Tailor
For my area this year has been dismal for Tailor..... I have fished and lived in this area for many years. My techniques are sound and work when I go to new area's or fish for different species.
Last week we finally got into some good Tailor...not as thick as previous years but some were decent fish over a kilo, enough to put a smile on our faces.
One thing that I have observed is that we are now pulling fish out of parts of the beach where I have never caught fish before and that parts that for many years were never fail hot spots are now empty of fish. Overall their numbers appear to be down by a good half......I think the lower numbers can have several possible causes...
* Seasonal or cyclical changes. That are a normal part of the oceans ever changing moods like water tempretures, poor spawning seasons or some other natural cause.
* Lack of baitfish / food. Their is less bait visable in the water ( People under 50 probably wouldn't have seen a decent school of Whitebait) Herring are less abundant also to the point where I no longer see fisherpeople at some of the old Hotspots. They are visable where I like to fish in reasonable numbers... if I chose to target them im sure I would do ok.
* I have observed Pro fishers row nets around entire schools of Tailor. I'm not pro bashing here It happened so that needs to be included into the mix.
* Over fishing by recreational anglers....I'm sure that this does happen. I have'nt seen a crazy run of just legal choppers for a long time and this is where some anglers used to get greedy but in my personal recent experience I have not seen many people doing well on the Tailor in my locality. Possibly due to the techniques they are using and lack of local knowledge. Personally we only keep one or two fish each so if 3 go we would keep a maximum of 6 fish, but often less by choice.
So what has been going on where you fish. Are you doing well on Tailor. Are the numbers up or down from previous seasons.
I would love to hear from some fellow Tailor fisherpeople as to there experiences, observations.... and maybe suggestions to improve things if you think that is neccessary.
davmor
Posts: 248
Date Joined: 29/11/11
Dont know where your based.
Dont know where your based. But agree totally on tailor been few and far between and size is down also. Im just south of Bunbury.
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
Heads or tail-ors ?
Yeah , I can chip in , my tailor fishing started around 1979 pulling endless choppers from the mandurah area, both from boat and shore,
And people had been doing it every summer for decades, it was just a given.
If we got one that pulled some 10lb string on a lightish drag we were in heaven, they seemed never ending and reguarly it was 10 fish from 10 casts etc, so they
were thick.
Then we had the great tailor drought of the 80,s they seemed to disappear almost over night , the blame was bandied about like nobodys business
from the pro,s to the rec,s to anyone looking at the ocean , but most boffins were saying cyclic or natural causes with some fishing pressure on the side.
Later in the 80,s they made a return but never in the same before bust numbers and they never have.
Perth was also really growing up by then with some haunts like long point rocko or mandurah or even trigg etc gaining people , houses , lights .
A old local boy in some past fishing mag recalled all his old haunts never seem to fish the same again after street lights and human traffic increased.
It was about this time I went futher afield to hunt the buggers down , and had great success around Barri, corronation , greenough, and lano, finding out
what real tailor bite and fight like loosing plenty but learning more.
The baitfish numbers around mandurah in the 70,s were huge and now its gone, so metro at least in order of failure I say
1) lack of available bait, for a number of reasons, pros, recs using said bait, climate , etc
2) climate or natural reasons we may never understand, ( disease, water temp, water quality)
3 ) fishing pressure from both recs and pros.
4 ) change of conditions , lights , boats , marinas etc.
The good news is outside of the metro that doesnt have this perfect storm of tailor biffing , there are plenty of spots , quiet little beachs that fish just as good
for me as they did 20 years back , and due to swells , access , and general local fishing conditions will be around for many many years to come.
Thats why there so special , and need to be respected , not abused by overfishing , leaving rubbish or become places for dickheads to go , intent on leaving
nothing for future tailor fishos.
Tailor are a great W.A way of life providing endless fun and family times for generations , lets keep it that way.
quadfisher
blu2fish
Posts: 74
Date Joined: 23/01/13
Lack of bait fish maybe the problem.
When I came to Mandurah 26 years ago I could always get a feed of tailor but bought a boat so the beach fishing stopped but I remember seeing white bait landing on the beach in their hundreds as the herring gave them a working over down at Florida Beach, also mowed lawns for a member of a professional family who used to net white bait, haven't seen that for yonks.