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Des

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  1. Like
    Des got a reaction from wishing2Bfishing in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  2. Like
    Des got a reaction from Moggy23 in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  3. Like
    Des got a reaction from Kaotik_Monkey in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  4. Like
    Des got a reaction from Kayak Noob in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  5. Like
    Des got a reaction from Allroy in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  6. Like
    Des got a reaction from Crusher in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  7. Like
    Des got a reaction from vxman29 in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
  8. Like
    Des got a reaction from piratepom in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  9. Like
    Des got a reaction from Savagelip in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
  10. Like
    Des got a reaction from rotare in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  11. Like
    Des got a reaction from Tinker in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
  12. Like
    Des got a reaction from Damo67 in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  13. Like
    Des got a reaction from Savagelip in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  14. Like
    Des got a reaction from rsk in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  15. Like
    Des got a reaction from ShimsMan in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  16. Like
    Des got a reaction from archerfish in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  17. Like
    Des got a reaction from Squid Flaps in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  18. Like
    Des got a reaction from vxman29 in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  19. Like
    Des got a reaction from Rat in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  20. Like
    Des got a reaction from Ale in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  21. Like
    Des got a reaction from 4THALOVE in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  22. Like
    Des got a reaction from keenfisho in Sight Fishing YFW 28/08   
    What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des
  23. Like
    Des got a reaction from King prawn in Winter Yellow Fin Whiting Log   
  24. Like
    Des got a reaction from Crusher in Winter Yellow Fin Whiting Log   
  25. Like
    Des got a reaction from brownie in Winter Yellow Fin Whiting Log   
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