A General Question About Tailor

[FishDrought]

G'Day Raiders.

Now not having a lot of Tailor fishing experience I was of the opinion that the best time to catch them was from dawn to afternoon & in relatively calm water, looking for current lines where they could ball up the bait fish.

My mate & I were heading out dusk/night on Saturday through Botany which was quite choppy to be honest, I couldn't make out a current line to save myself & Tailor kept smashing well into the dark. this was great for us as we had ball hooking them up & they all well above legal.

My questions are does this mean that Tailor are basically hunting in schools day & night? and the turbulence of the water does not effect them either? are they fishing myths?

I readily acknowledge these may be very stupid questions but I would appreciate any opinions.

I have a lot to learn & not enough day's on the water to learn it.

Cheers

Jason

[Basil D]

HI Champ, Ive been catching tailor all my life, I have caught them in rivers, syndey harbour and around warves, off cliffs, off roccks, near the heads, in the middle of botany bay and off beaches, yes they do hunt in schools and the best time is morning ir evening , I have caught them with pillies, live bait, lures.

[Dangas]

Im pretty sure that turbulence doesnt affect tailor. Ive caught them from white wash near rock ledges and cliff walls where there are big swells. A lot of people also catch them in surf on beaches as well. Ive had catches in the middle of the day but theyre prob more actively feeding at change of light periods.

[saltrix]

Tailor schools are around headlands, beaches, channels, at all sorts of times, and when they have bait fish bailed up is the best time to catch them. As said this is usually dawn and dusk.

To really get amongst them I fish the entrance to Sydney Harbour at the edge of the channel inside South Head from dusk to about 9pm, preferably with an incoming tide, and keeping out of the shipping channels, and from Feb to April they can usually be caught to their bag limit. The trick is to use berley to bring them around and fish with unweighted pilchards. Half pilchards will do once they are on. Not much sport as I just use a few metres of heavy handline with ganged hooks but they fill the freezer and we enjoy eating them. Sometimes a small sinker is needed, and once in a while they dont appear but they are pretty consistant. There are probably similar locations in Botany bay.

They are best bled and then kept in an ice slurry. Leaving them for a few hours in a tub means they are not the best for eating. To freeze, fillet and wash in salty water and seal in plastic, and freeze quickly.

Edited November 9, 2009 by saltrix

[Evets]

Hi Guys,

I have discovered that in my neck of the woods they bite best when there is some tidal flow.

In an estuary I sometimes fish in I can follow the changing tide in my boat and catch them all day long. As the tide falls I follow it down river and target tailor and flatties with soft plastics or tailor fillets.

By this time I am near the river mouth. I anchor up and have a bite to eat / cat nap. When the tide turns and starts to come in ( preferably after dark) I follow it back up the river. Sure enough as the water starts to flow the tailor come back on the bite. While Im doing this I chuck a tailor back out as a livie (less half a fin). This is deadly for jewies

Steve

[jewiehaven]

Like Groper I have caught Taylor all of my life, from Beaches and Headlands and also now in Parramatta River I got one 40cm the other night.

All of mine have been caught with pilchards and metal slices or on trolled garfish for the bigger models.

The only times I have caught them in numbers is early morning (just prior and just after sunrise) or late evening (after or arouns sunset), the best times are Spring and Autumn.

Taylor are often hanging out with Salmon and Kingies, so if you find a school of Sambo's the Taylor will not be far away, and neither will the Kingies.

They will chew throughout the day if there is plenty of frog mouthed pilchards and whitebait around but normally from my experience they are at the peak of the bite early morning and late afternoon through to around 10pm-ish, after this time you might get individual catches of the bigger Taylor but they will be less frequent.

Hope this helps

[FishDrought]

Thanks for that guy's, I appreciate all the info & will get out there shortly to try the tips out.

#By the way looking out at the Harbour from the office window I saw a large number of gulls hitting the water between Mrs Macquaries Chair & the very last moored naval ship this afternoon..