How To Catch Mahi Mahi at the FAD's
Submitted by K_willo on Wed, 2021-02-17 14:55
If you've been on social media you've seen the FAD's have been firing lately with some seriously good size fish caught. I actually broke my PB twice this week with solid bulls on stickbaits, its been unreal.
I've received a lot of questions every time I've posted a pic or video so I thought I'd collate those questions into a 'How To'. This was all filmed last season but the info is all still current.
If you've considered heading out for the first time this could be a huge help.
It's a long one, maybe grab a beverage and I promise there's some good fishing at the end.
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Storyteller with a camera, check out my fishing movies
https://www.youtube.com/user/kwillo89
https://www.instagram.com/kwillo89/
VIC DORY
Posts: 308
Date Joined: 28/05/15
Live herring is pretty much
Live herring is pretty much the go.
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
Yep, that’s all I’ve ever used.
"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."
Mr Wolf
sunshine
Posts: 2600
Date Joined: 03/03/09
Thanks, learnt a bit
Now how to keep some live bait long enough to try as well
biggerfish
Posts: 669
Date Joined: 02/03/09
Make a live bait tank
Make a live bait tank out of a kitchen bin and some 18mm Polly pipe with small spray holes drilled in it. Run it off your deck wash. Tried to post photo of one I made but can't work out how
Play hard fish harder
sunshine
Posts: 2600
Date Joined: 03/03/09
Have a large kill tank I can easily airate
Just got to find somewhere to secure bait fish super early in the morning. Got a great place in Jurien but that is somewhat far away, never found anything even closely similar south metro
biggerfish
Posts: 669
Date Joined: 02/03/09
Edge of parmelia bank in the
Edge of parmelia bank in the sound or any of the channel markers in sound or off freo usually hold herring and yellow tail. We trolled small bibbed minnows over the shallow weed last time on way through Cockburn and got a dozen herring in half an hour
Play hard fish harder
boneyman
Posts: 43
Date Joined: 03/02/10
Bait Tank
biggerfish
Posts: 669
Date Joined: 02/03/09
Hey mate sorry can't see how
Hey mate sorry can't see how to add photos will do a new post with photo added
Play hard fish harder
K_willo
Posts: 167
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Hahaha I spent the whole
Hahaha I spent the whole movie casting lures and you guys are only talking about livebaits? Obvioulsy they're effective, but give stickbaits a try! The bites can be absolutely epic and there's no worrying about keeping them alive.
Storyteller with a camera, check out my fishing movies
https://www.youtube.com/user/kwillo89
https://www.instagram.com/kwillo89/
K_willo
Posts: 167
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Hahaha I spent the whole
Hahaha I spent the whole movie casting lures and you guys are only talking about livebaits? Obvioulsy they're effective, but give stickbaits a try! The bites can be absolutely epic and there's no worrying about keeping them alive.
Storyteller with a camera, check out my fishing movies
https://www.youtube.com/user/kwillo89
https://www.instagram.com/kwillo89/
sunshine
Posts: 2600
Date Joined: 03/03/09
Hate lures BUT am going to give it a serious go
But would like to try live baits for mullas .....yellowtail is my preference so will give the channel markers a shot
davewillo
Posts: 2404
Date Joined: 08/09/16
Good how-to mate. I've
Good how-to mate. I've caught them on livies, trolling and topwaters and topwaters are the most fun. It's a bit like mackies - if you've ever cast metals or jigs at them it's way more fun than trolling (once you've found the fish). Having the lure suddenly stop and scream away is awesome!
PGFC member and lure tragic
uncle
Posts: 9474
Date Joined: 10/02/07
Bucktail banana jigs
go ok the smaller ones they just suck in
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
sunshine
Posts: 2600
Date Joined: 03/03/09
Hit the compleat angler fad predawn this morning
Total blank, was first there and set up a nice drift and hammered the area with the suggested lures, worked slow fast deep you name it I tried it. Another boat turned up and I though there was an etiquette to fishing these structures.....not for this bloke who repeatedly motored up inside my drift and virtually sat on top of the fad most of the time. They were bait and lure fishing but from what I saw they caught three small small dollies on cubes. Not sour grapes but perhaps they should read what conduct is recommended....would hate to be out there of a weekend as it must be mayhem.
on the way in passed a massive bait school totally encircled by a large pack of bronzies cutting them to shreds, didn't even care as I drove up for a closer look.
I will try again mid week when weather permits
K_willo
Posts: 167
Date Joined: 07/05/12
Haha etiquette doesn't exist
Haha etiquette doesn't exist at the FAD's at times, alot of people clearly don't understand the whole drift concept.
I've been there on busy weekends and yeh it can be absolutely mental!
That being said I've set up a drift with boats doing circles trolling lures getting nothing and have had fish climbing over stickbaits, sometimes it pays to do something different and sometimes they have lock jaw.
We've also seen the bronzies in deep water, pretty cool to see but they were eating our Yellowfin which was a pain.
Storyteller with a camera, check out my fishing movies
https://www.youtube.com/user/kwillo89
https://www.instagram.com/kwillo89/
sunshine
Posts: 2600
Date Joined: 03/03/09
Yup, sounder showed plenty of big fish beneath the ball
But hooking up to anything would have resulted in feeding the sharks. water clarity was something else. Finished the day with a broken rod after a flying carpet stingray decided to dive under the boat just as I was trying to cut it free.....ungrateful is what I call it