Educated Yellowtail

[Nolongeramember]

Many many times when Ive tried to catch yellow tail they will not bite the bait I offer them, but cleverly suck the bait off the hook like they know they will be caught if they gulp it. If I didnt see them through the water doing it I wouldnt even know because you cannot feel it they are so careful.

This makes sense to me because at the wharfs etc where I experience this these fish see hundreds of prawns on hooks every day so its only a matter of time before they realise whats going on.

Ive tried all the usual like light line, different baits and burley and you get the odd fish if you persist, but nearly every time I go out I can burley stacks of these critters so there feeding, but they will just not bite properly.

So my question is does anyone have a solution?

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Roylo,

Try using a sabiki rig (bait jig) instead of baited hooks. Get the smallest size you can. They can't suck the bait off the hooks that way.

They really need to be tiny if the yakkas are small. If the little 'lures' are too big they'll just ignore them. You can also spice them up if you want with a tiny bit of bait on each hook.

The other solution is to use tiny bits of squid for bait. It's very hard for them to get off the hooks.

Cheers, Slinky

[Davemmm]

also you can give a really small treble a go. Not for jagging them but i roll bread around the centre and they have to get past the three hooks to get there.

Dave

[jewgaffer]

Many many times when Ive tried to catch yellow tail they will not bite the bait I offer them, but cleverly suck the bait off the hook.......

....Ive tried all the usual like light line, different baits and burley and you get the odd fish if you persist, but nearly every time I go out I can burley stacks of these critters so there feeding, but they will just not bite properly.

.......So my question is does anyone have a solution?

Roylo there is always a solution. Live bait fishermen can burley up and boat a large number of yellowtail in a short period, but with standard bait jigs, just as many yellowtail get off the hook and you certainly don't need any of that when the numbers are scarce.

You can hook up yellowtail fairly easily on a smaller hook just as Slinky suggested. You need a short shank hook to give yellowtail no leverage in the shank itself. They also have a soft mouth and more of a membrane than a decent palate to hold the hook and hence landing them can be quite frustrating.

When hooking up a little red bream there is an extreme difference in the mouths especially when trying to when trying to rerieve a tiny hook.

The difficulty is in keeping yellowtail on the hook from the bite and then long enough to boat it. This is because of the way they fight to throw the hook and they shiver and shake all over the place to do that .

I give them credit for that on one hand, but on the other I find they are suckers, competing with a school and will quickly mouth a piece of prawn to get to it before the others whether there is a hook in it or not

This leads on to the benefit if any of using sabiki type rigs on yellowtail.

There lies a problem. There is not enough direct pressure on the paternosta section of that type of rig for soft mouthed head shakers such as yellowtail.

The pressure and control remains in the main leader line that runs thru to the drop sinker on the bottom of the rig. The paternosta section swings around in accordance with the will and whim of the yellowtail. That's why so many fishermen prefer to use a handline and a single hook and they can outperform the sabiki type rig users who hook up two or three yellowtail and finish up boating only one , and then having to waste fishing time carefully releasing a shaking yellowtail into a bait tank and untying tangles while avoiding loose hooks that somehow manage to wrap around other rods or hook onto anything they get close to.

The solution is to make up your own rigs in this manner :-

When I haven't got live bait helpers with me at the time and at other times as well,

I make up my own three hook live bait rigs in the following manner:-

1. Take the bare leader and thread the leader thru the eye of the first hook at the first selected position or close enough to it and tie three half hitches around the shank and simply thread the long leader tag thru the wraps above the shank back around and thu the wraps towards the barb, then tighten the hook knot with good pressure pulling it in towards the eye

2. This is the key to it - thread the leader back thru the hook and as you pull it all in tight you will notice the hook will begin to stand out away from the line and stay right there whenever you put the slightest pressure on the line.

Repeat the process with the other hooks and if done directionally and properly, the three hooks will stand out nicely from the line.

You'll find you will be in control and can keep winding in having direct pressure on the leader and your fish so that you can catch, quickly lift and boat your hooked up yellowtail without having the worry of lost baitfish and tangles that cost valuable fishing time.

Cheers

jewgaffer

[luderick59]

WHEN THE YELLOW TAIL dont bite try grated raw potato throw some in after you berley it sends them into a feeding frenzy and usually take any baits offered especiallystrips of yellowtail belley or squid

peter

[slinkymalinky]

As an add on to Jewgaffers advice I'd stress the 3 hook rig vs the usual 6 hooks on most commercial rigs.

I don't know whose idea it was to make sabikis with 6 hooks... I suspect it may have been the 'Save the Slimey Coalition' because they are a recipe for spending more time untangling than fishing. Slimeys and Yakkas go nuts when hooked so often come up gift wrapped in monofilament on the 6 hook set ups. Much less on 3 hooks.

There are some 3 hook and 4 hook rigs available commercially but I often just cut the 6 hook rigs in half and get 2 for the price of 1.

I had a bait jig on a rod on Sunday just in case we found any schools (we didn't) but I was lazy and left it as 6 hooks. Being too long to neatly store on the rod, by the end of the day it was a useless mess so I just cut it off along with about a metre of tangled braid and threw the lot. Stupid waste.

I'm too lazy to tie my own (although I have on occasion before I had local carp for when I get bored).

I'd also reinforce that getting the little hooks to stand away from the line as Jewgaffer mentioned is equally important. For this reason, whether you buy them or make them, you DON'T want sabikis made out of nylon that is too fine or limp. More tangles. If you follow Jewgaffers recipe, get some hard mono like Mason or many of the fluorocarbons in about 15lb (for little ones) up to about 40 lb for bigger jigs.

Another suggestion is to use long, softer tipped rods (if you're not handlining). They're better at absorbing the mad wriggling of bait fish making it less likely they'll flick off.

Cheers, Slinky

[xtosea]

I try and use very fleshy baits with no skin and bite sized pieces with lots of meat though when they are finnicky. Scales and skin sometimes put them off.

Bait jigs with bait work well, just use a very heavy sinker(snapper Lead) and it may help with tangles, for yakkas but Slimies are a pain

[jay power]

belive me u cant go past the good ol

mince meat.mix some with bread crumbs

and mold around a asmall long shank hook

[mr magoo]

one of the bait grounds that i frequent in the last few years ,the yakas have been educated ,so what we do now is use 2kg handlines and the smallest hook you can get your hands on ,can not remeber what size hook im using as a box last forever,but i can assure you there insainly small hooks ,so when they try and pinch your bait by sucking it down they get the hook ,you dont hook them all the time but is better then never hooking them

cheers arman

[King slayer]

Yellow tail were the first fish I ever learned to master as a small child on the Manly 16ft Skiff club jetty. My method was always to use very small squid pieces on a size 12 longshank hook, making sure the barb is well exposed and a tiny split shot sinker back from the hook with around 6lb hand line. The biggest secret to hooking them is to watch the bait closely, and as it disappears from view, give a very light lift to set the hook and bring him up. This works really well when they are finicky. Also helps to have your bait right in the cloud of burley so they don't consider it too much.

When they're hungry of course, like all through summer it's sabiki down fish up and the tanks full in ten minutes!

[Nolongeramember]

Yellow tail were the first fish I ever learned to master as a small child on the Manly 16ft Skiff club jetty. My method was always to use very small squid pieces on a size 12 longshank hook, making sure the barb is well exposed and a tiny split shot sinker back from the hook with around 6lb hand line. The biggest secret to hooking them is to watch the bait closely, and as it disappears from view, give a very light lift to set the hook and bring him up. This works really well when they are finicky. Also helps to have your bait right in the cloud of burley so they don't consider it too much.

When they're hungry of course, like all through summer it's sabiki down fish up and the tanks full in ten minutes!

I know the lift technique your talking about, I do it myself and hook most of them that way, but trust me, some of these yellowtail around heavily fished areas still wont hook up like that.

Thanks jewgaffer for your tips Ill give them a go. And Ill try the bait jig aswell.

I had in mind to give the tiny hooks a go. Ill definitly try that because they have no choice really but to get the hook down.

Mince meat- its good but these smarties steal it every time and you dont feel a thing.

I used to use a handline years ago and lose a stack of hooked fish aswell. I now use a rod and its definitly the way to go.

Thanks guys, Ill try these techniques out...

[Thunder]

I use the skin colour sabiki jig, and cut it in half as the others have suggested, so there is only 3 hooks.

I have found that when they are fussy, they usually go into a frenzy when burley is dropped over, so we hold the jig directly in the burley and move it up and down. Away from the burley they won't bite, so use a small amount of burley and keep the hooks in it.

The other problem you have is, if you don't get there early, especially the popular spots, dozens of boats have already filled them up on burley and they are no longer hungry. Balmoral is a popular spot, and I found if I dont get there early, they aren't hungry - the poor little buggers are stuffed full of burley.

Therefore, you need to try different spots - where they haven't been given a free meal !!!

Cheers

Greg

[jewgaffer]

That's good information, you are spot on Thunder. No doubt if you have a lot of boats using burley, the area's baitfish do tend to get over fed when they are active. No wonder you can see livies doing very little when you get there late and especially when there is a shortage in the usual bait grounds in the first place.

Cheers

jewgaffer