Fishers often target particular species using specific methods, or
use a variety of methods to catch any available species. In particular,
fishers often spend several hours during the night and early
morning targeting live bait using Sabiki rigs consisting of 6–10
small feather, tinsel or rubber lures evenly spaced along 1–2 m of
monofilament line, terminating with a sinker. The rig is connected
to the main line and cast from the shore. The fisher twitches the rod
tip at various speed and frequency (i.e. jigging) whilst retrieving
line, making the jigs attractive to small predatory baitfish. It was
important to calculate directed effort for both baitfish and target
species since the catch rate of baitfish would be underestimated if
the total trip duration was used. Therefore, fishers were asked to
estimate the percentage of the trip spent using a specific gear type
and collecting baitfish. Bait collection effort was included in the
effort estimates for target species because they generally cannot be
caught without the use of live bait. For trips where both lure-casting
and live bait were used, catch rates were effectively calculated for
each method and combined to produce a catch rate for the trip.