make sure there are no bannanas in your bag

 you need to look for decent structure showing fish on your sounder. its just a case of spending time looking around rather than just going to a spot and dropping your line. 

good things come to those who wait. your time will come. even the seasoned fisho's will struggle at times

thanks

Got a sounder? Best guess is your not fishing structure. Dhu, snapper etc love structure, find the structure & you'll usually find the fish. If you don't have a sounder then put out a second line that's rigged up for whiting etc so that all your bases are covered.

thanks i found some good ground lat time i went out of thompsons bay big holes dorpped my line for about half an hour but nothing so changed spots

Sometimes it's like that & it's not uncommon to find holes especially with no fish in them. Lumps & drop offs are usually a better bet but sometimes the fish just are not there or don't want to play the game.

Has your dad got a depth sounder? make sure there is some kind of structure/reef under the boat, try fishing near craypots they are usually around reefy areas and their cray bait works as a burley for ya. It sounds like you're doing everything else right. Sometimes downsizing hooks/sinkers/line thickness will entice the fussy fish. maybe next time take out an extra bag of bait like mullies or prawns (squid is usually good though) always handy to have a selection of different baits to try

thanks and yes my dad has got  a

depth sounder

 My trick- find some Ok ground and do not stop drifting. No matter what the sounder shows, drift. Sometimes we drift for hours just to get 1 Dhuie. always catch fish although.

k thanks

find really good ground, and don't stop on it. chances are thats heaps of people's "secret spots" so find that ground then look for patches within 500m of that were its flat and only a few little tiny bumps.

many times that holds huge dhuies and other good fish just because no one blinks twice at it. try south of rotto at kings reef its around 30-40ish, start on the 30s and see how you go, if you catch wrasse and seargant bakers, fillet and use chunks as bait on one hook and squid on the other. If your finding your getting good strikes but no hook ups try so gamakatsu octopus circles, they work very well for me.

Another good idea is next time you go out, look at this forum and see who has the best recent capture and invite them along as a deckie, a few good pointers are never forgotten and go along away. I still remeber how to clean my squid from an old fisho on bussetlon jetty who showed me how he does it about 12 years ago. once you get tought how to find the right ground you'll be in with a chance everytime you fish :)

thanks mate

 Burley/more burley?

Smez

 Well this works for me, I've got a few killer spots from this. Go to a place like back of three mile, just go maybe 200 meters or so past it. Make up a small panenoster rig with 1/0 an bait with coral prawn and mulie on the other. We always drift along until we get a skippy, sure you get a lot of wrasse but still fun. Once you get a skippy, mark that spot. It seems to me that if there are skippy there , that bit of reef will seem to hold other species. Anchor and burley  over that spot and drop lightly weighted half mulies, and some cast further back.

Hope that helps. 

Also start enjoying trolling and catching nothing........ Guaranteed to find some lumps and good ground after one whole day of trolling around. That's how I found most of mine in deeper waters 35- 50m.

have look for cray pots and sound around there.

plus fresh bait is also the key fresh squid ,scalies,sand whiting had a deckie come on the boat with what I would call servo bait very pink freezer burnt bait dint catch diddly with that stuff and as they say persistance pays dont give up you will find ground

thanks for all the info everybody ill pobbally try again this weekend

 As someone has mentioned previously Tim even us seasoned fisho's struggle at times and you start to question everything. Put in the hours and you'll be rewarded. Sounds like you doing everything else right. There's some good advice above to follow.  Maybe get your dad to launch at Two rocks and fish out from there. I watched my mates only a couple of hundred meters from me on the weekend pull in two monster Dhues it can be very frustrating. I still research a lot.

thanks

do yourself a favour and go see Ryan and his boys at Oceanside Tackle (site sponsor). Spend 15 mins with them, buy a bag full of tackle and a box full of bait and I assure you that you'll learn more in those 15 mins than all your time on the water so far! Seriously, it's the best value going!

 Pm sent tim

thanks mate

This reinforces why I love this site so much! I am in the same sort of boat as Tim and this thread has given me so many more ideas now.

U guys are legends!