My best day of winter fishing

[linewetter]

Went out to Middle Harbour this afternoon to fish near one of the storm drain outlets.  I've fished here very often at night with an okay amount of success...enough to know where the drop offs and snags are at this point, but my experience is mostly limited to night fishing here. 

I started out casting at my usual spot away from the storm drain and slowly fanning toward the storm drain.  I usually get bites away further away from the storm drain but today was different...I got my first hit a few meters away from the mouth of the storm drain.  Up came a small tailor the size of my hand that went back in.  I love catching tailor because it means there's many more around.  I cast back toward the same area in front of the storm drain and hook up seconds later.  Up came another small tailor. 

 

I cast back out again in the same general area and up came yet another small tailor.  I was feeling pretty giddy at this point.  3 for 3, that's pretty darn good.  I cast out again and again and again around the same area but it went quiet...  I thought about what was different this time... I was casting in the general area but not the exact spot I was catching the fish because I figured they'd be spooked by now.  Then I realized what that when I caught those 3 fish, I was casting into a large shadow of a tree in front of the storm drain.  That was the only difference really.  So I cast into the shadow and reeled slowly and I was on again - AHA!  

 

I figured it out by just stopping to think about what I was doing and taking a second to just look at my environment.  It wasn't new knowledge to me, the shade provides something different in the water versus just the sun beaming down.  But it just didn't occur to me until I thought about it for a second.  I kept casting into the shadow and literally every cast or second cast resulted in more tailor:

 

By my fourth one, I stopped taking pictures so I could get my line back in the water more quickly.  By the 12th tailor, I stopped counting.  I had to have brought up at least three dozen just by repeatedly casting into the same shady area in front of the storm drain.  I would have thought the fish would've spooked far earlier but they just kept going after it despite their friends disappearing.

 

 

They weren't big tailor but they were a ton of fun on light gear and light drag.  I drew a few spectators watching me pull fish after fish in.  One even asked me if it was the same fish that kept falling for the same trick because they were all tailor and they were all similarly sized 😄

 

After many soft plastic changes due to ripped tails and jigheads flying to the moon from frayed leader, the bite eventually calmed...  I spotted another shady edge to my right on the complete opposite of the storm drain.  I flicked my plastic right over to this new shady edge just to test the shade idea.  First cast and I hooked onto another tailor.  I was satisfied with my little experiment after that.  

 

So there we go...a few dozen tiny tiddler tailor in 1.5 hours of fishing.  I'm not so new to fishing anymore, but still learning everyday how to fish effectively 🙂

Edited July 13 by linewetter

[big Neil]

Well done. And while you keep working out HOW and WHY things are happening, you will continue to improve your results and get more value for your efforts. What you have done is what all good anglers do. They analyse their results—job well done.

bn

[linewetter]

38 minutes ago, big Neil said:

Well done. And while you keep working out HOW and WHY things are happening, you will continue to improve your results and get more value for your efforts. What you have done is what all good anglers do. They analyse their results—job well done.

bn

Thanks bn, those tailor left me with a parting gift of extremely scaley hands from them shedding their scales after each release.  Half the time I was happy to have caught something, the other half cursing that it was another tailor because I'd have to get the scales off my hands after 😆

[Little_Flatty]

Tailor can be fun @linewetter, but they can also be the bane of your existence when they destroy enough lures!

Good you had some entertainment, bet it's good relief from the winter doldrums.

[juicy233]

Tailor are such an under rated species to target, I find the border of the shade super effective especially at night off bridges using bridge lights and the shadow off the bridges. Good stuff 👍 

[linewetter]

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Tailor can be fun @linewetter, but they can also be the bane of your existence when they destroy enough lures!

Good you had some entertainment, bet it's good relief from the winter doldrums.

Oh boy did they destroy my soft plastics. Many of them didn’t even want to let go after I unhooked them. Had to force some of them open so I could return them to the water! Luckily soft plastics are cheap compared to other lures…and even with split/ripped tails the tailor didn’t seem to mind too much unless it got fully bitten off  😂

[linewetter]

1 hour ago, juicy233 said:

Tailor are such an under rated species to target, I find the border of the shade super effective especially at night off bridges using bridge lights and the shadow off the bridges. Good stuff 👍 

I am a big fan of them because they’re so reactive and aggressive and will go after a lure not just once or twice, but until they’re damn near at your feet sometimes. Makes for some very entertaining fishing 😁

[bessell1955]

An interesting read.

[Aussie_fisher]

Tailor are great fun I agree. They shred your plastics but when there’s nothing else might as well sacrifice the plastics. What type of retrieve were you using? I do get them though not nearly as much as you but find they follow my plastic a lot of the time but don’t take it

[james Cutler]

Great story. Well done.

I use circle hooks most of the time. I don't think tailor like them.

[linewetter]

8 hours ago, Aussie_fisher said:

Tailor are great fun I agree. They shred your plastics but when there’s nothing else might as well sacrifice the plastics. What type of retrieve were you using? I do get them though not nearly as much as you but find they follow my plastic a lot of the time but don’t take it

I use a slow roll retrieve and that has seemed to work really well for me for all types of fish too.  I aim to turn the reel handle 1 full cycle about every 3-5 seconds, with some momentary pauses randomly in between reeling thrown in as well....sort of like when I see people retrieve glide baits on baitcasters.  This is the first video I found that kind of shows it....starts at 5:00

 

If I feel them hit it on a constant retrieve but they miss, I'll instantly switch to the glide bait retrieve described above to simulate an injured fish that just got its tail bitten off.  That gets them to come back every time for at least a few more hits...if they don't hook up soon after, sometimes they do lose interest but I just burn it in and recast into the same area and it gets them going again.

[james Cutler]

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