Fads

[locodave]

I don't know much about FADS, but are these placed in the water on purpose for us to fish?

How does it work? I thought they were just markers!

[mrmoshe]

Yes Dave...they are placed there for rec. fishos to use.

Here's a synopsis from the DPI site:

The NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) deploys a series of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) each year along the NSW coast between the months of September and June. The FADs are funded by the Recreational Fishing Saltwater Trust and are installed to provide better fishing for recreational sport and game anglers by creating an alternative to traditional fishing grounds.

The NSW DPI FADs have become a popular target fishing location for many recreational fishers, possibly relieving fishing pressure on popular demersal fish species and locations by drawing seasonal pelagic fish from warm water delivered to the NSW coast by the East Australian Current (EAC).

Cheers,

Pete.

[locodave]

How do FADS work though? What attracts the fish?

[mrmoshe]

How do FADS work though? What attracts the fish?

Just the buoy and the chain that attaches it to the bottom, where weeds and barnacles grow

on both over time and fish are attracted to it as it's structure in an open ocean.

It's a bit like you often find dollies lurking under floating debris like a floating log or timber as fish

will gather under it and small fish attract bigger fish and so on.

They don't have any electronic devices in them as far as I know...just a large buoy.

It's also why you often get fish around fish trap buoys...it's "structure" again.

Anyone else able to expand on this???

Cheers,

Pete.

[Jigholio]

Anyone else able to expand on this???

It's the tree in the desert. Ocean wanderers are drawn to it simply because it's something to cling on to in an otherwise featureless expanse.

An 'old boy' trick was to drop a large sheet of newspaper or dan buoy when a dollie was hooked in open water. His schoolmates would hang around it just because it's "something". Then cast metals and such at the paper/dan buoy for multiple hookups. This was in the days before FADs