice Matters
Over time, I've seen occasions when several anglers have been fishing with the same needlefish profile without success, only for someone to change to a different profile and start catching fish. My assumption is that the alternative may have been closer to what the bass were expecting to find as prey at that particular time.
The same can happen with weight and colour. A particular combination may work very well on one session, while another proves more effective on a different occasion. I can't always explain why one option works better than another, but having a choice of options is definitely worthwhile.
It doesn't mean that a particular profile, weight or colour won't work on another day. It simply means that if something clearly isn't working at that point in time, having alternatives gives you the opportunity to try a different approach.
Choosing a Colour
Colour is probably one of the more difficult aspects of needlefish selection to explain. I don't know exactly how a bass sees or interprets the colours of a lure, so my choices are based largely on experience, observation and a degree of trial and error.
In darker conditions, black has been one of my most productive colours. Around a bright moon, I will often favour white or lighter colours, although this isn't a hard-and-fast rule.
In coloured water, black and fluorescent green have both worked for me, although my experience of fishing in heavily coloured water is limited.
In bright, clear but turbulent conditions, I have had success with two-tone colour combinations, with a white belly and either a bright fluorescent or silver upper back.
In calmer conditions, I tend to favour more natural colours that resemble the baitfish I can see, or would reasonably expect to find in the area.
These are simply starting points based on my own experience. I would encourage you to experiment and build your own confidence in different colours.
Where Should I Start
If you're just starting out with CWolf needlefish, I would suggest keeping things relatively simple. You don't need a large selection to begin with; a couple of different profiles and weights will give you a useful starting point and allow you to learn how they behave in different conditions.
The combinations below are suggestions based on the conditions I commonly encounter. They aren't rigid rules, and the best choice will always depend on the conditions you're fishing and the presentation you're trying to achieve.
Lighter Conditions - 16g long Nose + 28g 135mm Standard
A good starting combination for beaches and estuaries in relatively lighter conditions. The 16g Long Nose provides a lighter, slower-sinking option, while the 28g Standard gives you a heavier alternative when you need a little more casting distance or a deeper presentation.
More Demanding Conditions - 20g Long Nose + 35g 135mm Standard
For more demanding conditions, this combination provides additional weight and casting range. The 20g Long Nose offers a useful step up from the lighter version, while the 35g Standard gives you a heavier option when wind, swell or current make maintaining control more difficult.
Rocky Ground and Reef - 16g Long Nose + 16g Stubby
When starting out on rocky ground, I'd recommend keeping things relatively simple. A 16g Long Nose and a 16g Stubby provide two different profiles while maintaining a slower-sinking presentation.
This gives you the opportunity to experiment with how different needlefish profiles behave without immediately introducing heavier, faster-sinking options that can be more difficult to manage around rocks and weed. As your experience and confidence develop, you can begin to explore heavier versions and deeper presentations.
A Few Final Thoughts
Whatever needlefish you select, it only catches fish when it's in the water. Think about how a baitfish might be behaving in the environment you're fishing, have confidence in your selection and keep it wet.
Even the most seasoned anglers have blank sessions. Don't write off your methods or lose confidence in your approach because of them. Every session gives you another opportunity to learn something and build your experience.
Most importantly, enjoy your fishing and have confidence in your CWolf needlefish.