By Nigel Webster
The dilemma for me has always been that it is tough to focus on fishing
two separate approaches and ultimately doing both of them justice.
I spend a lot of time fishing offshore with both bait and lure. I have had some great days over past seasons fishing with soft plastic and hardbody techniques, however on some days the fish are really tuned into eating baits. The dilemma for me has always been that it is tough to focus on fishing two separate approaches and ultimately doing both of them justice. The results of doing two things poorly ultimately means anglers end up frustrated – and with minimal catch to show for their efforts!
However, if you are able to simplify a dual-handed approach, you may find that you are covering a lot of bases, catching some good and varied types of fish and having a whole lot of fun at the same time! A technique that has accounted for some great fishing with mixed bags for me of late includes drifting with bait, soft plastic and or jigging style techniques. To come home with a bag of fish that includes a good mix of reef and pelagic fare makes for a satisfying and exciting day on the water.
The Drifting Approach
Days when the weather enables most anglers to get offshore for a fish usually provide the type of conditions where drift fishing is an option. I love to fish while drifting offshore and do so whenever I have the opportunity. In my opinion there are good reasons for wanting to drift. A mobile boat enables anglers to cover a lot of ground, thereby showing lures and baits to a greater number and variety of fish. Being that fish typically move around to feed (a trait that is accentuated at certain times of the year), it makes some sense that a mobile angler can intercept more mobile fish!
Drifting with lures and bait can require a little bit of thinking, but by getting the grey matter around how to best present a moving bait and lure at the same time, you will find that the fishing results quickly follow. A key to getting the equation right is to have some faith, understand what happens to a bait and lure when drifting, and then get your weights right!
When you get the equation right, the catch can be varied! The author had his hands full when a solid coral trout grabbed a jigged lure and a snapper grabbed the drifted bait
Equipment
You will need two outfits to simultaneously lure and bait fish on the drift.
The bait outfit consists of a boat rod of 6ft to 6ft 6in in 4–7 or 6–10 kg weighting that is matched with a threadline or overhead reel to suit the rod. The reel can be loaded with braided or monofilament line in 20–40lb breaking strain. The lure outfit is similarly weighted, however I typically opt for a threadline reel loaded with 20–30lb braid with 2–3 m of 20–40lb fluorocarbon leaders.
The bait I predominantly fish with this technique includes pilchards. I use ganged hooks or single circle hooks, which are fished under a running ball circle in various weights. In the event that bite-offs from sharp toothed predators occur, I opt for heavier leaders of 80lb, or use a short length of single strand wire or knotable wire trace. The ganged hook rig will stop a lot of those pesky bite-offs.
My lure outfit is used to fish soft plastic and metal jig style lures. Minnow or grub style plastics can be fished on variably weighted jigheads. Depending on the size of local baitfish and food supply around at any given time, I may choose to fish with 5, 6 or 7 inch soft plastics so as to replicate the available food supply.
Working the water column with baits and lures means you get the attention of speedsters such as mackerel.
Location and Drift Plan
The first part of any fishing day is trying to find the fish! Different fish species will move and behave variably depending on the time of the year. This being the case, solid offshore structure usually holds a variety of fish year round. The species available or the feeding behaviour you might find can vary depending on when you fish. The beauty of drifting is that as an angler, you are always exploring and increasing your chance of coming across fish with the added bonus of encountering a variety of fish.
Prior to heading out on to the water it is always a good time to obtain some recent fishing report information. Local tackle stores, fishing clubs and charter boat websites reports are a good place to locate current fish movements.
My offshore drifting pursuits always start with a plan that includes locating the structure I believe will most hold good quantities of fish. In many cases this includes harder rock reef structure but I have spent time drifting sandy patches of ground that my sounder has shown to be holding fish. Regardless of whether I am targeting extensive bottom gravel style reef, bommies / pinnacles or sand and mud structures, I rely strongly on what my sounder is showing me. Water temperature readings and observations such as bird or bait activity will also help you to highlight areas worth investigating. The beauty of drifting is that it doesn’t take long to quickly work over a likely looking fishing spot. In the event that the location does not warrant further fishing, you as the angler are not committed to a spot having dropped an anchor and initiated a berley trail.
Drift fishing a location takes a bit of planning to get the best out of investing effort in the chosen area. I like to drive a boat around a particular area for a period while watching the sounder. This enables me to see what the sounder is showing regards to fish and bait activity and to get a feel of the geometry of the structure I am about to fish. Having established a mental picture of the spatial makeup of the structure below and the location of fish in the area, I can then work out how to best drift the area. Wind and current on any given day will produce a specific drift direction the moment the boat’s motor is turned off. Aim to develop a drift plan to get the best purchase for your time spent drifting. For example, if the area contains a long but thin section of reef, try to position the boat so it drifts along the structure as much as possible. It is frustrating to have just got your lines in the water, only to find that your drift pattern has moved you and the boat, away from the prime parts of the structure and fish holding locations.
Peak Fishing Times
There are a number of variables that affect the feeding activity of fish in offshore waters. Some of these include tide, barometric movements, moon phase and water temperatures. We have little choice about fishing when some of these variables are not favourable. For example, when the weather is good for a day’s offshore fishing, many of us head out for a fish regardless, even if the moon is close to being full and the barometer is not ideal.
One variable you can always plan to fish around is the tide. It has been my experience that the quarter phases of the tide will always produce increased levels of activity from many of our popular species. These phases include those where the tide starts to build momentum or just starts to lose momentum as it heads towards a turn of the tide. My Casio watch and tide charts will highlight when these periods will be, and I always aim to be fishing during these 30 to 60 minute periods. Fish will feed outside of these times, but I often find the feeding activity to be relatively higher during these periods. Many anglers realise that fishing during the day on a full moon can be tough, as it can be for other variables such as low barometers. However, regardless of tough fishing variables being at play, the fish will still be that little more active during those quarter tidal periods.
Technique and Rigs
The double handed approach of drifting with bait and lures requires getting your thinking around a few rigs and how to fish them. The idea is to place a bait rigged outfit in a rod holder while the boat drifts and drags the bait behind you. While the bait rod is in place, you can hold the lure outfit and work a lure in the deeper water immediately behind the boat.
Bait Approach
The bait rig is used to slowly drift a pilchard behind the boat, and present it as a wounded baitfish. The process of rigging the pilchard can be achieved in several ways. I often determine the type of bait rig to be used by the variety of species that I am likely to catch on that day. For example, if there are sharp toothed predators about, I will opt for a gang hook rig or a single circle hook rig mounted on some wire. This enables me to land these fish without bite-off, as well as hook other reef species that aren’t equipped with too many sharp teeth.
Circle hooks are great for this fishing approach, as fish will often load up on a bait while the rod is in the rod holder and produce a solid hookup. Having rigged your bait (refer to the diagram) it is time to select a suitably weighted running sinker to place on top of your bait. I favour using ball sinkers but it is the weight to use on any day that is the real key to catching fish using this approach. Many offshore species will feed at a variety of depths. Pelagic species usually targeted in the upper water column can be caught in deeper water. So too, commonly caught bottom species such as snapper can be caught close to the surface during certain feeding activities. Sounder readings in an area will often tell an angler where fish are holding in the water column.
As a drift is performed, keep an eye on the sounder during your fishing to establish where fish might be starting to show up. Where you know fish are holding at specific depths, try to weight your bait so it is drifted through these fish holding depths. If you are unsure of where to start focussing efforts, start with a light sinker and add weight until you start getting bites!
There are two effective strategies when drifting a pilchard that allow you to cover more of the water column at the same time as producing a seductive presentation. The first involves using a heavy sinker above the bait that you know will cause the bait to sink in the water as the bait is pulled through the water by your drift. By casting the heavily weighted bait behind the boat, engaging the reel and placing the rod in a rod holder, the bait will gradually sink as you drift. This targets a range of fish from top to bottom of the water column being fished. The key is to monitor that your sinking bait does not reach the bottom reef and become snagged.
The other option involves using a lightly weighted sinker above the bait. Release the bait immediately behind the boat and free spool the rig most of the way to bottom. Then engage the reel and place the rod in the rod holder. The lightly weighted bait will naturally rise up in the water column. This can be a deadly approach when you get it right. Once in the rod holder, the bait rod does a great job of hooking a lot of fish all on its own. Set your drag, watch the rod, and when that drag goes off be ready and waiting!
Lure Approach
The objective of fishing the drifted lure approach is to imitate a wounded baitfish, and present this to fish that are predominantly holding in the area closer to the bottom. The idea being that while you have a bait drifting behind the boat you are also working the bottom thoroughly with a jigged lure. This can be effectively achieved by fishing soft plastic and jigged metal lure approaches.
The lures I favour when using this approach include soft plastics rigged on jigheads and smaller jig style metal lures. Metal slugs or small knife jig prototypes of 55–120 g are ideal for much of the offshore drift jigging I do around the reef. An important part of catching fish on jigged lures when drifting is to select an appropriate weight to enable effective fishing of the bottom areas of the water column. This does not mean using massive weights that plummet to the bottom in record speed, but using a weight that is heavy enough to reach the bottom quite easily when dropping behind a drifting boat.
The standard jig style retrieve when I am drifting, includes releasing my lure directly behind the boat and free spooling the lure towards the bottom. To do this more effectively I usually point the rod tip to the water and let the braided line I am using run out through my thumb and forefinger. This gives me total control in detecting any variations in the way the lure is sinking and allows me to know the moment the lure touches bottom. Using coloured braid makes the visual component of the technique a lot easier. Keep in mind that fish will often grab a lure as it sinks past them, and this is signalled by a speeding up or stopping of line speed. If this occurs, engage the reel and lift the rod to set the hook and start having fun!
Bottom dwellers such as this lovely coral trout are a viable target when fishing jigged lures on the drift.
Having hit bottom with the lure, the retrieve consists of immediately engaging the reel, retrieving some line to make contact with the plastic or jig, and then aggressively jigging the lure up off bottom. I aim to jig the lure 2–4 m off the bottom, so this means you have to turn your reel handle a few times as you jig the rod. At the top of the lift, pause and let the lure flutter in the current before dropping it back to the bottom and repeating the process. It is amazing how often a fish follows the lure up from bottom and grabs the lure as it hangs.
The author with a spangled emporer that fell for a jigged soft plastic.
Continue lifting and returning the lure to the bottom until such time as the lure lies too far behind the boat to maintain adequate control. At this stage I aim to high speed retrieve the lure back to the boat and start the process again. You will be pleasantly surprised how many predators grab during the high speed retrieve back to the boat!
This approach has delivered a huge variety of pelagic and bottom reef species for me. Mackerel, tuna, cobia and snapper are common recipients of the drifted bait. The jigged lure accounts for fish like snapper, cod, jewfish and the odd pelagic like kings, tuna and mackerel.
Summary
The dual handed approach described is one that I have been able to fish easily on my own in a boat. I believe the simple approach that covers several bases provides for a thorough and exciting day’s fishing. They say you shouldn’t mix your bait and lure fishing, but sometimes it pays dividends!
