Tailor off the beach 14/7/2012

[wchh]

Arrived at Mona Vale beach 5:30 pm to meet my fishing buddy who I fish regularly with. The beach was calm with occasional wave breaking about 50 meters from the shore. Due to there was no obvious rip to connect the gutter to deep water, was not hoping any thing big.

First fish was a ~45 cm tailor perfectly hooked at the lower jaw by the 3/0 circle hook which I just started to experiment last week. Second fish was a monster PJ that took me a good 10 minutes to drag onto the sand. This fish nearly straightened the hook and made me soak in sweat after the battle. No picture of the fish but at about 1.2 m long it surely was the biggest PJ I ever caught.

In the next two hours I switched between circle hook and suicide hooks (on wire leader) to see which fits better for tailor. My result was 2 tailors caught with circle hook (one of them swallowed the hook), 3 tailors caught with my Suicide hook system (6/0 and 3/0 suicide hooks on wire leader). A note to be made one fish failed to hook up on the circle hook, possibly due to the bait was obstructing the tip of the hook; the fish was recaptured after I quickly changed to the suicide hook system.

Add to the tally was a flathead fell victim to a strip of tailor on 6/0 circle hook I put out for something big at the later stage of the fishing.

I fished with 1 rod; bait used was fillet of yellow tail I bought from a fish shop in Eastwood.

As I said, I just started to experiment the circle hooks recommended/guided by my fishing buddy, still trying to figure out how to put the strip bait onto the hook and make it stay firm. In order to achieve the goal not to leave any obstruction between the tip and the shank, I was hooking the strip/fillet about 8~10 mm from the edge with tip of hook exit from the skin side, in the dark I guess I lost a few bait at casting without knowing and only found there was no bait on the hook after about 10 minutes with no bite.

Below are pictures of my share of fish. Biggest tailor was 54cm which needs to be bent a bit to fit into the polyfoam broccoli box. This tailor gave me the chance to update my PB for tailor from 49 cm to 54 cm.

My cleaning table is 63cm X 43 cm. lengthes of fish in picture were: 54cm, 50cm, 46 cm, 37cm (blue spotted flathead)

Charles

Edited July 15, 2012 by ABCfisho

[rjc123]

Nice work mate! Lovely tailor!

[Spooooled]

Solid tailor mate and great work on new pb

[fisholb]

Well done mate...im also testing circle hooks from size 1/0 to 6/0...also have problems with bait coming off the hook when casting...

[rjc123]

Well done mate...im also testing circle hooks from size 1/0 to 6/0...also have problems with bait coming off the hook when casting...

I find baits stay on better with circle hooks. When using strip baits of mullet, squid and the likes you need to put the hook through once (enter on skin side) and then pull it out the other side. Then just put half the hook back through it a little further up the bait. Works for me.

[wchh]

Nice work mate! Lovely tailor!

Thanks Mate, the beach produces different beach every week. I bagged out on salmons two weeks ago and yesterday it was all about tailors.

[wchh]

Solid tailor mate and great work on new pb

Apart from two species are from Winda Woppa, all other PBs I kept on record are from Northern Beaches.

[wchh]

Well done mate...im also testing circle hooks from size 1/0 to 6/0...also have problems with bait coming off the hook when casting...

I have read a lot tips about "how to bait the circle hooks" I could find on the internet including articles, images, and video clips. Now I just need to put those tips in to practice and try them out. . First thing I realized was the hooks I have chosen were a bit of too big and missed the chance of catching breams as they may not be able to take a 3/0 hook into their mouth. Will get some smaller hooks as well.

[wchh]

I find baits stay on better with circle hooks. When using strip baits of mullet, squid and the likes you need to put the hook through once (enter on skin side) and then pull it out the other side. Then just put half the hook back through it a little further up the bait. Works for me.

Thanks for your tips. This sounds similar to the double pinches I read. I will try that at my next trip.

As a beginner in using the circles, I focused a lot on not to obstruct the tip of the hook and not to hinder the ability for the hook to roll and set. This has made me think I should not put the hook half way onto a big piece of fillet as the stiffness of the bait will stop the hook from turning… I am not sure whether when the fish takes the bait and start to turn and swim at which point the hook is pulled out and hit the edge of the fishs mouth, is the bait pulled out with the hook? I used my wildest imagination and thought if at that stage the bait is already detached from the bait, it will make the hook roll better?.. I saw some pictures of people tipping about bait whole fish with circle hooks and just could not visualize how the hook could roll if really rigged like that… anyway, I will keep trying.

Edited July 15, 2012 by ABCfisho

[rjc123]

Thanks for your tips. This sounds similar to the double pinches I read. I will try that at my next trip.

As a beginner in using the circles, I focused a lot on not to obstruct the tip of the hook and not to hinder the ability for the hook to roll and set. This has made me think I should not put the hook half way onto a big piece of fillet as the stiffness of the bait will stop the hook from turning… I am not sure whether when the fish takes the bait and start to turn and swim at which point the hook is pulled out and hit the edge of the fish’s mouth, is the bait pulled out with the hook? I used my wildest imagination and thought if at that stage the bait is already detached from the bait, it will make the hook roll better?.. I saw some pictures of people tipping about bait whole fish with circle hooks and just could not visualize how the hook could roll if really rigged like that… anyway, I will keep trying.

Thats right mate. Just remember not to strike. Put pressure on the fish and the circle will work its magic...

[eastwood1980]

Nice catch there.

Just wondering is there a tackle shop in Eastwood? or you meant as in just fish shop?

[wchh]

Nice catch there.

Just wondering is there a tackle shop in Eastwood? or you meant as in just fish shop?

I was squeezed of time last Saturday to get bait from tackle shops. I happened to be in Eastwood and just walked into the fish shop (next to the Chinese Butcher's) and found the yellow tails they have there were pretty fresh. picked up 4, cost me $3.60 and I ended up converting them into 5 good tailors plus a legal flattie!

Edited July 16, 2012 by ABCfisho