The weather definitely affects the fishing and I am finding the good sized fish in a lot closer now as the water temp goes up. During the spring there was a lot of wind due to the 2015 El Nino and this meant our drifts were faster. To assist in these conditions we were using 2 drogues and 130-200gr jigs. We found that the bigger jigs were getting down faster to the hungry excited snapper under the workups, and they kept within the best strike area of 45 degrees.
The workups have been varied in sized and the creatures that work them. One day there is vast areas (3nm square) of workups and bait and you simple do one big drift. These workups are full of spread out bait, KY’s and birds (with a few whales thrown in but no dolphins). Other days they are concentrated and you need to do short drifts over the bait exhaust (more dolphins rounding up balls). That is the great thing about fishing as each day is different and you learn more for next time!
These recent workups over the last week as above have been in a large area north to northeast of gannet rock. The bite time appears to be around midday (give or take an hour or two) and is very angry when it happens. You can be fishing on good sign all morning with only a few takes and then the dinner gong goes and it is all on!
The jig colours that have been working best on the big fish in order have been – Pink Leopards (130gr), Candy Apple (100gr) and Lime Pickle (130gr). The orange seems to come into its own on the change of light and the other colours become less effective. We are simply dropping them into the foray and winding slowly off the bottom without stopping even for bites! This entices the smaller fish to chase it and hopefully a bigger one will hit it out of shear anger (not wanting the smaller ones to get it). This method to catch bigger fish has been working well for us as has using 200-300gr jigs.
Hope to see you out there over the next few months.
Cheers Captn Snap (Nik)
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