DONKEYS on the DODGE TIDE

[Des 818]

Regular post readers will know I like to fish the dodge tides for Yellow Fin Whiting .

I cover a variety of reasons in detail, in this previous post:

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One very good reason, is that you will regularly find better quality fish on the dodge tide.

YFW movements and feeding are highly influenced by the tide. Revolving around the largest tide of the day, they tend to have a 24 hour digestive and feeding cycles.

So even when the tides do not move much on the dodge, they will still have a need to feed within their cycles. The larger YFW have greater food needs and will generally preference a bigger meal such as juvenile prawns or clickers.

With the small dodge tide their feeding will be concentrated to the smaller area, covered by little water flooding in. They will be easier to find.

The terrain/substrate that holds their preferred food will naturally attract a higher concentration of larger YFW.

That terrain you can feel under foot. The softer food holding substrate.

The small tide movement, along with a deeper low tide, holds water over these prime feeding grounds longer. It provides for prolonged access to this zone for both fish and fisher person.

A better explanation of productive terrain is in this post :

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The dodge tide on Monday with a High of 1.77 mt @ 8.15am  and a Low of 0.97 mt @ 11.36pm provided a long drawn out, run off tide. With a prolonged spell under water, of some prime food holding areas. It looked like an ideal tide and I set off fishing.

YFW are always stimulated by tide movement to feed. These tides do not provide much of that stimulus. However there are other factors that come into play.

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The day started slowly without a strike for the first hour. The warmth of the day gradually started to take effect and the first to stir were some small Whiting.

With the warming arvo came an arvo seabreeze, as well as a predicted strengthening southerly wind. YFW love a heavy rippled surface to take cover under and lose their feeding inhibitions. The bite picked up strongly and catches were now steady. In the constrictions of the upper gulfs any lower gulf southerly wind can force water up. A wind tide pushes in. It further stimulated the YFW and kept the feeding grounds covered with a perfect level of water for a wading fisherman.

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I caught my bag of 20 in good time. This situation regularly provides quality fish, with10 of the fish ranging from 38 to 41cm. Most of the remaining 10 fish were around 35cm.

Sugapen 95 was the most successful lure. Then again I did not need to use a lot of variety.

The new Sugapen Splash caught it’s share when the afternoon breeze picked up. This is shaping up as the perfect lure for that strong summer afternoon breeze that kicks up a bit of chop.

A few were also taken on the Ecogear ZX, when I was forced to go subsurface as a pack of persistent juvenile seagulls are yet to learn lures don’t taste good.

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Hopefully we have some more fine weather for the next dodge tide.

Tight lines all.

Cheers, Des

[Meppstas 4,964]

A great write up as always Des with plenty of helpful info attached to it. That's one very nice bag of fish too, well done..

cheers Adrian

[Softy 2,991]

Great info as usual! I'm sure you will have another ripper season.

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