Noosa offshore 8/07/06, Also after some advice =)

[mjc85]

Woke up at 7am not planning to go fishing to find it was an epic day, loaded up the boat and got out to Sunshine reef via little halls (jig some bait) about 8am. Sounded around found some good shows on the sounder and anchored up, berlied up and chucked out a big live pike about a foot long, and floated down whole pillies on 3 gang, 40lb leader and small running ball sinker.

The pike got nailed and whatever it was sheared through my 40lb leader (too light i know) like a hot knife through butter. (i think maybe got sharked?)

On the bottom all i managed to catch was undersized trout and squire, some leatherjackets and a happy moment.

I then moved to jew shoal and didn't get much apart from a few under sized squire and parrots and then a plague of leather jackets moved under the boat so i left.

I'm relatively new to bottom fishing, i'm just wondering how the rest of you fish ? What rigs do you use etc? I just can't manage to entice any of the bigger fish to take my bait and always get molestered by small stuff. Am i fishing the wrong way?

The two combos i have are a baitrunner 6500B with silstar powertip 10kg and 25lb mono and a baitrunner 3500B loaded with 14lb fireline and a wilson live fibre 4-6kg.

Any help appreciated,

Mitch

[Hagar]

G'day Mitch

Cannot see much wrong with what you are doing mate . Possibly come down in leader size to same as your mainline for a try if you are fishing fairly shallow reefs . I would stick with the heavier stuff on deeper ground . Adjust sinker size so your floaters do not reach the bottom to try to get away from the rubbish fish and maybe try a single or 2 hook gang . Looks like it may be more the locations you are fishing and the time of day than your gear . Noosa is not my area so cannot give you any locations .

Chris

[wayne_cook]

I don't know the area but try anchoring of the reef with currant going towards it say about 40meters let the burley do its thing for 20min then see what happens use lighter leader to start with and go up if necessary.
cheers

[REELY]

Hi Mitch, I fish the areas your refering to and I tend to try to fish a little wider and deeper during middle of the day away from the bulk of the boat noise like say Chardens or north reef then concentrate on shallower reefs dawn or dusk. :) cheers reely

[seapup]

Hi Mitch,
I find floatlining works well during the day for bigger Snapper - also dawn and dusk. At night the paternoster rig works well. I always fish 1 paternoster rig and 1 float line rig. both of them usualy get hit throughout a session. one more than the opther at times.
cheers,
ben.

[Gbanger]

i like using a double hook rig (top hook snelled) with a couple of 5/0's, i think it gives the bait a more natural presentation... im also a bit of a fan of lumo beads...

[Jeremy]

don't fish the bottom. Bigger fish are up off the bottom and rise more in your burley trail. Floatlining is the go. Small or no sinker.

Jeremy