Deep dropping Sunshine Coast.

[brenno360]

Hey guys back again for some more advice, this time I need help with deep dropping in 250m+ been trying to get some deep critters but havent had any luck finding good ground or shows on the sounder, running a Lowrance Carbon 12 with 1kw tranny, reads bottom perfect in 350m but after an hour of cruising around the other day we found nothing intriguing at all had a few random drops but nothing come of it. Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be amazing, I’m not asking for any special marks or anything just a general idea.
Thanks
brenno

[Oceanranger24]

my general advice is that I have been ddropping for about 6 years now and catch something worthwhile about once every 2 or 3 trips. It is a BIG effort and you need to enjoy the challenge without catching anything, that said, if you can catch some of those deeeep fish, they taste really good.

Sorry to be the bearer of not so good news but even with all the kit they can be elusive

[Noelm]

Don't rely on sounder to find fish in deep water, quite often we get good catches with nothing at all on the sounder, don't know why, maybe they "hide" in caves? Big shows will often result in lost bait and gear, funny schooling toothy things seem to inhabit the depths, well down here anyway.

[brenno360]

We went out yesterday again which makes trip 2 wide, this time armed with the new C-Maps showing rough bottom in over 250m gave some good direction to ground. Found plenty of decent ground and fish on the sounder, with bait as well but only managed 2 nanygi, couldnt get anything else to bite besides 3 little sharks. Also got busted off once which was a really solid fish. Oh well better luck next time I guess.

[brenno360]

Don't rely on sounder to find fish in deep water, quite often we get good catches with nothing at all on the sounder, don't know why, maybe they "hide" in caves? Big shows will often result in lost bait and gear, funny schooling toothy things seem to inhabit the depths, well down here anyway.

What sort of ground are you seeing out there to even start dropping on it? For the most part everything shows up flat as a tack with the odd bit of fluff coming across fairly tight to the bottom.

[Dignity]

Don't use big baits either, half a pillie some times with a small piece of squid will more often than not get you the fish. For some reason big baits just sit there in the sessions I've been involved in.

[Noelm]

What sort of ground are you seeing out there to even start dropping on it? For the most part everything shows up flat as a tack with the odd bit of fluff coming across fairly tight to the bottom.

The area we fish is called "the canyons" so you can guess what it's like, and it's deeper! most times there is very little on the sounder, unless you get off to the side where Gemfish are, then there's plenty on the sounder

[gazza2006au]

Brenno maybe look at what u can catch out wide on the surface drop one deep keep one a floater you never know what will be out on those kind of waters

Down here we have browns mountain and people target mako sharks which people report taste beautiful

I have never been that far out yet to scared of great whites, makos, hammer heads sharks in general



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[Noelm]

Brenno maybe look at what u can catch out wide on the surface drop one deep keep one a floater you never know what will be out on those kind of waters

Down here we have browns mountain and people target mako sharks which people report taste beautiful

I have never been that far out yet to scared of great whites, makos, hammer heads sharks in general



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Not too much to worry about, just keep the sharks outside the boat and you're fine.

[Dignity]

Mostly Green Eye Sharks at that depth.

Gazza, deep dropping requires quite a bit of managing of the boat and lines going down as straight as possible. This means lots of going forward, droppinh down then drifting back onto your drop, you don't have the chance for surface action, very focused fishing here. Depths are 200 to 400 m plus. Try it some time, not to every ones taste but certainly a different experience.

[brenno360]

Thanks for the input guys, we are lucky to have the electric motor up front so it holds us still, using 1kg if lead on the manual line and 3kgs in the electric seems to get us to the bottom pretty good even on a slow drift if we are not getting bite, though every drift we did one of us got snagged.
baits were kept small only about the length of one pilly and a squid slightly bigger. Some flesh went down to but when you only get 6-7 bites all day it’s hard to know what working because nothing is really preforming.

Dont know the canyons, but deeper ground is only a stones throw away while out there what depth is good?

[catshark]

mako shark is very tasty , and you know they leap out the water , ive seen 3 to 4 times a mako leaping out kind of like doing a back flip, who knows why they do this

[gazza2006au]

Ah i never thought about lines tangling at that depth yeah that could be quiet a problem

Can u drop a downrigger down 200 meters and possibly have 2 or 3 organised lines 50 meters apart from the bottom up?

If u can do this maybe the original poster will try

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