Under Strict Instructions From The Mrs

[Bigfoot]

G'day again

I would like to tell you about a reccent bait gathering sortie that

ended up getting me some livies and teaching me a lesson or two as well.

The actual reason for going was to clear my freezer of all things

Fishy ( meaning Old Bait turned Burley). As this was at my better halves

request I wanted to act Asap, so, I IMEADIATLY packed the car

with a whippy 7 footer loaded with 4lb, a 10 footer with a fully

locked and cocked alvey 650c armed to the teeth with 15lb, some tackle and

a bucket FULL TO THE BRIM WITH A WHOLE LOTA FISHY STUFF destined to

catch me a few and feed gazzilions more.

On arrival to my prefered yacka come mullet spot I introduced my burley slick

that seemed larger than The lone star state with enormous quantities of fish offel

and stale bread, some thrown into the burley pot but most lobbed into the depths

in small amounts fairly regularily.

Whilst burley used "correctly" ( like everybody doesn't have an opinion on the correct use of burley)

should be beneficial and OVER DOING it is just OVER FEEDING fish and hence filling them up

and turning a bite OFF!!!!. I discovered this NOT ALWAYS to be the case. That was "Lesson 1"

Fish were smashing anything presented to them and with vigour to say the least, BIG flashes

from beneath forcing smaller fodder up and into the air attempting to escape jagged rows of

Chopping teeth as the Tailor moved in. Then the bream got into the act, Small to start,

but they got bigger.

Now, for every Yack I would land ( 2 or 3 casts each being checked after 3 or 4 hits) there would be

a plethora of species hooked as a bi-catch, Herring, Bream, Yacka, Tailor, Bream ,Sweep, Tailor,

etc..., even Elvis made a few appearances and that's how it went for an hour and a half.

Plenty more Burley has been thrown in and i'm barely into shopping bag no.2 and there

was still one to go!!!. "Stuff it" I thought " It's all got to go anyway and i'm not going to

be here too much longer, so in goes some more.

The bite kept going and with so much activity around I assembled the 10' outfit and cast a lively

Yacka with a 5/0 pinned through it's back out to where the most reccent caos was evident.

Even though the fish hooked so far were fairly small, why not give it a go?

More on that later........

On reaching Burley Bag no.3 and discovering a $1.09 ( price tag) bag of bread crumb mix,

the decision was quickly made to cut the bag open and empty 1/2 the contents into the drink

imeadiately at my feet, WELL, 10 seconds after the crumbs broke the surface tension of the water

thousands upon thousands of 1 to 2 inch Whitebait began feasting, breaching and eventually balling

up right here at my toes. In a matter of 2 or 3 minutes all the crumbs had gone and so had the Ball!!

Having bagged out on Yacka's about 2hrs ago and finding some more bread I made a dough looking for

some Mullet. Bream, Bream and MORE BREAM, all just legal or just not! Plenty of them around, BUT,

as is often the case NOT ON THE BITE!!!! for me anyway.

After dumping the remainder of the contents of said burley bag in one big clump and by the way

the splash it made probably started tsumani alerts in New Zealand and most of polynesia, I only had

1/2 a bag of bread crumbs remaining, another guy comes down and starts flicking a 15gm Raider

that is a dead spit for the Whitebait running a mock earlier. First cast.......ON......., Tailor, then

another Tailor and it continued that way for quite a while longer.

That was "lesson no.2 "match the hatch""

I was keen to stay but had had a heap of fun and emptied the Freezer in the proccess, So,

as i was packing up to go i dumped the remaining crumbs into the water and it happened all over

again....... Whitebait everywhere...... Tailor thrashing after them creating a steaming boil!!!

The other guy couldn't believe it, The way his eyes bulged gave that away. When he saw

my Cool, matter of fact, haven't you seen this before look, all he could say was

" S#@t!!! Bread crumbs for me next time"

Now the Yacka on the heavier gear had been in for easily an hour maybe 1 and a 1/2 and

it was time to go, Picking up the rod and grabbing hold of one bulbous handle on the Alvey

I took up the loose line and felt for weight. Now I know you want me to tell how as soon

as I lifted the tip of the rod it pulled me back down, But alas no, the line was twitching all the

way back in and on lifting the rig out of the water, there was the yacka still full of life UNTOUCHED!!!!!

See Lesson no.2's explanation as when a perticullar type of bait is around in Massive numbers

it is difficult to hook up with anything else.

Now, all the livies in the bucket wern't anymore and that lead me to

"lesson no.3 "DON'T FORGET THE AIR PUMP""

Everything went back except the Yacka's, ( planning a trip soon where i am going to experiment with

Butterflied Yackas V'S Live Yacka's, Don't ask me why, I just do stuff like that), so that was that.

That brings me to LESSONS No.4 " Always Be Prepared" and, LESSON No.5 "Keep an OPEN Mind"

Your fishing and your life in general could go along way taking those last two bits of my Education

and adding them to your own.

Thanks for reading

Here endeth the sermon

Bigfoot

Edited December 6, 2007 by Bigfoot

[jewgaffer]

Hi Bigfoot

I read your topic and it certainly got my attention. I like these ideas about using burley Vass. I understand what you experienced and I'll just follow on along the same lines in this reply. This is a good topic and also relevent to the Saturday get together with Dani!o and his brother, hopefully before Christmas.....If you think your advice on this occasion is like a sermon, mine would be more of a thank you kindly to a group of new friends beach fishing, who want to participate in beach fishing tactics which they may have not tried out before, and fish together in a group more proficiently to achieve better results.

The overuse of burley, if you would ever call it that when fishing beaches, attracts a congregation of every species within cooee and further. Burley holds fish. When burley is used at night constantly, it's not just a matter of overfeeding a school of bream under a moored boat. In the surf you're fishing on a much bigger scale than that. You're not just attracting a few fish of a particular species. In any good beach gutter, if you over burley single players at night, you'll soon be conducting the whole orchestra...... By all means bombard the small stuff with burley mixes of all types and the idea is to use burley bombs containing the ingredience that fish actually eat in the wild and bait up accordingly. When you over burley at sunset, you overfeed the fish you don't want, and doing that will bring in others. Pushing it along, encourages further night movement and changes in the pecking order will occur naturally, particularly as the evening moves into the darkness of night.......Burley the squatters constantly and the burley stream in the gutters will flow and cater for ongoing occupation of the wash areas. Naturaly shrimp and baitfish will come in from everywhere, crabs come out of cover and so on. It keeps fish occupied until larger fish take over and so on..... Small species in feeding frenzy always lose their intuition. Others sensing the activity add to the frenzy, become more ravenous and develop a false sense of security.

I replied to Dani!o's post saying that if he had a number of his fishing friends down there, we would be able to spread out and cover the best gutter, use a constant burley stream, cast out the beach rods, throw out the burley bombs, and use waders to stalk the selected gutter from the sides.

Vass, I have been part of an organised beach team many times before and it's as good as having a dozen beach rods out with less work to do....... Using an oversupply of burley in a beach gutter and having a good team spreading it out and rotating around gives so many more possibilites.

Pre-organisation, an early meet up for a pep talk and good discipline is important. A late night beach session done properly can make all the difference.

Vass, I'll leave the communicaton with Dan and his friends with you for a Saturday afternoon Maroubra beach fish, if you can make it.

I would be happy to bring my grandson, chip in our share of burley, and catch up with you and Dan and hopefully have a productive night session and in saying that, all being equal, I cannot see why we wouldn't.

Cheers

jewgaffer

[Bigfoot]

Thanks Byron,

I can only say how shocked i was to see the activity that an "Oversupply "

of burley could cause, absolute Chaos!!!

I'm learning more and more that if you can get the bait part of the food chain

active the progression to bigger species turning on is inevitable.

I am looking forward to getting onto the sand with a Bunch of Keen Raiders

as you say, but , as you well know that is easier said than done.

On a more personal note how is that sounder of yours??? got to organise

some time to have a play with it!!!

How's Little Jewgaffer?, Chomping at the bit no doubt for your next outing.

Anyhow Back to work.

Catch Ya

Vass