Metro fishing, what's the secret?

[bricks 24]

Hi there gents and gentettes,Most of my fishing is done outer metro and country.I'm probably a product of the areas I fish, but I'm used to walking to any beach on any coast looking for somewhere fishy and pulling fish no worries.Since the introduction of my first born, although I do fish more often (surprisingly), I also fish mainly very close to home on the metro coast.My fishing is pretty equally land based and boat based. Now the problem is my catch rate: Where I used to fish, a bag limit was the norm and a doughnut was a rare occurrence indeed.Now that I'm fishing metro, there's no such thing as a bag limit without at least 4 hours of solid work and some days just seem like the fish have packed up entirely and left for the summer, with the exception of shore based YFW which are time consuming to collect, but pretty reliable just the same.So what's the secret to cracking the metro code.I've never been one to rely solely on GPS marks, are they really that important in metro fishing? Every second post I see on the forums seem to relate to the almost biblical significance of the fabled "spot x". I on the other hand tend to read the water, weather and rely more on my "gut feel" to determine my locations for the day.Is the pressure on metro spots so intense that the fish population here is hammered that hard the fish just don't exist? In which case, having seen what fishing exists even at outer metro spots like Aldinga and Wakefield, I'm absolutely astounded by the difference.Do you need to move more often, how long do you give a spot before you up anchor and see something else?Are the fish here different to country fish? I would have thought fish live in the same basic locations all across the world and to be honest this rings true for me in every place except metro waters.So, what's the secret for metro fishing? Is it really that hard to bag out?CheersBricks

[catch fillet release 22]

biggest factor = berley.dont need gps markscfr

[bricks 24]

Burley is always in my tool kit CFR, how long do you give it before you move on?Do you wait out a spot for 30minutes or more trying to attract fish from the furthest reaches of the ocean, or do you move after 10minutes if nothing takes your fancy?

[Kelvin 2,215]

Metro, especially landbased is hit alot harder than the country spots. But if you can pull fish metro, then you can catch anywhere. To do well landbased you need to fish unusual hours and often the spots are very condition and location specific. eg. often only 1 or 2 anglers right at the end of the jetty and casting to the right areas will catch fish while most won't.There are plenty of good fish to be had metro and I have bagged on gar, tommies, squid, whiting (YFW and KGW), and have a few landbased and kayak snapper under the belt, but it is not easy.

[BJ 0]

Kelvin is on the money about landbased. It gets hit real hard and the better fish usually come in those unusual hours or horrible conditions. Where as yorkes you can have a beach all to your self, sometimes even on a weekend, and pull a variety of fish.In the boat it's the same, but different, if you know what I mean. The fish are still in the areas you think they would be in but with the amount of boat traffic they can be very touchy. That's why week days are the best time to fish the inshore drops. Also metro North, say North of NH to Wakefield, doesn't have that awesome bottom that yorkes has to offer. Yorkes has heaps of corkweed beds, plenty of low reef, broken bottom, mussel beds etc. Now, we do have that here but only in small areas, the rest of the gulf up north is flat sand and mud, espeacially once you get offshore. Yes there are a few natural reefs out there but primarily they're artificial. That's where a good so called spot X comes into play. A small 1m high piece of reef in the middle of a barren dessert becomes an oasis for fish, and if you don't have that mark you could be only a few hundred metres away, fishing in a dessert, getting nothing. Fish inshore, avoid traffic, and think outside of the square. It's a lot tougher metro than Yorkes, but there are still good fish to be had

[catch fillet release 22]

Burley is always in my tool kit CFR' date=' how long do you give it before you move on?Do you wait out a spot for 30minutes or more trying to attract fish from the furthest reaches of the ocean, or do you move after 10minutes if nothing takes your fancy?[/quote']really depends also on tide times both high n lowand time of dayi prefer either very early before sun up till 800am for squid and whitingand nearly 2 hours before sunset to set berley,baits up for snapper n whiting and salmon,flathead ,snook...most of those are predators and attack in less lightcfri'd allow at least 25-30mins