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JOIN A FOOD CHAIN - Habitats and Food


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JOIN A FOOD CHAIN

No, No! … Don’t get a job at “Maccas” … but find the Yellow Fin Whiting’s favourite “Maccas” ! Their food chain.

 

Recently I have been getting consistent results when targeting Large Yellow Fin Whiting.

It was after I studied the YFW diet, by regularly inspecting the gut contents of fish caught in different locations. Developing an understanding of their food preferences, movements, behaviour and the habitat in each location. Subsequently I have been fishing these habitats with the food preferences for that location. Fish in their “Macca’s” !

 

Large YFW’s Morphology and Diet

Larger YFW are built differently, behave differently and feed differently, to their smaller mates.

The morphology of the bigger YFW enable them to predate on a number of alternative food sources.

Bigger means stronger, faster, and most importantly they have a bigger mouth to swallow their prey.

Prey that is much, much larger than the worms they were weaned on. Not that they will pass up an available worm!

The bigger YFW are aggressive predators. No longer the docile benthic grazer of worms, nippers and cockles, that it was when it was smaller. They can now chase down prey. They can grasp it, rip it, immobilise it, and swallow it whole.

 

The different sizes/ages of YFW practice what biologist refer to as Resource (food) partitioning.

Which means the big ones don’t steal the young one’s food. They don’t all compete for the same food resources.

Larger YFW move on to aggressively feed on a lot of Crabs, Prawns, and Minnows.

Regularly inspecting and recording their gut contents and the areas they were caught in, provides a great insight into their diets.

And a good indication of the likely habitats in which to find the larger YFW. And more importantly what lures to use where.

There is also a degree of “Habitat partioning” with the YFW.

In summer I find, a lot more of the larger YFW remain in the upper gulfs. It holds their preferred food.

Whilst most of the smaller ones move on to southern gulf areas that hold more worms and small cockles.

 

The Habitats & Food Chain

Through out the upper regions of the two gulfs, the samphire beds are the start of a series of very productive areas to find large YFW

Haswell’s Mud Crab (Helograpsus haswellianus) are abundant here. They feed on the film of diatoms and algal slime which coats the surface of the mud flats. Through the warmer months the crabs spawn. Their abundant zoea are then fed on by the juvenile Prawns.

In that warmer half of the year, Juvenile prawns thrive in the, food rich, high salinity and higher water temperatures of the upper gulfs . Post-larval and juvenile prawns settle into the shallow environments of the upper gulfs for the warmer months. Before eventually moving on to deeper waters as they mature. The juvenile Prawn and Haswell’s Crab populations are the primary reason why the upper gulfs hold more large YFW.

 

So often I find the large YFW with their stomachs bursting full of small mud crabs, along with juvenile prawns.

And these YFW are often taken in low water in the outgoing tide. On the higher tides, the Prawns will move in to feed on the crab spawn and larvae. The big YFW are not far behind, hunting down prawns. But they also hang back in the very shallow water of the littoral zone, as the tide drops. Waiting for the small mud crabs to emerge from their mud holes, that are under and around the samphire beds. Then the YFW feast. The big YFW are unbelievably aggressive in the shallow out flowing water, during these frenzied feeding periods. Water flowing out, off the Samphire beds, often through mangrove creeks, will hold large YFW that have spent the high tide feasting on prawns and crabs.

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   - Haswells Crabs in the YFW guts

 

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   - Prawns upto 100mm found in YFW guts.

 

I have managed a couple of YFW with the Cranka Crab. But no luck using the soft plastic crabs. But the stand out success in this area, has to be the stickbait surface lures that mimics the movement of fleeing prawns in this habitat. Sugapen 95 is the most successful for me.

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   - A few YFW taken on Sugapen 95 Col# MB16

 

The next promising area, are the sandflats. Which lie adjacent to the mangroves and samphire beds. The organic rich tidal flows, coming off the samphire beds provides the food source for many detritivores living in the sand flats. Large YFW particularly love lingering over the sand flats that hold Clickers. The smaller tides when water covers the area for a longer period, is a particularly good time to find them feeding here. Big YFW love big Clickers. The Ecogear ZX 43, a sub surface lure, on retrieval, has an action that mimics the movement of a fleeing Clicker or prawn, across the sandy bottom. It is irresistible to a large YFW when presented in these sand flat areas. Again SP imitations of clickers have had disappointing results for me.

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   - A few YFW taken on the Ecogear ZX43 Col#402 (UV)

 

The sand flats finally meet the weed line. The ribbon weed beds hold and offer protection for a number of the YFW prey. Prawns will retreat with the tide and shelter in the weed beds. Likewise, it provides a safe haven for Minnows that shelter from predators here. Along with Flathead laying in ambush, big YFW are always patrolling the weed line looking for prey, should they stray out of their shelter. The Stick-bait surface lures, worked along the surface areas of the weed line, provides the top water action here.

And Soft plastic Minnows worked along the bottom of the sand flats - weed line edges, will also find you catching the larger YFW along with a few big Flathead.

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   - A Few YFW along with some Flathead taken on Gulp Soft Plastic Minnows and Shads

 

To find big YFW, find the habitat that holds their preferred food.

To catch Big YFW on lures, use the lures that imitate their preferred food.

“Match the Hatch” and Increase your catch!

 

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   - When you crack the Food Chain, catches of 10 or more 40cm plus YFW are a regular possibility in your bag.

 

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   -  A Few sessions with 7 to 10 40cm Plus YFW in the bag

 

Tight Lines!

Cheers, Des

 

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Cheers Des.

A comment made by northern flats local was that because of commercial fishos hitting the YFW a lot harder in recent times, that they are getting more fussy as feeders because there is less pressure on their normal food sources and they are stuffed full. He feels they are way harder to get on lures than they were 10 years ago.

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@Soobz I have only been using lures for YFW for the last 5 years. So I can't make the 10 year comparison.

However I know the impact of the increased professional catch, having fished YFW with bait for 19 years.

It is clear the YFW stocks are in great decline due to increased professional fishing pressure. I have fished a variety of areas, they are all in decline.

On the lure front, I have been on an obsessive 5 year learning curve.

We need to be aware that fish do learn. And the same lures used repetitively in the same area will have diminishing returns.

I will put up another post on lures.

Meanwhile have a read here: https://activeanglingnz.com/2015/09/17/do-fish-learn-to-avoid-baits-lures/

Cheers, Des

 

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