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James Howarth – Keeping it simple, focus on the main factors that count

If there was one bit of advice I could give it’d be back to basics! Keeping it simple and to focus on the main factors that count. Things like, keeping a target species, whether that’d be whiting, tuna or marlin it’s important to set the target onto that one species at a time. For me I love chasing bream, so when I go out bream fishing i’ll have all my lines tied, rods rigged and trebles replaced. I’ll set aside a little ‘study’ session the night or couple nights before to see what the key factors will be. Sun? Wind, tides etc. all play a role in what the fish are doing and how they are feeding.

Setting those targets for fish you want to catch is vital, you want to be spending the least amount of time on the water thinking about where to go / what to look for as possible. Say for instance, you are targeting longtail tuna as they make their way down south. These are one of my favourite species to catch and there is nothing more thrilling then sitting down, setting out a plan on how you’re going to target these fish, what you are going to throw and it all paying off. Sure you could think, how hard can it be? You drive around and see the fish busting? Then go over and catch them. But I assure you, a lot more is in it than that. The night before going out to chase these fish id make sure I’ve downloaded that latest Insight Genesis maps for that area I’m going to fish, rigged a few different rods with different lures and lines. Like a stick bait, small plastic and large plastic so when I see what they are eating I can replicate that bait. I’ll make sure the boat is ready, with everything there ready for that mayhem time when we find the fish and see them busting.

I like to have a look now on my sounder (I ran a HDS 12 Gen3 on the console and a HDS 9 gen3 on the front deck) and check out all the sandbanks, drop offs, holes and area’s holding reef/ structure and using this to my advantage. Finding the structure can mean finding the bait and therefore finding the fish, so having a good sounder can definitely make the difference between finding / catching that target species or not . Having all the Insight Genesis Maps with full detail of the bottom helps so much eliminating the step of finding the structure / area to fish. So instead of driving around hoping to come across some birds diving and tuna busting, you can drive around the reef edges, drop offs, deeper holes and work out patterns. You can go straight to these spots and drive along the drop offs instead of in ‘no man’s’ land, giving you the best opportunity at finding and catching these fish.

With that set up I generally will run sonar and an Insight Genesis maps page, using my sonar to keep an eye out for bait and structure below which can help locate Tuna. Always keeping an eye on your sounder is priceless; as you can come over some pretty cool things you thought never existed and then can result in catching other species that hang around bait and structure like Trevally and Snapper.