What am I doing wrong???

[Gerhard]

Guys,

Been to a place south of Luanda this morning.

King fish is boiling all over the place. You can see them in the waves....

I dont get any hits.

Not on spoons, plugs, poppers or plastics.....

Please give me a couple of pointers. I need to get stuck into some of these KINGS >>>>>----->>

 

[Dingleberry]

You need me there 'cause I have the Unagi ! The Unagi and I are one ! Damn, the only thing you haven't tried is livebait.

 

[Gerhard]

Boet,

I wished you and the duck was here today...

The fish was crazy 400 meters off shore. But the kings were boiling and surfing waves and no one could get a fish...

 

[Dingleberry]

I am very surprised you didn't get hit. Did you try small lures?

 

[neilg]

Try Bigger soft plastics and a FAST retrieve, maybe maybe not...

 

[Gerhard]

I used some of the storm soft swim baits as well.

I also used a 3 oz buck tail jig.

Bringing them in just below the surface or let them sink a bit.

The moment you bring lures on the bottom you pick up water plants.

Unfortunately I could not go to light lures as the fish was boiling in and around the 1st wave and you needed at least 3 oz lure to get the distance.

The Shimano Exage 110H with toruim 30 and Shimano Exage 100M with Stradic 8000 is both awesome set ups that cast lures a long way.

Hope to be able to give you feed back on fish fighting abilities of these set ups in the next couple of weeks....

 

[Fin-S]

Wind faster.

 

[Gerhard]

Fin-S wrote:

Wind faster.

That I have done as well....

The spoon at times looked like a buzz bait... lol

 

[Guest]

Hello G

You know what they feeding on? Are they following any of your lures and not hitting or are they just not interested?

Anton

 

[Gerhard]

Anton,

I could not see any follows.

Will get with Carols Moran this weekend and hear what he suggest

 

[Guest]

Hello G

Life can be very difficult when the fish not co-operating. Very difficult to give advice when fish not following the lures. One thing for sure is that you were not matching what they were eating. Generally it is instinct for a predatory fish to follow/chase food. Match the hatch if you can.

What colour is the water? Fish can be shy if water very clean. If dirty you may need something that they can see better or something slow with huge disturbance?

Could you post more info on the conditions. Set the scene so to speak. It may help with folks been able to give advice.

Anton

 

[WaterHond]

What would you change if they are following the lure but not biting?

 

[Gerhard]

Speed up or slow down....

 

[fedu]

WaterHond wrote:

What would you change if they are following the lure but not biting?

Though question.

We usually speed up or slow down (has gerhard sayd), make a bit longer stop while retrive.
The fish gerhard was seeing, that day, usually hits everything they see (we call it macoas, jack crevalle), sometimes your cast isn't long enought "to give them time" to attack.

But for instance what you are describing happens a lot with dorado, we try to change lures to something smaller or more enticing (rattlin lures for example), sometimes they still follow the lure but nothing.

If they're not eating after all that forget about it, change spot and see if theyr friends are more cooperative, there are slow hours, you go to the same spot a couple of hours after and they hit everything they see..

it has happened lot's of times with dorado, not usual with the jack crevalle :-(

The most probable problem that day with gerhard, was lure size, probably they were smaller fish and like gerhard sayd he could not change to smaller lures because he was casting from shore and with a smaller lure his cast wouldn't get to the spot.

Those jack crevalles gerhard was talking about sometimes are a plague, you want to get cubera snappers or cudas and the moment the lure hits the water the jacks come and hit it first :-(

 

[WaterHond]

Thanks, that explains allot.

 

[Sailfish]

I had the same happening with me when i worked at Princepe' BOM BOM. But this was with Sailfish chasing the bait. But not getting them to take the bait. I soon realized the prob. The sun was handicaping the fishes sight when they went for the bait. I immedeetly started to trawl with the sun to the rear of the boat and started to hit the fish instantly. I think they rely on their hearing or sencise to find the bait, but the initial take as they come close is purely on sight. If this fails and the bait is not seen at the last momant they wil disgard the take.
Just my 2c. Hope you can understand what i tried to explain.

 

[fedu]

Sailfish wrote:

I had the same happening with me when i worked at Princepe' BOM BOM. But this was with Sailfish chasing the bait. But not getting them to take the bait. I soon realized the prob. The sun was handicaping the fishes sight when they went for the bait. I immedeetly started to trawl with the sun to the rear of the boat and started to hit the fish instantly. I think they rely on their hearing or sencise to find the bait, but the initial take as they come close is purely on sight. If this fails and the bait is not seen at the last momant they wil disgard the take.
Just my 2c. Hope you can understand what i tried to explain.

Never thought on that, next time will also try your approach.
That could explain why changing to rattlin sometimes works on those conditions (they follow the sound, even without seeing properly......)

thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hello Folks

I have just been on a plugging/spinning holiday to OZ. The most common catch there is what the Aussies call a Northern Bluefin or Longtail Tuna. We were often casting into working fish/birds. At times you would not be able to start winding before the fish had taken the lure. There were also times when you could wind the plug straight through the fish and not even get a follow. If I changed to a spoon at this point I went on with the next cast. My experience is that fish key in on a specific baitfish and one has to match that. The plugs that we were throwing were just to big and too far removed from the small anchovy/herring size baitfish they were eating. The smaller spoon was a much better match and they would hit it immediately.

Anton

 

[tauruck]

I have no real experience with this problem but there are answers in every post here. Maybe a small lure with a predominantly silver finish and try to be in the right place in relation to the sun. Most of the bait fish we know of are silver etc. Helps to narrow down the choices. I've learned from this. Thanks all.

 

[Bux]

I was scratching around at the lighthouse point here in SL when i spot a longfin jack crevalle (guestimated at 4kg) cruising at my feet - up and down.
The locals wanted to stone him (which they couldve as he was so close) but I stopped them, I tried all the lures I had on me ranging from poppers, spoons and soft plastics pulling them all in his vecinity sometimes over his nose...and nothing! just a quick look and cruise along. Beautiful, greedy, hard fighting fish but this one just not interested.