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Folks....
as a fairly newbie, can anyone give me some tips on castnetting for live bait like herring etc?
What do you look for before throwing the net? Any particular time of day or tides etc?
Do they lurk over sandy areas??? and what about deeper water where you can't see into the water?
I have been throwing the castnet about without success.
Are they just not there? or am i throwing in all the wrong places?
I can get the net to open fairly well, though not with too much distance out from the bank.
I don't want to keep just chucking the net around....
mate are u casting from a pontoon/jetty or any other structure ?
i cast net most of my herring and mullet from ponntoons night time is sposed to be better better for herring with the lights on the surface of the water attracting them. These fish also school up which means normally about 50 in a cast if ya lucky.
the mullet resopond well top bread as berly and hang around anywhere mud bottom is good but a locked impoundmrnt or lake woul dcrertainly hold large numbers in there.
take the net with ya whee ever ya go cus ya never know when baitfish may appear.
any questions just ask will post more 2 moro arvie
Try cutting up a pillie into little bits and using it for burley.
Change spots if it not working, try boat ramps or back eddys behind points and bends. Look for spots just out of the current.
Gents,
I have the most success around creek mouths, pipes and areas of low current. I look for surface movement etc also.
I find most to be right up against the bank and can be blocked in slightly with the boat. High tide seems to produce more but I usually only need a dozen or so.
I have noticed a lot of prawns starting to slip through the net over the last 10 days or so, managed a few leaders only to be mauled by Jacks, could be in for a cracker of a season.
Jerry
quigley595 i am in the same boat (so to speak), can now cast a net fairly well but still very little results casting from the brekfast creek jetty, had a few only one or to units at a time a mix of prawns herring and a mullet but so few and far between it hardly been worth the effort! not going to give up going to try a tin of cat food with holes in it as burley, as i've been told this helps?!! i'll let you know, everyone makes it sound like they are everywhere i guess its like all fishing once you've found the fish and seen things a few times it gets easyer next time!!
gotta agree with jerry, timing will improve the catch rate.
Find a shallow drain or creek mouth or up current corner in a flow just after the bottom of the tide. The bait are basically gathered waiting to enter and feed before the tide gets high enough to allow the toothies in. Don't throw too many times and always fish nearby if succesfull - fish the bait.
The herring often hang around structure so bridge pylons and pontoons are good locations. I usually run along the side of the Hornibrook Highway until the schools show on the sounder. Once located one throw of the net will usually get 50 or more which is more than you can keep alive at one time
Cheers Freeeedom
look for drains, slack water, and of course, any bat flicking the surface.
the best spots I have found are in the lee side of sand/mud bars aorund low tide, just out in front of drains (either natural or manmade), tese 2 usually produce the goods, and I usually have all the bait I need after only a couple of casts. Try crunching up biscuits to burley them up, have a biscuit in your pocket (so others won't see what your doing and cast their net over the bait you burleyed up), and drop a few crumbs out every now and again for about 5-10 minutes and cast in the burley trail, one cast should be all you need to get a variety of bait, from mullet, herring, gar, whiting (sshhh, top barra and jack bait), and prawn. This method works best in the lee side of sand bars, as the burley trail doesn't travel too far, adn you can get the bait nice and close.
Whenever I'm fishing at anchor in an estuary or shallow reef areas I always have the berley bucket sending a stream of fine particles down the tide or current line (usually from chicken pellets soaked in tuna oil, or sometimes bread crumbs from old bread put through a food processor). This usually brings large schools of hardiheads, but sometimes herring and garfish to the back of the boat within range of a castnet. Unless the hardiheads are large, most of them will escape through the net but a few will get tangled and provide some fresh live baits. The gar are best caught on light lines since they tend to hang back a bit but the herring can be caught quite easily this way. I've attached a pic of some hardiheads in the berley trail at Mud a month or so ago
Cheers Freeeedom
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