SP Techniques Land Based

[Poodroo]

Hello all, it struck me as I sat here that often I read and hear of land based trips using SP's and there are some people who do well almost all the time and there are some that never have any luck. Now I know there are a lot of contributing factors like the types of SP's and rigs but I also beleive a lot of it is in the technique used when retrieving. I started this thread with those in mind who never have luck using SP's landbased so perhaps those who do well with them can share some knowledge and hopefully improve the catch rate for those who have not done well with placcies. Any information is good. Thanks in advance for sharing.

Regards,

Poodroo

[imnotoriginal]

Depends on species and location. I like to use a few different types of retrieves, but when I'm scouting about I usually just have the plastic rigged so it bounces just off the bottom and then I'll vary from 1-3 twitches and then a pause. When I'd fish with Carl, he'd tend to fish with much heavier weights, faster retrieve and bigger twitches which would send big puffs of sand up along the bottom. Not surprisingly, Carl tended to get a lot flathead at moreton, but as yet I believe hasn't managed a bream on sps. I think a good general rule is start off slow and light, and don't be afraid to just let it sit there. A lot of good fish are caught when the plastic isn't even moving. I hope this helps someone.
Joel.
p.s. a great place try a few different retrieves (so you can develop a little more faith in the method) is somewhere where you know there are fish. I think places like the barra park at bli bli are fantastic for this. Admittedly, it's not the same as finding the location yourself and having that satisfaction of knowing you found the fish, but they make a great ground for experiment and training.

[Tangles]

Well im heading to Straddie for a couple of weeks and being landbased, one of the things i want to do is give these SP's a big go...after Scalems help im sure ive got the right rig/SP's... so when i get back ill post how i went... im after whiting/bream and flatties on the SP's.. so for me its going to be a big learning curve as i really only know Alveys/worms/pippies etc... Ah yeah,, im also going to try spinning off Amity and see what happens ... could be fun

cheers
Mike

[Wahoo]

Hello all, it struck me as I sat here that often I read and hear of land based trips using SP's and there are some people who do well almost all the time and there are some that never have any luck. Now I know there are a lot of contributing factors like the types of SP's and rigs but I also beleive a lot of it is in the technique used when retrieving. I started this thread with those in mind who never have luck using SP's landbased so perhaps those who do well with them can share some knowledge and hopefully improve the catch rate for those who have not done well with placcies. Any information is good. Thanks in advance for sharing.

Regards,

Poodroo

Great topic Poodroo
i have heard and read of all soughts of ways, im fairly new to SPs
the last two fish i landed with SPs all i have done was cast it out, let it sink to the bottom and then wind it in, stop half way let it sink and start winding it in again, dont really know if its wrong or right but it worked

i will keep a close read on this topic


Daz

[Poodroo]

Well thanks for the info imnotoriginal. Fishing is an education and we never stop learning so sharing info that may help others is a good thing right?

Mike I wish you all the luck with your fishing when you go away. I know you are going to have the best couple of weeks away from work. I am green with envy. And to top things off you are finishing it with a weekend away at Mt.Mee. Will cacth up with you there no doubt.

Daz I am hoping that people do share in this thread so that people like yourself and even myself will stand to learn something new perhaps.

Regards,

Poodroo

[mowerman]

Great topic.

Mike,, I spend a fair bit of time at Amity. My avatar was taken on Flinders with my tailor sniffin hound.(shes right sometimes). Mostly I stick to smelly stuff when fishing the beach but off the rocks at Amity I have used plastics for the last 18 months.
Have fed the family from the Amity rocks with bream,whiting and flathead. Also caught some real colourful stuff that would look good in an aquarium.
I find that the best time to use them is when the tide has a bit of run on it. In or out ,doesnt matter. Use enough weight to get a decent cast , but not too heavy, and let the current move it for you. Seems more natural that way. But always wind in ,with a few stops and starts, Before it hits the rocks.
Have had some success in Tingalpa ck using the same method for bream mostly.
But , a faster retrieve creating more "noise" will get a few flathead from the same spot.
Wello pt and Raby bay is more of ,let it sink,,lift up,,wind,,let it sink,,and so on.

I have also found that I change the colour of the plastic I am using if I have had no hits after about 6 or so casts. You go to a spot and try,ugly brown=nothing,,ugly green=nothing ,,bright green=feed of bream.
A week later, same spot,,Bright green=nothing,,ugly green=nothing,,ugly brown=feed of bream and a flattie thrown in.

Its all trial and error and if one way doesnt work try another.

One style will work for 3 weeks then youre scratching youre head trying to figure out why you cant catch a cold on the 4th week.

Ahh well...thats fishing.

If it was easy it would be called catching.

Have fun.. and remember ,,if it doesnt work change colours.

[Pistol_P]

I fish different retrieves for different species.
When I am landbased fishing for trevally and queenies i find a fast and jerky retrieve to be very effective...eg a fleeing prawn......(when you see a prawn fighting for its life they are moving quick)......Flathead I like a big aggressive lift then let it sit for a while (with a heavy jig head)....this puffs up the sand.
When using small grubs etc for bream I like a slow retrieve and sort of shake the rod tip..(watching your line is the key to see ya hits).
Jacks I like a similar retrieve but vary this up a little...Most of the jacks I have caught have been on small prawn imitations.

[LizardLord]

my two things i can contribute here are 1. Location and 2. Retrieve relative to species AND type of plastic

1. Location is obvious enough, and land based fishing for flathead is easy enough because you don't necessarily need to attack the structure as you would for bream or jack. however if you do want to target bream or jack, try to find a spot where you can cast towards a likely snag. places where there might be a log out in the water, under bridges and boat harbours are the way to go. all this is ovbious enough but they're generally the places you'd be looking for.

2. different styles of plastic need different retrieves. for example i find shad style plastics to work well on flathead as they work well with a big hard flick or two. they swim up erratically, then straight back down with a nice tail action. a heavier jighead should do well here.

however if you want to use a minnow style, like the gulp minnows (working well for me at the moment) i prefer smaller flicks. even with a lighter jighead this seems to get the minnow working the bottom and in my opinion makes it look like its cruising along eating off the sand. i usually fish gulp slower since it smells i figure maybe the fish might get a better wiff of it (just a guess, seems to work).

some handy things for fishing those more structural dwellers would be the use of worm hooks. by rigging up your plastic weightless and with the point of the hook flush on the back of the plastic, you have a well presented, snagless set up. you can throw it at most things and just drag the lure straight through it.

anyway thats a few of the things i have learnt, hope some of it comes in handy to you

[84mick]

If Im fishing land base I'll try to have the wind blowing on my back so when I cast the SP it lands futher out. I have caught all of my fish on the lightest weighted jig heads (1/4 - 1/8oz) with a slow retrieve and plenty of pauses and small twiches.
I have caught fish from boat ramps, the surf, rock walls, sandy drop offs and sand/mud flats. hope this helps.

Cheers, Mick.

[Wahoo]

some good reading there guys, have picked up some tips, thanks

Daz

[Poodroo]

I agree with Daz Some great tips coming in. The reason I felt the need to start this thread is I consider it a harder task to capture a feed landbased. To do a comparison if you are in the boat you can use a sounder to not only find interesting structure but also to see if there are fish. One thing I have learned is SOUNDERS NEVER LIE. You simply do not have these luxuries when fishing from land so in my books you have to be a bit more clever in your techinques and knowledge when fishing from land. Some boaties may beg to differ but this is what I have experienced myself personally. Keep the ideas rolling in guys. Thanks,

Poodroo

[QuintrexII]

Poodroo - Great thread - and I must say that when you read quality info, like has been written above, how can you not like being a part of Ausfish.

My question to add, and 84Mick started to mention it, is Sp's Land based in the surf.

If your on the surf side of Moreton, dead still conditions aren't really the norm - If you don't have the wind at your back do you switch back to baits????(I can hear the dark side grumbling) or do you use a heavier jig head and target Flatties?

Just thinking from the point of view of having enough weight to cast in the wind, without the plastic hitting the bottom in 1/1000th of a second.

[LizardLord]

i agree with you there poodroo, and since i'm a fair noob to fishing i have realised how much there is to learn regarding the actual finding of fish from land. not only to you have to find places you can actually get to on foot, it needs to somewhere where you can stand and have a cast without catching a tree. as a result i constantly look for maps, scope google earth and drive up random dirt roads looking for ways through to the waters edge.

sometimes over summer i've taken a swim at various places just to check out the surrounds, looking for structure etc and as a result i've found a few good places to go back on the run out tide and catch flatty. it seems like desperate measures i know but it seems to work

[geoff72]

I have been tring to fish withsps for a while now, just recently i have been trying bigger jig heads and trying to match my plastic with the bait fish in the area with alot more success than i used to. also alot depends on the species im trying to catch,bream a very light gear,trevs a faster more eratic retieve,flatties a heavier jig head and alot of pauses with 1 lift of about 0.5m the drop and pause, but most importanatly trying to match the bait fish in the area as close as possible.

[GAD]

Around the inlet of cairns, I find that a slow retrieve with a few pauses, will get the barra interested if their about, I like to use the 100mm slick riggs primarily but have had success with storms , ecolures and atomics , but match the retrive with what your after, barra like slow retreive with a pause or two and keeping the plastic just bumping along the bottom this will usually get a better hook up rate as the barra are hitting the lure from the top and the hook seems to set better, this also seems to get jacks as well occassionally though the bloody jacks seem to take the tails off more often than not.
Some thing a fly fisherman mate once said match the hatch, or use what would be a close resemblence of what the fish eat .
I believe that the more you use them the more used to using them you become , I remember when I first started using lures they were new to me , different and I really had no idea , but time, persitence ,and quite a few stuff ups and then it started to work, same as soft plastics time persitence and believe me a lot more mistakes till they sort of work for me .. but now I do catch fish on plastics and now I enjoy throwing them as they are catching fish..most times.
In years to come something new will come along and plastics will be old school , they been out for a while now, and then the rave will be how do you use the new Holograme lures with a tractor beam for line set to what ever class you want at the time.eg only for now

Greg

ps
{ I've always got my hard body lure around if I need to use them}