Category: Trolling

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January 21st, 2016

BY: Webteam / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Jigging, Trolling

Fishing the flats for flathead .

Flats to me are areas of sand , sand and weed , or sand , weed and rocks , where the depth is not more than 1.5 metres ( 4-5 ft ) .It can be as shallow as 1.5 ft (1/2 metre). Flats can also be shallow rocky reefs .
There is always a drop off near them . I only fish flats the last hour of the run up to the end of the first hour of the run out , maybe a bit longer if the fish are biting . Don’t waste your time at other times of the tides, there are more productive areas to fish .
There are three methods , normal flathead gear , light flathead gear and trolling . Change each method till you get a bite .
Normal flathead gear ( 10 lb leader , 3/0 hook on 1/4 oz jig head , 5″ soft plastic jerk shad , pearl glow colour) when it is deeper and not too weedy , or it is rocky . Start with this , if nothing , or picking up too much weed and junk , turn to your light gear.

For light flathead gear I go down to a 1000 reel , 1-3 kg rod , 4 lb line and 8 lb leader , #2 hook on 1-12th oz jig head . I then put on a 2″ soft plastic Berkeley gulp prawn in new penny colour or peppered prawn colour ( green) . These colours are deadly . Another one is the 3″ Berkeley gulp jerk shad in watermelon or light brown . Any lures that are similar will do ok , I just like these ones .Don’t worry about catching some weed , just clear it off and throw out again. The flathead will be there .
If the flats are reasonably sandy with little weed and rock then troll . If the water is running fast then only troll with the current , not against it as the fish will be facing the current . If the current is little or nothing like in Pittwater then troll up and down and in circles as it stirs up the sand and the flathead come and have a look to see if there is any food .
Here I use the normal flathead gear with the soft plastic . Troll at 3 knots max and hold the rod and jig , jig the lure like it is a wounded bait fish , work the tip of the rod jigging so it comes up towards the front of the boat and then drop the rod tip back behind you so the lure drops to the bottom and sits for a second or two . If it is a bit deeper just use the 3/8 jig head .If the lure goes past s flathead it will get nailed .

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What fish to catch and where to catch them

BY: Webteam / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Fishing Trips, Jigging, Live bait, Other species, Popping, Soft plastics, Trolling

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At the moment I am talking flathead , but we will talk bream , snapper , kingfish , jewfish ,tailor salmon ,and many others as we go . Also micro jigging, soft plastics , hard body , trolling , popping , deep water jigging , vibes , sometimes live bait , but never never smelly old bait or dead bait !

let me knew your success stories also , but make sure you include , rod , reel , line weight , leader , jig sizes , hook sizes and lure .
this way we will all learn .

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Catching Black Marlin Port Stephens

BY: Webteam / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Fishing Trips, Live bait, Other species, Trolling
Tim Angus fished port Stephens last weekend ,catching black Marlin. He used live baits on the insure reefs . Check out the photo how close to the shore they were. Nice to see the shot of him letting it swim away .News is that there are plenty of Marlin out wide from Barrenjoey , about 2 kilometres off shore , in 30 fathoms . Live baiting and trolling garfish , and light tackle . We need to get out there. Anyone had any luck ?
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Fishing Taveuni island Fiji – day 1

BY: Webteam / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Fishing Trips, Trolling
The first of 4 half day fishing trips . The weather was rough so we could not go out to the reef we wanted , so we went south to another reef . After an hour or so throwing poppers and soft plastics , nothing . Then we saw some birds . Nothing on the poppers but a nice GT on the 7″ soft plastic . We then trolled to the next reef and Scott caught a big GT , then a great dogtooth tuna hit the line . A short fight and it was in the boat . Next a triple hook up trolling , and in came three barracuda which the locals like to eat . A couple of coral trout followed .
Just as we were about to leave Adam has his popper smashed by a big GT . The hit was like a thunder clap . Off it went and took drag on the 14000 Stella which was locked up , off like it was cotton . Thirty seconds later it cut the line on the reef . Very exciting !
​looking forward to tomorrow !

 

 

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Day 4 Taveuni island Fiji

BY: Webteam / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Fishing Tips, Fishing Trips, Jigging, Trolling, Videos
A perfect day , no breeze , water flat as a pancake ! We went out to the outer reef number 3 . Everything looked good . One small coral trout came in on a soft plastic . Then nothing . Poppers , jigging and soft plastic jigging couldn’t get a bite . Plenty of bait fish around but no interest . We went to the next reef , same result . We went to the next reef , same result . The weather was too perfect maybe . We hit a fourth reef and started trolling with the big lures . Finally they started biting . I think it was the change of tide . So we ended up with two mackerel , one coral trout , and one big barracuda . So 5 fish for the locals dinner . We fished from 6.30 am till 11.30 am so in summary it was slow , saved by the last hour . See photos and video of the barracuda .see how angry the coral trout is below. Nice shot of the mackerel with the lure under the water .

 

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