INDIANANGLER

Bobby has me thinking again as a result of his mention of Ladyfish in MM's thread.
I see ladyfish and wolf herrings in the markets all the time as well as things like small barracouda, various small trevelly and lucjanid species, bream (Palu), garfish and tarpon.
I know that there's always a risk of being smashed up by a big barra or MJ but I was wondering whether anyone targets these smaller species for sport and if so, what tackle and tactics you tend to employ.


Note to self: If this looks promising, you're going to have to get a mule to carry the tackle needed for the next Indian foray....

hi ken
im not an expert here but last 2years of bait fishing im targeting breams and garfish and what i have seen is mentioned below.
breams go for cut pieces of Squid/Cuttlefish but i had great success catching them using Snail (each snail got me a fish and i had only 3 of them at that time)
and it is really good to use a Flurocarbon leader(what i have seen is breams usually dont touch baits with mono)
for garfish i have always used live bait

if your post is for spinners then my reply is not going to help in anyway

HI Ken,

when I go out fishing from the breakwaters, I am usually armed with a 15 - 25lb rod, 30lb braid (set up used for live baiting) & a 4 - 8lb rod with 10lb braid for spinning / casting lures. I always start by casting lures a number times, before I settle down to catch some ballyhoo for livebaiting.

I have been hit numerous times by large fish & 60 - 75% of the time lost the fish. However, this does not prevent me from going light. The thrill of hooking into something big, have your reel singing & landing it off a difficult & rocky terrain more than makes up for all the lost lures. I have managed to land fish upto 8kg on that same light tackle.

I have now planned to 'UP' my spinning tackle to 8lb - 12lb rod & 15lb braid after losing 3 lures in the span of 2 mins to tuna. I know they hit really hard, but hoped to alteast hook into one & have the reel play my song. Alas, the line (12lb fluoro with 6 to 8", 20lb wire leader) kept on breaking with the ferocity with which they hit.

The main reason for me to go light is get my 4 gm to 23gm lures / poppers way further than those casting with heavier rods & lures. As of now I am able to flick a 13gm lure @ 60 - 75mtr from shore. There is a video of me on Gulf news flicking (only wrist movement) a 11gm popper @ 50+ mtrs from shore. Lets see if I can get them to email me the clip.

regards,
Keyur

It looks like there's lots of room for experimenting on this one.
I guess I'll just have to pack a light weight two piece rod and post up the results of my efforts.

I do my fishing mostly on sandy beaches. Behind my Grand parents house in Kerala (Calicut) . Here i mostly catch catfish, Ladyfish, Tigertooth Croaker and other smaller species. I always use a sabiki rig ( increases the odds) . To catch ladyfish i cant think of a better bait than live prawns (small). Small because they have a smaller mouth. Even dead prawns works pretty well. I also use crustacean which can be caught on the very same beach. You can catch them by scooping up the sand soon after a receding wave. You will find them trying to dig into the wet sand. To target these fish you don't have to cast far at all. 15 to 25 meters depending on the tide is good enough distance to catch them. They feed very close to the shore because they dont have to work much. The wave does the hard work by stearing up the water and they have easy picking.

Hi Ken,

I have targeted these small fish on ultra light tackle, going as low as 4lb line. Just a couple of things I'd mention with these small salties. You need a quality reel with an ultra smooth drag or you will loose the larger ones. Another thing, you need a medium to fast action rod for these critters as the mouth tends to be hard, I used a slow action rod trying to go very low and I could not make a single connection. The rod was just too supple to get the hooks to connect. I was using VMC chem sharpened hooks.

Bobby