Land-based Harbour Night Session

[paulthetaffy]

Hello Raiders!!

My first post here as I'm new to the community - hopefully the first of many!

I started fishing middle harbour about a year ago after moving from the UK so the species and techniques are all very new to me. I'm learning lots very fast thanks to friendly locals and the raider forum and think I've become competent fishing my local MH spots during the day (Balmoral, Clifton Gardens, Clontarf, Bradley's Head, Cremorne Pt, Kurraba etc).

However I'm planning a night session this weekend and so I'm looking for some a advice as to what to target, as I've only had a couple of previous night sessions with mixed success. The big motivation here is that I've persuaded the to join me and I would really like to put her on to fish that will provide us with a feed (thinking snapper, bream, flathead are most likely).

My day-light approach at this time of year has been mainly pillie cubes with a lightly weighted running ball sinker for trevally and occasional bream on one rod, and a half/whole pille on a second rod for the occasional bonus flathead or larger trev. The last couple of weeks has seen the occasional salmon / tailor school busting up within casting distance too so I would switch to metals / unweighted whole pillies to target them (had a clonker 4Kg Salmon this way at Bradleys this week).

I fished Clontarf, Cremorne, and Kurraba a few times and found I got molested by picker snapper. So I had the idea to try back there at night to see if I could pick up a bigger specemin. Sure enough on my first attempt I had a 1 Kg snapper and lost another similar size on the way back in. That was fishing pillie cubes at high tide at sunset at Karruba Pt. I tried a similar tact at Blues Point for one flatty and nothing else.

So I guess I have a few questions.:

1) Was the snapper a fluke or am I right to assume that the bigger specemins will feed at night where the pickers do not?

2) Is it even worth targetting snapper at these deep MH locations or am I more likely to catch a feed targeting flatties, bream, or trevs somewhere with more structure like Balmoral (given that it will be a night)?

3) Do daylight tactics (rigs, berley, bait) transfer well to night fishing or do I need to adopt a different approach?

4) Is it worth trying a bait under a float (whole pille, fresh squid, livie) for a bonus salmon / kingy / tailor or is this more likely to work during daylight?

I think I'm fairly limited to these kinds of locations as I need somewhere "comfortable" to take the missus so any advice on these spots at night is welcome!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[brickman]

i mainly fish at night for live bait yakkas and squid for snapper bait. fishing just before sunup and on

but a little trick i used to use for bream at night when using nippers was dip the baited hook in tuna oil just before you cast it out the bream would go berko for it up at morriset

for tailor i used to put a star light 6 inches above the hooks and slowly retreve

you might like to try glow beads as wellyou need a light to charge them up

you will proberly get a pike at night fillet the back bone out leaving two fillets attached to the head and chuck it back out for a jew

take a bait catching jig with you and put tiny peaces off pilly fillets on the hooks and that will keep the busy and you with heaps off live bait

cheers gary

[paulthetaffy]

Thanks for the tips. Love the idea of the bait-catching rig for the missus

So putting livies at night are worth a shot then? I'm guessing I want them on the bottom along the edge of the drop off to some deep water rather than under a float?

[hcwang]

ive had guys take fish when i couldn't and it seemed to be be because they were using glowsticks. Definitely bring a few

How long are glow beads meant to last for? I charge em up for a while but they really only glow bright for a minute max, then dull down.

[brickman]

having a livey under a float will proberly get smacked by tailor i would run a paternoser rig but instead of a 3 way swivel i would use a single swivel and a ring above it with the bait line tyed to the ring this lets the livey run up or down and it can swim around a bit more freely it's important to leave a fair bow in the main line so even though the sinker is hard on the bottom the livey can swim around in a wider area not just in circles and up and down

the above rig is what i use for jew and is a set and forget set up but it's only what i use there are plenty more rigs that would work as well if not better just my personal preferance as i'm a lazy fisherman and i find if you hold a jew rod all night you will become a bitter fisherman from lack off action for me i'll traget what ever is there at the time and have a jew set up sitting there on the off chance one shows up

regarding glow beads;i'm not a big fan and they do go dull fairly quickly just a quick buzz with the head light when you rebait

having said that i use them in the day time with live shrimp targeting bass and they work a treat

cheers gary

ps i'm going out tomorow morning should be at the east wedding cake by 3.00am then to long reef at 4.30am and then the close fad at 9.30am will be floating peeled prawns down a berly trail at the wedding cake for bream just before high tide

Edited November 10, 2009 by brickman

[hcwang]

geez garry those are some serious hours!