Techniques For Fishing The Sydney Fads

[rehab]

Hi All,

Im off to try both the wide and the close FADS tomorrow morning, I remember a few posts about fishing them, can someone point me in the right direction?

At this stage I was thinking about cubing with pillies, trolling with skirts and flicking soft plastics?

With the pillies, do you just toss them out unweighted?

Can someone provide some advice who has fished them before?

Ill be targeting dollies

Cheers

[Captain Spanner]

I normally start from botany so i normally go to the close FAD (Sydney East FAD i think) 1st and the Botany wide FAD next (Why drive twice as far if the fish are in close). Keep an eye on the weather and dont take risks.

The weather looks good for the morning and the noreaster wouldn't be too bad to come home with if you're coming from the Hacking or Botany Bay but it doens't look too bad anyway.

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/nsw.asp

FAD location from the fisheries website

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recrea...twater/fads/map

Sydney East 33° 59.316' South 151° 20.951' East (Closest Port Botany Bay – 9.5km 98m deep )

Botany Bay Wide 33° 59.672' South 151° 26.743' East (Closest Port Botany Bay - 16km 140m deep)

Sydney South 34° 07.658' 151° 23.254' (Closest Port Port Hacking. I was there a couple of weeks ago its about 20km from the entrance to the Hacking.)

All of these are valid methods. If you want to catch a big one then pulling livies around the area and trolling them down current past the FAD, (try them down deep too if required) is probably your best bet. Or you could also try pulling skirts (I like dark colours especially with purple) or different lures around when you get there or get near it.

If you just want to catch one i'd start at least 50m up current from the FAD and cast out unweighted pillies and throw a few cubes or at least some form of burley over as soon as you cast out and keep burleying as you drift past the FAD and continue for at least 100m or so past the FAD. By doing this sometimes you can take some of the school with you. I'd normally use a half pillie on a 6/0 or a whole pille on 2 6/0's (the top one just slides free above the bottom one) rigged upside down with a hitch around the tail to keep it straight. Last time i used octopus circle hooks because even the little fellas have pretty sharp teeth. Circles aren't necessary, i was just experimenting but they did work well and my leaders lasted longer. I just give them a couple of seconds to take it down (with a bait runner) or at least let them take up the slack before smoothly adding pressure to set the hook when using circles. Last time i went i used 40lb fluro leader which is overkill for the little guys but they weren't afraid of it.

You can have a livie out while doing this but just make sure he doesn't misbehave too much and turn all the other lines into a new net. (another favourite past time of livies is to swim around the wrong side of the FAD if you drift too close)

You can try flicking plastics, chromies, poppers and whatever else you want as you drift past. Dont be afraid to drop Knife jigs down near it.

remember they are often in a school so only have as many rods out at a time that the number of people in the boat can control. (eg if you are by yourself and you have three rods out think about what you would do if they all went off at once)

There will most likely be other boats doing similar things and you will see they will sort of take it in turns drifting past the FAD and staying out of each others way (in theory). Just wait your turn and jump in the line keeping a reasonable (just think how close you would like people to your boat) distance from the other boats and try not to drive though peoles burley trails I use a sea anchor to slow my drift when its windy, this gives you more time in the strike zone.

Dont be surprised to see Rat Kings and Striped Tuna around the FAD either.

good luck

[rehab]

Thanks CFD, I wasnt aware of the new limits, but rest assured, I have no intention of keeping the little ones, they would only be a month or two old given that they grow 1cm a day at peak!

Ill report back in later tomorrow, let you know how I went

Do you agree with the Captain in regards to the heavier leader?

Again, I am only fishing with 4kg braid

Edited March 2, 2009 by rehab

[lighthouse2k]

Regular size you can use 20lb fluro no worries. They are not that big, they don't go as hard as a king and they can only wrap you around the fad at best. Obviously up size with a big bait.

[Captain Spanner]

Thanks CFD, I wasnt aware of the new limits, but rest assured, I have no intention of keeping the little ones, they would only be a month or two old given that they grow 1cm a day at peak!

Ill report back in later tomorrow, let you know how I went

Do you agree with the Captain in regards to the heavier leader?

Again, I am only fishing with 4kg braid

Lighter leader is fine. I was just saying that they weren't deterred by it on that day and if you feel more comfortable with a heavier leader just in case a bigger one swallows it down. As mentioned 20lb or even 15lb would be fine for the smaller ones. Im sure people use alot lighter ones on bream gear for fun.

[rehab]

Went out this morning...

Thought it was perfect conditions until we rounded the heads and the NE was already well into it, very uncomfortable out there today.

As soon as we got within 100 metres of the FAD all three lines popped with multiple hits from small dollies

They were everywhere, free jumping around the fad, chasing our lures, bait fish etc

Very aggressive little things arent they? We only got one keeper which was right on 60cms, the rest went back.

Also picked up a heap of undersize kings under the fad on plastics.

Only went to the closer FAD due to the weather, and took them on a combination of trolling, plastics and pillies.

The current was out of control, extremely hard to stay near the FAD..

Also hooked something rather large which almost spooled us before we snapped off, probably an XOS King judging by the way it was fighting

Thanks to all for all the help!

Cheers

Rehab

Edited March 3, 2009 by rehab

[sanger]

Good to see you got some results! Dollies are definitely one of my favorites to catch! I never get tired of the colors on those things!

[rehab]

Good to see you got some results! Dollies are definitely one of my favorites to catch! I never get tired of the colors on those things!

Once you eat them, they taste almost as good as they look!

[Kiwi Dan]

Hi guys,

Just a couple questions if people dont mind answering.

I want to give the fad a go, do you think it would be okay for me to get there in my 15ft centre console with 40hp on the back. Obviously ill be only going in the right conditions etc

How much longer is the FAD out there and how much longer do the dollies normally hang around for?

Is it wise to have a livie down deep on my downrigger as im drifting past the fad?

Id like to head to the nearest FAD outside of Sydney heads, how many kms is it from there?

Any help would be appreciated.

[rehab]

Hi guys,

Just a couple questions if people dont mind answering.

I want to give the fad a go, do you think it would be okay for me to get there in my 15ft centre console with 40hp on the back. Obviously ill be only going in the right conditions etc

How much longer is the FAD out there and how much longer do the dollies normally hang around for?

Is it wise to have a livie down deep on my downrigger as im drifting past the fad?

Id like to head to the nearest FAD outside of Sydney heads, how many kms is it from there?

Any help would be appreciated.

It was my first time there yesterday, and we went out in a 20 ft aluminium, i think in a 15ft it would be extremely uncomfortable and if you had gone yesterday, probably dangerous.

On a calm day it would be no problem at all, it is only 10 k's from the heads, the other ones is over 20 kilometres away

On another note, we heard boats trying to get the coastguard up for about 2 hours, i dont know what was going on, but they werent answering yesterday thats for sure

The current was racing through yesterday, it was running like a river, made it very hard to stay on the fad