Tailor

[HawkesburyParadise]

Hi all,

It seems to be a Winter fish and apparently more of them now then in the Summer. What are your tips for catching Tailor especially in estuaries? Particularly, can they be caught on bait or are lures necessary?

I am ok to hit the harbour for them but I'd rather not do a trip to the harbour with nothing to show for in the cold. 

Kind regards,

HP

[Isaac Ct]

Hey mate, a lot of the time tailor will be busting up and other raiders, @Yowie, @Pickles and plenty more will be able to tell you what they are eating, and if you can 'match the hatch' with little chrome lures then that should be the go. Livies will probably be shredded by smaller tailor.

[noelm]

Tailor will take just about anything, bait or lures, small metal lures cast out and retrieved fast will get them going, just this morning there was a huge school of decent Tailor boiling on the surface right out the front on my place, within easy casting distance, a few guys got a bucket full easy, they were about 2KG approx.

[HawkesburyParadise]

27 minutes ago, noelm said:

Tailor will take just about anything, bait or lures, small metal lures cast out and retrieved fast will get them going, just this morning there was a huge school of decent Tailor boiling on the surface right out the front on my place, within easy casting distance, a few guys got a bucket full easy, they were about 2KG approx.

When you say small, how small and which metal lures?

[Little_Flatty]

4 minutes ago, HawkesburyParadise said:

When you say small, how small and which metal lures?

Maybe a 10-20g Halco twisty. Regardless of the kind of fishing I am doing, I almost always have one on me.

[HawkesburyParadise]

49 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Maybe a 10-20g Halco twisty. Regardless of the kind of fishing I am doing, I almost always have one on me.

Hey Mike,

What's the technique to run it? Throw a long way and retrieve really fast?

[noelm]

Yep, that's about it, I just use those cheap fish looking metals at department stores, they're cheap and you will lose a few. I like ones about 5cm long with maybe the odd bigger one just in case you need extra distance.

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, HawkesburyParadise said:

Hey Mike,

What's the technique to run it? Throw a long way and retrieve really fast?

With twisties I normally don't do anything too drastic. Their action gets going with a steady, medium retrieve. I start with that and speed it up from there.

[noelm]

The big school of Tailor showed up again today, same time as yesterday, no one fishing though, closest they were was probably 15m from the beach, then slowly moved along to the rocks chasing small baitfish.

[HawkesburyParadise]

41 minutes ago, noelm said:

The big school of Tailor showed up again today, same time as yesterday, no one fishing though, closest they were was probably 15m from the beach, then slowly moved along to the rocks chasing small baitfish.

What area is this? I don't need the spot, just the area

[noelm]

Warilla beach, I live on the southern end of the beach, the Tailor school is "busting up" in a school maybe 300m wide, easy to see them. They have been coming every morning for a few days now.

[HawkesburyParadise]

7 minutes ago, noelm said:

Warilla beach, I live on the southern end of the beach, the Tailor school is "busting up" in a school maybe 300m wide, easy to see them. They have been coming every morning for a few days now.

That's way too far for me to get to but I assume it's the same across the coast at the moment. 

[Jiggy]

When it come to chasing tailor with bait most people use pilchards on gang hooks. A lot of tailor are caught on this and it works fine. But I tried an experiment a few years ago of using gars only for a couple of years in Botany Bay. I did this after talking to some old timers who said they only used gars back in the day and the sort of results that had. Especially the snapper by catch off the rocks. 

I found that using gars caught more large tailor than choppers. And there was also a pretty decent by catch of kingfish. It's something worth bearing in mind.

I should also mention that now I'm the old timer...oh dear.

Cheers

Jiggy

[GoldenHourFishing]

I dont find metals as effective in slower moving water throughout estuarys, the tailor seems to be more chill in low flow. Surface lures all the way, sugapens, poppers, splashprawns. 

Morning or Sundown is best, if there are tailor around and you work a surface lures they will hit it. 

Highflow, whitecaps and plenty of bustups, metals all the way. Just drag it through the school and you will be on everytime. 

Edited May 18, 2022 by GoldenHourFishing

[campr]

Trailer can be encountered at any time of year.  They can be a pain in botany bay around December and January at night taking Jew baits but averaging around 40cm end up a good source of bait in themselves.  Ron