Spring action slowly heating up 

Whales right in and around the inner Gulf around Tiri, Rakino, and the Noises area recently have been an amazing sight. In such shallow water, if they dived/sounded head first, they’d hit their head on the bottom immediately. It’s been a wonderful place to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Gulf while catching fish within spying distance of the big city. The action out there is all over the show – close, mid, and wide – as the mammals are moving around a lot chasing their next meal. Here one day but gone the next!

While spring is on our calendar, it has still only just turned September and the water temp is cold, around 13°c. Traditionally October was just the very start of the spring swim-in of snapper into the Gulf. A lot of the time there will still be ‘kabura-days’, the ones when the bite is so soft and tentative, kaburas are required. Highly sensitive rods (e.g., microjig rod by Catch), light leader and line, and softly, gently moving Freestyle Kabura and Beady Eyes are hard to out-perform in this current wintry scene. 

Start with putting a few fish in the bin with them, nice pannie sizes for dinner, then look at upsizing your lure, with the combined increase in rod and lure action to target some bigger fish. A good swap-out change from kaburas are microjigs – not too much of a high lift/long fall, but more a gently blipping along the seafloor, puffing up mud and giving away their position. A smooth continuous wind-up, slowjig retrieval style of the microjig is an absolutely dynamite way to catch fish like gurnard and snapper – whatever you’re target, that slowjig gradual retrieve is a top winter technique. 

Slowpitch is a very good call especially when there’s a bit of a bite going on, and with both a good fall and the all-important pause of your technique (have you been to a seminar and seen this?), there are good-sized snapper and kingfish looking for that falling food. There are lots of good slowpitch jigs out there to choose from, if you haven’t already tried it, the BOSS is an absolutely top performer and benchmark lure, and easy to use with its ultra-fluttering fall – definitely one to have and use this spring for both snapper and kingfish.

The weather and calendar point us all toward getting out and enjoying some well-deserved fishing time as warmer, longer days continue their upward swing providing the motivation for us all to shake off the hibernation mode and get back into outdoor life.

Check out the How To Reels on Catch Fishing Facebook for practical hints, tips, setups, tackle advice, technique demos, rigging, and all sorts of 100% bait-free lure fishing. Have a browse while you’re not fishing – so you are primed, ready and 100% sorted for your very next round of fishin’ missions, enjoying catching fresh fish, yes! Scaled, skin on, seared – taste buds going wild. 

What’s on your fishing calendar? Get into it. www.catchfishing.pro 

Cheers

Espresso