If you’re targeting species that live tight to gnarly cover such as oyster encrusted rock walls, then here’s another great video tutorial from Gold Coast angler, videographer and Youtuber John Costello. JC is well known for his lure reviews, tutorial videos and for just generally being incredibly willing to share his knowledge and help others, so watch this video closely and you’ll get some great nuggets.
You’re gunna want to watch this whole video, start to finish. But if you’re in a hurry there here are a few shortcuts to skip straight to some juicy tips.
03:04 The retrieve technique you’ll want to adopt for fishing prawns along rock walls.
03:58 What to look out for to know where to cast (no side scan sonar required 😉 )
08:36 Fishing the lure super slowly down the rock wall on a semi-taut line.
12:09 What to do if you notice your kayak/boat drift rate slows.
I’ve added a few additional thoughts after watching this tutorial below the video.
Thought’s I’d Add To John’s Rock Wall Prawn Tutorial
I haven’t fished the Savage Gear 3D TPE shrimp that John demonstrates in the video, but I’ve fished plenty of other prawn/shrimp imitations. When you think about it, pretty much everything in an estuary will eat a live prawn, so it makes sense to have a selection of lures in your box that do a good job of imitating prawns.
To help stop the point of the hook being exposed and increasing the snag up rate, I like to just barely bury the point of the hook in the plastic. Do it so that just a couple of millimetres of hook point is buried in the plastic, definitely not as far as the barb. This will further protect the hook point from snagging and stop the plastic from sliding down the bend of the hook to expose the hook. Done well, the plastic will pop off the point when a fish strikes, so the hook set rate isn’t affected, but you’ll be able to fearlessly sneak the lure into heavy cover.
Here in north Queensland I prefer to fish this style of lure on the neapish tides, even though prawns usually get mobile and make their runs on the new moons. Fishing those neap tides just as they’re starting to build up towards a new or full moon means you have cleaner water, which I reckon suits subtle presentations of soft plastic prawns better. This may be less of an issue further south, where the tidal movement isn’t as large.