Have you ever been out on the water, watching others catch fish, and you can’t get a bite for love or money? Of course you have, everyone I know has been in that situation, and if you haven’t, you’re either a liar or you simply don’t fish! There’s something else you’ll notice about those situations too, it happens to some anglers pretty often and only once in a blue moon with others. Luck? If you’re one of the former and believe they’re just luckier than you, then I’m afraid you’re a bit misled… Let’s break things down first. If there are fish around (because others are catching them) and you can’t seem to get a bite, it is the result of one or both of the following. You’re fishing with the wrong lure, bait or rig or you’re in the wrong place, be it depth or position. Now if you gave me a choice, I’d much rather be in the right place with the wrong lure than the wrong place with the right lure because if you’re where the fish are, you can still catch one. Alright, that may sound a bit confusing so I’ll give you an example. It’s a beautiful summer’s day and you are out at sea fishing for couta. A couple of your friends are also out enjoying the ocean. As you reach your favourite area, your friend next to you catches a fish; then your other friend on the other side catches one. And so it continues until they each have 3 or 4 and your reel hasn’t made a sound. Without having to ask a single question, you can figure out why they’re getting the bites and not you. Here’s how; check what they’re using. A Red Head Rapala is not an easy thing to hide when you lift the fish out the ocean. And a live bait glistens in the morning sun as you take it out the live bait well and put it in the water. Also take note of the position of their boat when they get the bite and the speed that they’re travelling. Something else that’s very important when targeting couta is depth of the bait or lure. This is a bit tricky so you’ll have to look a little closer. Try and see the size of the lip on the lure that catching the fish or the size of the downrigging sinker if they’re using bait. So without asking anything, you will have established whether the fish are eating lures or bait, where the bites are coming from and the speed at which they were going when they got those bites. A few small tackle adjustments and away you go. While that’s a simple example and an easy situation to analyse, you can apply the same logic to most situations. It becomes more difficult when you don’t have the same lures or bait as the other anglers and this is when your ability to adapt comes to the fore. If you’re encountering surface feeding fish, the first thing to look for is what they’re eating. Once you’ve established what they’re feeding on, try and match it with something in your tackle box. A hint when trying to match things; size is the most important factor, followed by colour, and then only shape. There are many reasons why fish eat lures, but I want to focus on 3 for this article. Primarily, hunger. When fish are hungry, they feed and are far more likely to make a mistake when they’re actively looking for something to eat. If your lure looks edible, and the fish are feeding, you will get a bite. Next on the list is Reflexive action. If you’re a social cricket or tennis player (or any ball sport for that matter) and you’ve got your back to me, I call you and throw you a ball. You’ll catch it without thinking twice. The same happens with fish. Imagine a shoal of tuna cruising somewhere in the deep ocean and a lure comes by at high speed right through the middle of the shoal. Just the speed and position will trigger a response for one of them to grab it. Finally, there is curiosity. With most gamefish, they will follow a lure out of sheer curiosity. Because they don’t have hands like us, they will often mouth your lure simply to see what it is. Lucky for us, we don’t really care why they take the lure, as long as we get the bite. While there are many other reasons such as protective instinct, competitive instinct, anger, territorial instinct, etc. Just understanding the few elaborated on in this article will help you become a better angler.

Various ways to fish with lures

Spin fishing with lures in the salt whether shore-based or off a boat can be divided into four different categories or types of lures. Top waters, crank and stick baits, irons and plastics.

Top Waters

Top waters can be broken into three different groups. Poppers and Chuggers that float but don’t cast so well, Floating Stick Baits and the third group GT Ice Cream type casting plugs that cast well but sink when not retrieved. Poppers and Chuggers – the only way to really fish this type of lure is to “bloop”, “chug”, or “pop” it, either by a firm pull on the rod (bigger baits) or a sharp crank on the reel (smaller baits). This method creates a large air-bubble type “pop” in the water which when viewed from below is silver in appearance. The only thing that really varies is the length of the “blooping” pull and the period pause in between. One can go from a short, sharp, fast popping type action, to a long, smooth, slow or fast pull. Depending on the conditions, the pause in between should vary. Normally in calmer water, the pause would be longer. In rough, choppier water, the pause would be shorter and the pulls sharper. This sort of technique can definitely pull fish to the surface in deep water and is a lot more productive on a calmer glassier type surface. Floating Stick Baits – the big difference between this and the Poppers and Chuggers is that the bulk of the lure sits below the surface and whilst it does float, it spends more time just beneath the surface than on the surface. As a result it is a lot more effective in a choppier sea condition and also in a strong current where the water is turbulent. There are two ways to fish this lure, the first one being a fairly steady retrieve where the stick bait will swim and wallow from side to side giving a really big broad-side flash type presentation. The other more popular technique is to slash or jerk it in a erratic gliding or sliding type action. Casting Plugs – these surface lures are undoubtedly the top distance and accuracy casting top water and can be fished in many different ways as opposed to other top waters. The most common technique is a long cast (cover more ground / more time on water), starting with a very fast retrieve which causes a lot of splashing and slashing on the surface. Thereafter one should slow down to a retrieve that gives a steady chattering or fluttering type action on the surface. This speed can be varied which will of course vary the action from a very slow almost wobbling type action to a very fast jumping or skipping type action. Should the fish be down deep a very high cast causing the GT Ice Cream to hit the water from directly above and dive deep quickly with the line coming down directly behind it as opposed to having to sink slowly with a full cast of flat line on the water is recommended. A deep-diving cast should always follow with a very fast retrieve to the surface and then slow down once the lure appears on the surface. When conditions are very choppy the cone-shaped GT Ice Cream is a good option when fished at the noisiest retrieve speed on the surface. The Needle Nose shape however and the Skinny Needle Nose can be fished almost sub-surface like a Stick Bait in these conditions. One would let the lure sink a little and then give it some erratic jerks up to the surface before letting it sink a bit and repeating the process. The Needle Nose and long Skinny however are definitely at their best with a glassier surface and when conditions are really glassy, the Skinny comes into its own. This is the only surface lure that can be fished at the fastest speed that you can possibly wind, which is often what it takes to get the strike from your fast moving game fish. Always remember the rod angle has a lot to play in the action of all these surface lures. More often than not the rod should be held at 90 degrees to the lure and either vertically or horizontal. In the horizontal position one would obviously be tending to pull the lure through a chop rather than over it whereas with the rod in the vertical position or with as much elevation as possible, the lure would tend to ride over the chop. When fishing with surface lures and braid, if you are using a constant retrieve with the rod pointing at the lure you will miss most of the strikes. It is far more effective to hold the rod at 90 degrees so that the fish can grab or engulf the lure and turn to go away before you apply the pressure or strike. The next article will continue with various ways to fish with lures…so keep posted.

These pics were taken from a trip Nick went on the Arabian Peninsula. There are no facilities down there but it is really good fun. All the fish were caught on fly or on light spinning tackle.

First Cast does it again, getting himself into a nice Yellow Fin Tuna at Fujairah, check it out.