Seaway Fish Alert 8

An important change to the seaway this week.

Bait levels have now reached critical mass in the seaway and predators are now making the best of it. Kingfish, GT's, Bigeyes, Tailor and Dart are now feeding on the large schools of big frogmouth pilchards.  The only caveat is that they aren't feeding all the time and converting feeding fish into fish in the boat is a bit difficult.  Timing is critical. This is what I have figured out so far, but there is more to come.

Kingfish - These are moving around alot but they are feeding on the larger bait(some of those frogmouths are 10cm long) so if you see them feeding, chuck a Skitterbait, Skitter Pop or Gillies 25 at them.  You could also try Squidgies Flickbait  or the new Whipbait in 100mm.  Half a dozen have been hooked this week(unfortunately not by me) but none landed.  Main locations are North Wavebreak Rock Wall, Canyon, Pipeline.  First hour of the runout tide and Dawn.




Giant Trevally - The only location these have been seen is around the North Wavebreak rock wall just before sunup and only as part of a mixed bustup containing Bigeyes, GT's and Kingfish.  Poppers and Skitterbaits get hit if you put them in a bustup.

Bigeye Trevally - These are showing up in a few different spots, along the south wall from the Gates to the Tree line, around the North Wavebreak Rock Wall just before sunup and over the pipeline on the first hour of the run-out. Behaviour is a bit flakey, sometimes they feed, sometimes they don't.

Tailor and Dart North Wall - First half of the Run-out tide, first hour of the run-in tide regardless of the time of day.  Surface feeding and subsurface.  Look for the birds, Terns and Mutton Birds. Surface lures are impossible due to the mutton Birds, use Gillies 25 Baitfish or 30gram twisties. The dart require small slugs or fly.  I'm not sure if having better weather like it's forecast over the weekend will affect behaviour, it probably will.

You can catch these Frogmouth pilchards yourself with a bait jig when they are feeding.

Match the bait