rportelli Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Anyone been out on sydney reefs last few days? Last trip found hoards of leather jackets between good fish. Even got some kings but jackets were a pest. Looking to get out there Thursday/Friday.Painful having to re-rig and also lose braid and sinkers! Found moving around a bit you can get away at times from these guys. Anyone know if they hang around all winter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGF Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Well they r still around got done by em on the weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rportelli Posted July 6, 2010 Author Share Posted July 6, 2010 Might head out friday as the weather looks better. Anyone found drifting works better from north to south rather than from south to north? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Over the last couple of days the conditions have gone from dead flat to lumpy. The current was still running pretty hard from the North but wind has been west south west. This has made drift fishing hard by either turning the boat in circles when the wind dropped but then drifted us into the current when the wind picked up. We always find fishing better with wind on current not against. Also the Northern faces of reef seem to be fishing better than the Southern ends, I think because of the current and the fish facing into the current looking for food.... There are plenty of rat kings about and a few nice ones mixed in. We even found a few surface feeding kings down south the other day off the Hacking. Got smoked a few times on bigger fish on 30lb tackle.... Heaps of bonnies mixed in too. The Jackets We went down on a exploritory run down the National Park last Friday in beautiful conditions. Down at Coal Cliff area in just over an hour when traveling at 41kn! Found some whales(always good luck with my snappering when we see them). 40m of water out go's a bay rubber, 30secs later rattle rattle, wind up and only the head left, no rubber and no hooks! Looking at the sounder the bloody things were coming up to the boat! Look over the side and all ya see is a cloud of yellow! Bloody jackets. Anything over 20m had jackets.... 2 monster smokings in 6m by nice snappers and a few little pannies to the boat and we pulled the pin. 250lt of fuel later we were back home...... There are some monster squid out so make sure you have a squid jig at the ready, they have been hitting plastics and we have switched them over to the squid jig when they follow them up. had 8 nice ones around a kilo each in one session! Good luck out there Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rportelli Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 Yea just noticed sem to catch better fish with a northerly blowing wind and drift. Sick of leathers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PPSGT Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Running twin 250 Etec at 41 knots for a hour must put a dent in the wallet, would be fun though Hate to think what they would using at your max 54 knots if you ran for a hour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Running twin 250 Etec at 41 knots for a hour must put a dent in the wallet, would be fun though Hate to think what they would using at your max 54 knots if you ran for a hour Ummm about 165lt per hour combined Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cogo44 Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 The bloody jackets have been pretty much ever present for the lsast five years! You do get some respite from them but we had our worst day's fishing for years two weekends ago when the jackets were literally waiting under the boat to attack the jigs on the way down. I suspect that they will be around for some time to come. I have heard they don't like it when the water gets too cold but I have seen scant evidence of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rportelli Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 Looking at the weather might wait till Monday now. Frustrating. Last trip at least threw on some wire leader and kept a few for a feed. Imagine how much lead is on the bottom of those reefs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olitay Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Ummm about 165lt per hour combined Jeepers, i thought my Cevvy could drink! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 It's the tackle companies I tells ya!! They have a secret offshore leather jacket breeding program so they eat everyones tackle so we have to buy more! Well that's our latest theory on Next Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 This is the rig I use when the jackets hit. Have not lost a rig yet. Two black wire traces , nothing shiny like brass swivels which attract them. They can bite the sinker , thinking it's something to eat but on wire unlikely to be bitten off. Next time your bitten off , it will most likely be just above or below a brass swivel or the line near the sinker. Using black swivels & ptotecting the sinker location with a wire trace should reduces the losses considerably Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 When fishing plastics with braid, leader knot and then jig/plastic, why do they bite the braid so far up the line? Last week I lost a shed load of braid, one drop in 40m I wound in less than 10 turns of the handle worth and that was it! No where near the leader and we don't fish baits so it's not bait on the line anywhere???? Or jigging at the moments the same, one of my reels needs to respool after 5 drops in 100m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 When fishing plastics with braid, leader knot and then jig/plastic, why do they bite the braid so far up the line? Interesting question. I can only guess , maybe they were hiting any thing they came across. What colour braid were you using. I only use dark green. Maybe that's less attractive or noticable than other colours Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
framedtrash Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 also depends on what knot you tie to connect your main line to the leader some of the larger knots can cause bubble trails and the jackets attack them and if you have been eating food as you fish the oils from the food get onto your hands and then onto your line and the jacktets attack your line pesky little thing hopefully they stay away from my lines this weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 At the moment I use a multi coloured braid, it's green, brown and white. The knots are small as we only fish 20lb leaders and weights are pretty light so I don't think it would be from bubble trails. All I know is I don't want to fall into the water when theres a cloud of them under the boat! G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Spanner Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Greg if you're plastic fishing you could easily have gulp juice on your line from rigging plastics on the jigheads. In the jigging sitiuation and any other (includiong plastics or even slow trolling) for that matter i think it is extremely possible that tiny pieces of weed, kelp, anything at all that may be in the water gets temporarily wrapped around or stuck to your line for even a second and they eat it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plazmaman Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 (edited) GregL Your theory about the tackle companies being in with the leaver jackets is correct, they are Chinaman Leather jackets. Edited July 8, 2010 by Plazmaman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Hammond Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 With leatherjackets you have to avoid touching your line anywhere as it puts the scent of whatever you have been using - bait or plastics on it and they bite it there. I have noticed as well that they seem to like multi-coloured braid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 GregL Your theory about the tackle companies being in with the leaver jackets is correct, they are Chinaman Leather jackets. Maybe that's why I got done so many times the other day.... I was the only asian on the boat! Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tld517 Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 I have used different colours and types of fishing lines without any successs. It appeared that they bite off everything in their way especially by tiny ones when they swarm up near the surface or under the boat. The condition was worst in years during the last weekend. However, sometime the culprit are green toads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plazmaman Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Love the humour Greg and your boat with two 250 Etecs is something Special. I read or seen something about a plague of leather jackets in the 1930s I think where you could not catch or commercially trap any fish for the leather jackets, I did a quick search but could not find any information on the subject . Has anybody else heard of the leather jacket problem in the past or talked to fisheries or commercial fisherman so we have a better understanding of the problem? Regards, Oyay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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