Plastics vs Bait
Well, a recent trip to Coral Bay has provided a prime opportunity to test the bait vs plastics/jigs.
A mate Phil and i headed out through a very ugly south passage due to low tide and a fairly brisk SouWester. Hoping the wind would ease we punched out to some ground in about 60m of water. We both dropped two rigs, i had an o/head with the standard paternoster rig and a mix of squid and occy. This was dropped to the bottom, drag and ratchet set and then time to concentrate on the jig/spin combo with a berkley nuclear chicken.
Phil's set up was basically the same, so it was time to see how we go. He was the first to boat a fish and it was only after our second drop he pulled this beauty up.
I need to point out that at this stage i had not had a touch on the bait nor my plastic so was keen to get on the board. I hauled his bait in to ensure there was no tangles as the fight this Robbo put up was pretty good. His bait had not been touched either!
We did a couple more drifts across the same ground and could only come up with a trevally.
The wind had started to ease and i made the call to head out wide to some ground i knew would produce. We headed out and found some bait balls, they were sticking to the bottom and no visual/surface signs of them. The bait ball was right on top of some ground i had found quality fish on previously so it was a no brainer to give this a crack, with a couple of drifts we found the bigger fish hiding on the out skirts of the bait ball, we were watching the jigs dropping on the sounder and could see the fish we were targeting. I took a snap of the sounder to give you an idea.
We caught a fairly mixed bag but still no joy with the bait, we decided to remove the paternoster rig with the bait and drop a couple of octa jigs. The results were almost instant, Phil hauled up a beatiful sized Rankin Cod.
We moved to one more nice peice of ground and again Phil was been dragged all over the place by what we guessed to be a big cod that had taken a liking to his McCathy SP. I was hauling in a cobia that has taken the nuclear chicken and trying to keep an eye on the sounder at the same time, the ground we were drifting over was getting better and we could see the big fish hanging off the bottom. I dropped a fresh SP and jigged it twice then bang and it was gone! I didnt even get a chance! Time to re rig.
There was a fair variey of fish during the morning, we had a couple of mahi mahi swin up behind a fish we got into the boat but they wouldnt touch anything we threw at them. There was also heaps of cobia, one just sat in the shadow of the boat for a while but wasnt interested in our jigs.
We boated a couple of splangled's and headed for home making it back to camp to see the end of the AFL Grand Final and have a few cold brews!
After that morning out, the soft plastics and jigs had beaten the bait hands down!
Cheers,
Russ
RUSS - Another punter in the Pilbara!
.thumbnail.jpg "Exmouth Moonrise")
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
well done mate, some good
well done mate, some good fish there. Plastics and jigs sure paid off.
Those jig heads your using are pretty common these days!
snappermiles
Posts: 2100
Date Joined: 05/11/10
good work russ
im a fan of bait but i have been outdone from plastics before!
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS EXCEPT YOU AND ME! AND IM NOT SO SURE ABOUT YOU!
PattyT
Posts: 1025
Date Joined: 15/08/10
The age old battle, I find
The age old battle, I find some days will work for one then the next the other. Some nice fish there, well done!
grantarctic1
Posts: 2546
Date Joined: 03/03/11
Great report
Great report guy's, good info on your comparison , thanks for sharing.
soupster51
Posts: 2724
Date Joined: 29/11/06
Top Report
Good write up mate, top effort. Best post for a while.
The best reason for doing what's right today is tomorrow.
Nauti Buoy
Posts: 595
Date Joined: 20/04/09
Nice work
Don't know about the shorts though!
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
sorry to dissappoint you......
But it was the shorts that pulled the fish
Griffo84
Posts: 118
Date Joined: 28/05/10
Great post!
Thanks for the great post. You have inspired me to give the jigs/plastics a go... Also like the sounder pic.
One question...I also have a lowrance HDS 10 and want to know the ideal settings I should have it on for fishing in the pilbara. At the moment I have it on 'general use' for the fishing mode. Do you suggest leaving the fish symbols on or do you think it's a bit of a gimmock? Seems to look good on your sounder pic.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated and thanks again for the interesting post.
Do the right thing and there will be fish tomorrow.
Pilbra Dave
Posts: 194
Date Joined: 30/09/11
If it isn’t working try something different
Nice post, I tend to be a bait man but I normally have a selection of Plastics, jigs and lures on hand in case the bait isn't working or I feel like a change.
The last time I went to the Monties I challenged the old man to an artificial v Bait comp on afternoon with me on the artificial. Sounder was full of fish and every drop Dad picked up a nice fish while I worked hard for one fish for every ten of his.
The other day I was out off Sailfish Reef trolling with no luck, Bottom fished with no luck, Jigged with no luck, used SP's with no luck and decided to float a Mullie out the back and hooked up on Mackie after Mackie until it was time to leave.
My vote is for what works on that given day and to take nothing for granted, My favourite Fishing saying is “If it isn’t working try something different”.
If you ain't Fishin you ain't Livin
wicked game
Posts: 249
Date Joined: 13/11/08
go the plastics
once again the placcies have beaten the bait. nice write up and good photo's.
just one question, is that a pearl perch i see amongst those fish?
i thought they were only caught on the east coast
quindieselbrad
Posts: 329
Date Joined: 01/09/10
griffo84 and teflon, i use
griffo84 and teflon, i use shallow water fishing mode for up to 20m and deep water fishing mode for anything deeper, general use is terrible for showing extra bottom detail and fish symbols are hard to determine.
in deep or shallow mode,make sure u add suface clutter filter and adjust sensitivity and colourline to get as much detail as possible without filling the screen with mess. use bottom lock too and zoom in to see all the detail on the bottom few meters if u are targeting bottom dwellers and so on.....use blue background colour ,cant remember which number it is.
general use has the best auto adjust and reads the bottom at faster speeds. deep and shallow modes require manual adjust to get it perfect but i prefer it for sure...
also hds10 may have current online upgrades so keep checking and installing to improve the capabilities and glitches etc :) i luv my hds10, and the structure scan omg lol
Catchn dhuies off the smell of an oily rag :)
Griffo84
Posts: 118
Date Joined: 28/05/10
Cheers Quindieselbrad, I will
Cheers Quindieselbrad, I will have a crack next time I take it out. On the above sounder screen shot it shows fish symbols and a colour cloud surrounding it. Is that coloured 'cloud' depicting a mass school of fish? It's amazing how the sounder can detect each individual fish in the school and show it as a symbol!
I also have the structure scan however I don't think I have it on the right settings or I'm not interpretting the data correctly. Do use the structure scan for going out wide or just in the creeks. I have looked up the structure scan on you tube and it's quite amazing what it can show. On an earlier post on this site a bloke showed a structure scan screen shot of a crab pot lying on the bottom of the sea bed! It even showed the bait holder in the middle of the pot and the rope leading up to the surface which I found incredible! I tried to do the same thing when I was off back beach the other week but couldn't see anything on the screen.
Can I pick your brains on the structure scan aswell?? LOL ;-) It's frustrating having this awsome bit of gear and not really knowing how to properly interpret the data or have it on the right settings.
Oh and I highly recommend the Lowrance HDS sonic hub. That thing kicks some serious arse! :-)
Do the right thing and there will be fish tomorrow.
quindieselbrad
Posts: 329
Date Joined: 01/09/10
that cloud you see ismore
that cloud you see ismore than likely baitfish and mixed in with trevally,amberjack, etc depending on where u are of course, in perth that would be skippy, sambos etc its wen u see them on bottom u know its proly cod, snapper feeding ,bottom dwellers etc the cloud is baitfish unless symbols show up everywhere meaning mostly bigger fish, i prefer deep fishing mode with coloured blobs for finding fish, big red blobs with green,yellow outline with an arch to it means big fish for sure,little white and blue dots are bait etc in deep mode u can begin to identify different bottom types etc
as for structure scan, u need flat weather, increased gain and zoom to fill the page with visual detail without the light overpowering the shadows, ill take note of my settings tomoro wen i go out and ill post them soon, once its set up, u can see shipwrecks and rocks and ledges crystal clear up to 40m deep so far ive used it
Catchn dhuies off the smell of an oily rag :)