Landing Yellowtail (Scad)

[Nolongeramember]

Burley, no weight, small piece of prawn, small long shank hook and 4lb leader works every time. I'll fish the same rig in 15m of water off the boat and still get them every time one after another.

Another tip is to strike at random times because the fish will sit there with it in their mouths and not move and you will not feel anything.

[Belligero]

The rigs are alright but get tangled easy which drives me nuts. I use weetbixs for burley which works well. Around here they don't show up until there's sunlight.

I use a size 1 sinker and keep dropping the line half a meter every few minutes until I find where they are sitting. Sometimes they are right under the boat and other times they are a fair way down.

I only really have success using pillies for bait for them.

Cheers

[cameldownunder]

My setup is hook with tiny bit of prawn, leader (very thin ), split shot, and tiny float. When the yakka is hooked, the tiny float follows it under water. Then I strike.

Sometimes I have the diamond fish on one side and the yackas ( who hang around longer in one place ) on the other side. Sometimes the jackas are lower then the Diamonds, so it's hard to get the hook past them.

[gregh1]

I use pellets in a burley bucket off the boat and a sibiki setup with very small pieces of pillie. If the yakkas are on I can get plenty of them and usually end up leaving when I have at least 8. But sometimes they just don't bite. One thing with the sibiki setup is that you usually only get 1 yakka hooked or if you are lucky maybe 2 but quite often I end up with a mess of a line and spend time sorting it out. I am going to change to a single hook, very small, maybe size 10 or 12. Good luck mate!!!!

[roughstyler]

There is a lot of good advice in this thread. Sounds like you are quite selective in the advice you take.

That isn't the case at all. I just have a few constraints either due to a lack of money, lack of space (room for a bucket in my bag, for example) or just liking things done in a certain way. In no way am I rejecting any advice in this thread, and I appreciate all the replies. I'm just looking for what's the most applicable and practical in my situation, and also hoping to confirm my idea that Yakkas being around is more important than bait type. In terms of fishing, I seem to like things done simply (for example, I really love my King rig with just an unweighted line-to-line connection straight to the hook). It's not that other methods don't work, or I'm not willing to change things up, it's just that I like to go with what I'm comfortable with. And for Yakkas, I'd really rather sticking to a single hook. Also, I have to walk quite a distance with my gear, and that contributes to me wanting things as simple and minimal as possible.

I hope you can see that people have clearly listed different baits in this thread, and they all seem to work well. All I was getting at, was that if that is the case, bread might work just as well too, and success is likely more dependent on Yakka presence rather than bait type (like I said above). Yes, there's no doubt Pilchards are a great option, but they also leave your hands stinking like fish, whereas bread does not. I'm not declining these suggestions at all, and I hope it doesn't look like that. You're correct - when things aren't working, it'd be wise to try something new, and that's what I'll surely be doing. However, the last time I went fishing, there were a whole bunch of people going for Yakkas with a range of different baits (from Pilchards to minced beef to chicken breast to bread) and nobody got a thing. What does that suggest?

[brad_tate]

Regarding my earlier suggestion about coat hanger wire to fashion a rig to stop losing a rod, I was thinking of a twist on the steel wire beach rod holders. The double open spiral is to wrap around the rod - you could use it to hold the butt like you do in a beach rod holder or twist it around the section just above the reel to be more secure. The problem I realised with the latter is how do you detach the holder when you need to pick up the rod to fight your fish! DOH. So this will probably only work if you use it like a beach rod holder below the reel.

The change I am suggesting is that instead of straightening the wire at the bottom of the spirals to form a spike as you do for a beach rod holder, you instead leave it pointing out at 90 degrees to the spirals. Halfway or so along that section you turn it down 90 degrees. The idea is that you sit the rod in the spirals, lean it against the pier and then hook the bent section of the holder over the edge of the pier. When the fish pulls, and the bottom of the rod is levered away from the pier edge, the end of the holder is instead pulled against the pier and the rod can't move.

Coat hanger wire may be too light, but you could buy a thicker section of stainless rod from a hardware store and use that instead.

Just an idea!

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[fisholb]

excellent advice everyone

love this site

my setup is

10lb mono

size 10 longshank

small split sinker around 30cm from the hook

use pillys prawns chicken bread for bait and burley

best times before sunrise and all night

caught plenty during the day too

yakkas feed on top and bottom so adjust your drop between 1m to 5m

goodluck all

have a safe and happy easter too

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