Live Baiting The Beaches

[donjuarez]

Hi All,

Thinking of catching some yakkas and or squid, tranporting them to the beach, and hopefully latch on to mr jew for a run and some headshakes...

Wondering if anyone uses live bait at the beaches, and how you send them out? weighted? unweighted? long cast? short cast?

I'm guessing some weight will be required to place them where I want them, and keep them there, so was thinking of rigging up as I would with Dead baits... but possibly go down a sinker size or 2...

Any thoughts?

How are other raiders sending their livies out?

AJ

Edited July 9, 2008 by throw me a fish

[capo dei capi]

hey AJ

i go beach quite abit,,, but ive never actually used live baits,, i think though that if u rig them as u do a dead bait they will not last as long... the yakkas might go alright,, not too sure about the squid because of the waves...

good luck let me know wat happens

[jewgaffer]

.......How are other raiders sending their livies out?

AJ

Hi throw me a fish. When I beach fish, I use a running ball sinker to a swivel and place a soft lumo bead between the sinker and the swivel to protect the knot from percussion from the sinker.

I find that a leader length of 750mm is spot on. A 750mm leader allows for a nice feel in the rod swing and gives also a longer cast with a well balanced sinker and a livie on .

The sinker weight needs to suit the best casting distance you can get out of the particular beach rod. When testing for sinker size, there's good margin there but it's not so critical, just take the average weight of the livies into account, where the rod feels good closest to the minimum casting weight.

Cheers

jewgaffer

AJ Using live bait is one of the keys to catching jewfish - particularly off a beach. If your transporting livies for a night of beach fishing (catch a suppy off a jetty in the afternoon), it would pay to buy a live bait aerator and a small lightweight 12v battery with a carry strap or handle. That's essential stuff and you can get a good aerator with alligator leads plus 12v battery quite cheap these days.

Good luck mate and I hope all the head shakes are not your own

[donjuarez]

Hi throw me a fish. When I beach fish, I use a running ball sinker to a swivel and place a soft lumo bead between the sinker and the swivel to protect the knot from percussion from the sinker.

I find that a leader length of 750mm is spot on. A 750mm leader allows for a nice feel in the rod swing and gives also a longer cast with a well balanced sinker and a livie on .

The sinker weight needs to suit the best casting distance you can get out of the particular beach rod. When testing for sinker size, there's good margin there but it's not so critical, just take the average weight of the livies into account, where the rod feels good closest to the minimum casting weight.

Cheers

jewgaffer

AJ Using live bait is one of the keys to catching jewfish - particularly off a beach. If your transporting livies for a night of beach fishing (catch a suppy off a jetty in the afternoon), it would pay to buy a live bait aerator and a small lightweight 12v battery with a carry strap or handle. That's essential stuff and you can get a good aerator with alligator leads plus 12v battery quite cheap these days.

Good luck mate and I hope all the head shakes are not your own

Byron.. a wealth of knowledge and ideas as usual mate... always a pleasure to hear what you've got to contribute.. thanks again!

Thats exactly the plan, some yakkas off a jetty, and once i've got a handful of those through out some squid jigs and hope for a couple of them too...

aerator - check!

12V - check!

Hope to report some headshakes other than my own... given the cold front i'll be facing.. hope it all goes to plan! otherwise there will be some serious head shaking!

Cheers,

AJ

Edited July 9, 2008 by throw me a fish

[slinkymalinky]

G'day AJ,

I did a bit of livebaiting over a couple of years off Seven Mile Beach near Shoalhaven Heads. It was meant to be for a Jewie although I only managed a bunch of sharks (up to about 2m!) from a favourite gutter formation just south of the surf club.

I picked up some tips from a local and used tailor caught on the beach. then hooked them up under the tail with a single hook, no lead. Pop them in the gutter and they swim out with the current into the deep water in the gutter. They never lasted long. Had one afternoon session (when I met the local guy) where between us we hooked 7 sharks in 2 hours, got bitten off by about the same number again on the bite, and landed 3 on mono trace (I got one about 4kg and another about 10kg, he got one 7' long!). All this with a bunch of people swimming between the flags about 200m away. If only they knew.

I never got my Jewie but boy it was fun. You just know that anything you catch will be a serious fish!

Good luck, Slinky

[donjuarez]

hooked them up under the tail with a single hook, no lead. Pop them in the gutter and they swim out with the current into the deep water in the gutter.

Thanks Slinky... now you've really got me excited!

What size hooks were being used for sending out the Tailor Live? nothing short of an 8/0 I'd imagine?

Cheers,

AJ

[jewgaffer]

Hi AJ I have live bait hooks rigged and ready on lengths of kids swimming pool "noodles" to suit the particular live bait size.

You definately do not need to have a small immature livie penetrated with big 8/0s or 10/0's and have your bait appear as all hooks, and besides that, it's hard for small livies to survive the big jew hooks, particulary in the surf where they die easily and uncut dead baits can quite often be useless baits where large exposed flesh baits or a combination of small live baits fillets pinned in a straight line using an extra hook to get length may well work as good as anything.

I have quite a few short shank 3/0s and 4/0s rigged up ready and other rigs made up and kept on noodles for the purpose including drop shot surf paternostas made to have two standout arms. This particular rig, although wire, still suits and slows down a livie on the top and you can have a bait on the hook below that.

Should I only find small yellowtail, mullet, herring etc, the 8/0s and 10/s are far too big for the bait and

the fish dies too quickly, even when penetrated thru the tail, as the spine area is their life line and there is not enough meat to take a big hook. When the bait struggles to swim which is what you want, or with a long cast into the swell, the bait might come off, and when a small livie struggles, the outside flesh tears too easily at the hole where the hook goes in.

Slinky's method of hooking a live bait thru the tail, lightly weighted is a very good one for using mature live bait as Slinky infers. For small live bait I use a couple of strong 3/0 live bait hooks. When using poddy mullet and keeping them alive, you have to settle on a couple of extra strong 2/0s pinned thru the back section wherever is safe for the fish and where the hook will stay firm the best, and have the second hook, or a small extra strong treble hanging loose. For lightly weighted casting as mentioned by Slinky, I use an old Jarvis Walker and a Silstar beach rod which both have sensitive tips with good backbone, to get good distance with the small livies, using the lightest weights possible. Otherwise I cast out the bigger livies as far as possible, having weighted up my heavier rods with whatever running lead is necessary to hang the tip down nicely just at the point where the lead and the bait gives a good feel to the rod. If there is any need to change weights at all, a clip on running sinker set up is fast and easy.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited July 10, 2008 by jewgaffer

[donjuarez]

Perfect!

now to try and put it all into practice in the freezing conditions on offer at 3am Saturday morning

Wish me luck!

[yting]

I pin my yaka through the back just below the lateral line. I've found if done correctly, they will die of old age unless something should happen to grab them first. I've even let them go after an unsuccessful jew session. Not sure if they've survived though. I found in summer, if I rigged it wrong it dies quickly then gets hammered by tailor.

Nath

[slinkymalinky]

Thanks Slinky... now you've really got me excited!

What size hooks were being used for sending out the Tailor Live? nothing short of an 8/0 I'd imagine?

Cheers,

AJ

Spot on mate. I always work to the idea of matching hook size to bait size and most of the tailor went out with a 9/0 heavy wire octopus hook. I found the offset octopus hooks were less likely to dig back into the bit when inserted from the side so that the barb was then 'away from' the bait. Since I wasn't towing my bait there was no need to use a straight 'live bait style' hook.

Cheers, Slinky