Presenting Lures Deeper?

[Jaso]

I think I may float a lure fishing scenario that seems to come up a bit for me and see if I can get some help. The reason for needing help with this one is that my results are pretty piss poor generally, and the quantity of fish I pick up is well down on what it should be:

While out the other day in the boat working a deep shoreline the sounder was picking up multiple larger fish amongst loads of bait, 10 meters down. The bait was all through the water column (I could see them towards the surface) but the predators were feeding deeper.

I was working the shoreline with a 1/16 ounce jighead and a small fluke, but once the sounder picked up the fish, I moved to casting where I thought the predators were.

So I tried to position the boat above the school, and after repeated casts I eventually came up tight on a trevor.. next fish was a tailor.

However, the time between the first and second fish was about 15minutes! That represents a lot of casts for not too many fish. I tried to swap SPs to match the bait I was seeing in the water, but it was still pretty tough going..

I don't know if the problem is not knowing how deep to go with the lure, what technique I should be working with different SPs, what lure should I have on handy for this situation (assuming the target is trevally or tailor or salmon at this time of year). Is there a 'count down' technique that I should be using to make sure the lure is in the zone (are there rules of thumb for how quickly a 1/16 jig will sink in a medium current)

So, whats the general technique and lure choice for working these types of fish at depths of 10m or more when they are feeding (assume medium current)?

Too many questions..

Edited August 8, 2005 by Jaso

[Guest Jocool]

I would have thought that you would be very ahrd pressed to get a 1/16 jig down to 10 meteres. Its not only the weight of the jig and SP you need to account for, but also the drag of the line going down behind it. This, I would have thought, would have tended to keep your lure from going to deep.

I know that braid/fireline floats. It would take more than that weight to allow the line to break the surface tension to start sinking.

I think.....

[Guest bluecod]

I'm a complete beginner when it comes to fishing SP's, but when bait fishing it often doesn't hurt to run a ball sinker right down to the hook, particularly when fish are actively feeding. Suggest you try the same with th eSP's and see how it goes - if no better result then try something else - like listening to further advice I am sure will be posted.

[The Iceman]

I think you should forget about casting move up to a 1/8th jighead or bigger if required and drop it straight down the transducer beam to the bottom and slowly jig it up the water column to the depth of the fish showing on the sounder This has worked pretty well for me on deep fish