Strike Rate?

[Captian_Zero]

While fishing down at Manly today and catching another half dozen undersize fish, I was wondering what other anglers ratio of undersize fish to legal fish is.

The past three months I have been targeting whiting at various locations in and around Brisbane (Manly, Birkdale, Bribie Island, Southport Broadwater, Nerang River). I have tried a variety of baits (yabbies, soldier crabs, squid, prawns, bloodworm, beach worm), with yabbies and bloodworm the most successful.

I usually use a size 4 or 6 hook.

During this time I have caught 49 (that is a good result for me) whiting of which 3 were over the legal limit of 23cm (a 6.1% success rate). I have also caught 12 undersize bream and 1 undersize flathead as well.

How does my ratio compare to others?

Cheers

CZ

P.S. I am overanalysing this?

[straddie]

Heya CZ
Yeah you are going over board working out ratios

That kind of rate is going to vary with species targeted, bait and tackle used, area fished etc. Certain areas will produce a lot of undersize fish as will certain baits.

If you target the two species you mention early morning, late afternoon and into the evening you will probably find you will catch less fish but better quality.

[stark]

Agrre with you Straddie-

Suggest also depth of water can play a part. Deeper waters tend to produce larger fish (only as a very general rule).

Cheers
John

[stark]

Oh-

forgot water colour & how clear the water is. Clear water tends to mean some fish will move out to deeper water. Esp. whiting

[agnes_jack]

Thats a tuff one C.Z.
If you are targetting stuff like bream or whiting in general estuary situations, with baits like worms and yabbies, I think that you will always catch more small ones than large ones. On the other hand,
if you say fish for large bream in the snags further up the estuarys using softies or live herring etc, you will catch a lot less fish with a much higher rate of legal size ones. As straddie and stark said there are a lot of variables that can affect those ratios!

Regards, Tony

[jeffo]

i beg to differ about the depth of water for whiting in particular... i have caught all my biggest whiting (pb-42cm's) in about 3 foot of water..... C.Z. if you want the bigger whiting stick with the little black soldier crabs, there will be more time between fish but you get the bigger ones!

[basserman]

i find that yes you do get alot of small ones first but i think their action brings the big ones in so if it was me i would just keep the buerly going nice and strong fit a bit more worm (my fav whiting bait) onto that size 6-4 but i also think those little red beads help alot to especally if you put 2-4 on so when your bait is rolling around in the bit of current it makes a little quite noise that helps with those reaction strikes
but more important is a nice long leader of no more that 6lb and a nice light running sinker
i hope this helps you to improve your catch ratio

[Captian_Zero]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I like to keep a record of locations, bait used, time, tide, fish caught and their size etc. as it may help me down the track.

I'll keep plugging away, as every time I go I learn something more and the big one could always be on the next cast.

Cheers

CZ

[jeffo]

keeping a diary is a top way to improve catches season after season!
C.Z if your on the sunshine coast drop me a line and ill take you to get some big whiting

[Breambo]

Strike Rates do depend on location etc etc. But I have to agree with earlier post regarding quality fish in the shallows. I have caught whiting up to 43 cms and bream up to 1.5kg in water less than afoot deep. This is at night though. The other thing I tend to find is you often find fish in schools, so that if you are catching numbers of small fish, it is unlikely that will change, and you should move on. Likewise, if you are catching better fish, it is likely that will remain and only get better during the bite. Once you find a school of quality fish, you can easily get a strike rate of 90 - 100% with good numbers.

Trust this assists.

[basserman]

not sure about his school ider after all i have been catching little 20cm bream from one snag then get slamed by a 45cm+ bream the next cast same when dangling bait i'v been catching little whitting then al of a sudden star catching bigger 40cm+ MMM nice eatting whitting!

[Breambo]

Basserman,

Don't doubt what you are saying, and whilst my theory does not work all of the time, it does work for me the vast majority of time for me, but i guess that is why fishing can be unpredictable.

[basserman]

no dout about that it is a real personal thing this fishing
but i guess if we all fished the same way it would be bloody boaring
as you sayed every thing only works some of the time i have been fishing ond day and gone there the next done the same with no joy > but i guess the fish need to win some of the times

[Captian_Zero]

Thanks for all the replies guys and the advice.

Basserman - I have been using a 2cm piece of plastic tube above the hook but will try several red beads as you suggested. I prefer to use bloodworm as well because although it appears soft it seems to last a bit longer with the pickers than the yabbies or peeled prawns.

Jeffo- will definitley let you know if I am heading up the Sunny Coast - thanks for the offer and the tip on the soldier crabs - have only used them a couple of times but I will definitely make the effort to go out and collect them.


I will keep you posted on my progress.

Cheers

Chris

[jeffo]

C.Z find the small black soldier crabs.. if you find the big blue ones crunch them all up and mix them with sand.... top burley!