mate

they move out to there off shore reefs and only come in in the morning and night fo a feed.

they hide under the ledges and reef holes. some of the fish can be up 2 4kgs.

hope this helped.

cheers danno

Though I have caught fish during the middle of the day where there are reefs or deep drop offs close to shore.
I reckon if you took your boat out to the reefs near Rotto you would find them during the day Bodie.

during the day, getting them to take a lure or bait is an entirely different proposition altogether! Quite often fishing an off-shore reef, the bite is on during dawn and dusk, but once that sun gets a bit higher in the sky, the bite generally slows down and then shuts off - thats just what I have found with my limited experiences.......

i think that if you cant get them on the surface let you bait to sink donk a bit more as they moe down as the sun comes you.

definately better off fishing mornings and afternoons but its still worth a crack during the day ive fished many reefs during midday and for some reason they are activly feeding just luck of the draw i guess tides would come into it

thanks guys

Heres a question for you tailor nuts......

when fishing reefs do you fish the whitewash after the roof, or the whitewash and ledges infront???

i have caught plenty during the day on a high tide especially on high impact beaches (lots of swell and whitewater).  they usually bunker down in a gutter and dart out inot areas of clearer water in breaks so that is where you want to throw your mulie, lures wont work so well in these locations cos they cant see them.  in clearer bays they wont hang around too much in broad daylight but its still possible

if there is a ledge that has white water flowing over it that is where you want to cast as like someone sed they like the foamy water because they can ambuse biat fish in.

the best bait for out there is small gars with ganged hooks to match. you can fish with mulies to but wen you get there the herring are likly to be out and they will destroy your mulies.

cheers danno

I like to cast into white water and then bring my bait or lure across to the open water. You tend to get a lot of hits just on the edge of the white water where the tailor are waiting to ambush their prey,
If there is a deep drop off near the reef area that can be a hot spot.

We've caught heaps of tailor fishing offshore reefs during the middle of the day.  When we fish for tailor we typically do the gentleman's start and get the lines wet around 9-10am.  We've caught many fish between 10 and noon.  Also caught quite a few on stop offs from out wide on the way in...between 2-4.  It seems to us that time of day is less important to tailor than other factors....swell, wind, water clarity, etc. 

 Best days for us are days with a ~2m swell(I reckon tailor are fine with larger, but can't get the boat in close with big swell) and a bit of wind.  If you have no wind and flat seas, you are better off fishing for something else. Also we do better on rising tides. Super clear water makes it tougher.

We cast lures/mulies into the white water on either side of the reef, and work back thru the green water.  It's very rare to catch any outside the green, unless it's a follower.

One last thing we've experienced.  Tailor are either feeding or their not.  If you work an area for 10-15 minutes and don't get a bite, move on.

I am a bit worried that tailor are going to cop a hammering in the coming months, but they are great fun on light gear!  Good luck to ya!

Is there a bag or size limit for tailor?

i have caught them in mandurah in the cannels during under a bridge. we moor our boat to a friends jetty and sleep on it for like a few days and in the day we take the tender of and troll for them under the bridge. but i think they bite there lots because it is shadaded and protected and also the wind is stronger under the bridge because of the concentration. but yeah they bite really well there but they are only lil choppers. out of about 10 you get one that is like 30-31cm and that one goes out for mulla bait. hope that helps and even though they are small they put up one hell of a fight on light gear

the bag limit is 8 and the size is told b4.

cheers danno.

the new rules are making it only 2 over 50cm! not 60cm anymore