It's a good post mate. Not as easy to respond to though.

Tailor are predators and very clever ones too. Generally Tailor will "hide out" in white water and strike quickly before going back in cover. Fishing close to structures which create white water is a very good tactic. Throwing unweighted mullies or poppers into the white water will often produce good results and larger Tailor. Personally I have the most success from shore in the evening when the SW is in. The chop seems to provide good cover for hunting Tailor. If the tide is on the way in then the chances are that the Tailor are about and feeding.

Tailor often feed on the surface and then decend to deeper water hence it would appear they have gone off the bite. By changing from a popper type lure to a metal you can often have good results as the metal lure will retrieve at a greater depth. Mind the structures though or you will lose your metals.

My favourite shore-based setup is a lightly weighted Mullie. As I get older I get lazyer and tire easily tossing lures. Weighted Mullies sitting on the bottom don't work all that well. The secret is to keep the Mullie moving with a slow retrieve. I even use large wine bottle corks above the Mullie gang to encourage movement in surf and chop. The week before last I was fishing using this method and landed several fish either side of the 50cm mark. The fishermen either side of me were catching choppers. The only diffence I think was that I use a moving rig with less weight. It's funny to see these guys set up and then place their rod in the holder and sit down with a beer expecting something to happen.

I fish all year round but change locations depending on the time of year. Tailor will run in large numbers this time of year. In winter the numbers drop off but the size of the fish can increase dramatically depending on the location.

I hope this helps.

so would it be a waste of time fishing for them if the wind was coming from an easterly direction? and at low tide...even tho its a high low tide?...

great help there mate thanks

Great advice there CuntyRigger!!

I've done a fair bit of research on the matter and found that there are multiple technqiues for all sorts of fishing locations and conditions.

Armed with the knowledge that you get off here and searching is not always going to be enough to bag you the results you want. 

Paternosters, unweighted, poppers, metals, soft plastics, hard bodies, running sinker rigs, list goes on.  But all this is conditions dependent. 'Horses for courses'

I learnt the most by picking a few spots I know produce tailor and just fished. A lot of trial and error, lost rigs and keeping a close eye on the techniques the successful fishermen around me used has taught me more about actually catching them.  After a year or so of taking note of what conditions have (& have not) produced, i can almost tell upon arrival whether there'll be any tailor around and how to catch them.

Just go fish and learn off the ones doing well around you.

its never really not worth fishing for them. i have caught them on easterly winds and low tide in the middle of the day. but also have not caught them in "ideal" conditions. There either there or there not. Thats fishing for you. Besides, how good is it getting out of the house???

haha ..your spot on cudbfishn...

no better way to get away from the house and relax..i hear you about they are either there or not...sometimes i just get that feeling when i arrive to a spot that theres no fish around even in good conditions..its just a matter of getting out there and trying...im going to try tomorrow morning i think....even thouigh im having more succes at the evening fishing...will prob have to go early tho...

agree with all said above and as long as you have a line in the water your a chance.  this week with high tides in the evening and sw winds should be ideal conditions.  I dont usually fish metro for them but places like cott groin, grant streat swanbourne to trigg are usually spots people try. 

I reckon bait casting mulies is the best way to catch them and i had a ball doing this last weekend at moore river with an easterly wind about 3 hours after the sun had come up at dawn there was only herring!! but its hard to baitcast into a stiff south wester

  I reckon if you are fishing surf beaches the paternoster works better because you can cast it further and the water movement will get your mulie moving.

around reefs metals and poppers can be great fun and there is no need to mess around with bait.

Cover is very important for tailor and on high action beaches (surf beaches) a high tide in the middle of the day can be more productive than dawn or dusk beacuse they can hide in the gutters under the whitewater.

maybe you should think about doing a few trips to renown tailor hot spots like the dongara to kalbarri stretch

good luck

the things that have been said above, is exactly what iv been looking for! thanks guys,

iv tried paternoster rig at north mole caught 2 25cm tailor, first tailors iv caught, put them back offcorse, im going to try a lightweighted mullie and let it drift depending how many people are around me. planning to take my metals to, would metals work at night to?

one quik question. iv been told,

that sw winds normally bring in tailor, nw winds normally bring in snapper (has to be choppy tho) how bout wersterly or easterly winds? what do they normaly bring in?

thanks

Ish

easterly winds are good for surfing. depending on the swell lol. the westerly winds = south wester. well thats what it usually is.

easterly is gennerally better for smaller fish ie herring, gardies

consider a westerly the same as a sw or nw.  some people hate winds with any north in it reckon it shuts the fishing down

but it goes alot further than wind direction things like tides, moon, rainfall, sun levels, temperature of water and air.  when people fish the moles in nw winds a big swell has normally acompanied it previously which washes all the crabs/shelfish into the water which the snapper love to eat.  bait fish in the area have a big effect on tailor.   fish go where they can feed, think about what they might be eating and why and this will help you get more success

it all gets very complicated the more you think about it, just go fishing better than watching tv

im intrested in finding out about the winds too...for tomorrow morning its giving ene and e winds...or by tomorrow evening its giving south winds at 18 knotts...is this too much for tailor as in the wind strength

north, norwester winds are usually an indication of a frount/storm approaching. May be a reason for the shutdown of the fish.

Easterlies or land breaze are usually in the morning when the ocean is warmer then the land. air moves from high pressure to low pressure, (cold areas to warm, cold air being more dence or higher pressure)

Westerlies or sea breaze occur in the opposite direction. ie land being warmer than ocean.

Of course there are other factors influencing this, but this is a general summer pattern.

In my experience ive found that tailor like anything from 15 knots onwards. of course its hard getting a bait out into 30 knot winds. 15 to 20 knots is good for fishing

said above, tailor are prelagics and constantly on the move. However, there is no doubt that the catch rate falls a long way when easterlies have been blowing for awhile.

There is no best method for catching them, in my opinion. One of the secrets of catching more fish is to be flexible. You can be doing well with baits one day and the next they won't touch them and you need to switch up to poppers or metal lures. Sometimes the tailor are feeding lower and sometimes they are biting more agressively on the surface. You just have to keep trying different things. It is also a good idea to keep an eye on what people around you are doing. If they are catching fish consistently and you are not, then try and see what set-up they are using.

youl generally catch the smaller ones dusk and dawn....the big boys are caught through out the day/nite on a rising or falling tide......they are loners once they pass the 2kg mark or so, area dependent.......its the area u fish in is more important.........if u aint losing rigs yr in the wrong area...........more sea chop the better

strong sw is my preferred wind up to 25knots when rock hoping......ill baitcast 1st otherwise bottom bash or lures appropritae to the conditions and baitsize in the area...............above post by rig is good info for ya mate

match yr gangs to the bait.........set hooks correctly to minimise spinning bait when baitcasting and sharpen yr hooks or use 1 chem shapened hook to the tail area..........3/0 in perth is big enuf

fantastic help lads....

as you say colin its all about keep trying different rigs if not working....am going to leave it till 2mrw evening..

is 19k winds too much?...thats what it is giving.i reckon it will be choppy..looking good for it id say..

great help and ideas all round from people here..

I took the dog up for a run today and the beach conditions are pretty much the same as my last report a few days ago. Weed has not moved off the shoreline as yet but it's looking very promissing with water conditions and chop perfect. Be patient mate and wait a week or so.

great help guys, i think i need to get out during the day and try the beaches and/or rocks..i have fished heaps of places...i know north mole gets really packed..but not everyone catches..only a few will pull up fish..herring, gardies, tailor etc...

i went there sat and sunday night hit 22+knots sw on saturday, heard a fella catught an 80cm snapper that afternoon/evening. i noticed another guy catchin heaps of tailor...i mean heaps..and kept most of them atleast 12+...2 of which where legal! that really got my blood rushing. i noticed what rig he was using and bait, my dad went to go chat to him, he was very very rude and covered his bucket and dint say much/nothing! he left pretty quik not long after.

as for sunday i looked up the winds and it said it was easterly but changed later on to se, s, then sw around 22 knots died down a little probably 15 knots or so...tried a different rig and bait, got fair few tailor undersized tho and some bull herring hitting the 28cm mark with some seriouse girth!

Ish

 Was down at a popular jetty down near the canning area, one guy cleaned up pretty good for tailor could tell the tailors were solid 1kg even with the head cut off, even the herrings were quite fat, seem to be quite a few crabs walking around the area too but was only down there scoping the place out.

what type (light/medium)/length of rods are mainly used for tailor from the rocks and beaches?

Ish

minimum in my opinion. It is not only the wind,but the waves and sometimes the weed that you to be able to keep your line above, particularly if you want to fish the winter months when the big tailor are around. Even off the rocks I fish 13 foot and 14 foot mostly, as it gives me greater control when you bring a fish in close and it tries to run for a rock to escape.

Well i finally caught my 1st Tailor on friday night and its the 1st time ive targeted a specific fish, i usually just throw my line in and hope , ha....

As i always read peoples stories with interest on here, i saw it was blowing a SW on friday night, Colin swears by it, so off i popped to Hillarys by aqwa,used a running sinker with ganged 3. hooks and a mulie, 1st hour = nothing, i thought this is good ha, then bang 1st tailor 28cm, buzzing 5 minutes later, 32cm, yes i kept that 1..... Tasty but no more after that, went down saturday too, same place, and nothing....

love to catch the bigger 1s now tho...

nice one tony! 

yeh i caught my first tailor couple weeks ago, all undersized though, but its a good feeling when targeting a specific fish and actually catching them

ish

 Theres been reports of 2-3kg tailor taken from the moles but quite scattered and well mixed with the chopper schools.

yeh dicey i saw a guy catch 2 massive tailor, fat tho but amongst them where heaps of small ones, do you think i will have more of a chance catchin a big tailor with a mullie, baby mullie or blue sardines?

cheers

Ish

you should try bigger baits like Whole Garfish, Whiting, Herring or Mullet Fillets/strips. Or lures.

damn, i dint think tailor would take bait that big! lures at night? unless i use glow in the dark lures lol

ill try herring , how would i rig that? live? or gangs or? thanks matt much appreciated

Ish

 scaly fillets for the big ones.

cheers dicey

how would i rig the whole fish? a hook though the back near the tail area, or hook at the top of the head? or ? the fillets i could use gangs yeh?

hopefully ill catch a herring or something and send it out.

ish

You wouldnt catch a tailor to be honest with the live herring, the herring there at night is big bull herring, would be okay to send out with a balloon for sharks or a bottom rig and for the scaly just use gangs.

thanks dicey much appreciated, yeh i was just telling my dad i need to go tomorrow to get some scaly's ...i think ill try the bottom rig see how that goes.

yeh i noticed the herring there are pretty buff, and taste very different to the smaller ones prefer these buff ones. 

will let you guys know how things go.

cheers

tc

ish

and it can be a bit of fun catching them as well. Go to a nice open sandy beach, tie on one of those multi hook baitcatching rigs (cut the rig in half so that you have just 3 hooks) put a little bit of prawn, ox heart or squid on each of the hooks, a solid sinker on the bottm and jsut throw it about 20 yards out. If the whiting are around you will soon have half a bucket full and then you can take them to your preferred tailor spot and use them as whole baits. And the bigger tailor love them.

Another good bait for catching bigger tailor is fillets of tailor. And there is always the chance that a mulloway kight come along, because they love tailor fillets too.

i normaly go about an hour before sunset,

thanks colin, but i dont now if dad will be very amussed using sand whiting as bait haha, they taste so good! haha i supose i could sacrifice a few to catch a bigger fish haha

cheers

Ish

any help on tailor fishing before sunrise?....

also i have never caught one yet on metals...might give it a try tomorrow...

Sherbs and I mostly hit our tailor spots just on sunrise. Sometimes they will be biting straight away, sometimes they won't come on for half an hour to an hour after first sunrise. Tailor are mostly sight hunters so they do like to have those first rays of light shining on their prey.

That is not to say you won't catch them just before the sun comes up - but I certainly have had most success in the hour or two after the first signs of the sun rising.