OK Folks, What am I doing wrong...

[Ghoti]

Just returned from two weeks on the beautiful Gippsland Lakes, Victoria. While I didn't fish as much as I would have liked, I did manage to slip out with two mates on the odd occaision.

We tried Lake Tyers Toorloo arm (11:00am - 3:00pm), the jetties around Lakes Entrance (first and last light), Kalimna rock walls (last light), Rigby Island rocky groynes (mid day and last light).
My mates used bait while I stuck to the SP's. No bream were caught.

My mates caught several Trevally, Tailor and Aussie Salmon on whitebait and local prawn. I caught one 30cm Aussie Salmon (Rigby Island Groynes, last light) on a Killer Tomato squidgy fish rigged on a Gamakatsu jig head.

While the bait fishos seemed to score on every outing, I only got the one fish. I tried both wrigglers and squidgy fish, in bloodworm, silver fox, killer tomato, jelly prawn and avacado. I used the Squidgy jig heads in 1.5gm, 2gm & 3gm. I also tried the Gamakatsu Darter 1/8oz jig head.

I was using a Shogun 6'6" graphite rod, Abu Cardinal 303 reel, 6lb green fireline with 9lb clear leader. The retrieve was simply a couple of twiches, wind, pause 10-15 seconds, cpouple of twitches....

Is it usual for bait to outfish SP's, or am I doing something wrong???

Cheers,
Scott

[madsurfe]

Is it usual for bait to outfish SP's, or am I doing something wrong???

it all comes down to experience. I tried for months on soft plastics and scored only a few fish then I rethought what I was doing cos' I used to catch a lot of Bream on unweighted baits. I started fishing my soft plastics like I used to fish prawns, worms and crabs and wholah! I'm into the fish. I used to love the beachworms you could buy in Paynesville and once had a very memorable session on the main jetty in pouring rain and wind as the barometer plummetted.

My mates caught several Trevally, Tailor and Aussie Salmon

the fish listed above will require totally different technique, in fact a good start would be whipping and fast retrieves. The only difference of any would be the Trevally as you don't say where they were but I suspect that it was off the rock wall and they may have been down deeper than the tailor and salmon. The Trevally would most likey be hitting a Squidgy on the drop, just pay careful attention to the line movement as it drops.

I hope this helps Good luck

[SWANK-E]

did your mates have a electric motor? stealth is a key issue with catching bream.

and if you know your mates are catching with a local shrimp bait, try and find a sp that looks like it, try fishing with grubs like atomics and sliders, they might look like a shrimp in the water, who knows what a fish sees, but keep trying. squidgees are bait fish and they sometimes tend to be a bit big.

[blackwater]

Ghoti,
I reckon madsurfe is right on the money with the different retrieves for the salmon and tailor. Whenever i have fished and salmon or tailor show up i rarely get a hit until i pick up the speed a bit. Any of those plastics you are using should work well on them. Especially the silver fox colour.
For the trevally they can either be really picky or just go flat knacker and hit anything that moves. They might have just been a bit on the picky side and you didn't have the right plastic for the job.
Who knows but i guess that's the reason we keep going back

Brian

[winfield]

I just saw your sponsors Blackwater........Any chance of a similar sponsorship????

[blackwater]

Winfield,
I have worked long and hard to be on a first name basis with all my sponsors and i am sure if you get to know them you will be very happy with the services they provide

I have no problem with you taking on the bottom two as major sponsers but as for the blonde next door you will have to go and get one of your own

Brian

Ohhh. if its a women your after, then go see Warren.
Apparantly he is our new Pimp!!!

I find with tailor, a flat out retrieve works well. I have had a lot of success on the KillerTomato and also the Cotton Candy atomics.

HTH

Dave

[Richo]

Bonded BEAM mmmmmmm always the first duty free purchase I make mmmmmmmm

[jimi]

Hey Ghoti, another thing that may have caused your problems is that you mention you were fishing with bait fisherman. Don't know how you guys fish, but usually bait fishing means staying in one spot for long periods and not covering much ground.

That works for bait because it has scent to attract the fish. However, to get the most from lures you will need to cover as much ground as possible. That's why it's quite hard for bait and lure fisherman to fish from the same boat.

Next time, try to cover as much ground, have a few casts into likely looking areas and then move on to the next. Most of the time you don't need to hammer a spot with 50+ casts, you will normally get fish in the first few if there are fish there.

Cheers

[Ghoti]

John-Paul - Thanks for the advice. The bait fishos used whitebait and prawn on a paternoster rig.The trevally were caught off the rock wall, the tailor at Lake Tyers and the salmon at the rocky groynes off Rigby Island. My sambo took the SP on the pause, so perhaps I was lucky

Swank-E - Stealth We certainly could not be accused of this!! We simply motored up to the spot, dropped anchor and put the rods in. At least I managed to get the mates to stop 20-30 metres off the Rigby Island rock groynes (rather than motoring up alongside). We were on a rising tide and I literally bounced the SP's off the rock wall as described in the Starlo & Bushy Bream book.

Brian - Thanks for the cute blond tip! Associating with cute blonds is an aspect of fishing that certainly appeals

Cheers,
Scott

[Ghoti]

Jimi,

Covering ground was certainly a foreign concept to my fishing companions. They saw this as me being confused with trolling!!!

Oh, the blind leading the blind...must have been quite a sight for any onlookers.

Cheers,
Scott

[canoeboy]

Well said James, if the fish are their they will take your lure, or have a go at it, just give it bit of time. If not, have another rod handy, set up for bait. Try that for a bit, while sipping on beer. If no success, tell your mates to move on.
Prefer redheads myself.

Dave

[Ol' slab sides]

Gentlemen prefer Blondes...

Fiery Redheads...

Gimme a Brunette anyday!!!


Slab