Tailor off the beaches around Sydney?

[FrigateMack]

I do well with tailor off the rocks - with the usual pilie on a ganged hook. I often get a bite or two just before sunrise. The other way I've had luck with is when they go crazy a bit later in the year - basically any kind of lure seems to work. But I never seem to have luck at a beach. Is there anything other than luck + putting time in? Particular times or ways to look for them? I fish around Sydney.

[slowjigger]

They are more a winter fish. Also, I assume you are fishing the gutters? Near high tide is favourable as well.

 

[noelm]

Tailor this year have been here, then gone, a big school comes in, hangs around a bit, then vanishes, none for a couple of weeks, then another school shows up, don't know what's going on.

[FrigateMack]

Cheers. Yeah I try to fish gutters for sure. Might need to put more time into it..

 

[Green Hornet]

I find the best way to prospect a beach for species like tailor is to leave the bait in the bucket, tie on a metal lure and start casting at every likely looking spot.  
If you haven’t had a hit within 5 casts its time to move on. You can work the entire beach quite quickly this way.  
If you come across a decent hole, don’t just try the middle. More often than not the fish are hanging on the edges where the white water is breaking on the sandbank and washing into the deeper water. 

[noelm]

Yep, I do similar, but often use a Pilchard instead of a lure, kind of the same thing, but, can result in a Bream or something lurking in the gutter/hole as well.

[Green Hornet]

36 minutes ago, noelm said:

Yep, I do similar, but often use a Pilchard instead of a lure, kind of the same thing, but, can result in a Bream or something lurking in the gutter/hole as well.

Remember years ago when “spinning” a pilly on gang hooks was all the rage? You don’t see it done too often these days though it was extremely effective, especially if there were 2 or 3 guys synchronizing their casts.

 I’m too lazy to bother with bait and usually work my way down the beach with a metal, then swap over to a plastic or hard body vibe on the way back to pick up the flatties and bream. Still waiting/dreaming for that meter plus jew.

[noelm]

Spinning off the rocks was all the "rage" in the '70s, every Headland had a few guys with old reels like Seascapes and the like spinning for hours on end with Arrow lures. Even places like Kiama Blowhole point, Port Kembla Hill 60 were lined with people spinning for everything from Bonito to Yellowfin.

[Green Hornet]

21 minutes ago, noelm said:

Spinning off the rocks was all the "rage" in the '70s, every Headland had a few guys with old reels like Seascapes and the like spinning for hours on end with Arrow lures. Even places like Kiama Blowhole point, Port Kembla Hill 60 were lined with people spinning for everything from Bonito to Yellowfin.

As soon as I got my drivers license I quickly became one of those guys, the famous Currarong ledges were only 20 minutes from home. I lost count of how many Seascapes I destroyed on fast fish, stripped gears, melted drag washers and bent spool axles was all part of a day’s work. The old Iron Assassins and Undertakers were my favorite lures.

 

[noelm]

Places like that were a "mission" for us, back in those days, most of us had cars that would be lucky to go around the block without some kind of repairs needed! So we mostly kept close to home, but now and then did venture down that way. Reels were pretty bad compared to today's gear, most needed constant maintenance and modification to get a couple of sessions out of them, I used a 499 Mitchel spin reel quite a bit that I machined the spool out and fitted a bearing to it, so "chatter" was eliminated. I had a couple of Seascapes and various Penn overheads, but most were fairly poor construction.

[Rebel]

Tailor off the beaches on the Central coast.

You have to use lures.

Work better than bait.