Feeding up your drops

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

So, we all have a favorite drop (or 3). A "Spot X" if you like. whether it be natural bottom or a drop that has been made out of car bodies or whatever. I'm not necessarily talking about snapper either, could be a whiting drop or a flatties drop or a mixed bag drop. DO U FEED IT UP? have u found that dumping burley there regularly keeps it fishing well? do u sometimes go out and burley it up and not fish it that day? what do u use, i have heard chicken pellets can do the job and i use them for my surface burley mixed with tuna oil or throw them out loose on shallow whiting spots. i have a mate who uses pilchard in a can cat food on his drops. another mate is a chef and can get lots of fish frames and stuff like that which we were planning on dropping on one of our snapper drops.What do ya's think? worth it? i have spoken to another mate who said that when he does it he puts it in a weighted bag so as it stays on the drop and doesnt get carried away with the tide. opinions?

[Ale 301]

I only burley up whilst fishing, scaling bag, with a paver or 2 and a frozen block. Then whilst the tide is slack, I throw handfuls of chopped chunks over. I have one off those plastic trap door bombs aswell, but rarely bother with it.I have heard of one guy who "feeds" his fish. Reckons he takes a hessian bag full or barley and other mixed grains, bessa block in it and then throws it over. the hessian bag slowly decays or gets ripped apart by the feeding fish he reckons

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

my mate who uses pilchard in a can also reckon if u throw over grain or other like substances they grow in the water or stuff grows on them that the fish feed on. dunno about the grain growing in salt water but i can see it releasing slowly and keeping fish around, grain keeps fish at wallaroo and pt giles doesnt it?

[Goldman 0]

I'm not a boat fisho,but have a couple of land based spots that I feed regularly.They seem to produce for me all the time.Mainly pillies and "el cheapo" cat food.

[bjorn2fish 4,612]

I feed up my drops land based and in the boat most people call it berleying though. The fish love the berley but not my bait Lately it's been like this, good fishing times to come soon though.I was actually thinking of going fishing the same time each day over a period of time, berleying up and wondered if the fish would learn to expect a feed. Would be interesting to try out.

[Crusher 18]

Honestly, the amount of food you would drop would not sustain a school of fish between trips. I see this as pointless. but that is my opinion with no research. If you think how much water moves over a drop in 1 day, how much disturbance occurs, how many factors impact a micro climate like this it would be a waste of time.

[ScaleyTom 19]

Honestly' date=' the amount of food you would drop would not sustain a school of fish between trips. I see this as pointless. but that is my opinion with no research. If you think how much water moves over a drop in 1 day, how much disturbance occurs, how many factors impact a micro climate like this it would be a waste of time.[/quote']Was going to say the same. Pointless exercise unless your burleying for your immediate needs. The amount of feeding certain drops get would be a lot in some cases, but doesn't necessarily make them anymore productive.

[Drew 0]

Plenty of cray fishermen in the SE throw the previous days bait ( often salmon) over the side at the same spot for several days coming home, then go and fish that spot in their amateur boats when the weather is suitable. Heard mixed reports of success but bait dumps are kept under wraps.

[Guest]

Its an idea that in theory at least certainly has merit.I honestly wouldn't know whether it would improve the spot or not but certainly couldn't hurt.

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

i can perhaps see a few big 20kg bags of grain or chicken pellets dropped on the same spot every few days maybe work for whiting in shallow water, or at least help a bit, but it would get pretty expensive. i wonder if pros or charter guys do it on their drops, i know they make their own drops to ensure fish, would make sense to feed it iup as well? although making a quality drop with lots of structure would be way more likely to attract and hold fish than a small bit of burley i would think.

[Fishie 98]

I've been fishing the same local Metro whiting spots for nigh on fifty years.. It's important to keep feeding those spots each year. I feed my spots with cockle shells whilst fishing. This keeps your grounds fresh with shell on the bottom and encourages seasonal whiting to forage in the immediate vicinity each season as they migrate.

[archerfish 685]

The theory is interesting. Something similar seems to be at play here:http://aquascene.com.au/and here:http://www.lordhoweisland.info/points-of-interest/points-of-interest/neds-beach/Cheersaf

[O2Catch1 170]

Not convinced on this one ?????????Sure burley up and in the short term you will get some fish feeding. If it is a heap of fish scraps then it will not take long before the crabs, fish and lice clean the scraps up.As for a bag of wheat, well I can not see the benefit of doing that. If the bag is sealed then there is nothing for the fish to feed on, once the bag splits the wheat would surely disperse quickly, especially in rough weather.Just recently a mate of mine filmed a large rock up around the Goannas, someone obviously has tried the weighted bag of stuff on that drop and as for bringing the fish in, well it sure brought one Magpie Perch in if you know what I mean!

[Wahoo 146]

@ Bjorn: I was actually thinking of going fishing the same time each day over a period of time, berleying up and wondered if the fish would learn to expect a feed. Would be interesting to try out. Bjorn. Fish on the GBR know when to expect dive boats that feed them. Especially sharks, There's one reef in the Coral Sea that's had transceivers dropped around the reef and the reef sharks have been tagged with acoustic tags. When they looked at the results they noticed that the sharks are normally spread all over the area, on diving days the sharks congregate at the dive location before the boat arrives.CheersWahoo

[Crusher 18]

@ Bjorn: I was actually thinking of going fishing the same time each day over a period of time' date=' berleying up and wondered if the fish would learn to expect a feed. Would be interesting to try out. Bjorn. Fish on the GBR know when to expect dive boats that feed them. Especially sharks, There's one reef in the Coral Sea that's had transceivers dropped around the reef and the reef sharks have been tagged with acoustic tags. When they looked at the results they noticed that the sharks are normally spread all over the area, on diving days the sharks congregate at the dive location before the boat arrives.CheersWahoo[/quote']Wahoo, do you think its more sound association rather then dive days? They associated the dive boat, the motor noise and vibration rather then the actually day/date. Then from that they may be aware that a free feed is on its way, rather then the fact they think 'hey its Thursday the dive boats coming... free feed WOOHOO.."

[Highfly 0]

It varies on which part of the state you are in and how far out to sea you are but generally in this gulf it may well be illegal to dump anything that you do not retrieve when you leave. I am not talking about cockle shells and marine stuff used for bait. Hefty fines may apply. Posting on a forum may be used against you by fisheries in court action. So it would be probably be inappropriate to comment on personal experience.Do I think dumping a sack of barley one day and fishing it the next day would work. SHIT YEAH Would feeding a reef work. A decent sized established reef that's not overfished probably wouldn't need it. Would feeding it helpSHIT YEAH

[snapperhead 523]

I know that when I lived in Pt Broughton and Pirie pro's there would feed drops on a regular basis. Ive also been onboard a crab boat when the shell from the previous days picking has been dumped overboard on a drop and seen the chaos that followed with huge snapper on the surface feeding like tommies in a berley trial.cheerssnapps

[Ale 301]

welcome back mate, hope your feeling better^^^

[snapperhead 523]

Thanks mate Ive still got a couple of issues Im dealing with but Im getting there.......Ive got the 15th of dec marked down as hopefully my first day back fishing at this stage.cheerssnapps

[Wahoo 146]

@ Crusher: Wahoo, do you think its more sound association rather then dive days? They associated the dive boat, the motor noise and vibration rather then the actually day/date. Then from that they may be aware that a free feed is on its way, rather then the fact they think 'hey its Thursday the dive boats coming... free feed WOOHOO.."Hi Crusher. Sorry about the delay in answering, I'm at Stansbury & have been fishing last 2 days. I find here that going back to where I dumped my left over burley etc certainly helps. To your question. The researcher on the GBR project is adamant that the sharks start congregating a few hours before any boats arrive. They've been at it so long that it's become part of a modified behavioral pattern. These findings are part of behavioral research on Tiger Sharks which he found were coming to the same reef at the same time of year every year. He discovered that the Tigers know when it's Turtle breeding season and rather than killing turtles they wait for the ones that die post egg laying to get washed off the reef on the next high tide.CheersWahoo

[PJ151 0]

The same thing happens with the white shark feeding at neptune islands.The sharks there are fully trained and know what time the feed boats arrive each morning. They come straight to the boat.The sharks there are very aggressive first thing in the morning because they're hungry. Great time time to have them slam into the cages for the tourists.By around midday they've all been fed and they're quiet dosile. When the feed boat leaves in the early afternoon its almost as though the sharks wink to the feed boat captain and say "catch you tomorrow morning mate"

[Crusher 18]

@ Crusher: Wahoo' date=' do you think its more sound association rather then dive days? They associated the dive boat, the motor noise and vibration rather then the actually day/date. Then from that they may be aware that a free feed is on its way, rather then the fact they think 'hey its Thursday the dive boats coming... free feed WOOHOO.."[/quote']Hi Crusher. Sorry about the delay in answering, I'm at Stansbury & have been fishing last 2 days. I find here that going back to where I dumped my left over burley etc certainly helps. To your question. The researcher on the GBR project is adamant that the sharks start congregating a few hours before any boats arrive. They've been at it so long that it's become part of a modified behavioral pattern. These findings are part of behavioral research on Tiger Sharks which he found were coming to the same reef at the same time of year every year. He discovered that the Tigers know when it's Turtle breeding season and rather than killing turtles they wait for the ones that die post egg laying to get washed off the reef on the next high tide.CheersWahoo

Cheers Wahoo, Its been a while since I have been on as well as I've been ill. I also forgot I asked a question. It is interesting, the shark behaviour that is.

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

it certainly is interesting. I daresay that Sharks are a whole lot smarter than Snapper and other fish but for a long living fish like Snapper that have pretty specific patterns that they follow ie congregate to breed in say october thru January, cruise around and visit specific areas at specific times of the year. take Whyalla as an example, i have personally found that they around the Northern drops in late winter/spring but more further south after the ban and throughout summer/autumn as a general rule. if a certain spot was religiously burleyed for a few years then i spose its not out of the question that the fish would learn that food was there and gather there. i can see it being a fairly time consuming process and expensive (depending on how much bait u had to buy, how much fuel to get to the drop and back etc) but potentially worth it? if u did as Bjorn suggested and burey a land based spot you could cut down your costs a bit i spose.

[Wadey 4]

So mate what ya going to do , berley spot x or not

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

might have to if the weather allows, what do u reckon, is that where ur gunna fish the open?

[Wadey 4]

at this stage its a good call , only due to the extra ban on the broughton spots

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

i might have a bit of a sound over it and see if it has any life on it, i got a fish on it a few days before the ban, 17lb, think i told u? so yea, my mate has some blocks of yellowfin whiting frames and i have an assortment of fish and squid in the freezer which i might lob down on it...or just wait til i get out there on the open day and burley the shit out of it, from what ur saying ur expecting there to be a few people hitting it up.