Daiwa Pirates would be one of the best i have used

also lamble baits are very very good and iv caught alot on them

The andamans are popular but i haven't had as much success as the two mentioned above

Im very new to the demersal jigging scene but have a lil success on light fanky jigs around the 3 mile and got my 1st size dhu on a Mcarthy. Really hoping to beat my pb of about 5kg.....Im still unsure where to rig those pirates Ryan, looks like there are two places to attach to the leader???

Mcarthy paddle tail in baby elf is def my fav, 2 big dhuies in 2 drops convinced me.

My favourite way of targeting dhuies is a drift baited squid. I use as light of a ball sinker as possible and spend a bit of extra time rigging up the squid so it looks as natural as possible. I have tried sp's a few times but with only a lil succes so cant realy say i have a favourite, but im in the same boat as u, gonna give them and jigs a realy good crack after the ban.

my best ever bait is live cod or parret fish that would get the party started ,but it has been a while living in exmouth we dont see to many

jeff

LOL make sure the sambos have snuck off before you whip that out on light line.

Pretty happy with Ima Ro, Shout Lighten and some fankys.

I'll be fishing pe 4 and 60 lb leader.

God forgive any sambo that want's to highjack that party, Lolzs

After what I saw at Jurien and again on the back of the 5 last week, any baitfish profile will get dhuies!

mcCarthy soft plastics baby elf and the pinks. The red/yellow ones work sweet aswell. Think they all do :P

Keyboard get stuck John?

haha was going to say, he has gone ballistic

heres a pirate and some of the lambles that have worked great for me, i rig the pirate from the head(where the eyes are). Under the eyes it has a concave edge which gives heaps of action on the drop, same as the middle lamble, it to has a concave belly

Thanks Luke, i wasn't sure as to rig from the eyes or the middle. I was reading on the daiwa website they said rigging from the eye is for speed jigging for kingies and the middle for reef fish like snapper. But il take your word for it rigging from the eye, i remember that cracking day you had before the ban with 10 dhuies in a day...so rigging from the eye shall be the method!

depends on what the current ect. is like, pirates sizes are 80g,100g,120g, 150g  i use alot of 80g-100g Pirates start from $16.95

lamble bait sizes are 80g,90,110, 140,165,170 . i use all the sizes in these and they have all worked well

all boats sell these pirates luke?

Absolutely

i agree with luke ive caught my best Dhuies on the Daiwa Pirates and lamble baits they are a quality product & well worth the money

i might have to come in luke. got plenty of stock atm?

Hey Luke can you replace the skirt and assist hooks on those pirates ?

yes we have heaps of stock, im going to order replacement skirts from yo-zuri, you just have to make new assist hooks for them.

I have found the hooks they come with to be really good and havent had to replace them yet

when jigging for dhueys and snapper what technique do you use. is it the same as jigging for sambos just without bringing it so far off the bottom. Or is it just jigging using your rod and not winding.

Never jigged for them b4 but real keen to get into it.

well i know you dont come so high up, and its a fair bit slower. you still wind though from what i know.

Favourite jig for dhuys is the shout lighten in the gold and red colour. Have had heaps of success with this jig. Just before the ban I started using a few evergreen caprice jigs and they seemed to work well. Hanging to give them a good test.

When jigging for dhuys slow your action right down. I usely give the jig a couple of jerks then allow it to drop back a bit while you take up a bit of the slack line. Repeat this 5 or so times then drop back down. Get a lot of hits as the jig flutters back down.

seven seas hooker got that one << and lost a couple of good ones beside

my #1 goto

lighten's also great

lamble  haoli look great. finish is tops

not convinced on the f2's , tho bought one to try

with all the talk of lures , what about a nice fillet of western king wrasse. they are a great bait for dhuies

that weve found for Dhuies is i super fresh cuttlefish tenticle. If you ever catch one while fishing for Dhuies (relatively common down here) chuck a whole tenticle on a set of snelled 8/0's and WHAMMO! Usually interests the big girls too 15kg+.

Flick Baits and Wrigglers in 140mm

Lucanus Jigs

Shouts

Or live bait...

Cheers

I'm going to see how these Gillies Octa jigs work when the season starts again.

Cheers
Dale

I'm with the Faulkners... can't beat fresh wrasse. I always do a surgical examination of the gut when filleting and 9 times out of ten there will be a whole wrasse in there.

Best bait, whole californian squid on a snelled drift bait rig. If patternoster then local cray ocky, skinned and cut into bite size pieces.

As for best Dhu jigs, myself & Ryan have a few favs;

JFLab jigs/Zest jigs/Shout jigs in 90-120gram approx

McArthy SP 7 inch bullhead & 6 inch paddletails are dhufish candy.

The JFLab jigs, do they have skirts etc on them ?

No they're not an Octa or Pirate style jig. They are the straight style jigs, like the Shout Stays, Sea Rocks, etc etc.

We do have the Eupro Marugo (Pirate style) jig with the occy skirt on it.

Is there much difference between the Kamikaze Pirates and the Daiwa brand ?

I imagine the action would differ

i dno but ima try the kamikaze this season :)

They look pretty similar, getting real toey now

For Me,

Have caught my biggest Dhuies, then the Pirates Arrr

What you need to realise is that catching a dhufish is not all that hard.They are one of the dumbest fish that swim the ocean.They will eat almost anything.When the ban is over i will use a piece of old dishcloth to catch one just to prove my point.There just seems to be a lot of folks that overcomplicate fishing,after all it is about the location, a few friends, a couple of cold bevies and grabbing a quick feed for the family.If you cant catch a dhufish you need to sell all your gear and your boat or start fishing areas outside the marina.

I do agree with you Allrounder. It is all about being in the right area's, alot of guys spend too much time drifting aimlessly around 'hopeing' that a dhuie will commit suicide and jump on there line. Spend more time sounding/looking and having the right stuff on the end of your line and the Dhuies will come

As this will be my first season fishing for dhuies, etc, as we've just bought the big boat, I'm thinking of starting out with a simple patanosta rig.

I know the sinker weight will depend on the depth and drift rate, but I'm wondering what size and style of hook to use. I know the dhuie has a very large mouth so any reasonably sized bait will be gobbled up with ease.

I've got some 6/0 suicide hooks in my tackle box....are these ok or would anyone suggest something bigger/smaller/better?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

regards

rusty...

6/0's will be OK though i would have 2 snelled 5-10cm apart so you can use a larger bait eg. Fish fillet, whole squid, occy tenticle. Run 2 sets of hooks on a paternoster rig. I'd dare say most of the Dhuies ever caught would have been on paternoster rigs so no dramas there.

I've now seen it way too many times to be a fluke...dhuies of all sizes blowing right past all manner of bait (wrasse/occy/squid/sgt baker/cuttlefish/whiting/etc) to smash a metal jig. Doesn't have to be a "flutter" style jig, either. Dropped a knife jig on a known sambo lump 'cause we already had the boat limit for dhufish, and yep, another dhu ate it. 75cm released. Jigging back of FFB off Mandurah with a 90g Lighten, hoping to scare up sambos...again Mr Dhu, 62cm, release 'cause of ban. These fish were actually outrunning sambos to the jig!

Don't know why, maybe it's out of anger/territorialism/lack of stink/whatever, but unless small children/old people want to come out and soak bait, I'm over it.

Has anyone heard of cherry tomatoes? Second hand story of and old fella who apparently swears by them at Lancelin;)

Thanks for the advice about fish hook size for dhuies.....now can you please explain the idea of snelling the hooks. Obviously they're not ganged together so I'm assuming that there's a bottom hook attached to the end of the paternoster rig's hook dropper, with another attached on the same dropper, slightly higher than the bottom hook.

Are the 2 hooks not necessarily the same size, and if so, which hook is the bigger one, the upper or lower one?

Why not just gang them??

regards

rusty...

the snelled hooks display the bait better... espsecially the Californian squid. I usually put a mulie on the top hook. Don't have to be the same size personal preferance I guess. I usually use 7/0-9/0 chemi sharpened hooks.

match the hooks to the bait you're using so the point is left well exposed. good idea to have a smaller terminal hook incase of kg's (mustad hoodlums in 2/0 are tough as)

drift bait over paternosta if bait fishing.

Rusty, for squid we use two hooks the same size ie 6/0 with california squid.

See presentation pic below from Ryan Thipthorp's driftbaiting article he did a while ago;

Snelling makes the squid look better ie presentation and when the fish are mouthing the bait it gives you a better hook up than gangs.

Is that a crimp above the sinker ?

Always have a small line over first to catch a parrotfish, the bigger the better, then straight on to an 8/0 tarpon live.

Even next best bait is a whole small cuttlefish or a good size mullet fillet

Thanks Honsu

A picture is worth a thousand words (well, to me at least) and your picture of the snelled hooks in a squid was most helpful.

Is there any issue with a big fish taking the bait via the bottom hook, only to bite thru the line between the two hooks..that would be a shame to lose a fish that way?

The live bait rig is another option that I'll try, too. I don't seem to have any trouble catching rock cod/wrasse/parrot fish so that's a start!

regards

rusty...

unless you hook a shark i'd be very surprised if you got bitten off. You should be using at least 80lb leader and get some tough stuff like jinki, black magic or penn 10x.

Hey rusty, if you use a 80-100lb leader you will have no trouble, Dhuies are not renowned for biting through leaders.

I only run 130pound and if the biggens are around and hungry you wont see a snell on my rig.They have left me red faced on to many occasions.We have had 100 pound snapped like cotton and even had two 20 plus fish on the same rig and the bigger bottom on rasped the leader from the second swivel all the way down and blew the snells straight of the end of the leader.

how about you give us/ r.gates an example of how you set up your rig. Any idea's are always appreciated

Definately agree with the leader issue...... nothing less than 150lb

I've got 120lb Black Magic leader which I thought would be ok...any examples of rigs would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

regards

r.gates...

i did ok on 40lb fluro on jig

lost a few snells to the boltcutters tho

Yeah Graham, boltcutters and NW Blowies. Doesn't matter what size your running, unless you go cable.

Rusty, go a simple paternoster rig

I'll start with the paternoster rig and see what happens.

Finding some ground with 'fish' showing on the sounder is the best place to start, even though they might not be taking what we're offering.

Having a range of options....live bait, bait, jigs, SP gives the best chance of catching a fish, me thinks!

regards

rusty...

Thats it rusty cover all bases, because some days baits will work better than artificial.

By all reports the Mcarthy soft plastics did some damage befor the demersal ban, so make sure you have a packet or 2 of them in the tackle box.

Just make sure not to set the hook too early when using baits, dhuies like to mouth or suck a bait. So when you feel them pulling at your line give them a couple of meters, before striking.

You will drop a few and catch a few more, and find your style.

You make a good point about giving the fish a chance to take the bait before striking....that's something that we'll have to get used to, in the excitement of that first bite on/after 16th!!

Weather permitting, we'll be out there, but we won't be alone

regards

rusty...

Rusty Quote -Is there any issue with a big fish taking the bait via the bottom hook, only to bite thru the line between the two hooks..that would be a shame to lose a fish that way?

Rusty ,Dhufish have raspy teeth and can wear but you also dont want to go too heavy on the driftbait leader either (will minimize bites from other fish/spooky fish)

You can use 80lb and thats fine but increasing to 100lb (Jinkai plus) for longevity from the drift bait rig is good. Using flurocarbon will allow you to drop down in leader poundage due to higher abrasion resistence, you can use 50-60lb Sunline flurocarbon.

As for using even heavier trace for bottom bouncing, I agree with Ryan ie you up it again to say 120lb when you have 2 or 3 droppers as double header fish will often scissor snap your trace line.

can't remember who posted the pic , but if you're worried , you could thread on some red plastic tube over the leader between the snells as extra protection

most of this snelling talk seems to be using suicides or tarpons. Is that the best way to go? What about circle hooks, or is that just for standard paternoster droppers?

just bumping thread. Any advice on hooks? (see previous post)

Circles are a bit tricky to bait, and I'm sure they're even worse snelled!