Jewfish - Need Help!

[fishinwahbee]

Hi all,

After somewhat over 100 full days out in the boat in my local estury the maroochydore river i am having some difficulty with the humble jewfish. Recently around august i was getting alot of large runs and most definate jewfish from my experience and the fact that they dropeed the plastic put me into tears (may seem over the top,but this is how much they mean to me). I have been using 5" Gulp jerkshads in the following colours:

- Curried Chicken
- Satay Chicken (prefered)
- Peppered Prawn

The setup:
- 2-4kg pflueger trion 6lb fins 12lb vanish
- 3-6kg pflueger trion 10lb fins 14lb vanish leader (prefered)
1/4 tt with 5/0 hook (prefered)
1/4 nitro 3/0 hook
3/8 tt 5/0 hook
3/8 nitro 5/0 hook

It is not that i have not been catching them, 3 jewfish each time i go out, its gone from wow its a jewfish to ooo its undersized jewfish. The biggest fish which i have landed are:
- 61cm jewfish (heaps around this mark)
- 72cm jewfish
- 76cm jewfish (biggest) omg awesome zzzzz

These are just some of the ones i have caught, i have lost count which i guess is a good thing

Just wondering what is going wrong, is it time of year? or the tackle im using??

Could i please have some information regarding the following questions/ concerns of mine?

- what is the season for jewfish, could this be the problem
- Size of hook, too small to big
- plastic, too small prehaps a 7" which im going to try next weekend
- tide - incoming to tide change is best for me i think??
- or anything you could suggest regarding spot - dont worry about secrets because i do not keep a single fish.

Any help would be so so appreciated?

Thanks Fishinwahbee

[softplasticsdude79]

Hi all,

After somewhat over 100 full days out in the boat in my local estury the maroochydore river i am having some difficulty with the humble jewfish. Recently around august i was getting alot of large runs and most definate jewfish from my experience and the fact that they dropeed the plastic put me into tears (may seem over the top,but this is how much they mean to me). I have been using 5" Gulp jerkshads in the following colours:

- Curried Chicken
- Satay Chicken (prefered)
- Peppered Prawn

The setup:
- 2-4kg pflueger trion 6lb fins 12lb vanish
- 3-6kg pflueger trion 10lb fins 14lb vanish leader (prefered)
1/4 tt with 5/0 hook (prefered)
1/4 nitro 3/0 hook
3/8 tt 5/0 hook
3/8 nitro 5/0 hook

It is not that i have not been catching them, 3 jewfish each time i go out, its gone from wow its a jewfish to ooo its undersized jewfish. The biggest fish which i have landed are:
- 61cm jewfish (heaps around this mark)
- 72cm jewfish
- 76cm jewfish (biggest) omg awesome zzzzz

These are just some of the ones i have caught, i have lost count which i guess is a good thing

Just wondering what is going wrong, is it time of year? or the tackle im using??

Could i please have some information regarding the following questions/ concerns of mine?

- what is the season for jewfish, could this be the problem
- Size of hook, too small to big
- plastic, too small prehaps a 7" which im going to try next weekend
- tide - incoming to tide change is best for me i think??
- or anything you could suggest regarding spot - dont worry about secrets because i do not keep a single fish.

Any help would be so so appreciated?

Thanks Fishinwahbee

it looks like we are in the same boat- hahaha -yeah,lame i know.

my situation is almost identical,even right down to setup and weights,i just cant seem to crack the big one either.

[MudRiverDan]

If your hooking up and they are spitting it try rigging you plastic so the hook barb/gape gets plenty of clearance from the plastic.
You can also thread your placcys on a bit shallower in the back to increase the clearance.

They might just be small ones hitting a bigger rig and spit it easily...

mate your doing 10 times better than me anyway

[tunaticer]

Try a paddle tail like a 4" hollowbelly, work them with a tad less weight, and slower than you would a jerkbait.
90% of my larger jew have fallen for a paddletail over a jerkbait or wriggler.
I seldom fish 5" or bigger for them, usually 4" is easily snavvled up by the bigger brutes.
I use 15lb braid and 20lb Nitlon DFC leader usually.
Most of my larger jew fall in April to August for me in the rivers, Heard of three decent fish close to shore in the western bay in September. Others have all been offshore a bit.
I purposely ignore the slack water periods for jew and target them when the run is about in places where they can hold easily in the currents like leading edges of holes, behind pilons or structures or sitting off the tail point of sand bars where converging currents meet. Seldom find them mid stream, mid current without a reason.
Jew also love a rocky bottom patch of a river too even if it does not have anything to block the current.

[mattooty]

Go the 7inch. I stopped using 5 inch chasing jew and never saw my catch rate decline. The only thing which declined was the p!$$y bycatch like small lizards and bream. Still get some thumping bream and lizards on them but more often than not when you get hit you know you're dealing with something serious.
We hooked a small jew the other week that would have hardly been half a handspan longer than the plastic. Go figure.

[fishinwahbee]

Thanks heaps for posts, really helpful. I am really looking forward to trying the 7" jerkshads in the Satay Chicken. I thinking a 1/4 oz. tt jighead with a 7/0 hook should do the damage. Im also thinking after the post suggesting Hollow Bellies 4" i have had a extended thought to use 100mm to the 145mm squidgy Black gold fish with a squidgy jighead 7g head, thoughts on this please. Steve Starling on facebook suggested this plastic and 100mm lightning shad with a 9g to 11g squidgy fish jighead. I have found that august had me having alot of bites and large runs. When i say the fish dropped the plastic i mean after a large run and a slight amount of line gained after about 30 seconds they drop it. I set the hook really hard sometimes twice, should i let them hook themself or not as hard. Again thanks heaps!Fishinwahbee

[mattooty]

That's really odd mate. I've had bumps and not connected but rarely a spat plastic after a run. They suck the plastics right down. Up your hook size for a better exposure.
Also try a straight white plastic in the 7inch.
Not to sure on the squidgys you've mentioned but of course starlo is going to plug his own product. I started using the black and gold squidgy fish when I started chasing them on plastics with a bladed head (the ones with the spinnerbait blade) and got some nice schoolies but I felt sometimes it would either turn the fish right on or shut them down completely. It was to much of a double edged sword for me so I stopped using those heads.

[fishinwahbee]

ok, thanks, after landing a fair share of jewies ive found that only some of the fish suck them write down others hooked in the corner or top/bottom of the mouth. I guess this would vary whether the fish are more fiesty to eat a 7" compared to the 5" or i set the hook to harshly and pull it forward before they get a chance to swallow it into the gut . How do you set the hook?

Thanks Fishinwahbee

Never to young to be a pro 14yo!

[mattooty]

You'll find that jew are very aggressive hunters, and they don't change their tactics to much from 4kg right up to 44kg. They're not the most energetic fish and will be sitting in a comfy open spot to ambush their prey. This makes them almost to predictable and the same methods can be employed when throwing big divers the length of my forearm down to 3 inch minnows or plastics.
They use an inhale-type take so its not so much a matter of a 'soft' take, more so a matter of how far back they are from the plastic when they open their gob. I'd be more inclined to think that your hook size isn't big enough to get the proper exposure needed rather than fish actually being finicky with your lure. Either that or your retrieve is to fast and they're not quick enough. But most likely the former. Those bastards can move when they have to.
If you're getting the hits you're halfway there.

[tunaticer]

All too often the take a a decent jewie can be a gentle tap on the drop and you will wonder what that was, give it a sock and see if you come up tight. I caught three fish around the metre mark last winter with takes exactly like that. Predominantly though, it is a very solid hit. The shape of the hook is by far the biggest criteria for keeping them connected. Different shape hooks require different fishing methods. For that reason alone I tend not to use most of the off the shelf type jigheads. I have them for backup only.

[fishinwahbee]

Thanks, yes, when i caught my sized Jewfish which was a monster too me which i know is only a small 76cm. The take was only a slight tick, this was on the first cast for a new spot. Second cast a small tick tick tick and i set the hook and i was hooked up. Ill take into consideration what has been said. Also would like too know what type of hook do you guys use.

Fishinwahbee

[madmaskbass]

Hey mate have you ever thought about a stinger hook in the tail section of the plastic its a common trick used with finicky barra when using larger plastics and involves using a piece of line to attach a second hook closer to the tail section

have a look at this video to give you some idea as to what it looks like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwkdZRH1IKE
good luck mate

[grinny]

hey fishinwahbee it's riley. yea i was using a 4" banana prawn minnow with a 1/6 tt jig head and a 3/0 Hook. I went through a whole packet in the mooloolah river just getting spashed by nice sized jewies using a triple hop retrieve and then letting it sit on the bottom for a few seconds

[fishinwahbee]

Hey mate, Good too see you got Ausfish, when did you go fishing on the weekend or after school. What was your biggest?
Will catch up with you this weekend. Im not baned from fishing any more

[grinny]

yea i got some jewies on saturday near bridge sea food and the boat ripples the biggest was 60cm, I also got a 78cm flathead on the troll it was awsome and i got so nice cod as well but yea man we will have to catch up this weekend