haha Kev..not snapper..but sure as hell can catch the bream..LOLOriginally Posted by Just_chips
Then what do your baits catch Greg? It certainly isn't snapper is it
haha Kev..not snapper..but sure as hell can catch the bream..LOLThen what do your baits catch Greg? It certainly isn't snapper is it
Persist? Yes, definitely. I am an estuary fisherman so can't give you any advice on set up, techniques etc out front. But I can say that persistence pays off.
I was introduced to plastics a couple of years back and was addicted as soon as I got my first fish on one. My wife is a keen fisherwoman and she didn't believe the hype for some time. We would go fishing, me using sp, her using bait. Every now and then I would give in and revert to bait if I was getting nothing. For a while she would catch more than me although usually smaller while I would only get 1 or 2 fish a trip but better quality. After some practice and trial and error I started catching fish consistently. Then one day I convinced my wife to leave the bait at home and only fish sp for the day, which she did, and then proceeded to catch her PB (at the time) flathead of 56cm along with at least another half dozen. Her PB has now gone up to 68cm.
Suffice to say, our boat has now not had bait on it for about 18 months.
Moral to the story - stick with it, try different things, get advice and tips where and when you can and you'll be blowing your mates out of the water in no time.
Hi Astro,
Now you are on the right track. Ditch the swivel, use 2metres of 30 or 40LB mono leader material. At depth Fluorocarbon is a waste of money and does not tie as good a knot to braid. The longer rod you have purchased will make the plastic move faster through the water thus imitating a sick / wounded / fleeing bait fish much better.
The plan of attack i use when fishing is to fish baits till dawn then use plastics. It is not that the plastics do not work at night, they do, but because it is an active and more animated way of fishing it is easy to get into all sorts of tangle problems in the dark.
At dawn my wife continues with bait and i change to plastics. Some times the erratic movement of the plastic is a turn on for the fish and other times not and my wife cleans up (bugger).
If you are not catching fish look at the simple things, do not make it to complex. Change the style of retrieve, i use lots of pauses and often hook up when doing absolutely nothing. Change the jig weight to fish in the water column where the fish are; not below them not above them to far although they will come up to meet a bait readily. Colour and style of the plastic as i have experienced means stuff all. We have caught them on all styles and colours. These days i use cost effective plastics only; calculate the cost per plastic not the cost per packet as well as the quality of the plastic. You may not get as many snapback plastics to a packet as you do some of the others and they are definitely more difficult to put on but boy they are durable and cost effective.
To all of this i may add that the majority of times bait will out fish plastics but not always. The reason i use plastics a lot is because it is more interactive and so much more fun. Also do not waste your time if the current is running to hard in deep water. Much of the time it is top current only and you get left with a huge belly in your line as you drift along no matter which method you choose. Baits will always work better in this case.
Regards to all Dick
Some very good advice here- took me a lot of trial and error to ork this out. Hope you are listening
Some great information and a wealth of knowleadge which all have shared, much appreciated to all.
Im listening very carefully as I really want to be able to confidently fish softplastics offshore without questioning if softplastics will work this fishing trip.
Do your mates drift or anchor up? If they anchor up you may be better staying with the baits whilst at anchor. I reckon drifting definately helps cover more ground and provide more action to your lure, even a deadstick lure (plastic rigged rod left unattended in a holder drifting behind the boat) out the back gets plenty of attention at times.
Make sure you take the time to ensure your plastic is put on the jighead perfectly straight and swim it beside the boat to make sure it swims straight before sending it down. Use the minimum weight jighead that you can get away with, stickbaits will need a lighter head than a lure with a paddle tail etc. Try to count your lure down to the bottom rather than waiting to see if it is there or not. You can get a rough idea of how long it takes to get down by stripping off a few metres of line and seeing how long it takes to drop this far and then apply this to the depth your fishing. Eg: if your fishing in 40m of water then strip 5m of line and drop it over the side, if it takes 3 seconds to drop this far then divide 40 by 5 = 8 and then multiply your 3 seconds by 8 and your lure should take about 20-25 seconds to hit the bottom. After a while you will get to know roughly how long it takes, but often the better fish will be a bit higher in the water column anyway.
Definately ditch the swivel and learn a few new knots for joining line to line and loop knots to connect to lures. Fluorocarbon is a great product but in the larger sizes I find it stiff and hard to tie knots in and rarely use it above 20-30pd and just wear it if I get smoked or done over by better fish.
But you should definately persevere as when it all comes together it will be another string to your bow and a way to catch fish when your mates can't. Fact of the matter is that sometimes the fish just don't want a smelly pillie or slab of dead flesh or vice versa and they may not be interested in chasing down and killing what they think is a live fish which your plastic is intended to immitate.
If you get the opportunity to go out with someone who is regularly sucessful with plastics then you will learn more in a shorter period of time by fishing with them. Maybe try a charter that will give you some tuition with the plastics like Smithy of SQCS, I see he has already provided some assistance by way of contributing to this post so now might be the time to contact him and pay for his services.
Good luck,
Kev
Hi Astro, this will be a bit out of the ordinary but it works (for me).
I fish mainly bait but when it goes off the bite i will go to a plastic to get the fish going.
I have found as you that it can be hard to get the plastic down to depth while being light weighted, to me there is a little trick.
Go a swivel and a smaller sinker depending on current I will even go to an 8 ball. 1.5m leader to a 1/2 or 3/4 oz jighead.
Seems a bit silly may but the plastic still seems to be soft in moving while creating enough movement to make them bite.
I would like to find out what others think of this technique.
Timbo
P.S the Old boy has said to me on a slow bite, Not Another One On The F***** Plastic.
HEAD DOWN BUM UP!
Ok PinDIck, we fish the passage at 3pm, we drift, for every different species we do the same thing. You take ya stinky smelly mullet gut, boring bent tip and alvey, and a six pack.
Mate, the guy is trying to get into plastic fishing, for you to dismiss it like it is some sort of smelly, fad, is stupid. Lures and plastics catch fish, and yes so do bait, but if you dont know what your doing, shut up!
LOL..once you resort to name calling you lose all crediblity. The bloke is asking if he should perservere with plastics..you say yes..I say no.
So...I don't recall reading too many posts from yourself with reports on your catches on plastics..many others have done well on them..I don't doubt that..but for me i stick to bait..simple as that.
Why would he stick withthe plastics when his mates are catching fish on bait and he is not getting any? That would be the stupid thing..stand there convinced that the plastics will work and get nothing while the others catch fish.
As in all fishing the lighter the leader and main line the more bites you will get. If I fish 6lb in close my customers certainly hook more but then they get wasted more so it is a fine balancing act. It's all fun to see a fish run a heap of line off but more have to end up in the boat than are lost or my customers are not going to be real happy. I started off on 14lb fc leader originally and got wasted too much so then I went to 20lb and still got wasted a fair bit then I got onto some 25lb Yozuri hybrid line which is half mono, half flourocarbon and I found it a good balance for easy to tie knots and abrasion resistence. I was buying that from Michael and Bazza at Kawana Bait and Tackle though I haven't seen it there lately. John Reid the mackerel pro was bringing some of it in from Japan too and he is using it as his main line for mackerel trolling. I am now onto some leftover 20lb Berkley Vanish and some 30lb Black Magic FC. True FC is certainly stiffer and harder to get good knots with but worth it if you can source some good cheap stuff. Some brands can be exxy for what you get.
I am mostly fising 20lb braid in close with one lighter 15lb or so outfit. It usually gets more attention, you can fish one jighead smaller and get more hang time on your plastic with it though you get smashed up more on it.
At anchor on the drift doesn't make much difference unless that surface current is present. At anchor you can usually drop back two jighead sizes at least compared to on the drift. For example if you were needing a 1.5 oz to hit bottom in 60m on the drift I bet at anchor you'd probably get away with a 5/8oz or so. Just depends.
As for how to fish them, I believe in just letting them do their own thing and being very subtle with them. I always tell my customers to think of them as artificial baits and not lures. It is all about jighead weight selection for the depth and speed of drift as far as I am concerned. I get a few guys out with their own Sols/Certates etc. on Egrells/Loomis' etc. with pristing Nuclear Chicken gulps but who do the whole flicking thing on the descent or work it hard on the bottom then I'll have a customer on the other side of the boat with my charter gear using chewed up Atomics that I use cause I get them in bulk at the right price and they will do as I tell them to do and they will absolutely smash it by getting hit on the drop.
Ok apologies for the name calling, childish and stupid ...agreed tomatoe, tomayto. But, back to subject, $10.00 snapper on plastics seminar at "hooked on" in tewantin , with Nigel Webster..... could be worth a look for you Astro. Pinhead, if you turn up I'll buy you a beer!
I can think of several occassions when I have had a bait fisho on board with me and I'm reeling them in on my plastics and they're getting nothing. So I guess that makes them stupid for not swapping over to plastics . I completely agree with you there PinHead.
i'd say lighter leader and def no swivel. tie the braid direct to the leader.
See if you can find someone close to you to take you out for a day, you will learn so much just in one day.
I used to be bait only but am now 70% plastics...they work and most of my bigger fish come from them or live baits
fishing plastics is a whole different thought process down here in Coffs, I only fish between 5m and 30m although I am about to try some deeper stuff (thanks Revs57) it is so different to fishing with bait as in the areas we cast so its very hard to compare bait versus plastics
we find the structure and drift past casting uphill to the drift watching the slack line for any increase in speed of drop, you will find snapper just smash them on the way down, around here you do not want to get to the bottom or the rubbish fish will grab them
I have been using 30lb Finns and 40lb Black Magic leader with 7" Gulps and get smashed all the time on itI need stronger hooks and bigger leader, the snapper are very quick at getting to the reef/kelp so we tend to give a make or break drag setting
the quality of fish on plastics for me is always great (never catch undersized snapper) and the hands on style with he thinking process as well as the adrenalin rush on the lighter gear all add up to a great style of fishing
keep with it mate it is a learnt thing to be able to consistently catch a few but worth the effort IMO
some great info on here, read carefully as hints come out
cheers Murf
There are times when plastics will outfish bait, and there are times where bait will outfish plastics. I will take both and if the fish are chewing there heads off on bait and I catch a few on the SP's then that's a bonus. Then you will get days like I have experienced when whatever you throw at them......nothing works.
Stick with it.
Greg, one day...hopefully in the near future I will help you catch the elusive Snapper.
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