Using drones to your advantage when fishing

May 29, 2017

FISHING for impoundment barramundi can be extremely frustrating at times, especially when you can see the fish on the side scan and can’t get them to bite.

Here’s a few tips about where to look and at what times. In this write up I’ll focus on rain periods. We recently had cyclone Debbie cross our coastline, and with her came a lot of rain. What this means for an impoundment is the fish school up in the basin because they feel they may have an opportunity to go over the wall and get to the salt to breed. You will see the barra school around the wall and they can be caught by slow trolling hard-bodies. If you can find a decent school of fish, you can also jig them up on vibes and soft plastics.

drones barra fishing — Barramundi can be elusive after periods of heavy rain. Drones make the task of locating them much easier.

So where do you go when the fish leave the basin after all that rain? This is where it gets interesting. After rain periods, bony bream breed, producing more food for the impoundment-dwelling monster barra. A good place to look for these extra baitfish are the rivers at the back of the impoundment around weedy edges and points.

Having timber close by will also be an advantage. Finding the best weed points and weed beds to fish can be daunting at times. This is where I’d like to thank Brendan Archie from Drone Fishing for helping me in this department. Drones make life a whole lot easier when trying to find the right ground to fish thanks to the bird’s-eye view they provide. Drones really are becoming a must-have tool in all fishing applications. So once you have used your drone to find a likely spot, what lures do you start flicking?

It comes back to the old match the hatch. Bony bream are quite small in the early days of their lives, and therefore small weedless plastics are my go-to. TNT 4″ Paddlers have served me well in the Snow White and Gold Rush colours. Slow roll these weedless-rigged plastics across the weed to excite the barra. Barra will sit up in extremely shallow water, so don’t shy away from casting into just 30cm of water.

When fishing weedless hooks, you really have to set the hook once you have enticed the bite. I hope this article has put one piece of the puzzle together for you. Put in the time and get the results.

Billy Gibbons

Drone Fishing team angler