Hi Peoples,
It's no secret that this summer has been mightily dissappointing. Im not going to put some superficial spin on it. Im not going to justify it by saying everyones is finding it tough. The fact is i pride myself on catching fish when others cant. I pride myself on being able to track fish movements within a system, know where fish will be, know what fish 'should' be active and why! This summer things changed...and in a big way...
First off, the summer season isn't a particularly prime time for us anyway. If you read my last post you would know that summer is typically poor for our clan. Yes, the die-hard bait fishos clean up on whiting from the suds, yes the kingy brigade do well with live squid. But for me its all lures. A fish on lure is worth 10 with bait. Call me a snob but its how i feel..
I think we have been spoilt. Usually a poor session involves half dozen flatties, a few bream and maybe a bonus fish like a small jew or kingy. Every session has the undesirables too like tailor, leatheries and pike. So if you mix that in with 3 fishos onboard fishing for approx 8 hours, it equals roughly 3 fish each per day or 1 fish every 3 hours or so...Now thats slow in anyones language.
Funny thing is if you combine the total like described above it seems like a decent day. Now lets look at some of our recent trips...last sunday at botany bay, 1 legal flathead, 1 pike and 1 tailor between 2 anglers over 7 hours??? WTF. I would say that is our worst day in over 5 years, not to mention a dud day at Brisssy waters the week b4.
So whats the issue??? Are the fish changing patterns and i aint keeping up??? or are they becoming immune to the lure of our lures??? or is it just a case of lost concentration???
Probably the answer is a little of all those. I do believe that fish can 'wise up' to lures and presentations. It wouldnt take long for us to stop eating at a restaurant that served meals with saftey pins in them. Im sure we wouldnt forget food that looked like the meal that did either! Same goes with fish. Also the erratic weather patterns do have an impact on how fish behave. Species like whiting used to come on the chew on the Central Coast early Nov when i was a little boy...now its late January. Not to mention environmental impacts like the QX desease in the HBury killing off the oysters. The bream have to find another food source. They don't just stop eating. This will affect migration routes as well as behaviour.
The answer is simple. I need to fish more. I need to re-tune into the local waterways. To a degree i feel like i need to wipe the slate clean and start again. Re-learn all the things i thought i knew about the local fish. It's scary to think that but in the same breathe its exciting too. New possibilities and new challenges.
The bonus is this is traditionally my most productive time of year. I hope that remains the same. If not all might be lost and i will need to put my training wheels back on. I guess worse things have happened.
I'll keep you informed on my progress..till then... kick arse captain!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Changing Seasons
Hi People,
It's here! The best time of year...Finally!
Autumn is my favourite time of year to wet a line. The days are still warm enuf to jump out of bed at 4am and wear thongs and it's not too cold to need beanies or balaclavas. But it goes a little further than that. In my opinion this is the gun time for a number or reasons; allow me to explain...
My fishing diary is not a comprehensive piece of work eligible for a pulitzer prize...its more an amalgamation of photos carefully filed by location, month and fish caught. In this way i can look over my fishing trips and see patterns on fish caught in what area in what month. Its without coincidence that my best fishing photo library has been collected in the cooler months of Autumn.
So why is this??? Why do i seem to be catching all my prized fish in Autumn???
In order to understand this, it is interesting to look at the other seasons as well. The two extremes of summer and winter have produced the least fish. Then spring comes in as the 2nd most productive time of year. So the immediate conclusion you can draw from this is that in the areas i fish, and with the techniques i use to catch them, the transient months of autumn and spring are the best fish producers. The fish seem to react better to lures in the 'mid' temperatures rather than the heat of summer or the chill of winter.
So let's look at temperature! I know for myself i find it hard to eat in the height of summer. Its too hot, i become sluggish and sometimes i just couldnt bother. Same with fish. I recorded temps of around 28 degrees this summer. Thats hot bath water! How do you expect fish to want to chase down a lure when the water they live in is practically boiling??? I even found whiting to go off the bite at times too with ultra high temps, and these are true blue summer specialists!
Same goes for Winter! How do you expect a fish to have enuf energy to hit a lure when they are chilled to the bone??? I know i don't move far from the blanket in winter!
While it's true the rising water temps promote fish activity, extremes in weather can have the same effect of putting fish off the bite. Even conditions within conditions, such as the barometic pressure in summer effects fish behaviour. This summer season the barometer's been going crazy. The weather patterns have been very inconsistent and erratic. Many times the fish have shut down when every other signpost suggested a good session.
In winter and spring the weather patterns are much more settled too. You can string a few good wind-less days together with a high barometer and moderate water temps. In fact water temp doesnt really cool off totally till about June. But the water temps dont pick up sufficiently again till November either!
Another prime reason is the 'cross over' of species in this period. The summer fish are now ready to move on and either reproduce, such as the bream, or they will find more suitable conditions, like the whiting for instance. This happens the same time the winter species move in such as tailor, salmon and trevally. The cross over could mean more competiton for food. This 'can' force fish to become more aggresive. Certainly this time of year has produced better mixed bags of fish. Having a larger biomass of fish present means a larger concentration of apex predators. Just look at the current shark epidemic. But for lure anglers this usually means jewfish, kingfish, EP's and salmon. All are viable targets this time of year.
Therein lies the secret. The fish are better suited to the warming or cooling temperatures of autumn and spring and the transient fish populations mean there is a larger concentration of fish, wich basically means greater competiton for food. Its without doubt the best time of year in the Sydney estuaries and rivers so take advantage.
The trick is you won't catch fish reading this in front of your computer! Get out there...
It's here! The best time of year...Finally!
Autumn is my favourite time of year to wet a line. The days are still warm enuf to jump out of bed at 4am and wear thongs and it's not too cold to need beanies or balaclavas. But it goes a little further than that. In my opinion this is the gun time for a number or reasons; allow me to explain...
My fishing diary is not a comprehensive piece of work eligible for a pulitzer prize...its more an amalgamation of photos carefully filed by location, month and fish caught. In this way i can look over my fishing trips and see patterns on fish caught in what area in what month. Its without coincidence that my best fishing photo library has been collected in the cooler months of Autumn.
So why is this??? Why do i seem to be catching all my prized fish in Autumn???
In order to understand this, it is interesting to look at the other seasons as well. The two extremes of summer and winter have produced the least fish. Then spring comes in as the 2nd most productive time of year. So the immediate conclusion you can draw from this is that in the areas i fish, and with the techniques i use to catch them, the transient months of autumn and spring are the best fish producers. The fish seem to react better to lures in the 'mid' temperatures rather than the heat of summer or the chill of winter.
So let's look at temperature! I know for myself i find it hard to eat in the height of summer. Its too hot, i become sluggish and sometimes i just couldnt bother. Same with fish. I recorded temps of around 28 degrees this summer. Thats hot bath water! How do you expect fish to want to chase down a lure when the water they live in is practically boiling??? I even found whiting to go off the bite at times too with ultra high temps, and these are true blue summer specialists!
Same goes for Winter! How do you expect a fish to have enuf energy to hit a lure when they are chilled to the bone??? I know i don't move far from the blanket in winter!
While it's true the rising water temps promote fish activity, extremes in weather can have the same effect of putting fish off the bite. Even conditions within conditions, such as the barometic pressure in summer effects fish behaviour. This summer season the barometer's been going crazy. The weather patterns have been very inconsistent and erratic. Many times the fish have shut down when every other signpost suggested a good session.
In winter and spring the weather patterns are much more settled too. You can string a few good wind-less days together with a high barometer and moderate water temps. In fact water temp doesnt really cool off totally till about June. But the water temps dont pick up sufficiently again till November either!
Another prime reason is the 'cross over' of species in this period. The summer fish are now ready to move on and either reproduce, such as the bream, or they will find more suitable conditions, like the whiting for instance. This happens the same time the winter species move in such as tailor, salmon and trevally. The cross over could mean more competiton for food. This 'can' force fish to become more aggresive. Certainly this time of year has produced better mixed bags of fish. Having a larger biomass of fish present means a larger concentration of apex predators. Just look at the current shark epidemic. But for lure anglers this usually means jewfish, kingfish, EP's and salmon. All are viable targets this time of year.
Therein lies the secret. The fish are better suited to the warming or cooling temperatures of autumn and spring and the transient fish populations mean there is a larger concentration of fish, wich basically means greater competiton for food. Its without doubt the best time of year in the Sydney estuaries and rivers so take advantage.
The trick is you won't catch fish reading this in front of your computer! Get out there...
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