Poddies

[Juzza]

Just a few more questions on poddies...

When you rig them up through the nose would you put a stinger around the tail of the fish? If the tailor are around i always end up with half poddies ........

Lastly, just to clarify...

Poddies are regarded as 15cm or less and you can keep 20 of them for live bait

Bullys are those that are 30 or more and you can keep 20 of them

Which means you cant keep those that are >15cm and <30cm???

Justin

[mbolton@jsg.com.au]

Morning Juzz,

I don't know how well a stinger hook would work on a live bait, but you never actually said you were losing a live bait i think the mullet would die pretty quickly if you used a stinger live and it wouldn't really swim.

But if you're using a dead mullet sure rig it how ever the hell tou want just make sure you conceal the hook well where possible.

Your assumptions for the size restrictions are pretty much correct yes under 15cm you can only use for live bait, with a bag limit of 20, and sea or Bully mullet are over 30cm, and also a bag limit of 20.

Im not sure why the gap in between apparently at juvenille age, it is extremely dificult to tell the difference between the many different species of mullet but i think only Sea, Bully Mullet may be of only one species of Mullet, as the word Poddy really only refers to the juvenille in any species.

This would explain the gap as well i hope this helps mate, in my head it sounds good and i think i may be correct

Best Regards, Cheers and Beers!!!!

Mick

[jewgaffer]

.......When you rig them up through the nose would you put a stinger around the tail of the fish? If the tailor are around i always end up with half poddies ........

Justin

Hi Juzza Poddies are rather delicate and most fishermen who go to the trouble of catching poddies to use live on flathead, jewfish etc eventually settle into using a single hook and placing it on top of the tail but clear of the section of the spinal cord that runs down thru the centre to the bottom of the tail section..

When hooked thru the tail, the mullet will swim away from you... However, if you are slow trolling or downrigging you don't want that.... whereas if you are drift fishing, you just slow down the drift and let line out in fits and starts to give the bait a slow down a bit and then a take off a bit effect....

When hooked thru the tail, the barb of a hook will be facing the rod tip, so the hook up rate will be much better for head takers that are inclined to drop or spit a bait as the barb will make contact on the way back, rather than having the barb of the hook facing the other way where a bait about to be dropped or spat out where the head taker would only make contact with the roll over of the hook gape and the roll over of the gape of a hook will do next to nothing to actually set the hook....

By the way, Justin see how you go then with your chopper tailor, as tailor attack the tail of a fish first to disable it before ripping it apart and a school of tailor are quite capable of ripping almost any solitary fish apart....

Hope this helps

Cheers

jewgaffer

[King slayer]

I almost always hook livies in the nose or shoulders, including poddies which survive well like this when left stationary.

When tails go missing I just put the hook in the back half of the fish as Jewgaffer said above the lateral line and bang, the tailor will come in.

As far as I know, tailor are the only predator in these waters that attack from behind as a rule. Most others from the head.

I know Gofish pete down rigs mullet, but not sure how he rigs it, Maybe bridled with a rubber band I'd say.

Dave

[andrew399]

I use poddies a fair bit and have always hooked them through the nose. I have had the same problem as you with losing half a bait, in which case i put a double hook rig with the rear hook a small treble that i either bind to the tail with bait mate or stick a treble up its bum. I havnt found that they die any quicker like this but the hook up the bum falls out pretty easy so thats why i started using bait mate.

i think your best option would be to try all of the methods mentioned and see what works for you...

Dicko

[jenno64]

When the water warms up and I get the bigger poddies (around 12-15cm) I use them to target big flathead in summer and autumn. I pin them through the nose and drift with the tide with two rods out of my kayak. Occasionaly a tailor will snip one off in deeper water or squid will ambush them and take a chunk out of the back of their neck but 9 out of 10 turn into decent flatties. I use the wide gap hooks and 90% of fish are hooked through the corner of the mouth safely protecting a 10lb leader. If I'm shore-based then I hook them through near the anal fin. But that's a pain in the arse so kayak fishing wins most of the time.

Edited October 17, 2009 by jenno64

[mikey85m]

I generally hook them through the bottom of the mouth so the tip of the hook is just poking out or just inside the mouth.

[Davemmm]

I hook them through near the anal fin. But that's a pain in the arse

Very amusing

[A.dawg]

i like to hook my poddies with a wide gape hook on the tail for flathead

But when using poddies for jewwies i leave a big hook hanging off and a small 1/0 hook in its mouth