Docklands

[Yi1978]

Finally caught my first snapper at docklands today!! So much excitement and adrenaline as it took my line. 37cm on light gear was great!! Attached the poor photo i took. Thanks barwon for the tips in your other post

congratulations on your first pinkie and it's quite decent too :a_goodjob:

[davo_j]

Thanks guys!!! And I also caught the pinkie off wattle road on soft plastic as barwon advised

[tropicalfisher]

Good stuff! Cool catching fish so close to the city!

[barwonboy]

Thanks guys!!! And I also caught the pinkie off wattle road on soft plastic as barwon advised

yeah man that place can produce some pinkies and bream :cheers:

[barwonboy]

hey guys i heading out this upcoming saturday for bream and pinkies. ill give you a report on how i go

[Lightningx]

hey guys i heading out this upcoming saturday for bream and pinkies. ill give you a report on how i go

Good luck mate!
Hope you do well :thumbsup:

[barwonboy]

Went out to docklands today and it was looking beautiful out. I had one rod with some chunks of mussel on it and that was getting bites but I couldn't hook up. then I decided to give soft plastics a crack. After 2 hours of casting all over docklands I didn't no get 1 hit. Then I put on a blade and after an 2 hours of trying I gave up on that. I then walked over to north warf and tried all the same stuff, I could see schools of up to 50 Bream but they were super shy and got scared of even the slightest sound. Sadly I went home with nothing today but i will be out there next Friday and Saturday having another crack. :snap:

[Yi1978]

I went last Thursday for 8 hrs and only managed to land a small bream around 20cm using the local mussels hooked on my rig with a big star fish. No pinkies landed. However first bite of the day was a decent size fish but broke my 8lb leader within 10 seconds. Second bite i lifted my rod a bit early was using circle hook. Then was dead quiet.Oh well, this is fishing and i am sure we will do better next week. A challenge i am facing using bait is when using lighter leader get more hookups, but when decent size fish running for structures i tend to lose them. I am not 100% sure whether i should loose my drag to let the fish run. Can anyone with experience give some suggestions, please? When using stronger leader , have less bites maybe due to the thickness of the line?

[bilby]

That's a tricky problem around structure. For bream, I just fish light leaders and light drag and hope for the best. Usually if they go under / around structure, you have a bit more time if the pressure on the line is minimal, whereas with heavier drag, the tension just results in an immediate break off.
When it comes to mulloway and bigger snapper, it's a different story - 40lb leader is the minimum I fish, with 20-30 lb main line. If I'm fishing the bait in close to structure, though, I still fish a relatively low drag setting, since you can't stop a large fish on it's first run anyway. The one time I have tried locking up the drag with 40lb line under structure, after fully loading up the rod, the hook eventually pulled. Whereas out away from structure, you can put a good amount of pressure on early and then loosen off it they come in under the edge of the wharf, near pylons, etc.
It sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but as soon as the line is near the structure, you don't want heavy tension on it in my experience (even more so with braid).

[Yi1978]

That's a tricky problem around structure. For bream, I just fish light leaders and light drag and hope for the best. Usually if they go under / around structure, you have a bit more time if the pressure on the line is minimal, whereas with heavier drag, the tension just results in an immediate break off.
When it comes to mulloway and bigger snapper, it's a different story - 40lb leader is the minimum I fish, with 20-30 lb main line. If I'm fishing the bait in close to structure, though, I still fish a relatively low drag setting, since you can't stop a large fish on it's first run anyway. The one time I have tried locking up the drag with 40lb line under structure, after fully loading up the rod, the hook eventually pulled. Whereas out away from structure, you can put a good amount of pressure on early and then loosen off it they come in under the edge of the wharf, near pylons, etc.
It sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but as soon as the line is near the structure, you don't want heavy tension on it in my experience (even more so with braid).

thank you for very detailed explanations, i will reduce my drag more next week . i normally fish with 2 rods, both with 20lb braid mainline, one with 8 lb fc leader another with 15lb leader. maybe around 3lb drag on the 8lb leader and 6lb drag on the 15lb leader?