How many casts?

[Travis Heaps]

This question was recently raised on our Shoalwater trip where the GT's just weren't biting - how many casts do you pepper an area with before concluding the fish aren't home and moving on?  Personally I tend to do maybe 2 to 3 over the prime points of an area and if there's no interest I conclude no one is home and am happy to move on.  My mate however was happy to cast at the one point for 15 minutes or so.  He doesn't usually chase Gts but it made me think that perhaps i'm being too hasty?  My experience has been that if there are fish in the area the response is usually instantaneous, with less and less interest as you continue to cast - hence why i'm happy to move on after, in some cases, barely 5 minutes at a particular spot. 

What do you do?  And do you find any merit to persistently casting for say 15 minutes even though there has been little or no interst early on?

[Jay Burgess]

I agree there Travis, if the fish are there and willing to feed usually the results are instantaneous. Just about all my GT's I've caught in my local area have been on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd cast. I used to pepper an area for ages but it was a waste of time. Now we give it maybe half a dozen casts from a couple of anglers and if there's no interest we move on. Cover alot more ground and usually get much better results.

[Brock Arifovic]

if they are there & willing to feed they will, if there are no results in 8-12 casts keep moving, don't waste your time on fish that either arent there or are not feeding, it's no fun casting & not catching.

You might try a couple of different lures ( change from either stickbaits floating & sinking to bloopers or vise versa). But keep moving until you find what you are after.

[Jon Li]

During certain times , GT may be lurking in the deeper water and it pays to try casting into " unlikely " areas but in general we stay in one place for around 5 minutes or so and then move on to the next spot .

I always have multiple outfits for chugger , stickbait and pencil rigged , ready for use . Just like golfer with a few irons !

Jon .

[Travis Heaps]

Thanks your thoughts fellas.

...I always have multiple outfits for chugger , stickbait and pencil rigged , ready for use . Just like golfer with a few irons !

Jon .

Good idea Jon, I have also found that if the fish quieten down after some missed strikes on a chugger then the change to a stickbait is a good way to get them to have another look.  Only having the single outfit however I just have the lure at the ready and do a swap.  This got tedious the other day however and I saw another advantage of the multiple outfit arguement