ECHNOLOGY
provides modern anglers
with tremendous
advantages – if we’re
willing to embrace it. Countless
hours spent lure fishing the deeper
waters of Lake Macquarie –
Australia’s largest coastal saltwater
lake – over the past 12 months has
hammered this fact home to me.
Previously, I’d firmly believed that
immersing yourself in the feeding
habits and life cycle of your target
species was the key to being
successful. That still remains an
important part of the puzzle, but if
you combine this hard-earned core
knowledge with a commitment to becoming
proficient in the use of the latest generation
marine electronics, particularly colour
sounder/GPS combos, then I can guarantee
you’re well on your way to finding consistent
deep-water action. The final piece of the
jigsaw puzzle is correct lure selection. This
has also been turned around with an array of
cutting edge developments. Hopefully the
following rundown on the latest tackle and
techniques for targeting estuary sportfish
from deep water will get you thinking about
ways to improve your own fishing results.Bait = Fish
Finding the bait is the secret to consistently
successful deep water estuary fishing on a
year round basis. Many anglers are daunted
by the prospects of finding fish in large
expanses of deep water. Modern colour
sounder/GPS combos allow you to find good
bottom structure and ascertain whether it’s
holding bait or fish. Over the past few
seasons the difference between success and
failure on many deep-water f lathead jigging
trips has been the ability to find bottom
structure that held bait. These locationschanged over the course of the
season too, particularly after
periods of significant rain altered
salinity levels. The reality is that
estuary systems such as Lake
Macquarie have large expanses of
f lat featureless bottom, so to
maximise your results you need
to be concentrating your efforts
around those key areas of
fish-holding structure. If you’re
serious about getting into this
form of fishing I highly
recommend you acquire the best
quality colour sounder/GPS
combo you can afford. If
possible, get a unit which features
side scanning or down imaging technology.Get the drift
Once you’ve found the fish-holding structure,
you need to be able to position your boat or
kayak to effectively work your lures over or
around it. For smaller specific features, such
as an individual rocky pinnacle or sunken
vessel, it’s hard to beat a Minn Kota i-Pilot
bow-mount electric motor which uses GPS
technology to “spot lock” your position,
allowing you to really work over a specific
location with lures. Larger expanses ofModern technology in the form of sounders and ultra
effective lures are helping fishos take advantage of deep-
water options in their local estuary systems.
MARK WILLIAMS reports.
Go Deep!
T
ESTUARY SPORTFISHING
34 | fishingworld.com.au | February 2015