Whats your experiment, tricks for catching more fish

[dogbox]

Hi Raiders hoping to start a thread that talks about any new attempts to better your catch.

I am have been a traditional buy your bait and stick it on your hook fisherman for most of my life. Ive tried soft plastics but I cant get used to it. i respect those who do it.

But a few months ago I went fishing with a guy who introduced me to his home made micro jigs. I was impressed that his micro jigs where made of some of the items out of the dump bin at the tackle shop and stuff from spot light. These caught fish.

So i started thinking about how I might make improvements to how I fish using bait and lowering my fishing costs. The cost can get pretty expensive.

The last few months I've been playing around with using inexpensive items that are quick and easy to assemble that I can say "have improve the number of fish I've been catching."

Here is a picture of a something I have added to my paternoster rig, a plastic squid, a bead to shape the head and a 5/0 or 7/0 hook, I still use a small amount of bait on the hook as an attractant but even when it falls off the squid attracts the fish. Ill have to keep experimenting with different colours and see what works best for different species

Is anyone else have any experiment ideas?

dogbox

[bluefin]

A Good Thread. I will be following it. That glow bead is a nice touch! And a good attractant in deep water. Regards Howard.

[Cargo05]

I will watch this one with interest.

[Greyfox]

Traditional bait user myself, will be following as I am sure someone out there is a genius when it comes to this stuff

[spaners]

I have made them up in the past.Caught Rats,Bonnies.Tailor and Salmon on the troll.I push a ball sinker up into the head and pass the line through it to give it some casting weight .

[tackleberry]

I have made them up in the past.Caught Rats,Bonnies.Tailor and Salmon on the troll.I push a ball sinker up into the head and pass the line through it to give it some casting weight .

me too but i put the squid on the line 1st then the sinker and then push it in the head it's easier that way for me

i also use barrel sinkers for the bigger skirts

Edited July 6, 2016 by tackleberry

[Mr_clownface]

I was getting frustrated at the cost of buying bait and also it going off rather quickly,a while ago I started using chicken breast to save money,a neighbor of mine told me to add garlic to my bait,I thought she was mad until I saw a guy on you tube using a garlic based rub on lures to catch bream,so I tried it and it was very successful,

Now I also salt my bait as a preservative so I can re freeze and reuse,

I caught some nice salmon on the NSW south coast using burley also with this bait.

So far I have caught

Bream

Salmon

Flathead

Flounder

Trevaly

On this same bait

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited August 29, 2016 by shaun_burkesh

[recurve]

For those who want to use plastics but don't trust in the "Black Magic" Put bait on your Soft Plastic. Squid Tentacles, Thick pieces of the tube cut into plastics looking shapes etc. Slide the hook about 2 cm down and then come out, Push up into base of jig then go through once or twice to hold. make sure you have a flick bit hanging out like a plastic and work this.

If you have issues with it falling off or sliding get some bait string and wrap around the top. Great middle zone for the bait guy who can't believe in the Dark Side or plastics.

Highly effective.

[JonD]

I normally get up late and hit areas after most people have left them. My trick is finding small patches of fish and working the plotter and boat to get my bait or plastics as close on target as possible, often in quite deep water. This involves carefull control with wind and tide but with the help of such things as electronic compass such as point 1 with my Lowrance and the plotter fully zoomed in we can hit the target almost spot on.

Many of my trips include a quick scuba session at the end of the day, it's from this you learn how some species hold very close to certain structure and if a bait or lure is off the mark I doubt you stand much chance. Sounder beams are often wide on most transducers so often what you think is under the boat may be off to the side a little so apraoching the mark from different angles helps pin point.

Jon

Edited September 5, 2016 by JonD

[JonD]

After having all the tails bitten off our plastics by jackets and toadfish we found the loly snakes worked well as a backup on snapper and kings, we did trim the tails to make them flutter down a little better.

While on the matter of kings I make my own sinkers with a loop both ends rather than the sliding sinker type that often ware through mono unless it's very heavy. The sinker is also easy to grab enabling us to lift the kings straight over the side of the boat.

I painted a few and found that both kings and bonito kept hitting the sinker, so rigged a few up with hooks which also seem to work ok when the kings are thick.

Take no notice of the wind on leeders in this image ( don't use those anymore).

Jon

j

[Scratchie]

For those of you that have been snapper fishing with me will tell you, when all sp's fail, "prawn on a jig head". I've caught some crackers using this method. Use a lighter jig than conditons determine put on a raw peeled prawn and cast as normal. If it hits the bottom, use long loops back to the boat! I've found this more effective than just hook and sinker.

Cheers scratchie!!!

[DMG]

yer there are lots of things aka marinades you can add to your bait and burley.

I sometimes have dipped my baits in Tuna oil,not the canned type use to be called whale oil until they updated it.

Mainly used to add to burley

fishing at night i suggest using a strong flood light pointed into the water.

Green light is best followed by blue then white.

The light attracts microscopic plankton ,then they attract baitfish to eat them then the baitfish attract bigger fish etc etc.

The lights also attact squid.

cast into the darker areas just outside the light where the bigger fish will be to wait for the bait fish.

This is a banned practice in the U.S.A but here its fine and it works.

[JonD]

yer there are lots of things aka marinades you can add to your bait and burley.

I sometimes have dipped my baits in Tuna oil,not the canned type use to be called whale oil until they updated it.

Mainly used to add to burley

fishing at night i suggest using a strong flood light pointed into the water.

Green light is best followed by blue then white.

The light attracts microscopic plankton ,then they attract baitfish to eat them then the baitfish attract bigger fish etc etc.

The lights also attact squid.

cast into the darker areas just outside the light where the bigger fish will be to wait for the bait fish.

This is a banned practice in the U.S.A but here its fine and it works.

Can I ask if you have used both coloured lights?

I fitted twin green lights on my boat and found they attracted micro species up to some much bigger fish, including jelly fish and squid. What we found with the green lights was that the fish seemed entranced by the light making them very easy to just scoop with a net or even catch with your hands on some species.

When I sold that boat and bought another but could only get blue lights at the time in the same make. These also attracted the same sort of species only now they were incredibly aggressive and fast around the lights. A bait simply touching the surface would end in a frenzy of fish trying to get it first.

Deep dropping for blue eye I've also had more luck with the blue lights but that could just be luck of the draw.

Jon

Edited September 19, 2016 by JonD

[bluefin]

I mainly fish with lures. But recently I have been seen putting the odd worm or yabby on the jig head instead of the usual SP. It is VERY effective.

[savit]

I mainly fish with lures. But recently I have been seen putting the odd worm or yabby on the jig head instead of the usual SP. It is VERY effective.

I do the similar thing on the days when fish refuses Hard Bodies and Soft Plastic or when I fish close to the rock bottom with high chance of loosing lures. The difference - I use leader with running sinker straight to the hook instead of jig heads. This allows to reduce the costs of the lost tackle and quickly change weight (sinker) to suit depth, current, required casting distance.

[savit]

After having all the tails bitten off our plastics by jackets and toadfish we found the loly snakes worked well as a backup on snapper and kings, we did trim the tails to make them flutter down a little better.

Did you try licorice stripes for this purpose? Many of them include aniseed oil which is well-known attractant.

[JonD]

Did you try licorice stripes for this purpose? Many of them include aniseed oil which is well-known attractant.

That's a good idea, will try some of the thin red and black licorice and see how it goes, I dare say I might eat most of it first.

[DMG]

wow lol thats strange JonD,

I have not used green or blue yet only white.

I only know that its all about attracting the plankton and the green light attracts them better than the blue followed last by the white.

I sometimes use white light from a portable flood light straight in to the water at the wharfs I fish.

Works to attract them.

This method of luring fish around you in the USA is illegal,strange.

as long as its work JonD its all good,but when i use mine i get hundreds of yellowtail hanging around the light and not sure how many squid but yer they would all be eating each other up the food chain from plankton to who knows whatever is lurking in the darkness.

only reason im using white light is cause it was cheaper to get or i would most certainly been using green.

Edited September 25, 2016 by D.G

[Raymondo]

I remember two summers ago my mate and I stumbled across a home made FAD off Shellharbour. It held afew real nice dollies, we fished it several times over a month or so then one morning it was gone. Was made from a plastic 44 gallon drum and rope, must have been in the water awhile, was covered in barnacles and weed.