Drift in or motor in?

[Travis Heaps]

Just been wondering what you personally do and what the good guides on the expensive charters do?

You have spotted your favourite GT rock and the conditions are good.  Do you more often motor slowly in to your casting limit, turn the motor off and let the lure fly.  Or do you assess the wind and tide, motor to say 50m outside your casting limit and then turn the motor off and very patiently drift for five minutes or so down to your casting spot? 

I suppose the question is whether the motor, at idiling speed will spook fish say 50-80m away?  I noticed on the last trip on the weekend we could motor slowly up to turtles about 5m away and the would just sit there until they looked up and then spooked and shot through - in other words they weren't spooked by the sound of the motor at all.  Are GT's the same you think? 

I like the idea of setting up the drift perfectly and being patient...but its bloody hard to do - patience isnt my forte And then inevitably I will fire a cast off too early and it will land short.  So another question - does a short cast worked back in the normal fashion spook fish?

[Jon Li]

Turning off the engines of the boat will results in more strikes and some strikes happen at very close to the boat , with noise of the engines GT tends to strike at a distance from the boat .

In areas such as Komodo , due to the strong current the boat will drift at 3+ knot so it does not take long to get into the position . A good captain can position the boat in such a way the boat will drift a good casting distance and we don't cast until he says so .

Jon .

[Chris Young]

Good question Travis
I think as Jon says you may possibly get more strikes with the motor off if the conditions allow it.
Now the sticky bit  . Most of our local spots it would be just plain suicidal to turn off the engine, we usually need 1 man at the wheel at all times & the motor nearly allways in gear. We do however try to keep the revs down to a minimum. I am of the belief that these fish become accustomed to engine noise & gradually learn to ignore it. I also think getting the first cast on the money gives a much better chance of getting an eat than continually casting short, these are pretty smart fish, they don't grow big by being stupid . I think your hookup percentages drop considerably with every cast unless you keep hitting them on the head, sometimes you just got to make them want to kill it out of frustration.

Cheers Chris

[Peter Lowe]

That's funny you ask this question Travis,

On Wednesday I went out to a new found GT haunt and applied a new method to raising GTs that a local pro fisho does to bring up his pets - noahs.  This required some skilled application of throttle and the ability to do circle work in your boat - the outcome - some very curious GTs coming out of 50 mtrs of water to see what all the fuss is about - I have only done it once so far but hooked up on 2 nice Gts, and more hung around for a while,  I will be trying it again over the next few weeks so I will let you know if it works more often or not ?

I also like to tease the GTs to keep them chasing with aggression by throwning stick baits with no hooks after each fish caught, as I find that the interest by the GTs only drops if you miss them and they get a hook sting - by throwing a stick bait they smack it and hang on for a bit then spit it, I do this a few times and see the number of interested fish increases each chase.... Then out goes the popper with hooks...... you can guess the rest.

I like to try different things but am really liking some of the most recent findings for raising GTs and keeping them interested. I would love to know if anyone else has tryed this or has any other ideas ( I am sure I am not the first )....

Travis, I find smaller fish in clearer water spook easier than larger fish in deeper water - newer motors are a lot quieter then the old ones and as water is a far better carrier of soung than air a fish will easily hear the motor from 200 mtr away - it is in my experience better to blend in if you can and keep quite but their is always an exeception v- my fishing grounds get a few boats going over it so I beleive the GTs are quite use to it  or dont care ? Same goes for remote areas were the GTs havent seen a boat they are just plain curious -  Gotta love that.....

regards

Peter
 

[Brock Arifovic]

Hey crazy when are you taking me to one of your GT spots? & have you picked up that rod from Aaron yet?

[Sachin Chaudhry]

Depends on where you are fishing. Ideally the engine would be turned off and a drift to the spot on the cards but at some places it would be suicidal to turn the motor off such as when you are casting outside the reef near the breakers. Other times having the boat just off idle and moving at a knot or two allows you to cover ground and discover new spots. If you are close to the reef the noise from the engine does not seem to matter and if you are lucky enough to stumble across a GT school with the right moon and tide phase, the fish could not care less about the engine. Seen it many times including when fishing off a friends 45 ft gamefishing boat which runs 2 big Caterpillar diesel V8 motors. I have had them chase the popper all the way to the boat and take it a foot away from the transom.

[Peter Lowe]

Hi Brock,

I have just been chatting with Aaron, they(Cheeta n gang) are outside as I type this chasing some trevor's, they just hooked a cobe and were popping as I spoke to them - it was killing me so I hung up....

I havent got the rod yet but will let you know when I had a chance to check it out.

Thanks

Hey crazy when are you taking me to one of your GT spots? & have you picked up that rod from Aaron yet?

[Brock Arifovic]

when are you going to take me to some of your special GT locations? kool about the rod just let me know what you think when you have a cast of it, also can you email me some of those pics that you told me about, [email protected]

[Warwick Joyce]

Another question to go with this topic, in very clear blue water, where fish are easily spooked, should a stick bait be used instead of a large blooping popper? I guess what I am asking is that when in clean water is there the need for a blooper to get the attention? Would a blooper be more likely to scare a wary fish? Where a stick could be skipped on the surface for the initial attention then swam for a more life-like look?

Cheers

[Luke Wyrsta]

I think this is an excellent quesion - thanks for asking Travis.

This is simply from my own observations and experiences, but I believe it is more practical to have the boat just in gear and approach from as great a distance that the conditions and your casting ability allows for.

You don't typically 'pepper' one spot - usually a dozen or so casts in the area you are fishing will indicate the prescence of life and whether a huge dominant leviathan will have a stab. By slowly motoring along you still have 'enough' time to get adequate casts into the area and continue on to the next area (I say this on the assumption you are fishing a reef edge/system). You are covering more ground and subsequently increasing the likelihood of encountering more strikes from GTs. If you are fishing a solitary rock or outcrop, I would still have the boat in gear/idle as the skipper may need to take immediate action in order to position the boat, provide the angler with the best fighting position and assist to pull the fish away from structure. Responding in the fist few seconds of th strike could mean the difference between life and death for your expensive popper and morale!!!

I also think this is important as the skipper is able to look out for dangers (bommies, waves, swell), keep the boat in the best possible position/path and also has access to information such as water depth and bottom and act accordingly. At least where I tend to fish, it can also be important to focus on slightly deeper areas - the skipper can take this information into account so that you are fishing the best grounds/path as you motor along the edge/system.

With today's GT rods, thin diameter braided lines and one's casting ability, I do not think spooking fish from 80m+ away is a big problem. I do acknowledge that there may be a decline in strikes, however, this may not always be attributed to the boat - we've all seen G's follow a lure (many fish for that matter) and simply turn away due to lack of interest (maybe it's our technique???)

Just my 2C.

Warwick, GTs definitely do become more timid in clear/calm water. In a nutshell, I would advise the use of a stickbait for these situations - however, we all know that a huge GT may strike at anything at anytime - not exactly a science.

[Jon Li]

In Komodo , we motor in but not passing thru the casting areas and then shut the engines , drifting with current while the anglers cast to the target area . What we find is that with quite boat , the GT will follow the lure very close to the boat n even strike very close to the hull .

Fishing in strong current areas with rocks n reefs around , one must have everything right such as instantaneous starting of the engines upon turning the ignition and positioning of the boat prior to entering the area so when the boat must move , won't get trapped in the impossible location to manouver .

With boat having tower / flybridge , the captain can see better where the obstacles are , often enough the captain would yell " strike " even before the anglers felt the lure being taken . At elevated position and sharp eyes as well as experienced personel , everything is easier to anticipate .

Jon .