Bottom bashing for first-timers

Whether it's a nice pearl perch, spangled emperor or a snapper, the excitement of not knowing what you’ve hooked up is an exciting way to fish.

Venturing offshore for the day to fill the icebox with a nice feed of fresh fish sounds like a great idea, but ensuring you have the correct bait and tackle setup is essential to a successful day out on the water.

Here, I'm going to share my tips on what works best for me – nothing fancy, but it gets me proven results.

The gear I use to fish offshore with when chasing mixed reef species includes the Atomic Offshore 20-40lb rod paired with a spin reel that will fit 300m of 50lb braid.

I always fish with the trusty Gamakstsu octopus-style hook – this particular hook is the most common type used in this style of offshore fishing.

I generally fish with a 5/0 hook which is suitable for most reef species.

A pilchard is the most successful type of bait when chasing these sorts of fish, and you can buy them frozen or fresh at your local tackle shop.

I like pilchards because they're easy to rig and are very successful on a range of species. I rig them on two hooks, with one placed at the tail end and the other towards the head to help with an optimal hook-up rate – the fish may just nip at the bait's tail, or swallow it whole.

You can use other baits such as squid, which is very successful if caught that same day and fished fresh.

If there are no willing biters on bait, try sending down some jigs. Jigging is fun, very effective and even a good workout.

If you have a few people on board the vessel, it is always a good idea to have some throwing plastics or lures and others with bait, just to see what’s working on the day.

Some older blokes – my grandfather included – are against using fish finders as it is always a case of “back in my day”.

However, if you're more than willing to give technology a go, I highly recommend using a sounder to assist with finding where the fish are congregating. We will take any help we can get, right?

Reef species, particularly snapper and pearl perch, always sound up nicely, even even on entry-level sounders.

A boat fitted with an electric motor that runs a spot lock option can come in very useful when bottom bashing, as it allows you to sit right above the fish and drop down on top them, which can only increase your hook-up rate.

Even when you drop right on top of them, sometimes fish will not be eager to bite and it's time to move on.

This is mostly due to the time of day and varying tides. If they're not biting, mark the spot on your sounder so you can come back later, maybe on the way home, for another drop.

Once you have a feed onboard, be sure to put it straight on ice to ensure it is kept nice and fresh. A saltwater ice slurry does the trick.

As always, respect your local bag limits and enjoy your day out on the water! I sure hope you will come home with a nice feed of fresh fish.