Volitan

Karratha any other town in North West Australia Although pretty remote and not very attractive places to live, I must admit.

Hey Albert. I live on the Central a coast and don’t know of any charter company that regularly offers trips after longtail. I don’t think they occur here regularly enough to base a charter around. I have been out with one operator who does ‘kingfish’ and ‘mahimahi’ trips. He was very good and I recommend him highly. Will PM name. He does go a long way out though - usually about 8 on the boat. so you can judge - I think I did about 4 trips over 3 or 4 years, all about this time. What I caught were as follows: trip 1. One small mahi and 5 or so trag and one small jewfish. trip 2. Nothing that I can remember. trip 3. Two mahi about 900mm, and maybe some other fish I don’t remember. trip 4. Five kingfish up to 1060mm. trip 5. Zero (Though most others caught some small mahi). so it’s hit and miss. cheers

Hi. Does anyone know if there have been any reports of longtail tuna inside a port Stephens yet? Also, I would be grateful for any information on their biology when in Port Stephens. Where do they mostly occur, what are they feeding on, synchronisation with tides and time of day etc etc ? I have the impression that they mostly hug the southern shore from Salamander to about Little Bay - but I could be wrong about that. Any thoughts? cheers V.

Mostly grunter, with bream, mado and but really little versions of anything can join in the fray. and yes, I know the presence of pickers is a byproduct of a non-ideal location but it’s my home turf and there’s an obvious benefit to being able to fish from my own back yard. as I’ve posted previously, I often cast out an inline camera and this has told me that there are plenty of good size fish around, but they are way more wary and indecisive then the little ones. I see good size flathead, bream, whiting on every occasion, and many other species as well, even things like gurnard, flounder and estuary perch. Mostly they stay just at the edge of visibility as they seem to need time to build up their confidence, but by then it’s all over. I am keen to try the skirt steak though.

I will give that a try. My first thought was that I prefer baits of marine origin as at least the fish know what it is, but chicken fillet is good bait, and I’m told chicken guts is too though I’ve never used it. triggered a memory. When I was young the go-to bait was beef heart. I don’t remember what species we caught with it though.

No I haven’t, but thanks for the tip. catching them around here is no trouble. Not catching them is the problem,

Can’t use lures - due to hand injuries. Otherwise would love to.

All the baits that seem to work in my area are soft. That’s a problem because we have a vast number of small fish - little pickers that can strip off the bait as soon as it hits bottom. Some tougher bait might at least give the larger fish a chance to find it. Does anyone use and find successful a tough bait? I’ve tried bait elastic and salted baits and they help a little but not nearly enough. when we were kids in NZ we used to buy a type of squid in packets which would stay on all day. The fish loved it too. Wish we had that now.

Let’s go a step further wait till the end of school holidays, choose a day with high tide about 8am, get there early with garfish or fresh squid, start at the car park chucking bait out about 10 meters and letting it drift with the current, walking along the footpath to keep in contact with the rig. Let the bait tumble along in midwater, and let it get down into the deeper hollows where the fish get respite from the current. I’d like to say ‘do that and you should get a kingfish’ but as we all know it doesnt work like that, let’s just say it shouldn’t take many trips.

I’ve done ok off the breakwall at Nelson Bay Marina. Around high tide, unweighted garfish on a double hook pennel rig drifting along with a slight current. At the car park, at the very end of the breakwall, or by the moored boat called the Simba. There are usually kingfish under the Simba but very wary so probably best not to spend too much time with them. early morning or evening best but I’ve done ok at all times of the day. On one memorable day they were going off right at the car park at about 1pm - everyone was hooking up. most of what you catch are rats but there are some very big fish there too. I’ve seen some big ones hooked but never witnessed one landed.

I’ll agree with you in part about using a soft drag approach, and ignore the comment about watching too many fishing movies. Ive caught hundreds of kingfish around channel markers and after loosing a few the strategy I evolved was to hook up, take the pressure off, gently tow the hooked fish (below panic threshold) away from the marker, and then once it was in clear water put the pressure on safe in the knowledge they would seldom return to the marker. I think all fish will quickly calm down once the pressure goes off and kingfish are the most extreme example. Of course these were hooked on a fly rod so a tug-of-war was not really a valid option. hard thing for a beginner to do off the rocks though. id probably reverse the success ratio of hard to soft approaches and leave it at that.

It’s hard to deal with a fish that knows instinctively how to cut you off on the bottom, but a couple of things that might turn the odds in your favour are: more drag. If you watch the guys catching kings off the rocks in NZ the drag is ‘pliers tight’. They don’t give an inch. If your mainline is 50lb then you should be able to set drag at 17lb or a slightly more risky 20 in a snaggy area. Measure your drag with a spring balance or a bucket of sand and you’ll be surprised how tight 20lb is. mix it up, discombobulate the fish by pulling left, pulling right etc. the fish needs to get its head down and tail back towards you for maximum thrust and if you watch videos of a hooked fish you’ll see that’s what it’s trying to do. What you need to do in effect is throw them off balance. If the fish is definitely snagged, give it line. It should swim out after it’s calmed down - it has to eventually. Remember the fish is panicking because it’s terrified by these unfamiliar events but panic doesn’t last long with fish. This does work, only sometimes, but is better then keeping the pressure on and getting sawn off. Mono has MUCH higher abrasion resistance then braid, so if your using braid for the main line switch to mono for the rocks. Anyway, a great effort and I assume no drone in sight.

I gave it a go. Like you said, deep and snaggy and a ripping current - and I’d add very slippery rocks when they’re wet. Didnt get a bite - but bait and tide were not well chosen as more just a recce.

Hi. Has anyone fished at Kanagroo Point - landbased. Under the freeway bridge. Looks like very deep hole close in, with lots of structure from road bridge etc. surely a good spot for a jewfish?

Actually, that’s a Phantom 3 standard - same as mine. Easiest way to tell is the single aerial coming out of the front of the controller - the other phantom 3’s and all the 4’s had the much better double aerial. I’ve since found out that my Phantom 3 standard does offer control over the lights - in the Dji Go app, not thru a switch. Therefore I can use one of the light activated release mechanisms. I hadn’t realised the mechanical (pressure or tension activated) releases were so popular until you pointed it out. I think I’d still like to start with an electromechanical (light or wifi) one though. your last post got censored, can you maybe PM me and let me know what release you use - I want to avoid the many on the market which are bad by reputation. My phantom is a beast. I’m really amazed. I put a rod in a beach spike, attached 300 grams of weight to the drone, then took off but forgot to release the bail. It pulled the beach spike over, pulled the rod out and started dragging it along the beach - didn’t seem to loose any velocity or altitude at all. hopefully I’ll get to use it for real later this week. I’ll probably do a drive along the beaches on the northern end of the Central Coast looking for bonito or something. cheers

Hey NewToFishing. I just bought a Phantom 3 standard for bait drops. Old but immaculate. It was a toss up between a phantom 3 and Mavic Pro but I went the phantom as it’s long legs will keep it out of the sand - important for me because I usually fish alone so don’t always have time to land the drone carefully. Anyway, now I need a bait drop mechanism. I know there are devices that work off their own wifi but they seem to be limited to about 150 meters claimed, which iwould be less in practice. Not far enough. and there are some which work off lights on the drone but I don’t think I have any controllable lights on the P3S. or you can just use a simple hook which drops the bait as soon as the drone stops going forward which is what I’ve used in the past so maybe will suffice? so what do you use and if you recommend it then where did you get it? Cheers

Just noticed your comment about reels. These two you mention are spinning or threadline reels. I don’t think spinning reels are much good for drone fishing, especially if your fishing solo. The problem I find with them is that you can only use them in one of two ways to get the bait out - bail arm off and drag set or bail arm on and drag off. Neither is very good. Bail arm off and drag set allows the line to pour off the stationary spool unhindered, which is great for the drone but the line is unmanaged and loops of line will come off when you don’t want them too, especially with wind. In fact you’ll find you usually get a few loose loops while setting up the drone and rod. These can snarl around the reel and bring the drone to a stop. Likewise if you can’t get to the rod quickly after the drop then the loose line will be easily caught by wind, waves and dog walkers and continues to pour off unrestrained. The advantage is that you have the drag set throughout, ready to fish, and don’t need to adjust it. Bail arm on and drag off means the spools is loosened to spin freely, via the drag nut. This keeps the line under better control and you don’t get annoying loops of line peeling off when you don’t want them, but it leaves you fiddling with the drag when ready to fish. If you are going for big fish you should set the drag mechanically before you leave, according to the line manufacturers recommendations (usually it’s about 1/3 of breaking strain) and not touch it subsequently. Most fishermen loose most of their biggest fish the same way - fish jumps on, line starts screaming out like he/she has never seen before, fisherman panics and tightens drag, ping. Set it, and don’t touch it - there is absolutely no good reason to. Worse is when the fisherman panics and loosens the drag - always by too much - then realises he/she has to tighten it again, but now has no reference point how much to tighten - ping. A better reel for drone fishing would be an overhead reel. These usually have much larger capacity then a spinning reel, are more robust, can be bought cheaply off the second hand market (my two beauties were $15 and $20 respectively at garage sales) and have better drags. More importantly they have a lever which disengages the spool so it runs freely without you touching the drag. Going from freespooling while sending out the drone to full fishing mode is only a flip of the lever. You can slow down the freespooling reel a bit to prevent overruns with either the ratchet or a knob on the side. The downside is that when you’re not drone fishing these reels are much harder to cast then spinning reels, so not as versatile. i should also point out that there is a type of spinning reel which will also give you this functionality - the ‘baitrunner’. Personally, I think they are fragile overpriced things and there aren’t many produced now. cheers

Didn’t know about that. Might give them a go myself. thanks

Firstly, think about some way other then a balloon. We have enough plastic pollution in the ocean and don’t need more things that will end up in some sea creatures stomach. Maybe use a fixed float that you get back. Secondly, the glory days of LBG in southern NSW are long gone. In the 70’s catches of yellowfin tuna were common off places like Narabeen, Avoca Rocks or Winney Bay - people even used to catch them off Sydney’s Northern Beaches by casting out and then running as fast as possible up the beach to get enough speed into the lures. Jervis Bay became the world hotspot for LBG. By the nineties these inshore gamefish populations had largely been wiped out. Nowadays marlin or yellowfin off the rocks are very rare and the yellowtail kingfish makes up the bulk of big fish captures. Nothing wrong with catching a kingfish, but a black marlin it ain’t. Dont get me wrong, it still happens (I caught a 27kg longtail tuna myself a couple of years ago, off the breakwater at Nelson Bay), I’m just saying temper your expectations to maximize your success. personally, I think youre better off going north, Nelson Bay or north of, and focusing on longtail and mackeral tuna. These species don’t taste great so have been largely ignored until now. Exciting catches nonetheless. Further north there are spotted and Spanish mackeral which you should be able to target, as well as a whole range of incidental pelagics like cobia. Hat Head and South West Rocks put you in reach as they have very deep inshore water. I think long range drone fishing will be the best way to target these fish. I’ve pursued pelagics all my life and have spent hundreds of hours on the beach watching pelagics busting up just past the surf line and waiting fruitlessly for them to come in. Perhaps setting one distant bait by drone and one close one by rod is the best way. Thirdly, sign up for swimming lessons.

usually a distant bait comes back in, sometimes it doesn’t. At our local beach it’s pulled outwards - even with just a very small ball sinker. anyway, I think we all understand that distant fishing the bottom at a beach isn’t much good, so you could try fishing the surface. Target pelagics. Pelagics are not dependent on structure for safety and most species of baitfish don’t cope well with the surf zone. Try fishing the distant surface with a float and pilchard bait maybe 1 or 2 meters below. Some drone fishers add a very long dropper down to a star sinker to stop the whole rig coming back in - at least as long as the water is deep - just have to fly out a bit higher. Don’t know what you’ll get, but worth a try every now and then. You’ll often see pelagics busting up on baitfish off the beach and usually well beyond casting distance.

Many ways you could rig it. You need a sinker able to hold bottom, the bait and a small float big enough to hold the bait above the bottom. I have used a running sinker on the mainline above a swivel, then a float about a meter below that, and the bait about 300mm below that. The float floats above the sinker and the bait just kind of drifts around at the 600 mm level. A couple of years ago I dropped a camera out about 200 meters from a local beach to see what was happening. I put the video on YouTube here . You can see the stingrays and banjos try hard but have great difficulty taking anything floating. You will also see there was nothing else out there on the sand, except maybe a few puffer fish. .

Where the tuna are. You may not be aware that things have evolved a bit since that video and if you watch the latest YouTube videos on drone fishing for longtail tuna in northern NSW you’ll see that they basically look for pods of dolphin. The tuna follow the dolphin because dolphin are bigger stronger and being warm blooded have much more endurance so are better at finding bait. So the drone-fishers basically just wait on the beach till they see a pod of dolphins swim past and then fly the drone out and scan around the dolphin for longtails, and if they see any they drop the bait (whole dead fish) right among them. The tuna are triggered to take the bait the moment it hits the water. Insane, exciting fishing. I asked one of these guys if he ever drones the bait out without seeing dolphin first and he said no. someone needs to figure out a drone-specific method of targeting spotted and Spanish mackeral as well. Drone fishing has been around for a decade or so but most of the opportunities are still unknown. Personally I’d be happy to target bonito, salmon, kingfish, striped or mackeral tuna. Longtail would be the ultimate but I don’t get much opportunity to travel. can you tell us how you’re finding the Mavic drone. I’ve been using a cheap $100 quadcopter for bait drops up to 200 meters which does the job but I’d like to buy a decent drone soon. I’d like to use the DJI RC that came with my mini 3 pro as it will also work with any of the Mavic 3’s or 2S (hate frigging around with a phone for screen), but maybe an older Mavic is a better choice.

Getting back to your original question, how do you avoid catching shovelnose, stingray and banjos? Use a little float to keep your bait about 600mm off the bottom as well as the sinker. They are bottom feeders and find it very difficult to take a bait that isn’t actually resting on the bottom. Last night I was on Putty Beach and there were 12 rods out through the evening and all that was caught was 3 shovelnose, so there wasn’t much happening in close either. my interest in drone fishing is to pursue pelagics - surface feeding fish which around here are almost invariably beyond casting distance, or to fish the local estuary spots which are usually too shallow within casting distance. The beach is easy to work off but (as the others say) not much happening over the sand. it’s a learning curve.

A friend of mine is doing a fishing diary after a request from Fisheries. He got a progress call from one of the Fisheries staff involved and got chatting. One of the many interesting things the Fisheries guy said was that the biggest fish reported were coming from kayak fishers. Not sure why but perhaps because the kayak can be pulled by the fish instead of staying put like a larger boat so maybe acts like a shock absorber. I know that when we used to fish from my father’s boat whenever we hooked a really outsize fish we lost it pretty quickly due to being not ready, not prepared, drag setting all wrong etc. Being in a kayak might have given us a few seconds grace - enough to get our act together. Anchor ropes didn’t help either. Interesting to hear the comment from someone with real data, though it still wouldn’t get me yak fishing.

Since posting I’ve had another trip off the beach. Bottom fishing off the beach has never been my interest but it has the advantage of lots of space. Anyway, same result - only action was the ray/shark hybrids. I did send a camera out though. A little spy camera which in its housing and with a lead for holding bottom weighs just 76 grams. It’s image resolution is typically bad so after 45 minutes of looking at grainy videos what I now know is that this morning, 180 meters out, there were lots of tailor which circled the bait constantly but never tried to eat it, one salmon, lots of the inevitable pufferfish, and one shovelnose shark. Attached is a videostill of the shovelnose eyeing up the camera. Is anyone else fishing the beaches around Sydney or Central Coast at the moment? What are your results?