TAILOR - LURES -v- PILLIES

[ozscott]

I have fished for tailor in the pin for a bit. I dont get out anywhere near as much as I would like. I normally fish for them around the last yellow channel marker. I always use WA pilchards and do ok. My question to you folk with much more experience than me is this. Have you fished side by side with others in the same boat or other boats, or do you have the experience over time of chasing tailor to say whether or not a lure (metal slug, bumper bar - whatever) outfishes bait for Tailor. If it doesnt catch more, does a lure catch bigger tailor (i have only ever caught elbow choppers). If so, what sort of lures are best, and how should I fish with them.

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

a moving bait will always get tailor if they are about - even on a black night - lures included

having said that tuna/tailor strips will always catch the better quality fish at night

a lure will almost always outfish a bait by day

lures - i like raiders - they can be flung a country mile. Others on the site like to slide apparently and seem to do alright

my personal jury is out on the castability debate until i fling a slider side by side with an equal weight raider

seeyainthesurf,
chris

[SURF_SNIPER]

big tailor, 3Kg+ ( especial fish around the 5kg mark ) seem to only travel around in small schools of around 2 or three fish that i have taken note of. normally it is the smaller fish that really school up and become the main target of tailor fisherman. with big tailor it can be a waiting game and a lot of times that big tailor can be the only fish all night.

this is why i prefer to use baits over lures, i can have a bait anchored out in the position that i think a big tailor will come into a gutter or over a bank and then play the waiting game. i think with lures there is a lot less of a chance that you are casting your lure at the exact time a big tailor is in the area you are targeting, i have waited all night for a 4.5kg fish, i would hate to have been throwing slugs at that same spot for 6 hours.

there is no doubt in my mind that slugs work fantasticaly on the smaller schooling fish then baits.

Drew

[ozscott]

thanks a lot fellas - will put all of that into practice.

[Slider]

I was once outfished by guys using bait during the day when I was using a smallish slug. This was after I found a school of choppers just north of Teewah and then had 40 bait throwers turn up all around me throwing WA pilchards. After a little while they went off my small slug and I couldn't get a strike. So I put a 65g slider on to match their bait size and the baitthrowers didn't get another bite and gave up while I caught another 30 choppers or so. That's the only time out of about a thousand that the bait was better than lures during the day.
Night is a different ball game where baits are always going to be better than lures. That's not to say that lures won't work at night because they most certainly do and we've had some pretty spectacular sessions on tailor after dark.
Neil, I've always been of the belief that the lure covers far more territory than baits due to mobility of the angler and distance on the cast. And given the sheer abundance of big tailor we've taken over the years during the day, I don't think there is any doubt that lures can be just as effective as baits in landing the bigger fish.
As someone who has spent a lifetime fishing with both baits and lures in the surf for tailor - I go the lure over the bait and don't fish at night anymore.
Chris, I'll be interested to see how the casting distance between the 2 compares for you. Be in Brisbane thurs or friday...

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

& when the choppers stop chewing immediately throw a piece of twitchin' chopper out & hang on...

Chris, I'll be interested to see how the casting distance between the 2 compares for you. Be in Brisbane thurs or friday...

this weekend's tides are screaming jew at me - if only the princess can change her shifts

[novice23]

I've only really had good success with lures when they are schooling up baitfish and busting up. A wise man once told me that the bigger tailor clean up the scraps down below....try a bit of weight / use a slug but let it sink first.

[Slider]

Tailor are a pelagic feeder novice 23 - they feed on the surface. Big tailor don't sit underneath waiting for scraps, they like things moving and the faster the better, but they won't turn down a free feed of bonito or tailor flesh.

[tinfish]

Hey Dines, remember the after dark tailor we got at camel rocks that night. i think it was the time we had horse in the back seat with a fractured leg after the north point episode. the slide will provide.As far as the big tailor go, a bit of luck, Persistance & Distance will do the job. CHOOK

[tinfish]

Hey Drew , Hows That Fridge Going

[redspeckle]

See what happen to you when go to Fraser Island and use a lure in with the tailor fisherman off the beach when they are useing bait and fishing shoulder to shoulder I see them just [smiley=behead.gif] the line and [smiley=argue.gif]
So I stick to baits off the beach and use lures in the boat with baits
Mitch
C'mon The Cowboys in 2006

[Slider]

I stay as far as possible away from the bait guys on Fraser. Actually I seem to do much better when spinning around Ngkala or Browns - those places that bait fishermen can't fish due to snags.

Hey Chook, I do remember Camel Rock after dark - they were good tailor you caught and the slide did provide - for you! >
Poor old crazy horse bounced around in the back of the cruiser for 2 days with that broken leg.
I think you were at the 2nd cut with Mal etc one night and we were spinning up a lot of reasonable tailor - have some photos in fact.
Any decisions on the next trip now that Moreton has become a millionaires playground?

I think there's a post in 4wd chat under Evakool thing as to how Drews' Snapper is going. And going into a new beach machine soon too I think.

[SURF_SNIPER]

hey tinfish , the snappers going great mate, best money i ever spent. and yep she's getting transplanted into the new defender in the next couple of weeks so its all up and running for rainbow comp.

[ozscott]

...do I smell a couple of LR owners! Have 2 meself.

Onto the sliders. I tried the tackle w-house at Camp Hill - they have 2 golden ones left, but say that they guy who makes them hasnt been in contact for ages and they are getting no more in!!!.

What gives?

[Slider]

Ozscott,

What gives is that a few years ago we were making a few sliders and supplied to a couple of tackle shops. The tackle warehouse was one of the stores that we supplied 2 orders of sliders to. The 2nd of which was never paid for. So they are right when they say that they won't be getting any more in. At this point there is only 1 tackle shop with them and that is Wide A Wake at Noosa Harbour Tewantin and is because they are close friends and good people.
There have been several shops approach me in recent weeks about the sliders and I am currently deciding whether it is in my best interests to manufacture lures for distribution to the tackle industry.