Who fishes?

[Cold-B-Hearts]

Hey guys
as some of you know I'm 16, next week I'm going camping at south straddy with a few mates. We're staying at currigee. I don't have my boating lisence and don't have access to a boat. I know fishing isn't to bad strait off the beach. (Calm side) I was wondering if 1. anyone has caught anything decent of the surf side?
2. Any good places to use my drag net (any weed beds wouldn't mind getting my hands on some gar fish)
3. Iv never caught a fish on a soft plastic before what set up would you guys suggest? I'm thinking a paddle tail popping across the bottom in hope of some flat head.
Cheers Liam
feel free to post pics of some of your catches

 

[saintanger]

try the pumkin seed soft plastic lure, it works great on a huge range of fish. i have caught flathead on it before.

 

[Umbral]

A nice light weight flexible rod and a soft plastic is always fun

 

[Cold-B-Hearts]

Will this work might head to bcf tonight

 

[daveandem2011]

2. Any good places to use my drag net (any weed beds wouldn't mind getting my hands on some gar fish)
Hi mate, hope you have a licence for your drag net cause otherwise if your caught the fine would be huge. As for the fishing a nice running sinker too a long shank hook will do the trick, and there is plenty of pippies to be found on the beach works a treat

 

[Shotta]

squidgies work wonders on light line espeacially fireline unless you're fishing next to oyster leashes, also kokoda flick prawns are awesome for bream an flathead
the best ones are silverfox, gary glitter, and storm shad are the bomb espeacially the silver ones with the red sorta face and you cant go past the regular twin tail grub or single tail pink and green are great colours

 

[fourexes]

being 16 is no excuse for not having a licence either :lol: pretty sure I got mine at 14-15, it's just a junior licence. now your 16 you can get a full licence. or you can hire most boats and not need one or you can get a small tinny with a small motor and not have a licence. There are a few options out there for you.

my advice would be to leave the net at home. you won't find too many conservation minded fisherman fond of them.

I find the plastics don't agree with me because I'm a lazy fisherman, my idea of fishing is a six pack and a wet reel. Any feed is a bonus lol.

most importantly have a great time mate.

 

[Chanzey]

16 you can get your boat license, or no license needed if under 6hp. Also you can drive a boat without a license as long as a licensed person is on board... and not drunk

 

[Cold-B-Hearts]

Yeah use to have a boat but had to sell it last year. (Convenient) now I'm old enough for my boat and jetski liscence the boats gone -_-. Yeah might leave the net at home, not sure if we use to have a liscence for the drag net or not it's only small maybe 15M use to use it at north staddy on the weed beds and pick up gar. Looked on YouTube and practiced throwing our cast net in the back yard and getting preety decent at that now so bait is on!!
To excited for the weekend. Being with mates I'm guessing we will spend a day with a live baitfish on the surf side. Anyone had any success catching sharks off the surf side? A few years back on the exact same camp spot I caught a baby hammer head (calm side) makes me think if there's a babie there must be a mummah

post some pics of your catches guys!

 

[Shotta]

lol heres the only vid of me catchin a blind shark a while ago..it bit through the line an fell inbetween some rocks,took me almost an hour to fish it out mate didn edit out the talkin...:/
[video=youtube;7hKwbpIfnrg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hKwbpIfnrg[/video]

 

[dangles]

camped up there years ago, bream tailor and flatties of the surf side.

If you have never used a baitcaster before they can be a bitch. In that pic you posted it uses a wire trace to the plastic, that will destroy the action of the lure and fish will see it. I normally use 20lb mainline and vary leader size depending on species im targeting. In surf normally around 10lb leader. Have a look at low tide to see where the gutters and holes are and come back when the tide is up and fish these areas.

Keep your food secured, we had a monitor come through and help himself to a bit of our food when we were fishing

 

[Snake-Supplies]

I fishes

 

[Cold-B-Hearts]

Been using my bait caster for years so no a problem there okay scrap the wire trace, I picked up q few packs of softs, pumpkin seed, a fat grub type and a paddle tail. Would anyway have a idea if you catch as much or more using soft plastics as baits?

 

[dangles]

when i am on my own i normally soak a bait but work a plastic the whole time. Nearly every fish ive caught on plastics/hardbodies has been legal or close to it. Using bait always seem to be picked off or hooking small fish. Check out a few vids on youtube on different retrieves that can be used on paddle tails and grubs. Make sure the plastic is straight on the jighead to get the proper action as well

 

[Venomous1111]

It all depends on what you plan on targeting mate..

Flattys are a good starting species when starting to use sp's as they will basically eat anything you put in front of them. Flurocarbon leaders between 10-16lb as there's plenty of big females up in the shallow spawning at this time of year and they have pretty raspy teeth and with make short work of light leaders depending on how there hooked.. Jigheads anything from a 1/12 to a 1/4 on a 3/0 hook depending on the depths your fishing..When I'm targeting them I won't flick anything smaller then 4inch and anything up to 7inch, a few of my go to sp's for big flattys are any of the nuclear chicken,red root beer, sapphire shine jerk shads (5inch) squidgie pro fish poddy colour and the old faithful bloodworm wriggler.. two hops and let the sp hit the bottom and then take up the slack line and repeat ( if your not hitting the bottom your not in the game particuly with flatties as there an ambush species)
If you have some half decent beach gear grab a couple bags of salted pillies and mullet fillets and a few metal lures for spinning of the beach (20gm-80gm depending on your gear) and you could be in with a chance to get jew,tailor and a bronzie or ten..

If you need any more help give me a pm and I'm more then happy to help you out mate.

edit.. here's a couple of the sharks I've caught that are on my lappy, the only sharks I will go out of my way to target are mako's but do get a few as bi-catch..

If your targeting sharks look up a running surf rig and run metal trace and try spin up a tailor with a metal lure or on some pillies and throw it out on anything from a 8/0 to 12/0 J hook, cast it out on dusk and you shouldn't have to wait to long before you get a hit. Gooduck.

 

[bally]

Ditch the wire trace mate unless you're targeting big tailor etc. You will lose the life like ability of your plastics. I usually fish the calm side with my 1-3kg rod running 4lb fireline with a 12lb mono leader. Thats when im using SP's. A little heavier gear when I am using bait (usually pillies or squid) or am getting hammered by larger fish. The surf side I use a 12ft surf road running 14lb line with 20ishlb leader or wire trace (depending on whats biting) into a set of gangs. I catch the usual tailor, bream, dart, whiting, jewie and the odd shark (which are great fun on the light gear) on the surf side. On the inside usually just flatties, whiting, bream, tailor and trevally.

I do the same as Venomous1111 when it comes to jigging technique and use simular plastics/metals.

Need any help bud send me a pm

Cheers Nick

 

[Cold-B-Hearts]

Wow guys thanks for the help okay this may sound like a stupid question but what's the difference between a trace and leader?
I havnt done to much surf fishing but once I caught a nice 1m shovel nose on bribies surf side. Was great fun I brought some grub sp's the biggest I could find with a large jig head would it be worth putting a wire trace on the larger plastics I think all I will be doing in chucking it out in the surf and bouncing it back across the bottom

cheers Liam

 

[Anunnaki]

A trace is used for bait fishing to stop fish biting through monofilament line. A leader is a length of monofilament which is tied to braided line

 

[Venomous1111]

Wow guys thanks for the help okay this may sound like a stupid question but what's the difference between a trace and leader?
I havnt done to much surf fishing but once I caught a nice 1m shovel nose on bribies surf side. Was great fun I brought some grub sp's the biggest I could find with a large jig head would it be worth putting a wire trace on the larger plastics I think all I will be doing in chucking it out in the surf and bouncing it back across the bottom

cheers Liam

You can get all sorts of traces/leaders mate they're basically have the same purpose just a different name..
What setups are you taking with you? if you want to use sp's efficiently you really want a setup dedicated to it, a 2-4kg graphite rod matched with a little shimano 2500 or a diawa 2000 spooled with braid (sunline super pe 10lb is a good starting braid as is pretty supple and fairly cheap) also grab some furocarbon leader material around 12lb is a good starter it comes in 55m spools and are basically invisible under water, the only thing you'll have to learn is your braid to leader joining knot ( double uni, quick and easy)..
Also to make things a bit easier for ya grab some pre rigged sp's in different sizes
Squidgies - SQUIDGY PRO MONGREL
If your chasing toothie shark species you want pre rigged metal traces 100lb plus rating and some 8/0 plus hooks depending on the size of your baits and a surf board or kayak to paddle your baits out..
Don't use wire trace with SP's you won't be able to work them efficiently and the fish will see the metal trace from a mile away.. Grab some flurocarbon leader and a reel spooled with braid as braid has no stretch unlike mono and you'll be able to detect bites and work the lure efficiently.. Best bet for you is to go talk to the bloke at your local tackle shop and tell him what your plan of attack is and he will walk you through what you need and how it's done mate. Hope that helps.

Check these out they will give you a few tips..
Soft Plastic Lure Tips - Chapter 1 - YouTube
How to Series 2 - Soft plastic retrieves - YouTube
Retrieve & Fishing Technique - YouTube
How to - Beach Fishing - YouTube
How to: Read a beach - YouTube

 

[Cold-B-Hearts]

thanks venomous
im not to sure what rods to take, im thinking my baitcaster then my eggbeater surf rod. the baitcaster has fireline (i think thats what its called) its kinda old and looks like its starting to fray, dose this happen to anyone else?
sharkwise im not after anything to massive as iv only caught a few small sharks id like to target 5ft or smaller.

this was me a fair few years ago with a nice stingy

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try the pumkin seed soft plastic lure, it works great on a huge range of fish. i have caught flathead on it before.

picked some of these up they better work :twisted: only joking if they dont its my fault heheh

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squidgies work wonders on light line espeacially fireline unless you're fishing next to oyster leashes, also kokoda flick prawns are awesome for bream an flathead
the best ones are silverfox, gary glitter, and storm shad are the bomb espeacially the silver ones with the red sorta face and you cant go past the regular twin tail grub or single tail pink and green are great colours

i have some old fake prawns im pretty sure they where fairly good a few years back they are called prawn star, has technology come a long way since then?