How do you fish?

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Reeling
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How do you fish?

Post by Reeling »

When I went out the other week I found myself somewhat aimless pedaling around looking at my fishfinder hoping to see the golden arches. If I did see something that could have been a fish, I stopped and "gave it a go".

I then wondered, is that what I'm meant to do? after all, it sounder isn't necessarily showing a large area under the yak even in slightly deeper waters so what's the chance of me actually seeing something on the finder. Should I just be picking an area that "looks" a good shout and try there?

After a while a got a bit bored of not seeing anything on the sounder and pedaled around with a SP out the back (without any luck) before I reached somewhere else I felt optimistic about stopping.

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Tuna 20.5kg ---KingFish 90cm --- Snapper 84cm --- Gummy 83cm (55cm legal) ---- Whiting 40cm --- Silver Trevelly 41cm --- Flathead 52cm --- Aussie Salmon 38cm --- Squid 34cm hood

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vicyak
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by vicyak »

depends on the type of fishing. Snapper you must use your sounder. However my best session last year the sounder was empty but had great action. I did this as I sounded around for a while and if I can't see anything I will just pick a spot that has produced before and berley.
The sounder also got me onto Salmon a few times. They are not always obvious from the surface and when you go over a school of Salmon your entire sounder lights up. Once case they were from 10 to 4m of water and I accidently came across them and hence had another great session. Without the sounder I would have went straight over that school.

For whiting and squid I don't use the sounder. I haven't learnt the art of reading the ground yet (could be my sounder as well). For squid I look for weed beds and whiting looking for flat sand patches between or on the edge of weed beds.

If you are targeting whiting or snapper you should berley. I was on the pier last week and threw my lines out with the wind. No one else caught but I picked up a few pinkies. Just happened to hit 15 minutes after dropping chook pellets down. So yes Berley is a must.
Last edited by vicyak on 11 Apr 2017, 15:12, edited 1 time in total.
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cheaterparts
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by cheaterparts »

First off you are not going to paddle or pedal all over the bay looking for a fish and all places you are likely to fish are a little different

finding structure and depths are probably the first thing you will use you FF for thats not saying you wont find fish on the sounder but reefs and other structure can be found and marked easy enough

seeing I rarely fish PPB and find my way next door in the muddy pond for my local finding drop offs ( channels ) and other structure is my primary use for the FF
finding deeper holes of cause are other structure that may hold fish just as a bump in the bottom could be a resting place for fish getting out of the tide flow

fish of cause in WP dont stand still so knowing where the channels are helps as they stay open due to the water flow fish move along them as high ways

PPB you maybe looking for reefs where bait fish hide or bait balls - bait fish attact bigger fish and just because fish dont show up in the small sonar beam doesn't mean they aren't in the area
a likely reefy area and some burley may get you much better results than looking for fish
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Smish
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by Smish »

I started out by concentrating on one species at a time... pick a fish, learn everything about it... bite times, habitat, temperature range, season, what it feeds on, tackle, leaders and lines and by trial and error you work it out, gradually making your way through all the species. There's so much information on the internet that it's a fairly quick progression from catching nothing to bagging out.
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laneends
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by laneends »

Sounders fist of all give you the depth and structure. Second they pick up schools of fish. Trying to chase individual fish is not very fruitful. A lot of the time you wont be sure what is fish and what is weed. You get the most out of them when you are familiar with an area so you can find your away around known spots.

If for example you were chasing pink/snapper then you would typically cruise around reef edges and when there seems to be a lot of targets at a particular spots it is potentially a school. Head slightly up wind drop anchor and berley/bait. Or stay on top and lure.

Whiting just use the sounder to find gaps in weed beds, if you cant see the bottom, just keep relocating hoping to happen across a school. Then you use berley to try and keep them there.

I tend to only berley when I see schools as I dont carry the larger quantities boaties do to create a constant berley stream. Brings all the banjos and toadies in too.

TBH most of the time you dont see much that you can positively identify as target fish.

The lower the frequency setting on the sounder the wider the coverage. DSi sounders are the highest frequency. They give detail, but no fish arches, but narrow field.
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laneends
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by laneends »

I tend to drift when bait fishing, except in WP, I get bored easily at anchor. Typically dragging 3 bait lines and flicking on SP or squid jig.
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by Digger »

Look for structure and fish the structure.
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Reeling
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by Reeling »

Thanks for the hints and tips guys. Did someone mention berley? Haha.

At the moment I don't know any areas so don't know where any reed beds, sand bars, reefs or dropoffs. I was just kind of aimlessly pedalling and trying :) .

Sounds like it's a matter of just getting my ads on the water a bit more and try :)
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Wind Waker
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by Wind Waker »

I will mention its called fishing not catching ;)
Live long, fish hard and hopefully catch something.
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vicyak
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Re: How do you fish?

Post by vicyak »

Notice you are in Newport so Altona very close to you. Many kayaks launch from the end of millers rd. On a calm weekend morning you will see yaks galore. Tag along. In a light north wind this will be glass conditions. This saturday morning forecast early morning is for 5 knots NE. Conditions will be flat. Due to turn southerly after lunch. If a newbie I wouldn't go out over 10knots in a south wind at Altona.
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