Fish that school are easier to catch than loners. The more fish there are, the more competition there is for food. Anglers can use this competitive behaviour to their advantage by triggering schools to feed aggressively, making them more prone to striking lures.

Concentrate your fishing activity around structure that holds baitfish schools—they always have chaperones lurking nearby, which are the fish you want to catch. To instigate a feeding frenzy, start by creating a fine mist of berley to stir up the baitfish and get the predators in the food mood. Then begin casting lures in unison with some mates to create the impression there’s something stirring up the baitfish. A mix of surface and diving or sinking lures is good.

Make sure you fish around the most likely feeding times (tide changes, sunrise and sunset) to maximise your chance of stirring up a feeding frenzy.

If you need further convincing about using competitive feeding behaviour to your angling advantage: cast six-inch soft plastic stick baits rigged on a 5/0 worm hook at the schools of Australian salmon cruising the coast at the moment and see how many fish attack it!