ashleycraig80

I did want to fish on Sunday. I had a plan! But the forecast was for a big blow coming through on Sunday. Forecasted to bring with it some hail & thunder in case just strong winds don't put you off your fishing. Hey and lighting too, which makes me scurry. Me the highest object protruding skywards on the sandflats, complete with a graphite super conductor in my hands and feet immersed in water. And golfers thought it was dangerous! So the obvious change of plan saw me go fishing today (Saturday). My plan was to fish the bottom of the tide. Yes! Chasing goldbars at the bottom of the tide. Sundays low tide was a fairly high for a low tide!!! at 1.09mt. You see you can do rather well on the Yellow Fin whiting around the dodge tide. It is then that water sits on some prime feeding ground for extended periods. And no big run in tide to disperse the fish far and wide. Fish are all compliant and concentrated on the feeding ground waiting for you to hook them! (My theories!)I have previously fished this spot, with soft sand full of nipper holes, on a few occasions. I always picked up some good fish there at the bottom of the tide. So the idea was to find an extended period for the "bottom of the tide" Which would be around a dodge. Well Saturday proved to be the next best thing with a 0.85mt low tide.Yes the plan worked! Caught my bag of 20. Sizes are 30 - 40cm. I only released one fish under 30cmThey took some angling. At the bottom of the tide these fish are not voraciously feeding. They are grazing. A nibble here, a peck there, a sniff here and a poke there. They are trying to sniff & poke out a nipper or two on this patch. When the tide is running they tend to grab most worm baits going past. So today they had to be enticed into a bite. I started with a very light single hook rig with a small ball (00) slipped down the trace to the long shank hook. It was not long before I was missing a lot of bites. The fish were biting tentatively and the size 4 Gamakatsu was not connecting up as usual. I went down to a #6 with better results. The tide is not moving your bait or bringing the fish to you. You need to cast and retrieve with a slow steady constant retrieve. You need to attract the fish's attention by moving your bait and you need to cover a lot of ground to find the fish. Retrieve & recast in another direction/area. Pretty soon you will feel the tap, tap, tap, of a tentative YFW bite. Or rather an inquiry. No not their normal THWACK! when the tide is running. To convert a tap into a tug or bite bait placement on the hook is important. Always have a tail of worm of your hook. YFW do not 'Bite" they suck. And they can suck aggressively. Now some role playing. How can you suck in a strand of spaghetti if all you can mouth is the bottom of the spoon. Have a bit dangling of the end so that you can latch onto it and you will suck the lot off the spoon. Like wise allow the YFW to have a suck of the tail to draw the hook into it's mouth. I use a whole worm on a hook and feed it down to create more tail as it is bitten off.The bigger fish are attracted to these feeding spots in these conditions. I lost a few good fish today. Mainly pulled hooks as they are biting tentatively and are mainly lip hooked. An occasional bust off. Big YFW are incredibly powerful fish for their size. In very shallow water they can easily bust a weak trace that does not have any give in it. I did manage a couple at the 40cm "Goldbar Standard"I will be back for those biguns! possibly with some trout hooks and an altered rig. Just to make sure they get swallowed and properly hooked!Cheers, Des

Depends on $$$ you want to spend and how often you are wanting to go sp fishing. The more you spend the more you need to justify using the reel and the better you need to keep your reel, washing it everytime you use it.For me $0-50 i would go a shimano sienna or cazna, both nice little reels i have both and both are almost identical in performance and specs.$50-100 shimano sedona - i have two of these reels and they are great, 7kg of drag in a 2500 reel is practically a snapper reel.$100-150 - Shimano symetre - as Damo said, this is probably the best value for money reel, ultra smooth reel. I have a 2500 size which i use for kg whiting and rugger snapper,$150-200 - Shimano Saros - good snapper reelMore then $200 you get into the good stuff, stradic fj, stradic ci4+, Sustain,,,,,Yes i am a shimano fan, but i also have a few daiwa reels, Aird, Opus Bull, catalina.My pick..... sedona or symetre

Depends on $$$ you want to spend and how often you are wanting to go sp fishing. The more you spend the more you need to justify using the reel and the better you need to keep your reel, washing it everytime you use it.For me $0-50 i would go a shimano sienna or cazna, both nice little reels i have both and both are almost identical in performance and specs.$50-100 shimano sedona - i have two of these reels and they are great, 7kg of drag in a 2500 reel is practically a snapper reel.$100-150 - Shimano symetre - as Damo said, this is probably the best value for money reel, ultra smooth reel. I have a 2500 size which i use for kg whiting and rugger snapper,$150-200 - Shimano Saros - good snapper reelMore then $200 you get into the good stuff, stradic fj, stradic ci4+, Sustain,,,,,Yes i am a shimano fan, but i also have a few daiwa reels, Aird, Opus Bull, catalina.My pick..... sedona or symetre

SA Fishing Adventures at MARION BAY with Herbie, Wayne and the boys. Tuna is Spring/summer, Sampson and kingfish in Autumn/Winter. With big nannygai/snapper/sweep available all year round. Costs range from $240 per day up to $320 for half day on tuna half on bottom bouncing. Gone three times, each time bagged out

Hit up the master "DEL" he is the Yellowfin whiting whisperer. The YFW head to warmer waters in the winter. They are always available Port Gawler and further north. Live tubeworms, live clickers and bloodworms are best baits. Lighter line the better, flurocarbon leaders and lightest sinkers you can get away with. Prepare to wade and walk a bit if you are hitting the sand flats up north. The schools will be small when the weather is at its coldest. The warmer the weather the bigger the school.

Here is my youtube vid I made.

TUNA!!!!!upload pics

Question if they do catch a shark to a baited drum and it dies from struggling. Won't the decaying carcass of a large animal attract more and even bigger sharks?? Just saying... morons.Of course its the Jetty fisherman who is to blame for the sharks being around, with his one hook in the ocean according to the state government. :c Leave the shark in his domain. Exercise caution when swimming and surfing.

Braid for most applications except for reefy bottoms where the braid can get wear and tear marks and weaken the raid. Braid has been my best move i've made since giving away the cheap jarvis walker outfits for proper shimano gear.Expensive i know to buy but its worth it, you wont be spooling up every year with new line. You might have to brush up on your knotts as you will need to put a backing of mono down on the spool first (unless you want to spend $30+ on 300m of braid, better getting 150m and making up the rest with backed mono). Any get some flurocarbon for a leader. You can use mono for some applications, but fluro works well for me.

Any fishing show that focuses on "real" fishing, not just catching marlin. The majority of us fishers will never have the opportunity to catch a marlin so stop focusing on rubbish fishing and get back to the grass roots - whiting, salmon, mulloway, bream, etc. Also anything that is land based also gets the thumbs up, rock, beach fishing, etc.