So here are my questions:
1. Is it too late in the year or season for fishing for makos?
2. What size Makos can I expect to catch off Lakes Entrance?
3. How deep does the water need to be? Is 50-60m deep fine or should I be deeper?
4. Best bait? I would have preferred live bait, like salmon, but I’m not sure I can get live salmon if I plan to head offshore early in the morning….what about eel from BCF? Or just those little slimy mackerel fish that are about 15cm long? Any useful little fish I can pick up from inside Lakes Entrance before sunrise that might be excellent bait for Makos?
5. What’s the best time of day? Sunrise? Mornings? Anytime of the day?
6. I plan to drift when I get to the depth of water I plan to fish in, and then berley up while drifting in the current. I was planning to use a combination of homemade burley blocks (which consist of chook pellets, tuna oil and heaps of vitamised leftover bait frozen into blocks), tuna oil, and the Neptune Fish Magnet blocks. Is that the best stuff to use to create a burley trail?
7. How long should we expect to wait while burleying up? 1/2 hour? 1 hour? Few hours?? Half a day?????
8. What’s the best tracer to use? I know BCF sells those premade tracer packs which consist of a 200kg (or 400kg?) plastic-coated steel tracer with a massive hook on it – are they any good?? I do have my own rolls of that thin black-coated steel tracer wire up to about 80lb I think, which I can crimp to my own requirements – would that be a better choice rather than the premade ones from BCF (I can use either as I have both of those options)
9. I plan to use a party balloon to float out my live/dead bait. How far should I suspend the bait? 1 meter, or more? The plan was to float out two baits on two different coloured balloons (for easy identification), one at about 30-50m from the boat, and another a bit further than that.
10. Our rod setups are:
a. Shimano TLD 50LRSA reel fitted with approx. 500m of 60lb Mono on a 37kg rod from BCF fitted with rollers the full length
b. Shimano TLD 30A reel fitten with approx. 400m of 80lb braid on a 24kg reel, no rollers
c. Will these rods do the job??
Sorry for so many questions, but I’m totally new to this, and I would like to have a go, being a keen fisherman. My reason I suggested off Lakes Entrance, is because I live local here, otherwise it might mean a trip down to Mallacoota, but it’s a bit of a drive, and I heard the ocean can get big there at times too.
Thanks in advance for anyone who can kindly help out a poor fisherman like me!
