How much info is too much

Given the level of uber secrecy that usually goes with fishing,  both techniques and in particular fishing spots some people have asked me why I post such a high level of detail on a easily accessible web site. After all there are some people in our society that are quite willing to rip as many fish out of a spot as they can.  Just witness the disgraceful slaughter on the sand pumping jetty any time theres a run of tailor.  Theres a simple reason for that, as far as the seaway is concerned it doesn't matter.  Noone can possibly outfish it, even on the best day's fishing you are lucky to get more than about 40 fish and that doesn't happen very often.




The reason for that is variables.  The seaway has more variables than any other place I know, while some locations have these too, in the seaway they matter alot more. I'll list them below.

• Tidal Flow :a little or alot..it makes a difference
• Tidal changes: certain fish only bite hard during tidal changes thats only 30 minutes at a time, a couple of times a day.
• Time of Day: Dawn and dusk increase fish activity.
• Moon : Moonlit nights make it tough to catch fish, also can increase fish activity during the day.
• The amount and type of baitfish: more bait = more big fish
• Weed: very frustrating when it occurs, can make the north wall unfishable
• Water Clarity: you don't want it too dirty, you also dont want it too clear.
• Swell size: can be a dangerous to fish in swell sizes over 2 metres, also creates wash areas for fish to feed under.
• Swell direction: Determines how the swell hits the walls, a 2m southerly swell is fishable around the ends of the walls, a 2m easterly swell is not.
• Water temperature: Higher water temps make the fish more active, colder makes them sulk.
• Phosphorescence:  Waste of time fishing at night if there alot of this in the water.
• Wind Strength: Strong winds make it impossible to fish the walls properly, decreasing drift times and making certain areas unsafe.

Theres probably a few more but thats all i can think of for now.  There are thousands of fish in the seaway at any one time and more fish come and go every hour and these variables are changing every second.

Theres also one other reason why the seaway is safe from overfishing, despite what we might think the fish are not dumb.  Virtually every trip I come across massive schools of fish that shut down after a few fish are caught.  They are still there but they refuse to hit a lure or eat a bait.  Bigeyes, Tailor and Jewies are particularly prone to this. Whether thats caused by panicked vibrations from hooked fish or some other factor I don't know.  Some fish are also very particular when they feed(Tarpon I'm looking at you), if the conditions aren't right then they won't touch a thing.

Add all this together and you get a constantly changing challenging environment to fish in, which is the main reason why the fishing the seaway has kept my interest for so many years.  You never know what the next trip will bring.