Get the best out of holiday fishing this Easter QUEENSLAND
Sean Thompson
With our busy lifestyles and restricted movements over the last couple of years, the thought of a holiday is very
swimmers, surfers and numerous anglers at your favourite fishing locations. This certainly presents challenges, and without a doubt fishing during the busy school holiday periods can be harder than most times.
little fishing towns across Australia. Alternatively, you could head inland and stay at a caravan park at an inland dam or camp by a river somewhere. If you do manage to book in at one of these
there are still certain times and days when the crowds on or around the water can be smaller. Making the effort to get up and start fishing just before the dawn can really be worth it in the holiday periods. Those early starts also don’t have to be quite so early by the time Easter rolls around (or the September holidays) as daylight savings have finished in the southern states and the sun is rising quite a bit later than over summer. The best thing about dawn is that the boat traffic in busy estuary or freshwater dams/lakes is usually pretty thin. Likewise, you may even have the beach to yourself until the first joggers/walkers arrive and they aren’t going to affect your fishing anyway. One thing to be aware of though
Hooked up on a nice golden trevally at Noosa during the school holidays.
Dusk, no crowds, and a double hook-up. enticing. However, parents with school-aged kids know only too well that your holidays are restricted to the busy school holiday periods including Easter,
But all is not lost – there are locations, times and plans you can put in place to avoid, or at least minimise, the impact of the crowds on your fishing results.
locations where you haven’t been before, be sure to do your research first. Search up some articles on the area on the internet, and give the local tackle shop a call about what you can expect. Social media group pages on a particular region can be another source, but be aware, there are a lot of keyboard warriors or so-called experts who either don’t know as much as they think they do, or even take weird pleasure in trying to give as much misinformation as possible. BEST TIMES DURING THE HOLIDAYS Not everyone can book into (or may want to go to) a quiet little location, especially when you consider other family members’ preferences. So if this means you do end up at a popular tourist destination, all is not lost fishing-wise, as
Tailor are a great beach option at dawn in the cooler months. is that on days when the wind forecast predicts a glass-out, the boat ramps, particularly with close access to offshore locations, can still be very busy even at dawn, so get
there an hour or more before you might usually. While maybe not as quiet as dawn, dusk is of course your next best option to be hitting the beach or
Escaping the crowds at night in the middle of a big tourist town. June, September and the Christmas holidays. And for locals in popular holiday destinations, their quiet little town can become very busy with tourists. What this all means from a fishing perspective is that the waterways, beaches and boat ramps at these locations can become very, very busy, especially during the peak times of about 9am-5pm. This means there are jet skis, powerboats, stand-up paddle-boarders, kayakers, 8
APRIL 2022
CHOOSING YOUR HOLIDAY DESTINATION Obviously, when it comes to the choice of holiday destination, the bigger the location the more likely that crowds are going to be a problem. One option is to jump on Google Earth or look at a map and explore up and down the coastline to find some smaller little coastal villages and see if you can book in. You will be amazed at the number of
Finding a spot to fish on a jetty can be tough during the middle of the day!
waterways (provided you have all the correct lighting if you are on a boat). As the sun starts to go down, or that evening chill start to fill the air, most of the families and thrill-seekers on jetskis, powerboats etc. will be heading for home, so this is the time you want to be arriving to set up. Of course, you can check out your intended beach gutter during the day, or if in a boat gather some local knowledge about your intended spot, or just get all your gear and extra rigs ready. Aside from dawn and dusk, weekdays will also be that little bit quieter, even during busy school holidays (with the exception of public holidays). In addition, there are also a few days of the year, which despite being a public holiday, can be a very quiet time on the water or beach. I don’t want to encourage anyone with young children to miss that excitement of
