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Hi guys went for a paddle today and planned to get a few flatchaps for dinner quickly when I got sick of paddling. I had been paddling for around 20 minutes when I noticed some Dolphins working a school of what I thought would have been Aussie Salmon up hard against the rocks. Didn't give it too much thought and kept on paddling. A couple of kms later I came up to a guy in a bream boat holding station with his bow mount electric. I have seen him around a few times before and always said goodaye.
As he was just hanging there, watching the water I paddled over and said goodaye. When I asked him what he was up to he told me that a school of Atlantics were popping up on occasion working a school of pretty fish (like a Tasmanian version of whitebait). He told me he had gotten one earlier but then the dolphins came through and shut the salmon school down. He said they were really finicky and were now refusing all of his offerings. He had been hanging there for the last hour and the Atlantics had popped up four times but he couldn't pull another fish.
He had been slowly working bass minnows for them on an unweighted resin jighead and only had a few half arsed hits since the dolphins had been through. He invited me to have a go so I tied the yak to the side of his boat and waited for the school to pop back up. We could still see the school of pretty fish so we figured the salmon would still be around. While waiting I re-rigged my dropshot rig so that the bass minnow was around a metre from the surface. After around 10 minutes the salmon started nailing the pretty fish again.
I cast around 2 metres behind where they were working the bait and just waited not working my SP at all. After around a minute I felt that I had given them long enough to have circled around and start picking up the dead and dieing pretty fish. I lifted my rod tip around an inch, just enough to flick the tail of the bass minnow. I then waited for 20 or so seconds and did it again. This time my little Loomis buckled and I was on. After a spirited fight I had an Atlantic around the 2kg mark at the yak. The guy in the bream boat was amazed and while we waited for the school of Salmon to start working the pretty fish again asked me about the dropshot rig. I explained what I had discovered with it and when was best to fish it. I gave him the stuff to rig one and while he was doing so the school popped back up again.
I repeated my retrieve and again hooked up. I boated another nice fat little Atlantic around the 2kg mark. The splashing from this fish whilst I was fighting it again shut down the school. We could still see the pretty fish school so we figured the Atlantics would be back. Around 10 minutes later the school popped back up and this time we were both ready. We had a double hookup. These salmon were a bit bigger so we parted company, with my fish running in a different direction to his. After around 5 or so minutes I had a nice Atlantic around the 4-4.5kg mark yak side. I quickly netted it and paddled back towards the dude in the bream boat. He was still fighting his fish so I yelled out "see ya later" and started paddling home to get the salmon cleaned and in the freezer as I didn't have my esky with me.
As he was just hanging there, watching the water I paddled over and said goodaye. When I asked him what he was up to he told me that a school of Atlantics were popping up on occasion working a school of pretty fish (like a Tasmanian version of whitebait). He told me he had gotten one earlier but then the dolphins came through and shut the salmon school down. He said they were really finicky and were now refusing all of his offerings. He had been hanging there for the last hour and the Atlantics had popped up four times but he couldn't pull another fish.
He had been slowly working bass minnows for them on an unweighted resin jighead and only had a few half arsed hits since the dolphins had been through. He invited me to have a go so I tied the yak to the side of his boat and waited for the school to pop back up. We could still see the school of pretty fish so we figured the salmon would still be around. While waiting I re-rigged my dropshot rig so that the bass minnow was around a metre from the surface. After around 10 minutes the salmon started nailing the pretty fish again.
I cast around 2 metres behind where they were working the bait and just waited not working my SP at all. After around a minute I felt that I had given them long enough to have circled around and start picking up the dead and dieing pretty fish. I lifted my rod tip around an inch, just enough to flick the tail of the bass minnow. I then waited for 20 or so seconds and did it again. This time my little Loomis buckled and I was on. After a spirited fight I had an Atlantic around the 2kg mark at the yak. The guy in the bream boat was amazed and while we waited for the school of Salmon to start working the pretty fish again asked me about the dropshot rig. I explained what I had discovered with it and when was best to fish it. I gave him the stuff to rig one and while he was doing so the school popped back up again.
I repeated my retrieve and again hooked up. I boated another nice fat little Atlantic around the 2kg mark. The splashing from this fish whilst I was fighting it again shut down the school. We could still see the pretty fish school so we figured the Atlantics would be back. Around 10 minutes later the school popped back up and this time we were both ready. We had a double hookup. These salmon were a bit bigger so we parted company, with my fish running in a different direction to his. After around 5 or so minutes I had a nice Atlantic around the 4-4.5kg mark yak side. I quickly netted it and paddled back towards the dude in the bream boat. He was still fighting his fish so I yelled out "see ya later" and started paddling home to get the salmon cleaned and in the freezer as I didn't have my esky with me.
