Now I am certainly no expert in this field but have chased these buggers for a little while, read a heap of stuff on the subject and also attended a fantastic gamefishing clinic on the Sunshine Coast early this year. I will attempt to impart some little things that have helped me.
1. Do not go overboard with gear. The only person you impress is the tackle shop owner. There are a million little gadjets and gizmos out there that promise to increase your catch rate from lures, teasers, rods and even the sound resonance of the boats hull !!! Keep it simple. A couple of well maintained outfits to 15kg (mono preferred), a teaser chain and some nice baits is all you really need. Whilst outriggers, downriggers, shotguns, whitchdoctors etc have there place, they are not essential elements. Save the money for fuel...you will need it!
2. Stay natural. Fish eat fish...not resins and plastics!!! Whilst lures certainly play a big part in gamefishing nothing stacks up against natural baits. For our fish which are smaller than average you will get away with a Gar and mullet rigged as skipped or swim baits. Hard plastics and the like can spook a fish when it strikes.
3. Find the fish. This is possibly the hardest thing to do up here as we have no real patters and as stated previously limited capture data to help us. There are things to help though such as bait schools, current lines, presence of flying fish (#1 food of billies up here!), nice clean water, temp changes (not such a big thing for us) and, most importantly, word of mouth!!!
4. Never leave fish to find fish. A very old saying that is really at home with bills. Whilst they are a roaming pelagic species, they stay in a relatively small area when feading. If you see a fish you should work that area really hard for a good 30 - 60 mins, or even longer. This is a proven tactic in all types of fisheries ... think runoff barra for example!
5. It takes time. Patience is the key here. It is very common to troll for an entire day and not see a fish. This is part of the beauty of billfishing. If it was easy we would all be bored of it by now. Whilst this is my main reason for chasing bills, it is many peoples excuse not to!!! You need to put in the time to get the results. My advise, get a good fun crew and a decent stereo to make the days shorter.
6. Stay calm. It is very easy to get over excited when a fish comes up behind your baits, trust me. The best bet is to stay clam and focus on getting the fish to strike your bait. When the fish strikes at the bait freespool the bait back and let the fish get the bait down before tightening up the drag. This has been my biggest problem in the past (now cured thank god). I was too keen to get the drag up and get the fish in. You should have about 400 - 600 metres of line...a 10 - 15 second freespool is not going to empty your spool. Let the bait get down, tighten the drag, and hang on. Let him run and then chase him down!
7. It is a team event. Unless you are solo fishing this game is a team sport. Everyone has a part to play. The skipper has to keep the fish in the right place relative to the boat, the deckie has to guide both the angler and the skipper to the fish whilst clearing lines, teasers etc and the angler has to simply winch the sucker in to the boat. All parts of the team need to function though.
As I said I am no expert on this subject but am out there trying to learn as much as possible, as quick as possible. The gamefishing clinic I attended a few months back was supurb and certainly cleared the air for me. I am keen to pass on all I know to anyone interest as this will only improve what I think will be a great little fishery up here.
Regards
