Fishing Monthly Magazine | October 2020

TOP TIPS FOR SPRING • FISHING TACKLE EXTRA INSIDE NEW FIND THE

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Features

QLD

Catch a feed off the rocks • Top tips for better fishing • Kayaking Swansea flats • Howqua River fishing • Harmony for Corner Inlet •

NSW

Tried & Tested

Daiwa Bait Junkie soft plastics • Sea Jay 590 Titan with Yamaha 150hp • Lowrance Ghost •

WA

Location Spotlight October, 2020 ISSN 2652-5798

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Gary Brown takes us rock fishing

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CONTENTS

OUR COVER October 2020, Vol. 1 No.6 TAS

QUEENSLAND Gold Coast 14 Southern Bay 16 Brisbane 18 Northern Bay 20 Noosa 22 Hervey Bay 24 Bundaberg 26 Mackay 27 Whitsundays 32 Townsville 33 Hinchinbrook 34 Cairns 35 Port Douglas 36 Cooktown 37 Cape York 36 Freshwater 38 NEW SOUTH WALES Pittwater 46 Sydney North 47 Sydney Rock 48 Sydney South 50 Ballina 52 Coffs Harbour 54 Hastings 56 Forster 57 Port Stephens 58 Central Coast 59 Illawarra 60 Batemans Bay 61 Bermagui 62 Tathra 62 Albury/Wodonga 68 Batlow 69 Hunter Valley 70 New England Rivers 70 Canberra 71 VICTORIA West Coast 80 Warrnambool 81 Apollo Bay 80 Cobden 81 Geelong 82 PPB West 84 PPB East 85 Phillip Island 86 Lakes Entrance 86 Gippsland Lakes 88 Marlo 89 Mallacoota 89 Robinvale 90 Wangaratta 92 Shepparton 94 Bendigo 90 Crater Lakes 94 Ballarat 91 Eildon 96 TASMANIA Hobart 97 6

OCTOBER 2020

From the editor’s Desk...

WA

Vera Cummings (8yo) took out junior first prize at a local fishing comp. The trout measured 58cm and she won a kayak for her effort.

A Cara Cummings image.

Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.

It’s been a busy month. Actually, since COVID, they have all been busy months. First it was condensing the magazines into the one title. Then it was learning to produce our live show, ABT Lockdown Live, for the sister company ABT. Now it’s full on back into boat testing and reviews.

But we love it. Not just that the job is always changing and that we have to learn new things to get it done, but as we complete each new project, we learn a lot as we go.

Take the 20lb braided line test that we completed this month – it’s in the Tackle liftout in this edition. There’s a whole lot of work that goes into each of these: from sourcing the test product to borrowing the testing machines, doing all of the studio photography and then creating a test regime that will stand up to the rigours of a lot of interested companies.

Initially we were super keen to produce pile of lists, from the cheapest per metre to the most abrasion resistant lines

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WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance 100 Augusta 101 Busselton 102 Bunbury 102 Mandurah 103 Metro 104 Lancelin 106 Geraldton 109 Exmouth 108 Broome 110 Karratha 110 Freshwater 112

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126 Whittley Marine

FISHING MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Qld Fishing Monthly Pty Ltd

REGULAR FEATURES Fishing off the rocks 8 Starlo’s back to basics 12 Sheik of the Creek 31 Tech Tricks 40 Kayaking Swansea flats 66 What’s New Fishing 72 Harmony for Corner Inlet 76 How to fish Howqua River 78 Trout fishing with kids 79 WIRF 98 Recfishwest 105 Tide page 115 Trades and Services 116 Tournaments 118 Track my Fish 122 Boat Test: Sea Jay Titan 590 124 COMPS AND OFFERS Find the logo Sub page Fun page

through to the strongest per diameter. But instead, what we learnt is that there’s so much variability in the description of the lines that it just wasn’t a fair fight.

Did you know that there’s no spools of 20lb braided line that we could find that actually broke at 20lb? The lightest broke at around 23lb and the heaviest at over 50! Same with diameters. Companies use as many ways to measure diameter as there are line companies. So we measured it ourselves.

And let’s not talk about abrasion resistance. There’s even more ways to measure that and let me give you a hint, if you want to start a spirited discussion about methodology, just talk to a few line companies about the best way to do that.

But we did it. And we analysed the results.

The full story is in the article in the Tackle Guide, but in short all we really discovered was that with most of these lists, it’s not really a fair fight. There’s such a discrepancy in labelling that the tests weren’t apples-for-apples.

Even when we compared our own results, we found that there were correlations between diameter, strength and abrasion resistance. In the future, we’d probably ignore what’s on the label and compare lines of the same diameter … or lines of the same breaking strength.

Does it mean that there needs to be a standard for measuring braid?

We think so.

Don’t hold your breath waiting, though, and in the meantime, please enjoy the rest that the magazine has to offer.

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Rock fishing for bread and butter species tidal conditions, as it will govern whether you need to change or adjust your rigs to suit the conditions. When chasing luderick, you will need to change the depth of your float; for bream, trevally and drummer it’s just as simple as changing the weight of your running sinker or maybe rigging up a paternoster rig so that you can cast out further onto those sandy patches.

One thing that is in

SYDNEY SOUTH

Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

Not everyone has the opportunity or equipment to go and chase marlin, tuna, kingfish, cobia and other larger fish species off the rocks, but everyone can chase what I class as ‘bread and butter’ fish with the minimum of time, effort and gear.

Yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid are predominately what I class as bread and butter fish.

You don’t need to have a lot of gear, they are usually readily caught in many safe spots off the rocks, they give you a great tussle and they are great on the plate.

So, you ask what type of gear do you need?

It can be as simple as a rod and reel, a few small

Weather and Sea Breeze. I find them much better than a tide chart from your local tackle shop as you can type in the area that you are going to fish and get an accurate time.

INFLUENCE OF THE WEATHER Before any fishing trip that you make to the rocks you will need to pay close attention to the current weather reports, as well as the long-range forecast.

First and last light is usually the best time to fish off the rocks. Don’t forget to go on those overcast and drizzling days as they too can be very productive.

If you keep it simple when fishing off the rocks you will be able to move from spot to spot easily. All you need is a bucket with some berley, a shoulder bag to put your small tackle box in and some bait.

ball sinkers, some hooks and your bait!

In this article I will endeavour to cover what works for me when I am targeting yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid off the rocks.

Covering areas to look out for, gear to use, what type of baits and techniques that have worked for me over the years.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE TIDES For me, the tide and the variance in the lows and high are what I concentrate my fishing off the rocks around. In most populated parts of Australia there will be a tide change around every six hours and the difference between the depth of the low and high water will depend on at

what stage the 28-day lunar cycle is at.

For example, you could be fishing Windy Point in Southern Sydney for yellowfin bream, drummer and luderick at the beginning of the month when the moon is in the first quarter and you have a low at 80cm and a high tide of 1.4m. Then come back and fish the same place when there is a new moon and find that you have a low tide or 20cm and high tide of 1.9m.

What this does is to allow the fish to forage further up onto the rocky areas that they normally won’t be able to get to during the much higher tides and push them further

The author bleeds both his drummer and trevally, before he scales and guts them. Once they get home he carefully fillets, skins and debones them. This assures that the meat stays in tip-top condition. anglers’ favour is that the tidal movements are very predictable and can be forecast well in advance, making it much

This will give you an idea of the sea conditions you can expect at the time that you are planning to go fishing. It’s better to be

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These fish were caught while fishing beside a stormwater drain. The same species, plus bream, tarwhine, drummer, trevally and salmon can be caught while fishing those gutters that run right beside the rocks. out off the rocks when the tide is near its lowest.

Anglers need to take note of these different

easier to plan that next fishing outing. This can be achieved by checking online with BOM, Willy

safe than sorry. Way too many anglers have come unstuck by not doing their research before they go.

While the angler in the distance is fishing the deep water off this ledge, the other angler is checking out the conditions before he decides to have a fish.

There is a particular spot that I often fish on the south coast of NSW. The rock’s ledge is about a metre off the water and it’s not safe to fish when there is any type of swell about. Having no swell at this spot makes it a hard place to fish, unless you take the time to berley up with plenty of stale bread and allow the current that passes through there to take the berley away and bring the fish to just below your feet.

It’s just a matter of fishing very light.

Sometimes the weight of the bait is enough to cast it out into the berley trail.

These very slight conditions can occur when winds from the west have been blowing for a while. This tends to flatten them out.

Or you may look at a weather map and see that the isobars are very close together. This type of weather pattern usually means that you are going to experience a lot of high winds for a few days in a row. It could also mean that the seas could rise with the incoming tide.

Care does need to be taken as many anglers will be led into a false sense of security seeing that the water is flat. What is actually happening is the wind is pushing the swell out to sea and once the blow has eased the swell will come back to the shore. These rather large swells are what we call a ground swell.

TIDES AND THE LUNAR INFLUENCE OFF THE ROCKS A few years back I fished a rock ledge where a very small gutter lead into a large and open hole at Fingal Bay for yellowfin bream, drummer, luderick and trevally. It’s a place that the fish can only access when the tide is around 1.8m and the swell is running from the north.

The moon had to be two or three days either side of its fullest and still out during the early part of the morning.

On that same headland there is another small gutter that can only be fished near the bottom of the tide and there has to be a bit of a southerly swell

a few more recent photos.

After organizing with a mate of mine to go and chase bream, trevally and some salmon, I needed to do a bit of research into what the weather conditions were going to be like.

The night (11pm) before, Willy Weather said that the winds were going to be coming from the south. We decided to fish off a small rocky outcrop at Jibbon, due to the fact that they faced north.

Getting up in the early hours of the following morning the forecast had changed as a high pressure had come through and now the wind was going to come from the NW and gust up to 30-knots. Change of plans.

It was off to the northern

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Look at how simple it is! A couple of outfits, a few squid jigs, a knife and a bucket. running and the moon is not on its back.

To put this article together I had to go and get

If you are fishing an area and keep on getting snagged, try using a bobby cork and suspend your bait under it. The 3/8 A-Just-a Bubble with a No.2 running ball sinker and fresh cabbage enticed these drummer out of their caves.

end of Coaldale.

The conditions were prefect. The swell was very low and spaced wide apart, there was enough wash to create some cover for the fish. Arriving at 6.30am was two hours of fishing time before and after the high tide at 8.30am. Perfect.

This resulted in a couple of salmon and two yellowfin bream. All were caught on peeled Hawkesbury River prawns.

SUGGESTED OUTFITS TO USE Initially a rod was supposed to be an extension of your arm, which offered some line control when fighting a fish. The springy or flexible tip would provide a cushioning or act as shock absorbent. This meant that you could use lighter line to fight much bigger fish.

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OCTOBER 2020

9

From page 9

stowing line. They have fittings aiding in casting, retrieving line, drag systems and bearings for smoothness.

Sure, everyone knows this. What I would suggest when you are looking at buying a combination of the two that you spend as much as you can afford and not always go for the cheapest

light weights superbly yet has a powerful lower section which makes controlling larger species like bream, tarwhine, squid and trevally with no problem. It’s a 3.6m Superior Hollow Glass 2 piece, with quality FUJI runners and a low winch mount that can be fished with 4-6 kg line.

I have matched this with

An early morning session south of Sydney while berleying and using peeled prawns resulted in two nice salmon and a couple of bream. The session was over by 9.30am.

Depending on the type of terrain that you are fishing, make sure that you wear the correct footwear. Also, there are a number of places that you need to wear a life jacket, so check out the regulations before you go. or dearest. The cheapest may not last much longer than a few months and if you go for the dearest you might have been able to save some money to spend on more terminal tackle that you will need as the years go on.

This is a personal choice. I only use a composite rod when fishing off the rocks for the above species. One that will have a solid fiberglass tip embedded inside a hollow fiberglass tube that has graphite or carbon fibre wraps around the bottom third of the rod. This allows me to have the feel, cast lighter baits, while still having plenty of power in the bottom section to handle the lunges of the fish and turn its head to make it come towards you.

There are many different factors that are taken into the making of a rod, some of which are the length of the rod, the taper, the weight being cast and the species of fish that you are targeting.

My luderick outfit is Bruce Alvey Special rod that has a soft tip action with minimal number of runners, which supports the line yet offers the least resistance providing better casts. The rod will throw 10

OCTOBER 2020

when it comes to targeting bream, trevally and tarwhine.

My small plastic tray with 9 sections has 000, 00, 0, 1 and 2 sized ball sinkers, size 1 and 1/0 Owner bait holder hooks, 1 and 1/0 Mustad 542 hooks.

The snapper and drummer box is the same as for the bream, trevally, drummer and tarwhine, but it has 0, 1, 2 and 3 sized ball sinkers, size 1/0 and 2/0 Owner bait holder hooks, 2/0 and 3/0 Mustad 542 hooks plus a couple of small bobby corks, beads and plastics stoppers.

As for the squid tackle box, it’s double-sided and holds 14 squid jigs of various colours and sizes. There are also a few snap clips for easy release for when changing the squid jigs.

And last but by no means least, I have another small tackle box that has 000, 00, 0,

1203S Fast to Medium tapered 3.6m, 3 piece, 8-10kg rod mounted with an Okuma 5500 Azores Blue Threadline that has 13-kg of drag and is spooled with 25lb Platypus Super 100 monofilament line. This integrated solid glass at the top section rod gives me the sensitivity and reduced weight for long periods of targeting drummer, salmon and snapper. While at the same time it has stopping power of composite fibreglass and graphite blank.

What I have done to make this outfit more

The author’s grandsons are too young to go fishing off the rocks yet. So, the next best thing is to take them off a breakwall and teach them about safety, how to cast and berley - and hopefully catch a couple of fish. monofilament line and take it with me just incase the trevally, yellowfin bream and tarwhine come out to play.

You don’t have to rush out and buy the same outfits that I have. This is just to give you an idea of what

works for me. You might like to go for a Wilson or a Shimano or a Silstar or Diawa outfit. This choice is up to you.

TERMINAL TACKLE Many other anglers are amazed at how little I have in the way of terminal tackle

1 and 2 sized ball sinkers and a number of sets of ganged hooks for when I am going to target salmon and tailor.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR? Drummer, luderick, yellowfin bream, snapper and trevally will live in similar water conditions and will

Carl Dubois with his biggest ever squid. It measured 35cm just for the hood section and it was caught on a size 3 Fish Inc. squid jig. The 3.6m Okuma Flexi-tip and the Okuma 5500 Azores Blue spooled with 15lb Platypus Super 100 did the job. an Alvey Beach Classic 625B sidecast reel and spooled with 12lb Platypus Platinum monofilament line. Okuma Flexi-tip

useable when it comes to bread and butter fishing off the rocks, I have purchased an extra spool and filled it 15lb Platypus Super 100

Look for areas that have cunje, green weed and cabbage that is close to the water’s edge. Drummer and luderick like to come up with the swell and roll on their sides and graze on the weed and cabbage. Bream can’t resist a feed of cunje as well.

This pigeon pair took a liking to a whole pilchard rigged on a set of 3 x 4/0 ganged hooks and a running No.1 ball sinker. eat very similar foods. They prefer surf washed rocks, gutters where the sand meets the rocks, boulders, reefs, ledges and kelp.

They can also be found in or near the entrances of river mouths where there is rocky structure, they can also be found schooling around rocky outcrops in the surf zone, for instance like the one that is found out in front of the surf club at Coalcliff Beach just south of Southern Sydney.

Squid seem to like kelp beds, rocky boulders and reef areas. While salmon and tailor can pop up just about anywhere off the rocks.

The seven major items

that influence my fishing are as follows: 1. To become successful at catching yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick, tarwhine, snapper and squid off the rocks you will need to do a fair amount of research and know your targeted fish species: 2. Make a predetermined decision of where and when you are going and always have a plan B. 3. Always keep records of your catch, moon phase, tides, winds, baits your use and the conditions.

4. Don’t just rely on one type of bait. Have a backup.

Green weed and cabbage

for luderick and drummer.

Peeled prawns, pillie tails and strips of mullet for yellowfin bream, trevally and tarwhine. Whole and half pillies, strips of tuna and slimy mackerel for the snapper and don’t just have one size of squid jig or colour. Mix it up.

5. Get your timing right when fishing and everything else will usually fall into place. Don’t fish a spot if everything that you have worked out previously is not aligned. It’s the same as if the timing is out in your car, you will get poor performance, and poor performance means bad results.

6. I have a rod and reel outfit for drummer and snapper – one for trevally, squid, bream and tarwhine and another outfit for when I am targeting luderick. Make sure your rod and reel is in tip-top condition and your terminal tackle is organised.

Hence why I have a small tackle tray for drummer and snapper, trevally, squid, bream and tarwhine. As well as one for luderick.

7. Be patient. Remember if you strike too soon when that float goes under when targeting luderick, you may miss the hook. Or on the other hand when the bream

are very timid, allow for the rod to load up before leaning back and striking.

The key to any angler’s success is to interlock these seven steps together when chasing the fish that you

tarwhine, salmon, snapper and squid off the rocks. It’s an easy, simple and safe way of bringing home a feed of fish while not having to spend heaps of money on your gear.

An oldy, but a goodie. Bruce Alvey with a great bag of snapper and a couple of salmon caught while using a variety of Alvey outfits. Photo courtesy of Bruce Alvey.

Tarwhine will often show up when targeting drummer, which always make a pleasant bonus. Remember, keep the tackle simple.

are targeting. Soon you will be able to put yourself up amongst that 10% of anglers who catch 90% of the fish.

I can’t get enough of bread and butter fishing for yellowfin bream, trevally, drummer, luderick,

The main thing that you always need to keep in mind is to make sure that you stay safe while fishing off the rocks. No fish is worth your life.

Hope to see you on the rocks someday.

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11

How to catch bream on fly NSW STH COAST

Steve Starling www.fishotopia.com

It seems there’s an immense amount of interest in the subject of chasing bream on fly gear. Here’s the lowdown on how to do it successfully: Of all the fishing subjects I post about on social media, the ones that seem to generate the most feedback and response are those dealing with fly fishing for ‘bread and butter’ species such as flathead, blackfish and bream… but

in my opinion.

Anyone who has ever had a crack at trout fishing with the fly will likely already own or have access to a 5-6wt combo. If you’re buying one from scratch, spend a reasonable amount on the rod, as that’s the most critical part.

The reel won’t do a whole lot more than store line when you’re bream fishing, so just buy a reasonable, lightweight one that won’t corrode too quickly when exposed to saltwater.

LINES Fly lines are another

Big bream are handsome critters and no push-over to fool with the fly.

Catching big bream like this one on fly gear can be tricky and challenging, but it’s also incredibly rewarding.

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Scan this QR code to watch Starlo’s how-to video about catching bream on fly. especially bream!

It’s no secret that bream are one of the country’s favourite angling species.

It seems that being able to catch these abundant and widespread saltwater targets on trout-weight fly fishing gear is immensely appealing to many anglers, especially in an era when fly fishing seems to be undergoing a revival or resurgence of sorts.

Consistently catching bream on fly is definitely not an easy task, or it certainly hasn’t been for me! I really struggled to do it on a regular basis for many, many years, but over the past decade or so, a number of pieces have fallen into place that have dramatically improved my success rate and my enjoyment of the entire process. I’d like to share what I’ve learnt with you: GEAR Tackle for chasing bream on fly doesn’t have to be anything special. Any 4-8wt fly set-up will do the job, with a 6wt being just about perfect, 12

OCTOBER 2020

critical part of the equation.

The vast majority of my bream have been caught on full-length, weight-forward floating lines, as I mostly chase these fish in water shallower than 3m. However, intermediate (slow sinking), sink-tip and even full sinking lines all have their place, especially if you fish in deeper water or where there’s lots of current. But to begin with, just buy a full-length, weightforward floating line suited to your rod, bearing in mind that some anglers do like to ‘overline’ their rods by one line weight as they find this makes casting easier (especially with weighted flies or in breeze).

LEADERS Using long leaders really

seems to improve my results when fly fishing for bream.

By ‘long’, I mean at least 3m (9ft), but often more like 4-5m (12-16ft) all up.

Tapered leaders help a lot with casting, and you can either buy pre-made tapered leaders or tie up your own (there are plenty of leader formulas on the internet).

The business end of the leader (called the tippet) should be relatively long (at least a metre or so) and reasonably fine: certainly no heavier than 4kg (8lb). I use 6lb fluorocarbon most of the time for my tippets, but occasionally drop to 4lb. Trust me, it can make a difference!

FLIES For a long time I suspected there must be a ‘magic’ fly pattern out there that would revolutionise my fly fishing for bream. Turns out this isn’t really the case.

A whole bunch of patterns will catch bream, including a range of prawn, shrimp, crab and baitfish imitations.

What most have in common is a hook size between about No. 8 and No. 2 (I use a lot of 4s), fairly natural colours, a bit of translucence and, in a lot of cases, ‘dangly bits’

like rubber legs, or at least some soft fur that moves and comes to life in the water.

Nearly all of my successful bream flies also carry some weight, usually in the form of bead-chain or lead dumb-bell eyes.

Jo Starling with a chunky bream taken on a commercially-tied fly, in this case a Fulling Mill’s Homer Shrimpson pattern.

Fur flies, such as this one made with rabbit strip, have heaps of action in the water.

them there with fly on exactly the same tides and conditions as you would choose when using lures. Then try to do exactly the same things (in terms of presentation and retrieve) with your flies as you would with lures… It ain’t rocket science!

In my experience, there is no single, silver bullet to cracking the bream-on-fly puzzle. I can almost guarantee you’ll struggle a bit at first, just as I did. But, as successes slowly build, you’ll learn more and gain confidence, and that’s a huge part of the equation. I’ve made a short how-to video demonstrating the principles outlined in

You can buy flies or make your own, and a great place to start is an Aussie mailorder company called BWC Flies (www.bwcflies.com. au) which sells both pre-tied flies and fantastic kits for building your own.

This thumper of a bream ate a Raw Shrimp Fly from BWC Flies.

The author with a seriously large black bream taken on fly while using an 11ft, 5wt switch fly rod. Conventional 8-9ft fly rods also do the job very well.

LOCATIONS I think the biggest trick to catching bream on fly involves fishing in areas where there are good numbers of catch-able bream. It sounds obvious, but you won’t catch bream on fly while fishing where there aren’t any feeding bream! A good starting point is to choose areas shallower than 3m where you’ve consistently caught bream on lures in the past, then fish for

this column. You can watch it by scanning the QR code hereabout, going to my ‘Starlo Gets Reel’ channel on YouTube.

If you find the thought of catching bream on fly appealing, please do give it a try and don’t be put off by any early failures. It’s a game worth sticking with, because when it all comes together, it’s immensely satisfying and rewarding!

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October can be a productive month on the deeper grounds wide of the Gold Coast. Since the closed season for snapper and pearl perch ended in mid-August there

pinnacles at the northern end of the 50 fathom reef can be particularly productive in October, with the odd fish over 30kg turning up.

Most of the bigger fish fall to live baits. There are also some big kingfish on the high pinnacles in 50 fathoms, with local charter boat Lucky Strike landing

The 18, 24 and 27 NE fathom reefs should produce some big cobia this month on live baits and big soft plastics and at night there should still be a few nice mulloway on live baits and pilchards.

Anchoring up and berleying is a great method to try, and if you keep a good constant berley trail of tuna, chopped

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Manj Brum with a medium size flathead. They will start to become more active this month. have been some great catches, as well as plenty of encounters with black and striped marlin eating snapper on the way up.

Out wider there are sometimes good schools of yellowfin tuna around the 1000m line, and there is always the chance of a blue or striped marlin from the 100m line and beyond.

There may also be a few striped marlin on the 36 and 50 fathom reefs with the odd black marlin turning up as well. If the water is blue and there are gannets and sauris leaping out of the water it is definitely worth a troll. The water temperature has maintained itself around 22ºC on the wide grounds all winter and that is definitely warm enough for all the marlin species.

Good snapper will still be around on the 36 fathom line this month, although most fish have spawned by this time and the numbers will probably drop off a bit. Despite the warm water it has been an excellent snapper season.

There should also be good numbers of pearl perch on the 50 fathom line and any isolated pinnacles you find out to 150m will also produce pearl perch.

October is an excellent month to chase amberjacks and samsonfish on the wider reefs using live baits and jigs. Some of the biggest amberjack of the year turn up in October. The high

a massive 23kg fish at the time of writing.

In closer to shore, the water is generally cooler.

pilchards or any oily fish you will attract fish in from a considerable distance.

A deep live bait and a

The author with a 59cm flathead. You’ll find the bigger fish along the flats early morning on a high tide.

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second fished mid water and a third rig with a slow sinking pilchard is a reliable way to cover all available options. Soft plastics can also be extremely useful for both snapper and cobia. I have found 7” Gulp Jerk Shads in white or nuclear chicken colour to be very reliable when fished on a 5/8-1oz jighead, depending on the water depth and prevailing current.

Spinning with metal lures and stickbaits just wide of the Jumpinpin Bar can be very productive this month for tailor, mackerel tuna and longtail tuna. Look for the birds and bait. This year has been a great one for tailor in the surf and casting to the back of the surf line has produced a lot of big tailor up to 4kg. The Zerek Zappelin stickbait has been an outstanding lure for the bigger fish.

ESTUARIES The estuaries warm up in October and big flathead will be spread out around Jumpinpin and the Seaway.

A lot of the bigger fish will be in the deepwater channels near the seaward entrances and the fish will continue to spawn throughout October.

Up on the flats, particularly on high tide early in the morning, there should be quite a few big fish over 70cm long. These are quite susceptible to swimbaits, bent minnows, large shallow diving minnows and large long soft plastic stickbaits, such as Sluggo’s and Silstar Slapsticks. Big high tides are the best time to try and make sure you work your lure very close to the edges.

If the water is a bit joggly and there are mud lines close to the edge, the big flathead won’t be far away.

With no Flathead Classic this year the fish have had a bit less pressure and there should be good catches.

Trolling is also very effective in the feeder channels and up on the flats. Lively Lures Micro

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A trio of yellowfin from the wide grounds in October.

Mullets, Pig Lures and Zerek Tango Shads are both very effective troll lures. In deeper water, try the smaller Bomber Long A deep diver or the Tilsan Bass. These get down to in excess of 4m and it is important to have your lure close to or on the bottom. The bottom half of the tide cycle is often the most productive time to troll.

Mangrove jack become increasingly active in October as the water warms and there is increased baitfish activity up in the canals. Casting suspending hardbodied lures, such as Lucky Craft Pointers, Tango Shads in the medium size or some of the Atomic range can be very effective, as are 4” paddle-tail plastics in white. Surface poppers are another useful lure in the canals, particularly early in the morning. In October both the Nerang and Coomera rivers can fish very well. Quite a few fish around 50cm can turn up

this month. Working the up current side of floating pontoons can be very productive. This method also produces trevally and estuary cod.

Whiting become increasingly active in October and there should be a few mud crabs and sand crabs starting to show up. It is a good month to start throwing a few small poppers and stickbaits over the flats. Catching whiting on poppers is a fun way to fish between checks of your crab pots. A few fish around 40cm in length turn up early in the season. My favourite surface lure for whiting is the Bassday Sugapen.

Windy conditions often produce the best results.

We are in a very fortunate position in Queensland in that we are still able to fish.

COVID-19 has changed the world for all of us, and it is even more important than ever to enjoy your fishing time. Stay safe, wash your hands and take care!

There have been some big kingfish catches on the high pinnacles in 50 fathoms.

OCTOBER 2020

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Expect big flatties throughout SOUTHERN BAY

Nick Whyte

Big flatties are all the talk this month. If you want to catch yourself an 80cm+ model, get out there! This will be a bit of a crossover month with summer whiting in full

swing, and we’ll start to see the threadfin salmon moving toward the mouth of the rivers.

October is definitely the best month to catch large flathead. The large fish will be in big numbers towards all the bar entrances and river mouths. Within sight of the South Passage, Pin Bar or

Seaway will see you in with a good chance.

Large soft plastics and vibration baits, like the Zerek Fish Trap, in the deeper water and large hardbodies or swimbaits, like the Zerek Affinity, up on the flats.

You’re not going to catch heaps of fish using large lures but the size is definitely

Dave Hall with a cracker 89cm flathead on the Zerek 130mm Flash Wriggly.

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Look for areas with clean water and lots of bait and the big flatties won’t be too far away and will see you with the best results. If you are targeting large flathead remember these fish are a no take species over the 75cm size. Take care of all fish that are to be released by using a fish friendly net, make sure you have cameras ready to grab that great pic and not keep the fish out of the water too long. Use gloves or boga grips and always support the body weight of the fish.

There’s been a few threadies caught around the port of late. They haven’t been massive schools but for those doing the hard yards and spending the time to sound out fish, there have been a few gold nuggets as reward. The ever-faithful Zerek Fish Trap has been the most consistent for lure fishers but the live baiters have been having good success as well.

There’s also the odd mulloway getting around in there at the moment. If you are planning to release these fish please release them as quickly as possible as they tend to suffer from lactic build up after the big fight.

They will usually have the strength to get themselves back to depth and not need to be vented for barotrauma if you work fast.

Mangrove jack will be active enough again to annoy lure fishers. They can be such a frustrating fish for anglers – big hits and big bust offs! Long hours with no action, but that jolting bite and crazy couple of seconds that follow is what keeps us going back for more.

Look for areas with good current flow and keep your lure or bait as close as possible to the structure.

Josh Johnson with a nice snapper on the Fat Betty Fish Trap.

The 3.5” and 5” Flat Shads from Zerek are a great lure to swim around the floating structure, as they come rigged weedless. They are ideal for fishing in tight around natural structure like rock bars and sunken timber, or jighead rig them to swim down the sides of pontoons and boat hulls. Try and work your lures reasonably fast as you are trying to trigger that reaction strike. These fish will hit a reasonably big bait for their size so don’t be scared to run big lures up to 7-8” plastics and swimbaits.

Summer whiting are in good numbers at the moment.

The best places to look

have been the Logan River around Aggester Sands, the mouth of the Pimpama River, Coombabah Creek and up the Nerang River on the inside bends throughout.

Good fresh worms or large stickbait poppers around 70-90mm are the go-to target for these guys. Look for the shallow banks that have a little bit of run over them and some reasonably clean water and keep the poppers moving fast across the top.

If you have a great capture from the southern bay you would like to share, email them through to nick@ techfishing.com.au Until next month. Tech-it-easy!

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Mick Larter with a 72cm lizard on the 3.5cm Flat Shad in baby barra colour.

OCTOBER 2020

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October ahoy – the bay is firing BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

Increased baitfish activity and heightened metabolism spurred on by warming water temperatures will result in some quality fishing during October. For bay, river and estuarine anglers, a broad spectrum of species are on offer. More desirable targets include tuna, mackerel, threadfin, mangrove jack, mulloway, flathead, snapper, sweetlip, whiting, cod and tuskfish.

In addition, crustaceans will be a serious option with mud crabs and sand crabs

(blue swimmers) being on the hit list for serious crabbers.

The prawners may even score if we have a bit of rain. With air temperatures warming, a day out in the sunshine will be welcomed and the cold of winter long forgotten. Here are a few October options for those wetting a line or deploying a few crab pots.

THREADFIN A favoured target for Brisbane river anglers is the threadfin salmon. These can grow to well over a metre and are spectacular sportfish and desirable table fare. They respond to a wide array of natural and artificial offerings and can be caught all along the river’s length.

Having said that, threadies are more prominent in certain areas during particular times of the year. As water temperatures rise, greater numbers will be available in the lower reaches of the Brisbane River and other systems. The area from the Gateway Bridge down river to the mouth probably offers the highest concentration of threadfin during the warmer months. After periods of serious rain, they will spill out the river mouth and be found around the leads beacons and the flats areas either side of the river. Unfortunately this is the period when many fall prey to the commercial netters who can operate in these zones.

Live baits are a popular

Mulloway are always a welcome by-catch when targeting snapper, and will be around throughout the bay and Brisbane River over the coming month. Chris nailed this solid specimen.

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and relaxed way to get amongst a few threadfin.

Mullet, herring and banana prawns are most common baits however gar, pike and biddies can also be used. These baits are best fished close to the bottom and presented on an octopus (aka beak and suicide) or kahle patterned hook. Fish these baits along the edges of ledges and drop-offs out from the numerous jetties and wharves or the declines into the main river basin. Snapper, mulloway, cod and flathead are likely by-catch.

Both rising and falling tides can be productive with many anglers fishing the last few hours of the rising tide and first hour or two of the falling.

Lures are also successful on threadfin with soft vibes, blades and numerous plastics getting the job done. Often larger schools of threadfin are located yet they are hard to tempt on lures. This often happens when there are a lot of prawns around. Live baits can often turn the odds in your favour, but sometimes you just have to bide your time until they decide to bite, which can

sometimes coincide with a tidal change.

MANGROVE JACK Keen jack anglers began targeting this iconic species almost two months ago.

Many anglers believe jacks to be purely a warm weather species, however they began to show in better numbers throughout the estuaries and rivers during August, around the same time that flathead numbers are on the increase.

These early season fish are often a little easier to tempt as they are hungry from their journey in from the offshore reefs and headlands, and have not yet seen many lures.

October is a great month for jacks as warming water temperatures often incite increased metabolism. Lure anglers will achieve success on a broad array of offerings when accurate casts are thrown around structures such as bridge pylons, pontoons, jetties, mangrove snags and other current-altering structures. Soft vibes, diving minnow lures (especially suspending ones), paddletail and crustacean profiled plastics, topwater offerings and swimbaits can all produce results when fished well. Jacks will sometimes not venture far from their ambush structure to hit a lure therefore accurate casts are needed to get a strike.

From here, good rod-work, a hefty drag and a degree of luck is required to turn the odds in your favour.

Live baits such as mullet, herring, prawns, pike, yakkas, slimy mackerel and others can all be put to good use on jacks when fished lightly weighed around structure and deeper holes. With larger baits it’s best to have a hook through the nose and another in the tail as the jacks will often sever the tail in the first strike to immobilise it. Baits can be cast

Pelagic activity will increase as baitfish numbers flourish with warmer water temperatures. Species such as mac tuna aren’t good table fare but can be a lot of fun to catch, as Jordan found out recently. near the structure and slowly retrieved next to it, a technique which works well along rock walls, rows of bridge pylons and jetty supports.

Late afternoons with building storm fronts offer some of the best fishing times as the spike in the barometric pressure really gets the jacks aggressive.

Dawn and dusk also sees some great opportunities, and many anglers will fish right throughout the night targeting jacks, especially in the canal developments and rivers lined with residences that have lights shining into the water.

These lights attract baitfish, crustaceans and cephalopods which are all prime prey for jacks.

Warm conditions over the following months will see some exceptional jack fishing opportunities, so get out and have a crack.

FLATHEAD Solid numbers of flathead have been caught over recent

Lures and live baits have been on the menu for jacks in the estuaries over the last few months and their aggressiveness should heighten as water temperatures rise.

months due to annual inshore spawning activity. Flathead can be caught throughout all estuarine and canal areas, making them an ideal target for land-based anglers, kayakers and boaties of all skill levels.

Lure fishers often get better numbers due to the increased areas of water probed.

Flathead movement can be fairly predictable once you learn their habits, and savvy anglers know where to target them at certain stages of the tide. They will take up a series of ambush spots depending on tidal phase. As the tide rises they will hang along the edges of major banks, gradually moving up the incline as water levels rise until they no longer feel conspicuous going up onto the banks to feed on the higher stages. As the water levels begin to fall they will take up ambush spots along the edges of banks, awaiting the baitfish and crustaceans to be forced off the flats with the falling tide. The larger fish will generally have the best ambush spot – often where the most or last of the water will drain from the bank.

During the breeding season, a single large female may be surrounded by up to a dozen smaller males.

Therefore if one fish is caught, it often pays to work over the area for a little longer in hope of enticing even more strikes from the flathead cluster.

Flathead will also lie along the edges of river banks.

Trolling a lure will allow you to cover a good portion of this zone. The mouths of creeks and rivers commonly offer several banks areas with intertwined channels. These are ideal zones to target flathead towards the lower stages of the tide. Anglers can explore such spots by wading to cast lures or small whole baitfish. Boaties can also get good results with baits, especially whilst drifting in the channels towards the lower stages of the tide or over the tops of the banks on the

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higher stages.

Baitfish such as pilchards, whitebait, hardiheads, frogmouths and herring are all good offerings. These should be fished with just enough lead to keep them rattling across the bottom as you drift.

A twin-hook snelled rig with the leading hook pinned up through the mouth and out the top of the head, then the rear hook close to the tail, will mean the bait will look natural yet have good hook exposure.

BAY PELAGICS Mackerel, tuna, bonito and cobia are all serious options during October for Moreton Bay anglers. Jigging beacons with chromed slugs or trolling the channel edges with spoons and deep diving minnow lures are both good ways to score a few school mackerel. They have been around in reasonable numbers all year and are a reliable food source for many bay anglers, myself included.

Pilchard baits fished around the beacons or drifted over the artificial reefs and around the bay islands are also likely to secure a few schoolies.

At times these predators may be found close to the surface, sometimes harassing baitfish congregations. In this situation, a chromed slug cast and retrieved at speed is likely to reward.

Tuna species in the bay can include mac, frigate

(bullet) and longtail tuna.

The longtails are the most highly prized and can reach weights in excess of 25kg.

Surface cruising fish can be tempted with a variety of artificial offerings including stickbaits, chromed slugs and slices, jighead-rigged jerkshads, baitfish-profiled flies, and topwater offerings.

Live baiting around the beacons in the northern bay, Curtin Artificial, Benowa Track Ground, Western Rocks and numerous other places will put you in good stead. These sashimi torpedoes will readily take a slimy mackerel, yakka, pike or cowanyoung fished in the upper half of the water column. Mac tuna can also be caught with much the same approach but are less desirable due to their poor eating quality. Still, they do make great bait for reef fish and other target species.

Cobia are a hard-earned species in the bay these days but they are there for those willing to put in the effort with large live baits. Cobes commonly hang around areas where baitfish and crabs are common. Better known areas include the Curtin Artificial, Kianga Channel, most of the shipping channel beacons from the Four Beacons north, Comboyuro Ledge and isolated coffee rock areas. Fusiliers, whole live

legal sand crabs and many demersal species (adhere to size limits) can all be put to good use on cobia. They are a tough adversary and I would suggest line classes of 15kg or higher to put you in with a good chance of success.

Both Australian and Watson’s bonito will be caught in the bay over the coming month. Occasionally these are seen busting on the surface but they are more commonly taken as by-catch when targeting school mackerel around the beacons or along the channel edges.

The Watsons are decent table fare but the Australian bonito is mainly used for bait, either fresh or salted.

BAY DEMERSALS Snapper numbers will still be good over the coming months, with quality fish to be caught around the bay islands, artificial reefs and wrecks. The usual techniques with baits and lures will reward. I often encounter some of the better quality specimens during October and November whilst casting soft vibes and other lures around the artificial reefs. Deeper areas can be probed with micro jigs, which are a great way to target fish directly in your sounder beam.

Quality baits such as squid, pilchards and fillets of bonito, pike, mullet, yakka

and gar will score well. Big baits will allow time for the pickers to have a go whilst the larger knobbies lurking on the fringes decide to come in and engulf the remains.

Casting soft plastics and vibes around the fringes of the bay islands (Mud, Green, Peel etc.) is a very successful way to score snapper. The shallows will fish best around dawn and dusk, while the deeper areas will be better when the sun is higher in the sky. Mulloway will be caught in many of the same areas where you score snapper.

Sweetlip are a common capture during October, with sand and sea grass beds next to reef and rubble bottom being good places to try.

These same areas can also hold decent tuskfish. Both species are a better option on quality baits than lures.

Early pre-dawn sessions with an approaching high tide are ideal for sweeties, with a flurry of bites often coinciding with the first rays of sunlight in the east. Those anglers who are serious about targeting tuskfish are best to source some small crabs (those without size regulations) as these are the prime offering for this species. Tuskies are a tough species to land – you need strong line, a heavy drag and a serious attitude to get the upper hand before they

Snapper are still a serious option for anglers throughout Moreton Bay during October, and this time of year often produces some of the better specimens.

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bury you back into the reef and rubble.

CRABS Crabbing will be good throughout October. Muddies are available up in the creeks and estuaries using safety pots baited with fish frames, chicken carcasses, whole mullet and suchlike. After decent rain the better results will come out in the main system but the better muddies will mostly come from the harder to access upper limits of the saltwater reaches.

Setting pots out in the bay along contour lines and channels will reward for sand crabs. These can be found at numerous depths so it pays to set pots in different spots to find where they are holding and travelling.

CONCLUSION October offers anglers a huge array of viable targets for both bay and estuarine anglers. Whether you are keen on pelagics, demersal species, crabs or estuarine dwellers there’s plenty of variety and scope for a successful outing.

Warmer conditions will make the early morning starts or night sessions a lot more bearable.

Higher water temperatures speed up predator metabolism, increasing aggressiveness.

October is definitely a great month to get out amongst the awesome aquatic offerings residing in Moreton Bay and its feeder waterways.

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Muddies will liven up NORTHERN BAY

Steve Nash

Spring has well and truly hit the local fishing front with warm days and clear water.

It’s a great time of year to get out and wet a line with solid numbers of flathead moving up and down the estuaries.

There has been good catches that have been reported in the Pine River, Caboolture River, Ningi Creek and Bribie Passage. Good numbers of summer whiting are also being caught in the Caboolture River and along the beaches of Scarborough, Beachmere and other surrounding areas. While there have been a few good ones caught in the passage they have been very patchy.

RIVERS We are still in the midst of flathead spawning in our rivers, which means concentrating on the deeper holes and drop off around the mouths of our

creeks will almost certainly give you a good chance on hooking up to some ripper flathead this season.

It is also worth chasing whiting on the shallow flats on the incoming tide. Light line will certainly increase your chances with the water clarity being super clear.

October is also a good month to start looking for mangrove jack. Whilst not the peak time of their season, mangrove jack will slowing begin to move into the creeks feeding up before spawning time. So on those warm afternoons and nights, get out there as it is definitely worth looking in those known areas.

By-catch of estuary cod will be a common when chasing jacks in and amongst the snags.

Big bream have also been found lurking in areas of the Caboolture River. Chasing them along the edges and moored boats have produced

some very good results. Bream can be tedious on the chew as they have a knack for nibbling on the end of lures and bait.

Persistence when chasing them is key to getting yourself a potential bag. Small hooks on your bait hooks and small trebles on hardbody lures will increase the hook up rate.

It will be worth heading out to chase a feed of mud crabs this month, as they become more active. Placing your pots along the mangrove edges and storm drains are good hunting spots. Leaving your pots out overnight will increase your chances of

Spring means edge bite at the dams. along the northern end of Moreton Bay. While the bay’s mackerel population had been a bit slow to kick off, it is still worth having a look as you pass the shipping channel markers or while chasing bait before heading to your favourite fishing spots. They are known to feed at any time of the day. Look for bird activity on the surface of the water along the north east and spitfire channels.

Good effective methods to catch mackerel are with

chrome slugs. These fish normally eat whitebait, blue bait or frogmouth pilchards, which are small in size, so make sure your slug is around that size – about 5-6cm.

Alternatively, try anchoring up current from a shipping marker and float lining a pilchard rigged on a set of gang hooks with a small sinker back on to the marker.

DAMS The edge bite at the dams is super hot right now.

Throwing spinnerbaits and shallow divers into the edges

Mackerel have some nasty teeth that can make short work of light leaders. producing better results. This however may result in your pots being pinched or raided.

Rest assured though that you can still pick up a crab during your day of fishing if you place your pots in a good location.

Bait wise, everyone seems to have their preferences. While some like to use a fish frames left in the sun for a day or fresh

Dave Hudy with some mangrove jack by-catch.

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mullet, I think the location probably has more to do with catch rate than bait.

The creeks and drains of the Pumicestone Passage are always producing good numbers and size. Queensland laws state you are allowed four pots per person and 10 mud crabs in possession (not per day), which must be 15cm across its carapace. Always remember it is illegal to keep female crabs.

THE BAY With the snapper breeding season now well and truly over, and the majority of the larger schools have moved back to the deep.

However, there are still some good fish to target in the northern bay. The wrecks off Curtin Artificial can produce a mixed bag with live baits or try the rubble grounds

Jane Morgan-Harry landing a nice feed from the Pine River.

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Marty Guy with a decent feed of mud crabs.

and sunken timber are great methods on hooking up to bass this month. There will also be plenty of cheeky ‘toga lurking in these same places, as well as the lily pads.

The fat bass winter schools may be over for now, however there will still be some small schools that will show up from time to time.

The usual early morning and late afternoons are the best times to target them.

So now that we are in the peak time of the best weather of the year, get out there and enjoy every second of it. Fish hard and remember to keep safe on the waters.

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OLD

Warmer months bring on some great species NOOSA

Peter Wells

With the warmer months approaching we will see some great species of fish come on the chew. Inthe rivers, mangrove jack, barra and threadfin salmon are very sort-after, for the offshore crew the pelagics are on the minds of most with mackerel, mahimahi, and tuna all on the cards.

On the beaches, we will see the last of the tailor season (some say the best part of the season) as well as sweet summer whiting and large mulloway.

In the Noosa River it will be all about the jacks!

Mangrove jack have to be one of the premium river sports fish on the Sunshine Coast. To tangle with a jack on light gear is a great thrill, as well as getting a great table fish.

Being up nice and early or fishing into the night will really increase your catch rate, as jacks feed more actively in low light periods.

One location that seems to hold good numbers is the stretch of water between Lake Cooroibah and Lake Cootharaba. This stretch of

Johnny Beck with a tasty snapper. water has a lot of fallen trees and root structure along the banks making the perfect habitat for these fish. These ambush predators will lay in wait for a prawn or baitfish to come cruising by then hit them like a freight train. The trick here is to beat them at their own game.

For the lure anglers, a bait caster set up is the perfect weapon of choice, these overhead setups give you the great accuracy that you need to place that lure in the strike zone. What you are looking for is an area with good structure where the fish can hide, cast your

lure in close and be ready for the ambush. Make sure your drag is locked up tight because they hit and run.

Surface lures are also a spectacular way to fish.

Your nerves are usually on edge waiting for the fish to strike. Lures like the G Splash from Lucky Craft are perfect for the challenge with strong trebles, and they usually make short work of a hungry jack.

As the sun gets a little higher in the sky, it’s time to change tactics as the fish will tend to move to the deeper parts of the river.

Trolling deeper diving lures

Peter May with a decent sized mulloway.

around the rock bars at Johns Landing can be quite productive, speeds around 6-8 knots and lures with a bit of red in them seem to be the most effective.

For bait anglers, live baits are perfect and are usually quickly gobbled up.

Fishing those same areas as you would with a lure should see you hook up.

Barra are becoming more commonplace in our Sunshine Coast waterways.

Plenty of anglers that regularly fish the rivers, come into contact with one or two over the summer period. Remember the closure period between 1 November until 31 January.

Those sweet summer whiting will really come on over the next few weeks and will be around for the majority of the warmer months. Bigger fish are regularly taken around the Frying Pan and river mouth areas. Best baits have been pipis, live worms, and yabbies. For those of you struggling to get fresh or live bait, frozen peeled prawn, and squid strips are a viable alternative.

For those heading offshore, hopefully those annoying westerly early spring winds will have dropped for the lighter southeasterlies and we can get to the wider grounds.

The local reefs are a great place to start the hunt for some nice table fish; fish like grass sweetlip, coral trout, snapper and cobia all inhabit these reefs. Sunshine Reef is a good option for those with smaller craft, while the bigger boats can venture out to North Reef, Barwon Banks and Double Island Reefs with the expectation of some larger reef species.

Pelagics will also start to show up over the coming months with the spotty mackerel the first on the scene, closely followed by the smaller Spanish mackerel with the larger Spanish moving in later in the

season. Targeting mackerel can be simple, trolling a lure like the famous Spanish Special that Davo’s make is one of the locals favourites.

These slow trolled rigs are made up with flashes and skirts and loaded with a large pilchard or garfish – it’s one of the most lethal weapons out there.

Throwing a slug like the Halco Twisty into a bait schools that the mackerel are feeding on is also high on

smaller schools.

Summer whiting and swallowtail dart will also be in the breakers. Try to time your beach fishing trip with a good morning or afternoon tide, look for those all-important gutters with an entry and exit point and do the majority of your fishing in the low light periods. If you are chasing whiting then stick to a size 4 bloodworm hook laden with worms, pipis or yabbies.

There will be plenty of decent flathead around in October. the list of ways to nab a mackerel, you need to make sure you have quite an array of slugs in the tackle box as you will need to match the bait that the fish are feeding on. Then, of course, there is the good old floater, a lightly weighted pilchard, garfish or yakka with just enough weight to slowly get the bait to the bottom, the more run the more weight you will need.

On the beaches, Noosa’s North Shore will be the place to be with the warmer weather. Large tailor should be making their way south after spawning up around the Fraser Coast. These fish are usually larger and move in

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For tailor, one of the favourite baits is a lightly weighted small pilchard cast out into a surf gutter and allowed to drift under the foam and whitewash. By using this technique, other fish species like trevally, flathead and even mulloway are all on the menu.

• Don’t forget to check in to www.fishingnoosa. com.au for all the latest up to date info on fishing and bar crossings. The knowledgeable teams at Davo’s Tackle World Noosa and Davo’s Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola can provide you with the right equipment, bait and advice to ensure success!

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OLD

Options ranging from barramundi to billfish HERVEY BAY

Dane Radosevic

This would have to be my favourite time of year on the Fraser Coast, with fishing options ranging from barramundi to billfish. What’s not to look forward to?

As history dictates we can anticipate the annual run of juvenile black marlin to show up off Roonies and throughout Platypus Bay over the course of this month.

Word along the grapevine is they had showed up off Yeppoon and 1770 in good

numbers last month with some great captures reported.

We can only pre-empt that we too will also get to enjoy some of the red-hot action.

Roonies Point would be the obvious place to start, although these fish are pelagic and their movements are usually dictated by the bait supply. Trolling away from Roonies, often following the drop off south in search of the bait schools is a good option, as this gives the ability to keep an eye on the flats while scoping out fish potentially holding deeper.

There seems to be a

perceived complexity to catching these marlin, however it’s not all that hard given the various methods available to target them. Trolling a spread of 5-6” skirted lures is ideal and would have to be the easiest method for beginners.

Darker colours, such as black over purple and purple over blue, are best run short and lighter patterns, such as blue over silver, pink and the old faithful lumo, are best run long.

More seasoned crews will be swimming and skipping baits, which is a very effective technique that

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can draw many bites. This technique requires the angler to pay closer attention to the spread while trolling and be prepared for the bites, particularly if fishing the preferred circle hooks.

Although your boat and motor is your biggest attractant to draw the fish’s initial attention, a well rigged teaser set up is fundamental.

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A pigeon pair of juvenile black marlin caught off Fraser while trolling a spread of skirted lures, the Pakula Micro Sprocket is a proven performer in local waters. rubber squids and the more conventional exciter bird followed by a daisy chain of rubber squids to hybrids like the ‘Flippy Floppy’ which are just dynamite teasers that are very easy to run. These are deployed behind the boat into the prop wash designed to fire up that curious fish into ‘feed mode.’ You can very easily tell the mood of the fish by paying close attention to their body language and their colourations. It is a real spectacle to watch a well-lit juvenile black marlin ghosting your teaser before switching onto one of your lures or baits.

The flats fishing potential is what draws many anglers to Roonies Point as the possibility to sight fish to a free-swimming marlin is quite the adrenalin rush.

In this situation, anglers can opt to use lighter spin tackle and cast a variety of sinking stick baits, soft plastics and skip baits, like gar, to the free swimming fish to draw their attention and the bite.

The dark of the moon this month should see game crews venture to the shelf in search of the annual run of Fraser Island blues.

Although very much dictated by weather in this area, a weather window may just be enough to see them leave the docks to try their luck.

The shelf’s waters directly east of the 4 mile crossing will be worth a shot before potentially working your way south towards the outer canyons. Currents, water temperature and general weather conditions will dictate most decisions, while heading north isanother option if that is where the good water is found.

A quick reminder for all the reef fishos that the Coral Reef Fin Fish Closure takes place from the 14-18 October.

For more info head on over to the Department of Fisheries website. Typically this time of year the reef fishing does taper off a little, due to the currents and the evergrowing shark populations

making it difficult to land a fish. In saying that, if chasing a feed the southern and northern gutters will be worth a look for a coral trout and the potential mixed bag of hussar, Spanish flag, tusk fish, sweetlip and cod. Avoid the main ledge country and fish the smaller more isolated patches for best results and avoid sacrificing quality fish to sharks as you just won’t beat them.

The pelagic activity is about to heat up in Platypus Bay in a big way. Lure and fly addicts prepare your casting arms as over the months to come the action is going to go off. As per usual for this time of year the isolated reefs and wrecks should be holding good numbers of school mackerel, which can be quite easily targeted on baits and/or metal Flasha spoons. These same locations will also hold good numbers of golden trevally and tea leaf trevally, particularly if there are bait schools within the area. Soft plastics, jigs and soft vibes

worked erratically will entice the bite with the proven favourite ZMan 5” Jerk Shad in electric chicken and 5” StreakZ in bubble gum pink, a continuous standout and must-have in the box.

Large solo longtail tuna can often be seen cruising the surface just wide of Wathumba this time of year and will quickly v-line for a sinking stick bait or soft plastic retrieved fast. Small pods of fish should start to congregate over the coming months. Mac tuna will be prolific and although not as highly regarded as longtails these fish are the bulldogs of the sea and put up an extremely hard fight.

The inshore reef fishing should see a spike in activity with the increase in water temperature, particularly for the sought-after coral trout.

They will become quite active over the shallower inshore reefs, islands and fringing rocky shores of Point Vernon, Gatakers Bay, Round Island and Big Woody. Trolling hardbodies

The author with a rat barra he persuaded from a snag using a suspending hardbody lure, keeping his offering in the strike zone for as long a period as possible. Here’s hoping a few bigger fish grace the deck this season.

OLD

Christie Green scored herself this cracking longtail tuna she sight fished to, while out in the bay. moored boats. Adjust your tactic and chosen location depending on the time of day as jacks have such a big and curious eye for a reason.

Often considered a highly nocturnal feeder for this reason and great numbers can be caught at night on baits, poppers and fizzers.

For day time tactics you have to get a little cunning and look for areas providing plenty of cover and/or shade such as undercut banks, lay-down trees and rock bars. Then it’s just a matter of presenting an offering in tight enough to the structure to draw a bite.

Smaller 3-4” offerings are ideal for jacks and a variety of soft plastics, hardbodies and vibes will produce fish.

With such a variety on the market nowadays the options are endless, however a few favourites always standout with the Tilsan Barra, Rapala XR10 Deeps, Lucky Craft Pointer 78xd, ZMan 4” SwimmerZ and any prawn imitations, to name a few.

Don’t be surprised if you cross paths with a

barra or two while chasing jacks as their numbers are quite prolific throughout the entire system and can be found schooled up in similar areas. Tarpon, river GT and queenfish may also be found on the deeper corners and can be great sport on light spin tackle and smaller soft plastics.

Fraser Islands western creeks are another great option for targeting jacks and you can use the techniques highlighted above with great success. Do not forget the Bushman’s when up these creeks as you will get eaten alive by sand flies.

These smaller creeks are very tidal and can be a little tricky to navigate in or out of on the low tide, the prime time to be fishing.

Committing to a particular creek and locking yourself in there for the duration of the low tide can be a good option.

Barra, mulloway, grunter, blue and threadfin salmon are all welcome by-catch while fishing these creeks for jacks. Grunter in

particular can be found in good numbers and they are great sport on light tackle and greater chewing. Soft vibes and small curly tail or prawn imitation soft plastics heavily weighted to keep them tight to the bottom while worked is key. Try fishing the deeper corners on bends, steeper banks or any gravelly areas easily distinguished.

Get your barra fix while you can before the season closes! Fish are becoming more active with the warmer conditions and good fish are being reported from both the Susan and Mary river

systems. The neap tides are when you should focus the majority of your efforts up river, working likely looking rock bars and snags. The last of the run out tide period is the preferred period to target these fish and can be done working deep diving suspending hardbodies and vibes. Quality electronics have made life easy with the ability to side scan a large area very quickly with it near impossible for the barra to hide.

On the first of the run in tide, opt to fish the shallow banks and flats with shallow running hardbodies and soft plastics as they move up to feed. Fish the back eddies as these are prime fish holding areas where you can often find good numbers of barra schooled up trying to exert minimal energy as they sit and wait on their prey to come past.

Threadfin salmon should be quite easily located in big numbers during this same period and the live bait fisho’s often score the best results using herring, mullet or prawn if you can get them. Alternatively you can opt to search for them on your sounder, cast soft vibes and work them through the schools with great results.

Fish relatively light drags on these fish so as not to pull hooks easily and, if wishing to release them, try to minimize handling and time spent out of the water.

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bloodworms and yabbies have been the preferred baits of choice, lightly weighted.

The town’s beaches have been producing for land-based anglers chasing a feed of whiting with good numbers of fish coming from the rock groins, Urangan Pier and southern wall of the harbour. Once again the night time high tide has been producing the better quality fish. The odd flathead has been caught as by-catch and over the next month a few grunter may start to show up.

The Urangan Pier can fish hot and cold this time of year with small windows of opportunity for 2-3 days and then nothing again.

Be prepared for when it fires as the fishing can be insanely good for Spanish mackerel, school mackerel, bonito, queenfish and golden trevally. Freshly caught live herring are always going to be the best bait option and can be fished a number of ways, from under a balloon, to free swimming or set as a bottom bait depending on the species you’re targeting.

Alternatively get yourself a Flasha spoon and start spinning from the very end of the pier. The GTs should have rocked up and will grow in numbers out the end, these fish can make quick work of even the heaviest of tackle. Close quarter fishing targeting 20-30kg fish around pylons isn’t easy work and takes some skill and a little bit of luck to go your way to land one.

Jacks are becoming increasingly active with the warming temperatures and are a highly sought-after estuary species. The Burrum River is renowned for producing some of the best numbers in our area, as well as the size and quality of fish.

This is an incredible system consisting of many fishing options including snags, rock bars, deep holes, creek drains, floating pontoons and

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at 3-4m at 4-5 knots is a very effective technique that catches many trout. Trolling slower will account for species such as cod, sweetlip and juvenile snapper.

School mackerel are pretty well wide spread throughout the southern bay from Burrum Heads back to Urangan and the main shipping channel towards the Island. Popular locations, such as Burrum 8 mile, NU2 beacon, bait grounds and Roy Rufus artificial wrecks should produce fish, if the bait is present. Drifting a pilchard or live herring is a very successful technique, as is spinning a metal Flasha spoon.

Flats fishers will be in heaven over the coming months provided the dreaded northerly winds don’t dirty the water. Consistent reports of goldens, diamonds, queenfish, GT and permit have come in over the last month and brings an air of excitement for the potential of this season, provided the netters don’t get in there and ruin its potential. Flats to the south of Moon Point will be worth prospecting, as too will areas of the Straits as there is some awesome country to explore down there that is often less pressured by boat traffic. Focus on areas that give easy channelling for the fish to move up onto the flats to feed but also exit the flats.

This should help pinpoint more likely locations to start.

While we are on the topic of flats, these same areas have been producing some delectable summer whiting and in great numbers over the moons, particularly around the larger evening tide, as this is when you will encounter the larger ‘elbow slappers’. Throughout the day, efforts would be best focused around the mouth and into the smaller creeks on the western side of Fraser from as far north as Wathumba Creek. Fresh

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Central

OLD

Last chance for live baiting well fishing the rubble patches really early in the morning a couple of miles off the coast.

Most of the fish have been caught on strip baits.

I tend to use a stinger rig for this, because it lets the bait move better than when it’s presented on a gang. It takes a bit of practice to use a stinger rig properly, however.

You’re running your hooks a bit closer than on a gang – they’re only a centimetre from the bottom of one hook to the eye of the next. I like to run the hooks with one hook point on both sides of the bait. If you’re new to this, you might pull up your stinger rig and find that your bait has turned into a U shape, which the fish don’t like. After a few tries

you’ll get better. the big females as we need If this all sounds a bit them to protect the fishery. hard, you can use ganged live If you’re after some flatties, bait style hooks with swivels head for the banks at the While fishing offshore over in between, which is almost as river mouth. If you can find the last month we have good as a stinger. little eddies, focus on those caught very few medium River fishing still seen just before and after the tide size fish; the only ones we’ve plenty of blue salmon about change. I like to use a running been catching have been for anglers throwing soft sinker down to a whole sprat, large or extra-large. The vibes. The sand whiting began and slowly retrieve it to entice average sizes per species are showing up in September, the flatties.

4kg for tuskfish, 5kg grass which is when we get most Any worm tail plastic emperor, 10kg gold-spot of the bigger fish, but you will work too, and 3” is a cod and 10kg red emperor. can still get good whiting good size. When you’re lure Almost all of these fish have in October over the flats on fishing for flathead, remember The red emperor have been big lately, and been caught on squid or live this one tipped the scales at 15kg and an incoming tide on beach to pause. If you don’t pause yellowtail scad. measured approximately 1m long. worms and yabbies. The most you’ll rarely get strikes. That’s The fishing inshore has exciting way to catch them the biggest secret with flatties. been good too. Ever since the though is casting surface lures Jacks will become more water. Most are in the 6-7kg tell the difference between that snapper closure ended, plenty over the flats. If you’re in a active in the river this month range, and they pull like and a grassy. of people have been bagging OCTOBER FISHING boat, flick towards the shore. as the water warms, although freight trains, especially on out on snapper, with many If you’re land-based, wade the fishing will be better if you pretty light gear. They make Spanish mackerel will fish going 5kg+. You can do back towards the bank on wait until late spring/summer. excellent sashimi. Mixed start to ramp up this month an incoming tide. There’s a True, dedicated jack fishers in with them are plenty of as the water temp reaches range of lures that will do the have been catching them all turrum to 10kg. around 22°C. If you’re fishing job, but my favourite is the through winter, but these fish Spanish mackerel are inshore within the first 15 60mm Atomic K9 Walker in definitely love hot water and few and far between but miles of Bundy, you’ll find the light orange colour, which will fire up more in the heat they’re very big – one of the that baits work much better imitates a yabby. of summer.

Spaniards we got on a recent than lures. You can drift or There are big numbers of If you’re fishing the reefs trip went 23kg. Trolling live troll livies, or float out dead daytime temperatures will big and flathead run red-hot right YAMBA in the riverthrough at the this month, remember that baits around the bait schools is baits. Out further where the still be great, and the fishing moment, until June.put please don’t keep it’s the last chance to catch a good way to target them, or water is clearer, lures come Dave should be fantastic.

You won’t need to travel Gaden into their own.

Around our waters, March far to start catching them either, All the reef species fire Autumn has arrived as far is the first real hot month for as some of the best grounds at this time of year, and the as the calendar is concerned, the mackerel, both spotted are also the closest. To the smaller fish will come out but on the water in our part and Spanish, to appear in north, the obvious choice is again in October/November, of the world you may not good numbers. The last Shark Bay/Woody Head. This with good numbers of platesee any real change. Water couple of years have seen the sheltered and shallow bay is size fish coming back on temperatures will still be up, mackerel turn up in March a magnet for these fish, with the bite. And if last year is large bait shoals everywhere, anything to go by, October/ and in the calmer water you November is when we’ll should find it easy to find the AN UR get a good run of big red ND MO KE LA NG CHARTERS ON fish. It helps that there will emperor. There should be GUIDELINES FISHI AN UR ND MO E probably be 20 other boats out HING INFO VISIT LAK plenty of snapper around this OK FOR UP TO DATE FIS EBO G CHARTERS ON FAC there catching them for you to month too.

GUIEDLINES FISHIN work out where they are!

In the rivers it’s a great NO I recommend trolling pink time to chase whiting and LICENCE squids at first light for the flatties. Mud crabs will start REQUIRED first hour, then find a good to move around again at the patch and either drift or anchor end of October and the start while floating pillies out the of November, and hopefully back in your berley trail. we’ll get some rain by then Heading south, the first which will stir them up.

Curtis (14yo) from Wollongong with his first mulloway. patch of reef just past Angourie If we get a decent amount LUXURY 13.6M LONG in about 30m of water will be of rain early, the barra will • Hot water • Sleeps 8, licensed for 10 a good place to start. There is come on sooner, otherwise we • SelfThere contained • DVD BBQ • Fridge/freezer should be player plenty•of Spanish and a lot of good trolling ground Megan came north to catch tropical reef species, have to wait for the water to spotted mackerel around this month. down here. Troll from the but brought the snapper instead! get warm enough. It should be 07 4157 3881 or email info@lakem.com.au pretty good towards the end yellowtail scad for live bait. you can float out a pilly while of October. Jacks love water Get in and enjoy it while you you’re targeting bottom fish. above 25°C, which probably can because it’s a long wait If your main fishing goal won’t happen this month. If it until April when they come is to catch big arm-stretching does, jacks are a good target on back. On a recent trip we did fish, trevally will always play surface lures cast to structure, we got eight reef fish over the game. The speckled ones while most of the barra will 8kg on live yellowtail. Gold- that we call tealeaf trevally come from lower down. spot cod in particular can’t are actually gorgeous to eat if • Truansea Charters specialise help themselves when they they’re brain spiked and bled. in 10-hour day trips chasing spot a scad.

Unlike some other trevally prized reef targets such as A bit of advice for using species, tealeaf trevally have coral trout and red emperor, as VARIOUS FISH & SKI THIS BOAT live baits is this: the bigger the white, soft flesh that doesn’t well as arm-stretching pelagics YEARS N OA T B IE R MODELS AVAILABLE E NOW FOR SALE better. If you get a scad that’s taste fishy at all. like Spanish mackerel. The UILDI NG EXP ridiculously big and you think Another underrated table maximum number of anglers is it won’t catch anything, think fish is painted sweetlip (slatey 6, so you’ll never feel crowded. again! It will get more bites bream), as long as you prepare The price is $300pp (or $275 than a pilchard-sized one. it correctly. You should pp if you book the whole When I rig them I put dispatch it with a brain spike boat), which includes all gear, a single 8/0 live bait hook to stop the build up of lactic fuel, bait, ice, chilled water/ through the bottom of the acid in the flesh, and then soft drinks and laughs! You’re Tommy with a nice snapper from the southern reef. mouth and up through the bleed it. Up on the shoulder welcome to bring your own nose. This holds the mouth there’s a bit of darker meat, reef fishing gear if you prefer. edge of the reef to Freeburn bottom while you are float Heading out to the FAD will shut, and when you strike you and you need to cut that off Other charter options include Rock (the bommie) and back baiting the mackerel, as there find you plenty of those pretty pull up on the hook and get a and keep only the white flesh. half-day reef trips, half day for the first two hours to find are good snapper on these jumping fish, the mahimahi. better hook-up rate.

One of these days I’ll make river trips and private guiding. where they are and, as with reefs in March.

This month usually produces Interestingly, there are a YouTube video showing To find out more visit www.

When you have had our biggest specimens, with the north ground, float bait heaps of amberjack around at people how to prepare a truansea.com.au, or you can CALL JOHN BRIDER for them after. Be sure to have your fill of the mackerel, the some pushing the 10kg mark. the moment, taking live baits painted sweetlip. I promise Like them on Facebook or call MADE IN BRISBANE a couple of lines out on the options this month are endless. They really are the ‘sport 0418841388 inshore in less than 20m of you, you won’t be able to Luke on 0423 015 490.

BUNDABERG

Luke Truant

Seas are still warm and the fishing is still hot

CATCH A METRE +

BARRA!

AWESOME HOUSEBOAT

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26

OCTOBER 2020

OLD

Central

October delivers hot fishing MACKAY

Keith Day habdays@bigpond.net.au

Hot, hot, hot is the only way to describe Mackay weather in October and the fishing is just the same, and it doesn’t matter if you are chasing fish in saltwater or freshwater – either area will be sensational!

Barra will be the main target as anglers look to get in before the saltwater closure at month’s end, and all the usual

is a good spot to try as the tide makes and covers the area. Soft plastics, including 150-200mm paddle-tails have a strong following, as do the Zerek soft vibes. The local tackle shop staff know the ‘hot’ lures, so talk to them for the latest news.

Our mangrove creek/ estuary systems are firing with barra in the 60-90cm range being caught. Check out places like Reliance, Constant and Landing creeks and look for spots with some deeper water at low tide,

way to work the creeks. An electric is almost essential, for the lure/fly angler.

Barra bashing in the mangroves can result in plenty of other species, particularly if you downsize your lures/ flies. During October expect to score by-catch like king threadfin, jacks, cod, flathead, pikey bream, golden snapper, grunter and the occasional small trevally and queenfish. Not a bad spread of by-catch species!

Live bait anglers can also run into any of these species when chasing barra, but preference is to use smaller gape hooks if pikeys are being targeted. Strip baits or fresh dead prawns will score these fish at times, but live and fresh is best.

The run of small macks and various tuna species will continue through October.

The best days are those with hot northerly winds, which usually don’t rough things up until lunchtime. So this is ideal to get out early, have some fun, catch a feed or 2 and be home washing the boat by lunch. The shore angler can tangle with these pelagic

our dams and the Pioneer river are all firing with big barra on the chew. The FADS installed in Kinchant Dam continue to produce solid barra and these spots are available to anyone with a boat and GPS/sounder.

The co-ordinates for each one can be downloaded from DAF or the Mackay Regional Council website and they are also displayed at the boat ramp. This is a great initiative to assist anglers. In Kinchant Dam, I prefer to cast lures and flies in and around the weed edges and around any weed ‘islands’ just out from the main body of weed. Look for water around 5-6m deep in these areas.

In Teemburra and Eungella dams, the barra can congregate on the points, particularly those with some lay-down logs or old stumps.

Generally these spots are in the more open waters of the main basin but there will be plenty of barra in the timber as well. Landing them in the timbered areas is another ball game altogether but sneaking around luring the timbered bays on the electric is my preferred way, but anglers

Spring/summer brings some magic flat seas and the opportunity to catch great reef fish like this magnificent trout caught by Hayden Bird. will get more barra in the open areas of the dams.

As always, weed beds and lilies are a great place to start chasing barra in any dam. If there are what I call ‘fish lanes’ running through the weeds or channels between the main beds

As the tide drops off the banks, you can catch salty barra like this beauty lured up

by Callum Ewart in the deeper water. spots have been firing during September.

Near Mackay City, the highway bridges area rocks have been producing solid fish on lures and live baits.

The rocks upstream and downstream are local hot spots, but only the upstream ones are accessible from the bank. When lure fishing around the rocks, using weedless paddle or curly tail soft plastics will lessen the lure losses. Weedless vibes like Reidy’s and Zerek also work well and they can be worked super slowly and give the barra plenty of time to find the lure. The water here is generally clean so ‘natural’ baitfish colours work well.

By-catch around the rocks include jacks, trevally and queenfish.

Barra can be caught from the fishing platform near the Hospital and also right up near the top of the tidal influence. Some persist in fishing in the no go zone at the base of Dumbleton Weir but the patrol are keeping a watch on this.

Down towards the V is always a good spot, as are the small run throughs on the trainer walls. The barra can also be found feeding on the sand flats, which abound near the mouth. Any bit of isolated rock or rubble out on the sand

as the barra move from the shallow areas into the deep water as the tide drops. You may have to strand the boat for an hour or 2 but if it’s filled with barra the time flies. When the tide flows into these areas, can see the barra go nuts.

The NFZ around Seaforth has been hot for barra through September and this should continue during October. The mainland creeks in the NFZ are all firing and plenty of barra have also been scored in Rabbit Island Creek but watch the tides or you could get caught.

Live baits have accounted for most barra but plenty have also been caught on lures, both hard and soft bodies and flies. For the adventurous, surface lures will not catch as many barra but the surface take is awesome and both conventional poppers and walk-the-dog style lures work.

To the south, plenty of barra are coming from the Cape Palmerston National Park, Rocky Dam Creek and the Sarina inlet area. The last two have good concrete ramps but in the Park area you ‘make do’. A quality side scan sounder is a big help, letting you spot fish from some distance and not disturb them. Spot them, then sneak back on an electric is a good

A barra by-catch for Chris Ahmat who scored this lovely king threadie while live baiting along the bank in the background. It was a welcome addition to the esky.

and outer beds give them a thorough going over, as barra just love them as they usually have good supplies of bait species in them.

While barra are the main target in the fresh, my old favourite the sooty grunter will also be out and on the prowl. Sooties love cover and heavy snags in the river or the dams will usually have a sooty or two in residence.

Sooties can also be found out in the open areas particularly around old creek beds or gullies, which show up well on modern sounders.

We used to fish these areas way back when with Rattlin Spots and similar lures, but now vibes, plastic rigged jigheads, and ice jigs seem to be the most popular lures in the deep.

So that’s a roundup of what Mackay has to offer during October. Yes, it will be hot but the fishing in paradise is well worth it, so why not come up and give it a go? See you at the ramp.

from the southern breakwall of the harbour, and it’s easy to see when they are ‘on’ as the wall gets very popular. Many big Spanish and long tail tuna have been hooked and landed from the breakwater wall.

Shinies, big hardbodies and pillies on ganged rigs will all work from the wall.

Well offshore, the reef fishing has been good with plenty of nannygai, reddies, red throat and trout being caught. To fish these areas keep a really good eye on the weather and you need a good size trailer boat as you can easily look at a 100 plus nautical mile trip for the day. More anglers are experimenting with lures in the deep, with big jigs, and huge plastics continuing to score really good fish and sometimes even out fishing bait. Check with the local tackle shops for advice.

On the freshwater scene, OCTOBER 2020

27

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I was on the interwebs the other day looking at fishing sites. I know, I know, it can be an exercise in stupidity because there’s always a captain’s anchor in every group whose sole aim in life is to abuse every man woman and dog available.

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falling into the boat, putting hooks into your hands or into your face or into other anatomical parts that should never be uncovered during a boat trip. The sort of run of the mill mishaps that I would call ‘C grade’ stunts.

No great mistakes required.

No real effort.

Occasionally posters were detailing more inventive stuff ups I would call ‘B grade’ stunts. These require a little more stupidity and commitment to your craft. The Dudds are well versed in these types of situations, mainly through

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but the wind got up and the houseboat pulled the dead gum tree onto the houseboat, breaking off bits of fibreglass and rigging, and leaving a log of considerable weight hanging off an expensive rope, threatening to pull the railings off the boat and down 20m to the bottom.

I read this with wonder.

This was definitely no garden variety, mediocre massacre… this was a masterclass in how-not-to worthy of the Dudds. Fascinated, I read on, open mouthed as the writer described how they had dived down to untie the log from the

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ECHUCA MELBOURNE EADES XTREME MARINE THE MARINE SHOP 24 Sturt Street Echuca 6 Holland Drive Melton (03) 5482were 2333 watching me through P: These P: posters the(03) rope, nearly drowning but 9747 0588 determined F:to(03) outline the course of many Dudds trips. the rope. Who were 5482 2133 F: (03) saving 9747 3999 less than smart they’d I refer here to boats into trees, these dedicated followers of W: things xtrememarine.net.au W: themarineshop.com.au done, and the poor choices props into rocks, knives into friction, these multifaceted they’d madeBRAESIDE while fishing legs, fractured bones from carnage masters, worthy MELBOURNE and boating. After reading falling over strategically of occupying the highest JV MARINE WORLD TRIPLElevels M MARINE for a few minutes one thing placed tackle boxes, falling of mishap and Springvale Braeside became very878 clear to me Road – into fires, snapping expensive mayhem.Drive As Thomastown I absorbed the 117 Northgate these people P: were the faintest string (03)amateurs.

9798 8883 rods, T-boning other boats...

P: (03) details, 9465 8787 There were of memory tugged at the F: (03)the 9798usual 7554 stuff like that. Needs some F: (03) 9466 1418 average stuff ups outlined; imagination, and some real edge of my consciousness.

W: jvmarine.com.au the type of miscalculations dedication to Dudd life. W: triplemmarine.com.au The houseboat, the tree, the that me and the Dudds Then one post caught my railing...I checked the name were doing way back eye. This was no conventional at the bottom of the post. when without even trying. disaster. This was class. This Yep, it was me. An old post Amateur stuff ups – leaving was ‘A grade’. Old mate from years before. I breathed the bungs out, leaving the detailed how he’d tied his out gently. Good to know bungs in, falling out of the rented houseboat up to a dead I was still in a class of my boat, jumping out of the tree in Awoonga to stop it own, isolated and alone on boat, jumping into the boat, blowing onto the rocky bank, the pinnacles of disaster.

OCTOBER 2020

31

OLD

Mixed bags with a little bit of everything WHITSUNDAYS

Mick Underwood

What a mixed up month it’s been? Everything began awesome with a nice long spell of calm sunny days and most species of fish were biting eagerly. It was happy days and then bang! We got slapped by the first decent northwester of the year shutting the whole show down for a couple of days.

As is normal, the first northwester each year catches a few yachties out and the shorelines around Airlie Beach are now sporting a few wrecks that have been unceremoniously dumped there. As the northwester abated, the winds came back to the southeast and blew its head off severely limiting where we could fish and

fishing has been reasonably successful. We’ve been able to fool a few coral trout and gold spot cod with fresh baits and soft plastics and for a week or so there we got to enjoy a mad bite from some monster golden trevally and XOS queenfish. As is quite often the case, when these fish are around it’s been trolling small to medium sized hardbodies that brought the majority of these fish unstuck. I was lucky enough for a few days when targeting big goldies that I had to drive away from them and leave them biting because the clientele on board couldn’t catch another fish. That’s not something that happens all the time, but it sure is pretty cool when when it does.

One species that we haven’t seen much of this month has been the mighty Spanish mackerel. They have

Jordan has just moved to Dingo Beach and he got one heck of an introduction to the local sport fishing scene when he caught this line burner on 10lb line on his first trip. the standout point is that there is no consistency with regard to just one species of fish or technique used. October is a mixed bag with a little

drifting across a flat. Easier to catch species, such as giant herring and golden trevally will be present on the flats this month as will other more challenging species, such as permit and blueys (black spot tusk fish).

Permit are globally considered as one of the most frustrating and challenging fish that there are to be caught.

If you’re up for the challenge, make sure that you make your way out to Hydeaway Bay as October is typically the month of the year when I sight the biggest numbers of these fish on the flats.

The shallow fringing reefs straight out from Dingo Breach and Hydeaway Bay should get plenty of attention

tough in these areas this year, but the pelagic fishing has been nice and consistent and the way that the stage is set up out there at the moment, I think this trend will continue.

Species such as mac and longtail tuna are getting more active, there should be a few Spanish mackerel still around and some juvenile black marlin have already started to make an appearance.

The spotty mackerel run is a bit of a lucky dip on my local grounds each year.

They have been catching the heck out of them off Bowen

A nice gold spot cod snared by John Denetzen. recently so I am hoping that we will get our chance here at Hydeaway Bay as well.

If we do, then October is normally the month that we get amongst them.

One of Kaylan’s golden trevally. These fish had one thing in common this month, they were all huge. what species we could target.

Thankfully as I am writing this it looks like we’re in for a nice spell of calm conditions again and the fish will be in plenty of trouble as there are piles of local anglers chafing

been out there but not many have come to hand, mainly because we just haven’t been able to get at them. They will start to migrate south now but I hope that we will still get the chance to nail a few more

Everyone loves a trout and this one helped to make Bill’s day. at the bit to get out there and amongst them.

Due to the weather, the last few weeks I have fished mostly on the inshore grounds and have been targeting a mixture of inshore pelagics and shallow water reef species and for the most of it the 32

OCTOBER 2020

before they all disappear.

OCTOBER On with October now and what piscatorial delights that we will hopefully encounter over the coming weeks.

When I look back through my photographic records for October for the last few years,

bit of everything going on everywhere.

I’ll start right inshore and up in the creeks and as the water temps are now climbing significantly there will be plenty on offer in these areas.

Our local barramundi and mangrove jack population are springing to life with the warming water and it will be prime time to get after a couple of barramundi in particular before they become off limits at the end of the month. Due to commercial fishing pressure our local estuaries at Hydeaway Bay aren’t yielding the numbers of fish that we would all like but up around Bowen and to the south of Airlie Beach the estuaries in these areas seem to support better concentrations of these fish.

October is prime time to get on the flats and indulge in a bit of sight fishing. Due to its inherent challenges this style of fishing is not everyone’s cup of tea but for those of us who do get into it, it’s highly addictive and the days just never seem to be long enough when you’re

Spanish mackerel have been hard to get at this month but there have been a few about when the right opportunities arose. from local anglers this month and coral trout will be the species at the top of most people’s wish list. These fish have bit fairly well through most of winter and now that it is coming into prime time for them, I expect that there will be some beauties caught.

If you’re after a trout or two this month try and get out in the mornings as that’s when the best bite will be. Once the northeast sea breeze chimes in for the afternoon each day, these fish tend to clam up a bit, especially the bigger ones.

Out around the outer edges of the islands and there should be a few quality angling options to be enjoyed here as well. The deeper reef fishing has been unusually

the pesky northerlies will stay away. Out in the shipping lanes on the shoals, quality table fish such as nannygai and red emperor are always the number one target species.

During October there can also be some sensational pelagic fishing to be enjoyed but most anglers tend to ignore it, as they can only think of one colour, red. If you’re an avid shoals angler and you happen to be enduring a day out there when the bite is not at its best or the sharks are spoiling the show, try switching to either jigging or

OFFSHORE FISHING As always, the amount of offshore fishing that will be going on will be dictated to us by the weather, hopefully

trolling for pelagics. You’ll be amazed at how much fun and how effective it is and you’ll more than likely wind up saving the day. A big Spanish mackerel may not look like a red emperor but I’ve yet to come across an angler who doesn’t like catching them.

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Ben Perrot with just one of a crazy amount of these guys that were caught this month.

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White-knuckle jack encounters TOWNSVILLE

Dave Hodge

As the next phase of the seasonal changes comes around, it’s exciting to imagine what might be on the chew around the Townsville region.

For the offshore anglers,

As soon as the bonito nicked off, it was back to wolf herring and big 5-spot gar again, which are responsible for some terrific captures every year.

If you’re after trophy sized monsters, rather than 10-15kg eating-size fish, you could try Johnny Mitchell’s approach. I

Pink has long been regarded as ‘the’ colour for flatties. They certainly do attack this colour with gusto, but they will take other colours too. it’s been a bumper season out on the reefs, and the mackerel haven’t moved on, with some big fish and good numbers being taken.

August saw massive schools of Watson’s leaping bonito schooling up around the Island and Cape, and smart anglers made the best of the opportunity and stocked up on these troll baits while they were around. Catching these little speedsters is fun on its own when using light line casting 20g metal slices such as Halco Twisties or Outcasts. Rigged on a chin guard, bonito were key to success for many an angler.

fished with him quite a few years ago, and his go-to technique was to swim as big a doggie mackerel as he could catch on a 100lb popper rod, working the big baits in just the same way you would a stickbait.

If you like to focus more on bottom species, you can do what I do and just chuck a Laser Pro 190 out the back and troll it at around 6 knots while keeping your eyes glued to the sounder. I mark anything on the bottom that I can drop a plastic or jig on.

We’ve had exceptional water clarity this year during winter, and the

flathead fishing in and around the creeks has been incredibly productive. If you found a funnel situation around a drain mouth or river mouth, you’d almost certainly nail a few of them on smaller hardbodies and plastics. Lure colour isn’t as important when the water is as clear as it has been. And flatties, being hungry gutted buggers, will generally have a crack if the presentation is bumping the bottom, and slow enough for them to eat without having to chase it too fast.

Northern populations of flatties aren’t renowned for being exceptionally big in comparison to Southern Queensland and Northern NSW, but we did have a monster follow a lure to the boat the other day that would have rivalled anything you’re likely to see down south. It chased my son’s lure right to the boat, but spooked at the last second. It had a head like a shovel, and goes to show that there are some truly big ones around, if you’re lucky.

Now to our favourite style of fishing: casting the snags for barra and jacks.

Jack fishing in particular is very exciting, and they have been a lot of fun in recent weeks. We love those brief but intense whiteknuckled encounters that are essentially over in a few seconds, and your reflexes will determine whether you’re going to win or lose the fight. If the jack gets its head turned tight in cover – even a small 35cm fish – it can stitch you up in no time. Over the last few months we’ve had some very productive days on the jacks, with an average of around 15 jacks being landed in a session.

The key to our success has been targeting more specific areas at various

stages of the tide. During the last of the run-out, we focus our efforts on small drains and shallow snags.

Those green mangrove roots and suspending branches are prime for lightly weighted weedless plastics and shallow diving suspending lures. Of course, 4-5” Atomic Prongs or Halco Paddle Prawns are still the go for us, and only in the coldest of water temps did the smaller profiles make a noticeable difference this year.

One more aspect of ‘fine tuning’ our presentations has been when the fish have been sitting close to the surface or deeper in the tighter cover, and potentially more easily spooked. Hook weights have been a big part of our focus, and even the relatively small variation in the weights of the weedless Atomic Seeker made a big difference some days. Even with a fine tuned casting thumb, the 1/3oz heads can only be landed so gently, and when the jacks are a bit shy it can spook them.

The 1/4oz has been the one for when they’re in that bit more shy mood, and actually skip with much less speed and energy required to maintain momentum

Tannhym Hodge shares his father’s obsession with jacks. effective than when the water temps were below 20°C. Aggression levels rise with the water temperature, and jacks will more readily attack a 80-120mm sized lure, which is another visually spectacular pursuit.

Slowly floating hardbodies can often be used to ‘tease’ the jacks and barra out from deep in structure and leaves

Unitika Harisu is about the best I’ve found, while the Bassdays definitely get a better response when fished on the same length of 20lb.

Seeing as the only tactic to use on the jacks is ‘stand and deliver’, rod choice becomes quite important as well. Slightly longer 6’6” high modulus rods give you that crisp tip for making

Sun-up is not only a serene time to be on the water, but is often very productive when it coincides with a run-in tide.

On lighter tackle in tight cover, barra are great fun. This one ate a 5” Paddle Prawn meant for a jack, but who’s complaining?

during the skipping process.

This all comes down to a less aggressive presentation, and can be the difference between success and failure on some trips, particularly when the water is as clear as it has been.

Now I know that a 50cm jack doesn’t turn too many heads in the more southern parts of the state, but if manage to stop on up here it’s an exceptional capture. It’s a well known up here that a 50cm jack is something you just don’t see landed too often when lure casting.

This month, hardbodied lures are going to be more

of drowned mangroves.

If I had to pick just two hardbodies to cover the lighter line tackle approach that we use for snag bashing, it wouldn’t be too hard. With quite different actions, the Tilsan Barra and Bassday Sugar-Deep would be the winners every time. If I had to fine tune it even further, it would be the Tilly for chasing bigger models and the Sugar Deep for numbers.

Both would be fished on 20lb braid, but the leaders vary, with the general rule being the smaller the lure, the lighter the leader. For the Tillys, 2m of 30lb

the lures come to life when worked amongst structure, and enough hook setting power and ‘balls’ to drag most of them out once the deception is complete.

Rod ratings are a personal thing, but I like the various models of Samurai rods for their ease of casting, and fast tapered blanks which help me drag out fish from seemingly impossible territory sometimes.

Anyway, it’s that time of year when you can get ready to probably lose a few lures to these toothy creek-dwellers, and make some memorable captures, so good luck in the hunt!

OCTOBER 2020

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Make the most of the countdown HINCHINBROOK

Ian Moody info@ianmoodyfishing.com

Getting into the business end of the barra season now with not much longer to go – closure begins at midnight October 31.

We had our first taste of the warmer weather right at the end of August, with 25ºC water temps in the morning.

Most of my usual haunts had quickly populated with good

numbers of big barra and right on cue. Clients have started to enjoy good captures of fish ranging from 72cm up to my biggest for the year at 107cm. Not to mention we had two more close calls on metre-plus barra that we could not seal the deal on.

Both live baiting and handcasting hardbodies have been doing the job nicely.

However, around the beginning of September a long lasting southeast trade wind developed which

blasted us with cool winds and showers, therefore dropping the water temperature dramatically once again. It can be frustrating to finally see that glimpse of red hot big fish action only to get push backed again thanks to the weather.

The weather forecasters have been warning us of a big La Niña weather pattern this year, which we will see longer and stronger wind cycles, more rain and cyclones. I guess we will

Make the most of the end of season barra.

There are still plenty about like this 87cm specimen.

New

find out how accurate they will be. One thing that I’ve always noticed growing up in the far north is that years of colder winters have bigger wet/cyclone seasons that follow them. I think we are really due for a big one as I’ve never seen so many areas in the mouths of rivers and creeks so badly silted up in my life. In some places I’m seeing mangrove forests reclaiming areas I’ve never seen before in my life, areas where I once used to catch fish are now almost high and dry and full of metre high mangroves.

This month I anticipate that the water temperatures will increase more but it’s going to be erratic with the windy weather patterns.

Making the most of areas in the early morning before the wind jumps up will be a factor I’ll be using a lot during October. Some areas I love to fish for barra up at Hinchinbrook love that south-to-southeast wind flow but if it gets too much easterly in it, it shuts them down and narrows my options for the larger fish.

Keeping an eye out for those surface feeding boofs is where I’m always focused on during the day, as quite

Brad Hill with a 107cm barra he caught near the rocky headland not far from the boat. often if you cast your lure close to the same area where one occurred there is a high chance there is a barra still very close to the spot. This was exactly the case for the 107cm we caught very recently on charter for angler Bradley Hill. Upon seeing a massive ‘boof’ on a rocky headland not far from the boat, I quickly motored up closer to the spot on the electric and within six casts she took the lure.

October also sees the tide patterns increase in size, which I find makes for more enjoyable lure fishing scenarios. I much prefer the larger tides at Hinchy as quite often it helps us interact with the larger fish travelling out on the flats a lot more.

• If you’re looking to try your luck at ticking that metre-plus barramundi off your bucket list, it is best to get in and book early for 2021 as the good tides often get snapped up by my regular clients.

February, March, April and May are also prime times for Large Barra. We are now operating charters for up to three clients abiding by social distancing laws.

Gift vouchers can also be purchased if your looking for birthday or Christmas gifts.

You can email us at info@ ianmoodysportfishing.com or phone us on 0402 339 459. Barra season closes midnight October 31, so get in early to secure a booking for this year or even for the 2021 season.

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Red hot fishing to be expected CAIRNS

Dan Kaggelis dkaggelis@gmail.com

There has never been a better time of year to be fishing the Cairns Net Free Zone so get your fishing rod and get up here fast!

With warmer days comes warmer water temperatures and this spells the wake up call for many target species in the Net Free Zone.

Barramundi have already started biting consistently in all systems with some huge fish coming out of the Trinity Inlet. If you are targeting these larger fish, you want to be fishing the deeper bends of the inlet or the mouths of some of the creeks on the run-out tide.

The NFZ is on fire, so get up here.

Jacks are chewing hard on small paddle-tail plastics. work better. In cleaner water, I prefer green colours.

Speaking of jacks, these red devils are also firing up in a big way. With clean water around, they are smashing lures all over the place. It is best to target

jacks over the incoming tide, especially if you are luring snags and structures. Jacks will be close to structure so a weedless soft plastic fished as tight to structure is your best bet. I have been having the most success using the Molix RT Shads in 3” fished over a 1/4oz weedless rig.

Just pitch them into the snags and then employ a slow roll retrieve back to the boat. You will come up tight, usually in the first metre, so be ready to thumb that drag and get them away from structure.

Golden snapper have also been biting well in the NFZ,

especially the Inlet. Those anglers fishing the wrecks and rocky shoaly bottoms out the front of Hemmingway’s Brewery with fresh herring baits have been finding fish up to 80cm. You can also target these fish using soft plastics as well. It is best to fish these spots on the neap tides as they are in the channels and therefore have lots of current.

The Cairns Recreational Fishing Group will be launching their Net Free Zone Facebook Page shortly with some awesome competitions for those who like our page – so stay tuned for its release.

Having a quality side imaging sounder will help you find those fish.

Live bait is always a good idea but large vibes and prawn style imitations are also producing the goods in these areas.

If the weather is reasonable the headlands along the beaches are holding some big fish, but they are a little harder to target as they move up and down the coast.

There have been plenty of

smaller barra on the chew as well, with all systems right along the NFZ, which are promising signs of good recruitment and stocking.

These smaller fish can be targeted by casting at snags along the banks of creeks.

To specifically target barra in these snags, it is essential that you use suspending hardbodied minnows, such

as the Jackall Squirrel or Lucky Craft Pointer. These lures allow you to swim them down to a depth then leave them suspending mid water. You can then twitch them slowly. This gives the barra time to see the lure, stalk it then bite. Unlike jacks, they often need a little more time to make up their mind so these styles of lures

When the weather is being generous the headlands are producing some good barra.

OCTOBER 2020

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Peak period for marlin PORT DOUGLAS

Lynton Heffer www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

This next month or so is undoubtedly the best time of year to fish the tropics, no matter your style. The rivers and estuaries will again return to producing a lot of different species, the reef will continue to fire and the game fishing scene is on the cusp of some big results.

In recent times we’ve seen water temperatures gradually increase, which is a bonus for our rivers and creeks. We’ve seen the barra being far more receptive, the jacks are hitting their straps and the fingermark are in a much better mood. This has been on top of some awesome queenfish and golden trevally, especially on the Daintree

River, which has fished the best in the region over the cooler months.

Generally speaking the next several weeks will see the most stable conditions for fishing our coastal, calm water fishery. Live baiting is always best, lure and soft plastics will see improving results and fresh dead baits always have their place if conditions are slightly off.

On our coastal reefs and outer reefs the fishing remains highly successful with quality numbers of large mouth nannygai and coral trout still dominating. Red emperor have recently come out as a front runner on the outer reef and considered by many as the trump card of any reef fin fish of the Great Barrier Reef.

There’s always others to add to the day’s catch including cobia, Spanish mackerel and

small mouth nannygai, which have performed admirably of late. Currents have been a bit indifferent lately making it a critical decision where to fish and time and experience is a must. It will settle to a more predictable pattern very soon.

The biggest shift has come from the game fishing scene. The small black marlin are on fire inside the main reef, but again you need to know where to fish with the currents. Recently our Saltaire game boat took out the Cairns Bluewater Classic with 14 tagged small black marlin in two days of competing. They experienced 27 strikes, which shows just how red hot this fishing can get.

As we delve deeper into the weeks ahead, focus will turn to the shelf with the anticipated arrival of the

The big marlin are set to return. big black marlin that come in from the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. With less extended charters being run this year due to Covid, it is

going to be a bit harder to gauge when it really kicks into gear. However, we know it will happen soon.

With tourism still up in

the air, it is a matter of sitting and waiting for people to get here. If you can, you’ll be in for a treat whatever you decide to do on the water.

Closed season for successful barra spawning CAPE YORK

Tim O’Reilly wildrivercompany@gmail.com

October is a short season for Gulf-side barramundi in Cape York. From the

7 October until the 31 January, fishing for barra is prohibited and any fish caught must be returned immediately unharmed.

This is to ensure a successful spawning event, which tends to happen around the front

of river systems and shallow coastal areas throughout the Gulf.

Leading up to the closure, fish should start showing up in good numbers around the sandy river mouths on the first few hours of the run-in tide.

Shallow divers and swimming plastics leading the charge and vibes also proving very effective.

Mornings are normally a delight in the Gulf during October and the heat definitely begins to infiltrate as we enter the build-up to the wet season.

But as the land begins to heat up, its drawing effect from the ocean tends to bring light to moderate onshore breezes in the afternoons, especially with an incoming tide.

Over on the East Coast, the barramundi season will be open for another month yet.

This is supposed to coincide with a later spawning season.

The East Coast in general should be firing up with some of the best fishing to be found late spring and early summer.

From inshore reefs all the way to the outer reef zones, warmer waters and gentler winds

A nice golden snapper taken by Last Cast on the shallow reefs off Weipa. which few only a handful of fishers each year are lucky enough to grapple with.

Many species will be pre and post spawning this time of year. The shallow reefs and shoals can fish particularly well, before the sea surface temperatures make conditions

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Little barra start playing up in mid spring. should see the fish firing up.

Early signs of the black marlin heavy tackle season should be evident. Baits will be getting pulled out of freezers and rigged with precision by a dedicated bunch of game fishers. Queenfish, mullet, garfish, small tuna and scaly mackerel will be amongst the trolled baits being presented.

The dream for these folks is forever a ‘grander’ – that elusive 1000lb black marlin

uncomfortably hot for some species later in the year.

Fish such as fingermark, coral trout and nannygai should all be fishing well in relatively shallow water this time of year.

Keep in mind the east coast of Cape York has a coral finfish closure between the 14-18 October.

Once again, this allows successful spawning aggregations of shallow water coral reef species.

All in all, October is a fantastic time of year to fish, with some fantastic (and long awaited) calm weather thrown into the mix. Take extra sun cream, extra cold water and extra ice to keep the esky cool amidst the sweltering midday sun.

A nice cobia caught by a Last Cast client over a gulf reef.

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Great expectations will deliver COOKTOWN

Justin Coventry

You have to love this time of the year – the weather warms up and the constant southeasterly

with large schools of bait, and the mackerel chasing them.

The fishermen throwing out a live herring to entice a strike.

Pike will also be in large numbers and are great bait for chasing barramundi

all be released, as they are the future of the fishery.

Fingers-crossed more make it than not to the closure safely. Recently, we had a tourist who caught a barramundi over a metre from the wharf and then

grounds have filled up with travellers and adventurers.

However, I’ve noticed a decline in the National Park campsites, especially the amount of used toilet paper around them. It really astounds me that people don’t know how to use a shovel and dig a hole.

It’s disgusting how some people treat these beautiful places without respecting it and the people who come after them. Education and expectations of people camping needs to improve for the benefit of all. Sorry I had to mention this, but I thought it needed to be addressed and at least get people talking as I’m sure the situation is national not just here.

Reef fishing is hot at the moment with lots on offer. Nannygai, red emperor, coral trout and large Spanish mackerel have been regularly caught and as the calm days continue then there will be some great fishing days ahead. Trolling for

There are plenty of tasty species on offer at the reefs this month, like this large mouth nannygai Joshua caught. mackerel in between spots can be rewarding and a good way to look for new ground. Keep an eye on the sounder as you never know what might show up. Be ready for the scream of the

reel as a mackerel hits the lure hard and makes a run for it. You have got to love that sound.

Hopefully awesome fishing trips ahead and lots to talk about next month.

As the calm days continue, so will catches of mackerel. winds of winter start to calm. The fishing really heats up as well with opportunities galore.

This is my favourite month, with calm days ahead and reef trips on the cards with mouthwatering seafood on the table for dinner. Even when the winds are up, chasing the barramundi in the receding waterways is exciting as they start to fire up as water temperatures increase, along with their appetites. So much to chose from and great fishing adventures ahead.

The local wharf will also see the action increase

around the wharf. They can be a little hard to catch at times but using a small strip of herring on a unweighted long shank hook usually does the trick, as pike won’t refuse a wiggling strip drifting past them in the tide.

Barramundi start to show up in numbers at this time of the year. Some will be quite large, as they will be the big female showing up looking to breed. November 1 closure will secure their safety but many get caught on the lead up to it. There is always a part of me that hopes the big breeders will

released it back into the waterway. It’s great to see this in action from visitors and was the talk of the town, it sets a great example.

This year has been a strange one with the lockdown aftermath. When the restrictions of travel were lifted, there was an influx of people escaping to the Cape for camping and fishing. Cooktown has had a constant stream of visitors over the last month, as domestic travel is the only option at the moment so people are taking advantage while they can.

The National Park camp

Barra will start to fire up as the water temperatures increase.

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All species are firing up TOOWOOMBA

Jason Ehrlich fishability1@bigpond.com

Last month, the freshwater fishing world lost a true ambassador in a boating accident. I met Trevor Burgess in the early days of my impoundment barra fishing and although quiet when he spoke, I listened.

My earliest memories of him involve him talking about casting lures at individual barramundi he was spotting on his Humminbird side image sounder. This was something we were all trying to do but Trevor

spent so much time mastering it, he was already miles ahead.

Over the years, I fished with Trevor on a few occasions. We both loved to chase barra so it was a good way to have a catch up whether it was in his boat or mine. It wasn’t until I learned of his passing that I realised just how many people he had shared the same experience with over the years. Being a quiet man, you just didn’t hear the stories of his generosity through sharing valuable knowledge with just about anyone who wanted to learn.

We didn’t speak or see each other often but when we

did, you could just pick up where you left off. Fishing can be the greatest passion to share. Forget competitions, sponsorships and anglers trying to outdo one another, as fishing in its simplest form unites. Anyone sharing this common interest should be able to bond and enjoy it together. Age and walks of life are no barrier and Trevor Burgess touched many lives.

His tragic loss is a bitter reminder for us all to stay safe while doing what we love. I feel great sympathy for Trevor’s family and close friends.

Until next month, buckled rods from The Colonel.

Trevor Burgess loved to share what he knew about fishing and loved his barramundi.

His untimely passing was a big shock. He will be missed but forever remembered.

SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND CRESSBROOK CLOSEST TOWN: CROWS NEST Cressbrook Dam continues to produce some quality bass. These fish were still holding deep last month. As the warmer days make the thermocline stronger, the fish will start to move shallower to stay in the more oxygen rich water.

Start searching in 30-35ft (around 10m) of water for the bigger fish. The big models tend to hold closer to the bottom in Scan QR code to see them in action!

this depth. When active they can be seen holding up off the bottom. Directly out from the ramp on the sunken point can be a great spot to start. You can visibly see this point so you will need to sound around and following that 10m contour to locate it. Other points throughout the lake are also holding fish.

Once you spot a few bass, try positioning the boat in deeper water nearby. The fish then tend to leave the bottom and drop offs where they hold

Niki Sticklen knows how to fool the tough Somerset bass. When they are shallower than 10m, the Spectre Vibration Jig is hard to beat.

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and suspend below the boat. Bigger models are less likely to move so you can still fish the shallower water for them and then roll

your lures up through the smaller suspended bass.

Spoons and metal jigs dominated catches last month. The new Raptor jig was deadly on the lakes bigger fish and accounted for most of the 50cm+ models that I saw caught.

The 35-45cm fish will be suckers for smaller spoons and jigs as well as tail spinners and soft plastics.

• For all your fishing supplies and the latest reports on the surrounding dams, call in to see Fish’n’Bits in Alderley Street. They have a great range of lures and fishing gear. The boys can sort you out with the right gear and give you some tips on where to find them. The gates to the boat ramp are now open from 6am to 8pm.

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Archie Richters (5yo) has been using his favourite lure, the Jets Tail Spinner in maggot colour, to catch bass all by himself. His biggest so far is 42cm to the tail fork.

SOMERSET CLOSEST TOWNS: ESK, KILCOY Right at the end of last month, the bass were starting to make a few changes. It has been a tough bite so far this year and they are only chewing well on the odd day. Outside of these times, you will need to work hard to get those big fish bites.

There are three main areas holding fish, as well as some smaller schools.

The Kirkleigh area is holding big numbers of the quality bass. These are the hardest fish to tempt but at 2kg average are worth the effort.

When they are chewing a bit, they can be caught on soft plastics and a range of metal spoons and jigs.

On those tougher days, I find the best way is to cast long and roll a 30g Raptor Jig or 30g Palms Slow Blatt through them. Wind fast enough to keep your lure just off the bottom and drop back to check you are still close to it.

Further down the lake, the fish are a lot easier to catch, especially in the mornings. The Bay of Plenty (around 1km north of The Spit ramp and below the main road) is worth a look. The fish like deeper water here and could be found in 40-55ft of water. Keep in mind this should change sometime this month and once the area is no longer suitable, these fish could move shallower or vacate all together.

There are some quality bass in The Bay of Plenty with fish over 40cm the norm and even a few 50cm models. Spoons and jigs have been great for these fish and if they suspend, trolling or wind drifting with a tail spinner is also a good option. I love to use my side image on these fish and with To page 39

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Golden perch numbers will increase this month. Bass fishers will encounter a few but you can target them by trolling hardbodies. Choose lures that run close to the bottom in the area you are fishing.

In the main dam from Pelican to Kirkleigh, you will score a lot of bass trolling the old riverbed drop off. To specifically target goldens, try working the standing tree areas or the steep rock banks.

• Somerset Fishing has their store based at the area above the day use boat ramp. The store is open over holidays and

otherwise from Thursday to Sunday. Orders can also be made online via the website w w w. s o m e r s e t f i s h i n g . com.au . They have an excellent range of gear suited to fishing for bass and golden perch.

BORUMBA CLOSEST TOWNS: IMBIL, NOOSA The Borumba bass fired up last month. Good numbers were caught on spoons and metal jigs. Bigger baits were producing some of the better quality fish. Lures like the 30g Raptor Jig or Nicholls Flutter spoons are ideal.

Schooling bass can be found around the points and wider flats in around 8-12m of

water in the main basin of the lake. Once you reach The Junction, the fish can be found a bit shallower in the trees. Similar areas are worth looking at. If you can forget the tree structure and concentrate on underwater points and flats, you will be more likely to find the bigger schools.

• Davos at Noosaville has all the gear you’ll need to tackle the fish at Borumba and Lake MacDonald. The store caters well for fresh and saltwater anglers.

They can be found in the Homemaker Centre on the corner of Mary and Thomas Streets.

Swimbaits will be a good way to target the big cod. The Jackall Gantarel and Zerek Live Swimbait are perfect. Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and even trolling hardbodies will start to be more effective too.

When trolling, be sure

to run some smaller lures for golden perch. Medium diving lures or lipless crankbaits are a good option.

Goldens will only get better as the weather warms the water up through spring.

Hopping ZX40 blades or bait fishing with shrimp and

saltwater yabbies will also produce some golden action.

• Access to the water is through the Glenlyon Tourist Park. With the lake level low, boat launching is off of a solid gravel bank.

You can book ahead on (02) 6737 5266 to secure your

powered or unpowered site or even a comfortable cabin.

Brian and Debbie have a great range of lures suited to cod fishing available through the kiosk and rarely miss a report from their guests. Be sure to hit them up for a few tips.

Good numbers of bass are schooling deep in the middle reaches of the lake.

Like other deep schools of bass, these fish will slowly move to shallower water.

At the time of writing, they were holding in 10-14m of water but be prepared to explore as shallow as 8m as well, until you find the best depth. Areas like the Barbers Pole and flats opposite The Junction have

been holding them but you will always need to rely on your sounder to find the schools.

Trolling will account for a few fish but locating the tighter schools and working them with cast

lures is deadly. I have heard some excellent reports of big numbers taken on the Hot Bite Raptor Jig. Smaller spoons and jigs can also do the damage but it seems the bigger profile is getting the bites even from

the smaller fish. It is a new month though and fish can change so be prepared to mix things up and experiment. Blade baits, plastics and tail spinners could also be used on the deeper schooling fish.

fish spots. The two can be caught together but usually it will be a majority of one or the other. The smaller barra are a lot of fun and don’t mind holding together in big schools. Often they are found on timbered points and timbered dropoffs. Suspending hardbodies are ideal for these fish and the morning bite is usually a good one.

The bigger fish can turn up in similar areas but where you find one, expect more. I believe these fish are becoming more nomadic and willing to roam. They hold up over winter but as the temperatures rise, their metabolism kicks up a few notches and they will happily cruise around together looking for food.

The trick is to find their comfort zone. This is the depth they are spending most of their time. From here they can move shallower

when it is mealtime but as things heat up more expect them to remain close to this depth even when feeding.

Soft plastics and swimbaits are great for these bigger fish. Up in the weed, you can use weedless offerings, but deeper I’d be opting for a 1/2oz jighead and 5-6” paddle-tail. The Zerek Live Mullet and Barambah Bony Shad are great for the deeper fish on the outside of the weed edges.

The windy side of the main basin between the ramp and Dingo Island should be productive. Points and bays are always worth a look, especially if the bays are dirty. You really need to fish the wind battered banks as a rule and not the sheltered side of the windy points. Awoonga can be a rough lake because it is so open so keep this in mind and stay safe.

• Justin Nye from Gladstone Fly and Sportfishing runs fishing charters on the

lake. He caters to the needs of the angler and can do fly or conventional tackle trips to target the lake’s barramundi. He successfully guides clients onto fish right through the year and has a good understanding of fish movements. It is hard to beat time on the water and this is a great way

to learn more about this lake and its fish. You can contact him on 0429 223 550 or visit the website gladstoneflyandsportfishing .com.au.

• Mark from Awoonga Gateway Lodge always has a few productive secret spots to share. The Gateway lodge is on the

way in to the dam after turning off at Benaraby.

The accommodation is great with plenty of boat parking space right beside the comfortable air conditioned, self-contained cabins each with its own veranda. To book in a stay give Mark or Lyn a call on (07) 49750033.

From page 38

a Simrad Evo3 can spot them a full cast away to either side of the boat.

Work your lures at the depth the fish are holding to get the bites. This can be a bit trickier in the deep parts as the fish can be suspended midwater.

Wide on Pelican Point is another hotspot. The fish have been moving around the deep edge of Pelican before it drops into the old riverbed.

Opposite the Red Rock area is a good spot to start looking. Spoons, plastics and tail spinners should all get the bites but spoons seem to be the

Some big bass were holding in Somerset’s Bay of Plenty. If they move this month, check in shallower water nearby.

GRANITE BELT GLENLYON CLOSEST TOWNS: STANTHORPE, TEXAS The big old Murray cod will be starting to finish their breeding and we will see an increase in big fish caught

this month. The longer days will call for earlier starts and later finishes. It may even be worth having a rest in the middle of the day to save your energy for the prime bite times.

WIDE BAY AND BURNETT REGION BOONDOOMA CLOSEST TOWNS: PROSTON, KINGAROY The fishing has been great at Boondooma.

CAPRICORN REGION AWOONGA CLOSEST TOWNS: BENARABY, GLADSTONE Barra were caught all winter and beginning of spring, especially over the better weather periods.

Weather will start to play less of a role as the lake’s core temperature warms and becomes more stable but I’d still be trying to attack it when the systems are stable and warm. There are a couple of ways to go about fishing this lake. Just like any fishing, you need to target what you are after to be successful. In some cases, this involves identifying and working to catch a particular species but in Awoonga, I like to target either big fish or small fish. What I chase generally depends on how easy they are to locate and how responsive they are.

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39

Tech Tricks

Top tips for better fishing and better results BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

There are many facets of fishing for the different angling targets, techniques, locations and approaches. Most anglers strive to be the best they can, whilst enjoying this sport and possibly providing fare for the dinner table. No matter how long you have been an angler, you can still learn from others.

There are many small

increased, the hook would naturally move to the lip or corner of the mouth with the point resting against it.

The changing direction of the fish caused by tension would make the hook roll and penetrate the jaw area offering a secure hookup.

Such a hookup lessens the chance of the mouth or teeth abrading the leader.

It makes it easier to release unwanted fish and also minimises damage to the fish, which goes a long way to guaranteeing survival rates. Due to working in this manner, circle hooks

must never strike with the rod or you will most likely rip the baited hook from the mouth entirely. Circle hooks work exceptionally well when rigged correctly and used properly. Once you hook up you will rarely have a circle hook pull free.

LURE LEADERS Anglers will generally put a heavier leader between the lure and the main line to avoid being chaffed off if a large fish swallows the entire lure. Also if a hooked fish runs directly away from the angler, the tail and body protrusions

Tools should be lubricated regularly to offset the effects of corrosion.

Anode tape is another great rust preventative and is invaluable on chemically sharpened hooks in your trolling rigs. attributes that can be adjusted to can make your experience on the water rewarding and to improve results. Having been a tackle salesman for over 25 years there are a lot of questions that get asked of me with regularity. This issue I will share with you a few insights based around these questions and offer some simple ideas and nuances that can improve your angling experience.

CIRCLE HOOKS Many anglers have heard of circle hooks however they know little about the best way to use them or even when to use them. Circle hooks were originally the product of early fishermen.

Historically it was the Japanese who tied pieces of reindeer horn together in the shape of a circle hook.

Native Americans also used hooks similar to the modern circle hook, which were honed from bone, horn or wood. This shape, with the point perpendicular to the shank, was found to hook fish well without the need for an angler to jerk on the line to set the hook.

The fish would swallow the baited hook then begin to swim away. As tension 40

OCTOBER 2020

are ideal for any situation where the angler is not waiting for a bite to strike at the fish and set the hook.

Commercial fishers use circle hooks on set lines and long-lines as they are not in attendance to drive the hook home when a fish takes the bait. If you are fishing with the rod in the holder or in a situation where you aren’t going to strike at the fish, then circle hooks are ideal. I use circle hooks regularly for live baiting pelagic species such as marlin, cobia and tuna however they can work well on snapper, pearl perch and most other species.

One tip I have to offer when using circle hooks is to create a stiff connection between the leader and the hook. This will assist the hook to set well and also eliminate the chance of the hook fouling with the leader. Pass the leader through the hook eye, wrap it around the hook shank and then back up through the hook eye before securing with a knot or crimp. Once a fish takes a baited circle hook, you can wind the reel handle or just allow the tension to take up. However, you

(including gill-rakers) will damage the line. A leader (which has greater abrasion resistance than the main line) greatly decreases the chance of losing a fish due to wear over a long fight.

Your leader can be made from materials such as monofilament, wire (either multi-strand or single

strand) or fluorocarbon (which neither attracts nor reflects light making it low visibility in the water).

Which leader material you utilise will depend on the target species and fishing situation. For easily spooked species or hard fished areas, a fluorocarbon leader is the best option.

Toothy critters such as mackerel, wahoo and sharks often dictate the use of wire leaders. For fishing the deeper water (where minimal light penetrates), a monofilament leader will suffice. One tip I have for you when using leaders is to use as light as you dare and minimise extra attachments such as swivels and snaps.

Learn to attach a monofilament or fluorocarbon leader to the main line using a knot (FG, albright, slim beauty etc.) instead of a swivel. This will be lower visibility and allow you to wind the leader through the rod tip without damaging the insert. Attaching the lure to the leader can be done in several ways. Many will use a snap swivel however I prefer to eliminate this and opt for a loop knot (Lefty loop, perfection loop). Wire can be crimped directly to the towing eyelet of a lure. If using pre-made traces, I recommend taking the snap off and attaching the loop formed in the wire directly via the split ring to the towing eyelet. Most snaps are offset to one side therefore discarding them and connecting the leader directly to the lure will allow the lure to run truer. This will definitely increase the speed at which a lure can be trolled without it blowing out.

TACKLE CARE Quality tackle isn’t

A stiff connection with circle hooks can be achieved in several ways with both straight and offset eye hooks and has proven to increase their effectiveness greatly. cheap these days so it pays to look after it carefully to increase your pleasure of using it and decrease the pressure on your budget.

Warm soapy water will help to remove salt from your rods and reels after a day on the water. Never submerge a reel in water of any kind. Simply dribble water over it or lightly spray it to remove the salt and soap.

Putting neoprene reel cover over reels during transit will minimise scratching and the ability for salty water and other debris to enter the reel.

Avoid transporting rods in rod holders that are getting soaked with salt spray as you travel. These rod holders are usually the rear corner ones but this will depend on your boat setup. If travelling with rods in overhead rocketlaunchers, use an occy strap (or similar) to prevent the rods moving around or even falling out of the holders totally. A little lanolin can be wiped over the outside of your reels to help water roll off and decrease permeation. It is

Travelling with covers on your reels, washing with freshwater after use and having them in a horizontal position while they dry will go a long way to increasing their life.

advisable to spray it onto a cloth then wipe it onto the reel. Once you have rinsed your spinning reels, they should be allowed to dry fully whilst in a horizontal position as this will allow the water to drain off easier instead of being trapped in grooves and crevices.

My rods are stored lengthways (horizontal) in my boat that offers the ideal position for both overhead and spinning reels. This puts them in the perfect position for water to drain away whilst they dry. I regularly leave them in the rod racks after I have washed them. A bit of oil on the line roller every few trips should keep it moving freely. Cast nets should be soaked well in fresh water after use to ensure both the net and rope are salt fee once dried and stored away.

CORROSION PREVENTION Saltwater is very harsh on all tackle. Hooks, tools, lures and knives of any metal can corrode once they come into contact with salt water. Stainless steel comes in many grades and as the name suggests it ‘stains less than normal steel’ but is still not corrosion free in most cases. Spot rust is still a high likelihood with most grades of stainless steel.

There are numerous ways to stave off the corrosive effects of saltwater.

Regular cleaning and lubrication is the best bet but if you’re like me and regularly forget them the job is made a lot more difficult later on. Products like WD40, Tackle Guard and ProTECta Spray Lube can all be used to free up box joints on pliers and pin joints on scissors and other tools.

Ensure you clean your knives well where the blade comes out of the handle as this is an area where blood often builds up and corrodes the blade. A couple of tips I have picked up over the years that are as follows.

When lure fishing, I often have a plastic screw-top jar

Tech Tricks with some fresh water in it.

When I take a lure off my line I will drop it straight in the jar and put the lid back on. This immediately removes excess salt water and also avoids hooks becoming embedded in carpet or skin. Once home I will remove the lures and hang to dry.

Anode tape is great for avoiding rust on metal.

This zinc tape serves as an

anode for the steel which significantly reduces the spreading of corrosion. I use this on some tools and also on my larger game hooks.

It will also stop the points of chemically sharpened hooks becoming brittle due to the effects of electrolysis when trolling. Small strips of anode tape can be added to the compartments in your tackle box to reduce corrosion.

Many tackle boxes are now available with rust prevention additives.

A small bit of prevention can go a long way to increasing the life of your valuable tackle.

CATCH CARE We all put a lot of time and effort into catching our target species. Many anglers chose to carefully release most of the fish that they catch. Some however,

Minimising terminal tackle on your lure leaders will allow them to run truer and increase results. me included, love to take a feed of fish home for the family. While many just open the esky lid and deposit their fish, prawns or crabs in there, better care will increase the flesh quality of your seafood.

A dying fish thrashing around in the esky is not only inhumane, it will also cause bruising to the flesh and a build-up of lactic acid and cortisol which lowers flesh quality and makes it age (spoil)

Dispatching fish immediately after capture by severing the spinal cord or iki jime then bleeding and putting into an ice slurry will greatly increase the flesh quality and longevity.

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combined with salt water) will help them to chill down quickly. An ice slurry is also ideal for prawns and crabs. Look after your catch well and you will notice an improved quality in the flesh and taste.

These are just a few little tips that will help to improve your results plus look after your tackle and catch. Ultimately this will improve your enjoyment of our great sport and save you a few bucks along the way.

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faster. Dispatching the fish immediately by iki jime (spiking the fish in the brain) or cutting the spinal cord is highly recommended.

Next the fish should be bled by cutting the gill latch or partially removing the head. Tuna bleed out well when you stab them just behind the pectoral fins with a blade as this is where a major artery is. Once the fish is bled, adding them to a slurry (ice

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Recreational Fishing Update Go Charter Fishing In The Big Smoke!

This time of year offers excellent fishing opportunities around the Sydney region.

Iconic species such as kingfish, mulloway, bream and flathead start to come on the bite in spring and can often be found actively feeding in the Sydney region’s spectacular estuary systems. These productive metropolitan fisheries include the mighty Hawksbury River in the north through to Sydney Harbour, the Botany Bay Recreational Fishing Haven and pristine Port Hacking in the south. Licenced NSW charter fishing operators are experts in a wide variety of fishing techniques including bait, lure and fly fishing and have the specialist local knowledge to guide you and your family to fishing success with safety and confidence.

It’s important to realise that only licenced charter fishing boats can take paying passengers in NSW. All NSW charter boats must display the letters “CFB”. This CFB number is a sure way to know that your charter boat skipper is qualified, the vessel is built and maintained to the highest standards demanded by the Australian Marine Safety Authority and is authorised to take paying passengers fishing. Don’t risk breaking the law and compromising your safety on an illegal un-licenced fishing charter.

To book a licenced charter fishing trip in the Sydney region, search “Go Charter Fishing” at dpi.nsw.gov.au

Tweed Reef Deployed!

NSW’s newest offshore artificial reef is being deployed in September in 25m of water 7.5km southeast of the Tweed Heads river entrance (weather permitting).

The reef features a 10m steel tower surrounded by 32 concrete modules, each 5m high. The new Tweed reef is purpose-built and designed to provide Oyster reefs are unique marine ecosystems which once covered large areas of NSW’s estuaries, providing habitat and food for fish (including many prized recreational fish species such as bream) and other marine creatures.

By mapping where these reefs still exist, we can better focus our efforts to restore them. Search “Shellfish Reef Reporter” at marine.nsw.gov.au for more info.

Huge Net Seized In Botany Bay

generations of local and visiting Tweed fishers with a quality new fishing location.

It will provide new habitat for key species including snapper, samsonfish, pearl perch, cobia and mackerel.

This is another great example of your fishing fees at work! trap, possessing an animal taken in contravention of an aquatic reserve location and resisting/obstructing fisheries officer.

Meshing nets cannot be used by recreational fishers in NSW. Report illegal fishing via the Fishers Watch phone line on 1800 043 536.

“Solitary Ranger” Joins DPI Fleet

Report Your Local Oyster Reef!

Photo: Shane Chalker

If you enjoy estuary fishing and wanted to get involved in citizen science, take a few minutes to check out DPI’s “Shellfish Reef Reporter” online tool.

The Shellfish Reef Reporter is a simple online form which enables you to get involved with citizen science and habitat restoration by dropping a pin on a map, uploading photos and recording simple characteristics of any oyster reefs you see while you’re out fishing in your local estuary.

44

OCTOBER 2020

A man and a woman are facing charges after being found using an illegal 374m long monofilament meshing net in the Towra Point Aquatic Reserve in Sydney’s Botany Bay. A call to the NSW DPI Fishers Watch service led DPI fisheries officers to take up surveillance in Quibray Bay. There they observed two people using the illegal meshing net that contained a quantity of fish. The two were apprehended and the net was seized.

A total of 68 fish were found dead in the net and retained as evidence but 47 live fish were returned to the water. Prosecution briefs are being compiled and the couple are facing charges of unlawfully using a net or

The Solitary Ranger, DPI’s recently launched $3.3m offshore patrol vessel, represents a new era for fisheries in NSW as the largest and most technically advanced vessel in our fleet.

As part of our increased offshore compliance capability, at times the Solitary Ranger will patrol along the entire east coast of NSW. It also has the capacity to travel to Lord Howe Island, which is 320 nautical miles and takes about 24 hours, depending on sea conditions and operational requirements.

As well as undertaking short and long range compliance patrols, the Solitary Ranger will also be used to assist with the deployment of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) plus will contribute to important fisheries research activities, including 3D mapping.

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au

East Coast Bream Series Rd 2

The Western Sydney Bream & Bass angling club has announced that they’re able to continue the East Coast Bream Series for 2020.

Sponsored by Daniel Scott of Tempt Industries, Round 2 of the East Coast Bream Series was supposed to be held at St Georges Basin in April. However,

due to fire, flood and the pandemic, it turned out to be August on the Hawkesbury River. The SWBB committee said that their thoughts go out to all those who have been impacted by the events so far in 2020, and hope that everyone managers gets through to the other side.

ROUND 2 For a while it looked

as though the weather gods might put a stop to this event, but somehow the weather stayed good for the entire event. A total of 43 teams registered for Round 2. It had originally been over 50, but some teams withdrew for safety reasons, which is understandable.

Thanks go to all the competitors who fished the round, as they all followed the instructions to ensure that the event was as safe as possible.

The event ran very smoothly and although the fishing was tough, there were some good fish landed. A big congratulations goes to Shane Duck, who weighed in a big bream that measured 48cm tip length and tipped the scales at 2.01kg. There were a few fish over the 1kg mark, but that thing was just

The fishing was tough but there were some good fish landed.

a monster! Even better was watching it swim away.

First place went to Team Smartfish (Ahmad Mahfoud, Rashid Amoon), who weighed in five fish for 4.19kg, and took home $2200 for their efforts. The pair headed out early to fish the deep edges around Cowan, scoring their bag by 9am. Getting past the smaller fish paid off, allowing the boys to land a couple of upgrades which launched them into 1st place. Cranka Crabs in UV colour were the best performers.

Team ABU Garcia/ Evinrude (Ross Canizzaro and Codie Stewart) took home the 2nd place prize of $1400, with their 5-fish bag weighing 3.32kg.

Coming in 3rd was Team Phoenix Boats (Michael Colotouros and Paul Mazzaroli), who took home

ROUND 2 RESULTS Place Team 1 Smart Fish 2 ABU Garcia/Evinrude 3 Phoenix Boats 4 Team Costis 5 Arguru 6 Hunter Sport 7 No Shorts Auto Electrical 8 Assault Pro

Ahmad Mahfoud, from team Smart Fish, holds up two of the kicker fish that scored them a 1st place finish. $700 for their 3.19kg bag of five fish. The pair fished deep along the rock walls Cranka Crabs in olive and brown on 6lb leader. Most of their fish were caught by 10am, and there were no upgrades after first five fish.

Competitors fishing in 4th-8th place all received a prize pack from Tempt Industries.

Anglers Ahmad Mahfoud, Rachid Amoon Codie Stewart, Ross Cannizzaro Michael Colotouros, Paul Mazarroli Matt Hall, Chris Micallef Marcelo Manuelian, Jason Graham Mark Young, Jacob Kilpatric Vince Polimeni, Mark Marcocchinni Aaron Clifton, Mark Crompton

FUTURE ROUNDS Unfortunately, the committee has had to cancel Round 3 at Lake Macquarie because of COVID restrictions imposed by the Deptartment of Health. The WSBB is now aiming to run the Botany round in October, and the team hope to see you all on the water then. -WSBB Fish 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 5

Weight(kg) 4.78 3.32 3.19 2.94 2.78 2.77 2.77 2.74

Full results are listed on the WSBB website at www.wsbb.com.au

Where do my fishing licence fees go?

Funds raised from the NSW recreational fishing licence are placed into special trusts, and spent on projects to improve recreational fishing.

Committees of anglers provide recommendations on expenditure from the trusts: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Fish stocking Artificial reefs Fish aggregating devices (FADs) Recreational fishing havens Fishing facilities e.g. fishing platforms and fish cleaning tables Kids fishing workshops Fishcare Volunteers Gamefish tagging Get Hooked...it’s fun to fish, primary schools education Fish habitat restoration

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au OCTOBER 2020

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Happy days on the horizon PITTWATER

Peter Le Blang plfishfingers@bigpond.com

Happy days are on their way with warmer water and air temperatures, so we no longer have to suffer the cold breezes early in the mornings.

metre long fish.

To target squid at the moment you do need some patience as most squid are only the size of your little finger, and once placed on a hook they are hard to see. These smaller squid are along the weed beds along Pittwater, especially towards Palm Beach and the mouth of the river.

course use your normal rig and light gear that you would use in Pittwater, but you have to have patience to get your jig down to where it is going to tempt some squid.

Once squid have been gathered it is a matter of covering ground by downrigging to find out where the kingfish are cruising for

Waz is one of the keenest fishers I have ever met. Here he is with his first ever fish.

The water temperature along Pittwater is slowly rising, and we are starting to see a bit more fish activity.

Pittwater is not on fire yet, but in the coming months we should see fishing pick up quite dramatically.

At the moment we are starting to track down kingfish and target some of the larger fish that have been along in Pittwater all winter, as they are starting to become more active with the rising water temperature.

This equates to catching squid and/or yellowtail to try your luck whilst downrigging along this wonderful river.

Squid are very small at the moment but they seem to double in size every few weeks so it won’t be long before we have hand-sized kingfish snacks that I’m sure will attract the attention of some of these

The best size jig for catching squid at the moment are 2.0 sizes, with both fluoro colours and natural colours working on their given day.

Even though the squid are small, because they are still in their school they are very aggressive so make sure you watch the water before pulling your jig out and back into the boat.

Recently I have given up catching the smaller ones and I am now concentrating my efforts on the ocean side of Barrenjoey Head. It seems that if you can find a patch of baitfish on the ocean side of Barrenjoey Head you are in with a real chance by drifting around that area.

The jigs I use out here are 2.5 jigs, and fished on a paternoster rig with a 3oz lead on the bottom loop to get the jigs down quickly. You can of

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the morning. These bigger kingfish aren’t in a big school.

They seem to be either swimming alone or in pairs, so watch your sounder intently, use your plotting function and attack the area once baitfish have been found.

For those after breadand-butter species, there are flathead, bream, flounder as well as the odd trevally still hanging around. Most of these species can be caught whilst drifting, and using the plotting trail allows you to go back over the same area to try and catch some more. If you prefer to anchor and berley, the better areas have been on the Pittwater side of West Head as well as around Flint and Steel reef.

Once again, the best time has been the last half of the run-in tide, and the best baits seem to be the humble pilly, squid strips or filleted fresh yellowtail.

The flatty drift outside Patonga has been the best area to catch good feed of flathead.

In this area it is shallow enough to use soft plastics as well as micro jigs on the drift.

Just remember to take what you need for immediate feed and release the rest.

Along our coasts, kingfish are being caught in good numbers and can be targeted using live yellowtail or slimy mackerel. Once again, using downriggers seems to be the most effective way to tangle with a few. Newport Reef seems to have less boats than Long Reef so take advantage of it while you can.

A bit further out towards the horizon at the 50m mark, blue-spot flathead are gathering and it’s easy to catch your bag limit. These flathead have been gathering to spawn as far as I am aware, so there

Everyone is thrilled when the first kingy is caught. There will be many more of these in the coming months. is going to be, and a lot of the time most of it is towards the edge the reef.

One of the best baits you can get targeting snapper around these reefs are Sergeant Baker, and once filleted they make a great bait. I’m sure it’s the red colour of their skin that gets seen first by the hungry snapper.

So as you can see there are some great fish to be caught this month, and there are

plenty of happy days ahead.

It’s a real blessing after all we have been through this year.

I hope this article sees you excited and cleaning down your fishing gear so you can take out some family members to enjoy a wonderful day on the water.

• Peter Le Blang operates Harbour and Estuary Fishing Charters, phone 02 9999 2574 or 0410 633 351, visit www. estuaryfishingcharters.com.au

There are some big squid to be caught at the moment. You have to decide, dinner or bait?

The areas to try at the moment are the Kingfish Highway, around Scotland Island, the Western foreshore of Pittwater and also on the odd day they have been spotted near Rowlands Reserve in the 4-knot zone.

The bottom fishing has picked up quite a bit but it’s still not brilliant yet. There is still a bit of colder water lurking in the deeper depths and I’m sure this is having an effect, especially if you are fishing the run-out tide.

My suggestion is to plan the bottom fishing on the run-in tide to take advantage of the warmer water being pushed in from the ocean.

are a good variety of sizes to be tangled with. Please be aware of the number of fish you’re keeping as it’s quite easy to get your bag limit of 10.

We are starting to see some other fish showing up on the offshore reefs, with the odd snapper, morwong, tailor and tiger flathead. Even the odd kingfish has shown up.

When targeting fish in the deeper water – reefs of 60m or more – it is always best to find schools of baitfish which are congregating around the reef. If you try to fish over the hard rocky ground, you’re unlikely to be successful. By finding baitfish you are usually finding where all the activity

Cohen Nelson caught these flathead in Lake Macquarie. He caught more than the two adults in the boat that day!

NSW

Sydney

Bagging bruiser spring bream SYDNEY NORTH

Steve Winser

The upper reaches of the harbour are still producing good catches of kingfish, and there’s the odd 1m+ fish among the rats. The majority are being taken on fresh squid, as usual, but there have been a few taken on surface lures such as 4-6” stickbaits as well as 6-9” soft plastics. One of the best

performers is the Slug-Go in pale green and white, rigged on an unweighted worm hook. Let it sink below the surface schools and retrieve it with an erratic motion to get the kingfish’s attention.

Salmon schools have been following the rising tide in, and towards the top of the high they can be found between Kirribilli and Clarke Island, with numbers around the front of North and South Head. A lot of the salmon are

Most of the blackfish caught lately have measured between 35-45cm.

being taken on fly, and any small baitfish imitation will do, such as a Surf Candy.

They are also taking surface lures like the 50mm Sugapen.

The fishing for bream and blackfish has been excellent.

As we predicted last month, they are still very thick, and we’ve been getting catches of up to 20 per session. The bream have also been very large, with good numbers over 40cm. One young angler came out with us for his birthday and got a cracker at 46cm. A couple of people were watching from their balcony and were clapping for him, and it made his day.

We catch most of our bream on bread baits, but lure fishers are also getting their share. The bigger fish have been taking crab imitations cast around the rock shelves on the top of the tide.

As far as the blackfish go, it’s the best season I’ve seen for a long time. Most are between 35-45cm, and we’re catching them using a little bobby cork with bread bait and a bread berley trail (the same as for bream) in close to the shoreline on the top of the tide.

Drummer and groper in the washes around the lower harbour are still going strong.

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The drummer have been up to 4kg, while the groper are around the 3-6kg range – and some very large fish have been busting guys off on heavy gear. You can catch these fish on bread and prawns, but if you really have your heart set on a groper you should make the effort to catch crabs from the lower harbour foreshores.

Grab a crab spear and look for them in the crevices where they hide.

There are large schools of trevally prowling around in the late afternoon throughout the lower harbour. Look for deep edges or deep drop-offs, headlands, wrecks – anything with some sort of depth – and deploy a berley trail with a little prawn bait.

Looking ahead, the kingfish may start to become sporadic in the coming weeks.

However, with a bunch of resident fish in the harbour year round, it’s difficult to say for sure. Time will tell.

Bream and blackfish will continue to march straight on through this month, and we should also see a continuation of the surface fish – mixed schools of salmon and tailor in the harbour. The wash fishing for drummer and groper should also be good this month.

The perfect way to celebrate a birthday – a 46cm bream caught on a fishing charter.

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The right bait gets results SYD ROCK & BEACH

Alex Bellissimo alex@bellissimocharters.com.au

What a magnificent time of the year! Off the ocean rocks there are big, fat, medicine ball rock blackfish on offer. The

snapper and kings are also increasing in numbers, and there are other fun species including Aussie salmon.

Off the beaches, whiting are becoming much more common, and bream, Aussie salmon, and mulloway catches are increasing. Read

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on for what’s happening on the beaches and rocks off Sydney.

OCEAN ROCKS Big pigs love weed baits! The green weed is thriving, with a perfect air temperature of late and a nutrient-rich current bringing on the big pigs.

Cabbage weed suspended 1-3m under a float is a good approach at a lot of rock locations, subject to water depth of course. Of course the alternative bait is the traditional peeled raw prawn like the endeavour, banana or king prawn peeled or a cooked prawn which is a tougher bait.

When it comes to a suitable outfit, you want it to be at least 10kg, just in case you get locked into a particularly big pig.

Distance casting for snapper is quite good this month, with a migration of plate-size and bigger fish on the chew. Like pig fishing, you’ll want a 10kg or heavier outfit. Unlike pig fishing though, a longer rod is recommended for distance casting. You can get away with a 12ft (3.6m) rod, but I recommend using a 13ft (4m) or longer rod.

It will give you better

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distance to cast out to the sand/gravel edge just past the snaggy reef, where the snapper like to reside.

Sinker weights are heavy, around 3-5oz, and it’s best to use snapper sinkers. Have one free sliding on your main line, then a small, soft green bead, then tie a 40kg+ swivel, then a 45cm length of 30-40lb fluorocarbon leader and a 3/0 hook. The hook should ideally be 2X strength because snapper have strong, crustaceancrushing jaws.

When it comes to bait, I recommend salted striped tuna, salted slimy mackerel, or squid. If you cut your salted fish or squid into strips, approximately 10cm long by 2cm wide, you’ll end up with a slender bait that a legal or sizeable snapper will relish. A slender bait is also more aerodynamic than thick-cut baits, and as such it will cast further and, providing it is baited up straight, will twist less.

Both of these species prefer low light periods, but you can sometimes catch them in the late morning or near midday. But you know this is the way it is as time/ day may not be on your side so take advantage of a not so suitable tide at the wrong time of the day.

For the pigs preferably the mid tide in to about the second hour out is best.

That can also apply for the reddies as well but because you are fishing into deeper water a low tide when you are distance casting you are casting a distance out approximately between 50-100m out which in turn your casting into much deeper water. When wash

A good catch of pigs up to 58cm, along with a token red morwong. Red mowie is not a common catch, but when you go snorkelling you will notice they are quite prolific. Use a combination of green weed and prawns on your rock blackfish outing. fishing for snapper this generally does not apply.

The low light period is much more preferred for better results.

The reels I recommend. If you’re an Alvey enthusiast the magnificent and super light graphite 65C Stealth reel is the state of the art in the Alvey range. And for the spinning reel enthusiast the Daiwa Windcast 6000 is one of the great choices for both of these reels.

Line for the spinning reel, Daiwa J-Braid Grand 30lb with Wilson 30-40lb fluorocarbon leader.

And for the Alvey Daiwa J-Thread 20-30lb is ideal for distance casting.

There are some locations that may produce most or all of the species mentioned above. Try South Curl Curl’s ‘Flat Rock’. Another location which produces all of these species is South Whale’s ‘The Ovens’ approximately a 20-25 min walk from the car park. Flat rock is only a short chain climb with The Ovens a fairly flat walk with no climbs.

OCEAN BEACHES The new moon on 17 October and the full moon on 1 November will be great evenings to fish for a mulloway and of course whiting, bream and salmon with some tailor as well.

Monetary prizes will depend on number of entries for each round plus $1000 worth of sponsor product.

Entry form & terms and conditions can be found at

www.wsbb.com.au Entry & payment should be submitted 7 days prior to each event

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The best baits for beach mulloway are the species that are present at that time, such as whiting, tarwhine or even dart. Fresh is best.

This nice mulloway was caught on a fillet of whiting.

NSW

Thanks to the fresh new season run of whiting, the predators are not far away.

The bream are really increasing in numbers, and

and a lot of these guys think it’s not worth chasing mulloway unless you have squid. I disagree, and here’s why: there is no seagrass,

Sydney

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Sydney

entrance of the lagoon, especially when it is open.

Dee Why is also a cracker of a beach. Both of these beaches produce all of the

This 108cm kingfish smashed the author’s ganged sea gar. This kingy is slim, which indicates that it’s a traveller, a new season king. on some days you’ll find yourself catching as many bream as whiting. You can expect big tarwhine to complement your bag on some outings too. Tarwhine can be an enigma for a lot of anglers, because to the untrained eye these fish look just like a bream; some fishos don’t even realise they have caught a tarwhine. You can identify a tarwhine by the light horizontal lines along its body, its rounded head, and the very light ‘freckles’ on its face. They also fight harder than a bream.

The legal size in NSW for tarwhine is only 20cm, whereas bream are 25cm.

Larger tarwhine are much better on the plate than the smaller ones. I prefer them to be around 30cm+, because these older models have firmer flesh. It’s a similar story with mulloway, snapper and rock blackfish.

With Aussie salmon, the opposite applies – salmon heavier than 2kg are not good to eat, as the flavour of the flesh is too strong.

This month we can expect to catch good bags of bream and whiting, along with some tarwhine and the odd flathead, while fishing with live beachworms.

Pipis are a good backup bait, and you can harvest them on Sydney beaches.

You are not allowed to take pipis off the beach, but you can use them for bait.

Small peeled prawns and preserved beachworms are a reasonably good baits as well. And of course the fish baits for bream like half pillies, fresh fish baits like yellowtail fillet and mullet work well. Many beach mulloway anglers swear by squid for bait,

live kelp or hard structure on most beaches, so the mulloway won’t be feeding on squid (unless of course they’re close to rocky corners or if there is a reef on the beach).

So what are they hunting for? Mostly smaller fish such as like mullet,

above species.

I’ll finish off this report with a tip. When you’re planning a beach or rock fishing trip, try to get there a bit earlier.

An early start at the rocks will give you time to determine whether it’s safe enough to fish, while an early start at the beach will allow you to check

There have been some sizeable tarwhine on the beaches of late. Tarwhine are crustacean feeders, and are rarely caught on fish baits. This one was caught on the very busy Manly Beach. whiting, small tarwhine, bream and tailor of course.

Using a live bait or a fresh fillet of one of these fish will be closer to what the mulloway are chasing. I’m not trying to discourage you from using squid, I just want you to know there are effective alternatives if you can’t get any squid.

One of the premier beaches to fish around my area is the famous North Narrabeen Beach, from Octavia Street to the

whether it’s ‘kelped out’ or lacking structure. It’s best to know what you’re in for before you commit. If you find that things aren’t right, you’ll have enough time before the start of your fishing trip to switch to a plan B. • For rock and beach guided fishing or tuition in the northern Sydney region, visit www.bellissimocharters. com.au, email alex@ bellissimocharters.com.au or call Alex Bellissimo on 0408 283 616.

OCTOBER 2020

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Waters starting to come alive SYDNEY SOUTH

Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

There is plenty on offer in our area at this time of year. Squid can be caught in numbers, both off the shore and out of the boat on a variety of colours and sizes in your preferred squid jigs. You could also try putting a whole pilchard onto a squid spike, and either

around in numbers, with good catches coming off the rocks at Kurnell, Boat Harbour, Windy Point, Jibbon, Marley and North Garie. The successful anglers have been getting their own weed either off the rocks or at the ends of stormwater drains.

Drummer, bream and trevally are still on the chew off the rocks at North Bondi, Coogee, north Maroubra, La Perouse, Bare Island, Sutherland

pilchards for bait. Fish as light as you can to avoid getting snagged up. Try suspending the baits under a small bobby cork.

If you’re fishing off the rocks, it’s either advisable or mandatory to wear a lifejacket, depending on where you are. For those of you who don’t know, the mandatory wearing of PFDs for rock fishers has been extended to the Sutherland Shire. Just the other day I was out and about fishing

Whenever you are fishing off the rocks, always bring a bucket of bread for berley as it will significantly increase your catch rates.

Don’t forget to fish as light as the conditions will allow. cast and retrieve it or try suspending it under a bobby cork.

Luderick have been

Point and Jibbon. Berley with bread, and use either peeled prawns, strips of mullet, tuna and half

off the rocks at Cronulla for squid with a mate, and we saw a number of other anglers who weren’t

FISHING NEWS

Big fishing fines in Sydney Two women allegedly caught in possession of thousands of oysters retrieved from waters in Georges River, Sydney are facing numerous prosecution charges arising from the apprehension.

NSWDPI Acting Director Fisheries Compliance, Dr Andrew Moriarty, said the women were spotted during a routine patrol on the Georges River in June.

“NSW DPI Fisheries Officers observed two people behaving in a manner consistent with intertidal invertebrate collection on the Georges River, which along with many other waterways in the Sydney region are closed to the taking of ‘shellfish’ due to historical pollutants in these areas and to preserve fish stocks,” Dr Moriarty said.

“The two women from Hurstville were allegedly found in joint possession of 2121 oysters – which

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is more than 21 times the bag limit of 50 oysters per person.

“The offenders were taking oysters within an area that is closed to the taking of oysters, using prohibited tools to break the oysters from the rocks, and had not paid the Recreational Fishing Fee for NSW.” A man and a woman are also facing prosecution after allegedly being found using an illegal 374m long meshing net in the Towra Point Aquatic Reserve in Botany Bay. “After receiving an information report from the Fishers Watch phone line, Sydney South Fisheries Officers discovered a 374m long monofilament meshing net in the Towra Point Aquatic Reserve in Botany Bay,” Dr Moriarty said. “A man and a woman from Belmore were apprehended after being observed using the net and were found to be in possession of a number of fish.

“Meshing nets cannot

be used by recreational fisheries in NSW, and monofilament nets can only be used with a special permit.

Additionally, the taking of any fish is prohibited within a Sanctuary Zone.”

The net contained whiting, flathead, bream, estuary perch, leatherjacket and a number of rays. A total of 68 fish were found dead in the net and were retained as evidence, and a further 47 were returned live to the water.

“Towra Point Aquatic Reserve… is major nursery habitat supporting commercial and recreational fish stocks,” Dr Moriarty said.

“Illegal fishing detracts from all the hard work that fisheries officers and the community do to ensure access to fishing for future generations.”

To report suspected illegal fishing, call 1800 043 536 or report via the FishSmart NSW app or at www.dpi.nsw.gov. au. – NSW DPI

wearing lifejackets.

Something else I noticed was the mess of used chemical lights, plastic bait bags, fishing line, McDonalds wrappers, beer bottles and other crap that had been left on the rocks. It’s a shame when people don’t take their rubbish with them.

There have been a few dusky flathead getting about and I have gone back to the basics and have been using live poddy mullet for bait with great success.

You don’t really need a lot to catch poddy mullet, it can be done with just a handline, a no. 12 long shank hook and some white bread. What I prefer to do is to use a poddy trap, as you will tend to catch quite a few at a time. Poddy mullet traps can come in a number of shapes and sizes. There is the Alvey clear plastic cylinder, a plastic bottle with a hole cut in it, a clear glass bowl covered with fly wire, a clear milk bottle, collapsible fine wire, Perspex and many more.

A number of anglers who I have been speaking to lately have just started to get into blading and have not had a lot of success.

If you have never used blades or vibes before when fishing you are sure missing out. Over the years I have caught bream, Australian salmon, kingfish, flounder, snapper, flathead, mulloway, leatherjackets, bass, estuary perch, whiting and trevally on these lures. Blades and vibes can be used while fishing the shallow flats, off the beach or rocks and even close offshore reefs.

The main difference will be the size and weight of the blade or vibe. The next time you are in your local tackle shop you should

Land-based fishing on both ends of the Captain Cook Bridge is always worth a shot for bream, trevally and the odd dusky flathead. A paternoster rig cast out wide seems to get most of the fish and fewer snags. check them out.

The Georges and Woronora Rivers have started to come alive from the slower months of winter with bream, whiting, flounder, flathead, mullet, luderick and mulloway on the chew at Alfords Point, Picnic Point, the Moons, Lugarno, Como Bridge, the entrance to Bonnet Bay and further upstream and the Woronora Bridge.

Oatley and Oyster Bay have been producing bream, flathead and whiting for boat angers, and there has been the odd fish or two caught by shore anglers.

Half pillies and worms seem to be getting the best results.

The other day I took a walk along the beach

from Wanda and up to Greenhills and used some live beachworms that I got from Macs Bait Bar, and managed a few whiting, bream and dart on a rising tide. I was using a double paternoster rig as the swell was up a bit, and I find that I don’t get any tangles while using this rig.

Offshore, All at Sea Charters reports that morwong, snapper, pigfish, leatherjackets, sweep and trevally can be caught on the close reefs from Kurnell and down to Marley Point.

It’s just a matter of moving about to locate the fish.

Don’t forget to keep those reports and pictures coming, and I hope to see you on the water one day.

Marshall Elliot with an impressive metre-plus cod from Copeton.

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NSW

Bass are now in their prime BALLINA

Joe Allan

If you are after a feed of flathead now is a great time to get out in the Richmond River and get amongst them. The deep water right in front of the porpoise walls, the channel in front of the RSL Club and the deep hole upriver from the Burns Point Ferry are some good places to start looking.

Big bright soft plastics with tails that disperse a good amount of water are key chasing flatties. Also, live bait is irresistible to these big girls, and as the water warms up you can come across some large mangrove jack as by-catch, which is an awesome by-catch!

Paul Starkey with this stonker mulloway caught off Ballina on a Semi Hardz Vib.

ba Prawn Blade s” “Yam

Adrian Melchior with a solid bass caught on a Bassman Spinnerbait.

Over the flats around the town stretch of the river, the whiting should start to come on the bite using surface lures. Try targeting the shallow flats as the water moves up with the incoming tide. The best lure to try is the SugaPen from Bassday.

It is my favourite and can’t wait until this time of year to get into these tasty things.

Retro fitting Atomic Trick Bitz Assist Hooks for those not-so-committal fish can turn an average day in to a really good one.

On the offshore front, try getting as far out to the edge of the shelf to chase some blue eye trevalla and bar cod.

The best baits are cuttlefish.

Cut the backbone out of the cuttlefish and use big strong circle hooks. Electric reels are a must.

Close in reefs will still produce good snapper although towards the end of the month they will start to move out to the 32 fathoms.

This is where to look when you can get there when the tide allows you to fish it.

The northeast winds that will start over the next few months will make it harder to fish the deeper reefs. As the

water does warm, the cobia and mahimahi should start to move on the close reefs.

Getting some live baits, such as yakkas and slimy mackerel, and throwing these around the FADs is always a good start. Gamakatsu Live bait hooks are the best to give these fish some curry.

Beaches are fishing well, and the dart have started to come on nicely. The Gorilla

The author with a bass near Coraki on an Atomic Hardz Vib 60. swing, this is my favourite time to get out and chase these feisty fish. They will be on the move to the upper reaches of the creeks and river arms, however don’t overlook the

great for a little while yet.

Any surface crawlers should work well though when the cicadas start to sing, it can be cricket scores on this style of lures.

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Big Eye slugs are a great profile to use for these guys.

You may still get the odd tailor off the beach, but these will still start to become scarcer. You will pick up the odd big sea run bream and flathead in the gutters as by-catch and the big bream can really give you some curry on light gear.

With the Aussie bass season now open and in full

main river stretches as well.

The fish are always hungry this time of year after doing their business, so try big Bassman Spinnerbaits and Atomic Hardz Vib 70 with rattle. Best colours to try in the Atomics are black beauty and rock crab and gold wolf.

As the weather warms up and the bugs start to get out, the surface action will hot up but most likely that won’t be that

The lower reaches of the Richmond River should see some mud crabs fire up as the warmer weather brings them in. Emigrant Creek and North Creek are the spots to start looking for these tasty guys. Best baits are black fish frames and any mullet frames left over from your bait fishing trips.

Until next month, tight lines.

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53

NSW

Ripping reaction bites COFFS HARBOUR

Dayne Taylor

Spring is a fantastic time to hit the coastal estuaries.

The days are magic, and the weather really turns it on. Just like the daytime temperature, the fishing really heats up!

The first couple of stinking hot days where the humidity cranks it right up in spring are a great

time to go and target a few mangrove jack. We are lucky enough to have jacks call our part of the world home all year round, but they really do come to life when the water temp starts to climb. Reaction baits like a topwater popper or walk-the-dog style floating stickbait are a great tool to help search for a pack of fired up jacks. Once you have encouraged a bite or two, switch things

up between suspending jerkbait lures and soft plastics. Anything that replicates a poddy mullet around the 100-180mm size in a paddle-tail or curltail will do the job just fine.

The NSW bass season has officially been open for the past month, and a lot of great fish have been caught and released already.

Expect the topwater action to improve over the next month as the cicadas start

The author with a quality springtime flathead.

Dale Johnson was happy with this 85cm flathead.

54

OCTOBER 2020

to emerge and the bug life increases with the warmer weather patterns. Spring is also an ideal time to get that aggressive reaction bite out of a bass, so traditional methods like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and soft plastics with a beetle spin attached are perfect this month.

The flathead fishing has been great down around the middle sections of our estuaries, and some top quality larger female fish have been caught and released in the past few

weeks. Typically you will come across a patch of fish in the mid 30s to mid 40s hanging around a larger female trying to impress her, so if you start to catch a couple keep plugging away as you might be lucky enough to get her to bite also.

On the beaches and around headlands we are continuing to see a good run of tailor and the odd school of salmon. Both metal slugs and ganged pilchards are doing the trick.

Off the headlands some

great sized mulloway have been taken. Paddle-tail plastics and shallow-diving crankbait lures around the 6� size work well to mimic a mullet or tailor in the washes. Be sure to upgrade the hardware to handle these big, powerful fish. And of course, your line and leader will need to handle some serious abrasion so a leader and line class around 60lb+ is needed.

A few locals have also enjoyed some quality black drummer fishing from a

NSW

few small headlands. If you have not fished for drummer before, I suggest you give it a crack. They pull extremely hard and are the masters of bricking you in rock ledges. Find an area adjacent to a ledge that has a good amount of white water covering it, berley up with some bread, and fish with a small bean sinker and a no. 1 hook. I suggest a 30lb line minimum as

they do pull you through a lot of nasty stuff on the rocks and the sheer size and weight of these fish can take a bit of lifting from the water to land sometimes.

Offshore, snapper are plentiful and the larger models have made their way towards the deeper reefs and gravel grounds around that 30-60m range. Slow pitch metal jigs, octo/squid style jigs and of course strip baits

is particularly irresistible.

Slimy mackerel and yakkas are my preferred live bait of choice, and the kings also make short work of a

whole squid.

Until next month, cast like there is no tomorrow and retrieve like you have all the time in the world.

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Steve McEwan with a snapper caught on a soft plastic.

October is a good month to use lures that trigger reaction strikes. This nice fish was caught by Michael Goodwin.

dropped in these depths will all provide great numbers of snapper, along with a plethora of other mixed reef species schooled up together. Some great pearl perch, Venus tuskfish and teraglin are always welcome by-catch whilst fishing these same depths. A quality GPS/ sounder makes finding and staying on these deeper water fish much easier.

The XXL size kingfish

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55

NSW

October fishing shines THE HASTINGS

Mark Saxon castawayestuarycharters@bigpond.com

October is usually a prime month for weather and fishing, however it will depend on the La Niña weather pattern which is forecast. It may be a wet one leading into Christmas, but only time will tell.

On the fishing front we have plenty of options. At the time of writing, the local rivers and creeks have some of the best water quality I have seen in a fair while.

Hastings River has seen fish such as bream and bass spread back into the upper reaches, and flathead are being caught throughout the Hastings and Maria River, and also into the Wilson at Tele Point. The front of our

river systems are still worth fishing, and both main walls plus the coal wall have produced luderick, bream and flathead.

Whiting will start to be a more consistent catch this month, and the sand flats around Pelican Island plus the Maria River mouth will be worth trying either with surface lures or, if you prefer bait, pink nippers or beach worms should get

Quality flathead can be expected this month.

Mandy using the MMD soft prawn to fool this bream.

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you into a few. Mulloway have been a little quiet but that’s what they do, and you just have to persist with fishing the deeper holes.

The good thing is there should be some by-catch of reasonable flathead, especially if you use soft vibes or plastics in the 100mm size range. Baitfish should be a lot more prevalent upriver now, and the mulloway will not be far from the food. This, along with the prawn activity, is starting to make for some fun times on the water.

In the river the prawn activity will start to heat

up so if you’re lure fishing why not imitate the food source? A pretty simple technique is to hop a suitable imitation around weed beds for flathead, and a 75mm prawn is spot on.

Another prawn lure which I have been having great success on is the small Soft Prawn from MMD. The mid weight model is ideal for bream, bass and whiting, and they have accounted for a few flathead too. They look like a small jelly prawn and sink well when cast into structure.

Crabbing has been consistent and this should continue into summer with mud crabs and blue swimmers. Putting your traps in the mouth of the Maria seems to be the go at present, or you can put them on the south side from Hibbard ferry for the blue swimmers. Mud crabs have been good all around Rawdon Island and also up into the Maria River.

Offshore fishing has remained good, and both of Port Macquarie’s charter boats have been getting snapper, pearl perch and

Josh with a good Maria River bass. flatties, giving clients a great feed. It’s definitely worth checking these guys out or getting your boat

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OCTOBER 2020

Jerkbaits like the Samaki Redic have been great on the early season bass.

out there and fishing some of the great close-in spots off lighthouse down to Lake Cathie. These areas consistently produce good quality reds, and if you’re not sure what’s biting call in and see the boys at the local tackle store. They will point you to the right areas.

Rock fishos are coming off one of the best black drummer seasons in years – the action in winter was crazy. While you can still catch them, they are now fewer in number.

Bream, tailor, luderick and salmon have all been caught fishing the rocks from Port Down to Point Perp. Spinning with metal lures or ganged pilchards early in the morning has been consistent on tailor and salmon.

With travel out of state not an option, Port Macquarie offers a lot for the NSW angler. If it’s safe to do so, check the area out.

NSW

Unreal shallow snapper action FORSTER

Luke Austin

October in the beautiful Forster/Tuncurry area generally consists of glass calm mornings and warm daytime temperatures. As the weather continues to warm, the appetites and activity levels of our local fish populations grow, and the fishing action can be absolutely nuts!

fishery really starts to take shape this month, and there have already been some great fish coming from the weed beds and rivers. Towards the end of this month the cicadas should start singing, and once these amazing little insects crawl out of the ground and take flight, it’s time to catch bream on surface lures! There are very few things in fishing better than the satisfaction of seeing a fish monstering your surface lure, so if you are out

forever on the lookout for an easy meal. Flathead have been relatively plentiful all year but in recent weeks there has been a notable increase in fish numbers, particularly around areas such as The Cut, Regatta Island and the back of Wallis Island. While most fish have only been between 30-50cm, the lower sections of the system around The Paddock and the bridge have started to produce some very nice fish, well over the 60cm mark.

October is the perfect month for hitting the beach with the family. The days are warm and calm, and the fishing can be unbelievably good. Spending the day on the sand chasing beachworms and then converting them into a tasty feed of bream, whiting, flathead and dart is hard to beat. It doesn’t matter which of the local beaches you fish, as they are all holding fish at the moment. For bait gathering it’s hard to go past 7 Mile Beach or 9 Mile Beach.

There has been the odd

to the south around Pacific Palms. This year’s tailor season has been very average.

Normally in October we would be starting to think about the nice ‘second wave’ of fish that we normally get leading into summer, but this year we will just have to wait and see what happens.

As well as the odd tailor, the local rock ledges are still producing some very nice black drummer, bream and groper. What the tailor season has lacked in this year the black drummer have more than made up for! Hitting the stones down around Jaineys Corner and Pacific Palms with a bucketful of cunjevoi, crabs and prawns for bait is a surefire way of getting a feed.

Offshore fishing has been very good of late, with consistent catches coming from just about any depth and direction. The shallow water snapper action on the reefs to the north has been unreal, with loads of fish hunting about in close, and most have Kingfish remain very active throughout October.

Brad Cassin got this cracker drifting the rock walls.

Local legend John Startin with a very nice springtime flathead.

Trumpeter whiting season is in full swing now, with tonnes and tonnes of these tasty little fish schooling up in the deeper channels of the estuary. Areas such as Hells Gate and The Duck Pond are fishing well, but don’t be afraid to move away from the flotilla that chases them on a daily basis; you will find plenty of quality fish up as far as Green Point, Regatta Island and Coomba Park.

The ‘summer’ bream

on the lake over the next few months be sure to take a few cicada lures and stickbaits.

The terrestrial insects are not the only ones starting to wake from their winter slumber; the aquatic equivalents are also starting to become more and more active as the temperatures warm. An increase in prawn numbers really gets things moving.

Whiting and flathead start to feed much more actively, and the local bream seem to be

Paul Johnston with a typical October flats lizard. tailor about for those wishing to search for them, with the majority of fish coming from the beaches and headlands

been of a good size with not many fish coming to the boat smaller than 40cm. Reports of 70cm+ fish being caught in 20m or less of water have been common over the past couple of months, and it’s a great sign of just how healthy our local snapper fishery is.

Even better is the fact that so many anglers see these special bigger fish as strictly ‘catch and release’ specimens, and return them to the ocean after a few happy snaps to fight another day.

Further afield, the deeper reefs are producing some cracking mixed bags consisting of snapper, big pearl perch, teraglin, morwong and the odd pigfish.

When the weather has

permitted, the wide grounds have been holding some nice bar cod, pearl perch and the odd kingfish. If you do head out wide don’t be scared to troll some skirts or hardbodies around while you are moving, as there is always the odd early season mahimahi or marlin cruising about in October.

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Dave Smith with a ripper snapper. Chasing these fish in shallow water is hard to beat.

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57

NSW

Time to get stuck into big spring mulloway PORT STEPHENS

Paul Lennon

The days are getting longer, the weather and water temps are rising and the fishing is red hot regardless of whether you’re fishing from a jetty or offshore in a boat.

In the estuary, dusky

bait when it comes to flathead, with 80-120mm soft plastics or hardbodies the ideal size range to mimic their natural prey.

It’s coming to breeding season so if you are lucky to catch a fish over the 70cm mark there is a good chance she is full of millions of eggs, so consider a quick photo then release to do

and deeper holes. Soft vibes such as the Samaki Vibelicious work a treat on mulloway, especially when used around tide changes coinciding with dawn or dusk.

The rock walls at Nelson Bay are still holding luderick however they are starting to slow down so make the most of the next

The author with a nice Karuah lure caught mulloway. flathead are plentiful, especially towards the back of the bay around Tilligerry Creek, Oyster Cove and the Karuah River. While some find it hard to believe, lures will significantly out-fish

her thing.

Mulloway are also a great target through the spring months, particularly in the Karuah River where they can be caught around the bridges, rock walls

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few weeks as they will get tougher and tougher the further into spring we get.

There are good numbers of bream through the port, with the ever-productive anchorage and Nelson Bay walls holding thumpers well over 1kg. Bream should also start to feed on surface lures this month, providing epic fun around Soldiers Point through to Tea Gardens bridge areas.

The ocean rocks will still produce drummer for the next month, with the wash zones around Boulder Bay and Rocky Point the best areas to fish. Use fresh cunjevoi or large peeled prawns casted unweighted

into the white water, with a handful of bread berley every five minutes.

This method of fishing around the rocks doesn’t just produce drummer – there’s also a quality by-catch in the way of squire-size snapper, bream, leatherjacket and groper, so it’s a great way to catch a feed.

Plenty of fun to be had spinning pelagics at this time of year from the stones. Look for a point or headland jutting out to deeper water with reefy bottom that’s holding baitfish, and cast and retrieve 20-50g metals from it and you should be rewarded with anything from tailor and salmon to kingfish and bonito.

From the beaches, October is always a cracker month to target a big mulloway. Fingal, Stockton, Samurai and Hawks Nest are the pick of the local beaches for mulloway, with the secret to success being persistence and quality bait such as fresh squid or a live tailor, pike or whiting.

Speaking of whiting, their numbers should drastically increase this month. If you get yourself some live worms and head down to a gutter on a high tide change you should do well on these tasty critters.

OFFSHORE There are still some good snapper to be caught from Fisherman’s Bay through to Seal Rocks. If you’re using plastics, drift the shallow reefs (less then 30m of water) using 5-7” jerk shad style lures on 1/4oz to 3/8oz jigheads.

Local charter boat Pacific Blue has been putting clients onto some good fish

Mike Dimar with a beautiful dusky flathead. in 50-80m of water, with a mix of snapper, teraglin and mulloway.

The ever-reliable sand flathead have been thick in 50m of water off Fingal and Broughton Island.

Flasher rigs, such as

Snapper Snatchers, have been the best method to get into them.

Besides being a great eating fish, sand flathead can be caught at any time of day and have saved many otherwise fish-less trips.

ens estuary system the beautiful Port Steph signed g charter that can be de with a calm water fishin family bait fishing to to suit your needs from hing anglers. hardcore lure and fly fis

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58

OCTOBER 2020

Make the most of the luderick before they’re gone.

NSW

Flat out flatty fishing CENTRAL COAST

Jamie Robley

It’s great to be finally enjoying some warmer weather and a noticeable improvement in fishing that October normally delivers. It’s within the calmer waters of our lakes

warms up or cools down a lot quicker than most estuaries and this is quite obvious for me, as I’ve fished both Tuggerah and the adjacent Lake Macquarie so much over the past four decades. The general spring trend is for Lake Mac to take another month or so to reach similar

A selection of stickbaits and metal lures ideal for casting at salmon this month. Salmon usually respond best to lures early in the morning or towards sunset, and a fast, erratic retrieve tends to work best. and Brisbane Waters where angling action should be warming up the most, so let’s take a closer look at what should be on offer this month.

Being such a shallow system, Tuggerah Lakes

temperatures as any of the three Tuggerah Lakes. Of course, Brisbane Waters will also be warming up, but more like the same rate as Lake Mac. In fishing terms, this translates to an increase

in bream, flathead and whiting activity. In fact, I’d probably rate October as one the best flathead months in our local waters.

The Entrance and Woy Woy are some of our best flathead areas, but it’s also worth trying for a flatty at Toukley Bridge, Budgewoi and the northern or Gosford end of Brisbane Waters, such as around the mouths of Narara or Erina creeks.

Boat or kayak anglers could also look around Paddys Channel, Phegans Bay and over the eastern sections around Empire Bay or Bensville.

It’s always hard to beat natural baits like prawns, nippers or strips of fish flesh for flathead, but many anglers these days prefer to use lures. While we have an enormous variety of lures available, I still reckon it’s hard to go past a simple soft plastic, especially if it’s one that has an enticing, natural wiggle to it, such as the good old Squidgy Wrigglers. Realistically though, most soft plastics around 80-120mm will be quite effective on flathead in our local waters.

Bream often kick into gear in October. We’ve had plenty of rain through winter, so it’s not as if we’re in drought conditions and this encourages prawns, weed and other life forms to thrive, which gives the bream something to feed on. While they certainly

Bream are starting to kick into gear now and they should become more active as the water warms. will take surface lures now, I would still be inclined to stick with good quality bait or sinking lures this month if you’re keen on nailing a few fish.

October isn’t quite what you’d call a prime month for whiting, but you’ll definitely be in with a better chance now than the previous few months.

Once again, I’d rate The Entrance and Woy Woy as good places to try, and much like the bream situation at the moment, I would recommend using baits like beachworms, pink nippers or peeled prawns. If we do get some warmer days then by all means break out the surface lures and give them a run.

A few luderick, leatherjacket and a possible mulloway are other species worth considering this month. Of course, prawning is another popular activity in this part of the world. Hopefully, the rainfall in previous months will translate to a good year for prawns, but time will tell.

ROCK AND BEACH This isn’t exactly the best time of year for rock and beach fishing, although it could still be possible to enjoy some action on salmon, drummer, luderick or groper. If you like to cast out a pilly on ganged hooks then salmon are almost a sure bet.

It would be about 10 years ago now that I was getting into a few salmon by casting pillies into the surf at North Entrance, when a solid 5kg tailor took the bait. Another time a few years earlier I caught a 1m mulloway at Soldiers Beach

doing the same thing, so although salmon are by far the most likely fish to show up in the surf this month, anything is possible!

OFFSHORE Offshore fishing in October is much the same, with salmon normally being abundant along the coastal strip, but we could see a few kingfish, reds, morwong and trevally in the mix. It’s not really a good month to head out, but if the weather and sea conditions are favourable and you’ve got an open mind then you could strike it lucky.

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NSW

Plenty more species to chase ILLAWARRA

Greg Clarke

Things are starting to warm up and it is not just the weather. After whinging all winter about the cold and wind, soon it will be the heat and sunburn that will take over, and I’ll take that any day, because the hotter weather means warmer water and so many more choices of fish to chase.

The bottom bouncers do it pretty tough through winter, with usually only a few snapper and mowies about. On top of that, just to get a feed these anglers have to contend with the hordes of leather jackets and barracouta stealing baits and tackle.

Now things are changing; the water is starting to warm and awaken the flathead from their winter hiatus. There

are plenty of baitfish now gathering along the coast in the form of very small slimy mackerel and yellowtail. Most are barely 50mm long but there are plenty of them, and they are not all pushed up to the surface by pelagics so the flatties will be hiding in the sand, eyes up, waiting for any to swim their way. They won’t pass up a bit of cut bait passing either, so flatties will be back on the menu.

The small snapper are still about, and the baitfish and warm water will bring increasing numbers of samsonfish, pigfish, trevally, teraglin and small mulloway along with mowies and the still numerous leatherjackets and barracouta. So there is at least a mixed bag on the drift from here on into summer, and 30-50m of water seems to be the preferred depth.

With the small baitfish

There will still be a few small snapper over the close reefs this month.

come the pelagics, so bait balls are not uncommon this month, particularly off the northern beaches up to National Park.

Barracouta, bonito, salmon, small kingfish, tailor, trevally, striped tuna and even snapper will be in on the action, with metal lures getting most species. A 100mm+ plastic worked under the schools will bring undone any hunting snapper.

The birds are the key to success. There can be a bait ball getting hammered 50m from you, and unless the birds show you where it is you can miss it. Mutton birds, terns and seagulls hovering and diving are what to look for.

Not all the action is on the surface though; the bait can be balled up near the bottom, and if this is the case birds won’t be any help at all. Instead, keep an eye on your sounder. That solid blob with bigger arches around it is always worth a very thorough examination with both baits and plastics.

Bait balls don’t happen every day so working your favourite reef with plastics or putting down the anchor and a berley trail will usually get a few fish. Little makos will be active again this month and they love berley too, so be careful washing your hands over the side.

Some better kingfish will be hanging around the deeper reefs with live baits set deep.

When you hook one, the other crew members rip in with the knife jigs as you are bringing your fish to the surface – that is if their live baits weren’t eaten too. If you’re fishing solo disregard that last bit.

Bandit and Wollongong reef edges along with the

deeper Trap Reef should hold a few fish, and you may even score a fish or two around the islands and Bass Point. These days you often find that where the kings are, so are the seals.

If so it can be difficult to get your fish to the boat as the seals love kingies.

Further offshore this month we generally get the first push of warm water from the EAC out around the shelf, and for some reason even though the water isn’t tropical by any means, we always seem to get a few big mahimahi, spearfish and striped marlin and, if the currents are favourable, some solid yellowfin tuna. It then goes a bit quiet before the hot water really gets cranking and all the goodies come with it around Christmas time. In the meantime, it’s a matter of getting out there, burning some fuel and have a look, because we all know Facebook is a great guide to when and where to go fishing.

If the water stays cool for a little longer there will be a chance of a few albacore out wide as well, and plenty of striped tuna for bait.

With the slightly warmer water in close and daylight saving, the beaches are now back on the comfortable side, particularly for fishing during the evenings. Small mulloway are on the move with the odd bigger fish mixed in. Keep an eye out for any bird activity on the beaches, because when salmon are pushing the bait in close you can guarantee there will be a few mulloway in the area as the sun goes down, along with some solid tailor.

Flatties are back in fashion on the beaches too. They’re not in any great numbers

A few flatties are starting to show in the lake. just yet, but a walk along the beach flicking plastics around the edges of the gutters will pick up a fish or two. There are a few bream around, and the first of the whiting are starting to show, and will only get better as we head deeper into spring.

The estuaries are now worth a good look with the days longer and the shallow waters much warmer, getting the small mullet, whitebait and prawns moving. This makes the flatties feed more actively. Live poddy mullet and plastics as always are the bait of choice. Anywhere in the lake is worth a shot and everyone has their special spots. Small chopper tailor are on the move cutting plastics to bits, particularly around the

drop-off, and the bream are hungry as well from the feeder streams to the entrance.

By the end of the month we should see the first run of prawns if you can call it that these days. Due to the permanent entrance to the lake, now they move out as soon as they are breeding size rather than being stuck for a few months or years and getting bigger and more numerous. But move they do and the fish still hunt them, and whiting on poppers will become viable again.

For a feed you can get some worms or nippers, but popping is more fun. The feeder streams will have some big mullet on bread if you want to keep the kids amused and get some bait.

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NSW

Remember big breeders are big feeders BATEMANS BAY

Anthony Stokman

Sunny days are in full swing now as we leave winter behind us. We are well into spring and the estuaries come back to life and the Eastern Australian Current starts to head downhill and we can expect big fish to take advantage of these nutrient-rich conditions.

the year, probably the most famous catch in the estuary.

The mulloway is one of the most sought-after species on every angler’s wish list.

We have had some good runs of mulloway during spring, last year wasn’t as good as the year before, but I’m hopeful after recent rains and a good flush out of the systems we might see a good turn up. A lot of fishos target them at night around tide changes. The

favourite when they are not taking presentations off the surface, which is one of the main reasons why you go bass fishing. Also try, cheap Kokoda Baits to Megabass siglets and so much in between – soft Shell Cicada by Tiemco, Atomic Hardz cicada to Bassday’s Buns are all good surface presentations.

With the estuary heating up and bream moving in chasing the bait, squid also

There has been a run of gummy sharks lately, Jakob Poyner found this one off the beach.

In the estuary at this time of the year it has become a major goal to catch a metre-y! Big girl flathead come out of the winter and cooler hibernation conditions with a big appetite. Over the years the lures thrown at them have got bigger and bigger, realising the bigger the better and can put you in the metre-long club.

The most popular choice now and in the past has been big paddle-tail or wriggle tail plastics at 7” or longer. Big lures also mean long casts and covering a lot of ground, which allows you to be stealthier. Plastics are good as you can rig them in different ways with extra hooks or a stinger hook, and you can cut them down if you want to mix up sizes. The other advantage is they are cheaper than hardbodies.

But it is hardbodies that have taken off chasing these big girls. Big divers, big swimbaits and now big surface lures. Fishos have worked out that flathead aren’t shy with taking big lures off the surface and are known to come up a few metres to do so.

When fishing for flathead by day with big lures, will also put you in with the chance of a mulloway by-catch. This is another species that fires up the estuary at this time of

boats will anchor up and use freshly caught squid and or live mullet as the baits of choice. Land-based fishos will use the same baits but with slightly longer rods.

Not everyone has a boat and fishing land-based and catching a big mulloway is an addiction for some, and on a lure is the Holy Grail.

The lures are the same and similar to what you chase metre flattie, cod, snapper and similar. What has been extremely popular over the last couple of years has been the 7” ZMan, but if you want to know the colour that worked the best then you’ll have to come in store for that top secret.

Other great lures to use are the old Squidgy Fish 100mm black and gold and silver fox, big Gulps, some great Powerbait models, and the Samaki 7” Mega Bomb Shad looks dynamite and will be my pick for this spring run.

Further up the estuary we should be seeing more of a comeback in regards to bass. The droughts and fires were not the best conditions upstream. But now with a lot of recent water we are already seeing a few bass on the chew and it’s looking to be a better season for fishos chasing them. The 1/8oz black purple spinnerbait from AusSpin is still a

come into the river as the numbers increase during this spawning time. Crabs are being targeted and this summer could see a better run of prawns now we have

had a lot of rain and some lakes have busted open which allows life to flow in and out. The estuary is going to be the place to be over October and into summer.

One big highlight outside the estuary at this time of the year is when snapper are spawning out in the 60m+ depths. You can find them everywhere generally from 5-120m and are usually all year round. The past 12 months have seen a nonstop run of snapper with only a few slower patches. But it’s this time of the year when they are in great numbers schooling and can smash you on every drop when they are hungry.

What everyone loves dropping down to them these days are micro jigs.

They are great because they get down better than plastics. Even old bait fishers are converted to micro jigs. They are easy and simple and you can just drop them down and give them a jiggle or lift and can be as easy as that.

When current kicks in or the deeper you go, then you can up the weight to 80,100 or 120g jigs. If it’s a bit slow you can add bait to the hook or scent to the jig. Whatever helps.

Off the stones and ledges could see a few good spring kingies travelling by as well as salmon, tailor, snapper and possibly bonito. The land-based lure

Georgia Poyner with a nice grouper from her kayak. and live bait anglers come out looking for a larger king amongst the mass of rat kings that will also be getting around.

Early in the morning just on dawn, the bait is in close and in reach to catch and put into rock pools. Once I have a few I put one straight out under a balloon. Once I have enough live baits and

Kritdawg and the boys picked up some end of season bluefin.

the sun is poking over the horizon I start casting lures as I watch the balloon in anticipation that something is going to go down in the way of a big kingie.

On the beaches, it’s the whiting that fishos love targeting as it gets warmer and is a prize for the table.

Worms and nippers are still the perfect baits for these guys with very light set ups. Long light rods with as light as you can be rigs, ask in store about the Marukyu rig that takes both worms and artificial worms.

Offshore things have slowed down on the tuna front and it’s at this time of the year and until the end of November when school yellowfin tuna can show in either poor to good numbers as it varies from year to year. Albacore tuna can also bite very well during this period and it also varies from year to year.

Trolling for these guys with smaller skirts and bibbed hardbodies are the go.

Not long now and the marlin will be down as well as mahimahi, but we’ll save that for the next article.

For now, get out and feel the sunshine on your face and find a nice place to cast a line.

Enjoy, isolate and stay safe.

Go fishing!

• For more up-to-theminute information on what’s biting where, drop into Compleat Angler Batemans Bay and have a chat to Anthony or one of the other friendly staff.

They’re located at 65A Orient St, Batemans Bay (02 4472 2559).

OCTOBER 2020

61

NSW

Follow the flooding tide BERMAGUI

Darren Redman djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

This winter has been a cracker as far as rainfall goes in our area, resulting in just about all of our lakes and rivers opening up to the sea. For this reason, the warm months ahead are shaping up to be the best for many seasons.

To maximise your catch rates try following the flooding tides. These areas

may include the lower flats of an estuary system right through to the upper reaches into the brackish where water temps are higher. With the rivers and lakes being open to the ocean, this clean water pushing in brings life to the flats, where all the fish’s prey become active – so guess where we anglers should be fishing!

In the lakes there is plenty of movement as things warm up, with Wallaga Lake holding lots of flathead only too willing to attack a lure.

Plastics are working well around the weed beds of the western shoreline, while blades are producing in the deep. Trolling hardbodied diving lures will work when times get tough, while live mullet will always produce for the less active angler.

Fishing the flats at high tide with baits like nippers, worms or prawns is not only good for flathead, there are plenty of bream, whiting, mullet, trevally and luderick only too willing to get into the action.

Wallaga re-opens to the ocean.

There is plenty of shore access close to the Wallaga Lake Bridge.

You should also look for the luderick around the bridge pylons where they can be targeted with weed.

Those blackfish have spilt over into the Bermagui River where anglers will find them in the harbour, along the rock walls, around the bridge, and upstream adjacent to the weed beds where they will filter over the flats at high tide in search of small prawns, worms, nippers or other crustaceans.

We are at that time of year where not much is happening on the gamefish front, although anglers can tune their skills on the amount of salmon we

have on hand at present.

The beauty of these fish is you don’t need a luxurious game boat to catch them – a small tinny will do. You can find the salmon from the shore, off the rocks and beaches and in the estuaries.

Of late they have been in the estuaries more often, following the good wets that have the entrances wide open to the ocean. They are taking lures, flies or baits, casted, trolled or set, in all sorts of weather and sea conditions.

Offshore you don’t have to travel far to find them.

Adjacent to the entrance, Horseshoe Bay or along the rocks around the bommie

out from The Blue Pool or trolling along the rock coast line south to the Three Brothers is about as far as you need to go. Once located on the troll you may then wish to cast lures or flies for more excitement.

Most of the beaches and rocks in the area are holding fish, which are easily accessed, while Wallaga and Wapengo Lakes have plenty around their entrances on the higher tides.

The other highlight of the area at present is the amount of offshore bottom fish. There are all sorts of reef fish available, with snapper being the main To page 63

Getting through Brogo’s good and bad times TATHRA

Darren Redman djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

Brogo Dam is a truly beautiful little bass fishery nestled in the hills between Bega and Bermagui on the south coast of NSW. At present the fish are just starting to kick off the season, with anglers finding some bass starting to chew on the warmer days. Following the winter rains the dam is at full capacity, so you may find the fish are up in the shallow, warmer water.

The Brogo Bass fishery exists mainly due to the efforts of the Far South Coast Bass Stocking Association in conjunction with NSW DPI Fisheries in raising funds which have stocked the dam for the past 23 years. Over the last four years, thousands of estuary perch have also been liberated into the dam.

Most of the funds raised by the Association have come from the annual bass comp held over the first weekend in December, which would 62

OCTOBER 2020

have been in its 22nd year this December. Sadly, due to COVID it now looks like this event will have to be postponed, with the aim to make the 2021 a special

event once the COVID crisis eases.

The good news is that the annual stockings will go ahead later this year, with both bass and estuary perch

set to be released. For further information about the Brogo bass and perch fishery future, feel free to contact us at fscbsa_brogobassbash@ hotmail.com or phone

The Brogo Bass Bash is the main fundraiser for stocking Brogo Dam. Although the comp may not go ahead in 2020, the stocking program will go on as usual, with bass and estuary perch due for release later this year.

0427 934 688.

The Bega River is a fairly lengthy system, and travelling upstream you can monitor the changes in water temps. When you find a change in temperature you should start to look for fish, bream especially, in shallow water over gravely areas.

These fish are often attracted by prey that’s also seeking warmth, such as shrimp, prawns and baitfish.

There are good numbers of black bream in the Bega River at present, and once located several fish may be captured out of the school, either on bait or lures, before moving on. These fish may move due to a tide change bringing cooler water, so it then becomes necessary to follow the warm water. You will also see a colour change, with the murky water often being warmer, so a good rule of thumb is to start upstream, following it with a receding tide.

There are many other species here also warming to the conditions. Dusky flathead particularly like the shallow, warm areas, as do whiting, tailor, mullet, luderick and estuary perch,

which are abundant.

The sweet water of the Bega River further inland is also heating up producing some excellent bass fishing. Some of these fish have been in excess of 50cm with most being over the 40cm mark. They are providing some excellent lure and fly angling where all you need to find is some good deep water with plenty of structure.

Most of the other rivers or lakes in the area are producing similar results so there is some good angling to be had.

Offshore things are hotting up for the reef anglers with some excellent bags of fish coming in. Flathead are a specialty, with tiger flathead dominating the catch. Around 30m of water or deeper is where you will find them with the larger fish coming from the greater depths. If it’s sandies you are looking for, often the shallower water will produce, where recently some nice gummy and small whaler sharks have shown up.

To page 63

NSW From page 62

prize. They are turning up from Montague Island, the reefs just south of Bermagui like the Four, Six Mile or further down to Goalen Head right out to the Twelve Mile.

Mixing with the snapper are a few kingfish, plenty of perch, morwong, nannygai and jackets, while out wider the Tassie trumpeter are making their presence felt.

60m of water. They usually hang just off the reefs, so I recommend starting on the reefs and drifting off them, to give you an added bonus of some reef fish before drifting onto the flatties.

The locals are still cashing in out wide down in the Canyons. Those delicious deep water monsters, the blue-eye trevalla, are the most

NSW

should have a shark trace handy as often the sharks will find your fish as tasty as you do.

Makos are starting to show as they follow some of the early season tuna schools. Albacore, yellowfin or striped tuna are showing more readily, while there is always a chance of some bluefin or big-eye.

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There will be lots of quality bream over the flats in Wallaga Lake now it is open.

Tiger flathead are highly sought-after at this time of year, with some of the best areas being just out the front of Bermagui in about From page 62

On the reefs themselves you can expect the usual array of snapper, morwong, jackets or ocean perch, while out further those deep water species like hapuka, blue-eye trevalla, ling, perch, alfonso and gemfish are becoming popular as anglers acquire the tackle to target them.

While you’re out wide, keep an eye out for tuna schools as the offshore water is also warming,

sought after, and the Bunga Canyons are producing the most. Ling, perch, jewfish, hapuka and ghost cod are all on the short list too, and you

is out over the Shelf beyond the 1,000 fathom line. With water temperatures rising we should start seeing more of them.

bringing stripies, yellowfin, albacore and the odd bluefin within reach of anglers.

The Tathra Wharf is a popular place at present; plenty of silver trevally are providing great sport for young and old. There is also lots of other action with the resident school of yellowtail, mackerel or garfish there to entertain, plus the added bonus of some great calamari squirting ink at anglers.

Passing schools of salmon

or tailor are providing fun, not only on The Wharf but also along the rocks and beaches. Lures are a great way to tempt these fish, with long raking casts with metal style lures often all that is needed to produce.

Fishing the beaches of a night is definitely worth a try, with gummy sharks moving in after dark along with some small whalers and the odd mulloway. Most are being taken on baits like fresh fish strips or squid.

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As a result of many years of stocking, fish of this quality are on offer in Brogo Dam. OCTOBER 2020

63

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65

Kayaking

NSW

Get to where the boaters can’t at Swansea Flats CENTRAL COAST

Byron Hill

If you’ve heard of Lake Macquarie, you’ve probably heard of Swansea flats. It’s a mustfish location for kayakers in the Newcastle area and if the conditions are right, it can absolutely fire.

There are a number of spots to launch from, some hidden gutters in super shallow water and a very nice drop-off that lends itself to fish that are in ambush. Swansea is a place that will begin to fire in the coming months as the water heats up but is a great place for any angler who is starting out to have a great day on the water.

The flats are easily

researched on Google and it’s easy to see why the area fires so well coming into the warmer months.

There are some nice deep channels that have been cut in to allow vessels to transit and access the beach, but the key advantage for a kayak in the area is the ability to access the shallow areas other boats are unable to reach. It’s in these areas that some big fish lay in ambush with almost no fishing pressure.

In terms of depth, Swansea Flats starts at the beach and settles around 2-4ft for the majority of the flat. It drops to around 8ft prior to the step on the western side where it drops off into the deeper blue water. The weed can be thick in areas so if you

Filming with ET on Swansea Flats. get distracted you may end up fouling the Mirage Drive in weed or getting the hull stuck in weed. If that happens, no big deal – it’s shallow, just go for a walk in the water and cool off on a hot day.

Along the stretch, there are a few locations where you can launch your kayak.

I recommend you assess the conditions of the day and launch upwind and take the ride with the wind/current across the flats. On a good day, you can start at one end and drift to the other. It’s

mean a difficult launch but the majority of the shoreline is sand.

The flat has its fair share of weed and that is how I’d recommend you decide where to cast. In areas of weed, target the small sand patches where fish may be nesting. In areas of sand, target the edges of the weed, where a fish may be poking its head out waiting for bait to go past. In areas of blanket weed, work a lure across the blanket.

With this type of

and using it as a canopy from the sun. Work the lure adjacent to these little ‘awnings’ and you might just find a fish punch out and crunch your lure.

Working the shallows on the warmer days can be so much fun when you’re considering a surface bite session. Long casts will help you out here, and as the lure passes a hole in the weed, or a clump of weed on its own, stop the lure to tempt a fish out of its hidey hole. I would caution the use of surface lures in the deeper 3-5ft areas at Swansea though; there can be pockets of pike who like to collect mouth jewellery.

Fish on Swansea Flat seem to congregate in patches so keep moving. If you’re fishing an area and you’re getting nothing, let the wind take you another 50m and keep fishing along the way.

The flats have all the bread-and-butter species, and a live prawn on a hook will attract every one of them. Rigged on light line, it’s bound to breed success.

The drop-off on the western side will hold a snapper or two that sit about dinner plate size if you want a feed. I’d recommend using the boaters who anchor up to your advantage. Sit 100m downcurrent of them and throw a plastic into their

A double hook-up on the double kayak at Swansea.

Father and son releasing a net full of bream.

Thomas Perrett with a nice 41cm estuary perch he caught at Cattai Creek, Oakville, during a hot session with multiple hook ups.

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ideal for a kayaker as you just need to either paddle at the start or the end of your session to get back to your car.

Suggested launch points include the Swansea Bay Beach, behind the caravan park, and the area around the Commercial Fishermans Co-op Swansea or the boat ramp at the end of Lake Road. There are some areas where rocks may

fishing I can’t emphasize how important it is to have a good pair of polarised sunglasses. Being able to see the where fish are moving and holding makes your job as an angler much easier. Whilst you drift I’d recommend having a look at the way the weed is laying, particularly if it is folding across the top on the surface of the water. The fish will be sitting under the fold

berley trail. Be courteous of course, but if they’ve been there for a hour, that berley trail will be long.

Swansea Flats will start to fire in the coming months, and it’s a nice safe area to get your kayak out and have a fish. It’s easily accessible fishing but the fish are smart, so get the glasses out and target specific areas and you’ll end up with the goods.

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OCTOBER 2020

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OCTOBER 2020

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NSW

Plenty of golden opportunities this spring ALBURY/WODONGA

Connor Heir

The warmer weather is now well and truly here.

October is that time of year where it’s not too hot or too cold to be out enjoying the outdoors.

There are some very

special places that can be explored, and all it takes is some planning and you’re already halfway to reeling in success.

Something I’m often asked about is what gear I recommend for catching golden perch. The truth is that they will take a huge variety of lures, and

sometimes you can be best off just doing a lucky dip in a box of lures and using whatever comes out! There are some general pointers I can give, however.

For golden perch in the Murray cod closure season, my biggest recommendation is to really cut down on the size of the lures you are

success than if you used them in a different scenario.

There are three styles of lure that I generally take with me wherever I go golden perch fishing.

These are small hardbodies (under 60mm to reduce the chances of catching cod), lipless crankbaits (better known as vibes) and soft plastics. Having all three lure types will cover you in most applications.

The reason some lures work better in certain fisheries is because of the different structure and depth you are fishing. A lipless crankbait sinks, as will soft plastics, whereas hardbodies (in most cases) float. So if you are fishing heavy timber, a hardbody can be the best and most practical approach as it will kick over the snags. By contrast, a lipless crankbait or soft plastic can easily be jammed or wedged in structure, and you can’t just let them float up and kick over the snags. Yes, lipless crankbaits and soft plastics will still work in these

A golden from a backwater eddy. Casting small hardbodies through these pools can be a very effective way to catch golden perch in rivers. Use small lures to reduce your chances of catching a closed season cod. areas when used correctly, but if you are starting out it’s better to take the more practical option.

Conversely, if you are fishing a very deep bank in an impoundment, a sinking lure like a lipless crankbait or soft plastic will have a huge advantage over hardbodies for casting.

Again, a hardbody can still work, and trolling

hardbodies is often a very effective method to finding schools of fish. However, sinking lures suit this style of water best, as they can be put in the zone at any depth.

A hardbody will dive only to its designated depth.

Having said all that, 50% of your chance to succeed is just being there.

Enjoy it for what it is, and best of luck .

A Lake Hume golden taken on a sinking soft vibe. Casting at rock dropoffs and working the vibe through the water column will work well. Change your depth every few casts, as golden perch can sit at any depth. using. By doing this you are decreasing your chances of accidentally catching a cod while they are busy during the breeding cycle.

Catching a cod means taking it away from its eggs, leaving the eggs highly exposed to predators. If you accidentally catch a Murray cod during season closure, keep the fish in the water and remove hooks as quickly as possible and send the fish back on its way with the upmost of care.

The next thing to consider when chasing golden perch is the kind of waterway are you fishing.

Lure choice can be altered depending on the fishery, whether that’s a river, creek or lake. Lures are designed differently from each other to suit the application you are using them for, and using them in the correct situation will bring more consistent

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NSW

Many options when sussing out the streams BATLOW

Wayne Dubois waynedubois@westnet.com.au

The only drama with October is deciding where to fish, as there are just so many options to choose from. The trout season gets back underway and, on top of the creeks and rivers being open again, the trout lakes normally

redfin over the years that Blowering Dam’s resident Murray cod will hang around picking off any lost, released, struggling or dead redfin. Murray cod are opportunistic feeders, and if you’re on to a hot bite they hang around, and quite often you’ll hook them instead of the redfin.

This month Murray cod will be attempting to breed, so if you do accidently hook

release. Fish that have been poorly handled will quite often look like they have swum away happily, but they end up falling into a coma and go belly-up a few hours later.

This leads me onto another topic for those who like to do their utmost to ensure the fish survives to fight another day, and that is ‘bait fishing and catch and release’. An increasing

How will the trout streams fish after last summer’s devastating fires that were followed by perfect winter conditions? Now that the season is back open we can all go and see for ourselves. survival you want to hook them in the jaw as much as possible, and the best way to do this is by using circle hooks. These hooks are designed so that the fish hooks itself (rather than from the angler striking),

spawning they can be very hard to entice no matter what you throw at them.

The most active fish will be sitting in the shallows picking off frogs, yabbies and insects. These fish can be targeted with

are generally quite easy to catch for the first few weeks, and all techniques will get you amongst the fish. If the river is flowing high then bait and lure anglers will fare best, but if it is in low flow then all anglers using

The Tumut River is home to some very good sized fish and generally lots of them, which is why it is a popular spot during the first few weeks of the trout season. fish sensationally at this time of the year.

It’s not just trout either – golden perch are now at their most active and can be quite easy to catch, as are the redfin, and now anglers even have the option to target Murray cod. The options this month are almost endless.

REDFIN Jigging for redfin as always is worth a shot in October, especially if your target species isn’t biting conventionally. We have found whilst jigging for

one be sure to release it in the best possible shape. To do this, try not to have the fish out of the water for too long (or at all, if possible).

Also, while you’re taking a photo, support the fish’s belly the whole time. When the fish is in the net or you’re holding it with lip grips, make sure you keep the fish the right way up (belly facing down) to maintain its equilibrium. If you do all of these things, Murray cod have an almost 100% survival rate. If you don’t, the fish may die after

number of anglers now practicing catch and release while bait fishing, due to new regulations regarding slot limits. It’s a very successful form of fishing, especially when using chicken as bait.

There have been studies done on the effects of bait fishing on the survival rate of released freshwater fish like golden perch, Murray cod and Australian bass.

Sadly, their survival rate after being deep hooked is very low, so to maximise the fish’s chances of

Golden perch, especially big ones like this, are regularly caught through spring and make a great target in the crystal clear waters of Blowering Dam and Jounama Dam.

Redfin make a great back-up option this month. Targeting them can also bring other species to you.

and it almost always is hooked in the corner of the jaw just like most lures or flies. Fish that are hooked in the jaw or the outside of the mouth have a far greater survival rate than those deep hooked fish.

GOLDEN PERCH Golden perch are at their most active this month as they feed up and start thinking about spawning.

The goldens that aren’t thinking of spawning just yet are the fish you want to target, because once these fish get focused on

bait, lures or flies, either from the bank or from a boat. The key to this form of fishing is keeping quiet and putting in long casts so as to not spook the shallowholding fish. If you keep quiet it is not uncommon to see your target before you even put a cast in.

TROUT STREAMS AND RIVERS The Tumut River is normally the place to be in the first month of the season, and this year will be no exception. After a good break from anglers the trout

all techniques should have plenty of success.

The smaller streams received a heap of rain throughout winter and early spring, so they should have had a good spawn run and plenty of tucker, and should be in pretty good condition.

Just how much the fires have affected the streams in the fire-affected area, only time will tell. I for one will be out there checking them out, and suggest you do the same.

Until next month, good luck and tight lines.

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NSW

You’ll need a lure for every situation in October HUNTER VALLEY

Peter Phelps

The rain made a big change to the entire Hunter Valley. Some light consistent rain set us up perfectly for a good dumping at the end of winter. It’s been a pleasant sight to see the Valley green and the lakes with some water going into them again. The local rivers and creeks also got a good flush out, which gave the whole ecosystem a real boost.

October this year is shaping up to deliver some awesome spring fishing. This month is by far my favourite time of year to fish. The water is warming and the fish are aggressive willing to eat an array of lures.

October can be a ‘throw what you want’ style of month.

From finesse to reaction, all the local

impoundments will fish very similarly at this time of year. The fish should have settled into their new environment of recently drowned vegetation up on the edges, and some weed beds should be starting to grow by now, as it adjusts to the new water level.

Spring will generally have most of the fish up on the lake edges looking for their next meal.

Water clarity, wind and time of day usually determine the pattern the fish will be feeding on.

I like a little stain to the water, whether it’s from wind or still dirty from the recent rise. This tends to hold the fish shallower for longer and makes them feel comfortable enough to eat. The time of day creates the same scenario, as the low light of sunrise and sunset brings the fish shallow to eat.

As the light changes, pick your poison –

topwater, aggressive reaction baits, finesse plastics or jerkbaits. All these will get demolished in the right areas.

Once the sun gets up you will have to apply a little more structure approach to keep the bites coming.

The wind or stained water should allow you to fish a moving bait. You can use a spinnerbait, bladed jig, crankbait, lipless crankbait, blade or jig spinner plastic.

All these style of lures have a strong vibration that helps the fish locate them in the stained water. You can fish these lures with a constant slow roll, start and stop, or hop them back following the contour of the bottom.

I like to fish the style of moving bait depending on the cover I’m fishing.

Bladed jig and spinnerbaits are good around weed and sunken vegetation. The single or double hooks point upwards to keep

them out of the cover and this allows you to fish them tight in amongst the weed strands and into the holes. Crankbaits around hard cover like rock and timber allow the bait to dive into and deflect off the cover, and this creates a reaction bite.

The same thing can be said for blades, which are heavy and slice through the water on the drop. This creates a reaction from the fish when they are down steeper banks. A standard single or double hop up off the bottom and letting it plummet back down makes the fish react to the blade before it gets away from them.

When the conditions don’t favour a moving bait, this is the time to get out a skirted jig. This month, the jig really shines. The crawfish population is really on the move from their winter slumber, and the fish are homed

in on them. A skirted jig and craw plastic trailer are perfect replication of these. Fished nice and slow along the bottom around any submerged structure like timber, rock and weed should see plenty of action on a jig.

Less is more with a jig. The smallest movement gets the most action on some days. Casting accuracy is handy here for landing next to a laydown, standing tree or in a hole in the weed. Once the jig hits the bottom, the tiniest movement by just tapping the slack line is usually enough for a fish in the area to come over and eat it. The jig should be the lure you can throw all day this month and get bites.

The rivers and creeks will also be hitting their straps. Most of the bass that went downstream for the spawn will have started their migration back. Some of the smaller creeks will

start to see increased numbers of fish from now on. These bass will be hungry after the spawn and travelling great distances.

Typical spring lures will come into play here.

A spinnerbait or bladed jig is a good search bait for locating bass in your local river.

Moving quickly through sections until you get a bite, and from here you can slow down and pick the area apart. Where there is one fish there will be more. Work weedless plastics or hop a small blade around these areas after the reaction lures stop catching.

Additionally, once the light gets low these river bass love a topwater lure from now on all the way through summer. Weedless frogs, paddlers and buzzbaits are my favourite river surface lures. All serve their purpose in the right circumstances.

Yellowbelly season will standout this spring NEW ENGLAND RIVERS

Adam Townsend

The spring weather has been welcomed by many people across the New England area after another long, cold winter.

September has fished

well, as it always does when water temperatures start to warm up again. And now with the days getting longer and the weather only getting hotter in weeks to come, October’s fishing should not be any different.

The wattle bloomed early this year, and this is usually a good sign that

the perch season is about to fire up. On top of that, there were plenty of rainfall events throughout August that flooded the creeks and rivers around the Northern Tablelands, and this water found its way into the local impoundments fairly quickly. Fingers crossed the natives will take

Golden perch will be actively feeding this month.

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advantage of the water flow and healthier systems this season, and have a successful spawn. The past couple of seasons have proved to be pretty bad timing with fish kills and a very hard drought.

Pindari Dam filled rapidly leading into September (over 3% in as many days) just in time for golden perch season, seeing the dam rise back up over the 17% mark for the first time since 2018.

Hopefully with a bit more water into the dam this year it will see the fishing and boating activities pick up, as there should be a bit more open water in the basin now. This will make it more accessible to load and unload boats as well as make it safer to navigate, although you can never be too careful in impoundments where there are lots of hidden rocks and timber just under the surface.

If you are targeting the perch species at Pindari this month, you can’t go past a yabby or shrimp imitation such as a lipless crankbait (e.g. Mazzy Vib, Jackall TN, Megabass Vibration X) or small blade style lures (e.g. Ecogear ZX blade).

Remember that Murray cod season is closed, and targeting or being in possession of a Murray cod at this time of year at Pindari Dam could lead to a pretty hefty fine and your boat being confiscated.

Copeton Dam remains open for targeting Murray cod all year round if you

Golden perch fishing at this time of year can be a lot of fun. still wish to target those, however golden perch fishing at this time of year can be a lot of fun too, especially when they start schooling up on the open grass flats. At this time of year, there have been plenty of occasions where several yellowbelly have been netted when a female has been hooked during a feisty spawn period. The next few weeks as it gets hotter is

when it happens most, so now is a good time to get out and make the most of the nicer weather. Copeton is currently sitting at around the 16% mark.

The trout breeding season still remains closed as I write this report, however it will open this October long weekend.

Good luck to all getting out on the water this month, and tight lines.

NSW

Chasing those bronze missiles CANBERRA

Toby Grundy

Bass season is once again in full swing, and Canberra anglers have been taking advantage of some

on my travels heading up some isolated South Coast creek who stop for a chat, and we often remark that more Canberrans should take advantage of the brilliant bass fishing just a few hours from our doorstep.

either a baitfish or worm. To this end, I use a lot of soft plastics, and the 2” Dragon Maggot is at the top of my list. These lures are very adaptable and lifelike while also suiting my favourite retrieve for this time of

of redfin on offer for anglers fishing from a kayak/boat, and targeting the dropoffs a few metres out from the bike paths behind the college. Lake G has always been one of my favourite places to target big yellas, especially at the back end of October on cloudy, windy days. Even if you donut one day, it is definitely worth trying again as this lake holds some of the largest and most well fed golden perch in Canberra.

Lake Tuggeranong has been a real source of frustration for anglers over recent months, with some great captures interspersed with long periods of limited fishing action. It is still a case of the fish shutting down for seemingly no reason and then firing on all

Golden perch are on the bite. it can be cast a mile of light spin gear and it is possible to search large amounts of the lake from the shore or kayak/boat when using this lure. It’s not just the golden

exceptional fish landed here recently, including golden perch around the 60cm mark and plenty of redfin nudging the magic 50cm.

Crawfish-style plastics

Fish the flooded flats of Googong this October. excellent fishing for bass down at the South Coast.

I write every year about the bass fishing right along the South Coast because the rivers and creeks that hold these excellent sportfish are some of the most stunning

LOCAL LAKES Lake Burley Griffin is starting to fish really well.

There were a few quiet weeks there after the heavy August rain, meaning the September golden perch bite was late in coming.

year, which is a ‘hop and pause’ followed by another two quick hops.

The golden perch are moving about so make sure you try a number of different locations, ranging from behind the museum

Lake Burley Griffin is starting to fish well. cylinders a few days later.

That said, there are some lures that do seem to yield when others don’t get a touch, like the Jackall TN60 Silent in black king gill and the Ecogear ZX 40 in dark knight. The ZX blade warrants special mention as

perch that love them either – redfin do too, and it’s also not uncommon for a Lake T carp to attack a ZX Blade.

Yerrabi Pond continues to produce the goods despite the increasing levels of weed in the pond.

There have been so many

The bass action has been excellent lately. locations in which to cast a line. It is well worth jumping on Google Maps and having a look around, as some ‘secret spots’ really aren’t that difficult to find. This season, I have already caught some nice bass fishing from the bank and from my kayak using a variety of lures. I always meet a few Canberra locals

However, the goldens are now well and truly on the chew and can be caught in a variety of locations and using a wide array of lures, ranging from soft plastics through to small, shallow divers.

At this time of year, I like to use artificials which are ambiguous in action and shape, and could mimic

through to the middle section of Sullivans Creek and even under the two major bridges.

Lake Ginninderra is still a little hit-and-miss, but there have been some goodsized golden perch caught by anglers using vibes and targeting the shallow flats directly opposite Diddams Close. There are also plenty

Bass are an exciting option this month.

attached to skirted jigs (e.g.

Molix) fished slow along the bottom are the best lures to use if you’re after a big Yerrabi yella. Early evening is a good time to be out fishing the pond.

SURROUNDS Googong received a massive top-up at the end August, with the dam seemingly filling overnight. This has meant that the flooded flats have become a veritable ‘golden mine’ for fishos targeting the enormous yellas which inhabit the dam. Hooking a large golden perch along the flats at Googong has to be one of the most exciting angling experiences to be had in or near the ACT during spring, as they pull a lot of drag and can easily brick anglers in the spindly sunken shrubs which once lined the banks before the rapid water rise. Blades and vibes are great lure choices, and can be slow rolled parallel to a flooded bank to tempt a yella or massive redfin.

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WHAT’S NEW DUO BAITS

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The Duo Australia lure range has released a host of new offerings in its revamped line-up for 2020. Whether it’s trekking for trout in Tassie, working lipless crankbaits for bass and yellowbelly in the eastern states, or jigging down deep in WA, the Duo Australia range has you covered in the fresh and the salt, and inshore and offshore.

Lipless crankbait anglers can welcome new models with the Realis Apex Vibe 100 and Vibration Nitro 65, super-tuned and designed for optimal performance and bite response.

Finesse jerkbait anglers are in for a treat with the Realis Minnow 80SP, tuned and balanced for enhanced casting performance, while its refined hydrodynamic design produces a distinct darting action on the retrieve. Fans of the Realis Pencil topwater series welcome a new 65mm model, which is sure to become a hit with light-tackle surface junkies.

For offshore anglers there’s the Press Bait Saira, tailor-made for pelagics with its longbodied jig minnow design that’s irresistible to tuna and kingfish. Saltwater jigging anglers will love the Drag Metal Slim and Slow ranges, with their eye-catching colours, robust construction, and refined design equally suited to impoundment bass. www.daiwafishing.com.au

MERCURY BRAVO FOUR S

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PRODUCT GUIDE

SHIMANO SPECTRUM PLUS

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The new Shimano Spectrum Plus series replaces the previous Eclipse range, and it’s set to be a popular choice with entry level anglers looking for a reliable rod at an affordable price.

The rod features a glossy black and white fibreglass blank, durable ceramic ring guides and shaped EVA grip section for comfort and feel. Ideally suited to bait fishing, the tip provides great sensitivity and allows you to easily detect the faintest of bites.

This series incorporates many of the popular Eclipse models, and Shimano has also added extra models to round out the range. The Spectrum Plus series is hard wearing rod that is affordable for any entry level angler looking to chase a variety of species, either by land or by fishing off a boat. With 22 models in the series, there’s a rod to suit every fishing style and target species. If you like to travel or easily store your rods, the seven telescopic models offer great versatility.

Shimano recommends pairing the new 2020 Spectrum Plus series rods with a Shimano Sienna or FX spinning reel.

Price: SRP $29.95-$59.95 www.shimanofish.com.au

OKUMA CAVALLA OVERHEADS

Okuma Cavalla lever drag reels contain the key concepts of Okuma’s industryleading lever drag overhead platforms, taking shape in a more compact and accessible package, and radically advancing the power and performance that is available to everyday anglers.

Built tough, the Cavalla’s one-piece, fullymachined, rigid aluminium frame is designed to tolerate more pressure and torque, and it also comes equipped with a Carbonite drag system with Cal’s drag grease, for smooth stopping power, and 17-4 grade stainless steel main and pinion gears for strong, reliable performance.

The Cavalla is available in a variety of models in both single-speed and two-speed to cover everything from vertical jigging to live bait fishing, and casting to light trolling for species such as mackerel, kingfish, tuna and billfish. To see the Cavalla in action, check out the ‘Tackle Tactics TV’ YouTube channel.

Price: from SRP $499.00 www.okuma.com.au

NEW GOMOKU KENSAKI SIZES

ZEREK LIVE MULLET COLOURS

The popular Gomoku Kensaki jig from Storm is now available in three new sizes – 40g, 80g and 120g – allowing anglers to target even more species.

The Gomoku Kensaki, with its superior knife-tip design and asymmetrical shape, has been designed to cut through the water and get down deep like no other micro jig. Keeping the jig stable during its descent are the inline eyelets that enhance the fluttering action under a slack line.

When using a ‘lift and fall’ slow-pitch technique, the Gomoku Kensaki will dart aggressively and enticingly upwards as it gets lifted. This is then followed by a very tight horizontal flutter on the fall, pulling in nearby predatory fish.

The Kensaki is equipped with two VMC assist hooks, is available in seven colours, and comes in six sizes ranging from 40g to 280g. http://storm.fishing 72

OCTOBER 2020

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Mercury Marine has launched the Bravo Four S forward-facing drive with Smart Tow controls, elevating the art of crafting perfect wakes for wakesurfing, wakeboarding and other tow sports.

Digital controls coordinate ballast, surf tabs and propulsion settings under a single user interface. SmartCraft digital technologies, including an upgraded Smart Tow system, come standard with the Bravo Four S drive.

These controls allow customisation of the tow sports experience with just a few taps on a Mercury VesselView touchscreen display.

You simply select the desired tow sports activity, and the Smart Tow system will display the appropriate controls to dial in the perfect launch acceleration, towing speed and wake characteristics.

Other features include enhanced manoeuvrability, especially at low speeds; SmartCraft Digital Throttle & Shift system for precise control, a selection of five props, and more. www.mercurymarine.com.au

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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Zerek’s school of Live Mullets just got larger!

Three new colours have been added to the range of Zerek Live Mullets, and they are three colours that designers have been badgered about for a while now.

The colours are: • DA - dark ale, a clear black with gold flecks; • FB - flying bear, a predominantly white colour scheme; and • OBT - orange belly trout, a spangled perch imitation.

The three colours bring the total colours to 13 for the Live Mullet range, a range of lures that features a tough TPE construction and a unique, Kevlar webbed tail to provide the ultimate in realistic action.

These three colours will be added to the 4.5” and 5.5” Live Mullet range, and are available now. www.wilsonfishing.com

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visit www.tacklejunkie.fish for the latest tackle news - AS IT HAPPENS!

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TESTING BOOTH

Lowrance Ghost put to the test When my new Lowrance Ghost arrived and I opened the box, I wasn’t disappointed.

It was obvious that this motor was made strong and, like other cable steer motors, had a reassuring weight to it.

The motor was easy to install on the front of my boat. To connect the Ghost to my sounder unit, I needed the NMEA 2000 network, which required a starter kit from Navico. Again, this was easy and quick to install.

The Lowrance Ghost will connect without having the NMEA 2000 network on your sounder, however you won’t get to use all its features and capabilities. You can still use the anchor lock, and steer and drive the motor via the foot pedal.

I followed the provided instructions to connect the foot pedal and the GPS aerial to the carbon unit, and then downloaded the Lowrance app for my phone. This app is excellent, it lets you know when your software is out of date for your Ghost, as well as your sounder units.

I also received the hand remote, which does not come standard with the Ghost.

The sounder interface is user friendly.

Water test As per the manual, I calibrated the GPS and offset of the Ghost. With this done I was ready to go and fish the lake.

The first thing I noticed was the good response from the steering using the foot pedal, and how much thrust it had. I rolled the speed dial to maximum, and noticed it had more thrust compared to others I have used in the 24V series.

After doing a little bit of fishing I started to play around with the anchor lock. The anchor lock tended to be overly sensitive as it tried to keep me in place. When it was not windy the head of my electric would turn rapidly to try to keep on the spot. It is a common problem on most motors that have anchor/spot lock.

Lowrance have done an update, which I downloaded to adjust this problem.

A sneaky breeze started to blow in the afternoon, which provided an opportunity to see how well the anchor lock would perform, and again it did not disappoint.

The next thing I proceeded to do was to send the Ghost to waypoints, ones I had made prior to that day’s fishing, which was easy to do. Next, I played around with setting a path for the Ghost to follow.

The Ghost has a gas strut to help deploy and stow away the electric motor with ease.

On the head of the electric there is a hook, where the pull cable will sit to help control the speed. This is a very handy feature; it’s a small thing but so useful.

The Ghost comes with a support leg and Velcro strap so that it doesn’t bounce around while travelling on the trailer or on the water.

The next time I took the Ghost out on the water, it was on an electric-only waterway so I could see how efficient this motor was on battery power. I spent a whole day on Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast, fishing and travelling between spots, and at the end of the day I still had plenty of battery life.

I also used the hand control, in conjunction with coarse lock. Course lock is a feature similar to autopilot. When it is in this mode you can steer from the hand remote as well as from the sounder unit. When turning the motor in this function, the motor makes slight adjustments when steering. If you try to turn with the foot pedal it will turn off this mode and the electric motor will stop.

I also tried heading lock, which is like constant propulsion. When in this mode the hand controller will steer the boat sharply, with a similar response to the foot pedal.

Hand remote The hand remote is basic – it has speed up and down, and steering left and right. There is a pulse button, which also activates the anchor lock when held down.

The hand remote has all the functions that I need for a day’s fishing. When I am doing my ABT BASS Electric competitions, at take-off I can turn on and change the speed and steer while I am turning on my transom-mounted electric motor.

Unlike other hand remotes it does not have

The Lowrance Ghost is very easy to install and use. The foot pedal provides responsive steering. The hand remote is an optional extra.

Smooth operator The foot pedal is exceptionally smooth under foot, not heavy like traditional cable steer bow mount electric motors. This makes a day’s fishing a lot easier on your back. The motor is not loud and doesn’t make an annoying sound when it steers, or beep every time you put your foot on the propulsion button.

The foot petal has key buttons that can

The gas strut helps you to deploy and stow away the motor with ease. an LCD screen. Therefore, when in anchor lock mode or in heavy winds you cannot tell at what percentage or what speed the motor is doing, which is essential when you want to keep check of the battery usage. Mind you, cable steer motors never had hand remotes before this new wave of next generation GPS spot lock cable steer motors.

The hand remote works well with everything and is easy to use.

Lowrance have put a huge amount of R&D and testing into the new Ghost.

be set to different functions. There are four key buttons found on the foot pedal. One is set with the anchor lock as standard and the other three are used at your discretion via your sounder in the settings for the Ghost. I have set one of the buttons to mark waypoints, as my sounder is in the middle of my boat, not up front on the bow, so it is easy for me to make a waypoint when fishing and out of reach of my sounder screen.

It is more comfortable with the foot pedal counter sunk into the front deck of the boat because, with all cable steer foot pedals, they are taller than the steer bow mount electrics.

Overall, the foot pedal is great. I love the key buttons and mode you can set to them.

Bring it to life with NMEA When the Ghost is networked with NMEA 2000 to my Lowrance carbon unit, it really brings it to life. There are lots of features you can access when this is connected to the sounder unit, such as control motor via sounder screen, send to a waypoint, set a route for the Ghost to follow, and lots more.

It is so easy to go out and find fish on your side scan, mark a waypoint and then send your Ghost to that waypoint and automatically anchor lock. Instead of making a waypoint, you could go and try to sit your boat on top of it.

This feature makes it super easy; it is the first

time I have had the ability to do this on my boat and I find it so convenient.

When in anchor lock mode, you can use the jog feature, which means you can slightly fine-tune where you are anchor locked, by either using the controls on your sounder unit or using your remote by simply pressing the up-down or left-right buttons. It will move your anchored spot to the direction that you choose.

The Ghost will move very slightly so if you want to move a decent distance away, you will have to push the button a few times to get the motor to move off your original anchor spot to where you want to go. This is very userfriendly. It is so convenient to be able to move the anchor spot over a little so I can stay on schooled bass.

360° breakaway This electric motor also has a 360° breakaway spring on the shaft, so that you don’t break your shaft when you run into underwater obstructions. This mount was designed to take the force of the hit, then to flex and deflect you away from the obstruction and reposition itself. This will save a lot of people from breaking their shafts.

I was able to do a few tutorials on this and uploaded them to my YouTube channel, ‘Nishi style1’. Feel free to watch in your own time if you are curious to learn more about the Lowrance Ghost.

I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with the Lowrance Ghost this year while in tournaments and in casual fishing with family and friends. It’s amazingly easy to install and use. This electric motor is part of the new generation of bow mount electric motors that are on the market today. If you are looking for the newest and greatest bow mount, you must check this one out before deciding. - Charles West

This motor has a 360° breakaway spring on the shaft. It’s designed to be flexible and deflect underwater obstructions.

Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au OCTOBER 2020

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Daiwa releases its new Bait Junkie soft plastics range After their live-launch of Bait Junkie in July, Daiwa sent some pre-production samples of their new Bait Junkie soft plastic baits to key anglers right away.

Being bream-focussed a lot of the time, I got a bag of their Minnow and Grub baits to test.

And although I used them occasionally through the BREAM Queensland Open and while social fishing, it wasn’t until we decided to do a live review of these baits that I really got to focus on giving them a thorough test.

You can watch the 30-minute highlights via the QR code hereby, but here’s what I took from the day.

The idea was to do a circa-three-hour livestream, fishing exclusively Bait Junkie baits on the popular Gold Coast spots. These fish see a lot of pressure, so if the Grub and Minnow patterns worked well on these fish,

bait. Does the tail have more action at lighter speeds? Yep. Is it as tough as other marketleading brands? Nope.

The losses are acceptable, though. I went through only a couple of tails in the three-hour session. You should still get several sessions out of a pack.

The second way I fished these was with a 1/16oz Hidden Weight System (HWS), threading the weight up the middle. This rigging skips beautifully and lets you get into the darkest corners like a pro. Like most successful bream plastic presentations, this gets bitten on the drop a lot and I’m sure the action will still be great on lighter weighed options.

Overall, the grubs build upon existing product offerings for Aussie bream anglers and you should be confident that they’ll work on your local.

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30-minutes of highlights from the live testing session.

There’s no doubt that these baits catch fish. This one came on the day the author borrowed Tom Slater’s boat for a day on Sydney Harbour. there’s a pretty good chance that they’ll do the job in the rest of the country as well.

Also, by being live, there’s no chance to hide. Everything we saw, you saw – and there was the potential to bring home a donut.

Starting on the Trawlers – a spot famous since Michael Metcalfe won the BREAM Grand Final there in 2000 and more recently through its exposure in the Hobie Worlds 2019 – I took the time to show some of the ways I wanted to rig the baits. I fished my way upriver and had a pretty fun session.

Grub Broadly, there’s nothing new about the grub. Single-tail plastics have been around since before Daiwa’s Bait Junkie developer, Tom Slater, was born, however there are certain modifications on this bait that were intended to improve it for our fish and the way we usually fish it.

I rigged the grub a couple of ways for testing. The most popular way Aussies fish them is on a simple jighead. Because of the nature of the plastic these are made from, it should be one with a detached hook keeper, like the TT HeadLockz to stop easy ‘pantsing’ of the bait. I chose a 1/16oz and a 1/20oz version with a #1H hook. I would have preferred a lighter hook, but my local was out of stock on the day-before supply run.

There’s an indented line on either side of the bait, which helps you choose an exit point for the hook while rigging. This is pretty helpful.

Also, you’ll find that the tail of this grub is quite thin and delicate. It means that the bait will create action with the slightest of current movement, or on the drop with a very lightly weighted head. This turned out to be true, however it is at the cost of longevity of the 74

OCTOBER 2020

These are the two ways that the author rigged the Grubs – on a jighead and a HWS hook.

the Australian Open ABT Comp I fished basically one bait the whole session.

Don’t forget UV Something not visible to the naked eye is the UV component of these baits. Plenty of models have a UV component, and some anglers swear by it. It’s marked on the packet and it is definitely worth noting whether the most productive of your colour pics have this addition.

Packaging All of the Daiwa Bait Junkie baits come in a two-piece clamshell package which makes me cringe a little at the plastic waste, but definitely do the job when it comes to ensuring that your baits are 100% when you take them out to use. No more do you pick out a grub and have half of his mates come out with him!

By the time this magazine hits the shelves, the Bait Junkies should be on the shelves as well. With a suggested retail price of $11.99, in my opinion it’s definitely worth spending a few bucks and finding out how the fish in your part of the world like them. - Steve Morgan

According to the author, the WA Rig is the best way to fish a Bait Junkie minnow like a prawn. It makes the bait sink horizontally.

Minnow For me, the Minnow was a greater challenge. I’m not the best plastics angler by a fair way, however I found it extremely difficult to rig the Minnow straight on a jighead most of the time. You guys may be more skilled in this area than me, but I have an excellent work-around that was taught to me by West Aussie angler, Graeme Kovacevich, while sneaking out for a Swan River bream fish one day while wagging the Perth Boat Show.

I call it the ‘WA rig’, and it uses the same Hidden Weight System that I used for the grub. You thread a tiny bit of the head on the hook and then pull it up and over the hidden weight. Once you’ve swivelled it around to sit under the eye of the hook, just push the hook up through the bait through the middle (which is much easier than nailing the threading).

The result is a bait that sinks horizontally (like a prawn), skips magnificently, and still has an open hook.

And you can adjust the weight for the areas you fish. Drop it down to near-nothing for pontoon fishing where you want the bait to sink slowly, or ramp it up if you want to fish deeper or in faster flowing water.

The Elastomax plastic that the Minnows are made from most definitely take the punishment of being rigged this way. In

AND NOW FOR THE REST

by Peter Jung While Morgo focused on the 2.5” Minnow and Grub lures, I turned my attention to the four other models in the Bait Junkie range: the 3.2” Minnow, 4” Grub, 5” Jerkshad and 7” Jerkshad. To see more information for each bait, including the number of colours in each model, see the factbox below.

I was charged with focusing on another bread-and-butter species that really comes to a fore as the weather and water warms up: flathead.

3.2” Minnow This is a profile and style that has really taken off in the soft plastics market. It’s a true narrow profile baitfish imitation with a paddle tail. It is almost an in between bait, as it is small enough to be used for bream or whiting, but is also large enough to be very effective on larger species. I love this style of lure if I am fishing shallow water (3-10 feet) or if I am fishing from the shore. The paddle tail creates plenty of vibration to attract attention and the lure size imitates the food generally in these areas.

My preference is to fish either 1/4oz to 3/8oz jigheads depending on water depth and although I agree with Morgo the Elastomax material the Bait Junkie plastics are made of, lends itself to using a jighead with a detached grub keeper, I didn’t do so. The odd pantsing did occur, but you do find that if a flathead

Another mulloway hits the deck for the author on the wagasaki 5” Jerkshad.

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flats with big plastics using minimal weight will take to this lure. The natural buoyancy and that little kink in the lure I have been mentioning results in a lure that can be seductively fished in the shallows and for those in the know re this tactic, the results are BIG flathead. I have had a go and can see the potential, but lots of snot weed on the flats while I have been fishing has resulted in more frustration than fish.

I am sure that with a bit more time on the water I will enjoy the 7” Jerkshad as much its smaller brother. I am also sure there will be plenty of offshore soft plastics guys who will be over this part of the range.

wants your lure, it is not grabbing the tail of the plastic.

What you do quickly realise is how much the paddle tail works on even the slowest retrieve. These plastics are incredibly supple, add to that a kink between the main body and the tail of the plastic and you have a lure that is working for you as soon as it enters the water.

I am sure that when Tom Slater was doing the R&D for this lure he had Australian bass in the back of his mind. I can see many bass anglers rolling these through those bass schools that form up every year and having plenty of success.

4” Grub Of all the plastics in the range that I have tried, I think that this plastic will be the one that will appeal to the most anglers,

Three of the colours in the 4” Grub range. From left to right: BP iwashi glow, red bait glow and banana split.

I have been asked many times what style of plastic suits each situation when fishing for flathead, which really is like asking how long is a piece of string. However, I do have some fundamental rules I follow. In deeper water with current I prefer jerkshad style lure. They have less water resistance, so they get to the bottom where the fish are faster, they move less when you hop them keeping them in the

The new Daiwa Bait Junkie range comes in six different shapes and plenty of colours.

DAIWA BAIT JUNKIE RANGE Model

Length Length (mm) Qty per pack Colours Price (RRP)

2.5 Grub 2.5 Minnow 3.2 Minnow 4 Grub 5 Jerkshad 7 Jerkshad

2.5” 2.5” 3.2” 4” 5” 7”

63.5mm 63.5mm 80mm 88mm 124mm 172mm

8 8 6 5 5 4

15 18 18 15 15 15

$11.99 $11.99 $11.99 $11.99 $11.99 $11.99

especially those that maybe haven’t fished soft plastics much before. A curl-tail grub of this size provides maximum action from minimum movement. As long as you select the correctly weighted jighead for the depth of water you are fishing, that tail will be working for you whether at rest or while being retrieved. It is the perfect plastic to use when there is minimal or no flow in the water and the only thing to really to keep in mind is to rig it as straight as possible with the tail in an upright position (a visible centreline is on all the Bait Junkie plastics to assist with this). This ensures the plastic runs true when retrieved.

If I can go off on a tangent just for a moment,

very realistic in the water and does grab plenty of water while creating maximum movement.

This combined with the high buoyancy of the plastic means I have ended up using a slightly heavier jighead when using it. It just helps getting your lure down and keeping it in the zone especially in slightly deeper water.

5” Jerkshad The Bait Junkie 5” jerkshad has slightly deeper body than most of the jerkshads of this size that I have tried and like the minnows they have a kink or indentation where the tail meets the body of the plastics. That kink does provide a little bit of action on the straight retrieve, which is a nice bonus.

Like all jerkshads it is very important to rig them straight. A lure spinning like a top as you retrieve it is unlikely to catch a fish. I did find the rigging guide on the back of the packet very helpful to assist with this. In the end rigging is always a little bit of trial and error, but anything that minimises the error is much appreciated.

In the relatively short time I have had these plastics the 5” Jerkshad has proven to be my favourite. On its first outing fishing with Aaron Dunlap in a known deep water big flathead area, we didn’t catch a flathead, but the mulloway and giant trevally made up for it.

We caught multiple fish on multiple colours (in fact at least one on each of the four colours I was given). The plastics held up well to the needle like teeth of the mulloway too. It was an impressive first outing and they have continued to impress ever since.

7” Jerkshad These are big baits and I am sure that the flathead anglers out there who like fishing the

Aaron Dunlap joined in the testing process and found that the 5” Jerkshads were mulloway magnets.

Other observations I am a huge fan of scents and using them while fishing with soft plastics. The Daiwa Bait Junkie plastics have a product called Amino X added to them during the construction process. The marketing says this creates a lure with a natural flavour and scent. It attracts and makes the fish hold on longer. I am not a fish so I can’t confirm or deny this but when you open the packets the scent is very much that of fresh squid and we all know most fish love eating squid. The feel (to touch) of the plastics is also quite unique, it feels strange to write it but they don’t feel like soft plastics.

This may well mean the fish hang onto them longer.

Steve did already mention the use of UV in many of the colours, I am a fan and there are plenty of colours in the range to have we UV fans champing at the bit.

Hopefully between Steve and I we have given you an insight into this new range of plastics from Daiwa Australia. The full range can be seen on the Daiwa website www. daiwafishing.com.au and more than likely in your local tackle store. Go and check them out.

Pearl watermelon will be a popular colour amongst the bream anglers out there.

If you are a fan of UV colours, there are plenty in the range.

This colour is yabbie UV.

right zone longer and they are a bigger profile, which hopefully means bigger fish. As already mentioned I like a paddle tail plastic when fishing from the shore and in shallower water presentations or areas of medium flow. The tail grabs enough water to be an attraction but not enough to pull the lure out of the zone to quickly. A curly tail plastic is best suited when you have no flow. They can be fished slowly and deliberately. No matter the retrieve the plastic is working on your behalf. Once you have water movement the tail can grab too much water, making it difficult to keep the lure in the zone, so little or no flow is the go as far a curl tail is concerned for flathead for me.

Back to the Bait Junkie 4” Grub, its tail is The flathead proved to be harder to catch than the author hoped during the testing process. He still managed to get a few to the net.

Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au OCTOBER 2020

75

There’s a chance for harmony in Corner Inlet GEELONG

Ross Winstanley

After a year of attempts to resolve conflicts brewing in Corner Inlet, there’s been a breakthrough. Through 2019, a number of attempts to resolve the situation had been made by commercial inlet fishermen, their peak body Seafood Industry Victoria (SIV), and anglers’ representative body, VRFish.

Now, aided by anglers who fish in Corner Inlet, Futurefish Foundation director, David Kramer,

inlet fishery. During the late 1980s, another breakout of commercial fishing pressure caused animosity among commercial fishermen and conflict with anglers.

For well over a century, commercial fishing there had operated traditional open boats and low-technology fishing methods in the hands of fishermen who passed their operations from generation to generation. Under an informal code, fishing from slow displacement-hulled boats was practised very conservatively. Seine net operations were limited to two shots per day.

Few of these traditional boats are still working in Corner Inlet. has been working with commercial fishermen, the Victorian Fisheries Authority and Minister Pulford to broker arrangements that will secure the future of their fishery in the inlet.

A stable conservative commercial fishing regime which had prevailed for decades had been unravelling, causing friction among commercial operators and with anglers.

Unchecked, a future political response could have led to Victoria’s last commercial inlet fishery going the way of fisheries in Port Phillip and Western Port bays and the Gippsland Lakes.

Working with longtime commercial fishermen from the inlet, Futurefish has helped them to achieve Fisheries Notice protection that limits the amount of fishing effort permitted by each licence holder.

BACKGROUND This is not the first time that anglers have worked with commercial fishermen to defuse tensions within the 76

OCTOBER 2020

When some new entrants to the fishery began working multiple shots per day from fast planing-hulled aluminium boats, they took advantage of extra time on the water to have three or four shots per day. As well as breaking with the ‘code’, by shifting locations between between ‘shots’, they edged out the traditional operators.

This created some hostility between the two groups. In addition, anglers who had fished in the inlet peacefully until then, saw these new high speed operations as an ‘in-your-face’ surge in commercial fishing pressure.

They reacted angrily against the commercial fleet in seeking help from Fisheries Victoria and the government.

Victorian president of the Australian National Sportfishing Association, Joe Leonard, had a deep interest in the Corner Inlet fishery, with friends among both the local commercial and recreational fishers.

He approached Fisheries Victoria, offering to lead

discussions aimed at defusing tensions to everyone’s satisfaction. Working with Queenscliff-based fisheries managers, Ron Gladwin and Murray MacDonald, Joe brought representatives of the various interests together.

The resulting solution restored the two-shot daily limit and became part of the 1992 voluntary code of practice, which stood for almost 30 years.

This agreement became increasingly important from the late 1980s when most operators switched over to the new-style centreconsole boats, chosen for their increased speed and carrying capacity.

RECENT EVENTS Since 2015, some new entrants have ignored the code of practice, hauling multiple shots per day and fishing more often than the long-time operators. This has had a twofold effect on the majority of operators who continue to fish two or three days per week, for the steady supply of quality fish to Melbourne and interstate markets. The immediate effect on fish stocks was a 16% increase in average annual landings compared to the previous 10 years. As well as placing fish stocks under greater pressure, the significant increase in supply has, at time, depressed market prices.

Just as occurred during the 1980s, the increased frequency and intensity of fishing by a few operators threatened to spread to others.

The result has been growing pressure from anglers on the Minister, Jaala Pulford, to close this commercial fishery in much the same way that the Government has closed commercial fisheries in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes.

Apart from the impacts on the 18 commercial licence holders, their families and local communities, closure of this fishery would remove Victorian consumers’ last local access to rock flathead, King George whiting, garfish and calamari.

The quality and yearround consistency in catches, and proximity to Melbourne, have made the inlet’s fish highly sought after by high-end restaurants, locally and around Australia. Some commercial fishermen plan their weekly operations around marketing arrangements with these clients who include leading Melbourne and interstate restaurateurs and chefs.

VRFISH ACTION During 2019, peak recreational fisher body, VRFish, was contacted by anglers reporting that the long-standing balance between commercial

and recreational fishing, was being threatened by some new entrants to the commercial fishery.

In response, VRFish wrote to the Minister in August about anglers’ reports of a recent rapid decline in fishing quality in the inlet, arising from significant recent increases in commercial netting pressure and catches.

VRFish asked that the VFA analyse recent commercial catch data to examine any changes to fishing behaviour and landings. They proposed a meeting with SIV and the VFA to discuss improved management arrangements to restore stability to the inlet fishery.

The Minister’s response in October indicated that the VFA was reviewing commercial and recreational fishing data for the inlet.

After hearing nothing further, the publication of a draft Fisheries Notice in June this year, aimed at restoring order in Corner Inlet, came as a complete (and pleasant) surprise to VRFish.

COMMERCIAL FISHER SUPPORT During 2019, a group of 12 commercial fishermen approached the VFA requesting support in the form of regulations to formalise the 28-year voluntary code of practice limiting daily fishing effort.

That request was rejected at the time and SIV was also unsuccessful.

Then in December, The Age published a prominent story by Dani Valent on the Corner Inlet fishermen’s concerns that their fishery was in line for closure, just as the Government has closed other bay and inlet fisheries.

The story centred on third generation fisherman, Neville Clarke’s, and his colleagues’ concerns and their unsuccessful attempts to have excessive commercial fishing pressure reined in.

Referring to the commercial inlet fishery, Executive Director of Fisheries, Travis Dowling was quoted, saying “We have a fantastic fishery there … we will continue to support it.”

Executive director of SIV, Johnathon Davies, spoke for the inlet commercial fishermen, pointing out that, if the commercial fishery was closed, “Victorians who don’t fish themselves will no longer have access to local calamari, King George whiting or rock flathead”.

FUTUREFISH ACTION In immediate response to The Age article, David Kramer reached out to Neville Clarke and his colleagues, committing the Futurefish Foundation’s support for continuation of well-managed sustainable

commercial fishing in the inlet. He spoke of a three-way memorandum of understanding between Futurefish, the VFA and the inlet fishermen and a goal of branding the commercial fishery as a national highquality centre of inshore scalefish fishing.

David arranged for discussions between Neville’s colleagues, the VFA and the Minister’s office, seeking a commitment to the future of the commercial fishery, backed by regulations to restore calm in the inlet.

This led to the VFA issuing the Fisheries (Corner Inlet) Notice in June, limiting the daily use of nets. Combined with the longstanding ban on net fishing on weekends, this effectively capped commercial fishing pressure. The majority of submissions to the VFA supported the limits on daily net fishing.

The Fisheries Notice came into effect on 19 June and will stand for 12 months.

It limits each operator to no more than two seine shots on any one day, and no more than one type of fishing gear at a time. At the event

formalising the voluntary code of practice, there were some divergent views on these and other aspects of the fishery. SIV endorsed the limit of two seine shots per day but opposed restricting the use of one type of gear at a time.

Working through these issues with commercial and recreational fishers, the VFA will lead the preparation of a Corner Inlet fishery management plan to guide the future of the fishery beyond the one-year term of the Fisheries Notice.

A HAPPY ENDING? For decades, the Corner Inlet fishermen have stuck to their commitment to an orderly commercial fishery, operating sustainably and in harmony with anglers.

While other commercial inlet fisheries were closed in the face of political support for recreational fishing, their persistence has paid off. The future of Victoria’s remaining commercial source of fresh inlet fish looks secure.

Last year, VRFish and SIV indicated their support for continuation of the fishery as it had operated under the voluntary code

The potential offered by today’s boats requires close control of fishing effort. Photo courtesy of Neville Clarke. to launch the new control measures, David Kramer announced Futurefish’s commitment to a secure place for commercial fishing in Corner Inlet.

THERE’S STILL WORK TO DO While the majority of responses to the VFA, and to SIV’s survey of licence holders, supported

of practice. However, this seemed to be academic until December when Dani Valent’s story in The Age brought the issue into the public eye. In the end, it was the well-earned reputation of the traditional fishermen and their resolve as a tight-knit group that won Futurefish’s support and access to the Minister’s office.

Your fishing fishing licence licence Your fees at at work work fees Recreational fishing licence fees are funding 12 projects, Recreational fishing are funding 12 fishing projects, worth more than $1licence million,fees to further improve worth more than $1 million, to further improve fishing opportunities in Victoria. opportunities in Victoria.

» $39,380 to install fish habitat into the Mitta Mitta River, near Katie Peters Reserve.to install fish habitat into the Mitta Mitta River, near Katie Peters » $39,380 Reserve. » $15,370 to realign snags in the Campaspe River, near Rochester, to enable free passage for boaters. » $15,370 to realign snags in the Campaspe River, near Rochester, to enable free passage for boaters. » $24,240 to increase fish habitat at Box-Pyramid Creek, near Kow Swamp. » $24,240 to increase fish habitat at Box-Pyramid Creek, near Kow Swamp. » $24,920 to improve fishing access to Rainbow Lake. » $24,920 to improve fishing access to Rainbow Lake. » $110,000 to install snags into the Gippsland Lakes to benefit black bream, estuary perch and Australian populations. » $110,000 to install snags into bass the Gippsland Lakes to benefit black bream, estuary perch and Australian bass populations. » $23,000 to build shellfish reefs in Tambo Bay. » $23,000 to build shellfish reefs in Tambo Bay. » $22,440 to install solar lighting along the St Helen’s rock wall. » $22,440 to install solar lighting along the St Helen’s rock wall. » $120,000 to produce native fish report cards on 10 key rivers. » $120,000 to produce native fish report cards on 10 key rivers. » $110,000 to deliver the Victorian Wild Trout Fisheries Management program. » $110,000 to deliver the Victorian Wild Trout Fisheries Management program. » $60,000 for a Fishcare Responsible Anglers Academy to deliver 250+ workshops 50+ schools. Anglers Academy to deliver 250+ » $60,000 for through a Fishcare Responsible workshops through 50+ schools. » $163,000 to undertake creel surveys and expand the angler diary program to inform to sustainable fisheries in the Portangler Phillip,diary Western Port, » $163,000 undertakemanagement creel surveysofand expand program Corner Inlet, the Gippsland Lakes and to inform sustainable management of fisheries in Port Phillip, Western Port, off Lakes Entrance.

Corner Inlet, the Gippsland Lakes and off Lakes Entrance. » $290,000 for educational products that make it easy for fishers to understand catch limits the products Recreational rulers andtomeasures. » $290,000 forincluding educational thatFishing make itGuide, easy for fishers understand catch limits including the Recreational Fishing Guide, rulers and measures.

Licence fees also contribute to extra Fisheries Officers, fish production at our Snobs Creek hatchery, Licence also contribute to extra Fisheries Officers, fish production at our Snobs Creek hatchery, VRFish, fees Fishcare, the Small Grants Program and Target One Million.

VRFish, Fishcare, the Small Grants Program and Target One Million.

vfa.vic.gov.au/feesatwork vfa.vic.gov.au/feesatwork Authorised by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne

Authorised by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne

Trout

How to fish Howqua VICTORIA

Brendan Mathers

The Howqua River flows through the Alpine National Park in the shire of Mansfield, Victoria.

The river flows through the picturesque Howqua Valley and eventually joins with Lake Eildon.

right up to decent size adult fish. You can spot some big fish in this waterway.

Before breeding season, which is June-July, you will notice there are bigger fish around as the adult breeder fish are bearing their eggs.

The younger fish are active and on the hunt for food more aggressively.

September right through

there are some great holes along the banks with weedy edgings and big rocks for those trout to hide behind.

There are many different lures to use, and your lure selection is going to depend largely on the time of year and river conditions.

My favourite technique, when the river is flowing a bit faster than later in the season, is to cast using a 7g orange Tassie Devil. Lots of people say Tassies are better for lake fishing but I find when using the right technique I get great results in the river. I cast the lure into the weedy banks with a

Casting many of the deep pools along the Howqua River in the hunt for trout.

One of the many little brown trout that can be found in this healthy river system.

The river is 66km long, flowing down from the alps and the water is cold and frosty in the early mornings, especially after the snow season.

The area I tend to fish is Pikes Flat, deep in the Howqua Valley behind Mt Buller. The drive into Pikes Flat is magnificent; one minute you’re winding your way through one of the spectacular valleys and the next you are driving

to early November is a great time to go as there are fewer snakes out and you are able to walk up stream without the ridiculous heat.

The river flows quite fast at this time of the year as the snow from the alps has melted and made its way into the river systems.

During these months the sightings of trout are incredible as most of the fish are returning from spawning. Their colours

Wading upstream along the river in the search for trout. deeper pool and let it sink, then with a slow retrieve past the great under growth and big rocks. If the river

the top, they’ll be targeting moths, grasshoppers and other small river insects.

When they are feeding off the bottom your chances are better using a nymph.

Study the fish before you have a cast, you will notice where the fish are feeding from, which is crucial for any fishing success. Watching their pattern, you will know where they are coming from and where they tend to sit in the river to feed.

My fishing kit for the day is a pair of chest waders, backpack for my drink bottle, tackle and food. I like to take plenty

of snacks that are easy to eat on the go. I also keep a dry bag with my phone and camera gear in my backpack, just in case I slip over.

I also recommend fishing this area with someone else, especially wading, as mistakes can happen. You are deep in the National Park and fishing with a partner is just common sense.

I attach a small trout landing net to my vest or waders, so it’s easily accessible when landing a fish.

Wearing polarized sunglasses helps, as

you don’t get any glare reflecting off the top of the water. And the amount of trout you will spot waiting for food to come downstream is incredible, along with a lot of follows.

I don’t just love the fishing up there, the scenery is amazing, the sound of the birds and water trickling down, where else would you want to be?

As a 17-year-old who is passionate about fishing it gets me outside and keeps me active, I highly recommend it to others.

The Howqua Valley is very popular for four-wheel drivers, campers and other anglers. Everyone respects the Alpine National Park by picking up their rubbish and leaving it in a good condition for the next family or group of mates to enjoy this wonderful area. So, if you’re looking for somewhere to take the family to get some fresh air, pack the camping gear and head up there for a weekend. Easy fishing from the banks for all age groups and experience levels and great memories to be made with your family and friends that you’ll never forget.

I cannot imagine life without fishing, and we should be grateful for the beautiful areas we have to visit right on our doorstep.

The river is wide for long fly casts and close to knee deep, great for wading up stream. across a scenic part of the Howqua River.

The river is wide for those long fly casts and close to knee deep, great for wading up stream. The main species in the river are brown trout, rainbow trout, blackfish and English perch (redfin). This part of the river is a self-sustaining fishery after being stocked

by Fisheries Victoria over a long period of time. The size of trout varies with anything from fingerlings 78

OCTOBER 2020

are brighter and they are out from their holes and thriving with energy.

Anytime is a great time to visit but my favourite time is from late May to early June when the grass is crunchy underfoot on those crisp autumn mornings as the fog rolls off the river.

Even when the fishing is slow it allows you time to soak in all that serenity, that’s why it is such a special place for me.

If you are lure fishing,

is running nice and slow, I would use a little 55mm StumpJumper or a bladed spinner, with the same retrieve.

If you’re fishing with bait use a hook the size of your nail and let that drift downstream slowly past those great habitats.

For fly fishers there is a massive range of flies and nymphs to choose from, which will all depend on what the fish are feeding on.

When they are feeding on

A bird’s eye view of the picturesque Pikes Flat.

Trout

Trout fishing with kids at Lake Wendouree our tackle. Sure enough it does the trick, our patience and persistence pays off and finally, I reel in a little trout.

A few minutes later, “I’ve got a fish! I’ve got me one! Mum, Dad, fish on!”, Archer (age 4) is yelling out.

The look of excitement on his little face is priceless!

“Hold your rod up mate,

READER STORY

Cara Cummings

You know that excitement is brewing when the kids willingly put themselves to bed early in preparation for a fishing expedition the following morning!

The alarm chimes a little before 5am and the house is a buzz, filled with predictions of who will catch the first and the biggest fish.

After a one hour car journey in the dark to Lake Wendouree, and just as the sun begins to rise, we launch the boat. It is still rather brisk and we can see our breath in the air as we speak. Spring is here but the warmth is still catching up! It’s a quiet morning for fishing on the lake, with only one other boat in sight.

The rowing lanes are busy with rowers on their early morning training regimes.

The water is like glass and the reflection of the scenery

competition is fierce. The sun climbing higher in the sky and the warmth of the rays are very welcome. The fish are on the bite and it isn’t long before our daughter (aged 8) is the next to get her line hooked. She battles for a couple of minutes and then is devastated when she drops it. She persists and refuses

rainbow trout and poses for a photo! She then lays her fish back into the net and releases him back to the water.

Well, that’s now three of us to catch fish and Dad is yet to reel one in. No doubt because he has been driving the boat, untangling lines, and being on net duty.

The kids and I have

Spending time together is what fishing is all about for the Cummings family.

Vera (age 8) with her trout.

makes for a beautiful sight.

Just as the sun rises, we get our first hit – fish on! An instant thrill fills the boat, but suddenly the line goes slack. Damn, I dropped it!

Did I reel the line in too quick? Or was I too slow?

I cast my line back out and before I have a chance to work out why I lost my fish, I feel the satisfying tug of another one taking the lure.

Two hits in 15 minutes! This pink Tassie Devil is proving to be a winner.

The little fish shows itself and jumps out the water, the eagle-eyed kids yell out ‘It’s a trout!’, and then I lost him… again! I can’t believe it.

These fish are only small, and most likely to be the recent stocked fish from the Ballarat Trout Festival.

The hooks we are using are probably a little too big.

Determined to catch a fish, we make a few changes to

Vera and Archer Cummings with the trout they caught. keep reeling,” his little hands are quickly tiring as he works hard to reel in his line and as he finally sees the fish nearing in the water, he shouts directions.

“Get the net Dad, quick!” He is utterly thrilled to have landed a nice little rainbow trout. Measuring in at an estimated 25cm, young Archer declares that we put him back to keep growing, “We’ll come back and catch him when he is bigger.”

The boat is now filled with enthusiasm, everyone wants to catch a fish! With the tally at 2/4 to get a fish,

to let it get her down and 15 minutes later and she has hooked another.

“I’m not letting this one get away!” Vera declares.

I quickly hit record on the phone and film her reeling in and getting her trout onto the boat. She is elated! Only a year ago, she was fearful of touching a slimy and slippery fish. Now she handles the trout with great care, as she has learnt the anatomy of the fish and is careful of his gills and is aware not to leave him out of the water too long.

She proudly holds her little

earned our bragging rights and worked up an appetite.

It has been a very successful fishing morning, lots of laughter has filled the boat and much fun has been had.

We boat across to the Yacht Club and reward ourselves with a delicious breaky!

For our little family, this is what fishing is all about.

It’s the memories made, the fun, joking and heckling that occurs. Spending quality time together, fresh air and even if no fish are caught, there’s always a scrumptious breakfast and a café latte to look forward to at the end!

FISHING NEWS

Lots of support for Victoria’s first indigenous fishing club The state’s first ever Indigenous fishing club is getting a helping hand to take cultural education and traditional fishing knowledge on the road so it can be shared with more Victorians when it’s safe to do so.

Victorian Fisheries Authority Freshwater Fisheries Manager Anthony Forster said the $15,000 grant would enable the Burnanga Indigenous Fishing Club to build a customised tandem trailer, “The trailer will help the club store and transport

fishing and camping gear and, participate in public events.

The club is a not-forprofit association based in the regional centre of Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley.

It has more than 30 members and is named after Burnanga, which means cod in the traditional language of the Yorta Yorta people.

Burnanga Indigenous Fishing Club President Corey Walker said, “The club will host a variety of activities such as fishing days, competitions, guided tours

and community events infused with authentic local Aboriginal cultural knowledge.

Burnanga is about strengthening connection to country and

Aboriginal culture. By doing this we will improve mental health, decrease social isolation and educate the wider community about customary practices.”

Stockings of native fish such as Murray cod across Victoria have hit record numbers thanks to the State Government’s $35 million Target One Million plan and

a commitment to increase fish stocking to 10 million fish annually by 2022.

Last summer more than two million cod were stocked in Victorian waters, in addition to more than two million golden perch and nearly 350,000 silver perch.

The Vi c t o r i a n Fisheries Authority, which is administering the grant, is also reaching out to indigenous communities as part of a review of its Aboriginal Fishing S t r a t e g y, available at vfa.vic.gov. au/aboriginal-fishing. – Victoria Fisheries OCTOBER 2020

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Lower rainfall indicates success in spring WEST COAST

Brett Carson

We’ve had much lower rainfall than usual for this time of year so the clarity in the water is fairly good. I don’t want to jinx things with a late season flood, but at the moment filthy brown spring rainwater just isn’t a thing (although heavy rain in November or December can happen).

Rainfall affects so many things, from each species’ breeding times, location, their need to feed heavily, how anglers should target fish, where to target them, the colour of lure to use… the list is endless. In our river, with the system not

full of fast-running fresh making its way to the sea, the mulloway will already be well up into the system.

The bream may spawn late without the early trigger to head up, and the perch surface bite may come early. Lures can be lighter than at this time last year to match the water colour, and you’re possibly going to travel further than last year to find the same species in different locations.

The edges have been producing a few fish, with bream being sighted ‘flashing’ as they feed on the rocky banks. The estuary is fishing well on the tides, with podworms being a favourite among the bait fishers. Podworms are the natural bait that

bream are searching for as the tide rushes over the sand banks. You can often see the holes the fish have dug when the tide recedes, looking for those tasty morsels. Remember the worms actually have a right and a wrong end to thread on the hook, and if you don’t know make sure you ask us when you grab a serve. Crabs still work well to weed out the smaller fish, but it is still a good idea to crush them.

The lack of rainfall has the salt further up than normal and has held the mulloway with it. There have been plenty of metre mulloway from the estuary to Sapling Creek. Taylors Straight area has been a hotspot for the locals lately,

There’s nothing wrong with a feed of bottom fish from out wide. and has been producing great numbers of big fish.

Trolling lures as you cover ground is a good option as the vibration can get the attention and spark a bite when visibility is poor.

Live mullet are always the best, but they can be hard to come by at this time of year. I love flicking a jerkshad or vibe through a school of mulloway sitting on a mud bank that are hopefully keen for a feed.

Bream have remained patchy but have still been feeding very well on the tides in the estuary. Some bait fishers have targeted fish starting to move upstream on soft baits such as podworms and pipi but its fair to say they are spread out and not all doing the same thing. Bream on lures can be a tough proposition at this time of year, with the fish both deep and slow

on the feed, but plenty still work through them hoping to trigger a bite.

Perch are still about in the lower reaches in the throes of reproduction, I’m not sure what takes them so long. There have been tales of an early season surface bite, but one day is a diamond and the next a stone. Still, if you’ve ever tried it you’ll chase the next session.

For those who fish bait, small livies work well on the perch from sundown and into the night, when these fish are most active.

Fished under a float they are almost irresistible to a hungry perch.

The deep winter gutters in the surf beaches are still about as the beaches start to flatten in spring, so get amongst the local surf fishing. Schoolies and gummies are the main

target amongst the masses of salmon still about on their winter run. I’ve been chasing the schoolies and gummies offshore with old mate Smithy and am having trouble living down dropping a ripper at the boat after fighting it all the way up from 80m down.

There’s nothing worse than seeing the fish and losing it!

• Good luck this month and feel free to come and see us at Nelson Boat Hire for the latest info. We have the local live bait licence, meaning we stock live mullet, crabs and podworms along with all the frozen bait, tackle and lures you need for the area. We’re happy to share local knowledge to help get you on the fish quicker.

Remember you can hire any of our boats without a boat licence, including our very popular houseboat.

The author with a nice feed of gummy shark.

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De Mac from Warragul caught and released a dozen estuary perch on a sunny day with a high barometer and gorgeous weather in a South Gippsland estuary. He used hardbodies and plastics, and the largest EP measured 45cm.

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Fresh flow-on effects WARRNAMBOOL

Mark Gercovich mgercovich@hotmail.com

Despite winter seeming to come early, way back in mid-autumn, real serious heavy, flooding winter rainfalls were missing for most of the season. The cold and clear waters seemed

to make for slow fishing, particularly in the Hopkins River estuary.

Come late August though we finally got some serious precipitation that dirtied up the rivers and got things flowing.

Whilst initially hindering any river fishing sessions, this good flush hopefully will benefit the fishing we will experience this month. The Curdies River,

which was producing better fishing than the Hopkins at the time, should also benefit from the flush clearing out a lot of algae that was present.

Trout fishing locally should also benefit from these flows, moving fish around and hopefully making a few big, clever, fish slip up and make a mistake in the dirtier water. October is often a good

October isn’t too late to tangle with a big trout, particularly if there is still plenty of flow in the rivers.

Xavier Ellul and Luke Gercovich with an example of some of the quality snapper taken offshore recently.

time to be looking for some ‘true’ sea-run trout. These super silvery and hard fighting fish are rare, compared to the resident trout, but can be encountered herding up smelt schools in the lower reaches of the Merri at this time of year.

Salmon fishing off the beaches began to fire up a little towards the end of winter, with fish to around 1kg being encountered at Yambuk, Point Fairy and Killarney beaches.

Whilst the average size wasn’t huge, good fun could be had by anglers targeting these fish on cast metal slices when the

northerlies blew and flattened out the sea.

Once again there have been good windows of opportunity to access the offshore fishing grounds, particularly for this time of year.

The average size of the snapper taken has been impressive by local standards, perhaps due to anglers pushing a little wider than usual. Plenty of 3-4kg fish are appearing in mixed bags along with morwong, latchet, nannygai and of course gummy and school sharks. There have also been some really impressive

specimens approaching the 6-7kg mark like those taken

by Marty Ellul and Luke Smith recently. Luke’s fish was impressive as it ate a soft plastic fished on traditional deepwater rig, which is a little different but always something worth trying.

October is usually a great month for targeting offshore snapper locally if the seas permit. No tuna reports have been made recently though.

Remember it is still closed season for crayfish during October with the season not opening until 15 November.

Big bags of bream COBDEN

Rod Shepherd

The Hopkins River recently reopened but due the sheer amount of sand build-up at the mouth, plus high seas, the system lost minimal water and is still full. This, plus a quiet couple of weeks, did not deter many anglers, who tried their luck from either boat or bank.

Just prior to this some good bags of bream were taken upstream in and around Jubilee Park on bait such as shrimp, cut salmon and mullet as well as crab.

The fish have seemed to be feeding in slightly deeper water so anglers have been working depths of 2m+ plus.

Quite a few estuary perch have been taken downstream of the road bridge as it’s spawning time for them.

They are responding to lures

fished shallow and in low light or night time conditions. If they are on the chew many can be caught in a single session, so please remember your daily bag limit.

The Curdies River and lake had been fishing well but the mouth was reopened again and the water levels have dropped as the system once again has a good flush-out.

Generally as a rule of thumb the bream fishing can quickly shut down for a week or two but when it takes off again, fishing the outgoing tide is best. Alternatively, if it’s incoming, stay above the clear saltwater line and concentrate on the brackish.

For those equipped to head right out on the briny, some solid late winter snapper to 4kg have been boated in depths exceeding 50m. Here the water isn’t as cold as it is closer inshore but that will change in the coming weeks,

allowing the snapper to move in close not only to spawn, but to feast on calamari squid doing exactly the same thing. The Eastern Australian Current is almost in full swing pushing south, and a certain amount of this warmer water is bleeding into Bass Strait which is beginning to fire things up on the fishing front. Smaller pinkie snapper, nannygai (red snapper), morwong, Sergeant Baker, leatherjacket, cod as well as some solid gummy and school shark to 24kg have been boated. Bottom bouncing using 2-4oz sinkers on double paternoster rigs baited up with tough baits such as squid has been the go.

Further out and over to the west, some solid southern bluefin tuna to 120kg have been boated on 24kg stand-up outfits. Skirted lures in red and white trolled around any surface activity out wide has accounted for some good fish.

An average Curdies bream that responded to a Pontoon 21 3” Flash J Shad edge fished at the river mouth.

Dirty water decisions makes for slow fishing APOLLO BAY

Craig Rippon

It hasn’t been a great month for fishing in Apollo Bay in recent weeks. With a couple of cold snaps and 35-knot winds it’s been near impossible to hit the

water. On the few days that we have been able to get out, the fish have been a bit like the weather – not so great.

There have been some flathead about and some good sized ones in amongst them as well. The water has a lot of fresh running into

it with all the coastal rivers and creek getting flooded, and they have been flowing steadily into the ocean, turning it into a murky green brown colour. I find that this slows everything down a bit.

The bream down the Aire River have been on a bit, with a few good sized

fish up to 40cm, so at the moment I think that’s your best option until everything cleans up a bit.

Now that we’re into spring and the water is starting to get a bit warmer, snapper season is upon us.

As a general rule of thumb, they start going around

Grand Final day, but with COVID ruling the world who knows when Grand Final day will be. I hope things get better soon so we can travel and start fishing different destinations.

Hopefully next month we’ll have a whole lot to report as it’s been a very tough

time here in Victoria, and I feel for all our fishing friends who have been in full lockdown.

Hopefully soon we can get out and about, and I can’t wait to see our boat ramp full again and people enjoying the great fishing Apollo Bay has to offer.

OCTOBER 2020

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Plenty of solid spring captures in numbers. The last few seasons have been fantastic and, judging by the early captures in the region, this year should be great too.

Early this month, anglers should hit the deeper reef areas off the Surf Coast and Great Ocean Road. Past years have seen solid snapper and school sharks over 8kg caught in

Speaking of big cephalopods, the Lonsdale Bight is the place to be at this time of year for big slaterfish@gmail.com calamari. If the water is October should be a key clear enough, sometimes month for fishos planning you can see their eggs in to target snapper around the weed beds. They look Geelong, the Bellarine like big clumps of white and Surf Coast. Just cavatelli pasta (which looks as the waters approach like mini hotdog buns). Cast 16°C, snapper enter Port your jig over these and you Phillip and Corio Bay should entice cantankerous calamari from their ambush possie. Fresh fish such as garfish, tommy rough or small but legal length salmon on skewer type jigs does a little better on the larger calamari, but when they’re on, they’ll grab anything. Keep your jigs moving slow and near the bottom for the best results.

Snapper from legal length to 60cm have been caught by anglers using soft plastic lures along the Geelong waterfront. Paul stacer.com.au stacer.com.au Meyer has been giving them buggery but says some absolute rippers have busted him off around pier pylons. Paul says there is a Peter Southwell has done well fine line between having a using salted pilchards. nice, fine leader so as not to spook the fish (Paul uses of Munroe’s soft plastics been taking a few late night MORNINGTON RACECOURSE – 12-15TH MARCH,2020 6kg leader) and something including UV wattle and strolls along the Geelong heavy to stay connected. motor oil coloured grubs. waterfront, flicking a few Chris Stamalos with a nice package of flake from Bass Strait.

Paul has been using a variety Michael Crawford has lures and nabbing a feed GEELONG

Neil Slater

15-20m of water, while smaller pinkies bite well at first and last light in around the 4-10m reef areas.

Bass Strait has been a little quiet, but this is mainly due to the weather keeping everyone inshore.

Chris Stamalos got out off Barwon Heads recently and managed a gummy shark of 7.5kg and some solid calamari from 2.5-3kg!

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had a few goes along the waterfront, and buggered if I can get them! I could have filled the boat with 25cm salmon there one afternoon. I kept three in the livewell for a few hours with plans to use them as bait, and maybe smoke one, but felt sorry for them and let them go towards the end of the day.

Peter Southwell and his eight-year-old son Hunter have been fishing landbased in Geelong over the past month with plenty of success. The father-son team have caught around 20 pinkie snapper between 45-60cm using squid and salted pilchards on paternoster rigs with 3/0 Black Magic circle hooks.

There’s been stacks of dolphins in Corio Bay inner harbour ripping into schools of what looks like pilchards. It has been ROCKLEA NORTH ROCKHAMPTON spectacular to watch the KAREE MARINE RIFEN BOATS dolphins herding the fish 1776 Ipswich Roadthen Rocklea 6 Dooley Street North Rockhampton into a ball, watch the white1600 water as they gorge P: (07) 3875 P: (07) 4927 9150 themselves with gannets E: sales@kareemarine.com.au E: rifen.boats@bigpond.com smashing the water all W: www.kareemarine.com.au W: www.rifenboats.com.au around them. I’ve moved nice and close hoping for a NORTHERN GOLDunderneath COAST AIRLIE BEACH salmon all that ONSHORE MARINE WHITSUNDAY OUTBOARD CENTRE commotion but no joy. I blame the salmon for Horizondon’t Shores Marina, Woongoolba 17 William Murray Drive Cannonvale keeping away, as dolphins Hunter with a pair of landP: (07) 5546 2480 P: (07) 4946Southwell 7286 are quite partial to salmon. based pinkies from Corio Bay. E: onshoremarine@ozemail.com.au E: woc@whitsundayoutboardcentre.com.au There were big W: www.onshoremarine.com.au W: www.whitsundayoutboardcentre.com.au numbers of small to find though. mulloway to 6kg on fresh medium whiting biting in The Barwon River squid. Time your run for a EVERTON CAIRNS 6mHILLS off Leopold in early estuary has seen quality low tide around a metre or trevally to 38cm more into a high tide. This September but they have silver AUSSIE HOLT MARINE MARINE tapered off a bit.

Larger caught up near the gives you a big window of 25 Queens Road Everton Hills 5 Hannam Street Bungalow whiting have been caught Sheepwash by anglers slack water. The fish seem P: (07) 3353 8 P: (07) 4033 closer1928 to Queenscliff, with using whitebait and8800 chicken to feed for longer periods E: info@holtmarine.com.au sales@aussiemarine.com.au St Leonards and Indented baits. E: Anglers prepared to with these tides, and if Head producing some fish. put the and travel you can pin this to a few W: www.holtmarine.com.au W: time www.inaussiemarine.com.au They have been hard to the estuary have caught days before a full or new moon, you’ll be in with a CAPALABA KARUMBA good shot.

MIKES MARINE JONES MARINE A cold and wet spring 9 Smith Street Capalaba 38 Yappar Street Karumba has seen the Barwon River P: (07) 3390 3418 P: (07) 4745 9159 in Geelong turn to coffee.

E: sales@mikesmarine.com.au E: jonglo@bigpond.com Brown water like this kicks the eels into gear, and W: www.mikesmarine.com.au W: www.jonesmarine.com.au anglers have been enjoying these tasty critters. You can NOOSAVILLE IPSWICH catch them on just about SUNSHINE COAST MARINE IPSWICH MARINE anything, from raw meat 122 Eumundi Road Noosaville 45 Huxham Street Raceview to worms, and keep rigs simple – a running sinker P: (07) 5449 7633 P: 07 3294 3944 down to a no. 4 or 6 hook E: sales@sunshinecoastmarine.com.au E: enquiries@ipswichmarine.com.au does the job.

W: www.sunshinecoastmarine.com.au W: www.ipswichmarine.com.au/ Wu r d e e Buloc Reservoir near Moriac has seen a few solid redfin to 40cm caught by anglers casting lures. The key is to keep the lure close to the bottom, so sinking lures like soft plastics and metal spoons have been the best.

• Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@ gmail.com with “VFM” in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997 348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish.

Pictures are always great, Chris caught this belter calamari out of Barwon but please make sure they Heads. How’s that for a set of rings? are at least 1MB (file size).

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OCTOBER 2020

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Get through the lockdown blues PORT PHILLIP BAY WEST

Alan Bonnici alan@fishingmad.com.au

Generally, as we move into October around Melbourne, local anglers are feeling a growing excitement. The weather is slowly on the improve and peak fishing season is ahead of us. It’s the time of year when many local anglers are starting to gear up for the coming snapper season.

However, I currently am writing this article during a complete lockdown around Melbourne. It’s a strange and somewhat hollow feeling.

On 6 August, Melbourne was declared into a state of disaster. Daniel Andrews’ new level 4 lockdown rules included not being able to conduct any recreational activities such as fishing, kayaking, and boating.

These were previously allowed under the rule of

exercise, but are now completely excluded.

But recreational activities wasn’t the only thing impacted. This time

our livelihoods would also be forced to adhere to additional and quite strict rules. These level 4 category rules included having to stay

within 5km from home unless for work, providing you had an essentials worker permit or could clearly outline the need for emergency

It’s time to start preparing for snapper. to get their thoughts on how local fishers and shop owners were coping during this time. I was taken back at how different each individual’s story was. Some had handled the isolation situation remarkably well

are heading in the right direction and making significant progress. We can only hope that when the stage 4 lockdown is over that we can resume some sort of normality. For many, this may mean returning to

Many anglers have been missing those early mornings on the water.

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sales@triplemmarine.com.au

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care. There was also an introduction of a curfew between 8pm and 5am with residents only allowed to leave home outside of these times for work or medical care or risk being issued with a $1,652 fine. Daily exercise is allowed for a maximum of 1 hour in groups of no more than two people, and only one person is allowed out for shopping from your household per day.

Melbournians had very mixed reactions to these new lockdown restrictions. Some residents saw these enforced rules as a necessary way to reduce coronavirus infection rates, while other residents suggested the new rules reflected an unnecessary prison sentence, with numbers equal to previous years’ common colds.

I interviewed seven local anglers in a video that was shared on the FishingMad YouTube channel in August

Fishing restrictions have taken their toll. and continued to work and have some level of normality.

Others had lost their jobs or greatly struggled with mental health during the isolation period. It just highlights how unique everyone is. It’s a fascinating outtake and I encourage others to watch it as the content is very relatable.

As I write this article, our infection rate numbers have declined rapidly; we

work or looking for work.

For some it’s reopening their business which has been temporarily closed. And for many of us, it’s being able to do the simple things such as going for a fish with your close mates. We will monitor this progress closely and seek confirmation of what life may look like in September.

That being said, the state government has announced

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To page 85

VIC

Anglers looking forward to big snapper PORT PHILLIP NE

Wayne Friebe wfriebe@bigpond.net.au

After another long, cold and wet winter, the spring months are normally when things start to change on the bay and anglers start to think about one thing, snapper. But not this year.

2020 certainly hasn’t been

metro Melbourne has just completed six weeks of Stage 4 lockdown, during which time no fishing has been allowed. And these same restrictions have been extended for at least another two weeks. Consequently, there have unfortunately been no fishing reports and monumental captures to report on in this month’s report. But I thought it

look forward to when the current restrictions end.

Hopefully by the time you are reading this edition of Fishing Monthly, the anglers of metro Melbourne are back on the water in some capacity or very close to it.

The good news is the lack of fishing pressure should mean that the quality of the fishing should really fire up when we can all get back on the water.

The bay has also been receiving regular doses of freshwater from consistent and heavy rains, which also does wonders for the food chain and sustainability of most food sources for the bay’s fish, and their habitat, especially the inshore reef areas.

The recent bird activity in the local area indicates there is plenty of bait around, which is all good news for anglers. of bird activity recently in the local area, I’d say not much has changed, which is also a great sign for the upcoming snapper season.

Reports from other parts of the bay in the Geelong area have been very encouraging so far, with some big snapper already being landed, and some great early signs of good numbers of calamari, whiting and some decent gummies out wide as well.

No doubt all the bay’s anglers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the snapper season this year, and now are all waiting for the chance to get back out on the water again and experience what we take for granted.

The current Covid situation in metro Melbourne seems to be nearly under control so hopefully we can return to ‘normal’ life on the bay sooner rather than later.

Quality snapper like this will be the primary focus of the bay’s boat and land-based anglers, when we can all get back on the water. the year to remember so far for anglers all over Victoria.

At the time of writing From page 84

that they are looking to introduce some level of lockdown restrictions for another 12 months, which has not been well received by the general public.

In terms of fishing before the lockdown, the action was a little quiet.

The water temperature had dropped significantly, and species in Port Phillip Bay such as flathead, pinkie snapper, whiting and squid had been a lot more challenging to catch than normal. A lot of anglers I had spoken with suggested that many of these species had gone into deeper water during this cold period and were a little dormant.

Significantly more time was required on the water to try to get a decent feed to take home.

The good news, however, is that the days are finally starting to get

was fitting to include some snapper photos from previous seasons as a reminder of what we can a little longer, and the water temperatures are slowly on the increase. By the time we are allowed back on the water, we should be gearing up for our peak fishing season in the coming months ahead. I have been spending a lot of my spare time getting my snapper fishing gear ready. This has included re-spooling my 5000 and 6000 size reels with new 30lb braid and tying on new 40lb leader with double snelled size 5 Mustad hooks – one of my favourite ways of targeting local Port Phillip Bay snapper.

I have also re-spooled a lot of my general purpose 3-5kg rods with 14lb braid ready to hit the water and target flathead, pinkies and squid locally. I’ve also been doing basic maintenance to much of my general fishing tackle, so that when we are allowed to go fishing, I’ll be geared up and ready to hit

Spring is all about the snapper season. the water with some level of success.

Let’s hope the situation improves, and in next month’s magazine I can get back to writing about the great catches around Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay. Until next time, good fishing everyone. If you would like to share your fishing experiences in Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay (anything from Werribee through to Port Melbourne and lakes around Melbourne) you can email me at alan@fishingmad.com.au and I can look at adding it to next month’s article.

Don’t forget to follow my fishing adventures at www. fishingmad.com.au, or check out the latest on my YouTube Channel (www. youtube.com/c/fishingmad), Facebook (www.facebook. com/fishingmad.com.au) and Instagram (www.instagram. com/fishingmad.com.au).

The last time I was on the water in PPB, offshore from Mornington Pier, there was literally acres of bait on the sounder, and with the amount

Big snapper are something to look forward to when restrictions are lifted.

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VIC

Navigating the uncertainty PHILLIP ISLAND

Craig Edmonds

I have started this report about six times, as it’s a struggle to get it started with something that makes sense.

As I write this, it’s unclear when and how restrictions will be lifted. All the uncertainty is making it extremely difficult for anybody in business to organise stock for the

season ahead.

The problem at present is not trying to guess what you will need, but being able to get any stock that you want.

With the problems the virus has caused to manufacturing overseas, supply has become the biggest obstacle to navigate around, and not just for us in fishing – if you have been to the shops lately you’ll have noticed that it’s a problem with many other retail businesses. Plenty of

Greg Miller with an excellent 42cm calamari.

patience and understanding will be needed this season with businesses trying to simply survive and work their way around the last six months and the various restrictions that still lie ahead.

We don’t want a situation in December like the one we had in July that put us into these difficult times. If it did happen again, I hate to think about the damage it would have on the retail sector.

With the restrictions around who can fish and where, the reports have been all over the place, and consistency is simply a word in the dictionary. We have seen some very good catches but have also seen plenty of empty iceboxes at the end of a day’s fishing.

The winter weather was so good up until late August and early September, where we saw some very windy weather, typical of what we see in the spring. We had some very good reports of snapper in mid-August and while, by the reports, they just seemed to disappear, it was more to do with the weather and not being able to fish.

The snapper wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Snapper reports have been no different than other years, and it’s the top part of the bay around Spit Point and Corinella or in the deeper waters off French

Island between Tortoise Head and Elizabeth Island with a couple out in the deeper parts off Rhyll and Silverleaves. The bite has been timid, and you need plenty of opportunities with different baits and rigs.

Whiting fishers that give us reports have been few and far between, with the spring weather making it difficult to fish for whiting. I’m not sure why but the spring winds always seem to be sideways to the tide, especially in the whiting areas, and it makes it extremely difficult to get the boat to sit correctly. It takes a little time to get it right but if you want to have a serious go at catching whiting during those conditions, learn to put out a second anchor to hold the boat straight into the tide. The whiting have been a reasonable size lately, but they don’t seem to be quite in the same condition as they have been over the last few years.

The hardest to work out this winter has been calamari, with the reports nothing like what we would normally expect, and numbers a long way down when you consider that the weather had been so good. The reports have been scarce, and most anglers struggled to find more than a couple in a session.

I don’t think the squid have disappeared, and reports seem to back that up with customers

Nate and Jensen with some quality 38-40cm whiting they helped dad to catch. telling us they see plenty in the water at times, but just don’t have any luck catching them.

Like last year, the squid are being caught in many more places than the usual spots, even offshore. If you persevere you will find a couple for a snapper fish, so it’s still well worth the effort on your way to the snapper grounds.

It’s also well worth the

effort to drop a couple of jigs in no matter where you are fishing. All you need is a simple handline or old broken rod with a paternoster rig, two cheap jigs and a large sinker. Drop it over the back of the boat wherever you stop, shallow or deep, and let it bounce around. It’s cheap and nothing special, and with little effort you could manage a couple of squid each trip.

The main basin is the centre of attention LAKES ENTRANCE

Steven Pryke

It’s shaping up to be a cracker summer in the Gippsland region. With all the rain the lakes have had a good flush, helping to re-snag the rivers and aiding in the local fish spawn.

LAKES ENTRANCE Over recent months the Gippsland region has experienced many different seasons, with masses of rain, wind and heat, then switching back to icy mornings. These changing conditions have made the fishing challenging at times,

but anglers have made the best of it.

The town beaches have fired up with quality Australian salmon being caught off Lake Bunga and Eastern Beach. Early and late in the day, especially with good tidal movement is a recipe for some great fun on the beach. Small metal lures matching the abundant baitfish are the best.

Many anglers fish our local beaches with traditional 10-12ft surf rods, but I enjoy tackling these sportfish on light 7ft spin tackle matched up to 25003000 size reel with 10-15lb braided line. Fishing light for these hard-fighting fish really makes it a joy.

This solid Lake Tyres bream took a liking to a blade ripped across the mud flat.

Micro jigs like the Major Craft Jigpara are commonly overlooked when targetting flathead.

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OCTOBER 2020

LAKE TYERS Lake Tyers has truly changed in recent months.

It wasn’t too long ago when it was at the lowest water level that many of us had ever seen – and then within a couple of weeks the lake was high and getting closer to opening.

With all this water the lake has really fired up, with the main lake basin being the centre of attention for many anglers.

Large bream and silver trevally have been found

working the deeper weeds beds, especially around the channel markers and the glass house. Small metal blades like the Atomic Metalz 40mm blade are great options for working these deeper weed beds, and help to attract fish in dirty water. Soft plastics have been highly effective too, especially on the calmer days. Small grubs and paddle tails in bright UV colours have worked the most effectively.

Further upstream, areas

such as Devils Hoe and the island have held good schools of bream. Most have been found in the 3-3.5m mark, and locating these schools is half the battle. Making the most of quality electronics really helps at this time of year.

With the lake slowly warming up it won’t be long before the big dusky flathead that Lake Tyres is known for will start to fire up. Early in the season can be the best time of year to target those monster flathead, and generally you will find them concentrated in small areas where the water is warm, such as shallow mud flats. Smaller offerings are a great way to start off early in the year, and small 70-90mm jerkbaits are a great approach. As the lake warms up, big topwaters and swimbaits will come in to play.

HAVE YOU BEEN FISHING? If you have been out for fish lately and have a great pic, please send it to stevenprykefishing@ gmail.com with a short description and you could be featured in the edition of Fishing Monthly.

FUN PAGE AND COMPETITIONS HOW YOU FEEL AFTER A FORTNIGHT OF CAMPING F

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Heads, S Matthews of Edgeworth, J Coates of Gwandalan, G Parker of Sebastopol, K Lockwood of Rockingham, G Sprott of Glenlee, R Davis of Sarina, R Bland of Forster, K Shannon of South Grafton, D Tomasev of Scullin, M White of Drysdale, K Whillock of Dapto, D Larkin of Shoalhaven Heads, A Strange of Cardigan, D Fotheringham of Frankston, B Cannon of Fairfield, L Bennett of Marrangaroo, N Foot of Lara, C Kelly of Cranbourne, A Cook of Ashmore, T Grice of Caboolture, B Mackey of Parkwood, K Sutherland

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This month’s Guess the Reel Answer: Daiwa Saltist 6500 Spinning Reel

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Answer: OCTOBER 2020

87

East Coast

VIC

Rivers hold hefty bream GIPPSLAND LAKES

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

The bream fishing has been exceptional lately, and the rivers have come alive.

After plenty of late winter snow, the run-off from the mountains will keep the rivers running and hopefully motivate the bream into a decent spawning run.

The clear, cold water will also help to clean up the rivers that have been running quite dirty after some of the best winter rains for over five years. It can be a difficult time to target bream because they have love on the brain, but at least they will be easy to find as they push high up into the rivers.

still to come, I expect the Mitchell to fish exceptionally well until late December.

The estuarine waters of the Mitchell start below the rock barrier not far upstream from Bairnsdale, and it’s from here and downstream that estuary perch can be found. The EP are once again making the town bridges their home, and good-sized perch to 40cm have been a regular capture close to the pylons.

The stocked bass have continued to thrive as we experience yet another wet year, and good numbers of bass from 35-40cm have been caught recently on scrubworms, also at the highway bridge in town.

There are also much bigger bass between 45-55cm that are resident and naturally

Bairnsdale and even a bit further upstream. Even down to The Cut and river mouth have also produced plenty of bream. That whole area has fished really well for months now, and it should get even better right up until late November.

With sandworm hard to source of late, I’m seeing a real trend this season from bait anglers using shrimp, either live or frozen. Other anglers have had success with fresh mussel and even small yabbies.

Lure fishers will get the best results with soft plastic paddle tails or grub tails in colours like motor oil or amber. Blades are also scoring plenty of bream, especially when jigged around the big schools near the Grassy

A COVID-conscious Anthony Havers wearing his mask while hooking big perch recently. All the rivers are producing excellent snag action at the moment, and this should continue deep into spring.

MITCHELL RIVER The great powerhouse river of all Gippsland has been the real spring highlight for yet another year. After eight months of terrific rainfall and the final snowmelt

spawned fish. You will need to gear up for them with much stronger leaders of 5kg+.

As far as bream go, the upper Mitchell continues to be the number one bream hotspot, especially around

Banks or in the Silt Jetties near Two Bells.

THE NICHOLSON For those who really understand and respect the upper reaches of the Nicho River, there are some thumper

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The author with a typical large Nicholson River bream caught deep in the snags. That’s a DIY sinking hybrid lure using half a hardbody lure and half a soft plastic glued to the back of it. bream to be found. Recently a good number of cracking fish between 43-47cm were landed from the snags, and it pays to beef up your leaders in this river.

For lure anglers, I recommend trying ZMan Slim SwimZ or Hurricane Sprats in camo or iceberg colours. Fish light jigheads and work them deep on the river edges, lock your drag and hang on! Plenty of bream are also taking blades in that area too, and it’s best to work your blades slow with extra long pauses.

Peter Nord and Steven Pryke continue to put impressive bags together from the Nicho, and I often see them weigh up their best five fish for a session that total 6kg or better. This proves that a lot of big bream call this area home.

Look for even better snag action and rock wall opportunities later in the month, as those early postspawners go feeding higher up in the water column.

TAMBO RIVER With so much land-based access to the Tambo River, the weekends will continue to be very busy with bait and lure anglers alike. Big schools of bream are still showing up well above the highway bridge and also down below the boat ramp all the way to the river entrance. Boat anglers should cruise the river with their sounder and get a feel for where the bream are schooling up, and then target them with soft plastics, hardbodies or blades.

If you can’t sound fish in deep water, don’t stress because searching hard up on the shallow edges will often produce fewer bream but much bigger fish.

The most often asked question I get from readers is where to bait fish the Tambo River. My best advice is to

keep driving and searching for a good half hour, and find out where most of the anglers are concentrated. The same goes for the Mitchell River.

Quite often those groups are local anglers who have done the recent homework, and are fishing the very best parts of the river. Once again, the best bait will be live or frozen shrimp, fresh mussel and small yabbies.

HOLLANDS LANDING Surprisingly there have been very few reports

coming from the Hollands Landing or Seacombe area, and that’s probably because the rivers are fishing so well. For those thinking of exploring the Straits I’m quite sure there will be rewards. You may not score big numbers but the size of the bream will not disappoint. There’s always the chance you’ll find a few large estuary perch in the snags too, because I often see them move into the Straits at this time of year.

Blake Puncher (14yo) from Gippsland caught this bass at Lake Glenmaggie.

He was fishing with a Blue Fox minnow spinner. The bass measured 49cm and weighed around 3.5kg. He released it back in to the water and watched it swim off.

VIC

East Coast

Flatty fun in the sun for this spring season MALLACOOTA/EDEN

Kevin Gleed captainkev@wildernessfishingtours.com

Another month gone by that has been far from normal with borders still closed and limited visitors.

The past month has been quiet for the sleepy town of Mallacoota.

The area has seen cold temperatures and good rainfall, which is great

for the estuary system.

The fishing in the months ahead will surely benefit from the good flush, with the tide moving in and out allowing movement of fish.

The nearby Betka River was open to the ocean after the recent rains only to close again. Then, with more rainfall it is now open and tidal once more.

The water temperature along the beach at present is 13.3ºC, which is as cold as it gets. We should see

temperatures start to rise in the coming weeks.

Offshore, the cold water has seen the fishing really slow down with the both sand and tiger flathead gone off the bite.

This is the time of year when the offshore fishers should be preparing for the coming season, doing the maintenance that needs to be done.

Fishing the local beaches in October is all about salmon, as the cold

Flathead are starting to wake up and in the coming months we will see the fishing improve as the weather warms.

Winter is black bream time and this year is no exception with good numbers of fish being caught.

water is to their liking.

There will also be the odd tailor caught along with the salmon, and the warming water will see more variety along the local beaches.

Spring is always a good time to be fishing Mallacoota lake system.

The entrance area is good at this time of year when

it’s open, as schools of salmon are able to come and go as they please. In Harrisons Channel, salmon and silver trevally are also been caught, along with the odd flathead.

The flathead are still being caught, but not in numbers. As this water warms in the coming

months they will really wake up and come back on the bite.

The key to finding fish in the months ahead is trying to find the pockets of water that are warmest, generally facing the north with a black mud bottom, as it will warm up quicker than sandy areas.

Estuaries are in pristine condition at last MARLO

Jim McClymont mcclymont@net-tech.com.au

At last, for the first time in over three years we have had an east coast low that dropped a good amount of rain over the catchment area. It put lots of water into the creeks and rivers in our area, and with minor flooding the estuary has had a good flush.

It was great to see the influx of freshwater cleaning up the rivers and washing the rubbish caused by the bushfires out to sea. At the same time it has deepened the entrance, allowing huge volumes of water to pump in and out with the tides. This gives the estuary a refresh, allowing new schools of fish into the system. Now with the rivers able to run freely, the estuary will be back to its pristine fishing condition.

Big schools of bream have entered the system on their spawning run, and they are moving up the rivers and entering the lakes and creeks to breed.

Along with the schools of bream, schools of estuary perch are also in their spawning cycle and are moving to their spawning areas. There are other reports of mullet being caught all spawned up.

Nature is an amazing thing – the rain that allows the grass and crops grow also refreshes the whole estuary system and signals a time of renewal, with all the fish species in our estuary breeding and repopulating the system.

This makes the Snowy and Brodribb River estuary the fishing Mecca of Victoria.

Already with the waters subsiding, anglers are out there testing the waters with some very good results. Reports have been coming in of great captures of bream being taken on

soft plastics, with most over 30cm and several over 40cm in several locations and on repeat occasions.

Bait fishers are getting similar results using sandworm, black crab, frozen prawn, pipis and local shell bait.

As well as the bream, good captures of estuary perch are also being taken by both bait and lure fishers, with fish of a similar size.

With all that action it’s a little wonder that big schools of mullet have also arrived, and are full of spawn and ready to do their duty in the population race.

The only missing species seems to be luderick. Maybe it’s not their time of year or maybe they will arrive later on their spawning run.

With nature renewing the estuary, making our area a fishing paradise, we are all looking forward to being able to travel and visit our favourite fishing spots again.

Anglers are reporting great captures of bream.

OCTOBER 2020

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Time to look forward to a good spring bite ROBINVALE

Rod Mackenzie codmac@bigpond.net.au

With another cod season done and dusted it would be fair to say it was my worst one yet. Lockdowns, border closures and bad timing all culminated in little action and even fewer fish.

Conversely, some other anglers living just across the border have described it as the best cod season ever. Living close to productive bodies of water with access was the key to some phenomenal captures.

Kevin Brooks pulled out no less than 24 metre cod this season from his local haunts as he was able to launch a boat and fish free of the COVID shackles. Anglers on the Victorian side of these waters could only look on and have a fish from the bank. While there were some good cod landed on the Vic banks, their numbers were well down compared to their boat-bound border cousins.

At Swan Hill in the run up to the close the Murray

Boga, and both also have good numbers of golden perch for the chance of a mixed bag. Both of these lakes quite often have good

BENDIGO

Roger Miles codhuntertours@bigpond.com

Markus Zanker with a ripper catch of spring redfin destined for the pan.

Cheese, chicken, yabbies, scrubworms and grubs all accounted for Murray cod up to 1m+ in length.

Downstream through Robinvale, Wemen and on to Mildura, anglers fishing the

Murray River from the bank also caught a few Murray cod on bait in the less than favourable flows. In the run-up to the close, a few nice-sized Murray cod were landed below the Mildura weir by anglers chasing the start of the golden perch run. Most fish were landed on bait but a few were also caught on vibe styled lures.

As we roll into the spring bite the golden perch will start to run at most locations.

The Lakes and channels in the Swan Hill area are great locations to target these fish as the weather starts to warm.

The regulators at both Reidy Lake and Kangaroo Lake often produce good catches of sizable golden perch on both bait and lures, as do the channels in between.

Redfin will begin to bite in Lake Charm and Lake

As the weather continues to warm, the golden perch will bite well at most locations. These good sized fish came from the Murray River at Wemen on bait.

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OCTOBER 2020

to produce better numbers of golden perch on bait as the water temperatures start to climb. It’s a similar story around Boundary Bend downstream through Belsar Island and onto the Robinvale pool water.

Below the Euston weir is another popular area for

golden perch in the spring flows, with good numbers of anglers happy to cast a bait from the bank in the fish rich flows. The Murray River at Wemen is a great spot for perch, and a well-weighted bait won’t last long fished close to the snags on the edge of the backwater. Both

sections of river below the Mildura and Wentworth weirs will produce good numbers of golden perch as the temperature continues to climb.

All up, I look forward to a ripper spring bite and can’t wait to get back on the water and wet a line.

Lots of potential

Kevin Brooks with just one of 24 1m-cod landed for the season.

River was up and down like a yo-yo. Dirty flows restricted most sessions to bait fishing only, and some good sized Murray cod were caught on both natural and kitchen baits.

water clarity, so lures like soft plastics and vibes are at times very effective.

Along the Murray River, Swan Hill will start

The Bendigo region is now at the crossroads of how productive the fishing season will be. All the current indicators are very encouraging. As long as we receive above average rainfall for the next two months, the region will experience a cracker of a fishing season.

The catchments are currently saturated, and any significant rainfall will produce some good run-off. With the longrange forecast currently predicting above average chance of La Niña, weather conditions the chances are currently high for above average rainfall.

LAKE EPPALOCK Conditions are currently looking very promising at Lake Eppalock, with water levels steadily rising in recent weeks after some good rainfall. The chances of Lake Eppalock receiving some very good inflows over the next few weeks is improving. At the time of writing this report, the combined catchment in the Coliban system above Lake Eppalock were reaching 88% of capacity. This means the system only needs a couple of above average rainfall events and the catchments of the Upper Coliban, Lauriston and Malmsbury reservoir will reach capacity.

If this does occur, this is when Lake Eppalock will receive high inflows and the lake’s water levels can increase quickly. We had the same scenario last year but unfortunately we did not get the rain, and instead we had several months of well below average rainfall.

Redfin are making up the majority of anglers’ catch rates at the present time. The majority of the redfin are being caught by anglers casting and retrieving soft plastics along the bottom in deep water. Some reasonable numbers of anglers have also been catching some redfin bait fishing with worms and yabbies.

Over the next few weeks, rising water temperatures combined with increased volumes of food will see the fish move into shallow water.

There is currently a good amount of regrowth around the banks of Lake Eppalock, and

the rising water levels are now running over the top of this regrowth. This all equates to food for the fish. Worms and a smorgasbords of insects will be on the fish’s dining table while water levels continue to increase.

The numbers of golden perch being caught recently has been low. The majority of golden perch have been caught by anglers trolling small, deep-diving hardbody lures.

We should see a significant increase in the numbers of golden perch being caught at this location during October.

If we get the rain and water levels continue to rise, good numbers of golden perch will be cruising the edges, making the most of the feeding opportunities.

CAMPASPE RIVER The fishing in the Campaspe River is very slow at the moment. This is mainly due to the inflows after recent rainfall events, and the water clarity is currently poor at most locations along the system.

has received some reasonable inflows and water levels are steadily rising. Last season golden perch fishing at this location was very good, and it was the most productive season for golden perch in this location since Victorian Fisheries started stocking them into this reservoir. Last season the majority of the golden perch were caught around the standing trees.

If we continue to receive good inflows at this location, and water levels rise over large areas of fresh ground, then greater concentrations of golden perch will start foraging around the edges of the lake. Good lure options will be lipless crankbaits and suspending hardbody lures.

LODDON RIVER Water clarity is still good in the majority of locations in the Loddon River.

Given the current saturated catchments this can change very quickly after one or two major rain events at this time of the year. At the time

Jarrett Miles caught this large 49cm redfin while trolling a Custom Crafted Basshunter lure.

The most productive fishing in the Campaspe River at the present time is currently in the section below Lake Eppalock downstream to the Barnadown Bridge, where water clarity is not too bad. In this section there have been small numbers of golden perch caught and the occasional good redfin taken around the edges of weed beds.

CAIRN CURRAN The number of anglers fishing this location over the last month has been low. Bait fishing for redfin has been the most productive option.

This should all change during the month of October as the golden perch fire up.

At this stage Cairn Curran

of writing this report the numbers of golden perch being caught has been low.

This month we should see a significant increase in the numbers of fish being caught here, as increasing water temperatures will see the fish start to feed more aggressively. Small to medium sized hardbody lures, small spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits are all good lure options.

If you’re planning a trip to this location after a significant rain event, it can be a good idea to do some bait fishing with worms, shrimp or yabbies if the water clarity is poor.

VIC

Trout on the bite BALLARAT

Shane Stevens

Our trout fishing season is well and truly underway, with many reports starting to filter through. Most waters in the Ballarat district have started to produce the goods. I expect this will only continue to improve with increased insect life and water levels continuing to rise over new ground from the late winter and early spring rains. This gives the trout in our lakes and reservoirs the opportunity to forage in the shallows, eating newly flooded-out worms, grubs and suchlike. Exciting times ahead for the anglers!

The COVID restrictions have certainly reduced angler numbers, and for those lucky enough to be able to fish, the distance they were allowed to travel has also impacted on the reports that have come through. This is one of the main reasons that I have received so many reports on catches on Lake Wendouree, as lot of those anglers would be fishing others waters in the district if not for the restrictions.

Lake Wendouree has certainly been the standout water over the past month, with some quality rainbow and brown trout being caught on bait, flies and

Highlands region at this time of year to fish for mayfly feeders. Hopefully COVID restrictions will ease, to allow anglers to head our way to catch a few.

Lesinda Keirl has been out fishing Lake Wendouree

Greg Armstrong has been taking his grandson Henry Wignall out for some outdoor education, casting silver wobbler lures from one of the many jetties dotted around Lake Wendouree. Young Henry got the shock of his life

Kiel Jones nailed this lovely Moorabool rainbow trout while fishing an olive BMS fly in the shallows. Image courtesy of Kiel Jones.

Lesinda Keirl caught this rainbow trout on PowerBait while fishing from the shore at Lake Wendouree with dad Damien. Image courtesy of Damien Keirl. with her dad Damien.

Lesinda has been fishing land-based using PowerBait with excellent results, landing some lovely rainbow trout over the past month.

Fly fisher Bruce Pipkorn has also been catching some lovely rainbows and browns on flies fishing from both the shore and boat over the past month. One brown was an absolute ripper at 59cm, putting Bruce in the lead in the Ballarat Fly Fishers Club ‘Len Walker’ winter/spring competition.

At Moorabool Reservoir the water level has risen over new ground, and the fish are mooching around in the shallows looks for worms, grubs and suchlike. This scenario gives anglers a very good chance of catching some quality brown and rainbow trout. I mentioned the mayfly action will start for fly fishers over the next few months, and for anglers who like to fish bait the coming few months

are prime time. A mudeye suspended under a bubble float, an unweighted bunch of worms or PowerBait fished off the bottom will nail a few.

For the guys who cast lures it’s certainly game on. Bent Minnow surface lures, soft plastics and small hardbodies will all result in excellent catches. One of the keys to success at Moorabool is to be prepared to cover the miles – you need to walk around its shoreline and cover plenty of water to achieve the best results. Fly fisherman Kiel Jones has been walking the shores of Moorabool over the past month in search of fish feeding in the shallows, with excellent results, nailing some lovely rainbows and browns on BMS fly patterns.

At Hepburn Lagoon the water levels have risen to overflowing. This allows anglers to once again have plenty of water to fish and not have to worry about all the exposed weed and only being able to fish small pockets of water.

The fish will, like other waters, be snooping around the edges feeding on flooded out food. Early in the morning you will find the rainbows and browns feeding in only inches of water. For the fly fishers, small nymphs or a stick caddis will bring these fish

undone, and in the evening a midge pattern will get them looking. Kiel Jones has been catching some excellent sized browns on black nymphs, it’s just a matter of finding a feeding fish, being patient and popping your fly in front of them and they will eat it. Well, most of the time.

Perseverance is the key to success.

A mudeye fished under a float about 2-3ft deep is a deadly combination at Hepburn. The mudeye population in Hepburn is

Nathan Angee landed another ripper Wendouree brown trout casting a Bent Minnow from a drifting boat. Image courtesy of Nathan Angee.

Henry Wignall caught this magnificent Wendouree brown while casting a silver wobbler lure, assisted by his grandfather Greg Armstrong. Image courtesy of Greg Armstrong. lures. Wendouree is yet to hit top gear, judging by the past few years. In October and November we see the mudeyes and mayfly start to hatch, and it’s one of my favourite times of the year to fish not only Wendouree but our other local waters where the mayfly hatch. Flyfishers from all over the state start to converge on the Central

when a brown trout latched onto his wobbler, and after a brief tussle the pair landed the trout. Young Henry is now hooked, his grandfather said.

Jason Mackley has been fishing Wendouree casting lures out of a drifting boat, nailing some lovely brown trout, as has Nathan Angee casting Bent Minnow surface lures.

unbelievable, and when they start to move and the fish start to feed on them they really grow quickly. Early morning, lunchtime on an overcast day or evenings are the best times to fish Hepburn with bait.

Newlyn Reservoir is full and over flowing. It’s a great time to slowly walk around the edges, and watch and wait to see a feeding fish. It’s also time to think about all the gutters and drains that you saw while the water levels were down. The fish will come in out of the deeper

Jason Mackley with a lovely Lake Wendouree brown caught on lure prior to release. Image courtesy of Jason Mackley.

water and come into the shallows to feed through these gutters and drains, so target these areas with your flies, lures, plastics and baits.

Tullaroop Reservoir reports have been sparse, but I expect this to change. Like the other waters mentioned, the water level is rising over fresh ground. The reservoir has been heavily stocked by Fisheries Victoria over the past few years, and these rainbow and brown trout will move into the shallows in search of flooded out prey. Those anglers who fish Tullaroop know that there are a lot of shallow bays, and the trout will follow the rising water levels into these bays.

Stealth mode is required for the best results, whether you fish fly, lure or bait.

OCTOBER 2020

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Assuming all goes well…

WANGARATTA

Robbie Alexander

As I type this, all of Victoria is in COVID lockdown.

Stage 3 for regional Victoria (where I live), and stage 4 for Melbourne. Because it is unknown when these restrictions will ease, I will be writing this report on the assumption that we will be allowed to go fishing

by October.

TROUT October is one of the best months of the year to target trout in North East Victoria. The lakes still offer cold enough water to troll trout near the surface without the use of downriggers, paravanes etc., and the streams are usually firing due to increased insect activity

A lovely redfin caught last year. October is a bit of a transition month for redfin. They are usually just starting to turn up frequently as the water warms up.

Lake Moodemere is a fantastic place when you just want to hook up a big fighting fish. Usually it’s a carp, but it’s always a lot of fun. of Lake William Hovell will also be well worth a look in October. A 4WD is required to access that part of the river but it is worth it, with a wide open river and healthy numbers of trout.

REDFIN October is usually when we start to see a few redfin waking up. Lake William Hovell and Lake Buffalo,

the region’s two best known redfin fisheries, usually fish quite poorly in October for redfin.

Other smaller lakes in the region, such as Lake Sambell in Beechworth and Allans Flat waterhole down near Yackandandah, can start producing a few redfin in October as the water starts to warm. You shouldn’t go there expecting huge numbers in October, however don’t be surprised it you catch a couple.

Baits of worms and shrimp will probably work best, or small, brightly-coloured soft plastics.

YELLOWBELLY The big news on the yellowbelly front is that the Ovens River is once again being stocked with

spring as this may result in a spawning Murray cod being caught, which can lead to the fish aborting its spawn which is a terrible result.

Other waterways in the region worth fishing for yellowbelly in October are Lake Sambell in Beechworth, Tronoh Dredge in Harrietville, Stanley Dam in Stanley and Allans Flat dredge hole near Yackandandah.

MURRAY COD Murray cod season is closed all spring. It is an offence to target Murray cod during the spring months, and anglers that do so risk being fined. My advice is to leave the lures at home and enjoy angling with small hooks and baits for a few months until December.

The author says that if there’s a prettier fish than a juvenile rainbow trout, he needs to know about it. and cold, well flowing water.

Bladed spinners tend to work well in October, particularly in the larger rivers where the current is strong and they can create quite a vibration. Worden’s Rooster Tails and Super Vibrax spinners are both excellent choices. I have found that gold or copper metallic blades often seem to work well in spring.

Soft plastics and small minnows will also be well worth trying. The small black/gold Strike Tiger nymph has served me well in spring months, particularly in slower water where the trout have time to study the lure.

In these environments, the natural presentation of the small nymph can be enough to persuade the cunning trout to strike the lure rather than just follow it and observe it.

In October the Ovens River upstream of Bright will be well worth a look as it was mostly not burnt in last summer’s terrible bushfires.

The Buckland and Buffalo valleys are two of my favourite valleys to fish, however both valleys 92

OCTOBER 2020

sustained heavy bushfire damage last summer. There were reports of dead trout floating in the Buckland River after a thunderstorm, so I am unsure how it will fish this spring.

Across the hill and into the Kiewa Valley, the Kiewa River will definitely be worth fishing in October.

The section of river between

Tawonga Caravan Park and Mt Beauty pondage holds the best numbers of trout.

There is a track behind the old timber mill in Mt Beauty that you can walk down which opens up quite a long stretch of the Kiewa River. This stretch can provide fantastic trout fishing at times.

The King River upstream

An Ovens River yellowbelly caught in mid-August. It is great to see a few yellowbelly starting to turn up in the Ovens River.

October is the time of year when snakes are most active, with large males looking for a mate. Keep your eyes on the ground, and if you see a snake don’t panic. Just give it space to slither away and you won’t have any problems.

yellowbelly for the first time in over 20 years. The stocking started a couple of years ago with 50,000 yellowbelly being put into the river. Many of those small fish wouldn’t have survived; they would have been eaten by Murray cod and trout cod. However, a small percentage have survived and they have already started to turn up. I caught a couple of small ones last year, and just recently landed a slightly larger one of around 30cm.

The future is looking amazing for the Ovens River as a mixed native fishery.

Worms and live shrimp will be the best baits to catch yellowbelly in the Ovens River. I advise against using lures to target yellowbelly in

CARP October can be a red hot time of year to target carp. Usually the water has warmed enough for the carp to become very active just about everywhere they live… which is just about everywhere that has water!

Lake Moodemere is my favourite carp fishing lake in the region. I love it over there.

It is shallow, warms up well and has some massive carp which can provide excellent fun for anglers of all ages. Try using corn kernels or worms as bait, and you can’t go wrong.

Carp fishing tip: When buying corn, do NOT buy creamed corn by mistake as you cannot put it on the hook.

Yes… I made this mistake!

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OCTOBER 2020

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South Beach with better boating access CRATER LAKES

Rod Shepherd

By the time this goes to print, the South Beach boat ramp renovations at Lake Bullen Merri should be finished and ready for all to use.

Due to wave action and receding water levels, the existing ramp suffered from undermining and bank erosion, but apparently now all has been fixed.

Thanks largely to our fishing licensing fees that funded the project.

Meanwhile many Chinook salmon continue to come out of the lake and, although many are weighing in under a kilogram, there are some bigger specimens out there. Keep a couple of smaller models for a feed, release the rest to grow bigger while waiting for a potential trophy fish to take your offering.

Flat line trolling minnow lures around the lake’s edges remains

The author with a sizeable Bullen Merri Chinook taken trolling on a Damiki Saemi medium diver in 6m depth.

arguably the most popular way to attract a fish or two.

Depths ranging from 4-8m seems the go. Have the lures way out back, don’t be afraid to swim them up to 30m behind the boat.

Some boaters are still static fishing at anchor in and around 10m depth off any prominent point.

Dropping berley to the bottom at regular intervals and bottom bouncing pungent baits, such as pilchard, still catches Chinook salmon along with the odd rainbow.

Bank anglers are picking up a few fish also using bait, either presented under a bubble float half filled with water or almost unweighted and allowed to slowly sink to the bottom.

Locally caught minnow and gudgeon using square collapsible minnow traps baited with fish based cat food, usually allowed to soak over night, will provide plenty of live bait.

Mudeye, live scrub worm and powerbait in pinks and

red are also worth using.

Lake Purrumbete has seen schools of Redfin sitting at depths of 10-12m which is where there is still enough sunlight to promote weed growth on the bottom. This is fine for bait danglers suspending live minnow and the like just off the bottom, but for those who jig soft plastics and blades, there is a never ending issue with interference from the weed.

Big browns to 9lb are still being landed by those who really put in the hard yards and troll or cast a variety of minnow lures.

From first light until dawn, as well as dusk through to complete darkness, are the prime times to tackle the big browns.

This is when they hunt in either the shallows or close to shore. The by-catch has been chinooks and rainbows to 5lb as well as brook, tiger and cheetah trout plus redfin who prefer the weed beds over sitting at depth.

Enjoying the longer days WST/STH GIPPSLAND

Steve Haughton steve@habitatcreations.com.au

After a long and tough winter for many, longer daylight hours starting this month will be welcomed.

Daylight savings time begins on Sunday 4 October. Spring is certainly in the air now, and this month’s angling prospects are looking up.

The catchments received a lot of rainfall over late winter and into spring, so the rivers are flowing hard.

You can expect the fishing

to be somewhat difficult in the main tributaries with strong flows, so the smaller streams might be the way to go early on. The Loch and Toorongo rivers are prime examples of smaller streams that have good numbers of small trout within. These streams are well suited to fly anglers, and beaded nymphs are the go-to method at this time of year. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times to stalk stream trout as they are actively feeding on hatchings of insects. The warmer weather stirs up the insects and this, in turn, stirs up the fish. Be sure to have some options in the fly

box to best match the hatch.

Over the next few months the stream trout action will intensify as the weather warms up. Closer to Melbourne the Lang Lang, Bunyip and Tarago rivers will all be worth a try over the coming months.

Heading out a bit further into the Noojee Valley are the Latrobe, Loch and Toorongo rivers. All are picturesque stream trout locations which will suit those wetting a fly, lure or bait. Waders are not essential but can be handy to have as they do allow better access to some great trout feeding zones. Brown trout are the more common catch

Brandon Scott caught this 49cm redfin while fishing his home waters at Morwell.

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throughout this region but there’s still the odd rainbow trout about, and even some redfin too in the larger rivers.

Mt Baw Baw has had a good snow season and we should start seeing plenty of that snow melt over the coming month topping up the catchments below. Not that Blue Rock Lake really needs it! The lake is well and truly at capacity, with good flows entering the river below the dam wall. This is good for environmental flows.

Blue Rock bass action should start to fire up as the water temperature rises.

Trout will still be about on the troll but you will need to start getting those lures down deeper. Trolling and jigging is popular over the winter months but as the fish start coming to the surface to feed, casting lures and flies will prove more successful.

If you haven’t been to Blue Rock Lake before or haven’t been for a while, it is worth a visit to see some of the changes in recent years.

Blue Rock Lake is very much evolving, with the success of the bass stocking program attracting more and more anglers. Restrictions have lifted on boat size and engine size so the lake is now open to all vessels, but a speed limit is in place so please follow the rules. The Old Tanjil Road boat ramp is well set up with new floating jetties for both lanes, boat ramp lights, toilets, picnic tables, heaps of parking and well-kept lawns for picnics. There is a brand-new all-abilities playground and

Dan Moore braved the cold, fishing from the shore with his daughter Katelyn who landed her first ever bass. A nice reward for fishing in the challenging chilly conditions. upgrades to some of the picnicking facilities opening soon too! The Dam Wall Road boat ramp is similarly set up, but the single-lane ramp is best suited to smaller aluminium boats. We’re hoping for an upgrade on this too in the new year.

If you don’t have a boat or kayak, Blue Rock is still a great place to venture with the family. The Old Tanjil Road boat ramp has a scenic 1.5km walking track following the shoreline to Blue Rock Road.

This gravel track provides great access for land-based anglers to a number of coves

along the western shores.

The coves are nice places to get out of a southwesterly wind, but don’t dismiss the points as these are often where the fish, particularly bass, like to hang out. The dam wall boat ramp has good access to the lake too, and has about 500m of shoreline.

Please remember the river blackfish season is closed until 31 December.

Feel free to send me a report or photo, particularly if you have any success stories from the opening of the trout season.

Happy fishing!

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95

VIC

Snob statue stuns sightseers EILDON

Peter Burtchell

Once again the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s Snobs Creek Hatchery has provided the district with some very large fish in the form of a monument to their passion and work.

The Hatchery proudly announced their latest addition at Snobs, and this new statue shows just how huge their passion for breeding fish is!

They will be growing more trout cod at Snobs, to continue the recovery of these cracking fish. That means they will be stocking more trout cod into waters like the Goulburn River, which got nearly 27,000 fish earlier this year. Their brown trout numbers will be greater than ever, with plenty of eggs

The biggest trout cod and brown trout in the district. on deck in the hatchery, so things are looking good. It’s all part of the Target One Million commitment to stock 10 million fish each year by 2022. So when you can next head up to have a crack at trout or cod in Eildon, make sure you stop to snap a photo with some of the biggest fish you’ll ever see!

With the Lake being in stage 3 and Melbourne in stage 4 restrictions, visitors to the Lake have been few.

Local fisherman Craig Parker and his son braved the cold and snowy conditions to land a healthy Murray cod from the back deck of their houseboat. Craig was also successful, landing a 60cm brown trout on his Bespoke Hardbody Diver in the redfin Pattern. He was hoping that

it was a Murray cod tapping at his lure as he traversed the banks around the Jerusalem Creek Marina, however when the trout launched itself he realised it was a very different by-catch indeed.

From mid to late August the Murray cod were very hard to find. Several films crews tried their best however were they not granted any great winter footage of landing any of these great fish. Nathan landed and released one of the only Murray cod caught around the Jerusalem Creek Arm during the same period.

He used a yellow colour Cod Sniper, took a quick photograph and released the fish so that it could fight on another day.

With so few anglers visiting the Lake, our best photograph of the fishing action was Big Col, who is a resident of the Lake, caught

Baxter, son of local angler Craig Parker, braved the snow and freezing conditions to land this nice Murray cod.

Salvage operations as a result of a mid-winter storm.

Nathan Walker with one of very few Murray cod landed and released in the last two weeks of August.

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OCTOBER 2020

Big Col is the legendary local Murray cod and yellowbelly angler.

in action trolling in front of his home. Col has a lot of success when trolling and/or bait fishing in Lake Eildon, his favourite waterway.

The lack of fishing mid-winter saw a salvage operation in full swing at Jerusalem Creek after a sudden storm front came through and capsized Peter Rogers’ houseboat. Luckily for Peter he had time to make his distress call and abandon ship. After the storm, the vessel was resting on its side at a depth of 17m. For the first part of the salvage, dive teams were sent down to connect cables to the vessel so that it could be righted underwater using on-water cranes supplied by the Eildon Boat Club, Darlingford Waters Boat Club and the Jerusalem Creek Marina. With floatation bags attached and inflated, the vessel was towed to the bank with a plan to dewater the pontoons and re-float the vessel where it could then be retrieved and transported for further inspection and To page 97

Go Behind the Scenery

Tasmania

Out and about in October HOBART

Andrew Large

Anglers enjoyed some good weather windows during the later part of winter, and for the large part had plenty of species running well to choose

continuing to move.

SALTWATER Sand flathead are starting to move in most areas, although recent influxes of freshwater have curbed activity a tad in near coastal bays, lagoons and estuaries. Offshore is still fishing reasonably well.

even made an appearance in September off Cape Pillar on the Tasman Peninsula.

Southern calamari have been reported from the Maria and Bruny Island regions. In recent weeks anglers have also had success fishing Storm Bay and around Betsy Island,

Felix Saunders with a nice bluefin caught at the Rock on board Big Pig. from. Spring is so far shaping up to be a littler scuddier than normal, but calmer angling pockets can be found and planned for. Many species are remaining with us or From page 96

possible repairs. As the vessel surfaced it was clear that it could not be re-floated due to the damage that it had received during its sinking, and the vessel was demolished.

This accident is a reminder that when you head out on the water, you should keep your eye on the latest weather reports and let somebody know where you intend to go, and your return time. If you do run into trouble, there is a breakdown and recovery service based at the Jerusalem Creek Marina. Drop in prior to your fishing trip and lodge your details as part of your back-up safety plan.

The warmer weather that spring brings will get the natives and other species back into full swing. Let us hope that the threat of COVID-19 outbreaks will continue to decline, allowing restrictions to be lifted so that the tourism industry around Lake Eildon can start the long road back to recovery.

• Jerusalem Creek Marina & Holiday Park is a friendly, family-orientated caravan park, and makes the perfect home away from home.

While there you can opt to hire one of their Boatel floating apartments, hire a boat or book a fishing

In deeper waters off the northeast, eastern and southeast coasts in depths of 60m or more, tiger flathead (also known as king flathead) have started to move. In fact, these fish

which is only 15km from the Hobart CBD. At around 1kg we thought Australian salmon fishing couldn’t get much better this early. This species was fishing well

guide at competitive prices.

For more information on all of these services and other attractions in the area, visit

jerusalemcreek.com.au, or give them a call on (03) 5774 2585 or email info@jerusalemcreek. com.au.

before the fresh, then they disappeared for a few weeks but returned in short order and a little bit conditioned. Cremorne and South Arm areas have been producing the odd fish to 3kg in the last week or so. Surf beaches further up the east coast have come alive as well.

Winter runs of sand whiting are well underway in parts of the Derwent and wider Storm Bay, and are continuing right into spring it seems. When the latest influx of freshwater subsides, Lewisham sand flats and the Carlton River mouth will fish well.

Tuna, in particular southern bluefin, are still available in Peninsula waters, and off Bicheno on the East Coast. Pedra Blanca has been a little patchy in recent weeks.

Greenback flounder have been quiet lately, mainly because of strong winds and rain not being conducive to a flat calm surface. As a result, anglers have stayed put and chased other species.

The new Tasmanian Devil Spoon, in the popular spotted dog pattern, laying in the last of the snow. whitebait being seen as well. With predictions of a dryer than usual spring, the action should pick up during this month and next.

FRESHWATER Lake Leake is arguably the best water in the state

only the bravest of anglers would tolerate fishing its exposed shorelines in.

Penstock Lagoon is fishing really well and providing quality bags, including a 12lb rainbow caught recently. Boat and

Chris McDonald with a 12lb rainbow taken on fly at Penstock Lagoon after a 30-minute fight and the boat drifting up onto the shore.

Craig Parker caught this brown trout on a lure meant for a Murray cod.

Bream are enjoying all the water about at the moment, with a spring run making its way into Browns River in the south.

Larger runs of bream will continue to chase whitebait throughout the Derwent and Huon estuaries, as will the sea-run trout. Find one and you’ll generally find both.

October and November are the peak months.

Sea-run brown trout suffered early, and were predominantly found scrounging on bits and pieces they were able to find during the southeast floods of September. So far this month things are slowly returning to normal, with plenty of trout and

at the moment, and is producing both rainbows and browns to lure and fly. Fish are averaging 1.4-1.6kg, with 2.3kg specimens of both species being landed as well. The Black Magic BMax in mad minnow colour is taking fish amongst the sticks.

I recommend staying the night at the chalet and enjoying a great counter meal for lunch or dinner at the end of the day.

Great Lake is a little quiet for the moment. This is not unusual for August and September but it seems to have dragged a little into October this year. The slow fishing is combined with weather conditions that

shore anglers are sharing the action, and Woolly Bugger patterns are working well.

Bronte Lagoon has been fishing well all season with both lure and fly. Drift spinning seems to be topping out at the moment, with Ashley 2” spinners seeming popular, particularly the new #43 colour. Trollers are also taking fish. A spun bibbed minnow in the 60-65mm bracket will pick up fish in the shallows on the right day as well. Choose a lure with a bit of shine, as recent snowmelt has marked clarity up a tad, and lures need to stand out at the moment.

OCTOBER 2020

97

Get to know your WIRF network members WIRF MENTOR Name: Tiffany Newton Age: 29 Region: Western fringe of Melbourne Profession: Stainless Steel Business Development Manager Specialising: Salt and freshwater angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

I love to surf fish (I don’t do it enough), however having a boat has changed the way I fish. Having a 4WD can get you into remote areas that other people can’t access.

Favourite species to fish for?

In freshwater, definitely yellowbelly, and in salt water I can’t go past estuary perch.

Your best catch?

Fishing off the coast of Esperance in WA. I was using an old Alvey reel, the rod was buckled over the gunnels and I had two blokes either side holding me down by the shorts. After what felt like hours and shaking muscles, I landed my first samsonfish. I felt the bruises and sore muscles for days!

Bait/Lure of choice?

By far my favourite lure, as it seems to be an all-rounder in estuaries for me, is a Berkley Twin Tail Minnow 3” soft plastics in either a watermelon pearl or pepper prawn.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

I love to be able to share my story on where I have come from and what I have achieved during this journey.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

I would love to be able to fish with my grandparents and my brother again. Sadly they aren’t around anymore but there isn’t a day when I go fishing I am not thinking, what would they choose, does this gutter look good to Pa? The experiences and places they have been to, I could learn so much off them. It may be the old school way, but I am sure I could’ve taught them a few new tricks too.

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

A camera to capture the moments, an array of soft plastics and lures, and a positive attitude and confidence that my next cast could land me a fish of a lifetime.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Being able to use the WIRF Network as a platform to get more female members into my local fishing club is high up there on the list. I went from being one of the only females, to having at least eight members participating regularly in competitions and coming to meetings.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Being able to speak on stage at the 2019 AFTA Gala Dinner, to address the achievements, goals and ambitions of the WIRF Network. Looking into the audience and seeing a high calibre of fishing legends, industry leaders and fishing representatives was just mind blowing to have them listen to us speak, and give the respect of what the VFA and WIRF Network has accomplished.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

I ask myself this question all the time! I would be a yellowbelly. I would get to swim around the shore at night to look for food, hang out under my favourite snag during the day, and wait for the food to come to me. I also get a little cranky and feisty when it gets to warmer weather.

WIRF MENTOR Name: Jo Larkin Age: 48 Region: Boronia and Portarlington Profession: TeacherDevelopment Manager Specialising: Saltwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Boat.

60 98

SEPTEMBER 2020 OCTOBER 2020

Favourite species to fish for?

Flatties.

Your best catch?

Other than my partner, it would have to be my 51cm peacock bass.

Bait/Lure of choice?

Pumpkinseed Turtle Back Worm on a Jigman 2/01/4oz What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

The opportunity to inspire women and children to get out and enjoy the fishing and the mental and physical benefits it brings.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

Michael Jordan on his 80ft boat named ‘Catch 23’ What three items are a must have on your fishing trip?

Laughter, electric motor and great weather.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Being asked to be a mentor to the 2019/20 WIRF ambassadors.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Organising many fishing clinics for special school students and enjoying their smiles and laughter as they learnt new skills. They left with a fishing rod and, hopefully, a lifelong love of fishing.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

Clown fish – always entertaining others!

WIRF LEADER Name: Shea Bloom Age: 35 Region: Corryong Profession: PCA and Ambo Specialising: Salt and Freshwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Definitely boat. It’s just luck that my husband bought me the boat of his dreams for my 30th Birthday.

Favourite species to fish for?

That one is hard. I love fishing for all species, but I’m going to say marlin (of any kind).

Your best catch?

Does my husband count? It would come down to two – my first ever striped marlin or a 1100mm GT caught off Linden Banks out of Cairns, with my family and a great mate by my side.

Bait/Lure of choice?

I have an old as Purple Quadspin Spinnerbait, I think it’s an Aus Spin 1/2oz, that old banger has been cast millions of times.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

It means being able to promote something that my family and I love to do! To have girls and women look up to you doing something I absolutely love is a dream come true!

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

Al McGlashin, luckily for me Al has actually invited me to do an episode with him on ‘Fish’n with Mates’ as a WIRF ambassador.

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

Phone/camera (for bragging rights), good fishing gear and polarised sunnies.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Running my very own fishing night at Anaconda in Albury last November and being selected to go to Tasmania last December to the National Recreational Fishing Conference.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Meeting so many amazing fishing identities at AFTA last year at the Gala dinner.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

Probably a flathead – an aggressive bottom feeder! Ha ha.

WIRF LEADER Name: Niki Duckstein Age: 29 Region: Metro Melbourne Profession: Electrician/ Elevator Sales Specialising: Saltwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Love them all!

Favourite species to fish for?

Squid, especially sight casting.

Your best catch?

Probably two mulloway over 1m.

Bait/Lure of choice?

Squid jig red foil.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

It means getting the opportunity to encourage more women and girls to go fishing, which I really enjoy.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

Shane Compain chasing barra.

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

About 100 jigs, a towel and a decent pair of sunnies!

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Probably getting a chance to rep WIRF on ‘Talking Fishing’.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Hard to pick just one! Representing WIRF at the National Rec Fishing Conference/community was pretty amazing.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

I’d say a southern calamari. I prefer calm conditions, I’m friendly/social, plus I know the [squid] dance!

WIRF LEADER Name: Cara Cummings Age: 36 Region: Macedon Ranges Profession: Business Owner (Building Industry) Specialising: Freshwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Boat fishing for sure! Being able to explore new places and enjoy the view and surrounds from a different perspective.

Favourite species to fish for?

Murray cod, yellowbelly and trout Your best catch?

I’d actually have to say it was witnessing my 9-year old daughter’s catch! She caught and reeled in a whopping 58cm brown trout! The look on her little face is something I will never forget, the boat was a buzz and it was a priceless moment that filled me with pride!

Bait/Lure of choice?

I do like my 1/2oz spinnerbaits and have a soft spot for a classic Tassie Devil.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

For me it’s being able to support and motivate others, share advice, stories and be a voice for our members when opportunities present. It has given me the confidence to encourage and inspire others to take up fishing.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

Nigella Lawson, she may not know a rod from a reel but I’m damn sure the boat snacks would be out of this world, along with the tantalising meal she’d prepare from the day’s catch! This would be combining my two favourite passions together!

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

Fishing gear, wine, grazing platter!

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Having been given the opportunity to represent WIRF in the media. TV’s Talking Fishing, Virtual Boat Show,

blogs and interviews. One of my favourites though, is writing the monthly WIRF article for Fishing Monthly mag!

Greatest WIRF moment?

Alongside fellow WIRF Leader, Niki, we appeared on Chanel 31’s Talking Fishing show with Hosts David Krammer, ‘Trelly’ and Adam Ring. The nerves almost got the better of me but thankfully I survived and Niki and I were able to chat about the WIRF network!

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

A rainbow trout, they live in very pretty and tranquil streams, prefer gourmet dining and enjoy schooling up for events!

WIRF LEADER Name: Michelle Brittain Age: ??

Region: Mornington Peninsular Profession: Myotherapist / Surf instructor Specialising: Salt and freshwater angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

All 3! Boat is definitely a luxury and easier to fish, however I love the challenge and the serenity of bank and pier fishing.

Favourite fish species?

Love, love, love, catching whiting and squid. Focusing on technique and knowing conditions for those species and they are great to eat.

Your best catch?

A 20kg southern blue fin tuna on top water and 12kg king fish. They were both caught in local waters in Port Phillip Bay. Bait/lure of choice?

Fresh bait is always best, especially if you can catch your own. My go-to favourite rig is the Black Magic Tackle Snapper Snacks in 5/0 circle hook. It’s a handy pre-rigged paternoster style set up that catches fish with ease.

What does being a WIRF leader mean to you?

Having a voice in the industry and supporting and guiding like-minded women. Bringing balance and networking.

If you could fish with anyone who would it be with?

Milan Radonich from Big Angry Fish TV New Zealand. He is so knowledgeable, and looks like he is always having fun. Also, the fish he catches are amazing.

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

Fishing rod, tackle and rum.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Co-hosting on fishing programs and running VFA events.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Fishing with fellow WIRF members Tiffany and Nikki for squid, which was used for a cleaning demonstration at the Hooked On Portarlington event. And hosting on the first ever virtual boat show.

If you were a fish species what species best describes you?

I would actually love to be a dolphin. I know this is a mammal but they are intelligent fishers, they surf and play an important role. There is a very special energy about them, spreading love and joy when you see them play.

WIRF LEADER Name: Jackie Threlfall Age: 31 Region: Shepparton Profession: Accounts Manager for Trelly’s Outdoors Specialising: Freshwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Bank fishing is always fun as you can leave your rod with a bell on while you go exploring, but when that bell rings it’s time for the dash of your life.

Favourite species to fish for?

Murray cod.

Your best catch?

My 54cm yellowbelly caught on a lure at Eildon.

Bait/Lure of choice?

I’m usually a lazy fisher, so worms are my go-to.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

Making a difference to the fishing industry with being able to inspire and encourage more women to give fishing a go.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

WIRF fishing camp – fun, laughter and smiles makes any fishing adventure memorable.

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

Besides fishing gear: Sunscreen, as no one likes to look like a lobster; Snacks, and plenty of them in case the fish aren’t playing the game; and, WIRF girls for a good laugh.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Helping other women and children catch their first fish has been the best! Seeing their excitement, as I get just as excited for them!

Greatest WIRF moment?

Meeting Hilary Hutcheson, an inspiring leader for women around the world. I was lucky enough to meet and talk to her through a WIRF workshop.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

Mahimahi – love being in remote warm places.

WIRF LEADER Name: Michelle Jackman Age: 56 Region: Cranbourne Profession: Bookkeeper/ Office Manager Specialising: Saltwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Preferably boat, but I love any type of fishing. As long as there is a hook on the end of a line, I’m happy. Netting for yabbies/cray can be great fun as well.

Favourite species to fish for?

Marlin, it’s a huge adrenalin rush.

Your best catch?

1.65m striped marlin.

Bait/Lure of choice?

Fresh bait is best, slimy mackerel, even pipis from Venus Bay. What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

Finally, I get to live the dream of passing on my passion and skills to other like-minded women. VFA have given me the work platforms to place me in the best position to encourage and teach others to enjoy fishing even more than ever before.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

My family. Making memories is very important to me.

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

1300 seasick tablets, polarised sunnies, fresh bait.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Representing WIRF at Mate’s Day 2019 with Rex Hunt and Dave Kramer. Taking people with disabilities fishing on our own boat. The proudest moment was presenting one of our very special guests with his own rod and reel.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Being selected to be a WIRF Leader and attending the AFTA show.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

When I was younger a kingfish, now I’m probably more like a swell shark.

WIRF LEADER Name: Izzy Sesto Age: 26 Region: Cranbourne North Profession: Conveyancer Specialising: Saltwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

Definitely love fishing off the boat, however there is nothing better than walking along a river flicking lures

for trout, and fishing off the surf for sharks in summer with your mates.

Favourite species to fish for?

My top four would be short fined mako shark, gummy sharks, blue fin tuna and kingfish.

Your best catch?

A 250kg mako shark in Tasmania, and 24kg gummy shark in Western Port.

Bait/Lure of choice?

If I am targeting gummies, I go for fresh squid, trevally, slimy mackerel or salmon. For tuna fishing, a daisy chain (little lumo squid) up the leader and a red bait coloured skirt (size of skirt is dependant on targeting schoolies or barrels). For trout fishing, the Spotted Dog Rapala lure.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

Being able to inspire other like-minded women to get out of their comfort zone when it comes to fishing. I love educating and helping people in a nonjudgmental environment.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

The one person I constantly admire in the industry and wish I could tag along on one of his adventure is a shark tagger by the name of Keith Poe. His passion, knowledge and respect for sharks is truly amazing and he has seen, caught and released some of the biggest sharks I have ever seen!

What three items are a must on your fishing trip?

Sharp knife, Navionics or a GPS to look for good grounds, and wire trace – never know when you will bump into a shark!

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Teaching kids with disabilities is a passion of mine. One of the WIRF Mentors (Jo) organised a fishing clinic with her students. I was fortunate enough to volunteer on the day. It was so rewarding seeing everyone learning and enjoying themselves and finding a new passion for fishing!

Greatest WIRF moment?

I think the greatest moments would be meeting ladies on the WIRF page that are crazy about fishing.

The inboxes I receive from women of all ages asking questions and saying they look up to me really makes it all worth it.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

I would say a mako shark as I can be unpredictable, sometimes a little crazy and when I smell food I will follow the scent. Ha ha!

WIRF LEADER Name: Karen Rees Age: 35 Region: Central Victoria Profession: Primary School Teacher & Manager of Trelly’s Outdoor Bendigo Specialising: Freshwater Angler Boat, bank or pier fishing?

70% boat, 30% bank.

Favourite species to fish for?

Murray cod.

Your best catch?

85cm Murray cod this year at Mulwala.

Bait/Lure of choice?

Jackall Pompadour.

What does being a WIRF Leader mean to you?

Inspiring females of all ages to give fishing a try and equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills to do it.

If you could fish with anyone, who would it be?

Jo Starling. She has been a huge role model and mentor in my life!

What three items are a must have on your fishing trip?

Fishing rod, lures and water.

Greatest WIRF achievement?

Being asked to come on board as an ambassador for GoFish Nagambie.

Greatest WIRF moment?

Hearing that I have inspired others to give fishing a try or helped reconnect them with the passion they once loved.

If you were a fish, what species best describes you?

A Murray cod. Happily living life in my snag awaiting for the right moment to strike.

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2020 2020

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Active fish in warmer conditions ESPERANCE

Murray Johnson

Esperance has had a great start to spring with some warmer weather, low winds and great fishing.

There are still a few salmon hanging around the beaches, with catches at Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach and occasionally at Roses, Dunns, Alexander and Poison.

Gummy sharks have been turning up good numbers with specimens up to 20kg at 14 Mile, Thomas River, and Israelite Bay. Anglers are still having good success using paternoster rigs with either 5/0 gang hooks or snelled 8/0 beak hooks. Choice baits are pilchards and herring strips..

The local beaches also yielding plenty of herring, small skippy up to 0.5kg, the occasional good flathead going 500mm, and plenty of sand whiting.

Guys targeting sand whiting are doing well at

Wylie Bay and also at Blue Haven and Fourth Beach.

The best bait is still prawns on a either a paternoster whiting rig or a slide bait rig.

Anglers fishing from the local jetties are still catching plenty of squid. When it comes to jigs, the most consistent producer at the moment is the Daiwa 3.5 Emeraldas in either white or pilchard blue colour.

The green lumo/orange belly pattern is also doing really well.

Off the jetty there are also King George whiting going 30cm, plenty of herring, lots of snook, and the odd barracuda. We’re also seeing the occasional small samsonfish being caught.

A popular rig for jetty fishing is the green strawberry or lumo rig, consisting of a no. 2 berley blob, a metre of line, and a no. 4 long shank hook with a piece of lumo tube over it.

You just cast and retrieve it like a surface lure, and the blob makes a splash and the

fish chase the green straw.

The Bream Lakes in town are starting to fire with the warm weather.

Fish around the 30cm mark are being caught in good numbers, and along with the occasional bigger fish over 40cm. If you’re fishing soft plastics, a good choice is still the 2.5” ZMan Slim SwimZ in mood ring, or 3”GrubZ in motor oil.

Anglers bait fishing from tinnies are picking up heaps of kidney-slapper sand whiting up to 30cm. There are still heaps of squid in the bay as well, and they’ve been consistently going over a kilo. Barracuda and snook have been known to smash squid jigs as well.

You can also pick up some good flathead and even the occasional gummy off the bottom, which is fun on a whiting rig.

Anglers fishing around the local islands are still getting plenty of groper, sweep and small nannygai, and the samsons have

continued to stay in close.

Bigger boats heading out wide are getting good numbers of nannies up to 60cm, along with plenty of samsons up to 30kg and queenfish up to 8kg.

Breaksea, harlequin and occasional yellowtail kingfish are also in the mix.

The occasional dhufish has been caught when heading out wide or to the west.

FISHING IN OCTOBER In the coming weeks we’ll probably see the tailing salmon disappear completely before they head back in summer. There will be good numbers of gummy sharks along the beaches, plus plenty of small skippy, herring and the opportunity to chase samsons off the rocks along with groper and harlequin. Bream fishing will continue to fire, with the bigger fish on the chew. The flow on effect from the winter rains in the river systems will see fish continuing to move around

A happy customer with a nice nannygai caught on a trip with Blackjack Charters. and remain active.

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OCTOBER 2020

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WA

South Coast

Warmer weather continues as fishing heats up harlequin and breaksea cod in the same areas, all of which are first grade fish.

Beach fishing has been quite pleasant with the early spring weather allowing you to enjoy hours on the sand without the need to rug up.

Fishing for whiting of all types has been good especially around Deere Reef where they seem to have been in the best numbers. Sand whiting have tended to be small and when unable to hook them

AUGUSTA

Anthony Gillam

The springtime bloom is well underway with life in the waterways taking on a similar look to those on the land. The weather has warmed nicely and continues a really great run of good fishing days.

With multiple flat and glassy days the fishing opportunities presenting each week has been the best for several years.

Having no wind and low swells to contend with was a real treat and the full car parks at the marina showed that people didn’t let the chance pass them by. Having an office with a view of the ocean is usually a sought after thing; lately however, watching all the boats on the water it has been a bit of a curse. Topping it all off was seeing my boat heading out to the deep with my son as the skipper instead of myself.

The Hardy Inlet has had a couple of really good flushes with some heavy late winter downfalls creating a large runoff down into the ocean. This resulted in the greatly anticipated hoards

Brayden backs up his PB pink snapper with a lovely dhufish. become very active in the river system with many smaller fish making their way as far down as the Ellis Street jetty.

Bigger fish passing the 30cm size range were more often found further up stream from the brackish water of Molloy Island to the fresh water at Sues Bridge. River prawns or peeled sections of coral prawn are always winners with some visitors to Augusta also

a luminous jig or any jig with a flashing light when night fishing and the catch rate will go right up. If you like old style, thread a mulie or herring on a spike style jig and float it under a plastic blob until you see it jerking which will be a squid or cuttlefish eating it. A simple retrieve is enough to securely hook the tentacles of these aggressive feeders.

Late winter was

no preference shown between soft plastics or baits. The key is keeping an eye on the sounder until finding a suitable lump, drifting over it a couple of times will soon show if the fish are there and on the bite.

If nothing worthwhile results after a short time move on to the next one. Quite often you only need a short time to bag out on demersals.

If you are fishing deep water, bring any hooked fish in slowly to minimise the chance of barotrauma. With the low survival rate of returned fish in the deeper waters it is sensible to take the first legal size fish and not try to upgrade in size or species. For metre-long pink snapper try a mulie inserted in the hood of a whole small squid secured on snelled hooks as it seems to be like lollies to them. To a lesser degree skinned octopus tentacle or whole whiting will give results. If artificials are your thing, pinkies love white, pink or glow 7-9” paddle tail soft plastics and Vexed bottom meat jigs. The best thing about chasing pink snapper is that you will also pick up dhufish,

Rebecca can’t hide her smile from this fine dhufish capture while on a trip out from Augusta with Leeuwin Marine Charters. it is more than likely those 15cm and smaller suckers that are sometimes in annoying proportions. Try moving around the area until you locate the fish you want.

Skippy are still around but spasmodic, herring are as always a frequent catch and

Brayden shows how it is done with a personal best 106cm pink snapper caught in Flinders Bay. of yellowfin whiting hitting the jetties and Colourpatch in big numbers. Their run always seems to correspond with some of most freezing cold nights. Glass shrimps and river prawns are generally the best bait, however, pieces of coral prawn and squid also work. The secret is to use as small a ball sinker as possible on a leader of about 30cm long and to cast out and wind in slow enough to just keep the bait moving. This will result in a massively increased strike rate as opposed to a stationary bait. This simple trick is often the reason why some people will catch very few while the person next to them will bag out.

Black bream have also

are the safe bet when looking for a feed. Blood worms, squid strips, mulie pieces or pieces of fresh fish fillet on a long shanked hook are the best baits. Berley the area you are fishing with a streak oil and pollard mix and it will bring the herring and skippy around in no time. Float an unweighted bait into it, flick some chrome lures or soft plastics around and you will get right into an exciting session of bread and butter fishing.

having success with chicken meat while fishing around Alexandra Bridge. The skin of the chicken seems to hold the bait on the hook much longer than softer baits avoiding the painful pickers stealing the bait long enough for bigger fish to have a go. Often they will pick up the bait, swim off and then stop before swallowing it so be patient before striking.

Squid are still to be found in good numbers in the Hardy Inlet as well as out in Flinders and Hamelin Bays They have been taking any squid jig put in front of them. In the marina the squid and cuttlefish numbers have been patchy, however, when located good numbers can be caught. Try

exceptional fishing weather with the glass off conditions becoming the norm and it is expected that this will continue right throughout spring. That being said, in the near future there are periods of heavy rain forecast; great for the farming community but can wreck any chance of getting out on the water.

Lately the reports of big demersals being caught have not diminished at all.

The large knobby-headed winter pink snapper have stayed around and are still being caught frequent enough to give hope to those of use who are looking to upgrade our PB. Some fine examples have been caught in waters ranging from 12-50m with

Dempsey McKinnon was very happy with this nice Blackwood River black bream caught on prawn.

Rock fishing can be very productive in Augusta.

Choose a spot that allows you the chance to seek refuge from any king waves and don’t let calm conditions fool you into thinking you are safe. Rogue waves are just that and can quickly result in being thrown into the water.

People have died here after being washed off by king waves. Unpredictable weather can quickly affect the fishing conditions and slippery rocks are a recipe for disaster.

Please remain vigilant when rock fishing; wear a life jacket and tie off to something solid. You can hire one for free from Augusta Xtreme Outdoor Sports at 66 Blackwood Avenue Augusta the local tackle shop and font of all local fishing knowledge.

Look for the big green sign on the roof, it’s right next to the Better Choice Fuels Service Station.

• The locations mentioned are all well-known and are marked on most vehicle GPS units, especially if they have HEMA maps or a list of locations can be obtained from the local tackle store, Augusta X-Treme Outdoor Sports.

OCTOBER 2020

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October opportunities for South West anglers BUSSELTON

Stephen Norman

The days are growing longer and the temperatures are on the rise, which means more time for fishing!

September had its moments offering anglers some solid weather windows, although fish numbers have been a little hit and miss. Boat anglers fishing Geographe Bay have been having some early season luck on the King George whiting with catches varying from 8-10m of water

numbers of the ever-mighty samsonfish. Ballooning live herring or whole squid seemed to be the pick of the baits.

Anglers adventuring inland have had great success targeting freshwater species, with redfin being caught in high numbers as well as well as some solid brown and rainbow trout. Honeymoon Pool, Warren River and Harvey Dam have all produced well.

UPCOMING Looking forward into October the first thing on every angler’s mind is the annual demersal fishing

Targeting KG is pretty straight forward but there are a few little things you can do in order to increase your chances of bagging a feed of one of the tastiest fish in our waters.

The first tip is fresh bait, predominately squid or octopus. Fresh squid tentacles send the KG nuts and the best part is, it is relatively easy to get.

If you are targeting whiting from a tinny, like so many anglers in the South West do, you’re likely to be fishing anywhere from 5-12m of water, which is prime

Darren Hansen with a whopping Busselton Jetty sambo taken on a whole live squid. What a beast!

Ben Fisher cracking his PB brown trout in South West waterways. out to 35-40m of water. Fishing fresh squid tentacles over the small to medium sand holes in the bay has been a dynamite method for chasing the KG. Speaking of squid, there have been no shortages of these suckers around the weed beds in 5-10m of water recently.

It’s well worth having a squid jig on hand when fishing for whiting or if you are fishing from the Busselton Jetty.

When the swell allowed, anglers heading south around Canal Rocks and Augusta had great fun with decent

ban. This ban will come into effect from the 15th and run for three consecutive months.

Targeting demersal finfish during this time is prohibited from the shore or a boat and must be returned to the water if captured. But, as always, we are spoilt for tasty options other than our popular demersal fish.

Kicking on from September, the King George whiting numbers should remain consistent if not gradually begin to pick up as we see warmer conditions.

territory for squid in our area.

So, while you’re drifting around chasing whiting, it is always a good idea to flick a squid jig or two out the back for some fresh bait.

The next tip would be to use reasonably large hooks.

Now we’re not talking 8 and 10/0 hooks, (although occasionally anglers targeting dhufish do pick up KG on these hook), we’re talking more about 1/0-3/0 Mutsu circle or octopus hooks. These hooks may seem large in terms of chasing whiting but trust

me, KG have no issues eating a decent bait and, once you find them, they can be surprisingly careless as to what bait they eat. The biggest benefit of using these hooks is that you will spend less time shaking off pesky by-catches, such as trumpeter and wrasse that with can become annoyingly abundant, especially if you introduce a little berley into your area.

If you prefer the sand between your toes or the stability of dry land, then you will have a number of options heading through October.

Look for the beaches to be clearing up and yellowfin whiting to be on the chew, as well as herring in the evening.

Squid should really begin to gather momentum this time of year as the days become a little warmer and a little longer. If you’re targeting them from the jetty, then evening/night is generally the best time, whereas boat anglers tend to have luck in the morning. Not to say that the squid are not active from the jetty in the mornings, but evening certainly seems to be a more productive time. Keep

some nice UV enhanced and lumo glow jigs in your bag, along with one or two more natural brown (yellowtail imitation) and silver jigs (herring imitation).

For those venturing a little

further south, October and heading towards November is a killer time of the year to wet a line for a tailor or small mulloway on the West Coast.

Casting mulies from beaches, such as Injidup, or casting from the rocks into washy areas, such as canal rocks, or Cape Naturalist area is a common method for picking up a few tailor, and some fat herring too.

As we have had some late winter rains, freshwater anglers should continue to see activity in our smaller waterways for redfin and trout. The Capel River can be a great option this time of year while fishing small, bright coloured hard body lures, such as Halco RMG Scorpion 35 are a great way to entice a bite.

• 2 Oceans Tackle is the South West’s premium fishing tackle outlet. Drop in and see our friendly staff for professional advice and choose from our massive range of fishing tackle that is sure to keep you fishing for longer.

A 1-hour bag of squid taken under the lights from the Busselton Jetty.

Abundant SBT around BUNBURY

Whitey’s Camping and Tackle

The fish are on! Warmer days are here and the fish responded. Southern bluefin tuna have been abundant this year with some of the best numbers on record with big oval sized schools busting up the thick bait schools.

The SBTs have been caught as close in as the shipping channel and as far out as 30nm. The key to catching these speedsters is keeping an eye out at all times for signs of activity, whether it’s the birds circling and diving or the 102

OCTOBER 2020

tuna themselves getting airborne in their ferocious attack on their prey!

Once you have located the general area try and sneak up on the side of the feeding school in casting distance and fire in a metal or stickbait, crank it hard and hold on!

If they are being tricky and keep going deep before you can get near them, your best bet is to get out the trolling lures and hang around the area as you will eventually come across them. A bibbed trolling lure is a great option, but for covering ground quickly a small skirted lure can be ripped along at 12-15

knots (fast enough to have it skipping every now and then). This can really get the tuna fired up and is a great option while moving between spots without having to slow down too much.

The yellowfin whiting have been in massive numbers on the local Leschenault flats. Fishing the rising tide with small poppers and stick baits seem to be all the rage. Fishing these types of lures using a slow continuous retrieve with small twitches is your best bet. Long casts are essential so make sure are always casting with the help of the wind even if you have to walk out first

This has been a cracking year for big schools of blue fin tuna. and start casting back into the shore. Even though knee-deep water is usually optimal, don’t be scared to

cast right up into the skinny water along the shoreline as whiting will feed in water only just covering

their backs.

Whiting are on offer in the estuary, as well as some To page 103

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West Coast

Quality fish captured MANDURAH

Jesse Choy

Reports showed that the fishing during September had been quite good, particularly offshore. Perhaps it is the coming demersal ban prompting anglers to fill their freezers before the seasonal closure.

the area you would like to fish, as well as your target species.

Demersal finfish can still be targeted from Mandurah up until 15 October, making offshore fishing a must for many within the first few weeks.

At this time of the year, there is a lot of inshore activity from some of the most desirable table

will follow. Numbers will vary, especially earlier on in the season where the cool conditions still play a relative part. A bit of searching will be required to locate these fish, or the warmer patches of water around sand and weed beds where they use the terrain to their advantage.

Using sub surface lures or a bait presentation is likely

Mandurah mulloway just love eating a fresh fillet of tailor. and movement for the bait to contend with. Fishing the lower to mid-stream sections of the rivers is ideal at this time of the year, as fish will tend to follow the bait further up

surroundings.

If you have been putting off freshwater fishing, now is the time to dig up your spinners and give it a crack.

Heading out to one of the local dams, you will find

quite often turn up the stray trout and once you arrive at your spot you are able to cast your baits or lures at the structures for some of the great sized redfin.

Getting back into the

Thys from Tackle World Mandurah hooked into a solid dhu!

There has been some great quality fish being captured and reported.

October is likely to hold plenty of opportunity when it comes to angling adventures. Not only do we tend to notice some seasonal change at this time of the year, but there is often a lot going on around Mandurah, depending on From page 102

quality herring, especially around the cut area. These speedsters respond well to a variety of techniques, including metal slugs and, old favourite, the small length of tube under a float.

species, which makes getting out more feasible and coming home with fish more likely. Fishing at the change of light will generally increase your chances, as will constantly moving when things appear to slow down.

As the Peel-Harvey estuary begins to warm up, traditionally the whiting

to be your best chance when looking for some commitment from these fish, as they can be quite hard to target on surface until the water temperatures really start to rise.

An increasing amount of bait is pushing up the rivers as the water conditions provide less struggle in terms of salinity

Crays are in full force.

The guys usual dropping the pots seem to get great results as the crays are on the move.

Straight out from Bunbury seems as good as anywhere but the everreliable Binningup area

will produce better results as summer kicks in. Bait choice for these delectable morsels is always a hot topic but you can’t go wrong with a combo of tuna heads and blue mackerel.

The local beaches have been good lately. Belvedere Beach has been producing some cracking tailor up to 50cm, as the weather warms the size will usually drop a little but the numbers of fish will increase.

Binningup and Myalup fishos have been getting good catches of yellowfin whiting early mornings, remember to not cast too far for these tasty fish as they are usually right on the edge. Bunbury’s back beach has been going off with herring in the arvos.

Plenty of berley is required to get them into a feeding frenzy but when you do, it’s on for young and old.

• Any questions on something you have read or just to have a chat, duck into Whiteys Tackle and Camping in Treendale, WA. One of the guys or Whitey himself will be happy to help get you on the right path to that next trophy fish.

Josh Luvera with a decent sized samsonfish.

Good quality bream like this are often caught up above Ravenswood, but landing them can be tricky. and continue to make the most of the easy pickings that pass them by. Small chunks of mullet, prawn or worm is ideal when fishing with baits up the

that there is plenty of space to explore with the family and just as much to fish. If heading out to one of these bodies of water, you will definitely achieve more

Trout make for great fishing, they have awesome colours and put up a good fight. river. If choosing to fish with lures, small bait imitation type plastics are going to be ideal and will work well with the natural

results if you are mobile with a kayak or electric powered boat. Trolling hardbody lures between your location swaps will

warmer days, we can expect the tailor to start showing up in thicker numbers and better sizes. Fishing from your local beaches at this time of the year can be very rewarding, with a wider variety of species on offer and likely to be captured as a result of the warmer waters. Once the tailor begin to start showing up in thicker numbers, mulloway are definitely not far behind and as a result become a great species to target. There is also plenty of herring, whiting and the odd skipjack when fishing with smaller hooks more suited to the species.

Going forward, we can expect the beaches to start heating up majorly, along with the estuarine and freshwater fishing.

November makes for a great time of the year to fish, as quite often the heat hasn’t set in and the fish are still willing to bite.

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Plenty on offer despite demersal closure little berley can help to extend the bite time. You will most probably to have to move a bit yourself until you find

METRO

Jacob Crispe

October 15 kicks off the demersal closure in the West Coast Bioregion. It means that we will need to change our focus on the angling front until the 15 December.

The beauty of the Perth metro area is that there are plenty of other options.

SWAN RIVER There is always one constant in the Swan River and that is the black bream. They can be caught using many different methods, put up a good fight and are pretty good on the plate as well. Bream tend to spread throughout the system, but as October rolls in the area down river from

Wazza Upton with an extremely rare capture of a mahimahi inside the Cockburn Sound. He caught it while casting lures near floating weed.

Fremantle Sailing Club, South and North Mole, Cottesloe, in fact most of the rock walls in the area will be worth a try.

If you are looking for family friendly fishing options, Coogee and Woodman Point jetties are very safe, well lit at night and the fishing is good too.

BEACHES There have been good

Local legend Emilio ‘Hools’ Orifici is all smiles showing us how it’s done with this big 5-star King George whiting! outfit on board to as it is not uncommon for samsonfish to show up in the skippy schools. When this happens your day is about to get a bit more exciting.

With the demersal ban kicking in mid month, anglers will still have a bit of time

John Vickery is consistent when it comes to landing silver ghosts from our south metro beaches.

Maylands would be a good place to start.

Fresh natural baits are your best options, many people swear by the humble garden worm. My golden rule is fresh and local will always be best.

Bream are a fantastic species to target with soft plastics and smaller profile bibbed minnows. Most

great sashimi. Berley will bring them around the boat and then let the fun begin.

It pays to have a heavier

been hooked, but many bream anglers only use 4lb string, so many hook ups turn into ‘fish that got away’ stories.

While we are talking about mulloway, there are still plenty of larger models throughout the lower reaches of the river. It can take a bit to find then but the reward can be a fish in excess of 25kg.

to take advantage of the pink snapper fishing that is currently on offer. The fishing has been excellent at the back edge of 5 Fathom and the fish have been widespread around Rottnest Island in anything from 15-50m of water. Dhufish, Breaksea cod and some XOS King George whiting have also been caught around this area, so it will be a popular place in early October.

Yellowtail kingfish are also starting to show up around the western and southern sides of Rottnest. Divers in the area have reported seeing fish in excess of 20kg about with some big samsonfish swimming amongst them.

Yellowtail kingfish are one of my favourite fish to catch, as there are so many ways of targeting them. They can literally be caught on the surface all the way down to the bottom – using surface lures to deep jigs, how cool is that?

There have been heaps of oriental bonito being caught around Rotto and the back of 5 Fathom. There has been the odd bluefin tuna mixed in with them just to add to the diversity of fishing the area has to offer. Jaz charters have been spending a bit of time in the area focusing on these species with plenty of success.

OUT WIDE The quality of the fish and the fishing out wide of Perth is always good. In October try in 200m+ of water around the various wrecks in the area.

The rewards will be eight bar

Nathan Hutchins and friends had some fun hitting the schools of bonito and bluefin tuna.

James Closey getting amongst the schools of skippy in just 5m of water. structure will hold fish and the other thing to look for is sudden changes of depth. Get you lure close to these places and chances are you will find a bream or two. The bonus for a few bream anglers in recent times has been the occasional soapy mulloway grabbing their lures. Fish to 70cm have 104

OCTOBER 2020

ROCK WALLS As mentioned last month, as we head into the later part of the year the rock wall fishing comes into its own. Herring, skippy and King George whiting are plentiful in most areas. As always, a little berley can have them schooled up in the area you are fishing.

reports of small sharks being captured from many of the local beaches and this should continue through the October period. However, October is all about tailor from our metro beaches and all the beaches north of Perth. This is the time when big tailor can be caught and they are the main focus for most beach fishos. It is a month that is all about quality fish, but not necessarily quantity.

Herring are also always on offer for beach anglers. Anchoring a berley sack in the wash will help improve chances if you are targeting them.

INSHORE FISHING As reported last month, our inshore grounds will be full of good-sized King George whiting and big squid.

As always, the keys are to find the sand patches in the broken ground and areas of weed. The fish tend to move around quite quickly from area to area; so a

concentrations of fish. If you have a moment, it is worth checking out Dom’s Fishing Adventures on YouTube, he has our inshore fishing wired.

Skippy are the other favourite target species at this time of the year. The average size tends to be around the 40-50cm mark. They fight hard on light gear and if you haven’t tried it, they make

Jamyn Newman caught this monster dhu on a charter out from Mindari.

Peter Haggas moved to the rock walls after the beach was a bit weeded out and caught a lovely mixed bag.

cod, nannygai and some big deepwater pink snapper. Pick your weather windows and buckle up.

Enjoy October as it offers a bounty of fishing options and the demersal closure is no excuse to stop going fishing.

Is there a better time to fish in Perth metro with so many quality eating fish available almost on tap.

Thank you again to Max Sampson from Anglers Fishing World for assisting me to put this report together.

recfishwest Time to tackle trout Whether it’s casting lures in dams like Waroona and Harvey, or fly fishing in rivers and streams near Pemberton, fishing for rainbow and brown trout in WA’s South West is a great fishing experience.

Many of us who fish the South West’s picturesque freshwater dams, brooks and rivers keep coming back for the

Subsequently, it coincides with a freshwater fishing licence-free weekend, as an extra incentive for those who’ve not tried the noble art of trout fishing before to give it a crack.

The initiative attracts keen freshwater anglers and families alike to help us and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional

few years old, brown trout and rainbow trout have been released in the South West’s freshwaters for fishing purposes since the late 1890s.

Drakesbrook is not the only freshwater body stocked with brown and rainbow trout each year, with trout also released at various popular freshwater fishing rivers and dams.

The released trout are

The Fish in the ‘Burbs event gave children the chance to catch trout only a stone’s throw from home.

Stocked trout are providing great fishing experiences for anglers in the South West. thrill of a hooked trout doing its acrobatics, while fishing in a serene inland setting.

Each year, we hold our anticipated Troutfest community stocking event, hand-releasing thousands of trout into Drakesbrook Weir, near Waroona. Last year this event attracted more than 300 people, including a healthy number of kids, mums and dads – reflecting the attraction of this safe, easily accessible and fun fishery.

This year the event – run in partnership with the Shire of Waroona and supported

by Alcoa, Whitey’s Tackle and Camping and Anaconda Bunbury – takes place on Saturday, 3 October from 10am to 1pm.

Development release thousands of trout into the dam. It is also a celebration of WA’s fantastic freshwater fisheries, with thousands of freshwater anglers fishing the South West and the Peel regions’ freshwater waterways each year.

“Troutfest is part of a carefully managed stocking program, using hatchery-reared trout grown from freshwater fishing licence revenue to enhance the fishery and therefore provide better fishing for all,” Recfishwest CEO Dr Andrew Rowland said.

FRESHWATER FISH STOCKING, A RICH HISTORY IN WA Although the Troutfest stocking initiative is only a

A quality rainbow caught from the shore.

grown at DPIRD’s trout hatchery in Pemberton as part of its trout stocking program. Recfishwest, through our Freshwater Fisheries Reference Group, offers advice to DPIRD on appropriate trout-stocking locations in the South West.

RELEASING MORE TREMENDOUS TROUT IN THE ‘BURBS On the back of Troutfest’s success, we also

private property.

It had been one of Recfishwest’s long-held ambitions to host a school holidays urban stocking program – it was fantastic

the season. This includes growing and stocking more ‘angler-ready’ trout, measuring more than 25cm, which are more resilient to the changing climate.

Stocking larger fish results in better survival rates than stocking fingerlings.

Recent stocking programs have created more fishing opportunities for children. recently held our inaugural ‘Fish In The ‘Burbs’ event in partnership with the Shire of Murray at Austin Lakes Estate, South Yunderup.

The fishing program, held in late September, marked a WA-first as young fishers caught trout in the middle of suburbia – a stone’s throw from many of their homes!

As part of the initiative, 500 rainbow trout were released into the lake in the centre of Austin Lake Estate to introduce the next generation of freshwater fishers to the wonderful sport.

Coinciding with the school holidays, youngsters had the chance to catch rainbow trout on

that it finally happened – and hopefully this will be the first of many more similar events to come.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRESHWATER FISHING WA recfishers spend $2.4 billion on fishing annually and, of course, freshwater fishing experiences contribute to the annual spend. Although a popular activity, a drying climate – particularly in the State’s south – in the past couple of decades, is beginning to impact on our freshwater fishing.

As a result, Recfishwest believes the future direction of this fishery needs to be reconsidered. We believe that we need to change our thinking and approach to freshwater stocking to futureproof these great fishing experiences.

Recfishwest, through the Freshwater Fisheries Reference Group, is currently working with DPIRD to assess and develop the current stocking strategy. We want the changes to ensure the best quality trout fishing experiences throughout

It also includes undertaking regular assessments of suitable water bodies and altering any planned stocking to maximise survival of stocked fish.

We must also consider the potential need for different species to catch.

Australia is blessed with plenty of native freshwater fish – such as Aussie bass and golden perch – that although not endemic to WA, provide fantastic fishing experiences in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Our freshwater fisheries have always existed based on non-native fish, so it’s logical that we look within Australia for a hard-fighting species that is resilient to our changing environment and has proven to be of low environmental risk.

Making changes to the South West’s trout stocking program will help safeguard the fishery’s long-term – it is critical that we protect our amazing freshwater fisheries! – Recfishwest Communications Officer Zach Relph OCTOBER 2020

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The best month for tailor before the end can create as much boat ramp chaos as the season start. Beach launching at Lancelin means no queues or ramp rage, so head to Lano for a leisurely fishing holiday to wind up the season.

LANCELIN

Peter Fullarton

Mid-month will see in the end of the demersal fishing season. The mad rush to bag some fish

There will be lots of whales about too, so keep a watch out when you’re travelling in low light, and keep the speed down when whales are close.

OFFSHORE Rock lobsters should be

Catching tailor on lures has become a popular activity.

in good numbers inside the white bank, and putting a few pots on some heavy ground should find a few ‘reds’ before the crays prepare to moult.

Demersal fishing has been firing up, with fish coming from a wide range of depths. A lot of boats have been finding no need to head out to Direction Bank for a quick bag-out.

Dhufish have been caught well inside the White Bank, and plenty of baldies have been around the 30m depths.

What to do when the ban kicks in? One option is to target bonito and tuna, which have significantly increased in numbers. To find them you might need to cover some ground. For a starting point for the day I always ask any boats returning to shore what depth they have seen any schools or birds working.

While searching for the tuna, troll some highspeed lures at 11-12 knots, jet heads or bibless minnows like the Halco Max. There’s always the chance that some tuna will pop up in the wake. Once you find a school (which may be moving quite fast)

Corban (9yo) wanted to catch a fish on a popper, and he succeeded with this quality 51cm PB tailor.

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you can use these highspeed lures to good effect.

Run the lures back a good 150-200m from the boat so as not to spook the fish, and use the speed these lures swim at to your advantage.

Cut ahead of the school and turn the boat so the lures run through or just ahead of the school’s path.

After 15 October, try hitting up the 20-22m depths for some plump sand whiting. There have been some cracker sandies about lately, measuring nearly 30cm long, along with a few flathead and flounder.

The trick is to drift until you get onto the better size whiting before dropping the anchor on the spot.

BAY FISHING Kayak and dinghy anglers have been doing well on herring, skippy, snook and squid over the weed beds. This month try casting some stickbaits or poppers to the reef breaks for large greenback tailor.

JETTY Fishing the jetty by day can be slow, and blowfish have been a big problem lately. As the sun sets, blowfish go to sleep, and herring start moving into the jetty for shelter. By the time the lights come on, there can be large numbers of herring that can be caught casting small lures

weed washing into the shore is to fish in the mornings with offshore winds. Your fishing experience will be far more enjoyable.

Hit up the beaches with a berley trail mid-morning for bread-and-butter species like herring and sand whiting, and remember that heading north of town always results in a much better size whiting.

If you can find a wellformed gutter then you are well and truly in with a chance for school size mulloway (‘schoolies’ are generally 60-85cm). If you can find where they have holed up, it can be a mad ‘fish a cast’ session.

At this time of year we also see plenty of small whaler sharks near

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The northern beaches of the bay have been good for herring, sand

whiting, tailor, mulloway and small sharks. The southern beaches start to build up near shore weed at this time of year. If you can get a line out, try for flathead, yellowfin whiting and herring. It is also well worth walking the shallows on calm nights with a hand

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107

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From page 107

shore, and setting up a scent trail using some fish frames anchored in the surf at sunset brings them to within casting range.

This is the best time to chase tailor for the whole year! It has been a great season to chase them casting lures, which has become a very popular activity. Fishing with poppers gets the heart

pumping with those great surface smashes as the fish hits the lure. Fish to 50cm have been common and the reef breaks have been producing some really plump greenbacks to 80cm.

There have been some great catches along both the northern and southern beaches, with snapper and big mulloway weighing 15-25kg turning up, mainly either side of the new moon.

One way to improve your fishing is to challenge yourself with some obtainable but difficult fishing goals. It helps if you focus on fishing techniques, improving your abilities and gaining knowledge. You can target a species you are familiar with, using a technique you wouldn’t normally use. Or, you can target new species of fish that

you have only ever caught by accident. Perhaps you can set a target to catch fish of a certain size, or on a type of lure you don’t normally use, or try a new technique like deep

dropping for hapuka and the like, or target gamefish like mackerel.

You won’t only learn new techniques and tactics – you’ll also become competent and confident

in your ability to do so. I find such challenges allow me to achieve some notable captures I otherwise would never have managed, simply because I would not have been trying.

Shore-based success EXMOUTH

Paul Bourne

The black marlin and sailfish action is still pretty good, although as I write this report they haven’t really turned up in the Gulf as yet. However, by the time you read this they should be there, and should hang around the Gulf all through October. We’re also coming into the start of the blue marlin season, which will

Bottom fishing has been good over the last couple of months, and this should continue in the coming weeks.

Anywhere from the 20-100m is fishing pretty well, just look for good shows on areas with a harder bottom and you could pick up some gold-band snapper, reds or Rankin cod.

Most fish are being caught on bait, but jigging is gaining in popularity. The standout jigs at the moment are the Vex Bottom Meats, with a bait added to maximise attraction.

28kg Spanish mackerel up near the lighthouse, using garfish for bait. If you want to catch a mackerel or tuna off the shore, try to focus your efforts around high tide when all the bait is in the bay, and cast out to them. You can use a balloon to get your bait out to the pelagics, or even use a drone.

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Stacey pulling some solid tailor out of a well-formed gutter at the back beach.

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Kalvin Gates with his pending Australian record shark mackerel, which weighed 5.5kg and was caught on 4kg line. really take off as we move into summer.

If you have no luck on the billfish, mackerel are usually a good plan B so you won’t have to come home emptyhanded. Most are caught on trolled hardbodies such as the Samaki Pacemaker and Jackson G-Control, or you can troll dead garfish.

First light and last light are good times for mackerel.

Land-based anglers have also been getting some nice catches. Staff member Josh recently caught a nice 20kg longtail off VLF Bay on a Strada Tempest 110. Whites and golds are good colours.

Longtails are caught pretty much all year round, but they are thicker in the Gulf in the summer months.

Another shore-based angler picked up a whopping

Exmouth or give them a call on (08) 9949 1315. You can also view the range at www. tackleworldexmouth.com. au, and see the latest catch photos on their Facebook page. This family business stocks a large range of tackle, from light spin to big game. The staff have a wealth of local knowledge and expertise, and are always happy to help.

This ripper Spanish mackerel was caught landbased, and tipped the scales at 28kg.

WA

West Coast

Fishing the changeover period Where have all the big fish gone! Well, not all the big fish, but catch rates have certainly dropped off for bag limit catches of some of

Silver trevally catches have dropped off a bit, but the size is better with fish over 40cm not uncommon, especially around the rock walls and jetties at Port Denison and the rocks on the eastern side of Geraldton Harbour. Both areas have

School mulloway up to about 1m are still being caught south of Head Butts but the tailor, whiting and sharks are not quite as regular as they were. The beach currents and swells have moved many of the best beach channels and holes further south than

Gav O’Malley with a nice dhufish from a recent trip out off Geraldton. our more popular species.

Our region is usually blessed with a consistent range of table species such as tailor, herring, whiting, mulloway, squid, silver trevally, sharks and more, but seasons change, and so does the species mix.

When it comes to seasonal species, some years there’ll be a productive changeover period with a good overlap of species. Conversely, some years there’ll be a gap between one species leaving and another arriving to take its place. At times like this, it can be a real challenge to find fish.

Of course, not all the fish have gone, and if we choose to fish other areas than our old faithful spots, our fishing efforts can still produce quality fish for the table.

either sharp rocks or pylons with coral and shells growing on them, so don’t go too light with your leader. I’ve found that 10kg is more than adequate. A bit lighter will mean more hook-ups but a few less fish landed.

Trevally take both lures and baits quite well, with metal wobblers, jigs and smaller minnows under 10cm in length all working well. If you use bait, the selection can be quite varied, with small pilchards on ganged hooks attracting the larger fish. Cut squid strips, prawns, whitebait or pilchard pieces on no. 1 to 2/0 hooks work well also.

Around the rocks or jetties the water is rarely over 3-4m so it’s not necessary to have super deep diving lures or use weights that take your bait down too quickly.

they were.

Drummonds Cove north to Coronation Beach has the same problems with sand and weed movement, with many of the usual spots being much shallower than normal, making it necessary move a few times to get a decent catch. The average size of the tailor is still good, but the bite time around sunset or earlier has been quite short.

Whiting have been patchy at best. The bigger fish are only close to, or just under the edge of the floating weed banks, which makes keeping your gear and bait in the strike zone quite difficult.

Land-based dhufish and snapper catches have been inconsistent, but the rewards are there if you put in the time and effort. When the weather allows access to the reef edges and channels south of Greenough river mouth, and north of Lucky Bat to Wagoe, you can catch some great fish. The best baits have been pilchards, mullet fillet, fresh squid and mid-sized small local bait like whiting and yellowtail.

Nathan Podmore with a coral trout caught out from Geraldton. have been able to land only a couple of fish at a given location before they have to move on.

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Nathan Podmore holds up a cracking amberjack caught on a jig.

Brian Robertson caught this quality dhufish off Geraldton recently.

It’s an old saying but true: anglers doing the most fishing also do the most catching!

BOAT Late winter to early spring has provided some spectacular weather, low wind and swell days as well as crystal clear water. The fishing has been as equally as good.

This season pink snapper fishing has been sensational, with good numbers of fish around. There are lots of school sized-fish around 450-500mm, along with some good fish up around 700-800mm mark.

The area southwest of town (15-25nm in 35-50m of water) has been fishing well for snapper, dhufish, coral trout, baldchin groper, samsonfish and amberjack.

Unfortunately the sharks have made the fishing hard; anglers

The fishing around the ship anchorages closer to town has been producing consistent numbers of dhufish, snapper, baldchin groper, estuary cod and sweetlip.

The fishing inside Pensioners from Drummonds to the Light House has fishing well for school-sized snapper, baldchin groper, skippy and samsonfish, as well as the occasional school mackerel and yellowtail kingfish for the guys trolling deep diving minnows for coral trout.

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OCTOBER 2020

109

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Last month before the wind DAMPIER/KARRATHA

Troy Honey

As we start to feel the heat from the looming wet season, we need to reflect on what has been a memorable dry

especially during August and September.

As an angler I am sure you understand the struggle, glassy days during the working week while planning your next fishing adventure, only to be battered with wild winds and

great examples of barra and threadfin salmon coming in.

Red emperor and Rankin cod have been the pick of the bunch when it comes to numbers and quality being caught throughout September.

Anglers who have been fishing

Yes, larger sizes and greater numbers are most commonly found in the deeper waters, but these fish can be found in as little as 10m of water.

One regularly successful local angler, Matty Howard is living proof of what can be achieved in the shallows. While fishing in 20m and on soft plastics, Matt landed a red emperor of such size that any visitor to the region would treasure a photo holding it up.

Metal jigs have really taken off in recent times, and with the prevalence of sharks in the northern WA waters, these lures have become the go-to option over bait. When using jigs there is less chance of attracting sharks to your hook, although there is still

Coral trout are abundant in waters off Karratha and are susceptible to soft plastics in green or white colours. Dylan Munn knows how to find the trout, with two great specimens caught recently.

Trolling lures or casting poppers and stickbaits on the tide changes around the shoals and shallow reefs of the Dampier Archipelago can result in solid Spanish mackerel. season in the Karratha region. A few downpours provided the spinifex with the last ingredient required for it to combat losing its green lustre, and while that has set the perfect photo backdrop for visitors to the region, the most memorable part is the absence of wind,

rough seas come the weekend.

Not so for 2020 in Karratha, with the boat ramp car parks packed with 4WDs and empty boat trailers.

September has seen many spectacular catches of pelagics and demersals, and the exciting part is the creeks are starting to fire up, with a few

the waters off Dampier and Point Samson in depths of 35m or more have been rewarded, and those fishing with jigs and soft plastics have easily out-fished the bait anglers.

You do not necessarily have to fish water depths beyond 40m to find good examples of either fish.

Several species of trevally prowl the Dampier Archipelago, and they provide many anglers with a great day of sportfishing. Dylan caught this gold-spot trevally from his boat while fishing the channel markers.

Barramundi build-up will soon be underway BROOME

Troy Honey

It is well known that the optimum time for chasing barra in the Kimberley is wet season, but if 2020 is anything to go by, dry season is not to be dismissed.

Throughout the year, and especially in September, there have been more than several reports of both good size and numbers of barra being caught around Broome. Barra have even been coming in on the beaches along Crab Creek Road both night and day on the high tide change.

The Broome Jetty has been fishing exceptionally well for barra, with most catches coming in at night around the pylons with Classic 120mm Hard Body Lures working great for a few local anglers. Dampier and Crab creeks are producing good fish, with the numbers making up for the smaller size, although a good portion of barra caught have been legal.

With the last few wet seasons providing more than enough rain for the breeding 110

OCTOBER 2020

cycle of barra to complete, we are now seeing the benefits, especially in waters such as the Fitzroy River. The fish that bred 2-4 years ago are now approaching 500mm and 700mm respectively, and fishing the Fitzroy two years ago I could not help but notice the tremendous amount of fish in the 300-400mm range.

Those fish will all be pushing

above 600mm by now, and if they have managed to elude the commercial net fishers who work the area around Derby then we are in for one impressive wet season of barra fishing.

The local fishing clubs all hold their annual barra comps on the Fitzroy in October, and this is a great way to get involved in the sport, meet

Matt Maguire is fortunate enough to spend some on his working days at Willie Creek Pearls. Blueline emperor are rated by many as better eating and better fighters than red emperor, and Matt caught this one on a pink vibe not too far or deep off the coast of Broome.

some very helpful people and learn plenty about the art of barramundi fishing. You can fish these comps both land-based and boat-based, with my personal preference being land-based as it really tests your skills and makes you appreciate the beautiful country that this river resides in.

The biggest challenge of fishing the Fitzroy landbased would certainly be the prehistoric reptiles that frequent the murky water, and remaining vigilant 110% of the time is an absolute must. Some of the crocodiles in the Fitzroy exceed the 5m mark, and if you are fishing day or night on the banks you could disappear in an instant without anyone knowing you were gone. Always safety first, learn how crocodiles hunt and be croc smart. That being said, there is no doubt the risk adds an element of exhilaration not found in most other forms of fishing.

The next few months we will be covering a lot more on the Broome barra, as well as threadfin salmon which are also being caught in very good numbers at the moment.

Looking back over the last couple of months of fishing

in Broome we cannot go past the results from the Broome Fishing Club’s annual Billfish Classic held recently.

It was a billfish frenzy over the two days, with almost 900 sailfish raised, nearly 600 hooked and 386 sailfish tagged. Four marlin were also caught. These results without a doubt solidify Broome as the sailfish capital of Western Australia, and easily put it in the top pick of sailfish fishing locations in the world.

October is not too late to get amongst the action in Broome, and there are ample charters that can take you out if you are visiting the region without a boat.

The demersal fishing has been no less spectacular, with bluebone, golden snapper, blueline and red emperor as well as saddletail seaperch all being landed in good numbers throughout September. Jigs, plastics and baits have all worked well but with the ever-present sharks making themselves known, you’re possibly better off avoiding bait.

Near-shore species such as the northern jewfish are showing up in the holes out in Roebuck Bay, with baits such as freshly caught

whiting or store-bought bony herring and mulies all working well. If you are looking for a day’s fishing for mulloway (or northern black jewfish as they are more commonly known in Broome), head out into Roebuck Bay and sound around for the many holes in various depths that are holding fish. If you have the ability to anchor up, this is the preferred fishing method for mulloway. Strategically placing the boat over one of the holes, then dropping the baits will have you into them in no time. Make sure you have tackle to cope with their powerful first run, otherwise they make light work of gear not up to the task.

October is a great month for queenfish, trevally, bluenose and threadfin salmon, mangrove jack as well as the smaller near-shore species such as Spanish flag and Moses perch. It’s hard to describe the weather in Broome in October in without the word ‘perfect’ in it and with an endless array of fishing options to work through, time will be your biggest challenge by far.

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the challenge of getting your hooked fish past the sharks, which is often the greater test.

One metal jig style that is working very well is the chubby type. This is a shorter, more plump style which works great in the 150-200g weight when fishing 30-50m depths in good ocean conditions. A lighter braid of around 50lb provides less resistance in the water due to its smaller diameter (in most brands), and this produces good action and allows the angler to maintain the bottom zone exceptionally well.

Both fluoro and kaleidoscope fleck are effects to look for when choosing Just when you thought you had everything sussed a metal jig, and if they are incorporated with base colours out when it comes to catching big reds, Mathew such as yellow, orange, pink Howard comes along and lands this thumper. and purple, they become He likes to catch them on soft plastics rigged on a lumo jighead in water as shallow as 20m. irresistible to the prized targets of red emperor, saddletail sea perch and Rankin cod. a short scoot in the tinny. bring home a feed.

If you’re starting out Giving the 18m mark a drift October in Karratha is a for ALBERTON the first time on metal with soft plastics, preferably great all-round month for a MELBOURNE jigs it pays to be persistent in lumo green, in this area is a mixed bag of fishing options MELBOURNE some MARINE andALBERTON change MARINE your action sure bet to get amongst as we CENTRE transition from dry to Johnson the Street Alberton Hallam Southwet Road Hallam up, 39 including speed of very good-sized 92 coral trout. season, with all forms of bluebone retrieve, and If you are chasing fishing near their peak time. It P: (03)height 5183 retrieved 2344 P: (03) 9703 2003 intermittent retrieve. or is certainly recommended to F: (03) 5183 2219 Once then fresh rockW:cracks melbournemarine.com.au you catch your first couple small plastics in prawn or make the most of every day W: albertonmarine.com.au well. of fish on metal jigs and get crab guise will work though before the traditional MORNINGTON PENINSULA past the mindset of using only Karratha is starting to heat strong easterly winds of the MARINE action in November greet us, locally bait,BENDIGO the sport can become up now and so is MY Cnr Nepean & ‘blowvember’. As BENDIGO MARINE & OUTDOORS addictive and it is hard to the creeks. The warming water Highway known as the barra Place go 160 backMidland to the Highway old method the Dromana daytime temperature rises Epsom temperature hasPonderosa and 0900 of bottom bouncing over the Pilbara, the land P: (03) 5448 3988 sinkers becoming more P:active, (03) 5987 and a big hunk of occy on a the threadfin salmon are well heats quicker than the ocean W: bendigomarine.com.au W: mymarine.com.au and truly firing with several which cause a convection couple of hooks.

Amongst the trophy captures of 800-900mm fish effect, sucking the air mass in MELBOURNE demersals there have been being reported. MORNINGTON PENINSULA from the sea. Therefore, we MARINE BL MARINE are also ample coral trout and blueline Mud crabs NAUTICAL start to get stronger winds in emperor being caught, the party as Road November before the ocean Hotham 612- 614 Plenty Roadwith Prestonstarting to come to141 most Walking water temp has had a chance Sorrento P: captures (03) 9478 coming 1420 from the water temp rises.

10-30m of water. The reefs the mangroves and creek to heat up. It all starts to F: (03) 9470 4638 P: (03) 5984 1666 and bommies off 40 Mile beds on low tide following settle into more normal wind W: blmarine.com.au info@nauticalmarine.com.au if you patterns again by January. campground have been the new moon isE:best W: nauticalmarine.com.au nets by November onwards also producing good quantities are land based. Drop SHEPPARTON of coral trout, Spanish flag boat is best in the couple of brings the not-so-friendly andBOATS bluebone. best part hours after the change of high jellyfish species, so make the AND The MORE TOORADIN about area is Road there Shepparton is a tide and again, the days SERVICE most of the next P&Jfew MARINE CENTRE P/L few weeks 207this Numurkah niceP:boat moon will Station and get outTooradin and enjoy this (03)launching 5822 2108area, and following the new 101 Tooradin Road the fishing grounds are only put you in the best position to iconic fishing location.

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Rankin cod have a moist, silky white flesh and robust flavour.

Good-size fish are found in waters around 40m deep, and Mathew regularly lands them on metal chubby lures.

OCTOBER 2020

111

South Coast

WA

All the usual suspects FRESHWATER

Peter Fragomeni

The freshwater fishing has been productive recently, with a number of quality trout and redfin being caught in all the usual locations throughout the south of the state.

500 large browns, 10,000 yearling rainbow trout and approximately 4000 brown trout yearlings being stocked, it should be a interesting season for chasing these species throughout spring.

Unfortunately, the lack of decent rain has resulted in extremely low water

friendly lakes around Perth and Mandurah on the grapevine. This is no doubt following Victoria’s lead, however I’m not sure it’s a good idea as these shallow urban lakes heat up in early summer resulting in fish kills; not a good look for family picnickers and may result in negative publicity in the community.

AUSSIE NATIVES An interesting survey was conducted across a couple of freshwater fishing Facebook groups recently with the question being, “What species of fish would you like to see stocked in our irrigation dams?”

Around 400 members voted with bass having the most votes at 155, closely followed by Murray cod at 134. Golden perch come in third with 55 votes, large brown trout taking fourth at 36, silver perch close behind with 34 votes, large rainbow trout 22, large

Big redfin specialist Jonah Chiera with a superb specimen that fell to a Nories Laydown Minnow. redfin 11, black bream eight votes, and someone adding carp with just two votes. These figures are not surprising as it shows people want a more resilient

caught. The suspension of lakeside camping has put a few off with some of my best results coming from fly fishing late at night. There has been good

A beautiful section of the Donnelly River. Will this river suffer from a new dam on one of its tributaries or improve from environmental flows being released over summer?

Quality redfin have come to the net with a couple reaching the magical 50cm mark taken by those who know the technique and where to locate them. Trout catches have increased, with hatchery stocking being ramped up leading into spring, and while they dominated the take, a few wild trout have been in the mix. With around 2500 ex-brood rainbows,

levels in the dams with Harvey, Wellington and Glen Mervyn suffering the most. Rivers will suffer also if we do not get finishing rains, and combine this with hot dry summers it poses a real risk to trout stocks that the staff at the hatchery work so hard to produce. A few stocking projects are on the cards with 1kg rainbow trout being released into family

The organiser of Harvey Bash, Didier Blanquart, with a superb brown from last year. Going with the trend, he has decided to not include brown trout in the point tally, and they must be released unharmed.

A beautiful brown trout from a Northern Jarrah stream caught on a light spin rod.

112

OCTOBER 2020

species that will survive in our warming climate and offer better sportfishing all year round.

DAMS Waroona Dam This dam has increased in popularity over the last couple of years with the credit going to the wise decision by the Recfishwest FFRG stocking committee to stock it with larger trout.

Only a few years ago I would spend a lot of time fishing this water with no other angler in sight.

The negative side was the schools of tiny redfin which were largely unhindered, apart from the cormorants taking their share. It has become a mixed fishery with better size redfin more common and occasionally some good trout being

stocking in recent months, although the advanced yearlings are around 180mm this year, well down on the anticipated 300mm benchmark.

Drakesbrook Weir Some nice redfin are still being caught by those in kayaks and electric powered boats.

The bank anglers are doing reasonably well casting soft plastics from the deeper drop-off near the wall. A few trout are showing up but not in great numbers as yet. Heavy stockings will occur around the Troutfest weekend in early October, so things will pick up until the heat sets in later in the season.

Logue Brook Dam No reports coming through as it can be a tricky

place to fish. Ski boats get active in October making it hard to fish and, in some cases, dangerous if you are on a small boat or kayak.

Harvey Dam The big news that came to hand was the recent acquisition of a lease

by Harvey Shire from Watercorp of a portion of the area above the waterline. I am not sure of the outcome of this and if it will be a good thing, as they could enforce the no-camping policy that is in place currently, which Watercorp has not enforced before. Hopefully, it will be like other places with a small camping fee and policed more efficiently.

The fishing was slow for trout through July and August due to the delay in the stocking of trout by the hatchery, proving that like other redfin water, it relies heavily on winter stocking to be a viable fishery. It was decided to wait until the water levels rise, but this has not occurred and as of writing it’s still the lowest on record at under 40% capacity. Redfin have still been active, with those out on the water having the best success. The Harvey Bash is on again in early October with over 70 competitors and $10,000 in prizes up for grabs.

Wellington Dam Good reports of large redfin coming to the net by the kayakers and boat anglers. However, a lot of distance was covered for the result.

Glen Mervyn Dam Still no report with low water putting most off.

Redfin are always willing to take lures.

Norilup Dam This little dam is still producing small rainbow trout.

Big Brook Dam Redfin numbers have slowed down but trout catches have increased with

WA

the recent stockings. All the popular techniques are working, with evening fly fishing being a favourite by a few that visit this water.

RIVERS Murray River Water levels have been perfect with below average rainfall this winter. One wellknown angler spent the day fishing but unfortunately drew a blank in the main basin, however he did better in the small brook that flows into this river. A few redfin are being caught well upstream in the deeper pools.

Northern Jarrah streams A few nice little

love a large fly or lure.

Warren River above Pemberton Some nice trout are showing up in all the usual locations, with both rainbow and browns being caught. Reports have been that the browns have been cautious and following all the way into your feet without striking. Redfin are still active, and the action should heat up through spring.

Warren River below Pemberton This section is holding a good number of rainbows with the better spots away

the hatchery A beautiful section known as Rainbow Trail meanders through some majestic karri trees, following the brook for many kilometres upstream.

This was one of the best drives you could take anywhere in Australia, and was so popular to eastern state tourists and trout fishers alike.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of foresight by the local authorities, it has been closed off and can only be accessed by foot.

Some beautiful marked browns inhabit the dozens of small runs, with rainbows possibly dominating this stretch all the way to its junction with Big Brook. Small flies on a 4wt, 7ft fly rod and light tippets are the go. Lure casters using Celta-style spinners and soft plastics would also have fun in this area.

Further up is an area known as The Broken Bridge that is accessible from the road to the dam.

It is a great area although can be hard going in the overgrown sections.

Donnelly River The upper section

A recent survey conducted of preferred species to be stocked into dams resulted in bass taking top votes, followed closely by Murray cod. Over 400 freshwater anglers participated across two Facebook groups. the size of Waroona Dam on a tributary of the Donnelly River known as Record Brook. Water will be pumped from the Donnelly

to this storage to be used to irrigate new crops around Manjimup and Pemberton.

Some people favour the scheme as it will create

Trout do well without the presence of redfin. This one was caught trolling on a freezing cold day by Bretton Stitfold. rainbows have been caught lately with one particular larger model coming out of a larger pool. Going can be tough with locations being hard to access.

Collie River below Wellington Dam Water flow still too slow until November.

Collie River above Wellington Dam Still some good reports of redfin being taken around the town. Being on the water and covering more ground has been the better method. Soft plastics are gaining popularity but all the hardbody redfin lures are also working.

Capel River No reports.

Blackwood River above Bridgetown No reports.

Blackwood River below Bridgetown This stretch from Bridgetown to below Nannup normally fires from late October. Look for fast water and keep moving until you find a fish. The rainbows aren’t caught in big numbers but they are normally of good size and

from the more accessible areas. Drifting a fly down the current is a deadly method if a cast cannot be made. All the popular lures are working, with technique more important than selection.

Lefroy Brook below the hatchery October is one of the favourite months to fly fish this section. It’s a delight to cast a small, buoyant dry fly into the gentle ripples and watch a trout come up and engulf it only a few metres from you. Look for runs at the head of deeper sections, with Thompsons Flat being a good start (although it’s heavily fished).

Lefroy Brook above

South Coast

Recent stocking of yearlings this size into redfin dams are vulnerable to predation by large redfin and small cormorants, as has been proven in past years.

a new dam for fishing, but at what cost to the environment? Other people would be in favour if a guaranteed environmental flow is put back into the river over summer that has never occurred previously.

Go to Save the Donnelly Facebook page for more information.

October is one of the best times to fish for trout in WA so get yourself a freshwater licence and explore our great southwest waters. And please join the growing number of dedicated freshwater anglers who are releasing the limited number of brown trout to fight another day.

Just remember to be alert for hazards at this time of year. Snakes are more active, especially around water, and fires are a concern later in the month with lack of rain.

has been fishing well for rainbows and the occasional brown. Unless you know the area, a good digital map is essential as you can get horribly lost.

Don’t rely on phone GPS as coverage is poor.

The SFIS debate is still raging with many flaws in this scheme being apparent.

For those who are not aware of the situation, it is proposed to build a storage

PREDICTED DAM LEVELS Unfortunately, extremely low rainfall has reflected the current storage levels in our dams. Harvey, Glen Mervyn and Wellington dams are still extremely low, however, the others are at reasonable levels.

WAROONA DAM 69 %

DRAKESBROOK WEIR 90 %

LOGUE BROOK DAM 69%

HARVEY DAM 44%

WELLINGTON DAM 48%

GLEN MERVYN DAM 55 %

BIG BROOK DAM 102%

Angus Noble was delighted to reach a personal goal of catching and releasing a billfish while fishing unassisted from his kayak. Heading out two hours from Ningaloo region, it wasn’t long before Angus was hooked up to his quarry using live bait. After an epic battle and numerous aerial displays, the sailfish launched itself into the kayak and was finally subdued. What a fantastic catch!

OCTOBER 2020

113

New South Wales Tide Times

Victorian Tide Times

2020 2020 2020 LONG 151° 14’ ELAT 38° 18’ S LONG 144° 37’ E Times Local andTime Heights of High and Low Waters

EY (FORT DENISON) – NEW SOUTH WALES POINT LONSDALE – VICTORIA (FORT SOUTH WALES EY (FORT –LONG NEW SOUTH WALES – NEWPOINT LONSDALE LATDENISON) 33° 51’ SSYDNEY 151° 14’ EDENISON) LAT 38° 18’ S– VICTORIA LONG 144° 37’ E

Rme

33° 51’ S LAT 33° S LONG ELAT Times and51’ Heights of High151° and14’ Low Waters and Heights of High and Waters Local Time Times and Heights of High and LowTimes Waters Local Time and AUGUST Heights of High and Low Waters JUNE JUNE JULY MAYLowTimes AUGUST MAY JUNE JULY OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER OCTOBER m Time m Time Time m Time mNOVEMBER Time m m TimeTime m m Time mSEPTEMBER TimeTime m m Time Time m Time m 1.39 Time m1.66m Time 0423 0346 1038 1018 0.42 0327 1.50 0155 1.63 0217 0.16 0.60 0149 0.35 1709 1641 1.61 1010 0.62 0857 0.56 TU 0830 1.71 1.54 0755 1.48 MO 2328 2244 0.60 1630 1.37 1.29 0.22 0.73 0.43 SA FR 1508 TH 1351 FR 1435 SU 1.82 0.83 2002 2038 1.60 0.78 2046 2214 0515 1.38 0449 1.65 1117 1107 0.40 0423 1.49 0306 1.65 0300 0217 0.35 0.15 0.59 1750 1733 1.74 1053 0.60 0959 0.50WE 0827 1.53 0915 1.81 1.62 TU 1.39 2348 0.50 0.41 0.16 1.45 SU 1715 SA 1614 FR 1427 SA 1528 MO 2036 2154 1.57 0.71 2136 2312 1.76 0.77 0018 0.65 0547 1.64 0513 1.49 0414 1.71 0343 0245 0.37 0.19 1.37 0603 1155 0.39 1131 0.57 1053 0.42 TH 0858 1.56 1001 1.88 0.58 1156 1823 1.86 WE 1755 1.53 0.41 1.52 0.15 1.70 1829 MO SU 1710 SA 1502 SU 1622 TU 2109 2300 1.51 0.60 2229 1.66 0102 0.58 0048 0.41 0001 0.70 0514 1.76 0427 0414 0.40 0.26 1.37 0648 0645 1.61 0557 1.49 1143 0.35 FR 1029 1.58 1049 1.90 0.57 1233 1242 0.40 TH 1207 0.55 1800 1.66 0.43 0.18 1.77 TU MO SU 1640 MO 1718 WE 1907 1912 1.95 2244 1.45 2323 1830 1.53 1.61 0143 0.51 0145 0.34 0045 0.63 0000 0.48 0513 0442 0.45 0.37 1.38 0731 0740 1.56 0637 1.49 0609 1.79 SA 1102 1.59 1139 1.87 0.57 1311 1329 0.44 FR 1241 0.54 0.31 0.45 0.25 1.84 WE TU 1230 MO 1719 TU 1816 TH 1945 2000 2.01 1905 1.68 2320 1847 1.37 1.79 0238 0.30 0224 0.46 0125 0.57 0058 0.38 0019 0513 0.51 1.39 1.38 0834 1.51 0815 0717 1.48 0702 1.78 1137 1.58 0600 0.49 1415 0.49 1350 0.57 SA SU 1313 0.55 1315 0.30 0.50 1231 1.80 TH WE TU 1801 WE 2048 2.03 2024 1.88FR 1934 1.91 1920 1938 0.33 1.75 0330 0.31 0305 0.42 0203 0.53 0153 0.30 0121 1.27 1.37 0000 1.29 0928 1.45 0859 0756 1.46 0756 1.74 0654 0.60 0546 0.57 0.55 MO 1432 0.57 SU 1501 1345 0.56 0.33 1.70 1.91 1.55 FR TH 1359 TH 1328 WE 1215 SA 2135 2.00 2105 1848 2021 0.54 1.98 2029 2012 0.41 1.80 0421 0.34 0348 0.39 0046 0247 1.21 0.27 0231 0242 1.20 0.49 1020 1.40 0945 1.37 0626 0849 0.64 1.66 0757 0836 0.69 1.44 1548 0.61 1516 0.58 MO TU 1418 1.51 0.39 1.61 0.58 FR 1443 SA TH 1300 FR 1432 SU 2221 1.93 2149 2109 2.02 2140 2047 1.84 1944 0.59 0.47 1.92

Time Time 0430 m 0346 0304 1036 0.43 1018 0926 1.67 WE 1711 1641 1546 0.40 MO 2343 TU 2145 2244 1.42 0533 0449 0334 1127 0.46 1107 0958 1.69 TH 1804 1624 0.40 TU 1733 WE 2222 2348 1.37 0044 0547 0405 0633 0.50 1155 1031 1.70 FR 1217 1823 1702 0.42 WE 1855 TH 2301 1.32 0138 0048 0439 0730 0.55 0645 1108 1.69 SA 1306 1242 1745 0.45 TH 1944 FR 2344 1912 1.27 0229 0145 0515 0821 0.61 0740 1147 1.65 SU 1354 1329 1830 0.48 FR 2030 SA 2000 0315 0238 0030 0911 1.21 0834 0558 0.66 1440 MO 1415 1231 1.61 SA 2115 SU 1922 2048 0.52 0400 0330 0124 0957 1.18 0928 0649 1525 0.71 TU 1501 1323 1.56 SU 2158 MO 2023 2135 0.53 0442 0229 0421 1.17 1041 0753 1020 0.74 1609 WE 1548 1424 1.54 MO 2238 TU 2128 2221 0.51

Time m Time m 0.49 m Time Time m 0.40 m1.41 Time m 0013 m0041 Time m0557 Time m Time m 0623 Time m 0437 1.25Time 1.36 1.48 0452 1.40 1031 0.620.47 1148 0.55 0630 0.46 0313 1041 0.38 0.58 1.23 0423 1.39 0437 1.25 1.66 0430 1.481.30 0.29 0338 0.430603 0302 0.51 0245 0432 0.56 0406 0.47 0454 0.57 1158 1710 1.58 1900 1.50 1204 1.75 1748 1.58 1.54 0.56 0.60 1031 0.62 0.42 1036 0.460.52 0940 1.99 1013 2.011137 0932 1.77 SA FR TH1038 SA MO 1904 SU TU 1029 1.37 1149 1.38 1122 1.43 1145 1.37 2351 0.63 1843 0.50 2319 0.74 1.54 1.58 1.72 1.61 1.75 0.15 1658 0.20 1609 0.39 1537 1720 0.58 1643 0.83 1734 0.65 SA TU 1709 WE 1711 TH 1710 MO 1615 TU 0.85 WE1.83 WE TH FR1812 0.73 1.28 0.60 2215 1.52 2215 1.38 0.63 2204 2343 1.33 0.50 2257 2351 2301 1.31 2328 0.74 0.34 00430058 1.44 05340533 1.38 1.26 0023 0130 0.65 0.39 0721 1117 0.600.47 0656 1.29 0.47 0359 1121 0.42 1.40 1.30 0515 1.38 0533 1.26 1.65 0533 1.441.33 0.37 0337 0.54 0428 0.490650 0515 0.46 0403 0000 1.33 0735 0020 1.43 1254 1755 1.67 1231 0.65 1.85 1836 1.52 0.68 0.49 0.59 1117 0.60 0.40 1127 0.470.50 1029 1.99 1009 1.78 1100 1.951226 1220 1.47 1131 1.42 0555 0.55 0556 0.56 SU FR1117 SU MO WE SA TU 1256 1.62 1755 1.67 1.74 1804 1.85 1930 1947 1.44 1.51 1.82 0.17 1648 0.38 1748 0.25 1753 0.75 1232 1.40 1245 1.44 SU WE 1750 FR 1959 TH TU 1709 WE 0.74 TH1.86 TH 1654 FR SA1858 0.50 2311 1.43 2332 1.37 2245 1.30 1824 2348 0.56 1.34 1828 0.42 0.75 0.31 01440140 0.42 00010039 0.75 0.55 0116 0214 0.59 0.29 0018 0.65 0039 0.55 1.64 0044 0.421.35 0.45 0415 0.57 0517 0.550735 0807 0808 1.26 0624 1.280.44 1.42 0447 0628 1.34 1.44 1.37 0005 1.35 0519 0053 1.41 0858 0126 1.58 1.37 0624 1.28 0.39 0633 1.420.49 1118 1.94 1047 1.78 1148 1.861314 1341 1321 0.75 1201 0.58 0.48 1209 0.48 0.78 0.42 0612 0.44 1225 1.50 0643 0.53 0704 0.53 MO MO TU SA0603 TH SU WE 1402 0.58 1201 0.58 1.86 1217 0.48 0.24 1730 0.40 1838 0.32 2014 2036 1.38 1838 1.75 1.92 1930 1.47 1.48 1.91 1308 1.51 1758 1310 1.43 1336 1.50 MO TH 1156 SA 2058 FR WE 1805 TH 0.59 FR1.86 FR SA SU1943 1.75 0.27 1.92 0.47 1838 1922 1.27 1902 1848 0.66 1829 1.70 2329 1855 0.75 0.31 02520221 0.35 00520122 0.74 0.46 0220 0254 0.51 0.21 0102 0.58 0122 0.46 0.41 0138 0.351.37 1.34 0457 0.60 0040 1.300820 0101 1.40 0037 0137 1.49 1014 0223 1.71 0711 1.311.50 0922 1.27 1.41 0007 0735 1.33 1.53 1.44 0849 1.37 0711 1.31 1.61 0730 1.410.49 0537 0.55 1129 1.75 0607 0.611401 0700 0.43 0623 0.41 0823 0.53 0800 0.51 1245 0.54 1422 0.83 0.50 1307 0.57 0.85 0.35 1424 SU0648 TU FR MO TH 1517 TU WE 0.57 1245 0.54 0.40 1306 0.50 1.85 1815 0.42 1235 1.74 1348 1.54 1313 1442 1.46 1424 1.55 FR 1233 SU 2200 SA TU TH 1210 FR 1.56 SA1.83 1921 1.84 2126 1.35 1.96 2031 1.44 1.48 1.96 2054 SA SU MO2029 1.95 1903 1.96 1927 1.77 0.44 1944 2037 1.84 0.15 0.32 1851 0.41 2013 1932 0.58 1907 0.40 1921 0.71 0.33 04020304 0.70 0.38 0330 0331 0.43 0.16 0.32 01570204 0143 0.51 0204 0.38 0.34 0229 0.321.37 1.27 0015 1.25 0131 1.270905 0150 1.45 0135 0314 1.55 1122 0315 1.80 0756 1.351.62 1030 1.32 0900 1.35 1.64 1.50 1.40 0106 0929 1.38 0756 1.35 1.56 0821 1.400.50 0631 0.63 0542 0.64 0700 0.681451 0743 0.44 0716 0.40 0859 0.53 0848 0.50 1330 0.51 1539 0.89 1418 0.66 0.88 0.32 0.51 1504 MO0731 WE SA TU FR 1636 WE TH 0.57 1330 0.51 0.44 1354 0.51 1.74 1213 1.71 1322 1.62 1421 1.55 1357 1512 1.48 1508 1.58 SA 1311 MO 2300 WE SU FR 1302 SA 1.61 SU1.78 SU MO TU2115 2004 1.90 2215 1.35 2137 1.43 1.50 1.96 1.96 2131 1.84 0.30 1.90 0.09 2.01 2003 1.96 2015 0.40 1940 1903 2030 0.44 2110 0.48 2101 2010 0.51 1945 0.35 2004 0.64 0.36 05070346 0.62 0.32 0432 0406 0.31 03130245 0.34 0.15 0.30 0224 0.46 0315 0.311.38 0245 0.32 1.23 0107 1.24 0224 1.270952 0231 1.49 0228 0346 1.60 1224 0404 1.83 1129 1.40 1025 1.44 1007 1.38 0208 0841 1.381.71 1.74 1.56 1.51 0815 1.38 0911 1.38 0841 1.38 0730 0.71 0634 0.67 0755 0.73 0820 0.46 0805 0.41 0931 0.54 0934 1656 0.90 1541 0.72 1544 0.53 1542 0.31 0.54 1415 0.48 1746 0.86 WE TU1350 0.57 TH TH FR 0.48 0.51 SA 1415 SU 0.49 1440 0.54 1302 1.67 1411 1.49 1450 1.55 1438 1542 1.48 1551 1.58 TH SU MO TU 2359 SA 1359 SU 1.63 MO1.71 MO TU WE2202 2304 1.36 22401.61 1.46 2207 1.93 2048 1.95 1.52 1.90 2.03 2103 1.88 0.20 1.93 2101 1.95 0.08 0.47 2028 1957 2115 0.45 2142 0.53 2149 2045 0.45 2024 0.32 2048 0.57 0.40 06040430 0.34 04280329 0.28 0.18 0.49 0.27 0522 0441 0.31 0305 0.42 0400 0.341.38 0329 0.27 0205 1.25 1.22 0318 1.291040 0308 1.52 0318 0418 1.62 1320 0451 1.80 1218 1.50 1045 1.36 0313 0927 1.411.75 1.81 1.59 1138 1.57 1.45 0859 1.37 0957 1.360.57 0927 1.41 0734 0.69 0836 0.75 0857 0.771636 0855 0.49 0852 0.44 1004 0.55 1018 0.52 1755 0.89 1624 0.57 1503 0.46 1844 0.82 0.34 1703 0.73 FR FR SA WE SU MO TH 0.55 1432 0.57 1525 0.57 0.46 1.78 1358 1.62 1.51 1504 1.39 1518 1.54 1518 1613 1.48 1634 1.56 FR MO TU WE 1503 MO 1.63 SU 1500 TU1.62 TU WE TH2251 2350 1.38 2243 1.87 2133 1.96 2339 1.50 2.00 2159 1.91 0.14 1.87 2147 1.96 0.11 0.51 2115 0.56 2236 2053 2158 0.44 2214 2117 0.41 2105 0.31 2133 0.39 05330414 0.37 0.26 0603 0514 1.55 0.24 0.50 0.44 00530515 0.34 0415 0348 0.39 1.74 0.39 0413 0414 0.26 1.73 1.25 0407 0308 0442 1.30 0451 1.33 0538 0343 1.53 1.61 0657 1122 1.38 1130 1.35 1242 1015 1.71 1.43 0.25 1.61 1300 1.60 1.40 0946 0945 1.37 0.49 1.35 1004 1015 1.43 0.76 0937 0842 1041 0.69 1038 0.78 1102 0928 0.53 0.58 1411 0.55 1706 0.61 1734 0.62 1813 1553 0.72 0.46 1.84 0.39 1840 0.86 SA SU FR TH MO TU SA 0.61 0.58 0.62 1553 0.46 1.44 1500 1.58 1603 1.32 1546 1.53 1645 1.46 1717 1.50 TU 1516 WE 1609 TH 1934 SA MO 1604 TU 1.60 WE1.52 WE 1559 TH FR2344 2318 1.63 1.79 2220 1.93 0.78 1.93 2249 1.92 0.14 1.79 2233 1.93 0.19 0.53 2200 2149 2238 0.42 2245 0.57 2322 2149 0.39 2149 0.31 2220 0547 0.44 0509 0459 0.260410 0144 1.56 0.34 00321.31 1.54 0033 1.42 0.40 0.39 0.440.49 0.26 0505 1.400600 1.38 0416 1.53 0434 0526 1.59 0459 0627 1.63 0457 1.69 0523 1203 1.38 1223 1.33 1105 1.46 0746 0.26 1.61 0629 0.26 0642 0.44 1.35 1055 1.37 0.54 1.33 1114 1.46 0.74 1021 0.75 1146 0955 1125 0.66 1112 1002 0.58 1034 0.61 1105 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JULY

m m 0.51 Time m Time m m Time 0046 Time 0.69 0034 0735 0136 1.30 1.45 0013 0735 0.491.47 0041 0.40 0111 1.64 1245 0718 0.80 0.67WE 1245 0603 1.230.75 0630 1.30 0642 0.67 1935 1.44 1.35 1928 0.561.54 1204 0.52 1300 1.45 SU 1137 SU 1324 MO 1.72 0.17 1843 1927 1.83 0.40 1812 1856 0135 0.68 0130 0.47 0842 0216 1.32 1.54 0058 0849 0130 0.34 0.391.50 0207 1.76 1336 0759 0.89 0.64TH 1345 0721 1.33 0650 1.300.85 0739 0.64 1254 0.50 0.491.50 2019 1.40 1.38 2023 1351 1.49 MO 1226 TU MO 1400 1930 2002 1.86 0.34 1858 1948 1.82 0.09 0230 0.65 0230 0.43 0214 0.31 0.291.55 0945 0251 1.36 1.61 0140 0958 0300 1.83 0807 1.35 0735 1.370.92 1438 0834 0.96 0.62FR 1453 0829 0.60 1341 0.49 0.421.47 2108 1.37 1.41 2124 1441 1.52 TU 1314 WE TU 1433 2014 2036 1.86 0.29 1943 2038 1.91 0.06 0329 0.61 0338 0.39 0254 0.31 0.211.61 0348 1.84 1044 0323 1.42 1.66 0221 1103 0849 1.37 0820 1.440.94 0915 0.57 1550 0908 1.00 0.61SA 1608 1424 0.49 0.351.46 1528 1.53 WE 1401 2200 1.36 1.43 2229 TH WE 1508 2054 2109 1.83 0.27 2029 2127 1.96 0.08 0426 0.56 0445 0.36 0331 0.33 0.161.67 0435 1.80 1137 0356 1.51 1.68 0304 1205 0929 1.37 0905 1.500.92 1000 0.56 1701 0942 1.00 0.60SU 1720 1504 0.50 0.321.47 1613 1.51 TH 1451 FR TH 1543 2255 1.37 1.43 2331 2131 2142 1.78 0.27 2115 2215 1.96 0.14 0516 0.50 0545 0.33 0406 0.36 0.151.72 0520 1.73 1225 0430 1.59 1.67 0346 1301 1007 1.38 0952 1.560.87 1045 0.55 1758 1015 0.96 0.60MO 1822 1544 0.53 0.31 1.46 FR 1542 SA 1659 FR 1618 2349 1.39 1.42 2207 2214 1.71 0.28 2202 2300 1.90 0.23 0601 0.44 0030 1.49 0441 0.40 0.180.31 0605 1.64 1310 0505 1.66 1.64 0430 0639 1045 1.38 1040 1.591.75 1049 0.62 1130 0.56 1844 0.92 1353 TU 1624 0.57 1.39 0.340.81 1746 1.39 SA 1636 SA 1654 SU 1915 2243 2245 1.62 0.30 2251 2345 1.78 0.33 0040 1.43 0123 1.50 0514 0543 0.44 1.59 0515 0651 0.24 1.54 0644 0.40 0729 1122 1123 1.38 0.64 1130 1.610.33 1216 0.57 1352 1.72 1440 WE 1706 0.61 1.35 0.391.75 1839 1.32 SU 1734 SU 1731 MO 1926 0.87 2005 0.75 2318 2317 1.52 0.33 2344 1.63 0128 0.49 1.46 0213 0547 0.341.50 0623 1.53 0600 0030 0.44 0724 0.37 0815 1203 1159 1.38 0.66 1223 0738 1.610.36 1.45 1434 1.75 1522 1.73 TH 1752 0.66 1.31 0.45 0.59 1305 MO 1837 MO 1812 TU 2007 0.82 2052 0.71 2358 2355 1.42 0.37 1942 1.24 0214 0708 1.48 1.46 0040 0259 0624 0.54 1.461.49 0115 0.55 0804 1237 0.36 0.66 0650 0859 1247 1.38 0.440.41 0827 1.38 1515 1.76 1600 1.70 1846 0.70 1.27 1321 1.60 0.61 1902 1400 TUFR TU WE 2047 0.77 2136 1950 0.510.67 2058 1.20 0258 0041 1.49 0.44 0145 0343 0044 1.32 1.311.46 0206 0.66 0845 0759 0.37 1.41 0745 0939 0705 0.58 0.530.47 0916 1.32 1556 1.74 1633 1.66 1337 1.39 0.65 1425 1.60 0.61 WESA TH 1502 WE 1324 2129 2006 0.72 1.25 2111 2217 1950 0.73 0.530.64 2212 1.21

Time D Time 0049 0748 0148 TH 1257 0728 1922 1316 TU 1928 0133 0848 0225 0807 FR 1347 2009 1358 WE 2005 0223 0949 0300 0843 SA 1449 2102 1439 TH 2041 0320 0335 1050 0919 SU 1600 1518 2203 FR 2115 0422 0412 1147 0955 MO 1709 1558 SA 2308 2148 0520 0449 1240 1807 TU 1030 SU 1637 2222 0010 0527 0611 1106 WE 1329 1716 MO 1856 2259 0105 0605 0659 1144 TH 1414 1801 TU 1942 2340 0157 0645 0745 1225 FR 1456 1854 WE 2027

me 327 010 110 630 712 214 258 920 423 053 152 715 756 312 348 007 513 233 131 841 755 439 056 001 315 557 927 207 531 830 145 045 359 637 015 241 627 905 236 125 443 717 103 313 726 938 330 203 529 756 156 345 830 012

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242 030 836 619 418 254 047 944 321 140 917 719 455 400 125 102 403 302 001 830 533 514 205 216

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448 420 048 945 616 624 249 317

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538 520 139 053 705 723 337

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240 925 545 134

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SA 1509 2245 2237

1641 1.64 0.52 TUSU 1619 1.33 1.47 1436 1.39 1.59 0.70 1.46 0.54 1415 0.50 0.46 1315 0.56 0.75 0.33 1418 0.27 1154 0.56 1.26 0.81 0.78 0.77 WE TU1417 FR SA MO SA SU WE 1331 TH 1802 FRMO SA 1441 SU MOTH TU 1450 TH 1532 SA MO 1437 WE SU FR 1329 SUTH TU SA 1712 WE 1539 FR 1534 SU 1228 MO 1340 TU 1345 1849 0.83 1921 0.450.60 2016 0.85 2005 0.68 2035 0.800.68 2114 0.59 0.68 2209 0.67 2146 0.75 2114 0.591.25 2219 2331 2016 0.85 2005 0.80 2006 0.70 0.45 2257 2252 0.61 1.36 2337 2332 1.37 2026 1.292337 1.50 0.68 1933 2035 1.68 1844 2014 1.49 1815 1.68 2234 1.21 2219 2348 1.31 2025 2018 1.24 2318

1454 1515 0.41 1356 0.50 1.55SA 1425 0.23 1514 0.20 1249 1731 1.67 1650 1.69 1553 1.64 1630 1813 1534 1.38THMO 1517 1.44 1.55 1.68 1.63 0.43 1806 11461.51 1.26 WEMO 1659 0.65 1729 0.87 1500 0.79 1446 0.76 TH 0.43 FR WE 1819 FR 1754 SATUSU SU 1530 MO TU SUTH TU1.53 MOFR WE WE 0.44 FR SA SU TU SU MO TH1740 SA 1649 MO 1316 TU WE 1956 0.86 1959 1907 0.76 2027 2147 0.55 1.26 2322 2125 0.84 2120 0.65 2147 0.780.60 1.36 2107 1.30 2345 1.50 0.65 1.66 1940 2110 1.46 1907 1.76 2252 0.69 2225 0.74 2231 0.551.23 2322 2125 0.84 2120 0.78 2045 2344 0.60 0.56 1803 0.45 1.27 2144 2136 1.24 2231

1801 0.57 1627 0.74 1602 0.70 12320.79 1.28 THTU 1225 TH 1200 SA 1838 SUWEMO FR MO 1622 TU WE 1.71 1723 1230 1.46FR TUSA 1615 1.65SU WE 1.51 1815 1.58 1731 1.64 0.70 0.54 1.58 1.40 1212 TH MOFR0.89 TUSA WE1.62 FR1158 TU 1420 WE SU 1203 TH 1654 SA TH SU MO 1624 MO TU 2342 0.48 1.721.47 2106 0.86 2033 2020 0.75 2121 2254 2230 0.79 2234 0.59 2254 0.72 2147 1.48 0.59 1957 1.82 1.60 2052 1.35 2204 1.420.72 1.311830 1.25 2256 2303 1.30 1857 1757 0.29 1830 1847 0.38 1832 2342 0.481.26 1900 2230 0.79 2234 0.72 2124 2336 0.71 2305 1.49 1.72 1842 0.41 31 0240 31 0236 0925 0854 1.62

1.67 0.46 0.42 1.48 SU 1545 SA 1510 2109 2134 1.46 0.69

1.28 0.34 0.530114 0046 1.35 1.28 0526 1.42 0318 0530 3131 31 1110 0.54 1.33 0951 1.84 31 0530 31 1107 0.4931 0628 0.69 1110 0.54 0709 1.78 1.32 0.34 1245 FR 1751 TH 1633

FR 1751 1.78 SU 1815 1.59 2351 0.69

SA1246 0.49 MO 2229 1.321915 1848 1.74 0.48

31 0114 0709

0.34 1.33 MO 1246 0.49 1915 1.74

31 0110 0832 FR 1324 1954

© Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2019, Bureau of Meteorology onwealth ofofAustralia 2019, Bureau of Meteorology © Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2019, Bureau of Meteorology monwealth Australia 2019, Bureau of Meteorology © Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2019, Bureau of Meteorology Datum of Predictions is Lowest Astronomical Tide ns is Lowest Astronomical Tide Datum of Predictions is Lowest Astronomical Tide ns is Lowest Astronomical Tide Datum of Predictions is Lowest Astronomical Tide Times are inorlocal standard time (UTC +10:00) daylight savings time (UTC +11:00) when inor effect standard +10:00) daylight savings time (UTC +11:00) when in effect Times are inor local standard time (UTC +10:00) daylight savings timesavings (UTC +11:00) when+11:00 in effec standardtime time(UTC (UTC +10:00) or daylight savings time (UTC Times +11:00) are in local when standard in effect time (UTCor+10:00) daylight time (UTC Moon Phase Symbols New Moon First Quarter Full Moon Last Quarter New Moon First Quarter Last Quarter ols Full Moon New Moon First Quarter Moon Phase Symbols Full Moon New Moon First Quarter New LastMoon Quarter First Quarter ols Moon Phase Full Moon Symbols Full M Tide predictions for Port Phillip Heads have been formatted by the National Tidal Centre, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Copyright reserved. All material is supplied in good faith and is believed to be correct. It is supplied on the condition that no warranty is given in relation thereto, that no responsibility or liability for errors or omissions is, or will be, accepted and that the recipient will hold MHL and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Australia free from all such responsibility or liability and from all loss or damage incurred as a consequence of any error or omission. Predictions should not be used for navigational purposes. Use of these tide predictions will be deemed to include acceptance of the above conditions.

114

OCTOBER 2020

WA

Business Profile

Unwinding at Big4 Ledge Point There’s no better place to relax and unwind than in of the fully self-contained chalets, which sleep up to the quiet cray fishing town of Ledge Point, just 1.5 six people. hours’ drive north of Perth. This location is often There are also self-contained, one-bedroom cabins overlooked by travellers heading to Lancelin or sleeping up to two people, and some brand new larger the Pinnacles at Cervantes, but it’s the ideal quiet cabins which sleep up to four people. The new cabins spot for a weekend getaway, midweek escape, or a contain a queen size bed, bunk beds, kitchen facilities, stopover on a trip up north. en suite and a quiet deck area.

This special part of the world boasts beautiful The Park has two camp kitchens, free BBQs, boat beaches, great fishing and a host of other attractions parking, LPG gas refills and more. Dogs are welcome to entertain anglers and their families. And if you stay during off-peak periods. at BIG4 Ledge Point Holiday Park, you’ll have loads to A LEDGE POINT HOLIDAY do at the end of a day’s fishing. You can go for a swim Although this area attracts a wide range of visitors, it in the pool with the kids, watch them tire themselves is we anglers who appreciate it the most. If you have a out on the playground, or introduce them to the Park’s boat and can launch off the beach, you can enjoy some new recreation room featuring a kids activity area – excellent fishing for demersals, including dhufish and plus a pool table and TV for pink snapper. Alternatively, if the big kids. you’re keen to do a bit of The fishing is The Park is located next beach fishing on your next trip to a beautifully grassed to Ledge Point, there’s plenty so diverse and golf course, and the Ledge of water to choose from – Point Country Club is within even just straight out from close, whether you’re walking distance, where you town. There are good gutters can enjoy the new bowling and close-in reefy areas, and fishing from the shore green or play tennis. It’s also depending on the spot you tavern licensed, which means can catch whiting and tailor, or out of a boat. everyone is welcome for drinks or maybe even a mulloway or and meals. snapper on the right day.

The Park is conveniently located within a short This is a good destination for 4WD anglers too, as walking distance to the beach, and it’s also a short walk the beach/track traffic is much less than some other to the town’s new playground. And if you want to visit holiday hotspots along the coast. You can have a lot of Lancelin, it’s only a 15-minute drive away. fun exploring the local area.

ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS The Team at BIG4 Ledge Point have all the information The Holiday Park is run by Kathryn and Wayne, who on what’s biting and where, so just bring your rods are unfailingly friendly and welcoming. The pair love and the guys will point you in the right direction. Any living in Ledge Point, partly because it’s such a quiet additional gear and bait you need can be purchased and peaceful place, and also because of the community from the General Store in town, where you can get the spirit in this little beachside town. right gear to suit the local conditions and species.

“There’s an amazing community vibe here,” Kathryn “The fishing is so diverse and close, whether you’re explained. “Everybody in Ledge Point is working fishing from the shore or out of a boat,” Kathryn said. together to give the best possible experience to people “It’s one of the reasons that we get so much repeat visiting our beautiful part of the world.” business – we have couples, groups of friends and For the campers among us, BIG4 Ledge Point families returning up to 20 times a year. has beautiful open grassed caravan sites which are “People also love the small town atmosphere, and the approximately 10x10m and close to the camp kitchen, fact that you can have all the bells and whistles without amenities, recreation room and playground. The camping any stress or hassle.” ground has powered and unpowered sites which are She’s right – for such a small town there’s certainly approximately 7x7m and are close to the camp kitchen plenty to do! and amenities.

For more information on BIG4 Ledge Point’s If camping isn’t your thing, there’s a range of other accommodation options, facilities and attractions, or accommodation options to choose from. The poolside to make a booking, visit www.big4.com.au. You can studios are a popular and affordable option for couples, also contact the friendly reception staff directly on while families or groups of friends can book a one (08) 9655 2870 or email reservations@lphp.com.au.

“

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OCTOBER 2020

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117

BASS Series presented by

BASS ELECTRIC SERIES

abt

Tough times at Hinze Dam series opener The Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam hosted the first round of Casino Outdoor BASS Electric series, brought to you by Green Energy.

Thirty-five eager anglers took to the water for what would be a tough day for most.

NSW angler Chesley Lennon stood out from the rest, compiling his 2/2 limit for 3.24kg and also taking out the Casino Outdoor Big Bass at 1.63kg.

Lennon made the long run down to the dam wall were he had previously located fish. The fish hadn’t moved, as on his first cast he landed the $150 fish. Lennon’s roll

continued, catching around 60 fish for the session and continually upgrading throughout the day.

The technique was textbook wintertime bass fishing. Tie on a Halco Twisty, sink it to the bottom in around 60ft of water and Scan the QR code to watch Chesley Lennon Interview

slow roll it back to the boat.

Lennon’s choice of gear to throw the Twisty on

Chesley also weighed the event’s Big Bass of 1.63kg that earned him an extra $150 voucher from Casino Outdoors.

Chesley Lennon took advantage of an open border to come and take the win at the first round of a COVID interrupted BASS Electric season. was a Dobyns Champion Extreme rod paired with a Daiwa Certate 2500 reel spooled with 15lb braid and 10lb leader.

Second place went to Carindale’s Mark McKay who weighed in his 2/2 limit for 2.48kg. McKay’s morning started off very slowly after visiting his first two spots without boating a legal fish. After a move to the dam wall area, McKay located some fish off a sunken point in around 40ft were he starting throwing a 20g Palms Slow Blatt. This technique proved to work as he caught around 20 legals

for the session, upgrading through the day. McKay opted to use baitcasting

RESULTS Place Angler 1 Chesley Lennon 2 Mark McKay 3 Keith Sheppard 4 Paul McHugh 5 Adrian Wilson 6 Charles West 7 Dylan Bedford 8 Tom Reynolds 9 Mick Horn 10 Pete Bostock

tackle, matching a Daiwa Tatula Type R up with a Samurai 302.

Full results at abt.org.au

Fish 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2

Weight(kg) Payout 3.24 $400 2.48 $250 2.17 $180 2.08 $150 1.84 $120 1.65 $100 1.39 $80 1.35 1.23 1.17

Windy Moogerah rewards Wilson Strong August westerly winds h a m p e re d competitors on both the practice day and the day of the BKK Hooks Moogerah BASS Electric event, the second in the Casino Outdoors BASS Electric Series. Electric veteran, Adrian Wilson,

however, converted an ordinary pre-fish to a win on the stingy lake, which is usually known for its fat bass in spring.

Opting for a baby bass coloured Slider Grub on a 5/8oz jighead, Wilson would roll the lure as slowly as possible to get

bites. He only got a handful for the day and landed three fish.

“I found plenty of suspended fish, but they weren’t biting and I concentrated on the creek beds that were filled with bony bream to target bass that were sitting close to the bottom.

I couldn’t get the suspended fish to bite,” he said.

Scan the QR code to watch Adrian Wilson Interview

Pete Bostock won the Big Bass at the BKK sponsored round and took home a $150 Casino Outdoors voucher for his efforts. It weighed in at 1.36kg.

118

OCTOBER 2020

Wilson fished the lure on an Edge 704 rod, Daiwa Certate reel, Sufix 832 braid and a length of 8lb Sunline Shooter 8lb leader.

He edged out young Lachlan Reynolds, who was on course to be one of the youngest anglers to ever win a BASS Electric event until Wilson dropped the winning bass on the scales.

The event’s Casino Outdoors Big Bass was won by Pete Bostock with a 1.36kg fish.

All competitors enjoyed a sample pack of BKK hooks, trebles and assists, that were provided by the event sponsor.

Adrian Wilson converted an ordinary pre-fish into a great tournament and won his 4th BASS Electric Qualifier on a windy Moogerah Dam.

RESULTS

Full results at abt.org.au

Place Angler 1 Adrian Wilson 2 Lachlan Reynolds 3 Brent Murphy 4 Daniel Kelly 5 Liam Dutton 6 Peter Bostock 7 Daniel Fogarty 8 Christian Manolea 9 Nick Nutley 10 Tom Reynolds

Fish 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 1/2 2/2 1/2 2/2 1/2

Weight(kg) Payout 2.315 $400 1.915 $250 1.705 $160 1.410 $160 1.390 1.360 $150 1.135 1.005 1.960 0.602

Samaki BREAM Qld Open down to the wire We have seen some close finishes in the past with the BREAM Queensland Open.

Several anglers and teams have taken the trophy with a margin of less than 50g, but the most recent iteration – brought to you by Samaki – went down to the wire.

Scott Sandilands and Charlie Saykao were so close that at the end of the Scan the QR code to watch Day 1 Highlights

COVID border closure) competition was hot for the $3,500 winner’s cheque.

GOLD COAST FIRES Nobody would have guessed that the late winter bite on the Gold Coast would have been so good. At the end of the first day, nearly half the field logged 3kg+ bags on the ABT Tournament Series app and the live scoreboards on the abt.org. au website shifted by the minute. Scott led the pack at the end of the day with a solid, 3.34kg bag.

Scott filled his bag early on Sovereign Island and then headed to the lower

BREAM OPEN presented by

BREAM QUEENSLAND OPEN

abt

Scott Sandilands was the last angler to enter the Samaki BREAM Queensland Open and he left the event with $3,500 and some cool trophies. rough heading across, but coming back was lumpy. We left an hour to make the run and headed across at 20-30km/h.”

Scott did his damage on a shallow, Jackall Suji Shrimp Chubby that he

his loss, is the fact that his $2,000 prize money will be spent on a handbag and not another few Millerods for the quiver.

Visibly frustrated with the deadlock, Saykao vowed to get it all together ‘soon’.

He parked himself in the lower Nerang between the Sundale Bridge and Benowa Bridge and caught nearly all of his fish on his favourite ZMan Grub motor oil and TT jighead combo.

He fishes these on a Millerod XF Classic and found on the practice day that there were plenty of fish hanging off the numerous Scan the QR code to watch Day 2 Highlights

Charlie Saykao fished hard but couldn’t find that final big bite to vault him ahead of Sandilands. second day, their scores were equal. We had to revert to the tie-breaker to crown a champion. That champion was Scott by virtue of the biggest bag over the course of the event (5/5, 3.34kg on Day 1).

The Samaki BREAM Queensland Open is contested on one of Australia’s biggest arenas. It runs from Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast to the top of the Nerang River behind the Gold Coast with literally hundreds of kilometres of waterway to fish in between.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that you can’t fish the same area twice. The arena is divided into two at the Logan River powerlines.

Competitors fish the northern part on the calmest day and the Gold Coast on the roughest.

With a 100% payback and 13 of Queensland’s best breamers entered (interstate entries were curtailed by a

Nerang River to upgrade several times.

“It was one of the best day’s fishing I’ve ever had on the Gold Coast,” Scott said, “I had a limit at Sovereign in 30 minutes and then worked my way up the Nerang. After a 34cm fish at Mackintosh Island, I relaxed and ended up with 35 or 40 legal bream for the day.”

His main weapon was a Scan the QR code to watch Winners’ Interview

1/28oz TT HWS jighead with a Gulp! Crabby.

On Day 2, Sandilands headed to Redcliffe.

“It was a different day and I only landed 5 legal bream all day,” Scott continued, “It was a little

BOATER RESULTS Place Angler 1 Scott Sandilands 2 Charlie Saykao 3 Shane Wolhuter 4 Blake O’Grady 5 Steve Morgan 6 Jamie McKeown 7 Luke Rogan 8 Mark Palazzi 9 Peter Cashman 10 Wade Walker

This is the look you have when your $2,000 prize cheque is destined to end up buying a handbag for your fiancee. fishes on a Samurai 203 rod, and Daiwa Certate reel.

When asked what he’d invest the $3,500 on, Scott suggested a bathroom renovation. We expect him to gain permission to fish the Open in 2021 a much easier process than in 2020, where he was a last minute entry.

SAYKAO STILL WINLESS ABT stalwart, Charlie Saykao, must rank as one of the best ABT breamers to never take a win. And, as agonising as the closeness of

rock walls in the system.

“Bernie (Kong) and I found that on the Friday … there were lots of fish on the walls and the ZMan was the best way to catch them,” Charlie said, “ I caught one legal on a Damiki Crackerjack but that wasn’t the deal for me.”

CASHMAN’S BIG BREAM

Full results at abt.org.au

Bag 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10

Weight(kg) Payout 5.34 $3,500 5.34 $2,000 5.25 $1,000 5.13 5.13 5.06 5.01 4.42 4.28 3.23

Peter Cashman was rewarded with the event’s Big Bream. A 35cm specimen from the Jumpinpin.

He earned a Samaki rod for his efforts.

Peter Cashman, fresh from his Bribie win, scored the event’s Big Bream and a sweet Samaki rod to match it. It ate a soft plastic presentation at the ‘Pin. The BREAM

Queensland Open is open to all breamers – put down your cash and have a crack if you think you have what it takes to get ‘Geoff’ (the name for the perpetual trophy) to visit your fishing room for a year.

OCTOBER 2020

119

BASS Series presented by

BASS PRO SERIES

abt

Bass bite hots up at Somerset round Lake Somerset, which is known for its XOS bass, hosted the Megabass round of the Sufix BASS Pro Series, which would be the final Qualifying round for the 2020 season. The dam did not disappoint, with near-ABT-record size bass being brought into the weighmaster.

One angler that stood out from the field was John Scan the QR code to see John Ciancio Winner’s Interview

Ciancio’s session didn’t start off well, but returning to the prime spot saw him and his non-boater experience consecutive double hook-ups.

“We were shuffling fish like crazy – upgrading them as quick as we were catching them for about 30 minutes,” he explained. This flurry of fish filled out their 5/5, 5.870kg final day limit, which sealed the deal.

Being versatile and adapting to the conditions was key. Ciancio’s technique during the first day was to retrieve his Nories Wasabi Spoon with a long, slow retrieve, were the fish would

All it takes is five Somerset bass like this each day and you get paid. But easier said than done.

Ciancio, who took out his maiden win in the boater division, weighing his 10/10 for 12.615kg. Ciancio is familiar with this lake, as last time the series visited Somerset he was in a similar position to take out the win, however, he stumbled on the last day, which made this victory all that much sweeter.

Although Ciancio covered plenty of water during the weekend, the one area that was most productive was the ‘Bay of Plenty’ (just around the corner from the starting line), which definitely lived up to its name.

Filling out a 5/5 limit on the first day for 6.745kg had him in a great position going out on the final day.

Scan the QR code to see the on water highlights.

heavier spoons he opted to use ABU KRX 2-6kg rod matched up with a Roxani 2500 spooled with 20lb mainline and 20lb leader.

MUM DREAMED OF WIN Taking out his maiden win in the non-boater category was young up-and-comer, Brody McNeish. Compiling his 8/10 limit for 12.2kg, McNeish was destined to win after his mum had a dream before the tournament that he was going to win. He was blown away when he was crowned champion non-boater.

Over the weekend he

threw a mix of deep cranks and spoons to fill out his limits although he said the spoon spinning reel combo was what got him over the line.

McNeish wanted to thank his boaters that he had over the weekend, which proves testament to the shared weight format that ABT offers.

Scan the QR code to see the Brodey McNeish Interview.

You know that you’re going to do well when your mum dreams that it’s going to happen. Well done, Brody. eat it on the move.

Sunday was the polar opposite. The fish would hook up on either the pause or when the spoon was free falling back to the bottom.

Another key was locating and following the fish on the Garmin Livescope.

“It is the best investment I have made. It shows you everything and it just doesn’t lie,” he concluded.

John’s tackle included

Place Angler 1 John Ciancio 2 Graham Ford 3 Shaun Falkenhagen 4 Tom Deer 5 Nick Anderson 6 Matt Langford 7 Matt Johnson 8 Jason Ehrlich 9 Keeghan Painter 10 Mark Lennox OCTOBER 2020

an Abu Veritas 3-5kg rod, Shimano Sustain 2000 reel, Sufix Aqua Nano 8lb braid and a 12g Nories Wasabi spoon.

FORD COMEBACK FALLS SHORT Narrabri’s Graham Ford had to settle for second place with his 10/10 limit for 12.1kg, with his big final-day bag of 7.89kg not being enough to take out the win.

Ford really changed it up a gear on day two and he really found the fish he

VMC BIG BASS BOOM!

BOATER RESULTS

120

John Ciancio broke through for his maiden ABT event win and loved every minute of it.

needed to catapult him up the leader board. Nothing really changed for Ford, just the bigger fish bit on Sunday and he converted the bites he needed during a hot flurry of fish, were he landed over 20 bass in around an hour.

Ford’s approach was very simple, just throw spoons and slow roll them back where the fish would hook up. His spoon of choice was a 30g Halco Twisty. Casting these

Full results at abt.org.au

Fish 10/10 9/10 7/10 10/10 7/10 7/10 4/10 6/10 6/10 5/10

Weight(kg) Payout 12.62kg $3,300 12.10kg $1,800 10.69kg $1,300 10.39kg $900 8.54kg $700 7.92kg $600 7.65kg $500 7.59kg 6.78kg 6.67kg

Now THAT’S what anglers come to Somerset for – 3.81kg of VMC Somerset Big Bass by Trent Collins.

Somerset didn’t disappoint with the VMC Big Bass weighing in at a whopping 3.81kg. Caught

by Trent Collins on Day 1, he landed this giant on a

NON-BOATER RESULTS Place Angler 1 Brodey McNeish 2 Felippe Gapski 3 Tony Neal 4 Barry Reynolds 5 Aiden Richter 6 Shane Richards 7 Beau Eveligh 8 Michael Thomas 9 Luke Sticklen 10 Matthew Flynn

Fish 8/10 6/10 8/10 7/10 5/10 7/10 8/10 7/10 5/10 6/10

Palms Slow Blatt jig 20g in colour MG530.

Anglers now await border-opening information to find out when the Grand Final can be run and won.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) Prize Pack 12.2kg Bassman + Sufix 9.21kg Megabass 9.07kg Megabass 8.65kg Megabass 7.89kg TT Lures 7.81kg TT Lures 7.46kg Lucky Craft 7.16kg Lucky Craft 6.745kg Ecogear 6.63kg J-Braid

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121

Part II: Does lure colour matter? is poorer, but the yellowtail king looks a lot like the baseline. It has hints of the same bias for chartreuse that kahawai have, which might be noteworthy.

SUNTAG

Stefan Sawynok

In last month’s article (Sept 2020), I went through the published science around fish and colour, and the basic physics involved. This month, I will be looking at real world outcomes in the recreational sector, where there is a paucity of real data on the impact of colour on results.

Last year we were part of a trade promotion of the Daiwa Kogha Lures in New Zealand. It was a requirement of the competition to include a photo of the Kogha lures in the submission photo.

Subsequently, we tallied up the various colour lures on offer and how often they appeared in the photos.

In this case, there were multiple species but we

Fig.1 Hauraki Gulf with catches plotted by lure colour. scene fishing wise. The area in question was predominantly in the bay area on the eastern side of Auckland, although there were some catches on the western and down Wellington Way. In all

sakura glow (white with pink highlights), orange, and pink. With the same profile, all of them offer good contrast particularly closer to the surface.

“Aha!” I hear everyone cry as they rush out and buy orange lures. Even when examining sales data, orange is the dominant colour when purchasing lures. However, the general feedback anglers was that they felt all colours caught fish equally.

So, how does that look at a species level?

focused on four – kahawai, yellowtail king, snapper and gurnard – two pelagics and a couple of demersal/ benthic species.

Fig.6 Gurnard catches by lure colour.

Fig.7 Morning catches by lure colour I also wanted to look whether there was any difference between morning and afternoon in terms of sun position. The biggest change in results came for sakura glow, and it was significant. Pink went in

Fig.2 All catches by lure colour.

the opposite direction, performing better in the afternoon than the morning (see Fig.7 and Fig.8).

Kogha were an excellent lure for the test.

They are all exactly the same except for colour and are about as simple as lures get (sinker, hook and skirt) so the action will be the same every time. The colours are all strong as well, so if there is to be any bias due to colour, Kogha should demonstrate it. The environment was also ideal, with sub-optimal visibility conditions (25-100m).

The physics, biology and data all indicate that there is something to the colour of the lure but again that needs to be measured as contrast (or reflectivity at the surface) rather than specifically that colour.

In the end, whether contrast or colour, there does seem to be a measurable difference. We need a bit more data and some more robust statistical

cases, the bathymetric profile is similar and target depths are 25-100m. Fig.1 presents the Bathymetric profile (lines are 50m depth Fig.4 Kahawai catches by lure colour

Fig.3 Snapper catches by lure colour While this isn’t the most robust sample it’s as good as we have and hopefully, they will run this format again and we can further flesh out the data. Nonetheless, the results will be of interest to fishers and further the conversation on the impact of lure colour.

First, let’s paint the 122

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increments) and catches plotted by lure colour. noting that most catches occurred within the bay area and offshore islands around Auckland.

Fig. 2 shows that the reds drop out at around 15m, yellow at 30m and orange at 50m. This is important as the four colours are chartreuse,

As the overall result is in line with sales data, it shows that any movement away from the baseline is potentially significant.

We have two species with enough catches to be looking at that movement at different ends of the water column – snapper and kahawai. In the case of snapper, there is a movement away from chartreuse (see Fig.3); for kahawai, a bias towards it (see Fig.4).

We would have to do a lot more work to make the statistics more robust, as this is just exploratory data, but there does seem to be something to it. This is an experiment you can test for yourself – just buy all colours fish equal time with each and see what

happens – if you do let me know the results.

The results for gurnard and yellowtail king is also interesting (see Fig.5 and Fig.6). Gurnard tends to be a by-catch so the data

Fig.8 Afternoon catches by lure colour

Fig.5 Yellowtail king catches by lure colour

work to tease that out better but I do believe it’s there.

The other takeaway is that colour performance is a function of species and conditions, not just the colour. Not all species react to the same colour palette the same way because, unlike humans, their eyes are all different.

I know from my conversations on the dataset so far that there will be a lot of speculation on the ‘why’ for different colours, I will leave that to the readers at home.

A COVID impact update Back a couple of months ago I put together I forecast for the fishing industry, using the GFC as the only comparable period of time that we had data on. As happens, in the predictive business the forecast was wrong, but the underlying reasons were clear within a month so we adjusted and have been much closer to the mark ever since.

Still I am big enough to admit that I got it wrong.

I said at the time I

and gaming (PC, XBOX, Playstation). Walking is a no brainer, gaming has had one blip with retail, particularly in the largest markets going under, but they already had a digital download option built in.

With a lot of young men with free time, particularly in the northern hemisphere, gaming is having a stellar year.

Taking things back to the GFC, during the GFC all of the discretionary spending industries were

Fig.10 Reported recaptures in the Fitzroy River. wasn’t locking in the model until end of September, then the end of Job Keeper as that would be a much better indicator of where the world was up to. I think that was wise as we have a lot more useful data since then to flesh out what is happening.

To be fair, the predictions weren’t all incorrect but there was a key flaw in my underlying assumptions that sent things askew – I was working based on economic data, not human behaviour.

Economically speaking, things are far worse than the GFC. Fishing took a decent hit under the GFC as fishers reigned in spending, that is not at all what is happening now most reports are it’s ‘Christmas time’ for the industry.

Why would fishing be doing better when the economy is worse off?

No, it’s not Job Keeper, although that is helping.

The answer turns out to be relatively simple, and can be encapsulated in the adage, ‘In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.’ Fishing by definition is a socially distancing sport, you might even say it was a sport purpose built to survive a pandemic. In the US, fishing is considered low risk just above carrying out activities alone. Up against almost all other human activities that inevitably end up using a lot more capital with little to no social distancing, fishing is in a position of strength. At this point only two similar activities are doing as well and only one financially – walking

affected in a similar way when people had less money to spend. Under COVID, there are only a small number of activities to absorb this spending as all the alternate activities that promote social gathering in one form or another are restricted by COVID. The data is pointing to fishing (and gaming) being an activity being advantaged

by COVID and the more we

attracted to fishing.

It will be interesting to see how things go in the coming months because I think if it is correct that fishing and employment are correlated, fishing is very likely to ride out COVID relatively unscathed at the retail level at least.

The complete story, however, is not as simple as that. While fishing as an activity is positively impacted by COVID, and that is flowing into the retail sector, the services built on top of fishing – competitions, media and tourism are not having anything like as good a time. That is not across the board and there seems to be enough movement to keep things ticking over – Job Keeper helps but few of those sectors are experiencing the peaks of the retail end right now.

From an economist point of view, that is not great news as the services sector captures more dollars in the local economy.

When it comes to tourism, proximity to capital city seems to be key. I can use some data from Queensland to Illustrate. Fig.9 and Fig.10 compares traffic to six key impoundments around South East Queensland (close to Brisbane) with the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton (7 hours drive away). Even adjusting for seasons, the traffic to Rockhampton,

Fig.12 Distances travelled to Fitzroy River. have secondary breakouts, the more that advantage is locked in.

I have had a theory for sometime that fishing regularly is a strong predictor of being employed. My view is that fishing requires a lot of selfmotivation and ability to withstand failure/repetition, thus builds discipline. All of the attributes that make good fishers, make good workers. There is no data here that says that’s true, there is some data in the US that indicates it could but true but it could also be that the opposite is true – people with discipline and concentration, i.e. more employable skills are

which pre-COVID was at historically high levels, has fallen off a cliff. In comparison, traffic to SEQ impoundments is ahead of where it was in 2020, and that includes an extended period where the impoundments were closed altogether. As per my previous article, we are using recaptures of tagged fish as a proxy for fishing effort.

When it comes to distances travelled, this shows even more how proximity matters. In the case of the SEQ impoundments, traffic is still ahead of where it was in 2019 but travel distances were quite a bit behind up to

Fig.9 Reported recaptures in SEQ impoundments: Lake Somerset, Lake Wivenhoe, Lake Moogerah, Lake Maroon, Lake Advancetown, Lake Borumba. the end of July (see Fig.11).

This is even more true in the Fitzoy (see Fig.12) and feedback from charter operators further north are that bookings from Brisbane-South are well down. Data from Fisheries Queensland confirms we are seeing higher fishing activity in the north but that is down to local traffic, not tourism. In other words, while it’s keeping money in those communities, it’s not bringing in new money from outside.

While there is a lack of public data on fishing from NSW and Victoria, we did detect a spike in the presence of NSW fishers in SEQ impoundments just prior to the border closure (see Fig.13). This is telling, as in the first COVID shutdowns people stayed put but there has been movement away from COVID areas. No such spike has been detected in prior years.

Movement right now in terms of tourism is being driven mostly by the combination of COVID and life under COVID regulations, not by any specific desire to travel to a destination.

In terms of media, we are seeing a shift both here and in the northern hemisphere further away from print. That is not to say that print is dead, but the innovation is all coming in the video formats.

Lessons from the northern hemisphere show that video is easier to monetise by individuals, rather than print organisations that transition.

There is a mountain of print and online media organisations based on written works that have failed to make the transition.

The problem seems to be two-fold, video tends to attract viewers based on personality, not topic and monetization is much more challenging. Monetisation in video takes significant time to build up a presence

successful.

It’s been clear from the events we have been to that even in areas not impacted

by COVID that the level of awareness is huge.

Events we have worked with, have limited numbers both with concerns on the regulations and the extra work necessary to run the event. Given that the social component is one of the biggest elements to fishing events, I am not convinced that a fully online model will replace traditional competitions. I think by

Fig.11 Distances travelled to SEQ impoundments: Lake Somerset, Lake Wivenhoe, Lake Moogerah, Lake Maroon, Lake Advancetown, Lake Borumba. before earning an income.

Nonetheless I think this is probably the most interesting space to watch.

Australia generally doesn’t have the market size to support video by itself and it has a lack of competitors in the video space so I think it’s more likely that printvideo hybrids will be more

Fig.13 Distances travelled to SEQ impoundments up to the border closure.

next year it will be mostly the events that go direct to the public that will be most affected, as I don’t see the COVID regulations going away before 2022. No doubt ‘separation fatigue’ will kick in by years’ end and so long as smaller events stick to the rules, things will get back to a new normal. What is clear, the current second outbreak has been further disruptive and while we have a very full September/ October most of that is not in our traditional sites for events.

Overall, I am revising my pessimistic view of COVID significantly based the fact that there is a lot more data available now to a much more optimistic view, with the caveat that changes are coming in the media, events and tourism sectors. The second half of this year is likely to produce stellar fishing activity.

OCTOBER 2020

123

Sea Jay 590 Titan with Yamaha 150hp 4 stroke - SC

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extensions that fit between the bunks and the helm chair bases. Time will tell if this is an elegant or clumsy solution. If it worries you, just buy the 6.3!

Of course, the test rig was supplied on a Sea Jay

Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

We like it at Fishing Monthly when we get the heads-up about new models on the way. And we like it even better when we get to ride in them. So when I got the call to duck up to Bundaberg to take a couple of new Sea Jay hulls for a run with Sea Jay and Yamaha staff, I pointed the truck up the highway and headed up.

The Elliott River is a pretty neat place to test boats, too. Half an hour south of town (and the Sea Jay factory), it’s a clear water estuary with easy access into the ocean. You can do all of the performance stats in the calm water and then take the rig for a bash out in the rough stuff.

And the test day SPECIFICATIONS Length.............. 5.82m Beam................ 2.45m Depth ................2.11m Bottom.sheet .... 4mm Side.Sheet ......... 3mm Capacity .... 6 persons Floor.ribs ................15 Hull.weight ...... 895kg Rec.HP ..................130 Max.HP .................150 delivered, with a sporty northerly making anything unprotected lumpy indeed.

“The Titan is a new rig built on the famous Samurai hull,” Sea Jay National Sales Manager, Garry Fitzgerald said, “It was created after talking to lot of Sea Jay 124

OCTOBER 2020

supplied by Bundaberg Marineland, but your local Sea Jay dealer can quote you up a price on your preferred iteration of this hull. As tested, this rig came in in the high $60,000 range, but you’d be spending a little

PERFORMANCE RPM.........Speed.(km/h)....... Economy.(km/L) 1000 ............................7 ............................ 2.3 2000.......................... 12 ............................ 1.6 3000.......................... 31 ............................ 2.1 3500 .......................... 41 ............................ 2.1 4000.......................... 48 ............................ 2.0 5000.......................... 63 ............................ 1.6 5900 .......................... 76 ............................ 1.2 Main: The Sea Jay Titan 590 was created after plenty of customer and dealer feedback. It’s a mean fishing boat with plenty of fishing space and the ability to get out of the weather when you’ve had enough. Photo courtesy of John Hooson Above: Supplied on a Sea Jay trailer, you’ll get an extra year of warranty and the peace of mind that everything is set up properly and fit for purpose. dealers and customers. They wanted a walkaround with a proper cabin and that’s exactly what this is.”

The 590 is the middlesized boat in the Titan range (you can also get a 5.5 and 6.3m version) and was fitted with the maximum horsepower. In this case, a mechanically controlled, 2.7L Yamaha 150hp 4-stroke.

Put together just after the launch of Yamaha’s HelmMaster EX system, I was half expecting this test rig to be fitted with the technology. It’d work great with it, but it was fitted with a plate for an electric motor.

As far as walkaround rigs go, the Titan’s pretty easy to get around – no sideways shuffling is required – and there’s room to fish along

the walkaround as well. The cockpit it big and the transom is smooth. The transom door and folding steps are standard and necessary.

With a 2.45m beam, this rig sits on top of the tandem trailer and that’s basically the only way into this boat (either on the trailer or in the water).

The helm part of the cabin is interesting. There’s a small, hard top that is more like a baseball cap peak and a gap to the windscreen. Air flow is wonderful but you will get a little wet when quartering a sea. We drove it all ways through the mess outside the mouth of the Elliott; could drive the rig to avoid the pounding but not necessarily the spray.

It has a big, flat dash

that will hold all of your electronics or MFDs and the lack of length in the cabin is compensated by some bunk

designed trailer that will give you an extra year of warranty on the hull. For me, you’re crazy if you don’t buy the dedicated trailer and the maximum horsepower on any rig, but I may just be someone that likes the power when you really need it and likes trouble-free boating.

The test boat was

more than that to truly make it a turn-key fishing machine.

I’d be opting for a 100lb+ electric and 12” MFD. For more information, watch the video boat test (and thank you to COVID for training us all how to do it through your smartphone camera) or visit www. seajayboats.com.au.

The 590 is a proper walkaround – not a shuffle-around – and caters for all styles of fishing, especially with a trolling motor fitted for’ard. Photo courtesy of John Hooson

The Titan is built on Sea Jay’s proven Samurai hull.

The electric motor bracket is now a standard feature on plenty of boats, although there’s all the gear to set an anchor as well.

The mini hard-top gives you some shade and folds down, but don’t expect it to save you from all the spray or assume it’ll fit into a standard garage when it’s folded down.

The transom bait station will get plenty of wear on offshore trips and complements the transom fitted live bait tank.

You can quite easily step up and fish right in the middle of the walkaround. You can’t do it that easily in all boats of the same design.

Powered by a mechanically controlled version of Yamaha’s 2.7L, 150hp 4-stroke, the test boat was fitted with maximum allowable horsepower, just as it should be. Photo courtesy of John Hooson

Fitzy isn’t the world’s tallest man, but even he needed the bunk extensions to fully stretch out.

We love when a boat has enough room to flush mount the electronics that we know most buyers will install. This dash will swallow them up.

The windscreen is the right height to look through (while seated) and over (while standing), unless you’re Fitzy. Then you have to always look through it.

The transom is enclosed, apart from a couple of access points for the batteries.

You don’t necessarily need a selfdeploy electric here. You can easily walk up and manually deploy one.

Sea Jay’s livewells are always simple and selflevelling. This one will keep plenty of your baits alive.

OCTOBER 2020

125

Business Profile Advertorial

Whittley Boats open new sales facility at The Sydney Boathouse Victorian based Whittley Marine Group has announced the opening of its new sales outlet in NSW. The new showroom is based in Rozelle within The Sydney Boathouse facility, right on Sydney Harbour.

This launch follows in the footsteps of a similar launch of their Gold Coast sales office earlier in the year.

As always, at Fishing Monthly we like to have a chat to those involved and bring it to you first.

I spoke to Brock Cohen, Sales Manager for Whittley NSW and he was pretty excited. At only 23 years young he is looking forward to the challenges and the opportunities that this role will provide for him.

Sales Manager for Whittley NSW, Brock Cohen “I have been working in the industry for a number of years and the opportunity to sell boats that are built in Australia, work for a family-owned business that has been building boats for 65 years and have the backing that that provides is a dream come true” Cohen explained to me.

The showroom is located at Suit 126

OCTOBER 2020

2, 2 Waterways Court, Rozelle and will have seven to nine packages on display at any one time and, at certain times of the year, will also have two packages on the water.

“The beauty of having the showroom within The Sydney Boat House complex is that people have the ability to book an ‘Arrive and Drive Experience’ to really understand what owning a Whittley is all about. They can be on the water within a couple of minutes cruising under the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“That is just the start, The Sydney Boat House precinct is considered by many to be the premier trailer boat facility in Sydney. It is a one-stop shop of everything marine, so any needs the client may have can be sorted right then and there,” he continued.

“Whether it be in a Whittley Family owned dealership or online, the Whittley new boat buying experience is unique to the market and enables

customers to enjoy a closeness to the Whittley Factory and Family. Whittley is the only brand in Australia that builds the boats from a drum of resin to a finished product and then sells them through its own dealerships across the

country. This process ensures a unique customer experience and closeness to the factory throughout the process, not offered by any other brand.”

Customers can also enjoy an indealership experience online, via the Whittley website where potential buyers are able to build a boat, choose colours and options, see dealership stock boats, apply for finance and see each Whittley model onscreen via the unique virtual tour feature. The way consumers buy boats has changed and either through a dealership or online experience, Whittley is at the forefront of the new boat buying experience.

The new outlet is open 9am – 5pm Tuesday to Saturday or by appointment only on Sundays and Mondays. Check out the Whittley range of boats at www. whittleyboats.com.au or go and see Brock at the new showroom in Rozelle.

– Peter Jung

OCTOBER 2020

127

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