Plectropomus

great write-up. Those big ones are true "crocs". Speaking of.....how log is the biggest bluespot you have seen reliably measured?
 

I've started chucking 1/28th's in 9m of water, when conditions allow me to get them down to where the sounder says the fish are.

The same plastic will remain untouched (Almost😀) on 1/4er's or 1/8th's - but a plastic that doesnt plummet, will get smashed on the drop by the unstoppables that make this technique a bit ridiculous on my current tiny jigheads.

Sure you can grub heavy heads along the bottom and get hits and land the smaller dumber fish. But on the 1/28th's you barely need any skill at all. Just spot the fish on the sounder and count to 40 as the 1/28th sinks - then hang on until you get smoked by the bigger fish😀

Here's a couple of photos of what has become a common catch here in Tasmania nowadays, not only that, they are big fish as well..
They now have a bag limit of 5 fish per person & a 10 fish possession (house) limit placed on them which is good, minimum legal size 35 cm.

are you selling some of those shiny metal jigs? 

Oversupply !!! at present. 
Winter is when the professionals catch the most tonnage. 
I had covered it in this post:  
 
 
Graphs of the monthly catch rates.

 

The weather has been poor so I haven't been fishing much. So what do you do when you're not fishing? Make stuff for fishing! I've been making some small assist hooks to replace the back trebles on lures. 

 
I bought some silicone lure skirts of Aliexpress to use for a bit of flash.

 
The cord is cheap 30lb braid. There is no need to use such strong braid, you could use a lot lighter. But I decided to use this braid, because the diameter is easier to handle and tie knots. I measure out 25cms which gives me long enough tag ends to easily tie each hook with a 5 turn snell knot. I tie one hook. then measure 6cm and mark the braid. Next I slide the second hook up to the 6cm mark and tie the hook on. When the knots are dressed and tightened, it gives me the length I want for the assist hooks, which is a tad longer than the pre-tied BKK Striker hooks I previously used. I decided to make them slightly longer after reading a post from Des who add extra split rings for length. I'll probably make some slightly shorter to replace the middle trebles like Des suggests. I've made some with split rings and some with snaps and I attach the hook lengths with a simple girth hitch. Then I thread the silicone flash through the split ring/snap, fold in half and tie off with a 5 turn uni knot using 210D flat waxed thread.



 
I used Owner 52084 fine wire split rings #0 and Decoy Round Snap #00. The hooks are Owner 5117-031 Mosquito Hook #8 and Shinto Octopus Beak #10, which are physically the same size. I prefer the Owner Mosquito Hooks, because they are very sticky (they cost $6 for 11 hooks). The Shinto hooks are still a good hook and and I picked them up for $9.60 for 24.

I don't know who stocks  Okuma spinning reels in Sth Aust Micky, but I found this reel to be a very reliable reel. It's not a large reel and it's light weight and very reliable,it's really not all that much bigger than a 1000 reel either.
cheers
Adrian
The Okuma Epixor XT range delivers award-winning quality, with a family of spin reels that combine all the right features to inspire complete confidence.
A solid, smooth feel and silky drag sees it suited to both lure and bait fishing, with a range of sizes to suit finesse through to medium inshore. Performance plus, stylish design, quality build and loaded with features, including 7BB+1RB stainless steel bearings.
TCA: Torsion Control Armor reduces twisting
Multi-disc, Japanese oiled felt drag washers
7BB+1RB stainless steel bearings
Quick-Set ant-reverse bearing
Precision machine cut brass pinion gear
Slow oscillation system for improved line lay
C-40X carbon body
CFR: Cyclonic Flow Rotor technology
Rigid metal handle design for strength
Machined aluminium, 2-tone anodised spool with LCS lip
Heavy duty solid aluminium bail wire
RESII: Computer balanced Rotor Equalizing System
Model
Gear Ratio
Weight
Max Drag
Mono Capacity - LBS/YDS
Capacity dia. mm/Metres
EPXT-20
5:0:1
208g
5kg
2/280, 4/140, 6/110
0.15/250, 0.20/140, 0.25/90
EPXT-30
5.0:1
249g
8kg
6/240, 8/200, 10/160
0.20/300, 0.25/200, 0.30/130
EPXT-40
5.0:1
304g
10kg
8/260, 10/220, 12/180
0.25/260, 0.30/180, 0.35/130
EPXT-55
5.0:1
311g
12kg
10/300, 12/220, 15/170
0.30/300, 0.35/220, 0.40/170

not sure how either of these will go but.....

These thin worms are a pain to rig - so I cut up some shrink tube to protect them from the thread - then lashed them on - with a dab of super glue on the securing knots

Just waiting to see if there is a reaction and the different plastic causes the "Zman Style" plastic to melt.

Also -  I was looking up Kayak nets and they are pretty exxy.  I can get a $10 replacement rubber net off ali expres - and I had the steel rod and pvc in the garage - just heated it up - and put a pencil in the middle of the wires and stepped on it - a bit of araldite will lock them in place - and bang - cheap net for little stuff.

Took 2 casts to pass the micro perch test. Then 2 more to pass it again.……..
 
on the down side the trebs don’t like rough treatment and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the brisk arse first sink on the pause. 
 
I haven’t used sinking bibbed minnows before. Is the arse first sink pretty standard?

just coloured in the t-track in with a grey lead pencil - then transferred it onto a bit of paper - to save me some mucking around when choosing fittings

beautiful picture> 

Last flick on the rock wall before heading back to Melbourne
 
 

This was  a great spin session on the trout in one of my favourite tannin streams.. Hope you enjoy it..
cheers
Adrian
 

New species on the wall tonight every thing I hooked had nasty dentures tonight

Yeah its the same style of implosion feeding - My observations may differ with others in different waters - but they will raid in very small packs but often is just single boofs. And in Melbourne its the smaller fish that make the most noise and disturbance.

Its almost as if the bigger fish have learnt not to boof - or at least they do it much more rarely than the little ones that boof like mad and are messy feeders.
 
When Im catching larger perch in Melbourne, I often wont hear a boof at all - they tend to leave swirls with no audible boof. But this is when they are surface feeding with 3m of water under them.

Ive watched jewies be extremely cautious while approaching bait schools in deep water - never increasing speed from a slow crawl - thats before the hit and after - they just "cough" and continue at the same pace. I assumed they do that so the bait school doesnt disperse or get unnecessarily spooked. There are kind of like "Pick Pockets" as opposed to "Armed smash and grab robbers" -

So much so that I used to think my livies were getting hit by squid - The slow and gradual loading of the rod tip was confusing because Jewies dont hit like that elsewhere. The rod tip would just slowly arc over and then they would spit the bait. Took actually seeing them feed to work out it was just slow-mo Jewies who were trying to be stealthy and not disturb the huge baits schools also in the area

I wonder if the larger perch I target have adopted a more subtle feeding style aswell.


But down here on the coast - there seems to be some very aggressive feeding - I found a strip of bait stacked against another shallow bay last night and the Perch and bream were making as much noise as they could while hunting - savage slashes and boofs - in this scenario - keeping the bait frightened and exhausted while pushed against the dry sand probably works in their favour.

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 
I was thinking "shark? ....down there?", but it looks like Sammy the Seal. I really like oily fish, and well remember having some marvellous battered 'coutta and chips down at Queenscliff (?) in Victoria. Yet most folk seem to loathe them as wormy line-cutters. 
Sounds like a great fishing location!

The trumpeters were a pest at times when whiting fishing too, good live bait for Mulloway as well, I used them many times in and around the Port River years ago, they're a tough little fish..

I’m down in Warrnambool for a bit so I’ve been bouncing around like a blue arsed fly, trying to find after work spots worth hitting twice. 
 
found one last night. A little bay jam packed with 2 inch bait. Little eps and bream were whacking them in the darkness at low tide. Hopefully their bigger bros show up when the water isn’t ankle deep

When the big old town bridge trout ignore every lure in your kit. Time to change plans and hit the estuary 

TERRAIN:  HIGHWAYS TO THE FEEDING ZONES  …  You can sign along to this post !
Yellow Fin Whiting have been showing up in good numbers in both gulfs recently.
But you still need to find them, and fish the right spots … at the right stage in the tide.
YFW are always on the move. Actively feeding on a moving tide. Both in and out going tides.
But there are dead transit zones, over which they will pass through without providing you much of a chance to catch them. These are merely the … Highways to the Feeding zones.
The feeding zones is where you want to be fishing.
In each YFW Habitat there are transit zones and feeding zones.
In the upper gulfs the coastal environment contains a lot more mangroves and samphire beds. Nearest to shore and onshore are the Salt bushes and Samphire bed areas.
On many stretches of the upper gulfs they will also be a mangrove forrest wall.
Through these mangrove forrest flow many small tidal creeks and channels, that pour in and out onto Sandflats. The Sandflats drain out, eventually meeting the ribbon grass weed beds.
In the lower gulfs, the terrain is slightly different without Mangroves and less Samphire.
They are replaced by open sandflats, sometimes with a little scattered reef, and banks of fine seagrass weed beds, that drain out to a weedline of ribbon grass.
Each area has it’s own characteristics and features, which influence the movements and feeding behaviour of the YFW. The all have their transit zones and their feeding zones.
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WEED LINES.
We start at the deep end, the weedline. This is the first of the habitats in which we find YFW.
The deeper seaside of the sand flats are always bordered by the weed line of sea grass beds. These are usually Ribbon weed or tape weed beds (Posidonia varieties). Often this will be where the bottom of the low tides hold. And were the YFW take refuge on the low tides.
In the lower sections of the gulfs, their cousins the King George Whiting also keep them company at the weed line. Along with many a Flathead too.
The best spots for land based KGW are the weedline areas that receives a natural berley stream from  sandy shallow drains, running off the sand flats.
This habitat is also a favourite for Flathead, which take cover in the weed edges and like to ambush baitfish straying too close.
You will find the larger YFW hanging around here, mixing it with the Flathead and KGW. Large YFW have the speed and morphology to take minnows at the weedline. They are able to chase them down along with any Shrimp that may have come out of the sheltering grasses.
The barrier like structure of the weed beds will mean there is always some channeling through the weed beds, caused by the tidal flows. These channels are the main flow areas during tidal movements, on and off the sandflats.
Focus your fishing at these channel openings, both at the bottom and at the start of the tide.
And in a dodge tide, it is the only place to be. The minimal water flows of a dodge tide will be greatest at these channels, and so stimulate the YFW to feed in that area.

~ King George Whiting, Yellow Fin Whiting and Flathead all found down on the weedline.

~ Find the water flow and fish at the channel openings
SANDFLATS
Sandflats … are never Flat !!!
Sand flats don’t always slope seawards in a continuous gentle gradient. They is more often a series of ridges, gutters, bowls, channels and steps leading down to the weedline.
These are not necessarily dramatically obvious. A 4” to 5 inch depth difference is a significant change in these shallow sandflats.
These structures and variations in the sandflat terrain are the most obvious fish holding areas. The slightly deeper areas of the shallows, are the first areas that YFW will retreat into on a dropping tide, or swim into and hold in, on the incoming tide.
Fish always hold at steps and drops on the sandflats, wether it be the run in or run off.
They prefer to feed on the shallow edges of any deeper water areas rather than in the deep water itself.
If in a fast flowing channel focus on the slow side of a bend in the channel. It is where food would naturally settle and fish will feed. It is where the benthic organisms colonise more with out fear of being swept out by a fast moving tide.
Shallow weed beds of finer bladed, lawn like, seagrasses ( Zostera varieties) are often found on the more open flats lower in the gulfs. They are important for the movements of YFW during the tidal flows. In very shallow water YFW will tend to favour moving along the weed bed edges and take cover in the weed beds. It is an ideal spot to target them in ankle deep water. The water is always a bit deeper alongside the edges of these fine grass weed beds.
Should the wind be a bit strong, YFW will hold on the Leeward side of these beds a bit more. And on light winds with gentle lapping waves, the windward side of these weed beds.

~ The small variations on the sandflats hold the fish
SUBSTRATE on SANDFLATS
Regardless of upper or lower gulf areas, you should identify the substrate that you are fishing on.
As a wading fisherman you can feel and identify the different substrate underfoot.
It is simply either, coarse, gravelly and hard, or soft, silty, and sandy.
I usually move on quickly from the coarser, gravelly areas and onto the finer, siltier, sandy areas.
Coarse gravelly limestone or shell grit areas are not as productive. They do not hold the YFW food so don’t hold the YFW long. It often is a faster flowing area and a transit zone for fish.
You will still catch the odd few YFW as they use it as a highway to the feeding zones. But they won’t hold and feed there.
The feeding zones are characterised by finer, softer, siltier sand beds. Which holds a lot more YFW food. This is where all the benthic dwelling creatures, like cockles, worms and clickers live. All the juvenile prawns that we see leaping around on the surface at night as nocturnals, now bury themselves for the day in the soft sand and silt.
YFW linger a lot longer in these softer sandy areas searching for and feeding on the food it holds.
MANGROVES
Bordering the sandflats on the shoreside in the upper gulfs are often mangrove forests. Amongst the mangrove forest there are clear water ways that channel the considerable tidal movement experienced in the upper gulfs. The tides flow through tidal creeks and mangrove openings and into the samphire beds, or out onto the sandflats. These mangrove openings will hold a greater concentration of fish when the tide is moving.
At times the thick growth and dense mangrove canopy can totally conceal an opening. There are however some tell tale signs of a concealed creek or channel. Ever wondered about those Shags, that regularly congregate on certain mangrove trees overlooking the sand flats. It’s the Shag breakfast club. The shags are there because there is food flowing out there. Minnows, Shrimp and Prawns are being brought out on the falling tide through a creek concealed by the mangrove canopy. The larger YFW are not threatened by the Shags and will also hang out the front of these spots.

~  Mangrove Openings have high flow rates and hold fish
SAMPHIRE BEDS
Once past the mangroves there are obvious narrow channels through the samphire beds. These are invariably gravelly rarely holding benthic species. But they will hold and concentrate YFW passing through that can’t help but see your offering. The YFW like to move up into the muddier samphire bed areas primarily to feed on Haswells crabs and small mud cockles. This is a highway on which you can actually take a toll.
Great spots are Junctions, like one I nicknamed “Gepps X”. It does bring to together a concentration of fish. Even if only a relatively short time at the right time of tide. You can even catch YFW by hand at night in these narrow and restricted spaces.
Google satellite images are the most useful tool you have to help you find the spots and plan your strategy for the incoming and outgoing tide.

~  Fish move into the channels of the Samphire beds
OPPORTUNISTS
This has nothing to do with the terrain. Try casting lures around feeding Eagle Rays on the sandflats.
The YFW often hang around feeding Rays hoping to pounce on food that the Ray has dislodged.
They are in a switched on and opportunistic feeding mode, ready to pounce.
Just offer them your lure instead! This has worked well on a few occasion.
And in the better years now past, when the YFW biomass was not that badly decimated by the pro netting activities, they would also hang around swimmers on metro beaches, in the hope of some dislodged food.
.
 
 
~   A nice Catch wading for YFW
As keen Hunters and Gathers, we always need to stay alert to and aware of all the features in the fish’s habitats and how they will effect our catch rate.
Tight lines all.
Cheers, Des

A lot of tools you swing have a fat bit at the end - so do my rods 
I originally used fat bits of cork because my guts would get bruised during Jewie season. (I used to fish for them regularly with heavy live bait gear)
Jabbing the rod butt into your guts on the strike and holding it there during the fight can leave a mark with skinny,/poorly shaped or metal butt caps. 
 
I always fish around structure so you have to hit them hard and fight them hard when using heavy-ish bait gear. In one spot I have to strike, then run 30m up the bank, to change the line angle, so I had a chance at getting them out. It was a clumsy affair with lots of adrenaline based gut jabbing. So by the end of the season it was hard to find a spot that isn’t bruised, to rest the rod on. 
 
that’s when I started thinking about comfortable butt caps
The added bonus I hadn’t considered was the ergonomics of having a fatter butt while casting. My rods had slight tapers before I shortened them. But making the butt fatter means you don’t grip as hard. 
 
it not a huge deal but it is noticeable- and it was a pleasant surprise the first time I used one - even my bream rods have them now
 

The new elasticated leader spool maintenance system made from a sushi soy sauce bottle lid
 

 

I have just enjoyed a couple of golden bag out Lure sessions on the “GOLDBARS”.
Two successive days with bag limits of quality fish in the 32 to 41cm range
This time mostly caught on the incoming afternoon tides.




My usual fishing sessions, most often involve some of both the outgoing and the incoming tides.
It is interesting to ponder on, which tide has the best fishing.
There has always been many a discussion amongst Yellow Fin Whiting fisher people as to which tide  is better to fish. The incoming tide or the outgoing.
My view is that varies. Generally it changes with the peak tide cycles, prevailing at that the time of year.
.
Yellow Fin Whiting’s lives revolve around the tides. Especially across the sandflat habitats.
The tides are what provides them access to their feeding grounds or wash out food to them.
So it is no surprise that their feeding behaviour and movements change and mirror the tide cycles.
They do most of their feeding on the biggest tide of the day.
They probably have evolved a 24 hour digestive cycle to match and so have developed a 24 hour hunger/feeding cycle. Hence they soon form a feeding routine that coincides with the biggest tides of the day.
.
Follow the Tide height cycle. By around the end of February the evening tides start to get bigger than the morning tides. This is when I find the YFW feeding behaviour starts to switch from AM to PM.
In the earlier part of the Yellow Fin Whiting lure season, from early October to February, I prefer fishing the bigger run off morning tides. From March onwards I prefer the bigger incoming evening tides.
However I am selective of the tide sizes I choose to fish! They are different tide heights that work better for the outgoing and incoming tides.
The big morning tides of early season, see a lot of YFW move into a wide area of samphire beds and sandflats. The bigger the tides the more fish that move in.
So early season I like to fish the runoff of the biggest morning tides and have a chance of catching the most fish as they beat a path back to deeper water in the outgoing tide.
When it comes to the evening incoming tides late season, it is the opposite. I don’t want to go chasing fish far and wide, spread out by a big incoming tide.
I pick the smallest evening tides to fish. When the fish will be concentrated in a small area. When the competition to feed in a restricted space heats up.
There are exceptions to the rule … but that is a story for another day.
.
There is a slight shift in the availability of food and subsequently successful lure choices with these two tidal situation.
The early season big morning tides, which usually happen before dawn, provide access to a lot of juvenile prawns and Haswell mud carbs. Surface lures are highly successful during this period.
In the smaller evening tides, surface lures also take their share of fish, but subsurface lures are more successful. Especially on the smaller evening tides when the fish are restricted to the more inshore sandflats holding Clickers. So it is reasonable that a subsurface lure bouncing and puffing up the sand along the bottom is likely to be more successful.
.
My go to favourite lures did the trick on these two Golden Sessions. The Bassday Sugapen 95 on the surface, earlier in the run off. Then most fish taken with the Ecogear ZX 43 in the run in, bouncing along the bottom.
There was a new kid on the block this time. It was my first use of the Chasebaits Armour Prawn Vibe 50mm. I had accidentally ordered the wrong colour. I thought I had ordered orange, the go to colour for YFW. But nonetheless it took a nice whiting in the limited time in the water on both sessions. I have yet to figure out the best tow point, the assist hooks to rig, or the best action for these. They look very promising as a sub surface whiting lure and I am keen to try them some more.

 
The Ecogear ZX is a good all rounder and able to attract a variety of fish. Flathead regularly fall victim to this lure. They are a delightful by catch and provide a great fight in very shallow water on your ultra light whiting gear. I managed to land a nice 51cm Flathead in my second session.  I missed a couple on the first day, mainly due to too fast a retrieval speed that I was using to attract YFW.

 ...    It pays to have a few spares when they swallow the whole lure !
 
One of the great pleasures of fishing is getting connected with nature. Becoming in-tuned with the varying seasons. Observing the changes in the habitats and the changes in your target fish’s behaviour.
I find it perfectly summarised in this quote from the famous Canadian, Author, Naturalist and Outdoorsman   … Roderick Haig Brown
"Invoke a mental and physical discipline that goes beyond making a successful catch or kill. Its central virtue is knowledge, intimate and thorough, transcending the pursuit”
Tight lines all.
Cheers, Des

The usual array of shallow water species are seen. A lot of Garfish, many skipping Juvenile prawns on the surface. Quite a number of Squid on occasions come in very shallow.
But they also can in the daytime as well when the will take a Sugapen ! 
Depending on the area, Flounder and Flathead.
And on some lucky nights, the awesome sight of Mulloway herding mullet into the shallows and smashing the panicking school. Creating bedlam and a great commotion. Never been able to hook one on these occasions. I usually ill equipped for them. But have had them hooked in the quieter nights on YFW gear!