Basic angling tactics and techniques

In the final part of his series on the basics of fishing, Sam Mossman broad-brushes a few things that can make a lot of difference to fishing success and reminds us how to stay safe while on the water.

Time and tide

Although there are plenty of exceptions, fishing tends to be best early and late in the day. This is because the light levels are low: the sun is at an acute angle to the sea’s surface at these times and much of the light is reflected away. When conditions are gloomy, predatory fish (usually the species you want to catch) take the opportunity to hunt and your terminal tackle is harder for the fish to see. Game on.

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The best tide to go fishing may vary from spot to spot, but tidal movement is the most important thing, as the flow spreads a scent trail from your bait and berley, attracting fish and making it easier for them to find your offering. At beaches, wharves and other inshore areas, an incoming-to-high tide is thought to be best, as it allows fish to hunt in rich areas that were too shallow for them to access when the tide was lower.

The best conditions are usually when a productive tidal phase is combined with low light, early or late in the day.

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Berley

Make no mistake, the use of a berley trail to attract fish and get them feeding (when using baits or live baits) can make a huge difference to your fishing results.

When we were kids, we used to pulp stale bread with water and drop it in to attract yelloweyed mullet at the local wharf. These days we mince up old fish remains (preferably oily stuff such as skipjack) with any other marine remains (i.e. scallop frills, paua guts, old baitfish etc) and maybe add fish oil and pig or chicken pellets. The resulting mish-mash is frozen in ‘berley bombs’, which can be deployed in net bags at the surface or weighted and set down deeper, depending on the situation. As the bomb slowly melts, it gives off a trail of scent and particles that drift off down-current. Any fish crossing the trail will swim up-current to its source, where your baited hooks hopefully are.

The trick with berleying is that it must draw fish to where your hooks are. Do it wrong and you can berley fish away from you.

A couple of examples:

• If deploying berley at the surface in a strong current and/or deep water when targeting bottom-feeding fish, the berley – and the gathering of fish it creates – will be a long, long way from where you are fishing by the time it gets down to the seabed.

• Or, if you tie the berley bomb to your anchor chain when a side wind is holding the boat at an angle to the current, the berley trail will be off to the side of the boat – away from where your baits are directly down-current of the boat.

Let there be light

Many fish are attracted to light, and larger fish are attracted to the gathering of small prey items. Just go out on any illuminated wharf at night and you will see what I mean.

While fish such as jack mackerel will come in around very bright lights, others, such as snapper, prefer more subdued light. For a great many years now, I have added luminous beads to the trace above the hook and am sure it makes quite a difference to my results, especially in low-light conditions and in deep water where little light penetrates.

About a decade ago, I started carrying this further by painting my running sinkers with glow-in-the-dark paint when stray-lining for snapper in the evening. It was a sure bet that the last couple of fish caught as the light disappeared would be caught on the outfit with the glowing sinker(s).

The subtle glow emitted by luminous beads and painted terminal tackle seems to be more attractive to fish such as snapper and gurnard than the bright light given off by sources like light sticks. It is always a good idea to add a lumo bead (or sinker, depending on the rig) to your terminal tackle, especially near the hook.

The lure of lures

The use of lures for fishing is a big subject, but here are a few items and techniques that novice anglers can benefit from initially. The first is the Sabiki. This consists of a trace with multiple branch lines armed with fine hooks incorporating a flashy dressing and, as just mentioned, often a lumo bead. These are lethal on a wide range of fish, and their effectiveness can be further enhanced by adding small bits of bait to the hooks. Sabikis are especially good for catching baitfish such as jack mackerel and yelloweyed mullet; I have even landed a couple of modest kingfish on them after long, careful fights in open country, but larger fish usually break away when hooked on these light rigs.

Regularly hooking fish too strong for sabiki rigs to handle led to the development of the oversized versions we call Flasher rigs. Flasher rigs are basically a form of ledger or dropper rig, usually with two or three circle (or sometimes beak) hooks with a flashy dressing and a lumo bead above each hook. Examples include Black Magic’s well-known Tarakihi Terror and Snapper Snatcher. Add a strip bait to each hook and they are very effective on a wide range of fish species.

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Flasher rigs are half-lure and half-bait setups, but there are a huge range of artificial lures available – far too many to cover here, so we will stick to just a few basic and easy-to-use types.

Metal casting lures have been around for a long time and were initially designed for casting and retrieving, targeting fish such as kahawai. Sunk deep, they can be jigged and will catch a wide range of fish.

Soft-plastic lures work the other way around. Mostly used as a jigging or bottom-fishing lure from the shore or a drifting boat, they can also be pressed into service as top-water spin lures.

Inchiku, kabura and other slow-jig types are used for bottom and mid-water fish too, but sink faster than soft-plastics, so can often be more efficient in deeper water.

Trolling lures are designed to be towed behind boats. To keep things as simple as possible when starting out, it is best to stick to lures that swim in a straight line, such as squid/octopus/ feather skirts with a weighted head. Some of these are chromed or pearl types, or you can get a packet of tails and weight them by pushing a suitable running sinker into the ‘head’. Next, thread the trace through the end of the skirt, through the running sinker, then tie it to a straight (not offset) ‘J’ hook. The bright-pink skirt about 100mm long is a good all-rounder. Let it back in the water behind the boat about 30-80 metres (or even more) and tow along at about 5-7 knots.

Safety

Here are a few situations to be aware of and precautions to take when fishing.

There has been a lot of emphasis lately on the wearing of lifejackets, and with the advent of comfortable and compact inflatable types, this has become more and more practical. I notice more anglers wearing Personal Floatation Devices (PFDs) while fishing.

During winter, I usually wear a Stormy Seas inflatable vest which also helps keep me warm and dry, but there seems to be no NZ distribution of this product anymore. In the warmer months, especially when boating on my own, I wear a Hutchwilco inflatable PFD, which is much more comfortable in hot weather.

You need to be reasonable about lifejackets. It would be impractical, and probably pointless, for example, to try to sleep in a PFD if tucked up in the cabin of a boat in a safe anchorage during a stay-away trip.

Some people like to see their kids in a lifejacket when fishing off wharves, and I can also see the point of rock, big surf, and river- mouth fishers using them. Big, unexpected ‘sweeper’ swells can take people off beaches and, especially, rock platforms. So, keep a careful watch on conditions and take note of where the wet rocks are. I don’t do a huge amount of rock fishing, but on one occasion my companions and I were knocked down and washed across a rock platform by a sudden, huge swell. Fortunately, no one was swept in, but I ended up with few stitches.

Another thing to be careful of when shore fishing is putting yourself in a position where an incoming tide or a rising sea state can cut off your access back to higher ground. Don’t leave your retreat too late – that one last fish is not worth a dunking or worse.

And, finally, as mentioned earlier, the best fishing can sometimes be with the change of light. If fishing the evening, it may mean coming home, whether by boat or on foot along the shore, after the sun has set. Be sure that you know the area, its hazards, and are competent to make the return journey after dark.

You will need a good torch (and some spare batteries) if travelling on foot. I find head torches best, as they leave your hands free for carrying gear and steadying yourself if necessary.

Boaties need to have the appropriate navigation or riding lights on their craft, and to be sure of their navigation, too. GPS and sounders have made this a lot easier for smaller craft, but keeping a good look-out for other craft, buoys etc when travelling at night is a must. Some larger boats have radar to help them.

There has been a rash of accidents involving fishermen recently, some of them fatal, so be careful and let’s stay safe out there.

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

February 2017 - Sam Mossman
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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