Yakkas And Fishing For Jewies.

[Kit]

I was fishing landbased on the Harbour last friday night.

Of late, its been hard getting yakkas. I've only been getting Cowanyoung and they've all been huge... and even then they have been few and far between.

Last Friday there was a big high tide and new moon. When I got to the wharf I could see hundreds and hundreds of these Cowanyoung coming up from the bottom then breaking the water.. They weren't really jumping, but it looked like they were eating something on the surface. I couldn't see anything on the surface though, could only see the splashes in the water as they came up.

I managed to catch 2 of these buggers, one on pillies, and one on a bait jig.

And just like previous weeks, they were coming up to the bait and just lipping it.. they were very hard to hook on.

So does anyone know what this means when they are so active? and if they were so active why was it so hard to catch em?

There was obviously something special about friday night as there was a lot of activity in the water.

On another note, no Jew on Friday night, I was plagued with pickers. My baits getting hammered by pickers the instant it touched the water. I got annoyed and cast out a small bait on a sz2 hook, then pulled up a tiny eel about 15 mins later.

Chris

[soft-on]

Chris when i was a little fisherman (4-5years) and dad and I were at Forster i remember crying my eyes out at all the jewies which were 6ft plus jumping out of the water at baitfish. They hit the water like bricks, unfourtunalty dad didnt hook up on any because he was in awe!

Also at forster dad remembers seeing an old bloke with a tinnie struggling a bit, dad walked over and saw the bloke had 2 jewies both the length of the boat head to tail dad says 6-7ft and easily 50kg plus!

Then the old fella says to dad "Lost one bigger because i didnt have a gaff"!!!!

[Kit]

Chris when i was a little fisherman (4-5years) and dad and I were at Forster i remember crying my eyes out at all the jewies which were 6ft plus jumping out of the water at baitfish. They hit the water like bricks, unfourtunalty dad didnt hook up on any because he was in awe!

Also at forster dad remembers seeing an old bloke with a tinnie struggling a bit, dad walked over and saw the bloke had 2 jewies both the length of the boat head to tail dad says 6-7ft and easily 50kg plus!

Then the old fella says to dad "Lost one bigger because i didnt have a gaff"!!!!

Hi soft-on

These baitfish weren't getting chased up from underneath by something big though. They were zooming up from the depths, breaking the surface, and then zooming back down like they were trying to eat something on the surface of the water.

And when I did hook em, they fought a lot harder that usual.

Perhaps there were heaps of tiny insects on the top of the water that I couldnt see and the fish were feeding on those???

[xtosea]

Chris i was there Saturday night, i know what you saw they were doing the same this night, we managed to get 3 all between 30-35cm and lost two others but gee they were hard going!

I know what you say about the pickers, i reckon it was Bream, two other guys got some i managed a 4kg Octapus and thats about it.

THey were so hard to hook those Cowan Young though, it pee'd me and the GF off!

[anthony f]

Hello , I reckon you would find they where feeding on some others species newly hatched young or plankton etc. Fish being attacked you find will jump in a group and looks different to feeding fish zooming up from below. I don,t understand the bit about the small pickers affecting your jew bait? was this dead bait? In my opinion large yellowtail, legal sized tailor and mullet all live are the gun bait. They are big enought not to be picked at and jew don,t have trouble in eating larger live baits

[Kit]

Hello , I reckon you would find they where feeding on some others species newly hatched young or plankton etc. Fish being attacked you find will jump in a group and looks different to feeding fish zooming up from below. I don,t understand the bit about the small pickers affecting your jew bait? was this dead bait? In my opinion large yellowtail, legal sized tailor and mullet all live are the gun bait. They are big enought not to be picked at and jew don,t have trouble in eating larger live baits

TDH,

The pickers were affecting my dead baits (squid strips and Cowanyoung fillets).

The Cowanyoung I was catching were about 30cm long and too big for me to use as live bait. Its not that I mind using baits this big, but I have trouble casting them.

The current was ripping through that night and even with quite a large snapper lead, my lines were getting dragged across by the current.

When fishing landbased do you find you need to cast far to get jew? and do larger livies generally attract more attention?

Chris

[Anti-Carp]

TDH,

The pickers were affecting my dead baits (squid strips and Cowanyoung fillets).

The Cowanyoung I was catching were about 30cm long and too big for me to use as live bait. Its not that I mind using baits this big, but I have trouble casting them.

The current was ripping through that night and even with quite a large snapper lead, my lines were getting dragged across by the current.

When fishing landbased do you find you need to cast far to get jew? and do larger livies generally attract more attention?

Chris

Landbased, don't cast over them with big sinkers, they are a lot closer then where you think... when fishing livies fish them unweighed they know how to get in trouble =)

[anthony f]

When fishing land based I find you don,t have to cast far unless casting to structure e.g pylon etc Most fish will hang tight to rocks and to underwater structure that makes water eddie. The hardest be far point of land-based for them is that you have to usually bring them back towards rocks and the can cut you off or snag you in any number of manners. In a lot of places that I have fished for them out of the boat I might actually be fishing back towards were people might stand to fish. Live bait size would be more of an issue off the bank and harder to obtain. I like to watch the rod tip when live baiting as the bait tells you when there is something in the area it is scared of and when the rod tip is a bit jittery I make sure the rod get very quickly to my hand if a rest in-front of me or in a holder.