My favourite time of year

[Mike Sydney]

Every year in mid April through to end of May, schools of big tailor come and play under bridge lights in the estuaries. 
The season started tonight and I was chasing them on surface using the Nomad Riptide 95.

Last three years I’ve picked up dozens of 50cm+ models in the Parramatta and I find it doesn’t really matter what you throw at them or what tide it is. Permanent lights and bridge pylons they’re around night after night until early June.

It had been a fun start to the day, I hooked up my first kingfish at cooks river mouth on a grubZ 1/4oz only to drop it trying to net it. Was disappointed of course to lose my first but boy did the reel get a workout. 
 

Anyways tonight I landed 8 big tailor about two hours into the tide, the smallest a 40ish and the largest at 52cm.

Some blokes stopped for a chat including an ABT finalist last year and while we were talking we saw activity on the surface and I was delighted to cast in and catch straight away with them. 
 

Some happy snaps below of almost 4 meters of tailor on surface. I find they like a pop and commotion more than a walk the dog so was dragging/sweeping the lure tonight. 

 

[faker]

I love catching tailor but don't like what they do to Soft plastics.and my jigs. I normally switch to metals when chasing them or big hard bodies. Is the reptide a surface stickbait?

Edited April 12 by faker

[Yowie]

A nice catch of big choppers, a close up of the toothy mouth is the last thing many baitfish ever see.

Around this time of year, many years ago before I had a driver's licence, I used to ride my pushbike to the Captain Cook Bridge on the Georges River in the early morning, near the northern end, and drop over a handline with ganged hooks and bait, and hook up a few tailor. It was a long way to haul up the fish with a handline.

Always fishing in the dark, so that when first light appeared on the horizon, the tailor would stop biting so time to ride home with a few fish in the bucket. The bridge lights would bring them on the bite.

[big Neil]

Excellent photos of the pointy end of the Tailor Mike. Great fun to catch, spirited fight, and ok for fishcakes or even better when smoked. They, along with Aussie Salmon, make up the bulk of good catches in numbers in many estuaries. I have many happy memories of big number catches using gang hooks and the humble Pilchards.

Cheers, bn

[Mike Sydney]

6 hours ago, faker said:

I love catching tailor but don't like what they do to Soft plastics.and my jigs. I normally switch to metals when chasing them or big hard bodies. Is the reptide a surface stickbait?

Yes it is. The one I was using tonight is the “Fatso” model. I usually find tailor a pest when I am targeting bream but during this window I love chasing them on surface lures. Big splashes is just too good to pass up.

6 hours ago, Yowie said:

A nice catch of big choppers, a close up of the toothy mouth is the last thing many baitfish ever see.

Around this time of year, many years ago before I had a driver's licence, I used to ride my pushbike to the Captain Cook Bridge on the Georges River in the early morning, near the northern end, and drop over a handline with ganged hooks and bait, and hook up a few tailor. It was a long way to haul up the fish with a handline.

Always fishing in the dark, so that when first light appeared on the horizon, the tailor would stop biting so time to ride home with a few fish in the bucket. The bridge lights would bring them on the bite.

That is a big height for a handlie with such big fish - must’ve been working those biceps @Yowie! 
I agree the lights seem to be what do it. It’s the same at any ferry wharf at night. The only difference is the size I find during these months (I presume it’s them leaving the estuaries for the open seas)

4 hours ago, big Neil said:

Excellent photos of the pointy end of the Tailor Mike. Great fun to catch, spirited fight, and ok for fishcakes or even better when smoked. They, along with Aussie Salmon, make up the bulk of good catches in numbers in many estuaries. I have many happy memories of big number catches using gang hooks and the humble Pilchards.

Cheers, bn

The “pointy end” has cost me a lot of money in lost lures. It’s nice to get a return once in a while 😂

I’ve been stocking up on topwater hardbodies each pay since Christmas as I’ll probably lose several to those teeth in the next few weeks!

[Little_Flatty]

Great report Mike, two sessions on a work day eh?

At 50+ tailor are great fighters on light gear. Don’t mind them when they’re that size.

Just getting my workmanship and design right, but I’ll give you a few dowel stick baits when I have made them. You won’t need to cry if they wreck them or steal them😎

[Mike Sydney]

2 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Great report Mike, two sessions on a work day eh?

At 50+ tailor are great fighters on light gear. Don’t mind them when they’re that size.

Just getting my workmanship and design right, but I’ll give you a few dowel stick baits when I have made them. You won’t need to cry if they wreck them or steal them😎

Ah but in my defence Mike only one fish was during work hours 🤣 

[Little_Flatty]

4 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

Ah but in my defence Mike only one fish was during work hours 🤣 

🤣 I was actually thinking maybe your kids were on a pupil free day (mine were). I get back a lot of extra time in the morning when I don’t need to make/pack lunches and fight them to get dressed for school!

Don’t worry, I’m just jealous 🤣 Been a hectic week for me at work.

[Larkin]

Nice report Mike

Some great info to help others get onto some fish. 👍

[Steve0]

Thanks for the report. Using artificial light for Tailor is news to me, but I have caught them under a full moon. It seems obvious, they are using the light to silhouette baitfish. 

3 hours ago, Mike Sydney said:

The “pointy end” has cost me a lot of money in lost lures. It’s nice to get a return once in a while 😂

I’ve been stocking up on topwater hardbodies each pay since Christmas as I’ll probably lose several to those teeth in the next few weeks!

The first year I started hunting Salmon and Tailor I bulk-bought 50 metals, thinking they'd last my days out. They were gone inside 12 months! Loss rate reduced with experience, but Tailor will always extract a toll. Losses to schools of small Tailor seem higher than to schools of big ones. In sunlight, when you see the shadow of the school, casting to the edge of the school reduces the lure tax.  Maybe if you toss your lure wider from the light source, you'll reduce lure losses?

[AlbertW]

Looks like a lot of fun mike! Definitely giving this a go

[Mike Sydney]

1 hour ago, Steve0 said:

Thanks for the report. Using artificial light for Tailor is news to me, but I have caught them under a full moon. It seems obvious, they are using the light to silhouette baitfish. 

The first year I started hunting Salmon and Tailor I bulk-bought 50 metals, thinking they'd last my days out. They were gone inside 12 months! Loss rate reduced with experience, but Tailor will always extract a toll. Losses to schools of small Tailor seem higher than to schools of big ones. In sunlight, when you see the shadow of the school, casting to the edge of the school reduces the lure tax.  Maybe if you toss your lure wider from the light source, you'll reduce lure losses?

Thanks @Steve0. See for me I’ve always found them on artificial lights and had never clicked to targeting them on the full moon. 
A lot of my losses last couple years was on bream gear 6lb . The losses were just cut line as they hit the lure - a big splash and then slack. I was running 12lb last night mainly to throw heavier lures and didn’t suffer any losses yet.

Interesting you say throwing to the edge of light source / edge of the school. I got a lot of hookups / started follows on the light edge but wasn’t consciously targeting those areas, rather it was more the angles available to me from the land spot. 
If smaller tailor cut more lines than bigger ones, then is the logic that the bigger fish are naturally on the outside edges of the schools (I.e. closest to the bait )

[Steve0]

2 hours ago, Mike Sydney said:

Thanks @Steve0. See for me I’ve always found them on artificial lights and had never clicked to targeting them on the full moon. 
A lot of my losses last couple years was on bream gear 6lb . The losses were just cut line as they hit the lure - a big splash and then slack. I was running 12lb last night mainly to throw heavier lures and didn’t suffer any losses yet.

Interesting you say throwing to the edge of light source / edge of the school. I got a lot of hookups / started follows on the light edge but wasn’t consciously targeting those areas, rather it was more the angles available to me from the land spot. 
If smaller tailor cut more lines than bigger ones, then is the logic that the bigger fish are naturally on the outside edges of the schools (I.e. closest to the bait )

Artificial light sources don't spread far, so may be an advantage over chasing fish under a full moon.

My experience down South is the small Tailor school with similar size.  Medium and large travelled together (including with Salmon). I only caught one horse, and it seemed to be solo. That was a fight to remember! 

Comment about the edge of the light is more to do with minimising the number of razor sharp teeth you need to bring a fish past.  Hook one on the far side, and you need to bring your hooked fish past hundreds of excited fish. Tailor will bite at a fish (or lure) hanging from another Tailor's mouth. The odds of a snip-off increase.

 

[faker]

7 hours ago, Mike Sydney said:

Thanks @Steve0. See for me I’ve always found them on artificial lights and had never clicked to targeting them on the full moon. 
A lot of my losses last couple years was on bream gear 6lb . The losses were just cut line as they hit the lure - a big splash and then slack. I was running 12lb last night mainly to throw heavier lures and didn’t suffer any losses yet.

Interesting you say throwing to the edge of light source / edge of the school. I got a lot of hookups / started follows on the light edge but wasn’t consciously targeting those areas, rather it was more the angles available to me from the land spot. 
If smaller tailor cut more lines than bigger ones, then is the logic that the bigger fish are naturally on the outside edges of the schools (I.e. closest to the bait )

I remember hanging around on balmoral beach and catching them on 6lb great fun but definitely get snipped easy or break off on bigger specimens. 

Could you just increase leader size to avoid snipping but still fish 6lb?

[Mike Sydney]

Yeah @faker that’s what I was thinking maybe a long mono leader for a bit more stretch as well

[bessell1955]

Well caught!