Dust off the teasers

If you are into billfish, this is your home.
User avatar
Swoffa
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:22 pm
Contact:

Dust off the teasers

Post by Swoffa »

Just too bad that we couldn't convert the chances that we had today. :bonk:

Firstly, I must digress. My 14yr old son and I overnighted in the mouth of the Finniss in preparation for an early start on the water. The Finniss is pumping heaps of tannin coloured water with the salinity levels being really low even a couple of k's off shore from the mouth. Most of the blokes that I spoke to said that there wasn't much happening up near the floodplains so we decided to camp up near the mouth. We pulled 7 barra on poppers with the biggest just short of 65.....not a bad start to the trip with the young feller kicking my arse 5 to 2.

This morning saw us powering out to Sail City with a near glass off. Teasers out......skipping mullet out........waiting in anticipation

We didn't have to wait long before the first beak appeared out of the water behind the baits....line starts taking off in freespool......count to 10.......my son clicks over the bail arm and feels the weight .........only to have bait come loose.

Teasers and baits set again.... pretty soon another beak appears out of the water and jumps all over the bait.....freespool....count to 10.... son clicks over bail arm and feels weight again only to have the bait come loose again.

Starting to see a trend here but not knowing what to do about it. Finally a hookup on a sail about 8Kg only to see it throw the hooks on the first jump. Finally a second hookup but this time on a bigger fish of around 14Kg and this one stayed on for about 7 minutes before it did a blistering aerial run directly towards the boat and spat the bait back at us....not much we could do about that one.

4-2-0 was not the type of start that I was looking forward to.... Perseverence kicked in and we towed the teasers up until lunch time. In a short burst of activity we lost another two sailfish on the hookup......just couldn't set the hooks. I realise after having a great view of the last fish why we couldn's pin these beasts. Because they were so small, they would actually get dragged and change direction when the bail arm is clicked over. Mouth ends up facing directly towards the angler and the circle hook comes straight out of the mouth rather than hinging in the corner. I think next time I will set the circle a bit further forward of the bait and get rid of the tubing between hook and bait.

In all we ended the day just after a lunchtime storm kicked us off the water with a score of 6-2-0. These were definite billfish and not false calls. We would have raised another 6 but could not confirm them as billfish and also seen another half dozen free jumping, cruising, sunning etc etc We also got slammed by numerous macks, tuna and schools of trevs. In total, I stitched up 22 baits for the day for no return.

Water quality was good, nice dark green water although there seemed to be a heavy coral spawn (I thought this only occurred in September). Bucket loads of bait schools but most of these seemed to be staying deep. More mackeral and tuna (only mac tuna) than you could possibly want. Didn't see a flying fish for the whole day..

Not the best start to my season but next time I will be better prepared to target the run of smaller fish that we are currently seeing.

Cheers :drinking1:

Warren


What angler can cross over a bridge without peering over its side
User avatar
hingsy
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 144
Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 5:56 pm

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by hingsy »

Unlucky but Top report!
Nogood
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 142
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:56 pm

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Nogood »

Mate instead of a count of 10 count to 30 and let the wait of line set the hook not the rod it's been working for us
We have been useing 4/0 musted demon inline circle hooks
jeffish
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 3716
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:25 am
Location: Darwin

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by jeffish »

Top report Warren ,hard luck with the hook ups.
Thanks for saying Gday at the servo,nice to put a face with the name,,cheers
User avatar
Agent86
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 2275
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:11 pm
Location: Humpty Doo NT

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Agent86 »

Well done on seeing the fish and thanks for the report.

Pity about the hookup rate

Sounds like there will be a few round this season though, good to hear
If there is water and it holds fish, then it is fun trying to fool them into eating what you offer!!

Especially when you can see them!
DOUG
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 2447
Joined: Sat May 08, 2010 6:10 pm
Contact:

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by DOUG »

Good effort least ya raised a few
J hooks an only a short count on the smaller fellas
Where ya raise them out wider or around Bowra ?
User avatar
uniball
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 489
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:42 am
Location: Darwin

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by uniball »

Good job dude. Brilliant conditions down there this weekend
john d
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 796
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:29 am
Location: darwin/jabiru

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by john d »

Cheers for the report Swoffa.
Hopeing to get down there after easter.
Quinntreximon
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 752
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:04 pm
Contact:

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Quinntreximon »

Never fished for sails before but might give them a go this year. What is a good lure to start with or is it best to troll mullet or skirts, etc? Just a few simple tips to get me started would be great.
User avatar
Swoffa
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:22 pm
Contact:

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Swoffa »

Hi Suzie Q,
DeepBlack put up a great blog a couple of years ago on all aspects of billfishing up this way. The blog is in 4 parts and should be read from number 1 first. Check out the blog at http://fishingterritory.com/blogs/tragic/ You dont need to spend big dollars getting set up and you definitely dont need to go out and buy expensive teasers, lures or skirts.

NoGood, tried a couple of variations on setting the hooks but still couldn't come up on a winner. We tried waiting for up to about 20 seconds then tried 5 seconds...... We are using Penn spinfishers and have them with the bail arm open and a rubber band holding the line until the fish strikes and releases it from the spool. after the count of 10 we turn the bail arm over and let the weight of the line hook the fish. I don't think we were doing anything fundamentally wrong although a couple of mods to the rig to cater for the smaller fish would have definitely helped. It just didn't work for us this time but thats billfishing.

Doug, all the fish were directly at Sail City. there was nothing at the Witches Nose or Long Lost. There weren't even any birds working those other areas. I will give it a shot next time with using a J hook and lessen the count. One rig set that way and the other rig set in my conventional style...

cheers :cheers:

Warren
What angler can cross over a bridge without peering over its side
Quinntreximon
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 752
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:04 pm
Contact:

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Quinntreximon »

Thanks for the info SWOFFA. Will give it a try.
Kp NT
Seadog
Seadog
Posts: 253
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 4:12 pm
Location: Gove

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Kp NT »

How ya going swoffa, what size and type of circle hook do you use?

One thing ive found with sails is you gota let them go until they stop to swallow the bait then when they move off again you up the drag and the hook should come up and hook em in the corner of the jaw,
Then all you gota do wind em in and job done :D
I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.” - Steven Wright

"If you want to maintain a sustainable supply of fish you have to farm the fish, rather than mine them. So putting your money into fishing fleets that are going to exacerbate the problem by over-fishing is not the way to preserve the underlying asset."
Maurice Strong
CCO625
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 84
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2010 6:27 pm

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by CCO625 »

Swoffa, You mentioned that you had stitched up 20 odd baits for the day, were they Gars or Mullet. I'm currently trying to find a good spot to catch some Gar to pre rig and freeze for later use. Are you catching your own or can you recommend a good supplier as I can't find any in the local tackle shops. Cheers, Steve.
BarraMick
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:18 pm

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by BarraMick »

Glen at BETA frozen foods normally has them.
and every other bit of bait.

hes the butcher in Berrimah.

does top quality meat as well.
User avatar
Swoffa
Jedi Seadog
Jedi Seadog
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:22 pm
Contact:

Re: Dust off the teasers

Post by Swoffa »

Hi Steve, I normally get my baits at Pt Blaze so they are nice and fresh. This trip I took along some frozen mullet just in case I couldn't get anything. Lucky that I did as there was bugger all bait anywhere to be seen. I find that Franks seafood at Nightcliffe has some nice fresh frozen mullet and gar but after seeing what BarraMick has written above I think I will also have a look in BETA. Might check out the meat while I am in there :)

I was using small mullet only around 4 inches long and I still think they were too big for the fish that were out there. I would recommend using mullet around 2 to 3 inches long with a 4/0 circle rigged about an inch in front of the bait. The frozen ones that I used from Franks were really good and fresh and there were probably about half in the packets at the size that I was after.

Cheers

Warren
What angler can cross over a bridge without peering over its side
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Marlin & Sailfish”