Favourite "multi Purpose" Lure

[nelnarn]

Hi Fellow Raiders,

Have just started fishing outside (Out of Port Hacking up to 5 klm from land) and i noticed today around 9am some brown birds working on top of the water heading north. Whilst there was no fish busting the surface the birds seemed to be following them anyway. I said to my mate to keep an eye on the sounder and sure enough a dark cloud come over the screen which lasted for 3 mins or so. I wanted to drop a lure but wasn't rigged and ready to go.

Was thinking i would like to purchase a specific rod/reel/lure so should the same thing happen again i can quickly have some fun without having to change rigs.

Would appreciate if you could let me know what type of birds we saw today? Any idea of what the fish may have been? And lastly any recomendations for an alround lure that i can have rigged up ready to go should the same thing happen again.

Cheers

Jas

[jewgaffer]

Hi nelnarm, the birds you saw might have been cormorants...... The fish were probably salmon, although they may have been mac tuna or bonito..... When I used to go away and fish with relatives in Qld we would run into a school like that occasionally where the birds were following the activity but not picking up anything...... The school you ran into may have been feeding on a single cell species that I've been told about before but I can't recall the name of , or doing their breeding bit....... Gary Brickman and myself struck the same type of thing when fishing in Broken Bay one time where a massive salmon school was stirring the water up everywhere but kept moving off and bobbing up elsewhere so much that we gave up on them as did the birds.

In regards to a good rod and reel, a Penn Captiva reel which is very poular up north for that type of spinning can be used with say 15-20 lb braid with a Silstar chrystal blue or a Shimano T curve rod to suit would be good value for money, sporty and ideal for the purpose as well as being a good allrounder.

When a school is shy, the hardbody they use up north is a tiny little chromium plated Gillies no7 which is not much bigger than a beatle and will tempt anything that swims to have a go at it.

Hope this helps

Cheers

jewgaffer