Advice wanted

[mjm295]

Hi All

Just got back from my first Aussie fishing trip. Caught 2 little snapper's. Started on tuna for bait with no luck, ended up on Chicken gut. Had loads of bites but only managed to hook 2 fish.

My thoughts are that I had a big lump of bait on and the small fish in the area were just sucking at it. (hooks probably too big aswell?) What advice can you seasoned fishermen offer a newbie?

Cheers
Mark

[CraigE]

Mate, it all depends on what fish you are after?
There is no simple answer, one day they will bite on one type of bait another day a different bait and then on other days they may take anything offered or nothing. Talk to local fishermen in the area you want to fish as much as possible, your best source of advice.
When we are offshore fishing especially for bottom fish we use large chunks of squid, octopus, fish fillets, mullies and lures on Tuna hooks or large hooks. It also depends on what fish you are after what rig you may use. Generally just adjust your bait size for the size of hooks you are using and size of fish you are after.
Then you can use tentacles etc as a bit of a trailer to encourage the fish.
My advice is to buy a good book on fishing methods and learn all you can and have a few pre made rigs ready to go.
The main stay as far as bait goes is squid as it is easy to get, easy to rig and most fish will take it. While there are many specific rigs to tackle particular fish quite often you will catch fish you should not be catching on a particular rig or bait.
Then you need to decided what fish you are actually targetting, bottom dwellers, mid water fish or surface fish as they all take different methods, but having said that we have often hooked mid or surface fish when bringing in bottom rigs. Realistically most of us will fish for bottom fish as that is where the better table fish are, but then this varies from Snapper to Cod to Whiting and generally you wont catch a whiting on a Snapper rig. Then you can use lures, poppers etc. Snook are great shallow water or surface fish to catch near rocks but that entails trawling.
This has probablly confused you but there is no simple answer to your question other than get some generic multi use gear initially and get out there and have a go. Another thing to remember is before going fishing do not apply deodorant or cologne, the smell and traces get on the bait and the gear and the fish may avoid it.
Also a lot of the small fish you dont want anyway as they will be undersize and you will have to throw back anyway or worse they are Wrasse, rock cod or scorpion fish etc, be extremely carefull with anything with spines. You will get used to how specific species take bait and be able to recognise some when they take the bait. eg we were fishing recently for whiting, and getting lots of wrasse (and we knew immediately they were wrasse when they bit) not whiting, then on the last drop I got something different and said it feels like a cod but should not be on light line and whiting hooks. It was a Breaksea Cod 1.2kg and was interesting on light gear from 20metres.
It may not have been fish sucking on your bait, but likely to be squid, cuttlefish or crabs.
Wait till you hook a Blue Groper, you really have to be on your toes and react quickly as they will take your rig straight into a hole and that is it game over and you will eventually have to break your rig. Then there are sharks, not often, but we believe a 4.5m Bronzy took my line a few months ago, in 47m water and my line about 20m down bringing in. Hit hard and snapped my boat rod about of a 1/3rd of the way down, got the rig back though. Most of the local fishermen believed only a big shark could do this and the other boat we were fishing with saw a 4.5m Bronzy in the area 5 minutes before this happened.
Hope this helps

[martinozcmax]

Couldn't agree more with the first reply. Target the fish you want then learn what bait and rig to use for them. Try fishnet.com.au there are heaps of knowledgeable people on there.

For me the fun thing is chasing say squid with jigs and if they aren't playing we go after flatties or whiting. Snapper fishing is another thing, completely different rig and technique.

Good luck with it, great hobby and top fun.