Favorite offshore plastic

[T-roy]

Hello Ausfishers
I was just wondering what are your favorite soft plastics and jig heads for pelagics and reef fish on gold coast reefs.

Thanks T-roy

[zach]

hey t-roy i went out on palmy reef todai and i was getting tuna on a 3 inch casper clear power bait on a 1.7g tt jig head on the 4lb gear it was great fun
cheers
zach

[DazSamFishing]

T-roy,

My favourite plastic is a terminator snapback... (6-5" stick bait) in watermelon or pearl blue colour.

Generally use them on a paternoster rig without a jig head...

Zach... I am interested to know what type of tuna you were catching at palmy? And what technique?

Regards,

Daz

[T-roy]

Hey Daz
I went out to palmy with zach and the tuna and tailor where going crazy, we got a couple of banito and those preatty boy tuna, i think their called watsons leaping banito they where all around 1KG. We got them by trolling small hardbodier, casting raiders and small plastics on the light gear

T-roy

[DazSamFishing]

T-Roy

Sounds like it was an exciting day... Also sounds like my type of fishing... 4lb on small tuna is great fun...

Were these fish busting the surface or were just mainly trolled up in the palmy vacinity?

We will have to have a fish one day...

Daz

[Scalem]

The charters up North (off Townsville) say if it ain't chartreause, it aint no use. The deeper the water, the brighter the colour. Pink shads on a fast retrieve are likely to attract a speedster or two on the way up.

I fished next two a mate off cape moreton who got all the fish (mainly snapper), and he stayed with one colour. Pearl white Berkley 5" Minow with the eyes, and 1 ounce Jig head. The photo of our catch was at spinakker sound, Bribie, all caught on plastics.

Scalem

[DazSamFishing]

Scalem,

Top fish! And well done on the plastics!

I am yet to purely dedicate my off shore fishing with plastics... Do you have any suggestions? Places to fish? What to look for and what gear to use?

I am also interested to know your opinion with bait vs. plastics.

Cheers

Daz

[Scalem]

Daz,

On that particular day I have to admit, I had a shocker, and Andrew ( in the Photo) pulled in most of the fish. #He stayed with the one plastic all day (Berkley 4" pearl white Minow) when I changed mine at least a dozen times. #I did do equally well on a different trip to the same area though

All the same principals to fishing plastics apply to offshore as with Moreton Bay - with only a few variations. #You MUST use a sea anchor when the tide is running. #Even in 40 to 50 mtres of water you need to control how fast you are drifting, or getting to the strike zone proves difficult, but cast ahead of your drift to help get the plastic down, and keep repeating the process. Use bright colours - Pink and chartrease are the two main preferred. #Fish from 5 to 8KG main and flurocarbon leader. #Yeah I know, offshore diehards will dispute fishing so light - and it is very challenging, and you WILL get busted off occasionally, but not by snapper and pearl perch of this sort of quality. #Use good quality drag reels like shimano straddic with heaps of line capacity, so be prepared to slug it out for a bit longer. #And do yourself a favour - if you decide to go with soft plastics, leave the bait at home. #You will be pleasantly surprised. #It's a hoot!!

Scalem