Fishing Australia

TAILOR TIME

Tailor are biting well in places like St Georges Basin, Wagonga Inlet at Narooma, Wallaga Lake, and at Merimbula.

35 to 45 cm tailor can typically be caught by spinning around working birds with 10 to 20 gram metal lures. Bigger tailor can be caught by trolling 10 and 12 cm long deep diving Rapala X Raps around sounded bait schools, especially on windier days. Use light line around 4 kg for best results and place a short 15 cm length of 8 kg leader above the lure to stop the bigger tailor biting your lure off-X raps aren’t cheap!

Another option is to set up a berley cube trail in any of the better tailor hot spots-any rich oily or bloody fish flesh will attract tailor.  Drop back some un weighted or lightly weighted pilchards on the same trace mentioned above and you should at least get a few.  You will also pick up estuary sized snapper, bream, and flathead ‘if’ your bait gets down near the bottom.

Keep a small hand line ready in case any baitfish turn up; fresh local baits are even better than pilchards in most cases. 

SNAPPER

Snapper have been going really well along the south coast in anything from 10 meters of water way out to 60 meters of water.

Hot spots are between south head at Eden and Mowarry in 20 to 40 meters of water, Long Point off Merimbula, Three Brothers, Bunga and Murrah near Bermagui, the South West Corner of Montague Island in about 25 meters of water, the reefy areas of Potato Point Tuross Head, Tomakin and Pretty Point, around Yellow Rocks (outside the Sanctuary Zone), Richmond and Myrtle Points, Wasp Island and Grasshopper Island, the list goes on.

Any of the known snapper haunts are worth a look, and that includes pretty much any headland or reef along the south coast!

Where most people go wrong is that they fish too heavy; you can bet if you catch one snapper there is many more in the area, especially the 1-2 kilo school sized specimens.

Take your bream fishing rod and use a 6 meter length of 4 kg fluro carbon leader and a slam bait or other good quality soft bait on a 14 gram jig head. Start in 20 meters of water and give a spot a solid hour or so until you locate the school and then go for it. 

RATTLING LURES REQUIRE A LITTLE KNOW HOW

Snapper also respond very well to Rattling lures, but these require some expertise to use and are also more expensive so watch the snags.

Some friends and I have been experimenting a lot with Rapala Clackin' Raps which have an interesting rattle.  We are finding that leaving the lure dead still about 2 to 5 meters off the bottom is for some reason getting the biggest snapper.  When used this way there is only the occasional click from the rattle as the wave action gently moves the lure around.

However when the snapper fire up; eg at dawn, dusk, or when a few of the softies start to work well, shake or draw the lure to make it loud: clacking sound can be used to draw in hungry aggressive fish from near and far.

Once the pack of fish gets worked up properly they want to eat and they want to eat now, so give them something they can find easily.  Fish can only see so far and only in a certain direction, they can hear a rattle from much further away, even when it is behind them and will soon do a 180 to chase these lures down.

But again make sure you use a nice light 4 kg leader, because other wise the fish will get line shy as they draw close to your lure.

FISHING AUSTRALIA

Many other species behave the same way, and this weekend on Fishing Australia you will see exactly what I mean when a school of XL golden trevally are burlied up to the back of the boat.

Golden trevally are often known for being shy, but if you burley them up they can get ravenous.

I refitted an 8cm Clackin' Rap with a heavier hook and had no problem out fishing fresh pilchard baits!  You will see some footage of how the rattle attracts the trevally from a long way away and then drives them nuts; one fish scoffed the lure twice before getting hooked.  I caught some of my biggest golden trevally ever!

The footage will help anglers fish for snapper because they often do the same thing when fired up, tailor can also act the same way.

You can catch this Episode of Fishing Australia at 5 pm Saturdays on WIN and Channel 9, around 2 pm on NBN and 1:30 pm Imparja check your local TV guide for details. 

See you on the water.

Rob Paxevanos

Robs Column Brought to you by the Hellenic club of Canberra.