where have all the skippy gone?

 Growing up with small ally boats we always hunted the usual bread and butter fish : whiting, herring and while its obviously not as good as those wonderful regulation free days you can still pick them up fairly easily.

Not so ive found with my favourite... the lovely fighting skippy! Pound for pound surely one of the best catching fish in the sea and beatiful fresh caught to eat.

It seems they are just not around these days and if so only in very small numbers. Does everyone else find this or is there something im doing wrong?

I just burley up for 20 mins in broken ground looking for nice green holes but with some cover nearby for the timid fellas.

Suicide hooks have always done the trick even though their soft lips mean a few misses. Whitebait always worked if u can get some fresh stuff that doesnt break up when it hits the water. 

Id be interested in people's own experience and also if they are able to be jigged.

Cheers


Uluabuster's picture

Posts: 722

Date Joined: 12/12/10

Caught them on softies and

Mon, 2014-11-24 11:15

Caught them on softies and light jigs.

Burley up, cast your soft plastic in the direction of the berley. Grub is the sp of choice as it wiggles in water without much input from angler.

As for light jigs - Ima Gun in 30-40g works for me. Jig a few metres and free spool to let the jig falls to the sea floor. They usually take it after the drop, when you flip your bait arm over and commence jigging.

uncle's picture

Posts: 9323

Date Joined: 10/02/07

I find thier much easyier to

Mon, 2014-11-24 11:52

catch in winter

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all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs

straith's picture

Posts: 378

Date Joined: 25/11/13

 Cheers folks ill give the

Mon, 2014-11-24 12:41

 Cheers folks ill give the grubs a go...

Just bought those lookalike maggots recommended on here so ill give them a go too.

 

 

 

Hutch's picture

Posts: 2221

Date Joined: 21/04/13

Small fillets of mulie on a

Mon, 2014-11-24 12:59

Small fillets of mulie on a size 2 circle about mid water does the trick for me.

Posts: 136

Date Joined: 30/10/11

Sardines

Mon, 2014-11-24 13:11

Sardines when you can get them are dynamite, I usually use 4 Set Gang of Super Strong Size 2/4 Kirbys.

Deep Reefy Holes usually.

Dale's picture

Posts: 7930

Date Joined: 13/09/05

+1

Mon, 2014-11-24 14:57

 +1 for blue sardines, they used to be my favourite bait for them. 

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"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."

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straith's picture

Posts: 378

Date Joined: 25/11/13

 Thx guys,Yeah I remember

Thu, 2014-11-27 00:33

 Thx guys,

Yeah I remember switching to blue sardines after giving up on the mushy white bait.

Midwater hutch? Thats interesting.  Ive always only ever caught them just off the bottom. 

Will def give it a go higher up.

Cheers

Hutch's picture

Posts: 2221

Date Joined: 21/04/13

Yeah midwater seems to be the

Thu, 2014-11-27 06:41

Yeah midwater seems to be the go for me on the 3 mile, use barely any burley too so don't think that's bringing them up

Posts: 32

Date Joined: 25/10/12

 along the FFB is producing

Thu, 2014-11-27 09:03

 along the FFB is producing well