fishing the port

[ifonly]

hello everyone, I have been fishing the hacking a fair bit lately and ive had a fair bit of fun i have caught some small trevally, leaping bonito, bonito and lost a few rat kings on my light gear. but wats really bugging me is the schools of mac that are busting up bait schools all over the place at the moment i have been fishing from a tinny so im making sure not to scare them off casting small metal to the sides of the school tried different retrives all i have had is one follow it across the top fairly close to the boat come at it and then turn around. The lures i have used are a 20 gram raider, and a smaller 10 gram metal that looks more like a tiny baitfish and is white. I have been trying south west arm gymea and yowie bays when they ae breaking the surface. What am i doing wrong and what can i do to catch one of these things.

thanks guys

[Morgs84]

G'day Mate,

not sure if youve tried it but give a small/medium size hardbody lure a troll around. ive got a rapala one green and yellow witha silver bib that worked well.

are you sure they are macks? they might be frigates which look similar, i got a few of them last year trolling around a 5 inch gulp jerk shad in nuke chicken at slow pace, sounds wierd but i picked up heaps of them and a few kingys aswell.

Good Luck

Let us know when you jag one,

Morgs

[Basil D]

The bait schools these fish are hitting are quit small and you have to have a small white or shiny metal lure to match the size of these bait say 3cm or there abouts, I have bought small white plastics and had suxcess.

[Yowie]

Most of those fish are frigate mackerel now, bonito have just about moved on. Some days they will not bite at any lures at all, so you will have to persevere with small lures. Could also try a 3 or 5 gram metal slice, as they are about the same size as the baitfish.

Yowie.

[ifonly]

thanks guys i think i will give south west arm a go one morning this weekend i will be shore to let you know how i go. As for trolling hardbodies morgs ive only ever seemed to catch the bigger sized rogue tailor or bonito on them never had any luck with any other fish but i have a few rapalas that have seemed to work well so i will try that around where they breaking up the surface the other day if theres not as much action.

cheers, ifonly

[Davemmm]

The bait schools these fish are hitting are quit small and you have to have a small white or shiny metal lure to match the size of these bait say 3cm or there abouts, I have bought small white plastics and had suxcess.

I had a little bit of success last year with really small white and green softys on really small jigheads (about 1/32). A bit hard to cast any distance but they dont sink real quick and its bloody hard to cast plastics that small with no weight

Dave

[ifonly]

I have heard that frigates are hard to catch, ive never caught one before im not sure sure what the fish are as i have done my research and they do look very similar so i cannot be sure what they where. Dave would you happen to know the brands of those plastics as i dont know any brands further than gulp and squigies bit of an amatuer when it comes to plastics. and i surpose that is the advantage of the small metals they still dont weigh as much but they cast like a bullet!

thanks guys

[johnny doi]

They might well b mack tuna as me & a mate hav caught a few in sth west arm fishn landbased.we trek through the bush right to the end where the big bay is at the end of the chanels.how we'v caught em is wif tiny 5gm metals,clear or white 3in minnow plastics on light jigheads.anotha good way is to get em feedn on burley of pilly cubes or fish scraps,then float a unweightd pilly cube in the burley trail on light leader(around 8lb) & u should pik up a couple.u can fish light for em as thy dnt fight dirty like kings so u can jus play em out til thyr ready to b landed.we fish the arm frm shore,but cos ur on a tinny,u dnt hav to worry bout em cuttn u off on oyster coverd rocks wen cums time to landn em.giv those ways a go & im sure ul get in2 em.fast retreive on the surface or jus undr wif the metals to get em excited & competitive,& a fast erractic twitchn retreive wif the plastic.hope ths helps.good luck. Cheers johnny. P.s.sorry for the long reply.lol.