Hi,

I have been trying to teach myself a bit more about fishing around coochie and thought I might share my findings and see if anyone can explain it a little more or give some better ideas or maybe even help out someone else.

Hooks, does size matter? the times I took only whiting hooks I never caught a thing. The last two times I went out I took both. #6's and #3/0's. I hooked everything on the larger hooks, even bream, the smaller hooks never even had their bait taken (same bait).

Bait. I have found that prawns are no good, everything I have caught has been on squid. I have tried prawns a few times now.

Location. I tried the banks in between the southern vic point ramp and coochie which I was told is good for whiting, but got nothing except a single undersize bream I threw back. I tried the red buoy on the southern corner a few times. I have only tried inside of this buoy, other than heaps of snags I caught 2 sharks. I tried the banks between the ramp and maclay. On one side I got nothing but sharks and rays, on the other side heaps of bream and a catfish. Also tried the beach on the north of the island, got a catfish there.

Tide. It appears that the run in tide is best. My best day so far I was landing bream about every 5 - 10 mins and high tide seemed to co-inside with a strong change in wind and everything instantly stopped. Does wind affect the fishing or was it the tide and the wind was co-incidence.