Leather jackets how to catch

[Boza]

Hey guys wanna target some leather jackets landbased my questions are.

What gear rod's sinkers hook's
what bait's berley
what piers around melb I'm happy to go from Port Melbourne to portsea

And anything else that I need to know

[CarlG]

Hey guys wanna target some leather jackets landbased my questions are.

What gear rod's sinkers hook's
what bait's berley
what piers around melb I'm happy to go from Port Melbourne to portsea

And anything else that I need to know

Sorrento pier.
1-4kg rod, 2500 reel. Small pea sinker above a small gape, long shanked hook. Prawn or squid bait. Berley, not really necessary..keep hold of the rod, they can have a very touchy bite. Fish straight down at your feet, don't bother casting out, as they are generally underneath you.
Fish off the lower pontoons so you're near the water level for landing them...should be all you need..

[cheaterparts]

Hey guys wanna target some leather jackets landbased my questions are.

What gear rod's sinkers hook's
what bait's berley
what piers around melb I'm happy to go from Port Melbourne to portsea

And anything else that I need to know

Sorrento pier.
1-4kg rod, 2500 reel. Small pea sinker above a small gape, long shanked hook. Prawn or squid bait. Berley, not really necessary..keep hold of the rod, they can have a very touchy bite. Fish straight down at your feet, don't bother casting out, as they are generally underneath you.
Fish off the lower pontoons so you're near the water level for landing them...should be all you need..

and if you can fish with no sinker at all even better - LJs pick the bait off anchored lines better than baits with no sinker
however it depends on your tide flow whether you can float the baits down with out weight

[frozenpod]

Pilchard is a very good bait as well.

Metal trace can be worth while (I don't use one) and use a black swivile as anything shiny they will bite and often bite through.

[shazdoggg]

Im not so sure about the metal trace recomendation for LJ but yes they will easily bite through mainline and the bigger models can bite through a small longshank hook. I suggest using light braid(4-8lb) with 8-10lb leader and mustad worm hooks or any fine gauge long shank hook. Hooks with the bait keeper barbs on the shank will stop the bait from bunching around the gape of the hook.

As cheater said, unweighted works very well if the tide allows. If youre not already aware, its easiest to fish unweighted baits around the time of the tide changes as the water slows down. I often find that LJ will bite harder during periods of high current and will pick more when the tide slows. Not always the case, but mostly my experience with LJ in areas with high tidal flow.

If you want to target LJ specifically, I suggest getting a pair of nibble tip rods. They will help a lot with bite detection!!

I like using peeled prawn, fresh squid(smash it with a bottle like you would for kgw), chicken fillet, pippi(if your feeling rich) and cut piclhard pieces. Ive caught them on garden worms(not many saltwater fish eat garden worms) as bycatch when fishing for grass whiting so they arent fussy by any stretch of the imagination.

[ducky]

Had a bit of fun recently on a crystal clear day on wpb. Leatheries were attacking our silver whiting on a squid spike. We ended up slowly pulling it back to the boat and free netting them. Got 4 haha

[shazdoggg]

Had a bit of fun recently on a crystal clear day on wpb. Leatheries were attacking our silver whiting on a squid spike. We ended up slowly pulling it back to the boat and free netting them. Got 4 haha

Interesting! I havent heard of that method before lol

Reminds of another method of catching LJ and that is using a hoop net with a chicken carcass or bag of bones tied to the bottom. The method is to chuck the baited net off a pier where LJ are common until it hits the bottom and wait 5 mins then pull the net in quickly. LJ are poor swimmers and cant escape the water pressure if the net is pulled in quick enough! This style works best in areas where there is low current. High current will see the tide carrying away your net before it can hit the sea floor.(eg flinders pier)

[purple5ive]

the best part of fishing for them is working out wether or not they have taken your bait. they are sneaky lil sh1ts and can make bait and hooks sometimes magically disappear without even the slightest movement on the rod.
I use squid tentacles they are the hardest for them to pickout and gives you a chance to hook them
cheers

[allrounder_13]

Bait: squid
Rig: running sinker rig, smallest sinker possible, shank hook. 2-4kg rod and line.
Pier: blairgowrie
Manage to fet a feed most of the time from here (: