Observed behaviour, plastics and bait

[Burley_Boy]

Went to the GC Seaway this morning for a snorkel at high tide. Amazing variety of aquarium and reef fish as well as large schools of Luderick and good sized bream among the large schools of fish.

I brought a 4inch berkley shad in black and white to jig around and observe. What I found was that as soon as it dropped into the water the small pickers would dart over to it so I figure they are attracted to some of its behaviour even if the shad is bigger than them.
The larger fish would come over to see what all the commotion was about and then sharply turn away as they got within a foot or two. The small parrot fish were highly aggressive and would snip at the plastic all the time but once they got a nip of it they would dart off. The interesting behaviour was the larger fish and why they are turned away. I tried all types of behaviour and would find the fish interest highest on the drop. Drop and they attacked. I tried this for about 40 minutes with no big fish being even close to a hit.

Decided to try it again with bait so we bought some squid. By this time the current was really kicking in and the visibility was dropping dramatically. We ran a very light sinker and dropped a squid in at the edge of the wall. The small pickers would hit the bait immediately and relentlessly thus not allowing the bait to sink. The large fish that were so prolific earlier were now nowhere to be seen though the vis had probably dropped from 15M to 5M.
All the people on the wall with baits soaking would either have no bait left or be fishing with stuff that no fish wants, there was no way you would be soaking a bait for 10mins without loosing it, though I left feeling that the largest chance of a result would have to be a big bait that would last till the bigger fellas gained interest or a live bait. Both fished on the slack of the tides.

That was my perception of the GC Seaway in any case and I'd be intersted in other peoples observations in both this area and others.
The tackle shop said that the fish in the Seaway were very cautious and not keen on the plastic but I'd have a ball at the Pin with the same gear.

BB

[fishingnottake]

cheers mate

[kevin1987316]

so it seems that plastics are just no use. i have been doubting the product since i lost my first game to bait users. actually, i would rather use hard bodies as they look nice.
and i find small tide fish always break my lines and pastics, oh, so many times i feel nothing on the tip of the rod just because my hooks's already gone before i pull the line. terrible, what's that fish?
totally loosing my faith after a whole day in Shorncliffe jetty ever highest tide, is it that it is just impossible to catch something on that jetty? ( my only bream about 15cm is the only caught on the jetty apart from the tide fish and an escaped shark).who can tell me where i can secure a nice day?

[devocean]

There is nothing like watching fish attack a bait underwater. I ave watched big trout and sweetlip hit baits undertwaer and it is unreal.

[Burley_Boy]

I wouldn't say that plastics are no good, I suspect that fish learn fast.
The Seaway is heavily targeted and if you're big you've learnt. Then again the big guys eat too so you just have to trick them. Find a place less targeted and it would be interesting to watch. The plastic certainly seemed to attract attention faster than a bit of real bait dropped the trick is to complete the action to a hit.
I wonder if a worm plastic would have caused a strike from the big fella. It was certainly a visual turnoff for them as far as I could tell but it got the initial attention.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

BB,
Had a similar experience with hard bodies a couple of years back catching EP's and bream. We would often see a fish race out of cover when the lure hit the water, only to shy away when it got within a foot or so of the lure. But a slight twitch as it was swimming back to cover normally had the fish turning around and rushing back to check out the lure again. It may then shy away again but at about 6inches from the lure; another twitch and it would often come back and smash it, or hover near it waiting for the 4th twitch and then bang!

Reckon it's a bit like someone waving a cold beer under your nose at 10am. First you say no, maybe a bit later. Then you watch every movement of your mates second beer as he drinks it, then BAM you're into the esky and hooked.
;) ;D

If you get another go at it, try giving the SP a twitch just after the bigger fish shy away, reckon they will eventually get to the point that they can't say no.

Cheers
Jeff

[Braddles]

ON the note of soft Plastics V's fresh bait - I did a little experiment myself on the Gold Coast just 48hrs ago (Sunday 30th) at Budds Beach, fishing from the bank.

I have caught nice whiting, bream. flat head and even a shark here in the last few months.

We started fishing an hour before bottom tide and packed up about two hours on the run in when a storm hit. The wind was negligable.

I was using a SP - a worm of pumpkin seed colour (browny orange with black speckles) with all the moves and pauses on retrieve and my brother was using mullet flesh from poddys I had cast netted from the shore.

First five mins, he landed a 27cm bream on bait - me not a touch using SP

Another 10 mins and bang - he was on again, this time bream 32cm

I thought maybe it was the variance between my worm SP and his strip flesh bait - so he baited up with a frozen dud looking thing sold as a "worm" just to control all variables. I made sure my SP was swimming correctly in the shallows at my feet and it was - a toad fish was in hot pursuit...

40 mins later... and my brother announces he has a snag, but then the snag starts peeling line off....

meanwhile my arms are sore from casting and retrieving and jigging this plastic worm that I was assured would catch fish.

His snag turned out to be a lovely dusky flat head that weighed in at 1100g.

The sky went black and started pouring - so called it a day - but interesting how I was outfished in fine and stormy weather by very comparable sp v's normal bait at the same time and place by two different species of fish.

Bait for me next time.