Team Sea-Doo now has three personal bests...5th of July 2013

It was smooth waters enjoying full speed for the Sea-Doo, with a completely dry ride to our destination. We were briefly distracted by the excitement of dive bombing Gannets and a feeding frenzy with the Dolphins before Maria Island. We were targeting Snapper, but to no avail as we were only soft baiting amongst the schooling bait fish.

*Rather than fishing blind, it is best to be equipped with quality electronics so you can assess what is beneath, as to whether you persist at the one spot.

I have the luxury of the Raymarine technology on the Sea-Doo, fishing with confidence with seeing quality images through a “true” thru-hull tilted element transducer. There is no lag with the transducer not reading though dirty aerated water via the jet pump and for this option we specialize in these upgrades at the Jetskifishing Store. You may question cutting a hole in the hull, this is no different to the procedure with a boat to enhance your electronics performance.

At the Jetskifishing Store we have completed over seventy of these upgrades with nothing but positive feedback.

Here is an example of the clear readings displayed by the Raymarine A67 with the 600 watt transducer. This image showing the Yellowtail beneath the ski once drifting past the Snapper I was targeting.

Once we were settled in for our drifts the fish slowly increased interest in the soft baits. There wasn’t much tidal flow and there was little wind to help our drift. In hind sight we could have done with dropping down a few grams in jig head weight. Dropping weight would encourage a better soft bait action throughout the water column. Instead I was having to cast the bait further and work the bait harder as it dropped through the water while presenting it to the area the fish were holding. In these situations with the fish not being overly aggressive, we experienced the larger fish would only hit the bait as it was dropping at the lowest six or so metres. The fish weren’t interested once it was at rest at maximum depth, so it was a case of retrieve and recast to have the opportunity to strike the fish. I was hooking and catching a few for dinner, yet Cooper was struggling with the technique which develops as you grow your soft bait experience.

The best way to teach a new soft baiter is by increasing their strike rate with the fish. A proven technique, is to down-sizing the bait to a smaller size, visually enticing the common sized fish feeding. My advice to Cooper was the Gulp – 4” Pumpkinseed, straight away changing his luck. This was a similar colour to what had been working for me and made a big difference to his hit rate with our limited time frame.