Fishing For Slimy Mackerels

[zephi]

Yesterday with such perfect fishing weather decided to head out to Port Hacking to fish for anything..

Saw a lot of large blue mackerels swimming in and out of our berley trail casually and eating everything but the hooked baits. It would always avoid the hooked baits or played with the bait by mouthing and spitting it out, swimming in to check it out then swim away, swim past and hitting the bait and swimming away again.

We were using 6lb berkley vanish with size 8-10 hooks unweighted baits. It was frustrating... does anyone know how to catch these slimies landbased?? Has it got something to do with bright sunny day, very clear water they can see the line too easily? OR maybe they notice the different sinking rate? The fish were about 1.5-2m deep.

Also can lures catch them?

[A.dawg]

The slimmeys at the spot you were fishing are always like that Ever since the first time i fished there slimmeys were always shy. A way i hav found tricks them is a litle larger hook i usually go 4-6 suicides as they hav pretty big mouths. Then catch the yakkas first which are always there.Gut the yakka and use that Flowery yellow part.. cant describe it properly but you'll know when you gut it.. Let it sink unweighted and you will find it sinks alot slower than prawn/pillies or other baits.

Good luck

alan

[AndrewNR]

sabiki bait jigs with a tiny bit of squid on the hooks do the trick

[zen801]

In Mh they can be caught fairly easily with bait jigs loaded with small pillie chunks. There are some nice smaller ones and a few bigger in the mix. look for bait balls on your sounder if in boat.

Mike

[zephi]

A.dawg knows what I'm talking about...What's very funny though is sometimes they would take any baits even on heavier lines.. but on most days they are too timid.

Sabiki rigs won't change much in this situation... I tie my own multihook rigs, with 2-3 hooks on a 6lb line. Using baits like pilchards or w/e... I'm sure these are much better compared with the sabiki rigs?

[AndrewNR]

On Monday they were just outside the harbour and were being caught 4 and 5 at a time on the sabiki rig. Heavy burley and dropped in the middle of the bait ball. Caught heaps but used 2 loaves of bread.

[A.dawg]

its alot harder fishing for slimmeys in the port hacking during the day

Sunset and sunrise they are quite agressive as you'd know at another spot zephi

But It has always been hard getting them duringthe day in the hacking maybe due to the clarity off the water but I find Slower the sink rate off the bait and more oilly the bait then they fall for it

[bluebottle18]

You can try reducing the burly to a trickle to create a bit of competition for the feed.

[hooklineandsinker]

last time i caught them in the hacking was on a jetty i was using a sabiki jig with a bit of squid on them caught hooked about 20 of them

maybe they were just shy that day

cheers mick

[zephi]

On Monday they were just outside the harbour and were being caught 4 and 5 at a time on the sabiki rig. Heavy burley and dropped in the middle of the bait ball. Caught heaps but used 2 loaves of bread.

I fished landbased.. it's completely different to on the boat, but thanks for letting me know that there are plenty of slimies out there.

its alot harder fishing for slimmeys in the port hacking during the day

Sunset and sunrise they are quite agressive as you'd know at another spot zephi

But It has always been hard getting them duringthe day in the hacking maybe due to the clarity off the water but I find Slower the sink rate off the bait and more oilly the bait then they fall for it

I think I gotta try what you did... lol im just wondering do you think a piece of white fat from like chicken or beef (which should sink VERY slowly) work?

Maybe after this heavy rain, it should improve with the water being a bit more murkier.

You can try reducing the burly to a trickle to create a bit of competition for the feed.

The trickle idea is good too, although the problem is... there was so many yakkas in there that the slimies were way too slow to move in. Half a slice of bread disappeared in like 15 seconds.

last time i caught them in the hacking was on a jetty i was using a sabiki jig with a bit of squid on them caught hooked about 20 of them

maybe they were just shy that day

One time I was catching them non-stop too, on heavy leader, and they ate anything we threw at them. BUT I was catching them really deep down.

cheers mick

[A.dawg]

never got em on chicken or beef before usually dont bring much bait to this spot since its got so man much baitfish just bring a yakka from another trip cut it up to catch more yakkas and use there insides for the slimmeys

Giv it a go

When i was there with a mate last monday we got 3 but did hook up alot but dropped em since we were using size 16 daichi hooks Much too small for em but it was all we had other then 1/0

everyone was trying onli 1 other person caught 1 on pilchard but the only bait that worked for us is the guts ....

PS: saw your pic on ur haul off arrows What jig were u using? I want arrows for bait swap u calamari for arrows LOL

[zephi]

never got em on chicken or beef before usually dont bring much bait to this spot since its got so man much baitfish just bring a yakka from another trip cut it up to catch more yakkas and use there insides for the slimmeys

Giv it a go

When i was there with a mate last monday we got 3 but did hook up alot but dropped em since we were using size 16 daichi hooks Much too small for em but it was all we had other then 1/0

everyone was trying onli 1 other person caught 1 on pilchard but the only bait that worked for us is the guts ....

PS: saw your pic on ur haul off arrows What jig were u using? I want arrows for bait swap u calamari for arrows LOL

hahaha... but those arrows were caught ages ago... (in fact at this spot we're talking about). We were using yamashita natural 1.8 brown natural, and a blue yamashita 2.0..

But this was back in summer when they were like everywhere and large schools... Probably cleaned the school out in fact.

Caught 2 the other day at the other spot, where we first met. Using a pink yamashita 2.0... Nowadays there so much harder to find man... it's frustrating. What are you targetting with them?

[A.dawg]

hahaha... but those arrows were caught ages ago... (in fact at this spot we're talking about). We were using yamashita natural 1.8 brown natural, and a blue yamashita 2.0..

But this was back in summer when they were like everywhere and large schools... Probably cleaned the school out in fact.

Caught 2 the other day at the other spot, where we first met. Using a pink yamashita 2.0... Nowadays there so much harder to find man... it's frustrating. What are you targetting with them?

Im catching 1 or two arrows here and there but the main catch is calamari atm i want smaller squid big calamari's are too big for livies. 2.5 red natural color yamas 3.0 brown yozuris 2.0 blue yo zuris and 2.5 pink yama is working best for me... pretty much everything but bright orange yo-suris LOL

The spot we first met is fishing really bad for squid i think its because of the amount off pelagics there atm so many salmon with the occasional tailor and king running around...

heard u got the crystal tip with a stradic Nice combo to stop the kings I need an upgrade... impossible on the gear i curently have

[zephi]

Lol nice job on locating those large calamari... Well just letting yuu know. Both these spots were talking about don't have any squid ATM..... Both spots have too many of those baitfish around which proabably scare off those squid.

Yeah mannn I have to agreed with you... Orange ain't doing any good atm.... Caught Jack sheet on it lol. Best jig for us is pink, natural brown, dark coloured jigs and blue. Lately haven't even had any livebaits gettin killed by squid... That's how crappy those spots are.

I'm not even fishing in the right spots for squid... I'm more after those large pelagics... But lately has been pretty dead (like not even bream, blackies

or trevs) so resorted to getting baitfish =.="

but wouldn't mind an odd squid or two. Cuz like who can resist squid hahha.

yeah crystal blue power tip. I love that rod.... Still I haven't caught anything on it yet. Although my stradic has with my old retired rod.

We need to go for another fish togetheer man...

Have u got yur mob yet? U can pm me ur number and we'll talk via pm instead of making this thread offtopic.

Edited July 29, 2010 by zephi

[monch]

Lucky seeing yakkas let alone slimies there, couldn't see any around yesterday, although i didn't even bother bringing bread.

And i'm pretty sure we get the shit end of the stick trying to get slimies landbased. They just seem so much more finicky than out at sea with the boaties pulling in string loads on sabiki jigs. I swear we are being much more stealthy with light line, no weight, tiny hooks and slow wafting baits into a nice trickle of bread berley. I have had more luck in the past with getting small slimies than larger ones though.. guess they are less wary and shy at a young age like most.

And again, no squid, i swear i was pulling in at least 1 large squid every squid session this time last year.

[A.dawg]

Lucky seeing yakkas let alone slimies there, couldn't see any around yesterday, although i didn't even bother bringing bread.

And i'm pretty sure we get the shit end of the stick trying to get slimies landbased. They just seem so much more finicky than out at sea with the boaties pulling in string loads on sabiki jigs. I swear we are being much more stealthy with light line, no weight, tiny hooks and slow wafting baits into a nice trickle of bread berley. I have had more luck in the past with getting small slimies than larger ones though.. guess they are less wary and shy at a young age like most.

And again, no squid, i swear i was pulling in at least 1 large squid every squid session this time last year.

Hey monch I saw u fishing yesterday was going to ask if u were a raider.... I moved to a different spot due to the place being so packed..

[zephi]

totally agree about not seeing ant yakkas there haha... there's no right sized livebaits there... haven't seen any for over a month in fact.

Monch are you like always fishing at that spot?? well I haven't seen any calamari squid around since those little baitfish have been around there. Although have landed 2 x arrows.