Call out to the Jewie masters.

[purple5ive]

Guys, I need some reaaly good help with this situation im facing, its happened to me a few times now and im not sure how to go about it.
There comes those specials days when you get to your fishing spot and you see those splashes of actively feeding fish. Gets your heart racing and desperate to try and catch one. Cause these moments rarely occur when I go fishing.
But….. it was never meant to be. Cast after cast, plastics, spinners, hard bodies, vibes nothing, not one damn hit, yet they are still busting up like no tomorrow, now i have caught a fair few on plastics but never when they are feeding like this
I was casting right into them this time but nothing happened
So my question is, have any of you come across this situation when they are feeding like that, and did you have the same result??
what do you guys who have experience in catching them do to entice a bite in this situation. (or is this some rare phenomenon where they dont touch anything) I’m not after secrets as such, but maybe even tips like what specific lure type would have had better success in this situation (no need for colours and types, just general info like a hard body would have been the best in this situation etc, etc)
I was so frustrated I nearly cried… i would have thought a hard body would have been the go since they were feeding on the surface.

Ps – my hard body and vibe techniques aren’t the best so could this have been the issue??
I would realy appreciate any advice as im quite perplexed about the whole feeding and not taking any lures scenario.

cheers

[nbdshroom]

Not doubting you but are you absolutely sure they were jew and not something else (mullet)? What were they feeding on? Did you/could you imitate the bait? How big were they? How big were the jew? This at dusk? Right on the tide change? Sorry heaps of questions, the more info the better I guess.

[purple5ive]

VERY VALID QUESTIONS YOU ASK.

i did not visually identify the fish, however my previous experience from the area tells me they are jews, being in victoria theres nothing else like jacks, tailor etc that can be other suspects,
since you mentioned mullet, im asking , do they also feed like this, big splashes, sometimes there wer 2 and 3 together in different areas
couldnt see bait fish or whatever they were feeding on, that was the worst part otherwise i would have thrown something in that looked similar. there were bream and mullet swimming around that i could see, they came in with the tide but the jews were a bit further into the distance, going by the splashes the fish were smaller sized ones but too big to be bream (only guessing as i didnt see them)

yes at night time, tide change from low to high. water was semi clear.

[nbdshroom]

Mullet, I wouldn't say big splashes unless they were obviously belly flopping on top of the surface (and then you would know for sure its a mullet ). I've never encountered jewfish splashing at the surface. But what I have noticed is surface action from scared mullet breaching the water when the jews are feeding.

[T.N.A.M]

Hi mate yes ive seen this on many occasions
where ive had them at my feet and boiling up all
over the mullet without them wanting to know
about my lures.
They are so focused on whats on offer that most the
time its that or nothing.
What I have done is used a worm hook through
a plastic imitating a mullet weightless and come up tight.
They are more like swirls and boils rather then spashes.
Ive seen the odd jew breach the water but its rare to see.
This is how most jew attack its prey from underneath its target then they roll creating a boil.
This is a 20kg fish feeding just after its lunged at its prey...its a pic out of some footage I have.

j

[agz_67]

wow! thats an awesome pic!!! i agree with the comments above, out of the few jew i have caught on plastics, a lot of the time i was looking for mullet that were getting spooked. you do hear the occasional boof still

[purple5ive]

Guys Thanks for taking the time to help me out.
The splashes are very distinct (ill try and video it next time im there and it happens). More like a boof sucking noise. But it's not close enough for me to have a visual. So I can't tell whether they are rolling or just attacking from below. But the frustrating part is they don't care about what I'm throwing at them. Just keep splasing/boofing. Its sending me over the wall..
I've only seen this a few times and never had any luck landing them when they are like that.
T.N.A.M - thanks for that picture, i def didnt see anything like that, just the water splashing/thud kinda noise, its very distinct, not like a splash when you throw something in the water.

[chasenash]

Great shot tnam.

If they are just rolling and not boofing they can be almost impossible to catch, but if the distinctive boof of jewie is there then try a surface lure, something like a sammy 85 in a chrome or silver colour worked slowly can do the job.

[lukereneeseth]

do you get trevally down there? if you do i'd be way more inclined to say that's what they are. Even bigger bream. My experience with jewies is they don't make splashes, they come up just like little bull sharks do but never seem to break the surface like a bull shark spinning out of the water. Never the less if they are jewies then the only chance you have is throwing out some livies ahead of the bait they are following.

When I chase mulloway at night I usually have a big slab out, a live mullet and then two bait holder hooks with a whole beach worm on each balled up in figure of 8's. Even when the schools of mullet come through more often than not its the worms that get taken.

[purple5ive]

Thanks once again for the replies.
no trevally has been caught there that i know of. and yes, a lot of then get taken on worms, but im not sure what worms, they dont seem to be very big worms either. but im more intretsed in catching them on lures.
cheers

[ajb]

Originally Posted by T.N.A.M

Hi mate yes ive seen this on many occasions
where ive had them at my feet and boiling up all
over the mullet without them wanting to know
about my lures.
They are so focused on whats on offer that most the
time its that or nothing.
What I have done is used a worm hook through
a plastic imitating a mullet weightless and come up tight.
They are more like swirls and boils rather then spashes.
Ive seen the odd jew breach the water but its rare to see.
This is how most jew attack its prey from underneath its target then they roll creating a boil.
This is a 20kg fish feeding just after its lunged at its prey...its a pic out of some footage I have.

j

any chance of posting the footage Jase, would be awaome to see.

I've been lucky enough to see Jews feeding on two occasions, both times they were feeding on mullet. First sign was the school of mullet showering out of the water, closely followed by a big jew breaching the surface in a boil, almost like a whale coming to the surface. I got to see the top of their backs clearly on both occasions. And like you they were just out of casting range, got the knees trembling though!!

[purple5ive]

this boil you talkign about, was it noisy, or you only visually noticed it.
what im seeing is a swirl of water with a thud kinda noise. its def fast though, i was watching for a while and i couldnt see the fish even though there was enough light. but it wasnt close so..

[ajb]

Originally Posted by purple5ive

this boil you talkign about, was it noisy, or you only visually noticed it.
what im seeing is a swirl of water with a thud kinda noise. its def fast though, i was watching for a while and i couldnt see the fish even though there was enough light. but it wasnt close so..

First time was shore based, heard and saw the mullet leaping out of the water which caught my attention. Couple of seconds later saw the Jew which didn't really make any noise, just it's back and tail broke the water. This was at around 9am and happened about 30 metres from shore.
Second time though I was anchored fishing for Jew and I heard what sounded like a splash and caught a spli second glimpse of the Jew as it broke the surface and disappeared. No mullet jumped prior on this occasion.
They could very well be Jew that your hearing, only way is to catch one I guess

[purple5ive]

yes could very well be, i have caught 17 or so from that spot, all small ones and im guessing thats them again. but this time they didnt touch anything, so thought i must be doing something wrong as i have never seen them do this there before, all times have been no noise or surafce bustups nothing. then this happens the last few times

cheers