I've thought of this before.  Do you use berley or anchor up?  I reckon you simply move off the spot.  I reckon you could be just 5 metres off the mark and you'll miss them.  When you're fishing in 30m plus of water, it would be shear fluke (in my opinion) to land/drift over the exact same ground you had just fished on.  By the time you stop and drop your lines, you could be up to 50m off your drift line???  But fish might still show up on the sounder because of the angle of the signal it puts out.

Just a thought.  I might be totally off the mark (pardon the pun) but I think about it everytime I go fishing.  I think the same thing about throwing berley straight overboard.  By the time it hits the bottom with the drift and current and stuff, who knows how close to your drift it ends up being when it gets to the bottom???

The trick is to anchor over the spot. When you first spot the school of fish on a patch and then drift over it you take most of the school with you following the bait and hooked fish away from their ground. Next drift takes the remaining fish leaving only smaller reef fish behind.

Sure its a lot more work and getting right over the spot can take a couple of goes but the rewards are worth it.

Getting your burley down is easy,just wrap it up in an onion bag, attach a heavy spare line and big sinker and drop it over the side so it goes right to the bottom straight under the boat.

never had to anchor in my life for them, this yr has been a bumper so far, get a good sounder and drop right on them (weather permiting of course) and fresh bait mate, no smelly old bait, FRESH , we have had them smash n grab bait, nip or nibble at it , keep giving them plenty of line until you put the brakes on him, i have had brendan on board jigging them lately with success, and i see a few others doing well on jigs also,

use ur plotter , with ur trail , and mark where ur hooking up,

good luck mate

I think we need to invest in a better sounder.  The old man has an old $300 hummingbird jobbie.  At least we can tell what depth we are fishing.  Lol.

Well I would say yes they can be spooked ,you can shut down the bit by just releaseing a black ass.but just because you get two or three dhuies of a spot stright away. Then no more does not mean the fish on the sounder are dhuies.I have had many days where we do a drift over a lump and the fish are going tropo,then the next drift not even a bite from a wrase or anything .Dhuies swim alone ,in small groups and also in large schools,We have lumps that at the right time of year on the right day there are schools blocking the bottom on the sounder ,could be hundreds,had one spot hold a school for eight weeks.now we are diving the deeper water i will be droping down to check it out ,get some pics..

are you talking about dhuies or jewies? Coz they're totally different fish.

From what i've read, i have a feeling its dhuies, jewies/jewfish is an eastern term for soapies/mulloway.

Just wanted to point that out. =|

i think he means dhueys

and i reckon they spook as do pinkies

...switch off. I"ve drifted over good ground three or four times, seeing fish on the sounder, for no result, only to have the next couple of drifts pay off. My theory is that the fish get into "feeding modes". These modes come on and off like a light switch. They will ignore your bait for a while, and then all of a sudden smash everything in sight.

Remember, the fish can't be hungry ALL the time, can they? I reckon with jigs it'd be a different story 'cause in that instance the strikes would more likely be out of anger. 

I have fished for dhueys for 12 years with an awesome fisho and in all that time when one of us drops a dhue they shut down. We have tried different things to switch them on again even changing rigs but to no avail.

So yes I definatley think they spook.

Thanks guys for the comments good to see I'm not the only one whos been wondering over this..

And yes Chan I was refering to Dhuies just to lazy to spell it correctly..

Some good points raised regarding feeding habits and drifting techniques..

I have always been a drifter and very rarely anchor and even sometimes on bad current days "backed up" on spots with the motor to hold the best boat posistion and bait presentation...

I also agree that you have to hit the mark spot on which is alot eaiser with the current range of chart plotters , but depending on which way you are drifting on that particular day I have a feeling that you may be fishing the wrong side of the lump/ledge so possibly making it hard for the fish to find your bait/lure, I might have to add more details to my fishing log and see if I can find any patterns...

My largest ever dhuie which was an gram of three twenty kg was lost by a mate on the drift before - how do I know, because he was using (and I was against their use) large stainless steel 10/0's and had lost a horse not ten minutes before I hooked and landed my PB - there deep in it's mouth was the said same stainless hook he had lost minutes before after a good fight - two things come to mind, not on ly don't they spook but it didn't put that fish off the bite either and that really did surprise me - now if you had asked about snapper then the opposite reaction would have applied - definitely.

Thats my take on it    

Have had the same happen here caught fish after losing one , this dose not happen every time you lose a fish 90% of the time they switch off.Or I am just bloody unlucky

Many years ago on Mills Charters I landed a dhuie around 10kg not long after another punter broke off a fish.  Wouldn't have known if it wasn't for his set of gangs still being attached.

oops

just been watching a lee raynor video of snapper fishing in PPB

he's anchored and burleying and releasing loads of pinkies but they're still nailing plenty.