Help reading the water, temp colour and direction

[King chaser]

Hi all, 

looking for some help understanding the water and what it means for the fish. Im fairly newish and generally fish out of terrigal going for kings, bonito and snapper fishing the close reefs and venturing out to Texas and the fads. 

I hear the fishos referring to the water as dirty, blue, electrical blue, green, clean ect. What should I be looking for in the water and how much does ‘dirty water’ put off the fish. 

so I can plan my fishing trips what types of swell current and wind brings in the dirty water or good water?

also how does currents tides and swell / swell direction come into play?

I offten hear fishos talking about the water temp and only a few degrees can turn fish on or off. What is the idea temps to be fishing in? 

How much does the water temp and quality effect your fishing. Do you abandon your marked spots and go searching for better water?

Any insight to understand what it all means and how it effects the fish would be great!

Also any1 know if there is much around the fads at the moment?

[PaddyT]

Gees a few questions but all good 'uns- Ok water colour- its important but not everything. Its prettty obvious when you are in the different coloured water but whats probably more important is to look for "edges" where one body of water hits another, this can be tide lines, current lines, temperature "breaks", often fish will be on one side and no the other. For chasing inshore fish like snapper, jew etc they often like feeding in so called "dirty water " as they are not strict sight feeders unlike pelagics- tuna, marlin etc. as for planning your trips using some of the internet info providers like Ripcharts or the like will give you an indication of currents/water temps etc BUT things can change pretty quickly. Kings/bonnies can be a bit shut down in dirty water but dont generally need high temps and so called purple water to feed, we catch plenty year round in water temps as low as 18C. The bigger factor is bait- find it on your sounder, with your eyes, look for structure, look for birds etc, if there is bait sooner or later something will turn up to eat it. 

If im off Sydney chasing kings which i normally do downrigging with live bait I will keep changing spots until i find a school of biting fish, I will often mark kings on the sounder which wont bite but if its close to a tide change I might sit on a school thats not biting and wait for the tide change- it often triggers a bite, as for looking for "better water" id rather have structure and bait than purple and no bait. Hope that helps will think of some more stuff in the next day or so

[Guest Guest123456789]

A lot of it’s code as well, a conversation will often be indecipherable to an outsider.

[King chaser]

Thanks paddy thats certainly all new info to me.

Does particular swell direction / winds / currents bring in different tempts and water quality? 

Ill look for that tide change to mate and sit on those schools, I am finding it hard to read the sounder and identifying the differences between a schools of bait and decent fish. 

 

[PaddyT]

Swell direction might affect some inshore spots putting wash into some areas which fish like to feed in but otherwise not something I really worry about except if heading wide and I might be concerned about swell vs current for safety reasons, wind is more a factor of safety. Generally the East Aust current is starting to fire up at this time of the year bring warm water and the associated species down with it, generally it needs a couple of days of strong southerlys to push the main stream in close to the coast (I know that sounds counter intuitive but its true)- days and days of North Easters cause cold upwellings to form in close but these are the source of nutrients which kick the food chain off. Ok when looking at spots you will generally find most predatory fish will be at the upcurrent end of structure , when current hits structure it causes eddies and upwellings to occur and the predators find it easier to feed in these places. As for your sounder get the best you can afford and learn to drive it in manual- what are you running?

[King chaser]

Lowrance ti-5 at the moment, heaps of features on it and I’ve been hitting the YouTube tutorials and pick up more each time I head out on the water!.

 

and will keep it in mind to find the structure around upcurrent end of the reefs !

 

cheers for all the tips, it’s all coming together 

[King chaser]

Hey guys, question. What are people referring to when they they ‘the carpark?’ Always hearing on the radio that they are north of the car park ect?

[Berleyguts]

1 hour ago, King chaser said:

Hey guys, question. What are people referring to when they they ‘the carpark?’ Always hearing on the radio that they are north of the car park ect?

The Car Park is about 24 nautical miles from Port Stephens heads and I have been told it’s too far to go in my boat, dammit! Underwater canyons.

[rickmarlin62]

the carpark is an area of slightly rougher bottom just inside the shelf off port stephens..its actually nearly due east from Newcastle..in between..33.02.00 and 33.06.00 from76 fathoms to 90 fathoms...its roughly 4 miles long by two miles wide...it is inside the Newcastle canyon  and generally holds bait..when the bait is there the marlin are there...our best days have seen us tag up to 14 fish..when the beakies are there some days ive counted over fifty boats in the one area that can be seen by eye...if you need any info or more tips pm me...I will hit the beakies after xmas  theres a few there now but not the numbers like feb/march..rick

[rickmarlin62]

the canyons are wider..out from the shelf..the carpark  is up in the shallows lol..rick

[Smasher]

On 15/12/2017 at 8:47 PM, King chaser said:

Hey guys, question. What are people referring to when they they ‘the carpark?’ Always hearing on the radio that they are north of the car park ect?

What VHF channel do you guys use to chat fishing?

[rickmarlin62]

mostly ch80 out from the bay..theres a repeater tower on mt sugarloaf that carries 16 and 80...I can sit in my front yard at gorokan and talk to guys on the shelf...rick