NSW Fishing Monthly June 2017 by Fishing Monthly

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June 2017, Vol. 22 No. 11

Contents BYRON COAST The Tweed 24 Tweed Inshore 25 Ballina 26 Yamba 28 Iluka 27 Wooli 30 COFFS COAST Coffs Harbour Coffs Game South West Rocks

31 32 33

MACQUARIE COAST Port Macquarie 36 Forster 38 Harrington-Taree 39 HUNTER COAST Port Stephens 44 Hunter Coast 42 Swansea 43 Central Coast 45 SYDNEY The Hawkesbury 12 Sydney North 14 Pittwater 15 Sydney Harbour 16 Sydney Rock and Beach 17 Botany Bay 18 Sydney South 20 Western Sydney 22 ILLAWARRA COAST Illawarra 46 Nowra 47

From the Editor’s Desk... A pretty cool thing happened last month – and it wasn’t winning the BREAM Australian Open in Sydney – although that did happen. My eyes were opened to how much people like watching people fishing. Live. On their computers and phones and tablets. Carl Jocumsen and Craig Simmons are to blame. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last six years, you’ll know Carl as Australia’s most popular export in the world of professional bass fishing in the USA. Carl has massive social media followings and is quite possibly the most likeable angler on the planet. Carl’s fans love watching him fish. In modern history it was via the images, blogs, live scoreboards and limited live coverage in the Bassmaster Elite series.

We’d all wake up early in the morning and click on the live weigh-in, enduring hundreds of other anglers presenting the fish to the weighmaster so we could catch the moment when Aussie Carl could have his 60 seconds of fame. This last year, with permission from the tournament organisers on the FLW Tour, Carl has started to live stream his days on the boat. With a simple rig – a phone, bracket and solid data plan – he set about delivering as much as he could of his tournament day to his audience. And they love it. I’ve had the gear to do it for a while, but I didn’t believe that people would want to watch a bream angler in a bream tournament for hours on end. Bass Cat Boats’ Craig Simmons persuaded me to do otherwise and try it out. I was wrong and he was right. There, I said it. Over three days, the

sporadic stream, plagued with technical problems, reached over 60,000 people and the videos themselves were viewed over 40,000 times in 72 hours. Yikes! It’s clear that Aussies love watching live, raw fishing. Maybe it’s because it’s not staged, not done with placed sponsors’ products and not scripted? Maybe it’s because it’s comforting to know that EVERYONE experiences long periods without a bite? And maybe watching fishing can take you away from the mundane tasks of everyday life? After all, the Open was held on weekdays. Whatever the reason, there’s clearly an appetite for it and that has been noted. We’re working on addressing the technical side of delivering live audio and video coverage from a moving boat in a saltwater environment with dodgy mobile coverage in an event that nobody has any idea

about what’s going to happen using an array of components that often don’t like talking to each other nicely. All of a sudden, catching the fish has become the easy part! If you want to check out the action from the Open, there’s Live Highlights videos available on the Fishing Monthly YouTube channel - or you scan the QR code here to get direct access from your mobile. DREAMING OF BARRA For those of you who love holidays up north to chase barra, or if you’ve ever dreamed of doing so, have a look at our bumper BARRA Tournament Angler Guide (TAG) in this issue. As well as giving you tips about chasing these iconic fish, it also provides an insight into the experiences of top ABT BARRA tournament anglers. Check it out and see what it’s like to live the dream.

BATEMANS COAST Merimbula 68 Narooma 69 Batemans Bay 70 EDEN COAST Bermagui 71 Tathra 71 Eden 72 Mallacoota 72

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ING TRADE

Luderick

Doing the blackfish rock around the clock CENTRAL COAST

Jamie Robley jrobley@iprimus.com.au

As we move towards the coldest months, one of the best ways to warm up is to get out on our coastal rock ledges. Rock fishing is much more energetic than sitting in a boat, kayak or on a chair by the riverbank. At this time of year the fishing is great. A number of different species are active along the rocks at this time of year. Tailor, salmon, bream, drummer, trevally and more. However, my lifelong rock fishing favourite, the humble luderick (blackfish), is one of the more reliable

different from most other forms of fishing. The techniques used are also reasonably unique. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, success is very consistent, so failed outings are rare. Of course, to achieve consistency, a number of factors come into play. Like all forms of angling, location is critical. Put simply, you’ve got to go where the fish are. The next step is going there at the best times and then using tackle and techniques that get the job done. The more precise and refined all of these things are, the better the results will be. GOOD GEAR Traditionally, luderick tackle has largely been based

work on their new target species around Sydney and the coastal fringe of the eastern seaboard. Rods were long with a soft action, and the main type of reel used was the centrepin. Slender timber or quill floats suspended small baits of green weed, which drifted over likely territory until a fish bit and took the float down. While these early basics remain largely unchanged, 2017 tackle is obviously much more advanced than it was over half a century ago. While good rods suitable for luderick fishing probably aren’t as common in Australia as they used to be, there are still some high quality rods on the

The author has spent decades chasing these fish from the rocks. Once the basics are sorted out, they’re a very addictive species to target!

Look for ledges with a healthy covering of green cabbage or weed over them. Luderick should be in the vicinity. species right along the NSW coastline. It’s hard for me to nominate the precise reasons why I enjoy fishing for luderick so much. It probably has a bit to do with the tackle being quite

around old British coarse fishing gear, used over the decades for fish like carp and barbell in the UK. Early luderick enthusiasts in the 1940s and 50s took their British rods, reels, lines and floats and put them to

market that are perfect for the job. When it comes to rock fishing though, the first concern is length. Depending on where you’ll be fishing, a 3m rod is probably a good starting point. However, lengths between 2.9 and 4m

A brightly coloured tip on a stem float makes it stand out from a distance. This is particularly helpful in slightly rougher or washy sea conditions. 8

JUNE 2017

(9’6” and 13’0”) are worth considering. Longer rods are beneficial when fishing rougher seas or in places where rocks slope out in front of you. In spots protected from the main force of the waves, where the ledge may drop straight down near your feet, a shorter rod works well. These days, a good luderick rod is still relatively soft in action or slow in taper, much like the rods of yesteryear. However, due to much more advanced materials and components used, a modern luderick rod may be a third of the weight and much more comfortable in the hand. Traditional centrepin reels are still used off the rocks but, thanks to Alvey, that older style has been greatly improved with modern technology. It’s purpose-built for the harsh world of rock fishing. When fishing in places where salt spray is common or the reel may get the occasional dunking, an Alvey will stand up to the punishment. Having said that, a small to mid-sized (2500-4000) threadline or spinning reel offers a lot of flexibility. I tend to use threadline reels off the rocks if I know that a longer casting distance is required, or if I want to cut the rig off and switch over to bream or perhaps start casting a small lure around for tailor or salmon. Both nylon mono and braided line can be successfully employed for luderick off the rocks. It largely comes down to the type of reel being used or

personal preference. With a sidecast or centrepin, mono is generally the better option, while a good quality, fine diameter braid makes for pretty good, hasslefree fishing with a small threadline reel. A 4kg mainline should do the trick in most situations, but if black drummer regularly turn up at your chosen fishing spot then stepping up to 5-6kg line could be a better option. When using a braid

mainline I’ll go for a nylon mono leader about the same length as the rod, and my choice for the leader is then 9lb or 12lb Schneider Klear mono. This works more as a shock leader, and increases the odds of landing fish. Down at the business end, a fluorocarbon leader is still useful as a trace from a small black swivel to the hook. On the subject of hooks, sizes from 4-10 can be used, with a size 6 or 8 being the best most of the time. A

A variety of different float types or styles can be successfully used for this sort of fishing. Simple foam bobby floats are very cheap, but larger stem style floats are preferred by some experienced luderick specialists.

Luderick wide variety of styles and brands will do the job. For many years I’ve stuck with the Mustad 4190 pattern, although in more recent times my preference has leaned towards Gamakatsu ISO fishing hooks.

On top of that, a selection of floats, small sinkers, split shot, little black swivels, rubber float stoppers and small rubber or plastic beads complete the tackle kit. It may sound like a lot, but in reality it works

Some white bread mashed up with water makes a great berley, which can really turn luderick on. A small bread bait cast out in the same spot is likely to receive attention quickly.

out a lot cheaper than a pile of bream or bass lures! RIGGING RIGHT You don’t always need a float to catch luderick, but it’s generally accepted that the most successful technique is drifting small weed or green cabbage baits under a float. The running depth or length of line between the float and the hook depends on how deep the fishing spot is. As a rough guideline, the bait needs to drift a metre or so off the bottom, without snagging up on rocks or kelp. If the water is about 4m deep, you should set the distance between the float stopper and hook at around 3m. Luderick don’t always feed down deep though. In fact, it’s not uncommon for them to feed closer to the surface, under foamy scum lines or floating debris. There are times when a bait set only 30cm under a float can be quite successful. In other words, there’s a lot of variation in what a suitable running depth should be. What is consistently important is that the float is weighted or ballasted so it goes under easily when a fish takes the bait. If a luderick feels much resistance, it’s likely to spit the bait out. When rigging up, add just enough sinker

This fish took a bread bait just under the surface. Although generally regarded as a bottom dweller, luderick often feed closer to the surface. Keep an eye out for them. weight between the trace and float so it occasionally bobs under the surface as waves roll through. It may take a bit of practice, but after a while you’ll become familiar with how much weight is suitable for each type of float. HOTSPOTS Look for rocky points, outcrops or ledges with a

healthy covering of green cabbage or green weed, and luderick should be in the vicinity. Of course, it’s also important that your fishing spot is safe. Most weedy ledges are low to the water and cop some waves or whitewash spilling over them in big seas or around high tide. Although some of the

more experienced rock hoppers will confidently fish with water washing around their feet, the higher, drier ledges are usually safer. My main strategy is to look for higher spots right next to those low, weedy ledges. This way you can be fishing in the right spot, yet remain dry and safe. To page 10

JUNE 2017

Luderick From page 9

A decent pair of polarised sunnies is a must when chasing luderick off the rocks. Quite often they can be spotted zooming around below the surface, and they’re easier to see in places with a clean

sandy bottom and just the odd rock or clump of reef here and there. Fish often gravitate around a single large rock, and they’re not hard to spot if you keep an eye out for them. Obviously, this helps when figuring out where to cast or allow the

float to drift. BEST BAITS Most of the time green cabbage is the best bait for this sort of fishing. In some spots the more filamentous, long green weed may be common on the rocks, so it will also be an excellent

A small bobby float was used here. This fish took a green cabbage bait close to the rocks under some washy white water.

For the most part, green cabbage, more correctly known as sea lettuce, is the number one bait when targeting blackfish from the rocks.

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floating bread, a small bait cast towards the main area of action is generally taken without hesitation. As with all forms of fishing, chasing luderick off the rocks takes a bit of practise, and the more you do it the more you’ll learn. As long as you remember that safety is the highest priority when rock fishing, you’re sure to enjoy what the rocks can offer through the cooler months.

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many times I’ve taken the bait off and cast a new one out only to catch a fish instantly. Another excellent bait is white bread. With a little bit of white bread mashed up with water and thrown in as berley every so often, luderick and others like bream or drummer can be encouraged to feed more aggressively. Once a few fish are seen swimming around or even smashing bits of

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Winter is awesome on the Hawkesbury River THE HAWKESBURY

Dan Selby dan@sydneysportfishing.com.au

The first month of winter marks the start of some superb fishing on the Hawkesbury and its tributaries. Anglers willing to brave the cool conditions can expect to encounter luderick, bream, flathead, estuary perch,

Australian salmon, tailor and mulloway. Luderick will be schooling on the lower rock walls around Broken Bay and can turn on some exciting sessions on a high tide and during the run-out. Anchoring your vessel side-on to the current with a bow and stern anchor is preferred, but not essential. The most important thing is the location you have picked.

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You need to look for areas that have back eddies and current lines around major junctions and points. Big boulders that stick out into the main current flow are prime habitats for luderick and are always worth a drift or two with your perfectly weighted float rig. Sourcing fresh weed is a key factor and most experienced luderick fishers keep their best weed collecting areas top secret. Some areas I have found to hold good cabbage and stringy weed are on the bases of old boat hulls (mooring minders) and on pontoons and jetty poles that have good clean water flowing past them. Berley is great, but not as necessary as finding a good concentration of fish schooling up. Bream have been

The Hawkesbury can produce some amazing sessions on big 40cm+ luderick. most effective for covering water to find where the active concentrations of flatties are on any given day. Drifting over the cockle beds and around major points

you’re targeting flathead, bream or mulloway. At times they’ll take lures up to 5” long. As they are in a closed season they should be returned to the water

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Some impressive mulloway were captured on lures and baits after the fresh back in early autumn. schooling in the lower reaches and holding in tight and down deep on the rock walls from Bar Point back downstream to Broken Bay. I find working soft plastics and blades parallel to the deeper walls to be quite effective when they are schooling between 5-10m deep. Small soft plastic grubs and minnows in natural colours to suit the water colour will prove to be the best producers. Bloodworm, pumpkin seed and motor oil are my firm favourites. Bream will eat most things you throw at them though, as long as you fish it slowly and in their faces down deep. Bait fishing the washes will prove fruitful for both the above mentioned species, and the odd drummer too. A bucket of mashed up bread berley and baits of peeled prawn or fresh bread kneaded onto your small no. 1 bait keeper hook produces some great sessions at this time of year. Flathead will be in decent numbers around Broken Bay and Cowan, and further upstream to Berowra to a lesser degree. Soft plastics, soft vibes and blades are the

with lightly weighted baits of prawn or white bait will also account for some nice fish, if lure casting is not up your ally. Salmon and tailor can be found by casting soft plastic minnows and surface poppers or trolling skirts and diving minnows along the washes around Barrenjoey, West Head and Lion Island. You can also catch these fish out in the open in Pittwater near Palm Beach and across to the basin and Broken Bay around Little Pittwater and Hungry Beach. Keep your eyes open for diving gulls and terns, and approach slowly to gauge the direction of the school. Moving your vessel to intercept the school in the direction they are feeding will give you a much better chance of getting a hook-up on these often fussy feeders. Small metal slices, soft plastic minnows and flies are best to cast to these fish. Estuary perch will start to feature in captures as they head downstream in large numbers to spawn in the more saline waters in the lower reaches. They are usually a by-catch when

with a minimum of fuss and handling. Ideally they shouldn’t be removed from the water, if possible. Mulloway have been biting very well since the fresh earlier in autumn. Lots

of 1m+ fish have graced the deck of my vessel, and plenty of other anglers’ boats too. Big fish will be haunting the headlands and lower estuary this month, especially if the luderick and mullet are in good numbers in the same areas. Gathering live baits will be best done around West Head and at times out the front at Barrenjoey, Lion Island and Little Box Head. Tailor, pike, squid and yakkas will all be taken readily by a big mulloway at this time of year. I prefer to cast and retrieve lures though. Lure fishing allows you to cover large amounts of water with a range of offerings in varying colours and sizes. If you want a truly large mulloway on a lure you must throw large lures of 6-9” that will tempt only the biggest of fish. The downside to this is that it will wear you out after a couple of hours of casting. I prefer to use smaller lures of 3-6”, as they are more manageable for longer periods of time on a lighter outfit, and usually produce a few by-catches of estuary perch, flathead and bream along the way.

Big bream will be keen to snaffle lures and baits around Broken Bay as the water temperatures keep dropping.

Big fish time off Sydney SYDNEY NORTH

Darren Thomas

Now that the ocean temps are decreasing, the colder water species are moving in. Our oceans calm with the turning of the East Australian Current, bringing back all manner of species that headed south for the summer. This, my friends, is big fish time. We are due for a decent tuna run here off Sydney as we haven’t had a cracker season for a couple of years now. We are seeing some good bluefin and yellowfin captures down south and it won’t be long before these guys move in offshore.

Our inshore reefs are holding good schools of plate-sized snapper and rat kings, with some solid schools of trevally moving in. Brennan Webster went jigging in 40m off Manly and landed a 1m+ mulloway on his 50lb outfit. Brennan was looking to target kings when the big mulloway came along. Plenty of rats were also keen on the jigs during this session. Kyle Windsor was out chasing snapper in 25 fathoms when a ripper pearl perch snaffled his pilchard bait. After a quick fight the fish was boated and on ice. Some great reports of blue-eye trevalla and hapuka are also coming in from

Browns Mountain. The lead up to winter is a great time to drop some deep baits to the ocean floor, but be sure to remember the deeper you drop, the hardier the bait needs to be. Baits like a squid hood with a piece of mullet fillet inside are perfect for deep offshore, and will generally make it past the pickers to your target species on the bottom. Sydney Harbour is clearing up after the recent rain. Mac tuna, bonito, salmon and tailor have all been trolled up in Middle Harbour during the break, so get lures out and pull them anywhere from Dobroyd Head to Bantry Bay. Some good fish have been taken in this zone. Kingfish are on the move around the harbour, and live baits of squid and yakkas are accessible in most local bait gathering areas. Ripper flatties are on the chew

Brennan Webster with a 1m+ mulloway. drifting between Grotto Point and North Head. More hairtail eels have been caught recently on soft plastics, baits and vibes. Manly through to the Spit has been where to fish for these guys.

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Zoe Williamson with a Pittwater mulloway.

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Recognizing horizontal lines on the sounder screen will put you right in the zone for catching one of these sabretoothed bumper bars.

The beaches are turning it on at the moment. Tailor and salmon are being taken on metal lures cast beyond the breakers in low light times, while the king beachworms purchased here in the shop have been landing cracker whiting, trevally and bream fishing the close-in gutters at Curl Curl, Dee Why and Manly. After dark the whaler sharks are still causing headaches for the mulloway fishers, but are providing some exciting fishing on quieter nights. Most beaches are experiencing these toothy critters so grab your favourite heavy land-based kit and some wire trace and go and have some fun. Some of these whalers are well over a metre and are absolute drag burners. Pittwater has been improving since the recent rains but is still a bit hit and miss. One angler who didn’t miss was Zoe Williamson when she landed a ripper 80cm mulloway on a pilchard during a lunchtime session. Mike Kelett from Kayak Fishing New South

Wales has been getting into the live squid and converting them into kings. Some fish have still been a torrid struggle on the yak due to the general territory of the hook-up. Narrabeen Lake has schools of small chopper tailor taking all kinds of bait, and many bream and flathead fishos are finding these little guys an absolute pest. A few flatties have been taken down the back on small vibes and plastics. The rocks are fishing well for plate snapper and luderick as well as all the pelagics that are on offer. Julius David caught a nice king from the stones, while other species worth chasing this month are bonito, salmon and tailor. When these fish are on, metal slugs and surface poppers are very popular lure choices in this application of high speed knitting from the crowded ledges. PFDs and rock cleats are recommended, and can be viewed and purchased in store at Fish Outta Water Tackle World. Good luck and safe fishing.

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Great fishing ahead in June PITTWATER

Peter Le Blang plfishfingers@bigpond.com

Last month saw a few patches of great weather, and hopefully the next month will see more of the same. Fishing last month we had a few brilliant charters with wonderful people, but the fishing was a little patchy. Over the last couple of weeks we have seen an increase in surface activity and better quality water. The rains really stirred up Pittwater and the Hawkesbury River, but in the long run it has really flushed and livened up both

that are around at the moment. You should grab both yellowtail and squid to see what is favoured by the kingies on the day. This next part seems a little silly; using squid on the downriggers, the kings prefer to eat fresh squid heads over live squid. This is a bonus for those who like a feed of calamari for dinner. You can catch kings with the heads and guts, and take home the hoods for a feed. If the squid that you have caught is really big, use the head as mentioned above, but before rigging on your hooks, cut the squid head in half so you have an eye on each of the sides. The areas to try are Scotland Island, the

to have a rod ready to go with a soft plastic or even a two-hook rig with one of the squid that have already been caught. You can place this squid over the side while drifting and trying to catch more squid. If one of these rogue kingies appears, you’ll be ready to at least present it something to chase or eat. Keep an eye out for working seabirds as these areas have been the places to track down kingfish. Quite often in these areas there is a mixture of fish, with tailor being the predominant species, and of course they love to rip your hard-earned live baits to bits, which can be frustrating. This is where large hardbodied lures come

This 90cm mulloway hit a bonito strip. Not bad for a first keeper fish. of these waterways. Catching kings along Pittwater is still possible. The kingies seem to prefer the smaller baits including yellowtail and small squid, rather than the large squid

Supermarket and along the Kingfish Highway. They are cruising the system at the moment, which normally means they are hungry and are often seen while chasing squid. It is always good

Big squid are great for bait or a feed.

into their own. They can work a treat on a variety of species. There are other species to target under these working fish, and one of them is mulloway. Mulloway seem to show up under the schools of tailor when they have been in our Pittwater system for a couple of weeks or more. Quite often when we are around the school of tailor that is actively feeding on the surface, we will use large micro-jigs along and near the bottom to target these mulloway. Of course, if you catch a larger tailor, cut a fillet off it and send it to the bottom with as little weight as possible. Mulloway love chewing on tailor fillets. To maximise your chances when targeting mulloway, coincide your fishing trip with the change of the tide close to sunrise or sunset. Remember that the busier weekends will see less fish activity around sunset, due to all of the noise and disturbances that they have put up with during the day. In a recent study done by Fishery scientists it was found that noise will affect how successful you are when targeting mulloway. This makes sense as quite often there are more mulloway

becoming active at night time and at first light than during the rest of the day on a busy waterway such as Pittwater. Areas to go to for a chance at a squid are Barrenjoey Headland, Palm Beach weed beds, Careel Bay and Morning Bay. The better size jigs seem to be the 2.5g jigs when fishing along Pittwater, and 3g jigs if you get out on the ocean side of Barrenjoey Headland. Use fluoro colours if the water is discoloured, and natural colours in the cleaner water of Pittwater. The next month should see the flathead start to become a little harder to get. Usually if you target the shallower areas there are normally a few that can be caught near the edges of the weed beds. Along our coast we have had some great days on the reefs around 60-80m deep. The reefs at this depth seem to have baitfish around most parts of the reef, so it has been a matter of finding the balled up baitfish and then dropping lines for your chance at some of the predators below the bait schools. Species that have been on offer have included snapper, morwong, flathead and trevally. The odd kingfish has shown up as well. The better baits seem to be pilchards or freshly caught squid cut into strips. If you can, get some of those baitfish that you will find on the reef, and use them as well. The sand in the same depths have been producing some bluespot flathead and also the odd lost snapper. I hope this report gets you fired up. 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.

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JUNE 2017

Downrigging can be a downer – here’s why SYDNEY HARBOUR

Craig McGill craig@fishabouttours.com.au

It was a spectacular finish to the autumn season, thoroughly deserved after a woeful start. Up until March the water was just too warm and the fish didn’t like it. To be more accurate, the local fish didn’t like it, but we

bites helped dispel some of the misconceptions about this species, the main one being that they swim around vertically. They don’t, they swim horizontally like most fish. We witnessed lots of them free swimming and chasing retrieved baits and lures in clear water and broad daylight. It is true that hairtail swim backwards and vertically when hooked though,

with some better than average amberjack. Last year these kings stayed right through winter, so fingers crossed for a repeat. You must get some fresh squid if you plan to chase them. Offshore, Sydney had a better than average snapper season this year, and there has been a bit of spill over into the harbour. There have been nice pan-sized fish around the lower reaches

A rare but welcome Middle Harbour snapper. saw great tropical ring-ins like rainbow runner, cobia and a couple of varieties of northern trevally as compensation. Hairtail also made a big appearance, with plagues of them showing up in November, and they’re still on the bite. They are a weird critter, normally associated with bitterly cold night sessions in the middle of winter on the Hawkesbury. Their daylight

serpentining away from the angler, and this would have given rise to the myth that they naturally swim in the vertical attitude. Hairtail are great eating, and the market price has been driven up to $60/kg – reflections of the Sydney property market. Some big kings have come into Middle Harbour, as they did at this time last year. We have been pulling kings over a metre mixed in

and we even picked up a little humpy on a deep reef in Middle Harbour. They also like fresh squid baits and are best fished for around first light. The good fishing should continue into June as the warm water is still well south of Sydney, and will take some time to retreat. AGAIN WITH THE DOWNRIGGERS The use of downriggers has increased in popularity dramatically over the last few seasons. From what I am seeing on the harbour, most fishos have misinterpreted its purpose. When it comes to finding fish like kingies, a downrigger combined with a GPS, a good colour sounder

and a live squid is the most effective tool available. You can cover a lot of ground with your bait presented at the right depth. All in all though, it’s a poor fishing technique. It’s loud, cumbersome and clumsy. The wire sings in the water, there’s slack line after the strike, time is wasted setting up again after a strike and it’s usually limited to two rigs. The possibility of tangling the wire round the prop and having to stop the boat and retrieve the weight while dealing with the hooked fish at the same time – unless you have a very expensive electric retrieve downrigger – is really a two-man job. As I said, it’s a top fish finding technique and all the drawbacks are justified when it’s used for this purpose. Unfortunately, this is not what I am seeing it being used for on the harbour. I’ll give you an example of what I have witnessed at least a dozen times this season. I’ll be anchored on structure that I know to be holding fish, because we are catching them. The downrigging brigade become alerted to the fact that fish are sitting on the structure. Within 15 minutes there will be anywhere from one to six boats circling my boat, easily within casting distance (believe me – I’ve been tempted), like bandits around a wagon train. I’ve had them pick up both my anchor rope and my bait lines. The wire noise, commotion and boat shadow of even two boats continuously downrigging a specific area will shut the fish down quick time. In the end, everyone loses. I am hearing similar complaints from other guides on the harbour and old time locals on Pittwater, so this is not just limited to my experience. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that some of the offshore guides are doing it. They downrig all day offshore and have a quick prospect around some of the structures in the

Jordan Stenmark with a cracker Middle Harbour king.

Freya with a daytime hairtail. harbour on their way home to the boat ramp. Downrigging works well offshore in deep water where the ‘big blue’ absorbs a lot of the noise, boat shadow and general clatter. You can downrig in circles out wide and get away with it. It’s naive though to think that half a dozen big boats doing circles around the Wedding Cakes, with two noisy downriggers, in 30ft of water, are not going to put the fish off. The punters see them pull a couple of fish and, well – monkey see, monkey do. Now everyone is doing it. There are some scenarios where downrigging in the harbour is appropriate and effective, however. For example, following the contours off the headlands works well. Likewise, moving from structure to structure in Middle Harbour

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is a great way of finding out which ones are holding fish. I’m not saying that a downrigger doesn’t have its place in the harbour, you just need to know when to pack it away and put the anchor down, spot lock or drift if conditions are appropriate. So, here’s the rap. Downrigging in the harbour is a great fish finding technique, but a poor and even detrimental method for fishing once the fish are located. When you have found the fish, drop the anchor, retrieve the downrigger and fish straight under your boat as normal. If you keep hauling that wire and bomb through a school you will shut them down. Your moving boat shadow and engine noise are contributory. Kings don’t mind a bit of commotion and are sometimes even attracted by it, but they’re not going to tolerate it for more than a couple of minutes. If you decide to go against my advice, that’s your choice. At least have the courtesy to keep plenty of distance between yourself and the boats that are doing the right thing. I’m talking at least 30m, but preferably 2km. Thankyou in advance for your consideration. • If you are interested in doing a guided fishing trip on Sydney harbour with Craig McGill please call 0412 918 127 or email craig@fishabout.com.au.

Fishing with the chill factor SYD ROCK & BEACH

Alex Bellissimo alex@bellissimocharters.com.au

This month is truly wintery in this part of the world, as you may be witnessing right now. The winds are generally westerly or southwesterly, which adds to that chill factor. Fishing really early in the morning or well into the dark for the likes of mulloway, rock blackfish, snapper,

allow you to get to schools of feeding fish within 50-60m from the shore, while still being small enough to match the bait they’re feeding on. Tailor are in good numbers, with quality fish up to 1.5kg. You’re more likely to catch them in the dark period before sun-up to just around sunrise, or just after dusk (if you’re not confident at rock fishing yet though, please avoid fishing after dark). Ganged pillies on a 3/0 to 4/0 size hook are

distance of 30-70mm, and are great places to start distance casting for snapper. Some of the more renowned areas require more know-how, and that might put you off fishing for them because of the constant snagging. Try to avoid really flat days, as that may be one of the reasons why the snapper might not be on the bite. Back to the reports! Luderick are on at Little Bluey the end of Bower

Freeman Tan’s first mulloway. bream, trevally, tailor and salmon is fine, but it may not always be necessary. Yes, if you’re chasing mulloway or tailor off the rocks or beach you should go at night, but all the other species can be caught in reasonable numbers well after sunrise and well before dark. Of course, the number of fish that you may encounter might not be there at times, but it is definitely worth a go. Just one of the many examples is a south facing headland. Depending on the height of the headland, it will be in shadow for at least several hours after sunrise, and should also fish well at dusk. Here’s the report of what to expect at this time of the year off the ocean rocks and beaches. Off the ocean rocks, salmon are in larger numbers hammering whitebait, small pillies and baitfish of several varieties. A SureCatch Lazer jig in the 35g size, or a similar weight metal, will

the go, and line classes from 10-15kg (depending on if you have to lift or wind fish up a cliff) will be sufficient. Add a foam float with a glow stick to see where you are, and some white water to attract the baitfish and tailor to the area, and you’re in with a chance for this hardfighting and tasty fish. Snapper numbers have been quite good of late. Cuttlefish strips, salted mackerel and fresh yellowtail fillets have all been catching their share. You can catch yellowtail at a wharf and then go for a snapper fish straight afterwards. The snapper are being caught either distance casting or wash fishing. When I go to a new spot, one method to determine whether it is worth throwing out for a snapper distance casting is to look for darker patches and lighter patches. Often you will notice a distinct darker area, and just beyond that is a lighter area. Some of these spots are well within casting

Street, Manly. Look for the first big, main, squarelooking section of ledge that you see from the car park at the end of Bower Street. You can catch rock blackfish along those ledges, along with tailor and salmon. Snapper can be caught off the high ledges out of the southwest wind at South Curl Curl, and Warriewood high ledge in a swell size of above 1m. The run of whiting, tailor and salmon is continuing on the beaches off Sydney. The northern beach suburbs from Manly to Palm beach – my part of the world – are producing good results. Starting at Palm Beach, the corner of the beach next to Barrenjoey Headland has a near permanent gutter running along it. You can pick up bream, whiting, tailor and salmon along there, but don’t bother fishing it if the swell is above 1.3m from the south. You should also avoid fishing it if there is a strong southerly. Try towards the

other end as you will be out of the wind. Another option is to fish the small gutters and holes from the south Palm Beach swimming pool section up to the two massive boulders. The tailor fishing is best during very low light periods, particularly before dawn when you see that first sliver of colour on the horizon through to about sunrise. Alternatively, you can set up an hour before dark and scope out some gutters and fish it well into the night. The mid tide run-in to about two hours of the run-out tide is best. A couple of mulloway are being caught from there as well. Whale, Avalon and Bilgola are producing salmon, some tailor, whiting and bream. Bungan, Newport has whiting, bream, tailor, salmon and some mulloway. A nice mulloway of 9kg was reported by a local, caught on a ganged pilchard and 7kg line while tailor and salmon fishing. Be diligent when it comes to your rigs as you don’t know whether the next fish is going to be a sizable mulloway. Warriewood to Mona Vale has whiting, more so at the Cooks Terrace/ Warriewood Beach

The author’s grandnephew Luka, six years old, caught these beautiful whiting. area. There are tailor and salmon as well. Heading north, mid to about the Stewart St Collaroy section of beach there are whiting, some bream, tailor and salmon. It’s also definitely worth a throw for a mulloway. Dee Why and Curl Curl can also produce all the species mentioned.

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Freshwater is a good spot for bream and some whiting, and the salmon and tailor have also been on the chew but mostly well after dark. My tip is to fish it on the flatter nights because, like Curl Curl, it’s a high energy beach. That means it’s a vacuum for swell from all directions. Last but not least is the famous Manly Beach. All of the species I’ve mentioned are there, along with some late season dusky whaler sharks. Take into account that even though I have mentioned every beach in my area, there are times when it would be impractical to fish them because they are inundated with kelp. My tip is to fish smart and put in some homework before you run out the door with your fishing gear as quick as the fire brigade. Check out the surf cams, several weather reports and rain radar – and if you get to a location and find the reports weren’t accurate, go to a plan B or even C. • 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.

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JUNE 2017

Cool June fishing productive for local anglers BOTANY BAY

Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

Cold days and freezing nights, who would want to go fishing during June? Me, as a matter of fact! Maybe not on freezing nights, I will just stick to daytime fishing. Many anglers will shy away from going out during winter to have a fish. If they’d rather stay home, that’s fine by me! Winter can be one of the most productive times

of the year to go for a fish, as you can catch bream, whiting, luderick, drummer, groper, leatherjackets, trevally, squid, octopus, mullet, garfish and snapper. I find that it’s just a matter of targeting a species. Even though the species that are listed above can be caught throughout the year, the cooler water temperatures seem to really bring them on the bite. Luderick will have started to push further into the Cooks, Georges and Woronora rivers. They

Coalcliff Point can be a very dangerous spot to fish in a swell. Make sure when fishing here you have the correct footwear on.

will be schooling up at the entrance to the Cooks River and as far up as the M5 motorway bridge in the Georges River. In Botany Bay, the netted baths at Dolls Point, the northern and southern side of the Captain Cooks Bridge, the northwestern corner of Tom Uglys Bridge and Bald Face Point are all worth a shot. Further upstream you could try Oatley Point, the rock wall on the northwest side of the entrance to the Woronora River, Bonnet Bay, the old Woronora River Bridge, the Georges River State National Park, Picnic Point and the small beach near Kelso Park. The ocean rocks will be alive with luderick and drummer, especially after a few days of rough seas. I have found that when fishing for luderick off the rocks you don’t need a lot of white water, just enough to create a bit of cover. If there is no white water and you know that the fish are there, you need to make sure you have a small and steady stream of berley. The berley can consist of sand with chopped up weed, cabbage, or both. Sometimes I put in a bit of white bread.

June should see plenty of salmon schools about. Remember to take those small metal slugs. Luderick are mainly a weed eater, but they don’t mind peeled prawns, cunje, small crabs and white bread. Places that are worth a look are the northern ends of Bondi, Maroubra and Coogee. When the seas are up a bit and you can’t safely fish these places, you could

try the back end of Little Bay. When chasing luderick one of the hardest things is getting green weed. There are a number of places that you can find green weed. Try looking in stormwater drains that empty into the saltwater, landlocked lakes and dams, run-off areas on the rocks

and small creeks. I get most of my weed and cabbage off the ocean rocks. Some tackle shops in the St Georges and Sutherland Shire do sell weed from time to time. I have had a few reports come in from Andrew at Macs Bait Bar at Blakehurst that a couple of his locals

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have been getting a few luderick and drummer while fishing off Bare Island and the small point just south of the bridge that goes over to the island. Sutherland Point at Kurnell has been producing bream, trevally, squid, luderick, drummer and groper. Cast into the wash with a paternoster rig weighted down with a snapper sinker or a small running ball sinker down onto the bait. You could also try suspending your bait under a bobby cork or other float. I prefer A-Just-A Bubble floats. Just recently while I was anchored up near the end of the runway I picked up a couple of octopuses while targeting bream and trevally. Many of you would like to get a few octopuses, but I don’t even let them in the boat. The reason I’m wary is because I once dropped one into my old boat and it scampered under the floor. The only way that I could get it out was to take the floor up when I got home. For those of you who would like to target whiting, pump a few nippers or buy some from a tackle shop near you. If you are out west you could try Gabe’s Boating and Fishing at Narellan, Macs Bait Bar at Blakehurst or Brighton Bait and Tackle at

Brighton-Le-Sands. They also sell live bloodworms. For those of you fishing from the shore for whiting, try along the beach that stretches from the southern side of the Cook River to Dolls Point. As you drive along General Holmes Drive you will find a number of

from here. Just remember that you have a lot of walkers going by, so watch your back cast. Trevally Alley, The Drums, The Sticks, wide off Towra Point and the sand bar at Dolls Point will be producing bream, trevally, flounder, whiting and the

Even though the water temperature is down, the flathead will still be about. This one took a liking to a 2.5” ZMan Slim SwimZ worked over the flats off Brighton. parking areas that you can stop at. It’s only a short walk to the beach. Closer to the Dolls Point end you will find a retaining wall that has a rail. Great fishing can be had

odd squid or two. Leatherjackets are fairly easy to catch, easy to clean and great to eat. Places that are worth a try are the end of the northern wall at the

entrance to Cooks River, the pontoon at the boat ramp in the Cooks River, the water between the main land and Bare Island, the kelp beds off Dolls Point, any of bridges from along the Georges and Woronora rivers, and the walkway at Lugarno. The best rig I have found to use is the paternoster with a number 12 long shank hook. The best baits have been small pieces of peeled prawn and squid – just enough to fit on the bend of the hook. Recently I took time out from chasing bream, whiting and flathead and targeted mullet with my Shakespeare Ugly Stik 6m pole. The bait that I used was white bread (no crust), some Pro-Cure Anise Plus Super Gel, flour and a bit of water. This was then moulded into a plasticine state. The rig is fairly simple: 6m of 5kg line, a float, a couple of split shots and a number 12 hook. If you have never targeted mullet before, you should give it ago. They are great fighters and perfect to eat and use for bait. If you would like to try for mullet the next time you go out for a fish, try any boat ramp, breakwall or retaining wall, creek mouths, mangroves and at the base of bridges. This style of fishing can be done out of a boat or off the shore.

The author caught this bream on a ZMan GrubZ in motor oil. Leatherjackets can be the easiest and hardest fish species to catch sometimes. All I can say is keep it simple. In the estuaries use a paternoster rig with one number 10 or 12 long shank hook. Make the leader length to the hook no more than 15cm long. Add a small piece of prawn or squid, about 1cm in length. Lower the rig to the bottom and then raise about two turns of the handle, so

that there is a bend in the rod. Wait for a bite and strike. The best places to try for these fishwould be off a wharf, rock walls, beside bridge pylons and where there is kelp or rocky reefs. Offshore fishing will be producing snapper, morwong, silver trevally, pigfish and leatherjackets. You could try the Peak, the Twelve Miler and the Kurnell car park.

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JUNE 2017

Hacking into Port Hacking winter fishing SYDNEY SOUTH

Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

For many anglers, Port Hacking can be one of the hardest estuaries on the east coast of NSW to fish.

Fishing it during the month of June, when the water is usually very clear, will make it even harder. With the right approach though, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do fine. All you need to do is keep it very simple and be prepared to move around a bit, and

you will go home with a feed of fish. This goes if you are in a boat or off the shore. A number of times when I have been targeting leatherjackets and luderick in Port Hacking from the shore, I have had to move around to find the fish. Once you have located

There will be a few drummer about this month. These were caught while using the TTs A-Just-A-Bubble float and green cabbage.

Andrew Humphries was targeting bream over the weed beds with a Gulp 2â&#x20AC;? Shrimp, only to have a nice tailor take a liking to it.

them you will know where to come back to on your next trip. As an example, just the other day I started off fishing the baths at Gunnamatta Bay, then moved to Wallys Wharf, then onto Lilly Pilly Baths only to end up at the baths in Gymea Bay. Sure, I had to pack up and travel each time, but I went home with a few fish for tea.

The key to success the Port Hacking River is having quality baits. In no particular order, you should look at buying bloodworms, pink nippers, Hawkesbury River prawns, pilchards and chicken breast. If you are going to catch your own bait you could pump your own nippers, go float fishing to catch sand mullet and garfish, or use a

poddy mullet trap to catch poddy mullet. Cunje, crabs, green weed and cabbage can be collected off the rocks for drummer, groper, bream and luderick. Beach worms can be caught off a number of ocean beaches in the shire. Make sure that you check out the NSW Fisheries regulations before you go, as there are a number of restrictions. For example,

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Shiprock is an aquatic reserve and Gunnamatta Bay has no pumping for pink nippers. You’ll find the regulations at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing. If you are going to use bait and anchor in the Port Hacking, use berley every time. Once again you just need to keep it simple. All I use is either chicken pellets, white bread or old leftover pilchards. What’s even better is that you don’t need to have a berley bucket attached to your boat. A small fine-netted bag with bread and pilchards, one of those metal berley cages,

or your hand will do the job. Just remember, less is better. If you are fishing out of a boat and you are after a few bream, trevally and luderick you could try the deeper water between the Ballast Heap and the nearby port marker, the drop-off on the northern side of the Lilly Pilly flats, the eastern and western sides of Yowie Bay, Gooseberry Bay in South West Arm, the northern side of North West Arm and Bonnie Vale. For those of you fishing from the shore you could try Gunnamatta, Lilly Pilly and

Gymea Baths, Lilly Pilly Point, Dee Ban Spit, the sand flats in Gunnamatta Bay, Jibbon Beach and the rocky shoreline from Sandshoes to Cronulla Point. Good catches of squid have been coming in from here as well. The luderick are running in numbers at the moment in the Port Hacking. Whiting, bream, dart, tailor and salmon are being caught off Wanda and Greenhills beaches. Beach worms and blood worms have been the best baits. You could also try strips of mullet, tuna

A great day on the Port Hacking with Brad Chin resulted in a 40cm luderick.

The author getting stuck into a few nice luderick in Port Hacking.

and pilly tails. Kurnell rocks are worth a shot for bream, trevally, drummer and luderick. Close inshore you could try trolling for Australian salmon, tailor, kingfish and bonito close in behind the washes. Try trolling live squid, yellowtail or slimy mackerel. You could also try trolling whole pilchards and garfish, strips of squid or mullet. Overcast days, early morning and late afternoons will usually produce the better results. Small metal lures would also be worth a try.

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National Park. You will need to take all your bait in with you and make sure that you bring out all your rubbish. Further south you could try Coalcliff Beach for bream and tarwhine. Coalcliff Point has been producing bream, trevally, yellowtail, squid, luderick and drummer. • If you have been out lately and you would like to see yourself in the magazine, drop me an email at g b ro w n 1 @ i p r i m u s . c o m . au with a picture and short explanation of how and where, and I will endeavour to get it into my column.

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JUNE 2017

Time to fish to the conditions WESTERN SYDNEY

Peter Jacovides

Winter has officially started and the temperatures have dropped, but the fishing has begun to fire! The Parramatta River has been the pick of the Sydney’s saltwater estuaries. It has provided some fantastic bream fishing, with anglers often catching high numbers

of fish throughout the month. The bream have been moving with the tides, so the anglers who are chasing the schools of fish and using their electronics have gotten the best results. Making sure your bait or lure is hugging the bottom 50cm of the water column this is key to turning these shy winter fish into aggressive feeders. The most popular bait lately has been Hawkesbury prawns,

and the best lures have been 2.5” grubs and Ecogear VX blades. For those anglers willing to fish ultra-light, there are still good sized bream and flathead to be caught up in the shallow water. Just remember that natural presentations, stealthy movements and long casts are crucial; any sudden movements will spook these fish.

A nice little rainbow caught by Angus Feely before the season closure.

The daytime mulloway fishing has picked up, with numerous school-sized fish being caught around bridges on the slack of the tide and beginning of the incoming. Working soft vibes like the Samaki Vibelicious and Jackall Transams on the bases of the bridge pylons with a few short sharp hops have resulted in the bigger sized schoolies. Getting these fish out of their lairs has been the hardest part, with most people targeting these fish dropping their leader size down to 12lb to get the bite. It is high-risk, high-reward fishing. If bait is how you like to target mulloway, the method of choice has been to fish the rock bars around Juno Point and the drop-offs and holes around 15m at Wisemans ferry using squid strips on a running sinker. Don’t overdo the sinker, but make sure it reaches the bottom. The saltwater isn’t the only place fishing well – the freshwater rivers have produced some good trout, and with the season closing on 12 June it is wise to get your fix on river fish before the end. However, all is not lost as the lakes have been

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This redfin was caught by Stuart Kenny at Lake Lyell using soft plastics around the trees. fishing well with the ‘false spawn’ about to occur in both Lake Lyell and Thompson Creek Dam. Using larger lures which imitate smaller trout coming to feed on eggs, or get in on their ‘business’, can result in strikes out of aggression. If these larger lures don’t result in the fish, don’t look past the humble Tassie Devils. Reports are saying the three new colours (eruption, yellow mongrel and sunset frog) are working well. If the trout do your head in and you need to save the day, don’t fret because Lake Lyell and Lake Wallace hold good healthy populations of redfin. These fish make for a good feed and are lots of fun to catch. Target dam points with a little bit of timber

and weed and solid dropoffs. Curl tails on 1/12oz or 1/8oz jigheads hopped off the bottom through the schooling fish have attracted the larger models. If you’re land-based and wanting to find schooling fish, the ‘catch one and see if there’s more’ method does work. However, using a castable fishfinder such as a Deeper can seriously reduce searching time and provide you with a layout of the bottom. The most important thing to remember about this time of year is fish to the conditions. The clear and cold water requires a slightly lighter and more subtle approach. Light braid and long, light leaders will bring on more action. So get out there, rug up and give it a go!

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Migration of whales, slowing of currents THE TWEED

Anthony Coughran

The slowing of currents off our coastlines will trigger the annual humpback whale migration and with the whales come the winter species. Cobia and kingfish will shadow these giants of

are starting to gather on close reefs to spawn and the rivers are filling with winter estuary species. OFFSHORE Snapper are the go-to species of the month with good numbers taken on most of the close reefs. Drift baiting half pilchards or strip baits is one of your best

the plastics aren’t working. Fidos, 5-Mile, South Reef, Cook Island, Mud Hole, 9-Mile Reef and Kingscliff Reef have all produced good fish recently. Kingfish, GTs, cobia and longtail tuna are frequent visitors to 9-Mile Reef this month. Anglers are having a ball with large

be around this month. Try the banks in the Terronora, Cobaki, Ukerebagh Island, the Piggery and Chinderah Bay. Using 3” plastics is still the go for a big girl, but remember most flathead are female over 55cm. Treat these big girls with respect and let them go to reproduce.

Luke Coe with a cracker cobia caught on 9-Mile Reef.

Nick Dillion with a pigeon pair of kingfish caught on the 9-Mile Reef. the sea and it is always worth having a rod set up with a stickbait or a metal for a quick cast around the back of these beasts, which can often lead to good hook-ups. Keep in mind there is a 100m no-approach zone around the whales. The winter reef species

bets for a feed. Fishing 3-5” plastics on a 1/4oz jighead can be really irresistible to these pink crushers and it’s a great way to fill in time while drift baiting. Small micro and octo-jigs in 20-80g also work well on the close reefs and can be very productive while drift baiting too. It can never hurt having a rod set ready in case

Dan Le Mar with a great eating-size snapper caught at Fidos Reef.

JUNE 2017

Adrian Butler with a big flathead caught in Terronora. stickbaits, poppers, metals, jigs, plastics, hardbodied lures and live baits set on a downrigger. With the slowing of the currents we are able to bottom bash and fish the 24, 36 and 50 fathoms with baits, jigs and plastics, which are producing some quality eating fish like pearl perch, Venus tuskfish, leatherjackets and snapper. Use 100-200g jigs, 1-2oz jigheads and a 5-7” plastic with 4-12oz of lead for bottom bashing as this will put you in the right zone and onto fish. Reports of frigate mackerel, mac tuna, slimy mackerel, tailor, pike, yakkas and bonito have come from the Bait Ground, Point Reef, Snapper Reef and Kirra Reef, if you need bait. ESTUARY It’s all about the mulloway, bream, GTs and flathead this month, with good numbers of big fish taken. Bridges and rock walls are the go for a good mulloway or bream. Big sand flats, weed beds and rock walls are producing large flathead. Large 7” plastics and live baits will catch mulloway this month. Try the breakwalls at the mouth, Boyds Bay Bridge, Tumbulgum Bridge, Barneys Point Bridge, the Piggery and the tide marker hole out in Terronora for the best results on a mulloway. Bream are thick around the bridges, rock walls, holes and boat harbours. Try an unweighted bait or light weighted plastic on 6lb line around the trawlers for a bit of fun. Decent flathead will

GTs and big-eyes have been caught around the mouth of Jack Evans Boat Harbour, Boyds Bay Bridge, Barneys Point Bridge and Cobaki Bridge. Live herring and bladed lures at night are working best for these speedsters.

A few little chopper tailor are starting to show up now. A small metal or plastic worked in the river current lines and fast across the top can be really productive and really fun. BEACH Lots of good gutters have formed right down

Kane Rosell with a solid mulloway caught at Boyds Bay Bridge.

Tom Staff caught this solid river GT at Boyds Bay Bridge.

The start of winter equals big bream and more THE TWEED INSHORE

Tim Latter

The mercury will be dropping and so will the water temperature in the Tweed this month. Generally the days are clear, barometers read high and the river runs nice and clear.

During this time the big run of sea bream into the estuary for their breeding season provides some great entertainment on light tackle. This can mean cricket scores of fish, and the sea run fish are plump and well-conditioned. I’m not usually sold on the humble bream as table fare, but these fish have a

nice clean flesh and thick fillets – great to take home for lunch! As a lure fisher, I’ll be focussing this month on bream on lures. I prefer to fish the clean water in the lower reaches around this time of year, sometimes sitting on schooling fish drifting upstream along rockwalls with them on

Surface fishing the canals can be very productive for bream, and surprise by-catches are always welcomed.

A nice bream taken off a bridge on a soft plastic.

Atomic Cranks are dynamite on bream of all sizes. From page 24

the coast and around most of the rock walls and headlands from Currumbin beachfront to Byron Bay. These areas are holding good numbers of dart, tailor, bream, flathead and mulloway. Soaking a whole pilly on a set of gang hooks is still the best way to catch a greenback. Big plastics worked around river mouths are catching good mulloway and flathead. Try 20-60g metals for dart and tailor. Try a half pilly on a single hook if you are having problems setting hooks.

FRESHWATER It’s now closed season for bass in NSW. This means a no-take policy on bass and perch anywhere in NSW, but all isn’t lost. It’s actually a good time to target bass while they are schooling up and headed downstream to the salt to spawn. Try rocky points near holes, areas where saltwater and freshwater meet, and weir walls. Dams will still fish well right through the month. Try baits such as worms, bugs and maggots with a small weight in deep water instead of artificial lures for your best chance of a winter bass. Try finding

the school on your sounder before you fish. It makes life so much easier. As the month moves on we’ll see even more snapper, pearlies, tuskies, kings and cobia. These fish will thicken and come to the close reefs and headlands. Mulloway and bream will be in better numbers around the rock walls, close reefs, holes, bridges and beach gutters. Tailor will start to run in better numbers up the coast. Keep an eye out for the running schools of mullet. Tailor sit off the back of these pods. The whales will also get more frequent in the coming months.

the last two hours of the run-in tide. Hopping Ecogear blades or small jerkbait style plastics can be dynamite. You will often find that the bite comes on the drop. If you aren’t sounding fish or can’t see them in the clear water it is best to try and keep your lures close to where the rocks meet the sand. When the tide slows try dead-sticking Cranka Crabs with the odd slight hop to get the claws going. After the turn of the tide, I will focus my time on bridge pylons. Up your leader size here to 6lb fluorocarbon for a little more abrasion resistance. Look out for fish stacked in the eddies and try mixing up your presentations with 2” grubs and small blades as well. By-catches of trevally can often have you wondering what just happened as you get buried in the pylons. It’s great fun. Crankbaiting the draining flats and weedbeds can also be super productive. Loose schools of bream will hang on the edges of these

flats and hunt throughout the seagrasses and weed. Stealth and long casts can be the trick to fooling these fish. In lower light periods a small surface lure that imitates a fleeing prawn is probably the most exciting way to target winter bream. The start of the run-in tide is a great time to hit the oyster racks. Use slightly heavier leader again with unweighted grubs worked

through the racks, and suspending jerkbaits around the edges. Topwater lures like stickbaits or Bent Minnows are also a sound option here when conditions permit. There you have my game plan for a few hours chasing winter bream in the Tweed. Tight lines everyone and remember to be safe and courteous on the water. It’s just lovely being out there!

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Good quality fish are moving with the fresh years, the river is really starting to fire. The ocean water is pushing back into the river on the run in tide and is getting up around the RSL. By the start of this month, the whole system’s water quality

BALLINA

Joe Allan

After a crazy period, where we saw more water come into the system than we’d normally see in a few

should have returned to normal. Currently, this fresh seawater has meant that the flathead and bream have been pushing up past the ferry and into the lower reaches of Emigrant Creek. Most of the bream are still hugging the rock walls and the odd one can be found out on some of the sand flats during the run in tides. There seem to be some good quality fish amongst them. With the water starting to drop in temperature, the big snows can’t be far off. A lot of the flathead have been in fairly shallow water due to the recent cooler weather as well, so North Creek, Mobbs Bay and some of the sand flats above the ferry will be the likely spots to try. Brightly coloured soft plastics, as well as pilchards, prawns and mullet have all attracted them this week. Bright is definitely key for plastics and smelly is the

go for the bait. The run in tide has also produced some luderick along the walls on cabbage during the incoming tide. Peeled prawns or yabbies work well on the run out. If you can find any weed flies it’s worth giving them a crack too. Try these either under a float or fished on a very light weight like you would float an unweighted soft plastic down a wall. A few bass and estuary perch are showing up in the upper reaches of Emigrant Creek and are taking hardbody lures and soft plastics in darker colours. They have been patchy recently and they should be really firing soon. You can get 30 one day and not boat a single one the next. Offshore has been okay with decent catches of snapper off the close in reef likes Reardons and do up towards Lennox Point. The beaches will be a little tough, but there have

Anthony Melchior with a solid bream from the Porpoise wall. been a few whiting and bream around Flat Rock. Some chopper tailor have come from some of the rock platforms towards Lennox as well. The south wall has produced a few mulloway

and Patchs Beach will be worth a look for a few chopper tailor and bream. Try metal slugs for the tailor and a few pipis from the beach for the bream. Tight Lines.

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Awesome winter fishing ahead ILUKA

Ross Deakin

The mighty Clarence River is finally cleaning up after the ridiculous amount of rain we received in March. Some of the fishing we experienced around that time was incredible, with flathead, bream and mulloway caught down our end after having

been washed down. Mud crab numbers were also very good. We are now settling down into cooler weather, and everything is looking like we are going to have an awesome winter’s fishing season. There have been some nice tailor around off the headlands and beaches, with good-size fish up to 2kg. Anglers have also been

picking up trevally to 5kg. The water close in has been dirty with the northerly sweep, so many anglers have been heading south to the Angourie grounds. There they have been picking up some nice snapper and teraglin, and have also been picking up the odd spotted mackerel and tuna. Black Rock to the north has seen some excellent fishing as

A wicked 6.5kg snapper Wil Woods caught at Black Rock.

well, with many anglers bagging out on mulloway. Here’s a few fish we have had weighed in over the last couple of weeks: 6.5kg snapper from Black Rock (Wil Woods); 3.2kg teraglin from Woody Head (Paul Barry); 1.22kg bream from Woody Head (Jason Barry); 6kg snapper from Woody Head (Dan Pianta); 5.5kg samsonfish from Black Rock (John Lawson); 4.5kg longtail tuna from Black Rock (Steve Espinoza), 5kg snapper from Black Rock (Burt Edwards). There have been some nice catches of luderick off the Bluff in recent weeks, and a few being taken in the river as well. There have also been great garfish numbers around the break wall and north arm. Have an awesome start to winter, and happy fishing everyone. • For all your fishing needs and up-to-date information and tips for spots and fish, drop into the shop for a chat. Iluka Bait and Tackle is located at 3 Owen Street, Iluka NSW 2466. Give us a call on (02) 6646 5217 or 0402 997 572. We are available online at www.ilukabait.com.au, or you can visit our Facebook page.

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Easier seas and plenty of species YAMBA

Dave Gaden

Cold morning winds and the water temperature dropping don’t sound very

inviting, but for fishers it means that things are about to heat up (hungry fish-wise). I never look forward to the 4:30am starts setting up the charter boats in the

winter. I hate the cold. The flipside is I know during this time of the year it’s easier to find a really good feed of quality fish for my customers. You can tuck in close to the headland at One

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Man and Red Cliff to the south of Yamba and get nice fish in less than 10m of water most mornings, with a little bit of protection from those freezing southwest

kinder at this time of the year. Obviously the offshore breeze every morning flattens it off for you, but those late morning and early afternoons are quite often a beautiful slick sea. We fish close most mornings and wait for the sun to climb high enough to penetrate the water, 9:30am or so then move into the deeper water, as I think the fish do as well. Another reason for this is with that early morning breeze the slop coming from the beach out is absolutely horrible to fish in; waves coming from the land out to sea is not a natural thing. This is an interesting month as the whales will well and truly be here, and with them the cobia on the surface. Blacktip sharks will be around in really good numbers, and although they can be a nuisance to some with their tangling of every line on the boat, they are great eating and easy to clean. There is still a real chance of catching good numbers of mackerel as they make their way north. Last year we caught good

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Margaret from Holland with a Moses perch. can hold a heap of fish at this time of the year. The grounds from Plumbago to Sandon in 25-35m of water are my favourite. Many times you can put an anchor down before 7am and not have to lift it until you go home, where the fish just keep coming to you. Winter really is the time of the year for float baiting bigger fish, no matter what the depth. Have a good berley trail and big soft baits (mullet fillet or pillies) and just keep feeding line until you’re feeding fish. The other bonus is the shearwaters (mutton birds) should have left for the Northern Hemisphere where they belong and you can

actually get a bait down to the fish. For those wanting to head wide to the 50 fathom line, the current should have backed off making fishing easier. Pearl perch, blue morwong and pigfish should be the trophies of the day. Take a bit of heavier gear as the kingfish, samsonfish and amberjack will all be there. Do as much of this as you can this month. I have just spent some time down on the south coast and the boys there tell me the leatherjackets are as thick as they have ever seen them. They will be on us in July, making the trip out wide a lot more expensive with loss of gear.

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Bernie with a good longtail tuna.

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JUNE 2017

winds blowing off the frost in Armidale. To the north I like to get in tight around Black Rocks. Where we fish you can nearly count the black rocks on the beach. Any of these shallow reefs and around the numerous bommies on that north ground hold quality fish early in the day. Another bonus is that the ocean seems a little

spotties and Spaniards right through until 20 June. This can be a problem as well because you really need a wire to get macs, but you don’t want one for the cobia. Although I spent a fair bit of my time fishing the South Evans Reef during the year I really prefer the south grounds in winter. Even the closest ground to Yamba just past Angourie

Helen with her first mackerel.

In the estuary this month is the spawn of the bream. You can expect places like the middle wall to be covered in predominately male fish waiting for the full moon to run to sea and have their fun. I find night fishing the most fun and productive. Mix up a good berley using either berley pellets or standard chook food with some wheat and

soak it for two days in tuna oil. I flick a teaspoon of this over the side with every new bait and they just go crazy. Luderick (blackfish) are usually a winter target. Signs are pretty good as they never really stopped biting all year and a lot of fish have shown up early. The fresh from all the bad weather before Easter

Aiden with a decent Spanish mackerel.

cleaned or killed most of the good river weed they like and the rough seas belted all the cabbage off, but that will be back to normal again this month

and fish should be hungry. Once again the Iluka side of the east section of the middle wall should be a real hotspot all day long. With the run of the

Toby looking cool with a snapper.

sea mullet this month the main breakwalls on both Yamba and Iluka sides will be the places to chase that big mulloway. It’s worth braving the cold to raise these beautiful and very tasty fish from the salt. Try to avoid going alone, not just for the safety factor but also to have a good gaff man to help with the inevitable. • Please call into Marina

Boat & Tackle if you have just arrived and need any advice or supplies, as we are more than happy to help. If you are planning a charter, give me a call and book early. I have just purchased two new big charter boats (giving us four) so if you are looking at group or fishing club bookings for a large numbers of fishers, I’m sure I can accommodate you.

Toby smashes it again with a great pearl perch. Kids catch all the fish!

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JUNE 2017

Big fish coming in to feed WOOLI

Stan Young

The mackerel season was a good one with plenty fish being caught, mainly schoolsize fish. As the season starts to slow down the big fish will come in close to feed on the massive schools of baitfish.

Longtail tuna and cobia will be with the Spanish competing for the baitfish. North Solitary Island has produced good catches of mackerel and kingfish. Even a fair few snapper have been showing up with trag, pearl perch and tuskfish being caught. This year should be a good snapper season with all

the rain we’ve had in the last couple of months. Whenever we have big rainfalls we always have a good snapper season. We’ve been catching decent fish on the charters. Snapper will get thicker in the coming months as the weather cools down. I like to anchor and berley and use floaters to catch the

bigger fish, sometimes letting out a couple hundred metres of line to catch the big ones. I find if you can let out a lot of rope on the anchor you have a much wider berley trail so your berley covers a lot more country. You need a run of current to take the berley down the trail for the maximum results. The bream are now in full swing on the beach and at the breakwall a lot of luderick are also being caught. A few keen fishos have been catching mulloway on the beach, but you have to be prepared to fish into the dark for top results. The tailor have been feeding on the close beaches and the breakwall. There have been a lot of choppers and some bigger fish around the 3kg mark have been caught on spinners. This is good sport and productive. The rains have chased the mangrove jack to the mouth of the river. A couple of the locals have been catching them on plastics. They are not an easy fish to stop when they are running so be prepared to get smoked or busted up when they hit the rocks. Locals use the 7” ZMan in smoky shad colour or the pink 16g

Snapper will turn up more as the weather cools. Trollcraft Fork Tail in the 98mm size. Wooli has a bar to cross when venturing to sea so make sure you have a life jacket on when going out and coming back in. Remember when putting a life jacket on it must be tight otherwise you could be in trouble. If you go over on the bar and it’s not tight enough it can slip up around your neck and make it difficult if there are waves coming in at you. Always wait for the lull in the waves before venturing out. If you’re in doubt, don’t go out. You can always fish another day and it’s better to be safe than sorry. • Call into our tackle shop at 43 Riverside Drive, Wooli and we’ll help you with

rigs, knots and more. Our charter business has two boats, both purpose-built for chartering. If you want a fun day out give us a call on (02) 6649 7100 and talk to Stan or Claire. We also provide accommodation overlooking the Wooli River. We supply food, drinks, all tackle including rods and reels and ice for your fish. All you need to bring is an esky to take home your catch. If you don’t have a boat and want to go to sea, call into the tackle shop and put your name down on a charter. Or if you’re not sure about conditions, give me a ring on 0266 497 100 and I’ll let you know about conditions.

This year should be a good snapper season.

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JUNE 2017

Whenever there are big rainfalls, there is always a good snapper season.

Fish are firing across the board COFFS HARBOUR

Stephen Worley info@tdsimages.com.au

The fishing over the past months has been remarkably consistent. There have been no long periods of shutdown fish or baitless reefs. The fishing has been firing pretty much across the board.

them with your fly or lure. There was no need to see the fish during one session I had with the family last month. While camping on the Little Styx River there were so many fingerlings in each pool that a dry fly landing pretty much anywhere would be slurped off the surface within a few seconds. The kids each got their first fish on fly in about 10 minutes

of our waterways. It hasn’t been unusual for a few bass to show up in the middle of a bream or mulloway session, particularly in the major systems like Bellinger and Nambucca. Remember that all bass and estuary perch caught between May and August (inclusive) must be released without harm. In these brackish stretches the bream and

Having never caught a mackerel, Liam Shadgett travelled all the way from New Zealand to fish the 2017 Mackerel Championships. He started off his account with this spotty after a getting the obligatory mac tuna out of the way. Up the mountain the trout have been thoroughly enjoying the increased flow throughout much of the plateau as well as the drop in temperature as we descend into winter. Most anglers have found the fish very active and willing to move around to chase a feed. The ease and effectiveness of sight fishing increase exponentially as the fish become more active. You can be far more effective when you know that by watching a stream, a trout will reveal itself, rather than having to blind search for

as we shared one 2wt rod around between us. They were all tiny, but a great way to introduce trout fishing and flyfishing to the kids. Unfortunately, we’re coming to the close of the trout season here in NSW. The end of the season occurs at the finish of the long weekend, so you only have a couple of weeks to get up the hill for a last trout session. The bass and estuary perch ‘no take’ season has been going for a month now and there have been plenty of by-catch bass being caught around the brackish regions

mulloway have been quite active. There are still trevally and mangrove jack around but they are becoming slightly less active as the weather cools. The gravel beds right up towards the fresh are always a very productive area for the bream at this time of year. The bridges and deeper holes have been holding good numbers of school mulloway but only the odd bigger fish. Most of the larger mulloway have continued turning up along the beaches and headlands. Around the headlands it’s

soft plastics that have been the standout for scoring a decent mulloway. On the beaches the success has been spread between squid baits and live or dead mullet. Although there haven’t been many huge fish reported, the average size has been well above soapie size. Fish in the 6-10kg range have been quite common. June is likely to be the transition month for the offshore fishing. The warm water pelagics are still performing well. This season has seen a lot more spotties around than Spanish mackerel, but as usual it’s the Spaniards that seem to finish the season strong. The warm water will usually hang around right into July and even August, so we can expect to see mackerel still popping up over the next month or two. After June we won’t see too many being targeted. Tuna have been the number one menace for those targeting the mackerel over the last month. There are some big longtail tuna that most anglers can at least enjoy a few screaming runs with. Mac tuna have been taking a liking to many mackerel baits. Once the tuna are around it can be hard to keep your live bait long enough to find a good mackerel. On the other side of the coin, to many anglers’ delight, the kingfish and snapper have been taking a liking to many live baits and stickbaits aimed at the mackerel. As winter moves on we can expect the kingfish to increase their dominance and anglers to start focusing deeper than the surface once again. No matter how deep you’re looking, I hope you can hit those fish.

There was no stopping these little trout pinching a fly off the surface. One after the other they made easy picking for James and his sisters.

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Here’s hoping the next season is much better kicked in in September and never really stopped blowing until mid January. This meant the spring striped marlin/ yellowfin tuna bite couldn’t be exploited, which in recent years got the season off to a fair start and really inspired everyone to put in the time and effort offshore.

COFFS GAME

Glen Booth

In the face of a complete flop of a gamefishing season, I reckon 90% of the local gamefishing boats have given up chasing bluewater pelagics. Offshore activity

time of year. This makes it difficult to find a blue. While you might stumble across a traveller, trying to work a specific spot is difficult as a 4 knot river of cobalt water running south means the fish aren’t concentrated. There have been almost no wahoo, yellowfin, and

Hopefully there will be a few striped marlin about during winter. a good number of longtails and a few mac tuna inshore though, and while certainly sporting, most would prefer a mackerel to be snaffling

their livies than these bait stealers. As we run down the clock to the end of a totally forgettable nine months,

I can say with complete honesty that my gamefishing tackle has never been better prepped for next season. Bring on next season!

One of the very few boats that have been finding blues has been Foreign Exchange, but five for a whole season has required a massive amount of time on the water. always slows down coming into winter, but most people around here put the shutters up back in March! Even a few prolonged spells of glamour weather after a fairly windy summer haven’t been sufficient incentive to drag crews out of this bluewater funk. Now you can study the water temperature charts online until you’re blue in the face, but there’s nothing like a Mk I Eyeball to give a true indication of what’s really happening out wide. Those that have gone returned with the dreaded zeroes most times — no bites, no hook-ups and certainly no fish. What happened to our season? The northeasterlies

come fishing at

It’s also been a game of watching the vagaries of the East Australian Current, which seemed to take great delight in ducking out to sea whenever it approached northern NSW, then re-forming along the shelf somewhere south of us. Admittedly, Port Stephens was quiet this year by their lofty standards, but Sydney down to Bermagui enjoyed some pretty good fishing at times on a range of species. There was a bit of a flurry with inshore blacks from Christmas on, but then they skipped through on us to Port Macquarie. In January the current really started pushing hard out wide, as it tends to do at that

precious few mahimahi to break the monotony of a day’s trolling, with the wave recorder, the FAD and the traps inside the shelf line holding mostly sub-legal rats. About the only positive gamefish news has been Spanish mackerel, and to a lesser extent the spotties. The quality has certainly been there with most Spanish weighing in excess of 12kg and some real gems up around 20. Post cyclone Debbie, the water rolled over and muddied up and that created a steady if not spectacular bite. A few nice baries kept the purists out there trying, but it’s been a hard slog otherwise. There has been

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Plenty of species are still on the bite in SWR SOUTH WEST ROCKS

Brent Kirk kempsey@compleatangler.com.au

June on the Mid North Coast usually brings with it some cool, dry and reasonably settled conditions. One thing is for sure though; if you get it right, there is still some red-hot fishing action available. With a little persistence you will find that there are many species on offer at this time of year with the last few summer pelagic species still kicking around as well as a whole range of bottom species offshore and the flow on effects of the spawning migrations along our stretch of coastline. The mackerel that will still be caught throughout June will become few

and far between, and their numbers will reduce even further as the water temperature begins to drop. Longtail tuna should stick around a little longer, as well as the odd cobia hanging off the bait schools on the inshore reefs. Offshore, out into the 50-120m zones, there is a vast array of species on the chew right now. Snapper, teraglin, pearl perch and pigfish have been in reasonable numbers on the reefs. To mix things up it is always worth dropping a live yellowtail down when fishing these depths, as it’s likely there are kingfish, mulloway and bar cod around. Hopefully we get a good run of all these quality species of bottom fish before the current pushes north and the inevitable leatherjacket plagues arrive

to destroy some tackle. With the current laying off most of the time now, it’s possible to venture out further to sea on a good day with the electric reels where bar cod, blue-eye and bass groper can regularly be found as well as a vast array of weird and wonderful species. The beaches have got a lot of bream along them at present. These fish have been well above legal length and in very good condition. Mullet strips and beach worms are all that is required if you are after some of these fish. Flathead and tailor are also being found in the gutters for those that like to fish lures off the sand and the chance of a school mulloway is always on the cards, especially when using soft plastics. Better-sized

The cooler months provide some awesome rock fishing opportunities.

The beaches have been loaded with bream, with late afternoon being the prime time. mulloway are being caught off the beaches after dark using fresh fish baits and large balls of beach worms. The headlands and rock ledges are producing tailor and bream quite regularly around a tide change as well as drummer and luderick. Mulloway are never far away and sending out a large live or dead bait or paddle-tailed soft plastic will usually end up in some fun. Fishing in the river can be tough at this time of year, especially after the flood activity we had a few months back. Mulloway are along the rock walls, as are bream, luderick and even tailor. From there the further you head up stream, the quieter the fishing has been. Fishing the deeper holes is producing the odd whiting and flathead, but most of these fish are out on the beaches this year. Bass have migrated down to Smithtown, so be aware of seasonal closures and rules associated with these fish when fishing in this area.

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Fact Sheet

The trouble with tilapia COASTAL RIVERS

Charlie Carruthers

Do you ever look at photos in old fishing magazines and books and think you were born too late, or wonder what the fishing would have been like 70 years ago? Many of us have never experienced fishing in the inland waterways of the Murray-Darling Basin

without introduced fish such as carp, which really took hold in the 1960s and 70s. You could say we have been left a legacy of the past that we would rather not have inherited. For the first time in Australian history, effective carp control is looking promising in the MurrayDarling Basin, thanks to the carp herpes virus. Despite carp, it has been a cracker of a season in the northern inland. This

magazine has been chocka-block full of big cod and golden perch from rivers and impoundments, almost reminiscent of those old fishing magazine photos. In the coastal rivers and impoundments across South East Queensland and Northern NSW, it’s also apparent another introduced fish, tilapia, are becoming a more common by-catch for anglers chasing natives. Tilapia are extremely

The one continuous and pointed dorsal fin and pointed anal fin are distinguishing tilapia identification features. Photo courtesy of NSW DPI. efficient breeders, and are highly tolerant of harsh conditions and poor water quality. In approximately 40 years, tilapia have spread throughout many coastal catchments in Queensland, from Cairns in the north all the way to the NSW border and beyond. In some places, they are found within 3km of the MurrayDarling Basin. The most widespread species of tilapia in Eastern Australia is Oreochromis mossambiccus, an aggressive fish that grows to 40cm and varies in colour from dark olive to silver-grey, depending on their age and environment. Breeding males often have red tips on their fins. They are generally deep-bodied fish with a thin profile and one continuous and pointed dorsal (top) fin and pointed anal fin. Females protect their eggs and young fry in their mouths. This technique, known as ‘mouth brooding,’ ensures high rates of survival. Even if the mother is not living, any eggs in the mouth have the potential to survive if released into a waterway. Tilapia impact our native fish through predation, habitat destruction, and competition for habitat and food. Like all introduced fish, tilapia also pose a risk of spreading diseases and parasites. Once they become established in a flowing waterway or large

Tilapia build crater-like nests in shallow water and soft sediments. Photo courtesy of QLD DAF.

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impoundment it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to eradicate them. Tilapia are a Class 1 Noxious fish in NSW. This means that it is illegal to posses, sell or import live tilapia. In inland waters of NSW, the use of live fin fish including live carp or other pest species (like tilapia) as bait is prohibited. Also prohibited is the use of parts of non-native fish as bait whether alive or dead, other than dead carp. NSW DPI recommends that any person that comes into possession of tilapia humanely kill the fish, photograph and freeze the fish whole (to allow later confirmation of identification). If freezing the fish is not possible, dispose of it in a bin going to landfill or bury it away from the water. Despite these regulations, tilapia infestations are most commonly caused by people moving them between waterways. With more and more people travelling long distances to fish, there is a very real risk of a tilapia incursion in the MurrayDarling Basin. While it looks like we will have to put up with tilapia in the coastal catchments for the time being, we can prevent them from getting into the Murray-Darling Basin. The recreational fishing community has a role to

play in stopping the spread of tilapia. If there is an incursion in the Murray-Darling Basin, any chance of effective control is reliant on early detection and rapid reporting. If you catch a tilapia, observe any nests or see people moving them, report it! Unless we want our kids to grow up wondering what fishing for Murray cod and golden perch used to be like before the tilapia invasion, we all have a duty of care to do the right thing and not move tilapia between waterways. With carp management looking more promising than it ever has, it would be a tragedy for native fish of the Murray-Darling Basin and recreational fishing if the carp gap was filled by tilapia. To help stop the spread of tilapia: • Don’t throw caught tilapia back into a waterway—kill the fish humanely, take a photo and either bury them or put them in a bin and report it as soon as possible. • Don’t use tilapia as bait (dead or alive). • Don’t stock dams or ponds with tilapia—stock native local fish instead. To report tilapia in QLD call 13 25 23 or visit www.daf.qld.gov.au. The Keep Tilapia Out project is supported through funds from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. – Charlie Carruthers

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Winter anglers won’t come up short in Port THE HASTINGS

Mark Saxon castawayestuarycharters@bigpond.com

June may be one of the cooler months on the calendar, but I have no doubt that with the rivers clearing from the recent

rainfall, the fishing is going to be hot! This is the time of year to get out your winter clothing and get into some great fishing. Just think of all the bonuses like fewer crowds on the water and at the ramps. Let’s have a look what’s on offer in the

Port Macquarie region. RIVERS Winter months are some of the best on the Hastings and Camden Haven rivers with bream schooling in the deep and luderick as well on the breakwalls. Throw in the mullet run for the mulloway fishos

Scott Jarret with a nice mackerel taken on his jet ski recently. Pro Astro vibes. This gives you three different vibrations and on some days, one style will

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Jarrad Derkson with a healthy breakwall bream. and there is something for everyone. First, the bream will hang around the rock walls this month and some very good catches can be had. Lure fishers using soft plastics or vibration lures will get fish on these offerings. I prefer vibration lures, as there is a healthy leatherjacket population that tend to eat your plastics pretty swiftly. The vibes I like to use are soft Samaki Vibelicious, Polycarbonate Koolabung X-Ray blades and metals such as Strike

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last long. When fishing from the wall with bait, the evenings seem to fire best on the rising tide and start of the run-out. The great baits are lightly-weighted nippers, whitebait and prawns. I like to take the boat out and anchor up close on the coal wall on the Hastings River, this way I can have a couple of rods set for mulloway and flick around with the lighter gear for bream. Luderick can be fished for in a boat or off the walls. The coal wall is a great place to anchor and float

out a weed bait under a float. This will be a great way to get a tasty feed of fillets. Shore-based anglers can fish the north wall and south walls as well as the jetties and will be able to pick up a feed. Last season we saw a lot of anglers using a two hook setup. One was an artificial weed fly and the other was traditional green weed. The results were good with many fishos swearing by the artificials – give it a try. Mulloway should really shape up in the front of

fish the top sections. For anglers who want to bait fish for their mulloway, live baits such as mullet, tailor, pike and fresh slab baits or squid will put you in with a great chance. Remember to stay

comfortable with warm clothing and a thermos of coffee. By making yourself comfortable you are much more likely (and happy) to sit it out while anticipating that big silver slab!

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our river systems with the mullet running, so a few tips would be to get on the water of an evening for the top of the tide and then the start of the run-out. Once the water starts moving out, the mullet become very active and a well-presented lure could see you with a trophy fish. For this caper, try shallow divers that get down to a metre roughly and don’t discard surface lures, as the mulloway are mostly feeding high in the water column. The sound of mulloway boofing on the mullet is common at this time of the year, so it makes sense to

Jarrad Derkson with a deep water flathead.

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Winter brawlers take the bait FORSTER

David Seaman dseamo@bigpond.com

It’s officially winter according to the calendar. The early morning chill and fog pretty much confirm it. The short days and plummeting evening temperatures are set to continue, as is the run of good fishing in the area.

and aerial jumps. Spotties to 15kg and Spanish to 22kg were common through April and May. Let’s hope it isn’t all over by now. The mackerel don’t turn up without bait pushing into the area. The LBG anglers have been hitting a lot of mac tuna and big bluefin from the rocks. As usual brown shirts are taxing some of the fish. A good run of cobia has been falling to

In the meantime, it’s worth drifting out a livie early this month to take advantage of the larger bluefin that often end the season. There will be a few cobes and mac tuna sticking around too, so there is a good chance of decent fish. For the bread and butter angler, the rocks are loaded with bream, luderick and pigs in the right washes. Big tailor are lurking in the

well for this time of the year with the earlier flush of freshwater perfectly timed. Any reluctant bream that had been holding up in the tributaries and rivers have been encouraged to move down toward the wider entrance of the system. Big bream to 42cm fork length are common in the racks. Extracting them takes a bit of luck and skill. Table size flathead can be found over the muddy flats and around the racks, generally while fishing for bream on lures. The quality of the bream in the system can be no better illustrated than the quality of the fish caught in the recent Berkley Teams Event. Forster Tuncurry always turns it on for the competitors. The bridge gets plenty of attention during the competitions and for good reason. The pylons harbour some good bream and flathead in the depressions around them. Slack water is the best time to soak a bait or slow retrieve a lure.

Daniel Richardson with his first cobia from the rocks – a great fish. Many like it are hanging around early this month. There seems to be the odd giant herring getting around the Paddocks. At least two anglers I have spoken to were surprised at the long silver fish that go like the wind. Identification is easy with a quick description and confirmation. The lake waters have always been open to visitors, both

human and fish. It makes things interesting. WILD RIVER BASS 3 On a personal note, Wild River Bass 3 is set to be released next month. It has been a long, difficult project and is dedicated to my mate and co-producer of the first two movies, Dave Scarlett. I think he would be delighted and proud of the end result.

When you catch spotties like this you can pull any face you want. Shaun Sypher caught this 8kg mackerel from 15m of water. Apart from the moderate rain event in April that upset the mackerel run for a week or so, rain has invigorated the fishing. Even now there are a few spotty mackerel being caught and I think it’s safe to say it has been one of the best Spanish runs in a while. Shaun Sypher got into the spotties and Spanish mackerel slow trolling slimies in 20m of water. Slow trolling allows you to find the fish. It’s the perfect way to enjoy the big hits

live baits from the rocks and the occasional trolled slimy. The biggest drawback for the LBG angler is the number of people on any given platform over the weekends. This presents the issue of rubbish left by a few grubs. It’s a regular gripe, but the message needs to get through. We will get locked out if we don’t clean our own mess up. We all know what will happen when the serious and concerned anglers get fed up with retrieving someone else’s’ crap.

washes and an early morning spin can be just the ticket to get the blood flowing and your muscles warmed up. Where? Take your pick. Most of the headlands should surrender a tailor or two. Bennetts Head, One Mile and Elizabeth Beach would be my preferred target areas. Janies Corner has been fishing well around the north end of Seven Mile Beach. THE LAKE As you would expect, the lower lake is fishing

Shaun Sypher with a quality Spaniard. They seem to sneak further and further down the coast each year.

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JUNE 2017

Exciting time to fish HARRINGTON-TAREE

Ian Pereira ianpereira@aapt.net.au

It’s always an exciting time at Harrington when the mullet run. This usually starts around ANZAC day when the winds blow from the west or southwest. The mullet school up along the wall, in the backwater or a bit further upstream. When the high water slack starts to ebb then the mullet head to sea in a hurry. Waiting at the mouth of the river at the end of the

pieces and dispersed in small groups of a few fish. These small groups will meet up and join with a larger school eventually. ESTUARY Fishing in the estuary is mostly confined to mulloway fishing. Crowds of anglers gather along the wall jagging mullet for live bait. I thought this practice was illegal, but nothing seems to be done to stop this practice. A few warnings are issued, but the same people are back the next day doing the same thing. Flathead, bream, luderick and whiting are being caught

best on the southern end of Crowdy Beach. Worms, pipis and yabbies will all fish well. OFFSHORE There have been no notable catches made in the last few weeks, but most anglers seem to be able to catch a feed when they go out. Snapper and trag have been boated on the northern grounds while spotted mackerel have been picked up on the troll. Mahimahi are taking live baits around the FAD while flathead are still being taken on the drift. It’s an exciting time to fish at Harrington. As well

CREATE YOUR ADVENTURES

Bream are getting ready to run to the north to spawn. sea wall are the predatory fish like mulloway, sharks, big tailor and various kinds of mackerel. These predatory fish gather at all the formations that may slow down the schools. The end of the sea wall, Crowdy Head and both sides of Diamond Head are all ambush points. If the attackers are numerous enough, they may delay the mullet for two or three days until the desire to run overcomes all fear and the schooling fish just pour around the headland. Of course, the schools must be large to do this. Small schools just get cut to

in the estuary. The bream are gathered along the wall and are getting ready to run to the north to spawn. The whiting are being caught from the spit in the mouth of the river on yabbies as are the luderick at night. Flathead are taking mullet strips and soft plastics in most parts of the river. BEACH AND ROCK There are plenty of tailor to be taken from the beaches. Pilchards, garfish, metal lures and soft plastic lures are all catching fish. Most of the tailor are under 40cm but larger specimens have been taken from the northern end of Crowdy Beach. Travelling bream and whiting are biting

as concentrating on the big mulloway there are plenty of tailor to be caught. Those who fish the couple of hours of the dropping tide at night have the chance of picking up a big tailor of 5-6kg. These fish seem to prefer the time after high tide when most anglers have departed with their noise and lights. Fresh bonito slabs or a fresh tailor slab are the best baits. Of course, when fishing with these baits there is always the chance of picking up a mulloway of decent size. The seas are normally fairly small at this time of the year, so it’s a good time to fish the beaches.

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Farewell Les Wilson The Australian recreational fishing community was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Les Wilson, who passed away at the age of 93. A much-loved legend in the tackle industry, Les is best known as the founder of Wilson Fishing, one of the most successful tackle companies in Australia. Les Wilson was born in 1923, and began working from the age of 14. By the age of 19 he was a

could handle,” he told us. “I had a small metal lathe and hand press. My first job in fishing tackle was making swivels and side cast reels. Later I made rod components, reel seats, ferrules, stainless steel guides and fish scalers. “I had no training besides my apprenticeship and I learned all about tackle from people like Len Butterworth, from reading books and from small retailers. Len Butterworth became my largest

up with the staff and family at Wilson Fishing. “For three days a week Dad came here to socialise, and to do the banking and the mail,” Graeme recalled. “All his staff are his children or grandchildren, or have become good friends, and visiting all of us was the highlight of his week.” Thanks to Les’ vision and determination, and the hard work of his staff, Wilson Fishing celebrated its 70th year in business last

qualified fitter and turner and toolmaker, and was already dreaming of having his own business one day. To that end, he started making all types of things in his workshop under the house. At age 23, shortly after he was married, he resigned from his job and started his own business, run from underneath his house in Brisbane. We spoke to him a few years back on how the Wilson Fishing journey began. “I took on any job I

customer and we worked together for over 40 years, making all of his reel seats, ferrules, guides and so on. I gained experience in all types of rods – Rangoon cane, split cane, solid glass, hollow glass and graphite.” Les always loved working in the recreational fishing industry, with his job taking him all around Australia and overseas in pursuit of new products. His son Graeme said his father continued to work well into his 80s, regularly catching

year. The occasion was marked with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the AFTA Tackle Trade Show, following on from Les’ induction into the AFTA Hall of Fame. “He has done a marvellous job building up this company,” Graeme said, “and we are all proud to be a part of it.” Les is survived by his wife and family, which includes children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. – FM

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JUNE 2017

Four seasons in one day HUNTER COAST

Gary Earl earlybird13@optusnet.com.au

With all the unpredictable weather we’ve had, it’s been hard to find days to

get out and have a fish. I don’t know if it’s just me but I think the weather pattern is going troppo – one week it’s great, the next it pours rain, then it gets windy and stormy. Sometimes this can all

Bream have been around in good numbers. Most are only plate size, but no one is complaining. Leanne Ryan caught this one on a fresh squid tentacle.

happen in one day! Still, all is not lost because some fish love this sort of change. I have been hitting the water hard lately, and have seen some anglers as well as myself get onto a few good fish. The two break walls have been fishing well on the sea side on Stockton, and on calm days there have been some big squid about. Most anglers rig them and throw them straight into the river on the other side, hoping for a mulloway or one of the large flathead that travel in and out close to the edge of the shipping channel. Bream have also been around, with some good size specimens hitting the rocks. There have been a few hairtail in the basin, left over from their mass schooling last month, so a night fish with a float could snag you one of these. Tailor are moving around the mouth of the harbour, and the birds are giving up their position. A good long rod and some heavy chromies have been the way to go. Just make sure your rod is up to long casts, and you should be in with a shot as they move all over the place. Horseshoe

Somewhere you don’t want to be is being towed home broken down. Despite a full check of a new motor, the impeller gave up pumping water. Beach and Lee wharfs have been the best locations. There are still some dusky flathead around. They’re not huge but they’re a good plate size. It’s still worth casting some

deep divers around and along the pylons on Lee Wharf, and you can also try out the front of Stockton Sailing Club over the grit and sand. I have seen a few nice fish taken from there.

The rocks have been a real mess – fishable one day and stuffed the next. If you pick your day, the back of Newcastle Baths has tailor as well as bonito To page 43

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June is the time to chill SWANSEA

Jason Scerri coloratolures@hotmail.com

It seems like just the other day we had lovely warm weather and the talk was all about the warm waters offshore. Now we are looking at weekly forecasts of very chilly days and even chillier nights. Water temperatures have come down considerably and the action may have slowed a little as well, but there is certainly enough on offer for anglers who put the effort in. Look on the positive side of things – the waterways are much quieter, which is enough to get my backside out there, that’s for sure. These cooler months can also be some of the most productive months for anglers fishing Lake Macquarie. There is plenty on offer with large schools of tailor now a common sight and don’t be fooled, not all the tailor are small, undersized fish. These schools have very nice fish with a few tailor caught nudging 50cm. On a few occasions now I have found these tailor show no interest in my soft plastic offering, regardless of what I throw at them. I’ve gone back to trolling small deep divers around these schools and spending hours having a great time catching fish after fish. Tailor are one of those fish that don’t freeze well. Don’t be afraid to keep a couple of fresh fish for dinner and they come up fantastic if you cook them on a smoker. Mulloway almost seem a year-round option for Lake Mac anglers these days. We are again seeing good fish up to 90cm. We are finding From page 42

cruising the edges, along with some drummer and luderick. I bet with large heavy gear you’re also in with the chance of a groper. I read that some idiot put a 4ft hammerhead shark in the kids’ wading pool. This nut job needed to be thrown in with it. Sharks have been a real problem in close through this last summer period, and they’re still around now following the schools of bream and mullet up the coast. On sunny days when the ocean has been crystal clear, a few anglers have been taking advantage of the ANZAC walking trail to look for reefs in close off Bar Beach. If you have good binoculars, this is a clever way to find smaller reefs that you can berley table fish to. There are a few reefs that I am sure

most of our mulloway in that deeper 8-10m depth in every area of the lake we are working. Up the northern end or down south, they are all coming from the deeper waters. Soft plastics are getting the best results for us, and soft plastics with a large paddle-tail are certainly outshining the others. Squid are also about in good numbers. Just like any form of fishing, some days they are more willing than others. When you find them they are more often than not a great size for the table. Aside from being sensational on the plate, they would also be the number

one live bait for mulloway anglers, so make sure you spare one or two for the live well. It often surprizes many anglers just how many good flathead are about during these cold periods. Many are of the belief that you need hot summer days to get flathead, but that isn’t the case. I would catch 90% of my winter flathead from deep waters and on relatively heavily weighted soft plastic offerings. I still catch a few up on the shallow edges with lighter offerings on those sunny days. Fishing deep is the go for now. We are

Peter Glanville caught this whopper longtom on a recent Lake Mac fishing trip. would hold squire, groper, morwong and bream. Just be careful make sure you are way back out from the break of the waves; these are surfing beaches and have massive waves break at times. Outside there are is still a smattering of mahimahi around with tailor, bonito, sharks, and a lot of salmon that are schooling both around Merewether and the rocks up closer to Redhead. You can see the dark patches moving up the coast. The reefs of Merewether are holding small squire and bream, and the wider reefs have teraglin and school kingfish on them. The cleaning table at Carrington was full of them from a couple of boats fishing close together. The beaches are home to tailor, bream and mulloway at the moment. Find the holes and you’ll

find the fish. Pipis, worms and brined pilchards should see you land something, especially around the rising tides at night, then get the big guns out for lead-up to the full moon. This month is a good one for mulloway in Newcastle, so it’s time to start throwing soft plastics off the sand to try to catch one. I got my hands on some LiveTarget Herring swimbait soft plastics, which perfectly imitate pilchards and small mullet, and I’m going to be throwing them first off the beach in the evenings and along both break walls in the harbour. They are so lifelike I am sure they will snag something. The colours are amazing and they swim pretty well also. I put one beside a mullet and they blew me away with just how close the colours are. I am off to give them a go!

Local flyfishing specialist Mick Pavlic had a ball recently on a run of solid mac tuna. finding good numbers of fish off Coal Point right up through to Bolton Point. Persistence is the key, but once you find one you generally find two or three fairly quickly, so stick at it. Bream fishing is another year-round option for anglers here on Lake Mac. I really enjoy working blades during winter. I hop them slowly along the bottom and try to target areas that have good broken ground such as cockle beds and other similar rubble type bottom. Lightly weighted soft plastics in that 2-3” size range are also a great option. I generally use as light a jighead as I can to slowly sink down and effectively work the bottom third of the water I’m fishing in. Match this to a size 1 hook and add a little scent like SAX scent, for example. Be sure to work that lure slowly during these cooler months, as that really is one of the keys to winter success. As I have said in my recent monthly reports, the offshore action over summer was not what we

hoped for or expected. It was not a complete loss; some days weren’t too bad. Overall though, a half-good winter will see more action than our summer season has seen, that’s for sure. Although the marlin fishing was a little bit of a letdown, if we are lucky this winter we may see a run of tuna out over the shelf and around the Canyons. If it’s a good tuna season I’m sure that will more than make up for the summer. For those anglers wanting to have a crack at the tuna fishing, the good news is that with a little prep work you can be in with a shot. I would suggest running a spread of 4-5 lures. I would go with 3-4 skirted lures in various colours and in the 6-8” length. For that last lure I would be running a deep diving hardbody lure that produces more than a few tuna each year. I would love to tell you to simply get out to the 50 or 60 fathom line and work it, but I’m afraid the odds are not in your favour for that option. If you are serious

about tangling with a tuna or two this winter, you’ll need to head wide and put the hours in. Some days the fish won’t bite until the afternoon tide change, so it might be a long wait. On many occasions it’s worth it. For those that love their offshore fishing and are looking for options other than trolling a spread of lures, you’re in luck. Winter is a fantastic time to fish our offshore reefs with some great kingfish and snapper on offer. A few methods generally produce the goods, with deep water jigging a big hit these days. Soaking a deep set live bait is also a very productive option that may see less fish produced, but certainly some real quality fish that can’t resist a live yakka. Take it from me, although it can be a little difficult to convince yourself to get up on the chilly mornings and hook the boat up, the odds are if you brave the chill, after that first coffee and after a few fish hit the live well, you’ll be glad you made that effort.

A nice flathead showing its size. There are still a few big ones around, especially in the basin and around Stockton Bridge, so they’re still worth targeting. JUNE 2017

June brings on the big changes

. ..

been coming from the Torpedo Tubes and Little Beach jetties. Fresh cabbage can be sourced from the ocean rocks on a low tide from Fingal and Fishermans Bay. Just make sure there’s not too much swell. Bream are also in tremendous numbers at the moment and spread throughout the system with any bit of structure between Barnes Rocks and Karuah holding them. Lure fishing with small hardbodies or soft plastics is extremely productive on bream in June. This is because they will often be schooled up and when you find a patch of them, you’re able to rack up big numbers in a short time. If land-based and bait fishing, the Rocky

PORT STEPHENS

Paul Lennon

While some months the fishing doesn’t change much from the previous month, June brings some big changes. Many species that were around last month like marlin, cobia, longtail tuna, and – to lesser extent – whiting and flathead, are now virtually non-existent. The good news is they have just about all been replaced by something else. Drummer, luderick, tailor, salmon, bream and snapper are all coming into their peak periods. Inside the bay luderick have been moving in around the Nelson Bay and Anchorage breakwalls. Good catches have also

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Shoreline on the western side of Soldiers Point is a great place to find a few, particularly around high tide. Mulloway should still be on your target list through winter, especially around the rockwalls and the Corlette wreck. Squid are plentiful through the Shoal Bay Moorings and weed beds along Jimmys Beach with 2.5 sizes jigs working best. Off the rocks it’s now drummer time and there have been plenty reported from Boulder Bay through to Rocky with large lightly weighted peeled prawns or cunjevoi doing the job.

of year. If you work hard around those high tides with live worms you should able to pick up a good bag of bream and whiting. Tailor and salmon are another good option from the beach this month with dawn and dusk the best times to chase them around Fingal, Samurai, Box Beach and Hawks Nest. I prefer fishing the afternoons for tailor and walking up the beach casting sinking stickbaits in the 30-45g such as Duel Adagios or Jackson Muscle Shots. If I’m not getting any strikes from one gutter I’ll

Cabbage for luderick can be sourced from the ocean rocks on a low tide.

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wander up to the next and repeat doing that until I find some action. OFFSHORE Any reefs in 10-30m of water from Fingal all the way through to Seal Rocks should fire up this month with snapper from pannies to 20lb monsters. The key to success will be to fish low light periods with either soft plastics or unweighted baits. Charter boats are still reporting plenty of trag coming from the Vee, 21, Uralla and Gibber reefs. Out wide the current has slowed down which will make a trip out to Almark Mountain well worth the effort to target a few kingfish by either jigging or live baiting. If you do venture out to the mountain be sure to spend a bit of time fishing the bottom for a few tasty critters like longfin perch, gemfish, bar cod, juvenile snapper and morwies.

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JUNE 2017

Low light periods will produce quality tailor on the beaches this month.

Fishing from the rocks really fires in June CENTRAL COAST

Jamie Robley jrobley@iprimus.com.au

It seemed to take a little longer to cool off this year, but now we’re well and truly in the icy grip of winter. Thankfully though, June is still an excellent time for various forms of fishing in our part of the world. Let’s take a look at what can be expected over the coming weeks. Beach fishing has been particularly good through the second half of autumn and that trend should continue well into June. A good mixed lot of species have been caught by anglers casting baits or lures into the surf, with the main customers being tailor, salmon, bream and sharks. Some decent mulloway have also been caught here and there, although not with any sort of consistency. The biggest I’ve heard of recently was 22kg, but it’s quite likely that other bigger fish have been caught as well. There have been problems with big swell and a lack of decent beach formations at times. It’s frustrating when you know there are fish around, you’ve got the bait and time, then turn up at the beach only to see one big line of shore dump. The best strategy when this happens is to jump back in the car and head towards one end of the beach where rocks or a headland provide some structure and potential hidey holes for the fish. Historically, some of the biggest tailor and mulloway are caught during the early stages of winter, so it’s well worth rugging up and fishing after sunset with top-notch baits this month. Be prepared for salmon to move in and waste your valuable mulloway baits though, as sambos always build up in numbers at this time of year. Rock fishing can really fire through June, with sambos also being a common capture for those casting pilchards or flesh baits.

Tailor fishing from the rocks can be a productive affair as well. The key here is to be on the rocks before sunrise and present baits or lures close to or in amongst some white wash. Tailor really love the shallow churned up water around points and broken, scattered rocks or reef. This is where casting a surface popper at first light can be a good technique and much less prone to snagging up than a metal lure or pilchard bait.

high quality carbon hooks and a super abrasion resistant leader down at the business end. The Central Coast is blessed with some of the very best rock fishing spots along the entire NSW coastline, but my pick has always been the stretch from Red Ochre up to Catho. This takes in the infamous Wybung Head and Snapper Point, so in other words, be very careful and avoid fishing altogether if the seas are rough.

a good day, kings and bonito will more than make up for any hassles! Back inside calmer waters, bream and luderick are on the chew right now, with the Entrance being one of the main hotspots. Bream have been in pretty good numbers around the lakes, but their size isn’t that great. Still though, enough fish can be caught for some fun or the dinner table and the odd bigger bream is always possible.

that I knew him before my association with Fishing Monthly or fishing writing in general. Steve really is one of this country’s greatest

and most forward thinking anglers and a genuinely nice bloke. Goodbye Steve and tight lines to all the loyal readers out there.

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Luderick should be around our local rock ledges in good numbers this month. The Munmorah to Catherine Hill Bay area has many first-rate spots to target them. Always be careful and avoid fishing this part of the coast if the seas are rough. June is definitely one of the best months for chasing luderick from our local ledges. Some years May, July or even August can be better, but mostly June is the most reliable and consistent. The traditional approach with green cabbage baits under a float rarely fails if the fish are present, but sometimes using baits of white bread presented closer to the surface can be more fun and just as productive. Unlike chasing tailor, this is more about fishing a rising tide than being concerned about the time of day. Over the years, some of my biggest bream have been caught on bread baits off the rocks in June. Relatively light gear has been used to target them, but all knots need to be tied well. Use

Plenty of bream have been caught around the lakes in recent weeks. They’ll still be around this month, but more so towards The Entrance and the lower reaches of the creeks.

Offshore fishing can also be excellent in these early weeks of winter. Inshore anglers are likely to find big numbers of silver trevally, especially when a light berley trail wafts down from the boat. The main downside of our local trevally fishing is the average size of the fish just isn’t what it used to be, so sifting through plenty of small fish to get the better ones is a standard affair. A plus is the fact that other species like snapper, bream and rat kingfish often get in on the act, so a good mixed bag of table fish is the likely result. Out wider it’s all about the kingfish jigging. Bonito have been mixed in with them. Local anglers who head out there each winter are familiar with the problems associated with jigging around the Perch Grounds, Texas and other reef systems in the 70-120m range. The first of those problems can be westerly winds that may be strong enough to prevent you heading out in the first place. However, it’s quite common that these winds blow stronger first thing in the morning, so delaying the launch until 9am or so can be a strategy to consider. Once out there, the other main problems come in the form of pesky sharks, seals and the dreaded line snipping leatherjackets. On

All good things come to an end. Unfortunately, this is my last central coast column with NSW Fishing Monthly. Since the very first issue, way back in 1994, I’ve had the pleasure of working under several different editors, including Jacqui Thomas and they’ve all been great. One person who’s always been there though is Steve Morgan. I’ll take this opportunity to thank Steve and let it be known

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JUNE 2017

Anglers getting a little help from a little berley ILLAWARRA

Greg Clarke clarkey1@westnet.com.au

June is a tough month to fish on all fronts. The weather can be less than kind, it is mostly cold and we are between concentrations of fish. Being ever-optimistic, there is always something you can glean from the lean times. Bream will be around all along the coast and in the estuaries looking for a feed. With a little help from a little berley you can have some excellent sessions. Most days start with a cold southwester that flattens the ocean before backing off mid morning to make fishing a little easier. Most of the rock platforms will

have a few fish hanging around hunting. Prawns or small chunks of mackerel fished with little or no weight in the berley trail is the way to go. Light lines will score more bites than heavy gear and 2-3kg lines make it fun. These lines are more than adequate to handle most of the fish encountered. From time to time you get dusted up by something larger. Most times you will beat the salmon, trevally and even snapper on the light tackle. It just takes a little longer. Fishing light and losing the odd fish is so much better than fishing a few kilos heavier and not getting a bite at all. June can also throw up some foul weather. The bream are still there and they aren’t stupid, they’ll head into

the sheltered areas like the harbours and quiet protected bays. Using the same berley and bait you will get them here as well and it will be so much safer. Anglers are not always as smart as the bream and some will still venture out onto the open ledges with waves that can wash over them at any time. Be smart like a bream when the seas get nasty and stay away from the open ledges. Big seas also chase luderick, drummer, trevally, snapper and even salmon as well as the bream into places you would normally never see them. Be prepared for anything. Bread berley will get most of these species on the chew, but often the luderick will only look at weed in these situations. The rest will all still be

There are a few pan snapper over the reefs this month.

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keen and often bread will be the top bait. The boneyard near Kiama and most of the sheltered bays and harbours including Kiama, Shellharbour, Port, Wollongong and Bellambi are worth a look at these times. They can be quite popular with plenty of anglers braving the conditions, as they know there will be plenty of fish about. One fish that seems to buck the trend this month are the large mulloway that show up with the big evening tides. These are real trophy fish. Like all good things they rarely come easy and a lot of hours spent on a cold beach are often required to get that one solid bite. One bite is all you need when they are fish of 20kg+. They can be caught on cold nights with a howling westerly at your back and absolutely no swell or when the sea is up a bit and gutters are hard to find in a southerly blow, you just have to persevere. Fresh bait is the key with squid, mackerel and tailor all at the top of the list. There will be pickers like bream, tailor and salmon stealing that bait, but stick to your

Luckily there are some good bream around this month. plan and that good fish will come along. I will take one solid mulloway over 50 tailor, bream and salmon any day of the week. The best tides in the evenings will be 7-10 June around the full moon then later in the month with the new moon from 21-26 June, which will be some of the biggest high tides for the year at around 2.1m. If you are not into the big fish then there are plenty of salmon and tailor about and the bream as well with lighter lines getting most bites. You will struggle if that big one comes along and takes a small bait meant for bream. On the rocks there will be more than just bream and on good days there will be plenty of drummer in the washes of just about every headland along the coast. Cunjie and prawns are good baits. Bread and a bit of berley also help the cause. Luderick will rise to floating bread and they will also be about biting on weed. Drummer will respond to the weed as well. Trevally and the odd snapper will respond to your berley too. On the deeper ledges you might still find a few kings, bonito and lots of salmon taking pilchards and live baits. There may even still be the odd longtail about if the water stays warm. The estuaries will be quiet apart from the bream. Offshore most eyes will be watching for the reports to come in of southern bluefin

making their run up the coast. Last year they went wide before they hit our part of the coast, although they made a show at the Kiama Canyons for a couple of days for the lucky few that were out there. Hopefully this season they will come a bit closer and stay a little longer. The yellowfin tuna seem to be forgotten when bluefin fever hits. They can make a show at any time depending on the currents, but so far they have been quiet with just the odd fish captured for a lot of hours being put in by quite a few boats. There have been a few better fish being taken by the long liners out wide of the shelf down south and it doesn’t take a lot for them to show out here. We can only hope. The odd albacore has popped up in berley trails, but they will become more abundant over the coming months. Don’t discount the chance of a few mahimahi on the FADs either, as they have been around in June in the past two years when the water has been that little bit warmer. In closer there are a few early snapper starting to show over the inshore reefs and they will get better over the coming weeks peaking in mid July and August. It will be worth a good look at the end of this month with the new moon. Pick and berley over your favourite reef. Plastics will get some of the bigger fish this month as they move about looking for early

cuttlies. White will be the colour of choice. A few kings are still poking around the islands, but seals seem to gather in numbers at this time of year. They are trouble enough when you only have one or two about but when there are dozens out on Gap Island it means putting a live bait in the water is just asking for trouble. They rarely ever get hooked – they have getting your bait off down to a fine art. If you are lucky enough to get a hook-up on a king they are straight onto it and it is a very lucky day if you get your fish back. A few bonito and plenty of salmon are about taking pilchards and lures around the islands, headlands and along the backs of the beaches. On the drift the flathead have slowed, but there are a few fish about and they are nice fish of 40cm+. Mix them in with the odd mowie, a good scattering of small snapper, trevally, samsonfish and pigfish as well as plenty of leatherjackets and you will get a feed on most days. The dreaded barracouta have started to make an appearance removing hooks and sinkers and generally making a nuisance. Keep an eye out for whales as they don’t have a worry in the world about you. If they are breaching, stay well away. They’re pretty dumb and could land on you and really spoil you day, and give you a story to tell if you make it back.

You are lucky to get a king back from a seal. If you do, this is what it looks like. This was a solid 80cm fish.

Winter sorts men from the buoys NOWRA

Johnny Nolan straydog1974@gmail.com

Welcome to winter everyone! Cold, windy, and wet – there’s so much to look forward to. Winter can be the make or break season for fishos. It sorts the smart from the not-sosmart and the crazy from the insane. A warm bed, snuggles with your partner and bacon and egg breakfasts seem much more inviting than heading out in cold westerly winds with a wind chill factor in the minuses. Call me soft, I don’t care. What sort of fishing can we expect for this month? First there are a couple of the legalities I should remind you of. Number one is the closed season on the taking of Australian bass and estuary perch from rivers and creeks in NSW, which began on 1 May.

year! There have been some big bronzies cruising the breakers at night stealing baits meant for these big mulloway, so at least fishos are having a little fun on these guys, usually before being bitten off mid-fight. On the rock scene there have been plenty of salmon, drummer, bream and nice reds if you know where to look. The sambos are readily taking quickly spun metals and smaller poppers. The bream and drummer can be caught using a bread bait or cooked or fresh peeled prawns. A simple berley mix of bread, prawn shells, tuna oil and some water will really get these guys into a feeding mode if fishing is slow, and you never know what else is going to come along looking for a feed in your trail. Some of the better reds I’ve seen and heard of caught off the rocks have come from a berley trail set for bream and drummer.

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Pantera II 2017 Matt Boissett with a 5kg land-based snapper from the Ulladulla area.

Graham Townsend from Wattle Grove caught this cracking 4kg salmon in Jervis Bay on a recent holiday to the Shoalhaven. Any fish caught should be released back into the water ASAP allowing them to get on with the job of spawning and replenishing the stocks for years to come. Number two is the trout season closure which happens midnight on the last day of the June long weekend for notified trout waters. Both trout and bass/ estuary perch can still be fished for in our dams, but the rivers and creeks are a no-no for the next few months! Our beaches have been producing quite a few mulloway over the past month or so. I’m yet to hear of a fish over the 10kg mark. Hopefully the big ones aren’t too far away. Last year was a bit of a dud for big mulloway off the beach in our waters, so we are due for a good one this

Around the washes that can’t be fished from shore, boat fishos have been getting some good results on the reds with soft plastics. Both south and north of JB has been fishing well along with around the front of Bowen Island and Longnose Bommie. If you’re going to try your hand at wash fishing for reds, you need a very reliable four-stroke engine, a good stomach (for lots of up-and-downing) and a good crew with fast reflexes. You should have preferably three people: one fishing, one driving the boat and another keeping an eye on the sea. It’s definitely a hands-on fishing experience and not for the faint-hearted. It’s about time we got a decent run of kingfish in our waters with some sort of

consistency! The problem is along with the kings came the sharks. Big bronze

whalers at the banks have made landing any sort of decent fish a real challenge, taking not only your fish but your $15-30 jig as well. Fishing in close has been a little more successful for the larger fish around Currarong and Jervis Bay. Down rigging the cliffs or lead lining around the bommies has been a pretty successful way to hook the big fellas. Once you have hooked a hoodlum your next challenge is landing them, especially when they are already so close to the bottom to start with. Sometimes your only option is to screw up the drag, lock the knees into the gunnels and hold on as you motor away from the rocks hopefully dragging your fish far enough away from cover and disorientating them to give you half a chance. Good luck to all and here’s to a good start to winter!

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Looking at competitions: ABT SUNTAG

Stefan Sawynok

I planned to cover a whole bunch of competitions in one hit, but as I started to dig through the ABT data more closely, I realised that I would be doing a disservice to the ABT and other events if I explore the results in a superficial way. In this article, I am focusing just on the ABT BASS Pro series and next article I will swap over to the BREAM. I will also introduce an 18th century mathematician that can make you a better angler.

are measures of fishing experience (how good/bad) not stock assessment (how many fish are left). I am using fishing experience measures as for one, I am not trying to make any judgement on the level of harvesting, and two, I think fishers can relate to it more. As an example, if I said that better fishers in an area averaged one legal fish a day for flathead for example, that would be meaningful. Those people who enjoy fishing for fishing’s sake (like me) may not be too worried by that, but then those who want to catch more might go looking for a better result. If you are in the 1% of fishers that can catch fish in a dry bathtub, then

AFL and Rugby League are good examples, where skilled teams will crush weak opponents, thus the importance of skill, but when two teams are closely matched and the scores are tight, luck in the form of the roll of the ball or an umpire’s decision can swing the result. I say this because there is a difference in the balance between luck and skill between the BASS and BREAM formats. For the most part, the BASS events have had a bag limit of two, which evens out the skills in terms of ability to catch fish, but then sharpens it when it comes to catching the biggest fish. In the BREAM events, with a bag

Figure 2 – Catch Rates at Lake Somerset. I am especially fond of the ABT as it has a consistent format over a wide range of locations, which makes it possible to provide comparison of areas, and in the interests of fostering local tribalism, and that is what I will focus on here. If there is one thing I would love, it’s more ABT events in the same place year on year. That would make it a much better data source overall. The alternative would be combining ABT data with similar events that can fill the gaps. OPENING DISCLAIMER I want to make one thing crystal clear. All the measures I am looking at

you probably don’t care either way. My point is that the information I am providing over the next couple of articles does not directly tell us what fish stocks are like, but how successful fishers are at catching fish. Stock Assessment judgments require other measures and a lot more mind-bending mathematics, and I am going to be introducing enough mind-bending mathematics as it is. With that out of the way, let’s have some fun with data and mathematics. ABT BASS PRO A good competition balances skill and luck.

of five, one big fish is less likely to swing things your way, and it’s consistency that wins the day. How does that stack up when you look at the data though? While I am sure that there are some random results, the overall results show that the best fishers win most often. In some ways, the constraint maximises their chances of winning, as the larger the constraints, the bigger the effect of any advantage. I want to dig more into the two bass limit, and see if it tells us anything useful about the fishery and what is going on. We can use two good reference sites to

Figure 3 – ABT Results at Lake Somerset. 48

JUNE 2017

Figure 1 – Catch Mix at Lake Somerset. see how that limit plays out – Lake Somerset and Lake Boondooma. Tagging has been conducted in Somerset and Boondooma for over 25 years, which provides us with a good comparison, partly because many of the taggers have also competed in the ABT. Taggers are not constrained by bag limits, as they release their catch straight away, so they are essentially the fishing bestcase scenario. A look at figure 1 shows that the catch mix experienced by taggers stable as you would expect in an impoundment. I don’t have access to the stocking records, but I suspect the two periods where the undersize fish represented a larger proportion of the

that the two sets of data are seeing the same things (though the taggers detected the improvement in catch rates a year earlier). There is also a similar decline from 2005-2008. Moving onto Lake Boondooma. Once again, looking over time, the impoundment has had greater than 60% of fish reported by taggers being legal fish. I have included a look at the larger experience with impoundment bass towards the end of the article, but it’s safe to say that both Boondooma and Somerset fit the profile of stable long-term fishing outcomes. The catch rates profile over time is a little different to Lake Somerset, which

fish) and the sorts of results we see supports that to some degree. I think that the fact that the number of completed bags go up in the good times is supportive of the notion that skills affect the outcome. If the fisher won’t go to the fish, sometimes the fisher is lucky and they come to the them. What it highlights is the gap between stocks and fishing experience. If conditions and fishing skills are both stable, then you would expect similar results year on year. In a system like an impoundment, I just can’t conceive of wild fluctuations in stocks outside of key events such as an overtopping, disease or a large stocking event, which I think the tagging

Figure 4 – Catch Mix at Boondooma over time. catch would post larger stocking periods. Looking at the catch rates for taggers of both legal fish and all fish other than a period in the mid 2000s, the legal catch rate has been above two fish, which means the fishery is able to deliver a two bag in the best circumstances. How does that compare to the ABT results? Note that I am excluding 2016 as format change influences the data. Looking from 2004-2015, the percentage of zero bags (no fish reported) has been between 40-80% for most of the time. Given that the tagging average is above two legal fish per trip – what gives? The most exciting thing about the comparison is the way the big spike in catch rate in 2011/12 appears in both sets of data. That gives me first some confidence

you would expect, as it’s a smaller impoundment and is more sensitive to changes in water level and other factors. Having said that, it’s been stable for around 10 years, oscillating around the two mark. Looking at the ABT data, while the swings are not as wild as the tagging data, again the zero bag count follows a similar pattern of being lower in the times when tagging results are good, and higher when the tagging is not so good. So why is it so hard to get legal fish in a competition? I assume, for example, that ABT schedule their events in times that are good for fishing and that most of the fishers know how to catch bass. A figure of >80% zero bags certainly indicates tough going. In part, I think the 80/20 rule applies (the top 20% catch most of the

data shows. While drought will also play a role, most Australian natives have a range of drought-surviving tactics, as they have had to deal with Australian weather cycles much longer than we have. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on weather patterns (by that I mean longer term weather, not just on the day) influencing the behavior of fish and water levels year on year as having a greater impact than stocks changing. Variable weather influence would, to some degree, explain the skill differences as the best fishers will have the widest range of tactics to work with, thus the greater chance of success when things change. That said, a bunch more work would need to be done to establish if that is the

Figure 5 – Catch rates over time at Boondooma. case. I am sure there would be many competitors in the ABT that would be keen on knowing the answer to that though. I do think that the ABT fishing experience is probably closer to the overall fishing experience than the taggers, as there is a wider range of skill levels in the fishers, but I am basing that on anecdotal discussions, not a formal study of ABT fishers. ABT BASS IN NSW While I don’t have an extra dataset to compare with in NSW, the fact that ABT is consistent in its format gives me confidence that it is a reasonable representation of the overall fishing experience at least in trend. Lake Glenbawn follows the trend in Queensland up until 2012, and then does a sharp left turn. I don’t know anything about the stocking records, but given there is a drop in the largest size of fish, which could indicate a larger stocking event working its way into the system. The interesting thing though, is because we have calibrated ABT to a degree, we can say that something has changed and that is important. The fact that I can even ask the question about what changed, is a huge step in fisheries. Once you know something has changed, you can go seeking reasons. The fact that the change is repeated for several years makes me feel like it’s not a weather change, which is why I think it’s stocking. If anyone knows the real reason – let me know. Just to make things a little spicier, the results at St Clair look similar to the results at Glenbawn, in that things change in 2012. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest the reasons are going to be similar. While many of you will be looking at the largest bass size (and you should) the thing that excites me most about ABT is the way it covers such a range of locations with a similar format, so we can see changes in the fishing experiences. WHICH ONE WOULD I PICK? What if I only had one impoundment to fish

at which would I pick? For me, it comes down to Lake Glenbawn and Lake Somerset, as the data is better for them, thus the results are more reliable. After that though, Glenbawn is in the positive in terms of catching a two bag of legal bass, and given that I am at best an average Joe when it comes to bass, that is all I need to know. I don’t care if I catch the biggest, a bass in the boat is a bass in the boat in my books! The real question is, which one would you pick? And why? Why is the impoundment bass fishery different to almost any other fishery? While this article is on competitions and fishing, I am going to stray slightly, though it is a relevant deviation. I think it’s important to understand that the underlying dynamics of the impoundment bass fishery are so different to almost any other fishery in Australia. This also highlights the value and importance of longterm data, as without it, I couldn’t easily say that. On those days where we must fight to keep the tagging program going, this is why we do it. Figure 9 is a chart that shows how the catch mix has changed over time when you add up all the impoundments in Queensland that have Bass together. It follows a similar story to stocking overall with the early days being heavy with undersize fish then as stocks matured the catch mix stabilizes. Why is it that most bass caught are legal size in impoundments for better fishers? First things first, let’s look at supply of bass. I have spent quite a bit of time in bass hatcheries, and as it turns out bass are one of the easier fish to grow out. This is reflected in the supply and the price, at around 25-35c a fingerling for larger purchases. One of the stocking groups I am a member of put in over 200,000 of them a couple of years back, so getting large numbers is not a problem. Impoundment bass are one of the huge success stories of stocking. They

have been stocked in many impoundments, funded almost exclusively by recreational fishers either by direct fund raising or via some form of license fee. The stocking program is so successful in Queensland that it’s been expanded to include an array of non-impoundment situations On the harvest side of the equation, bass have a bag limit of two across the eastern seaboard. This has had the effect of making them a catch and release species. This pattern has been born out in recreational surveys. Which is to say that impoundment bass do not follow the standard rules of a fishery. Their early life cycle is mostly based on farming, as their natural

This also makes impoundment bass an interesting experiment in fish behaviour. If the fish aren’t being harvested and live a substantial time (>10 years), are they learning the tactics of fishers? The long-term recapture rate is around 7.9%, which is comparable to other species, but I would need to look more closely at the data to see if it indicates anything of that nature. None the less, it would be interesting to see if there is evidence that the fish are getting wise to fishers. HOW TO BE A BETTER ANGLER WITH MATHEMATICS On the subject of not being that guy that gets a 0 bass bag, I can offer some help with maths. You may have heard the term “fortune favours the brave.” It turns out there is a stream of mathematics that supports this term called Bayes Theorem. The difference between a Carl Jocumsen for example and the guy who’s having a great time watching the scenery all comes down to Bayes Theorem and chances are, if you are good at poker, very intuitive or a good angler, then you’re a Bayesian wiz (though you probably don’t know it). Thomas Bayes was an

the probability of observing event A given that B is true. P(B | A) is the probability of observing event B given that A is true. Now to be fair, a second mathematician Richard Price refined Bayes Theorem and another guy called Nate Silver put the icing on the cake in using it, but if you Google Bayes Theorem, you will find what I am talking about. So how does this gobbledygook relate to fishing? Bayes Theorem is a way of linking probabilities in a chain in a way that improves your understanding of likely success. You might be going fishing one day for a barramundi. Let’s say you know nothing much about barramundi, so you go casting around at anything that looks like it might be fishable, but you don’t catch anything. Do you conclude a) there are no barramundi or b) you are crap at this and need to sharpen your game. Both are valid answers, depending on how you see the world, but only one is likely to be true. In response, you talk to a mate who tells you that fishing at the top of the tide around a wall with a drop-off with a specific

Figure 6 – ABT Results at Lake Boondooma. recruitment cycles have been seriously disrupted by man-made structures. The chance of bass surviving spawning is very high, because we helpfully give them optimal conditions to grow – it doesn’t pay to kill stocks you are selling. Most impoundments have an adequate food supply to support a stable population, and it’s cheap to top up populations. On the other hand, harvest is constricted to nearly zero. Beyond the odd overtopping of the impoundment and extreme drought, there isn’t a lot to disrupt the population. This makes impoundment bass as close to an unfished stock as you are going to get.

18th century mathematician. I have no idea if he fished or not, history books for some reason focus on his more boring habits, like publishing papers and getting into arguments rather than important things like did he fish. He did, however, come up with the most important equation in fishing that you have never heard of, and it goes something like this: P(A | B) = P(B | A) P (A) P(B) Where A and B are events that might happen P(B) ≠ 0. P(A) and P(B) are the probabilities of observing A and B without regard to each other. P(A | B), a conditional probability, is

lure will do that trick. How do you respond? First, you buy him a six pack for the great advice, then you compliment him on being a great mathematician. What he has done is narrowed down the field of probability of success by adding some variables that are more likely to be successful. I know you don’t want to see the maths, but here is a quick example. Let’s say your two options are, take his advice, or try to jag a fish out of desperation. For simplicity, you are successful 10% normally and his advice will see you fishing at a time which is 60% successful and you jag a

fish 1% of the time (which is high, but bare with me). Now, using the Nate Silver method of calculation, you are 89% more likely to catch a fish. But of course, it’s not that simple, which is where cascading Baysean maths comes in. You can feed in that probability into the next variable, so let’s say the method catches fish 50% of the time, you are still 84% more likely to catch fish. Let’s add a negative variable. Let’s say if you don’t catch a fish in three casts, then the chance of fish responding is around 5%. The chances of you catching a fish now drops down to 23%. Let’s then say the probability of you landing a good cast in three is 20% and now your chances of success are down to 6%. Even if you pick a good method, poor execution will find you out. The difference between Carl Jocumsen and the ordinary fisher (and the difference between Kevin VanDamm and Carl) is the ability to first, know what those variables are, and second, to know how likely they are to affect things. Going back to the example above, if you know that the highest chances of success are in the first three casts, you will be much more likely to be successful casting three times in 20 locations than 60 times in one. That is not to say Carl is a maths whiz, but the brain has a kind of odds calculator built in. Call it instinct or intuition, the brain learns from successful and unsuccessful events and tries to make sense of it. Good fishers know the odds and play them well. The good news is, even if you can’t add one and one, your brain is good at Baysean Mathematics. In the distant past, it was the difference between life and death. The moral of the story, for those that don’t like maths is this – if you want to be a better fisher, narrowing down the variables by knowing how much they impact the outcome will improve your chances of success dramatically. Doing that is as simple as keeping a diary. Even if you don’t consciously see the patterns, your unconscious mind will kick things along. Keeping a diary tells the unconscious mind that this info is important and your built-in maths brain will start sorting it out for you. See? You are a maths genius after all. All this, of course, is what all the good fishing teachers will tell you. You will get better results – the odds (even if you aren’t Carl Jocumsen) are in your favour. JUNE 2017

FUN PAGE AND COMPETITIONS BAD NAMES FOR A CHARTER BOAT

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NSW MAY 2017

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ORIGINAL

FIND-A-WORD

Congratulations to Kevin Yarnold from Tuncurry, who was last month’s winner of the Find-a-Word Competition! Monthly winners receive a sponsor prize. Prize delivery can take 8 weeks. – NSWFM

SUBSCRIBER PRIZE

The subscriber prize winner for April is P Bradley of Murrumbateman, who won a pair of Tonic Torquay Green Mirror lens sunglasses. All subscribers are entered in the monthly subscriber prize draws. Prize delivery takes up to 8 weeks. – NSWFM

of Gwandalan, G Smith of Werris Creek, D Miller of Cobar, F Bubas of Albion Park, C McGrath of Elermore Vale, P Stever of Austinmer, R Dixon of Comboyne, D Appleby of Macquarie Hills, M Sinclair of Lalor Park, R Waters of Temora, D Collister of Hillvue, J Seymour of Narrabri , M McGuire of Albion Park, W Short of Hamlyn Terrace, M Macmurray of Eglington, C Portelli of Colyton, T

Hodges of Ballina, T Jones of Woonona, M O’Hare of Rouse Hill, J Butcher of Basin View, J Lucas of Doyalson North, G Tasker of Belfielo, S Doherty of Mudgee, D Nisbet of Tuncurry, W Keeley of Glen Davis, D Chandler of Theodore, N Webster of Bilpin, A Sinclair of Lalor Park. Prize delivery takes up to 8 weeks. – NSWFM

LAST MONTH’S ANSWERS

FIND THE DX POINT LOGO

The answers to Find the DX Point Logo for April were: 8, 12, 16, 24, 33, 34, 44, 47, 51, 54, 70, 85, 92, 96, 107. – NSWFM

JUNE 2017

GUESS THE FISH?

Guess the Fish Answer: Spanish Mackerel

The Find the DX Point logo prize winners for April were: D Conroy of Page, J Gill of Laurieton, G Waugh of Greystanes, R Foster of Gundagai, B Bell of Wodonga, S Davis of Emu Plains, R Grace of Nambucca Heads, D Allen of Gorokan, G Armstrong of Cootamundra, G Nash of Thora, G Wade of Empire Bay, M Ryall of Singleton, J Coates

Answer:

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2017 zerek barra tour calendar Get your barra fix in 2017 with the Zerek BARRA Tour. Returning to the barra filled lakes of Kinchant, Teemburra and Peter Faust Dams, the Zerek BARRA Tour will hit the north on the peak barra bite, the full moon in November. Having emerged from their winter slumber and in full spring bite mode the barra should be primed to wreak havoc and deliver anglers the ultimate BARRA Tour experience. The Tour kicks off at Kinchant Dam, home to some of the biggest and fattest barra in the north. Teemburra Dam is the next challenge for anglers, with the influx of water early in the year set to test anglers

both old and new. Peter Faust is the third and final location, with the 3rd and 4th event of the tour sure to see anglers battle the XOS fish of Faust. Rookie teams are in for a treat on the 2017 Zerek BARRA Tour with

a Rookie Pack presented to each team at their first event of the tour. To find out all the details on the Zerek BARRA Tour visit www. abt.org.au. BARRA Tour Entry Fee $250 (per event)

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Getting into the Zerek BARRA Tour experience SYDNEY

Tom Slater

Since its inception almost fifteen years ago, the Zerek BARRA Tour has been on the bucket lists of keen anglers all across the country. The allure of giant barramundi charging through the weed and timber-filled bays of some of Australia’s best impoundments is too strong for many to ignore. Every year we see an increasing number of newcomers to the tour who are met with open arms, plenty of stories and most importantly, a buckled over rod and braid screeching off their reels. With the tour again set for the waters of Kinchant, Teemburra and Peter Faust Dam this year, let’s dive in and take a look at the benefits of immersion into the Zerek BARRA Tour! Barramundi can be a tricky species to capture at the best of times, and figuring this species out on your own at locations as large and diverse as Peter Faust can have you quickly buckled at

the knees begging for a sign of life. Luckily for those now adopting this foetal position of angling horror, there’s an experience like the Zerek BARRA Tour. You won’t find a more full on, thorough and rewarding experience than learning the intricacies of angling barramundi, and I’ve experienced this firsthand when I went on tour in 2015. WHAT TO EXPECT Barra, boats, beers, bustoffs and bragging! That pretty much sums up the time you’ll spend on the BARRA Tour. The atmosphere is brilliant and perfectly climaxes as the tour winds up with the last two events at Peter Faust. This venue allows all the anglers to be in one place, centralized at Kipara Tropical Rainforest Retreat. It’s a perfect time to talk strategy, what has and hasn’t worked throughout the tour, maybe learn a new knot or two and harass Craig Griffiths for how he modifies almost every lure under the sun to catch barramundi better than the next one. In my experience as a southerner travelling to the

BARRA Tour for the first time, I was blown away with how welcome I felt when I backed the boat into Teemburra for the first event of the 2015 tour. Everyone was quick to say g’day and offer some words of encouragement. For a guy like me who hadn’t chased a barra since I was a spritely little kid on the verge of becoming a teenager, it was a nice way to get rid of the pre-tournament nerves. With the intense weather patterns northern Australia has experienced so far this year, the dam levels have risen dramatically. Both Teemburra and Kinchant are full to the brim and Peter Faust rose to 78% recently. That’s a stark contrast to the water levels we’ve faced over the last few seasons. In some ways 2017 will be a new experience for even some of the experienced anglers who have been getting used to the lower water levels of the past few years. The increase in water levels should definitely help the fishing, as a higher water level gives us even more space to explore. BARRA

Another happy customer. Tour veteran Steve Morgan recalls one of the first tours where Teemburra Dam was at capacity and saw some of the most insane closequarters barra fishing he’s experienced in all his years attending. “It was maybe the first year or possibly even the WEB LINK

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first trial event, the dam was full and myself and Kerry Symes were catching barra pitching soft plastics into flooded lantana bushes with rods more typically seen in US bass tournaments at that stage. I remember breaking one off on straight braid that might have been 60 or 80lb breaking strain and it was like a gun shot going off in your ear.” While we may not be lucky enough to be able to flip up a few metre fish like Morgo did way back

then, a full dam means more opportunities and more places they can hide, and that’s only a good thing. LET’S TALK TACKLE A common misconception is the successful barra angler has more tackle than one could dare dream. The fact is over the history of the tour, the list of everyday smokers isn’t that long. In fact, I could happily grab a small duffel bag with three Bait Coffins, a binder of soft baits, some terminal tackle and leader and be content with my options. We spoke about lures in more detail in last year’s BARRA TAG, which you can read by scanning the QR code on this page. The short and sweet version is this, use deep and shallow jerkbaits from 80-120mm. Think Zerek Barra-X and Tango Shad 89, Rapala X-Rap 10-14cm, Jackall Squirrel or Smash Minnow and Lucky Craft Pointers. Grab yourself some soft vibes like the Zerek Fish Trap, Jackall Transam or Storm SX Vibe. Squidgy Slick Rigs, either 110 or 130mm in black and gold are always hard to beat. Then for some more niche stuff pick up something you can fish weedless, like the Zerek Flat

Shad or another large profile soft body swimbait. Arm yourself with the right terminals like VMC 8527s and some weighted worm hooks, like the VMC 7346WT and you’re good to go. Connect your baits with 40-80lb fluorocarbon leaders. To ease the wallet you can get quality monofilament leaders, but up the poundage to 60-100lb as mono is softer and less abrasion-resistant than fluorocarbon. That’s the short and sweet. Scan the QR code for a more in depth guide to filling your tacklebox. The long and short of it is you’re going to need at least a couple of rods. Two rods would be the minimum I’d suggest arming yourself with: one baitcast rod if you’re comfortable casting one, or two spin outfits if you prefer the underslung spinning reel thing. Have one outfit geared towards close quarter fishing. Both Teemburra and Peter Faust are littered with standing timber, so a shorter rod is going to allow for more accurate casting and more manoeuvrability in confined spaces. Look for something 6’6” to 7ft in length and capable of fishing 30-40lb braid to its limit. Your next rod is

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what you’ll use if the fish are holding on those long tapering points and long casts are the norm. You really want 7ft or more in these instances. I’d recommend something around 7’6” in length to maximise casting distance. This rod doesn’t need to be as powerful as your short stroker, so feel free to bring along that snapper plastics setup that you got from Auntie Judie back in

abt

Tournament Angler Guide

abt.org.au the Christmas of ‘05. As long as it can handle having around 4kg of drag over it you’ll be laughing and cuddling barramundi for a photo in no time. Now the tackle’s been sorted, we should look at what you’re actually going to fish out of! BARRAMUNDI BOAT BLING The Zerek BARRA Tour is unique in a lot of ways, but one of the hardest things to

get used to for someone like me, someone used to fishing the BREAM and BASS tournament series, is the session times. The BARRA Tour is timed to perfection to take advantage of peak bite periods and that means fishing under the cover of darkness. Night fishing is exhilarating and nervewracking. There’s something about not being able to see so well that makes the jolt of a barramundi inhaling your

Peter Faust has delivered the goods for many years and 2017 should be no different.

It can be hard work on the BARRA Tour, but the rewards are definately worth it.

lure 3ft from the rod tip even more awesome. Outfitting your vessel for the purpose of night fishing is well worth the time and effort and will save you lots of headaches and probably a few choice words with your fishing partner over the course of the tour. A well-lit boat hides nothing when it comes time to deal with a thrashing barramundi in the net. You don’t want to be fumbling in the dark for that pair of pliers you know are in there somewhere. Cheap 12V LED strip lighting is a wallet-friendly option, or if you’re more inclined

to splash out, waterproof, colour changing LEDs like those from KORR Lighting will have you decked out in style. The other thing to think about is how you’re going to set up your anchoring system. It’s quite common during BARRA Tour events to spend long hours concentrating on a particular spot or point in the dam. Fish tend to roam freely under the cover of darkness and these points act as highways for big barramundi. Anchoring yourself on these spots is often the winning technique and the ticket for filling a

scoresheet and memory card. One of the more advanced and convenient ways of anchoring is something like a Minn Kota Talon. These electric anchor spikes mount to the transom of your boat and propel downwards into the bottom in up to 12ft of water, quickly and silently securing your boat right on the spot. Trust me when I say that once you’ve had either a Power Pole or Talon, there’s no going back. For the BARRA Tour on a budget, a quick-release system on a traditional anchor is perfect. Take five To page 6

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minutes to set your anchor properly the first time and then simply clip your boat onto a rope equipped with a crab pot float. If you hook up and need to chase the fish into and around timber, you can simply unclip and the float will remain on the surface with the clip ready to reattach once the capture is complete. While more time consuming to set up and re-deploy should you want to change spots, it is a lot friendlier on the hip pocket.

But I think you’ll find enough uses for this in everyday fishing, so a shallow water anchor will quickly become one of the best purchases you’ve ever made. GOAL! Nope, we’re not here to debate whether it’s called soccer or football. We’re here to talk about some realistic goals for a new Zerek BARRA Tour angler. ABT rolled out the BARRA Tour Rookie Team of the Year as the perfect goal for new anglers to aspire to. Last year’s Rookie Team of the

Year of Omar Hamid and Chase Bursnall were thrilled to receive the rewards in the form of a tackle pack worth hundreds of dollars from tour sponsor Zerek/ Wilson Fishing. While the Rookie Team of the Year was brought on for new anglers to aspire to, growth and learning should really be the number one thing you take out of a trip north on the tour. There is absolutely no doubt that the Zerek BARRA Tour offers the best opportunity to learn tricks of the trade from some

abt.org.au

of Australia’s best and most accomplished barramundi fishers, not to mention some of our best BREAM and BASS anglers too! People quite often think that tournaments are reserved for only the best and brightest anglers, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a reason ABT’s motto is ‘Who shares wins.’ Spending almost two weeks travelling with this great bunch of anglers is a sure-fire way to speed up the learning process for not just barramundi fishing, but

sportfishing in general. Whether you’re a southerner looking to experience barramundi for the first time, or a local angler looking to unlock the secrets of these often perplexing lakes on your doorstep, the Zerek BARRA Tour offers you that opportunity. Where else could you share a beer with Australia’s best and have them show you the best lure or the best knot? You wouldn’t find Jason Day at the local range helping you sink those three footers, but you’ll definitely find

Craig Griffiths and Karim De’Ridder hunched over their tackle boxes fiddling at the BARRA Tour and that’s often the best part! WE’LL SEE YOU THERE! If you’ve successfully scoured this BARRA TAG and aren’t frothing at the bit to jump online and send in your entry then maybe go take a look at some of the pictures from last year’s event on the Australian Bass Tournaments Facebook page. Maybe those will help make your decision a little easier!

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Impoundment barra are a fish for all seasons BRISBANE

Bob Thornton

In the last decade, our understanding of how impoundment barramundi behave throughout the seasons has improved immensely. These days, we see anglers reliably able to

fish for them all year round, but it’s not just a matter of going to a dam full of barra and chucking a lure in. Sometimes, it’s not even enough to be throwing the most popular bait in the number one spot! There are a lot of subtleties to these magnificent slabs of chrome that seldom go hungry, and

sometimes, something so small can be the difference between success and failure. Tournaments have pushed anglers to learn more about these fish. Hours spent on the lake, as well as trial and error, have seen some incredible techniques pioneered. I had a chat to two of the top impoundment barra

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guys in the country to find out how their angling changes throughout the year with the different seasons, and how they make sure they’re always maximising their time on the water. SWEET SUMMER CHILD The summer months at the very beginning of the year in North and Central Queensland can quite literally see some of the hottest temperatures on Earth, and this can make finding active fish difficult. On top of this, it also sees some of the biggest weather changes, with cyclones and monsoonal rain events all part of life up north. Impoundment barra fishing always demands the angler to be versatile and flexible, and in summer what needs to be flexible more than any other factor is your timing. Sudden weather changes along with rises and falls in water level can turn the fish on and off like a switch. Anglers need to be ready when an opportunity arises. Bite windows may only last a few hours, and time on the water is the best way to familiarise yourself with these times.

Jono Clark from Mackay knows this well, and his home waters of Lakes Kinchant and Teemburra are both very affected by the constantly changing summer weather. “The wetter months see a lot of fast rises and falls in dams, particularly Kinchant, so it makes the bite specific from week to week,” Jono said. “If Kinchant is rising, they’ll usually be up in the flooded grass. It’s then just a matter of finding them and fishing that area.” Lindsay Dobe runs charters on Lake Proserpine, and his understanding of weather patterns and seasons has to be almost perfect. “I like to break summer up into two parts – the build-up and the run-off,” Lindsay said. “The build-up tends to start in late October and goes through usually until late December and sometimes January, and then we tend to get run-off until autumn.” “A lot of fish school up in the main basin during the day as if they were going to spawn, which they can’t,” Lindsay explained. “Full and dark moons tend to see them moving up into shallow water to feed at night.

“I also find that any tide change in the salt gives you a short bite window for some reason. “With tide changes, it’s not a case of ‘is it’s true or not’ anymore, I know they get the fish firing. “At the very hottest parts of the year, these bite windows don’t seem to have as much effect as they do at other times of the year.” While Jono tends to fish the way he wants to catch them, which is in shallow water, Lindsay prioritises putting numbers of fish into the boat for his clients. “We usually find them sitting in or on the edge of the old river bed during the day, and we only go shallow at night during summer, so we tend to troll when the sun’s up,” he said. “Once we find some, we sit on them, and during the day they’re not usually moving a lot, so it’s easy to stay on top. “Big plastic swimbaits and paddle-tails sunk down and rolled slowly through the school get us consistent bites, but some days you have to wait for a bite window.” But there are more subtle changes rain can bring,

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Timber and weed lined banks are happy hunting grounds regardless of the time of year.

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abt.org.au and anglers who’ve fished for impoundment barra in summer will understand this. “A major influx can change the water temperature, so this can mean fish that were sitting shallow may now be sitting deep, and vice versa, so it really pays to be open to anything,” Jono explained. Lindsay finds that rain activity causes fish to scatter in his home waters of Lake Proserpine as well. “The second half of summer sees large floods and the fish often scatter, with some staying deep and some moving up shallow,” he said. “Some will push into feeder creeks, so casting to the mouths of these areas

with paddle-tails gets us a lot of bites.” “Sometimes they will sit on the edge of timber lines, and this is where I’ll prefer to use floating hardbodies, particularly ones that rise slowly, so they will bounce over the timber, but also stay in their faces on the pause.” In an environment where fish are constantly moving around, it pays to own a good sounder, preferably with sidescan capabilities, and know how to use it. SHE COMES IN THE FALL Autumn will usually see temperatures dropping to a more comfortable temperature, and there’s usually more stability in the

weather. Even so, the wind remains a constant factor for success, and Jono always makes sure he knows which way the wind is blowing. “Stable weather and a northerly breeze are favourite conditions for my local waters, as northerlies are usually a warm breeze,” Jono said. “Southwesterlies can turn the fishing off, as they’re generally a cool breeze.” Lindsay agrees that finding warmer water is the key to finding the barra in autumn. “It’s always a bit tough in autumn and the fish can be very fickle,” Lindsay explained. “Light winds are good for autumn at [Lake Proserpine], and you want

those days where the sun is warming the water. “A change to overcast weather and southerly winds will make it tough, as this will drop the temperature. “If the wind picks up, you just have to slog it out and rely on your sounder to find fish. “I tend to think of it like Glen McGrath’s bowling – just line and length, line and length – keep casting and you’ll be rewarded.” As far as finding fish goes, our anglers look for different things, as their priorities are again different.

“I find myself targeting trees that line the main river bed, creeks and gullies, sometimes trees in as much as 40, 50 and even 60ft!” Lindsay said. “But I tend to target the tops of these trees, where the sun is warming the top few metres of the water column, and this works best once the sun is up, and even better if you’ve got a calm day.” Jono prefers to fish for maximum excitement, and chooses to target weeded areas where the fish are likely to be actively hunting. “In early autumn

particularly, [Teemburra and Kinchant] can have lots of leftover run-off, and this can get the fish feeding in areas where the water is running into the dams,” Jono explained. “In the run-off I like to throw 120mm swimbaits, hard and soft, as well as the ever-faithful 5-7” paddle-tail plastics. “Fishing surface around the weed is also very deadly in autumn, particularly at low light, and there’s nothing like watching a metre barra boof your offering off the top!” Some years can also see To page 10

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storm activity hold off until autumn, like we had this year with cyclone Debbie. In this instance, it pays to fish around newly flooded areas, like you would in summer, before fishing the run-off areas as the water recedes. COLD WEATHER BLUES Winter will normally see the least amount of action in terms of anglers on the lake, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the fish aren’t catchable when the temperatures drop. Anglers have learnt to refine their search in winter, and knowing where the fish tend to hang out with the thermometer drops is the key to finding fish. Lindsay will continue to guide on the dam during winter, and despite the sometimes testing conditions, he regularly finds fish. “Winter can be similar to autumn, as you’re always trying to find the warmest water in the dam,” Lindsay explained. “Like always, they’ll usually arc up around full moons, but one difference I’ve noticed with winter is that overcast weather during the day seems to bring on a bite! “You always have to find the fish in winter, that’s a must, and once you find fish on the sounder, it pays to stay in that area until they decide to bite.”

Like most anglers, Jono tends to fish the dams less during winter, but when the itch is too strong, he needs to put together a plan before going out. Jono has also discovered the need to find the warmest water possible. “During the day, those fish will always be in the warmest water they can find, and in winter, that’s usually a windblown, sun-warmed shallow bank,” Jono explained. “When the sun isn’t on the water, they tend to go deeper where I fish, and then it’s just a matter of finding them with your sounder. “When there’s no sun, I like to troll around the edges looking for bait, and when I find some bait, either with barra eating it or hanging out close by, I like to start dropping lures into them. “Sometimes it can be like bass fishing, where you’re just cycling through lures in your box, trying to find something they’ll eat. “Soft vibes in the 100mm range are a good starting point when targeting these shut down fish.” IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING Spring is undoubtedly the pick of the seasons for most impoundment barra tragics. Even then, they can be far from easy to fool. Just like any other time of the year, there are things to factor in

An assortment of different baits will keep you in the game regardless of the season. when planning a trip. Angling pressure is one thing anglers need to take into consideration, and Jono knows his local waters are popular locations for anglers from all over the country. “[Spring is] definitely the best time for me, and I always try to put in some solid trips in over August and September to try and get a few ideas as to what’s going on before the masses,” Jono explained. “The fish are coming back online, and they usually aren’t as fussy about what they eat.” “They’re hungry, and they even can look a bit gaunt after the winter.” Lindsay favours spring as well and finds some of the most exciting fishing is available at this time of year. “Spring is when the dam comes good, and it’s when

I do most of my topwater fishing,” Lindsay explained. “Nice still mornings are good for topwater, and early starts are very important. “You can also fish topwater in the afternoon, but I often find the wind can get up by the afternoon, and this can make topwater fishing harder.” Spring can give an angler a bit of freedom with what they want to fish with, but again, this doesn’t mean it’s easy work. “I like big aggressive presentations in spring,” Jono said. “I like throwing 9” soft swimbaits, surface walkers, 110mm vibes, and slow hardbodies too, particularly on the edges of weed and around those weedy points. “When it’s go time, it doesn’t really matter what

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you throw, as long as you’re fishing in an area where you know fish are, and you fish to them until you come across a bite window.” Lindsay also likes to mix up his presentations a bit in the springtime. “Apart from throwing topwater in the morning, I also like fishing tree lines like I do in autumn, and again, I like to use slow rising hardbodies that go through timber fairly well,” he said. “Sun-warmed bays also attract fish in spring, and if you find fish in a bay, stick to it like glue. “Channels in and along the weed beds are great for casting at, and these are areas where I’ll throw surface and subsurface.” As far as presentation goes, both anglers like to mix it up as much as possible. Having multiple anglers fishing in different ways is a great way to find out what the fish want, and this can be applied to just about any fishing situation. “Retrievals are important in spring, so it pays to vary your retrieve,” Jono said. “Trial and error is the best way approach it, and it helps to have a range of lures, setups, and different spots you want to fish.” Lindsay agrees with Jono, and is always willing to change up what he’s doing to

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find what the fish want. “It’s definitely a game of trial and error with retrieves,” he said. “With clients, I like to get them doing different stuff; one might try a burn and kill type retrieve while the other will fish super slow with plenty of pauses. “A good example is with plastics, as some days they’ll only eat them if they’re moving really slowly, and other days they’ll chase them and eat them when wound really quickly.” GET YOUR CASTING ARM READY As you can see, the dynamics of an impoundment barra fishery change, quite literally, like the weather. By hearing it from the guys who’ve produced consistently good results, I hope this info gives you more confidence when you pull up at the ramp of a barra impoundment. Fishing our barra impoundments can get challenging, but it doesn’t have to be something to put in the ‘too hard’ basket. The hours spent searching, casting and retrieving are all worth it when a metre long silver slab is lying on the brag mat in your boat. Good luck to anyone looking to target impoundment barramundi this year, and we hope to see you at this year’s Zerek BARRA Tour!

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Hooked-up – an insight into rigging barra plastics TOOWOOMBA

Jason Ehrlich

Seasoned impoundment barra anglers are known to suffer from an addiction. Rarely will you find a stockstandard, store bought soft plastic tied to one of their rods. Modification to create the ultimate fish enticing morsel with an enhanced ability to hook barramundi is their goal. It is no easy mission. Impoundment barra can be frustratingly fussy. They’re also good at dislodging hooks and finding any weakness in the system as they carry on with their aerial antics and demonstrate bursts of sheer power. On arriving at a barra dam, getting lures into the water as fast as possible and casting like a madman may seem like a good idea. Putting that first fish in the boat is the goal. Before we rush into the fishing, let’s take a few steps back and make sure we are as prepared as we possibly can be. Unless you’ve already done this preparation, the odds are in the fishes’ favour. Time spent tricking up your

soft plastics prior to making the first cast can make all the difference. Barra gurus have experimented with all types of lure modifications. Plastics can be made to swim better by cutting, burning and even boiling. What about the pointy parts which make the bites stick? FALLING FOR THE TRAP A couple of years ago I was told about a congregation of bigger Monduran barra. The fish were in around 3m of water and the bottom had a coating of slimy snot weed. If you drag a hook through this rubbish, the only way to remove it is to pull it off with your fingers. So annoying! Rather than taking the time to experiment and learn how to keep our lures just above this weed, we opted to remove our belly stinger hooks, which were responsible for hooking most of this slimy vegetation. Big mistake! That night, we had a run of bad luck. At the same time we could have improved our hook-up rate by sticking with stingers and adapting our retrieve. All up we had eight hook-ups and boated only two fish. This is not to mention the other

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The black and gold Slick Rig 130 is a proven performer. Using a DIY jighead with so much hook exposure, the odds were in my favour once this barra was hooked. dozen or so half-hearted taps, which we didn’t convert into hooked fish. Running a stinger can make a huge difference and I can now only wonder how well we would have went that night if we did. MAKING THE BITES COUNT Few are the days when barra come easy. Missed

bites and jump offs are the frustrating part about chasing these creatures. Knowing you’ve done enough to get them interested but not enough to catch them always leaves an angler wondering what else could have been done. Fancy rod work or tweaks in the retrieve can help the cause a lot, but let’s take a look at some soft plastic enhancements that can make the difference. ADDING SOME STING The use of stinger hooks is no secret. Barra anglers love them because they catch more fish. A treble placed under the belly of a soft plastic accounts for many more fish and often picks up barra, which nose bump or head swipe at the lure without the intention of eating it. There are a few ways to rig a treble under a plastic. A solid swivel or linked split rings can be pushed through the belly of the lure. With some manipulation, one end of this can be passed over the main hook point and pulled back through the belly while working it around the hook bend and onto the shank. I like to use a pointy nosed pair of pliers to reach through the plastic and grab the swivel or ring to thread it back through the soft plastic. The stinger hook can then be added below the belly of the plastic and a plastic keeper (piece of old drink bottle) or glow bead can be placed on the main hook to keep the rig intact. This style of rigging is the neatest and produces the most hook-ups. It’s hard on soft plastics as most tear quite easily. When you want to make the bites stick, it is the way to go. If you are tossing and destroying $8+ plastics, there are other rigging options. A fast way to attach a stinger to your jighead is to use a short piece of

multistrand wire. One end is looped through the jighead eye and crimped. The other end is measured, looped and crimped before adding a split ring and treble. Once installed, one point of the treble can be tucked into the bottom of the plastic to hold it in place. Hard to find jigheads are available and these sport a second eyelet on the underside of the head or along the hook shank just before the bend. Split rings can be used to attach a treble to the underside of the lure. From this position, the hook can be left free swinging or have one point tucked into the bottom of the plastic. STINGER HOOK SIZE AND TYPE The stinger hook is so beneficial most serious anglers prefer to lose a few lures to snags rather than miss bites. Not just any hook will do the job either. Most fishers have their own opinion on which hooks work best. There are now more choices of hooks available that are up to the

task of handling big strong fish. Brands like Owner, Decoy, BKK, Gamakatsu and VMC all make heavy-duty hooks, which provide a better chance of landing fish. I asked Craig Griffiths which hook he likes to use and what advice he could offer. He responded, “If you pick a hook that looks right for the size of the lure, go up one size from that.” The big hook theory seems to work for him. Barra have big mouths and you can’t beat that extra gape and hook exposure when it comes to producing a more secure connection to the fish. Craig likes to use Decoy Y-S21 hooks. For Slick Rig 130 plastics he’d be attaching a size 1/0 hook. It pays to carry a range of hook sizes to suit different soft plastic sizes. THE NEXT LEVEL Bigger paddle-tails (or swimbaits) are growing in popularity. These lures are heavy and require specialized tackle to throw them. Rigging these bigger lures or even custom rigging smaller ones is also a growing trend. To develop a homemade jighead or weight system requires quite a bit of planning and preparation before the making and testing phases. While not simple to make, they are very worthwhile and can be fashioned to suit different plastic styles. With attention payed to the finer details like hook exposure, strength and gauge, you can feel comfortable knowing more bites will stick and the hook will be up to the task. DIY JIGHEADS CHOOSING WEIGHT Study an existing jighead or sinker to calculate how much lead will be needed to achieve the desired weight. Using this as a guide, make the same size and shape out of modelling polymer clay or epoxy putty. Polymer clay like Fimo or Sculpey is available from art and craft

A selection of rigged plastic ready for barra action. The top two plastics have been rigged by using two split rings to attach the treble. The Powerbait Mullet (second from bottom) is rigged using the swivel through the belly method for a strong connection. The Big Willy on the bottom has the stinger attached to a piece of solid stainless rigging wire. This is a fast fix if you are struggling to find parts to rig any other way. The treble swings free on hook-up and prolongs the life of the soft plastic.

stores. Epoxy putty can be purchased from a hardware store. These materials are suitable and can be sanded and drilled for further shaping once hardened. Polymer clay needs to be baked in an oven to make it harden. Epoxy putty cures once the two parts are mixed together. It is a great product allowing plenty of working time before it starts to get too firm to continue moulding into shape. Once the original head is finished being moulded onto your selected hook with eyelets added, it’s time to make a mould from it. SELECTING HOOK TYPES Barra demand big strong hooks. I like heaps of gape

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abt.org.au to ensure they protrude well from the plastic. Barra have bucket mouths so a bigger hook isn’t a problem and will often produce a more solid hook-up. DIY jig hooks are available. It’s hard to find one exactly the right shape, strong enough and with enough gape. I prefer a straight shank pattern hook like those used for rigging skirted lures for gamefish. While ideal for use, this style of hook isn’t made for jighead moulding and lacks the right angle bend near the eye. To compensate for this minor setback, you will need to form stainless wire to the shape of the mould around the hook or incorporate figure eight

HOW TO RIG A STINGER ON A PRE-RIGGED SOFT PLASTIC • You need a plastic to be rigged, a suitable swivel, split ring, treble and tools. • Insert pointy nose pliers through the belly to where the hook exits the plastic. • Place a swivel over the hook point and work it back through the plastic by pulling it with the pliers. • The swivel should sit right at the belly of the plastic. If it’s too short, add an extra split ring. • Holding the swivel in place, add the split ring and treble. • When rigged, a small piece of plastic or big glow bead holds the swivel onto the hook and prevents it from coming back off past the barb.

eyelets into the mould. Such eyelets are available from lure making suppliers. I use size 12-14 eyelets from Fishing Unlimited who are based on the Sunshine Coast. These eyelets can be added to the original hook from which the mould will be made by cutting them down and then drilling and glueing to secure them. MAKING THE MOULD Silicone moulding rubber is perfect for the job. For a quality two-piece mould, high-temperature silicone is the go. It’s stiff and made for pouring low melt alloys into and therefore reproduces a high quality finish. A more flexible silicone like Pinysil is a fast-setting product, which can be used to create a one-piece mould. The article is suspended in a container and the Pinksil is poured around it and allowed to cure. It is then cut out to remove it from the mould. For a fast alternative to hi-temp silicone, this is the product I recommend if low scale production is your aim. If I am in a really big hurry I have even made two part moulds from car bog and poured lead into that. There are plenty of instructional videos available online for making silicone moulds. While they won’t be specifically for

jigheads, some extra thought and planning should see you on the right track. Search ‘How to make a silicone mould’ in the YouTube search bar and you’ll soon be in business. POURING JIGHEADS – ALWAYS WEAR PROTECTION! If you have ever made sinkers before, you’ll already have a head start. Making a complex jighead like those used for barra is a bit fiddlier and time-consuming though. You’ll need some way to melt the lead in a well ventilated area. A fast and effective way is to use an old ladle to hold it while applying the flame from a handheld propane burner. The lead needs to be hot to ensure the heat isn’t lost once it makes contact with the hook shank and figure eight eyelets. I prefer the Propane torch method as it allows me to directly heat the hook shank and eyelets with a few quick passes of the direct flame over them before I pour the lead. This heat will help the molten lead form a neater and stronger finish around them. Pure lead can do the job, but it is quite soft and this will allow the moulded components to move and weaken over time. Try melting old tyre weights

Parts ready to start making a jighead (propane torch, Pinkysil mould, ladle and lead, hooks and eyelets. as they contain antimony and low amounts of other metals, which make your moulded parts much stronger. Don’t confuse the lighter, shiny zinc weights for lead ones though. I have never seen any other fish make anglers tinker with tackle the way impoundment barra do. Perfecting lures and hook combinations may help better the bite to landed fish ratio. In my opinion, it is time well spent. In a tournament situation, every bite counts. For the average fisher, the next bite that sticks could be a new PB or the fish of

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a lifetime. If nothing else, presenting what you believe is the perfect offering will see you fishing with more confidence and we all know a confident angler catches more fish. TRIM IT AND SWIM IT Once moulded, the finished product can be removed from the mould. Trim off the excess around the pour point. It is now ready for rigging and swimming. While DIY jigheads may not be for everyone, handy fishers can put their talents to good use. A well-made jighead can be fashioned exactly the way you want it.

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The man behind the metres BRISBANE

Elliot Fooks

Barra are known as a species that comes in metres, but to master these metres it all comes down to millimetre details, and one angler who has mastered the millimetres to catch more metres, is Rolleston’s Craig Griffiths. Most anglers will associate Craig Griffiths with trophy barra and tournament victories, but his knowledge and results are the outcome of what can be described as a hundred-thousand-hour apprenticeship and not an overnight success. While as a whole Griffiths’ growth as an angler looks like a mammoth journey, he believes every angler can master his domain. It’s just a matter of being prepared to make the time and being able to accept the failure that comes with trying to master any sportfish. BEFORE THE BITE Griffiths’ love for barra started from his first fish and persists to this day, but it was not his first foray into fishing. The signs of his dedication were evident even from his first trips on the Murray River

in Victoria. Griffiths spent his early holidays fishing for cod with his father. While most kids would be ready to head to bed early after a big day of fishing, Griffiths’ dedication was on show even from day one. His family would go to sleep in the cabin, but Craig couldn’t sleep and would stay out on the boat to keep fishing through the night. “Once I could drive the boat, I would stay out while dad would sleep in the cabin. I would occasionally sleep on the boat, but I really just couldn’t sleep when I could be fishing,” said Griffiths. While these early trips

to the Murray River were an introduction to fishing, it wasn’t until 1993 when Griffiths got his first taste of barra fishing and really got hooked. Having moved north to Rollestone in 1992, it wasn’t until a year later when he decided to head out for a fishing trip to catch his first barra. Craig recalls the story like it was yesterday. “We went on a trip for two weeks of fishing in the Northern Territory. I fished for nine days before I got my first barra,” explained Griffiths. “I caught my first barra on a 70mm RMG Scorpion and it measured 82cm. I went on

Many of Craig’s formative early years were spent chasing Murray cod in Victoria.

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to catch two more fish for the trip.” This extraordinary memory is one of the keys to Craig’s success, and his ability to remember events has allowed him to remember both successful and unsuccessful patterns, thus allowing him to make key changes and stay on the fish. Now living in an area that gave him access to these trophy fish, Griffiths was hooked on barra fishing and began to expand on those early trips. During the early days, Griffith focused on trolling. “I would look for what I thought was a good bank and if I caught fish I would work out why they were on a particular section of the bank and then try and repeat the process,” said Griffiths. In 1997 Craig’s style of fishing and attention to detail stepped up a gear when he started focusing on casting and retrieving. Having refined his ability to catch fish trolling, moving to this new method of fishing birthed Griffiths’ core goal of being able to catch barra at any time of the tide, on any day, on any body of water. While it’s an easy thing to say, it is an incredible task for anyone to complete, and as Griffiths says, you need to put in the time to make it happen. EARLY TOURNAMENT DAYS In 2003 Craig stepped out of the shadows and decided to try his hand at the Rocky Barra Bounty. Having never fished the system before, Craig looked left, then right from the boat ramp and started looking for familiar structure and situations that had been successful on other waterways. While most anglers on new waterways tend to focus on what the local anglers are doing or saying, Griffith focused on what he had stored in his memory bank and used his accumulated knowledge to take the win. While many anglers have come to a river and taken a win on their first visit to the waterway, Griffith was able to repeat his success in 2005, having not fished the system since his 2003 victory. He then went on to return to the top step of the podium in 2008! While early victories in tournaments confirmed that he was on the path to achieving his core goal, he still felt some of the parts of the puzzle were missing. Living in Rollestone provided Craig with the opportunity to fish for both fresh and saltwater barramundi. “I believe, to be the best angler, you can be much better off learning how to catch saltwater barra. They will teach you much more than barra in the fresh. To

Craig discovered barramundi in the early 1990’s and has been transfixed by them ever since. be successful on both types of water, you need to know how to adapt to their specific feeding habits,” explained Griffiths. In 2005, ABT had built on its barra trial event and expanded to a two week BARRA Tour, encompassing some of the best impoundment barra fishing on offer. While success didn’t come during his early entries into BARRA Tour events, it did allow him to build on his archives of stored knowledge and give him motivation seeing where he could get to. “It was really eye-opening to see the Taylor brothers dominate the scene. They put in the time, they were focussed and they caught fish in all conditions,” said Griffiths. THE SECOND COMING For most anglers, Griffiths’ string of top tens and podium places from 20092010 would be a successful career in tournament fishing, but feeling he was on the cusp of more, Griffiths knew he needed to keep refining his skills for better results to come. In 2011, his persistence and eye for detail started to show, with strong tournament results, winning the BARRA Tour Season opener at Peter Faust Dam, and he also returned to his winning ways at the Rocky Barra Bounty, which he has won every year since 2011! Having taken numerous event wins in the saltwater, by the end of 2012 the only event win missing for Griffiths was a ABT BARRA Tour victory, and at the season opening event of the 2012 BARRA Tour, Griffiths took his first win at an ABT event. Griffiths had again stepped up to a new level over the tour and remarked that he had his boat set up perfectly and was beginning to refine his tackle. Despite this, he still failed to have a consistent finish and failed to win the AOY. With the tour changing to a teams format for 2013, and the disappointment of inconsistent finishes still fresh in his mind, Griffiths knew he needed to change his strategy and find a partner that he could work with. Partnering with Trent Short was the perfect choice and he was able to win his first Team of the Year title. “Even before the

tournaments were scored as a teams event, you have always needed a partner you could trust on the boat, and someone that was willing to fish different techniques and help to unlock what the fish wanted. It was an easy fit to fish with Trent in 2013. We could work together and we got the win,” Griffiths said. With a first, third and a fourth place finish for the pair, it was a successful week of fishing. With Trent Short unable to return for the 2014 Barra Tour, Griffiths was on the hunt for a new partner and was looking for someone he could fish a range of events with across the year. “Craig fishes hard all the time, and it takes a strong angler to keep up with him. Karrim De Ridder was the perfect match for him,” explained long time friend John Millard. The first season was below par for anglers’ expectations and both anglers walked away feeling they had missed their opportunities in the tournament. “It takes time to build trust on the boat and to know how the other angler works, whether that’s catching barra in a social environment or tournament. It’s all about teamwork and we just had not clicked yet,” said De Ridder. The following season, the pair clicked and almost had the perfect season, accumulating 299 out of a possible 300 points for the Team of the Year, with event wins at Teemburra and Peter Faust dams. “It was a great way to return to the BARRA Tour and a good way to cement our partnership,” said Griffiths. After the 2015 win, the partnership has gone from strength to strength, with the team winning events across both fresh and saltwater. They are currently are on track for a hat trick of TOY wins, but they are not done yet. “I still have a few events that I would really like to win, and winning three TOY in a row would be a special achievement,” Griffith said. INSIDE THE MIND While the story and results of Craig Griffiths are awe-inspiring, the keys to his success come down to his attention to detail, commitment and his

abt

Tournament Angler Guide

abt.org.au willingness to grow and adapt. “Barra are a tough fish and you need to put all the pieces together to work them out, and Craig works harder than anyone else out there,” explained Millard. As we all know, if you want to get good at something it takes time, and in Griffiths’ mind it’s all about making time. Working seven days on then seven days off, Griffiths sets aside four days during his down time to go barra fishing. “I can’t sleep much before I go fishing,” he said. “My mind races and I just want to get out there, so I leave home around 1-2am in the morning

and try to get back home by 5pm when I go fishing.” While for most anglers that is an unrealistic amount of time, Griffith believes it is about making time, not developing a mindset that you don’t have the time. “Regardless of whether it’s fishing or anything else in life, it’s about structuring your time. I also have a great wife and family, and they understand my passion,” says Griffiths. Even when he’s not on the water, Griffiths has barra on the mind, and both Karrim and John regularly talk to Griffiths about techniques and

tackle selection on an almost a daily basis. “When Craig’s off work we would talk both morning and night about techniques, things we have seen or how we can improve our fishing,” explained Karrim. While it may seem like a lot of talking, the pair don’t get much face time to fish together, and this understanding has been the key to their success on the tournament trail. “I have a good group of guys that I can bounce ideas off and we all challenge each other to keep learning,” said Griffiths. While the group are able to keep challenging

each other to learn, Griffiths’ commitment to fishing has also helped push the other anglers to keep growing at a faster rate. “He’s hard to keep up with, and when you have to fish against him in a tournament you know he is working his arse off, so you need to commit the time or he’ll kick yours!” said Millard. “To give you an idea on the speed he can learn at, he started fly fishing a year ago, and now he is out there catching 5-10 barra on fly every trip, so he just doesn’t stop pushing his understanding of these fish.”

While wins are great, Griffiths always reminds anglers that it is not about wins. It’s about catching barra anytime, anywhere. “Tournaments are a great way to push yourself as an angler, but six hours goes quickly and you really feel the reward when you catch fish in those high-pressure events,” said Griffiths. He went on to explain that lots of anglers seem to get fixated with sponsors and notoriety, forgetting that it’s about catching fish. When asked about how they would sum up

Griffiths as an angler, both De Ridder and Millard remarked about his ability to set up both his boat and tackle perfectly, willingness to learn and steel-like focus when on the boat. These skills have allowed him to remain at the top of tournament barra fishing for over 15 years now, which is unprecedented in Australian fishing tournament history. With the 2017 BARRA Tour fast approaching, it will be interesting to see whether Griffiths will be able to dominate another tour.

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The man of metres, Craig has set the standard in recent years when it comes to chasing impoundment barra.

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Tackle adjustments to tempt sluggish fish NAROOMA

Stuart Hindson stuart@ausfishing.com.au

Winter’s here and with it comes the promise of cold mornings with westerly winds, especially when fishing the local estuaries. Some anglers have the perception that the local waterways go quiet during the winter period but that can’t be further from the truth. Smaller systems like Mummaga Lake, Corunna Lake and Wallaga Lake just to the south of Narooma fish extremely well during this time and the results can be quite astonishing, to say the least. Sure, the fish become more sluggish with the colder water. A few minor tackle adjustments with varied techniques will still see heaps of action for those in the know. Last winter Wagonga Inlet fished amazingly over this time with most of the summer time species still chewing at times. Yes the deeper water in the main basin was quiet, but the upper reaches in the shallows were nothing short of brilliant. The shallower

Solid black bream are the species to target in our southern estuaries during winter. edges between 1-4m were chockers full of whitebait. This was the catalyst to the great fishing with schools of monster salmon to 3kg filling their quota and at times smashing the surface to a foaming mess. This commotion caused other species to get in on

the act with trevally, bream, flathead, tailor, decently sized snapper and the odd mulloway all succumbing to soft plastics and bait. This action continued right through winter and I think it will happen again this winter. The bait is already there, the salmon are there;

all it needs is you there. The smaller estuaries listed above are also fishing consistently. Concentrate around the shallower margins and use lighter leader as the water will be clearer as it gets colder. Use smaller presentations if using soft

plastics and the freshest of baits if bait fishing is your method. I also like to use blades during the cooler months. They work a treat if fished the right way and are dynamite on bream and flathead. Even the occasional big whiting and luderick fall victim these little bits of metal. Offshore the tuna brigade are in full swing with a heap of smaller school-sized yellowfin between 20-35kg falling to trolled lures and cubing. There has been the odd better fish caught. The best I’ve heard of was 78kg – a solid fish but there will be bigger fish encountered. This month will see some very big yellowfin caught, fish to 80kg+ can be expected, the longliners are catching a few with the shelf the place to fish. There’s a stack of bait there from the 70-fathom line outwards. This is where I’d be concentrating. The water is still 20°C out wide and will cool as the month progresses. You will find albacore with the yellowfin with albies to 20kg definitely possible. If sharks are your quarry then bring the big gear out, there

will be some solid makos patrolling the currents with the tuna. Every June some massive makos turn up and this year won’t be any different. At Montague Island the kingfish have been good without being spectacular. Some days are better than others with current direction playing a big part in their feeding habits. When they are chewing the north and southwest corners have been productive. Jigs, live bait and squid all work at times. There have been a heap of solid bonito around and maybe a stray yellowfin towards the northern end of the island. This used to be the hotspot donkey years ago throughout June and I know of a few locals that got the odd tuna last year at this time. It’s also well worth a look. On the beaches the salmon have been very good with large numbers available on most beaches. Both Tilba and Brou beaches have been the pick with both having great looking deep gutters lately. The fish have responded to a range of methods with cut and whole pilchards working well rigged on paternoster

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JUNE 2017

As the water cools down the channels fire up MERIMBULA

Stuart Hindson stuart@ausfishing.com.au

The rain we received last month has helped the local estuaries. Both Merimbula and Pambula lakes are picking up considerably. Over the last couple weeks we have guided there on several occasions and Merimbula Lake is a standout when the wind allows. Every session has seen seven or more different species encountered with bream, flathead, trevally, snapper, tailor, luderick and whiting all succumbing to a range of soft plastics and blades. Most of the action has happened in the top lake with the shallower margins between 2-4m along the ribbon-weed edges the gun place to start. Catches of 30+ legal fish per session are on the cards with some solid bream and smaller snapper to 40cm playing the game. The lower sections in the channels have been a little quieter. I’ve heard of nice bream and whiting being caught towards the entrance on bass yabbies. As the water cools further over winter, expect the channels to really fire up. Trevally, salmon, tailor and bream will be the most predominant species. On the beaches it’s business as usual. Any beach with a half decent gutter is producing. Merimbula’s main beach has been good for bream, whiting and mullet with beachworms and fresh prawns the better baits to use. If you’re after salmon then Tura Main and North Tura are the picks with abundant salmon available and some big models to boot. I’ve heard of several fish to 4kg. Sambos at that size are great sport on any beach tackle. Mixed in with the

salmon are some decent tailor. June usually produces a better class of greenbacks with monster fish to 5-6kg possible opponents. These bigger fish are quite often caught after dark by anglers targeting mulloway with big fresh baits. For those who prefer gentlemen hours, smaller school fish to 2kg will be catchable too. Anglers using a paternoster rig rigged with whole pilchards or bluebait on either ganged or single hooks should be in for a good time. June is prime time for rock hoppers targeting luderick, drummer and groper. These species love the cold water and any headland or rock platform that has a decent wash and cabbage encrusted rocks will hold good concentrations of these species. Short Point, Long Point and the rocks near the aquarium wharf are prime locations. Cabbage, cunjevoi, black crabs and fresh prawns will all work at times. Having a little berley in the wash will also improve your catch rates. Those after the pelagics should have no dramas with salmon, tailor and big bonito all on the go. Fishos using whole pilchards rigged on ganged hooks will do well. The spin brigade is getting plenty casting chromed slices up to 60g. There’s still the chance of a stray kingfish, especially at Tura Head. Last season saw some solid kings to 13kg caught off this prime LBG location. Those fishing offshore for tuna, especially yellowfin, will be happy. Recently there have been notable captures. I’ve heard of a few fish around the 60kg mark plus a stack of fish between 25-30kg. Most of the fish have come from the shelf where the water is still 18°C. The fish have been on top

with quite a few caught by anglers trolling. As the month goes on, berleying and cubing will be the main methods. This June we should see some jumbo yellowfin caught. The bait is there, the conditions are right and every indication of the fish getting caught north of us points to a bumper month. Later in the month and heading into July expect some bluefin tuna to be patrolling the wider grounds. They are catching plenty of solid fish south of us so it won’t be long before they are on our doorstep. Inshore the snapper have been good with fish averaging a kilo. Most reefs are holding fish with Long Point being the pick. Fresh squid and tuna strips have been the better baits though sportfishers fishing soft plastics in the washes have fared okay too.

Squidgy Wrigglers are still a favourite for many bream anglers.

It’s hard to miss the bream when you see them schooling up like this. From page 68

Scotty Finlay with a couple lure-caught bream from over the flats.

rigs. Another method here is to have a surf popper on one dropper and a bait on the other. This works extremely well and you will be surprised how many fish get captured on the popper. With the cooler water expect some jumbo tailor too. We always get big fish at this time of year with fish in excess of 3kg possible. Those after bream will still get a few fish and the estuary entrances are a good place to start. The entrance to Tuross along Blackfellows Beach has been good for bream. Beachworms and pipis are the preferred baits.

There still may be the odd whiting available. The water is getting colder for this tasty species. Those anglers fishing the rocks are in the transition period with the pelagic species. Salmon, tailor and bonito will still be abundant though kingfish, striped tuna and mackerel tuna will be heading north again. Of course there’s exceptions to the rule; many nice kingfish are caught in June. They are mainly incidental catches with no decent numbers to them. For the LBG diehards I’d be fishing Mystery Bay to the south of Narooma

or the golf course rocks in town. Both are great platforms and relatively safe in moderate seas. If a feed is what you’re after, get in line. Luderick, drummer, groper and bream will all be keen for a chew. Dalmeny headland, the golf course rocks and the southern breakwall will all turn it on. With the bigger seas we have experienced lately these species have really played the game and this will continue right through winter. The better baits to try include cunjevoi, prawns, cabbage and crabs. JUNE 2017

Winter means blues and yellows BATEMANS BAY

Anthony Stokman

If you asked a group of people to put up their hands if they love winter, you’d only get a few hands up. We have a love-hate relationship with winter.

Yes, it may be cold. Usually that’s the only reason why hands are down. Winter means blues, as in bluefin, and yellow as in yellowfin tuna. Winter also means albacore, swordfish, snapper, salmon, tailor, mulloway, drummer, and best of all on this beautiful stretch

of coast: you will have it all to yourself. We are blessed with no crowds and clear beautiful days and nights here on the south coast. It is truly wonderful to live here and winter really isn’t that bad. It’s quite mild and the fishing is still a great sport through these months.

Lily Ralston got amongst the great run of inshore pelagic action.

JUNE 2017

What we can expect this month offshore is a run of yellowfin tuna. Out in this neck of the woods they can be as big as 60kg, which is a very good fish by today’s standards. There’s nothing more exciting than being connected to a big yellowfin and your back will soon know all about it. Yellowfin have a reputation as being one of the toughest fights in the ocean and will put all their weight and more into the fight until they’re completely exhausted, so a good gimbel and harness is definitely a back saver. Any fisho who has spent time chasing these big long sickled barrels will have a bad luck story about a big yellowfin lost after a long fight and worse still – right at the boat. The two most popular ways of catching yellowfin are by trolling lures or cubing with bait. Cubing in the right conditions in accordance to wind and current can be a very fun and effective technique. However, trolling lures covers more ground. If you find a decent patch of fish you can stop and cube. When trolling for yellowfin run divers and deep diver hardbodied lures such as Halco Laser Pros, Rapalas and Live Target’s mackerel imitations in the short and long corner of the boat. This winter we will be testing the new Rapala X-Rap 40, which dives to 40ft! From the outriggers you run skirted lures that are 4-9” long. There are a multitude of colours and lure makers these days and honestly most of them work. You’ll find the average skirt length for tuna is around 6-9” and the favourite colours would have to be lumo, black and purple, pink, white, evil angel and natural looking colours like blue and silver. Once you have the corners of the boat covered with divers and skirts out in the outriggers then there is the shotgun, the lure you run right out the back. It can be as far back as you like, so long as you have the line capacity to bring the fish back. The shotgun can be any lure you like that swims. If you have spent many hours trolling with no success, but there seems to be some life in the way of birds, blue bottles, plankton, blue sparkles in the water or all these things plus temperature breaks on a current line, and bait on the sounder, it might be a good time to stop and cube. If it was as obvious as that, that would be great. The secret to a good cube trail is to keep a steady trail of pilchard cubes at around the same size. You don’t want to feed the fish down the trail all day, so keep the cubes well spaced so the tuna come up the trail. The rule of thumb is to toss a cube

Jem Abbot and a Clyde River mulloway. in as the previous disappears out of sight. I have two outfits: a spin and overhead that drops a pilly down the trail with a circle hook in the pilchard. I feed the hook through the mouth and out the gills then pass it in the belly of the pilly and curve it in and out so the point and barb is sticking out and the shank is inside and running along the pilchard. It sits nice and looks natural when feeding it down the cube trail. I alternate between the two outfits for some time once I have dropped a hooked bait down the trail. Then I click over the bail arm or put it in gear, slowly retrieve it and get ready to free spool it again in a controlled matter. You don’t want a bird nest, in case you get a bite on the way up. While retrieving we drop the hooked pilly on the other outfit so then you are working simultaneously to reduce tangles and always having a hooked bait in the water. You can reduce tangles with strong light swivels and increases the chance of a bite with as light a leader as you can use. Start with 80lb and drop down if there are fish there and not biting. If you have livies it is also good to have one out swimming under a biodegradable balloon run out of the outrigger so it’s out of the way. You increase your chances even more when you have a live bait in the water. Often a shark will come along and take this fella. If you are fishing on the inshore reefs this winter, there has been a good run of snapper over autumn and that is expected to continue. Inshore pelagics have been outstanding from autumn into winter. With a good presence of bait and a plague of squid there is no wonder why we have had such a great run of kingies between 50-70cm with bigger models out there and plenty of bonito, mack tuna, frigate, salmon and tailor in great numbers and good sizes.

Trolling past headlands with divers and skirts and casting from headlands and rock shelfs with 40g metals has been very effective. Fishing from the boats in close on the kings has been a lot of fun for guys picking them up on the troll or on the sounder and then stopping for a jig or dropping a plastic or swimbait down. What also helps and keeps them at the boat is deploying some berley. Fishing from the stones has been on fire lately for anglers spinning for the inshore pelagics. Squid have been as good as they get. I think the town has been eating calamari rings for the whole of autumn! This should still be on the menu into June and we can expect the run of salmon and snapper off the stones to continue. Then of course it’s that time of the year for the drummer. The beaches still have whiting, salmon and tailor. In case it hasn’t sunk in yet there are plenty of big salmon and tailor getting around. I don’t think you can go wrong chasing these guys this June. The estuaries have been alive with big autumn bream and these big fellas will start to move out the front and spawn over the next couple of months. Of a night the mulloway madness makes the headlines throughout autumn and will continue into June and on the beaches as well. We will start to see the estuary slow down as it gets colder. Try using thinner leaders and fishing the holes with blades to get a bite. There’s no point in complaining about the cold because there is plenty of good to focus on and there are many reasons to love winter. Come in and buy a jacket! Happy fishing. • For more up-to-the-minute 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).

There’s something old and something new BERMAGUI

Darren Redman djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

Fishing for luderick in the traditional way with floats and weed is something old. For something new, there are a lot of anglers out there who have never tried it, so look to an older form of angling to try something new – it’s a lot of fun. These are a popular species in the winter months targeted with long rods, floats and weed (either green or cabbage). The best areas in the Bermagui River are the reef adjacent to the boat ramp next to the bridge, the bridge itself or any of the many rock walls. If you don’t have the gear to target them with weed, try some nippers or worms – they work just fine. Trevally are another popular winter fish that you will find in most estuaries. Berleying will bring them to you. Cut baits of tuna will result in many hook-ups. This is best done on the incoming tide when the warm water from the ocean starts to stir the fish. Mixed in with these trevally are some nice bream, the odd flathead,

garfish and recently some excellent highflying salmon. Around near the blue pool off the rocks, these salmon will pass by allowing anglers a chance to lure fish for them. Mixed in are lovely bonito, tailor and kingfish. In the suds, particularly on early morning or just on dark, you can expect some very nice drummer and groper. These hard-pulling fish provide plenty of entertainment as well as a tasty meal. On the beaches, try casting lures for salmon in one of the many gutters that have formed. If one of these isn’t harbouring fish move on to the next and try again. If nothing else, it’s good exercise. These gutters may also be hosting nice bream, whiting, mullet, trevally or the occasional flathead migrating along the coast. Try berleying with oily fish like tuna, mackerel or pilchards to enhance your catch rate. Out at sea there are many options and one is light tackle sportfishing. This can be done with either lures or bait, by trolling, casting, drifting or anchoring. Trolling to rocky headlands is producing a variety of pelagic species

like bonito, salmon, frigates, tailor, kingfish and striped tuna. Once a reasonable school of fish is encountered, you can then start casting for more action. Going south will give you plenty of areas to try from the main point off Bermagui to the Brothers down to Bunga Point. On the reefs there are plenty of snapper to be found. These fish are being taken in many ways. Try drifting, fishing the bottom, anchoring and berleying, bringing some large fish up the trail, or even lure fishing with plastics. There are many other species you may encounter while fishing the reef, like the ever-popular morwong or tiger flathead. Out on the wider reefs just inside the Continental Shelf are many of the same species along with some large Tassie trumpeter. Out over the shelf, with the new reels now available to anglers, deep water species like hapuka, blue-eye trevalla and cod are now more accessible and becoming more popular. The gamefish aren’t done for this season, as there are plenty of tuna to be found. Large yellowfin are in good numbers and are being taken on the troll

Get into chasing luderick! They pull hard and there are so many different ways to catch them. or in berley trails. Cubing is popular at this time of year and is quite peaceful in the calm conditions that occur regularly in June. Attracted to these trails are many albacore, which also respond well to lures that are trolled, cast or jigged, which is becoming popular in berley trails. Bigeye tuna seem to have

made more of an appearance in the past few years making a welcome by-catch. Where there is a berley trail, there is often a mako lurking, so have a shark rig ready or in the water just in case. Always expect the unexpected. While the water is good there are still marlin around and plenty are still being encountered.

On a sad note, we recently lost Don Redman at the age of 93, a seasoned angler and dad well into his nineties who loved the outdoors and seafood. He was very much respected by other anglers, the Far South Coast Bass Stocking Association and the Bermagui Field and Game Gun Club.

The calmer weather options TATHRA

Darren Redman djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

The start of winter usually heralds some calm cool weather. This is a time for anglers to take advantage of it and try some different options or techniques. Leaving a safe entrance like Kianinny Bay at Tathra there are several options for where you can and how you can fish. North off Goalen Head is a massive

reef structure. Here most anglers are just drifting using a simple paternoster rig for good results. Others may choose to anchor and lay a berley trail with some very pleasing larger fish coming up the trail. Drifting whole pilchards or large cut baits will often account for large snapper while other species such as kingfish, bonito, small sharks or even the odd yellowfin may be attracted by the berley. It will often pay to have a live bait out while doing this style of fishing,

so have some heavier gear handy. Another popular method used now on snapper is jigging with plastics. To do this, drift, cast your lure up ahead of you then work it back to the boat or anchor up and work the area over before you move on. These methods will work in other locations out from Tathra like Nelsons Headland, straight out from Kianinny Bay or further south at White Rock. Not only are there snapper on the reefs, but plenty of other table fair

Pigfish are a true delicacy from the reefs.

will also grace anglers’ bags. Common catches are morwong, leatherjackets, perch, pigfish and just off the reefs are the everpresent tiger flathead. If you go further to sea close to the Continental Shelf, these deeper reefs are holding larger reef dwellers like nannygai, trumpeter or larger fish of the species already mentioned. One added bonus is when you go wide this allows you a chance at some larger gamefish in the form of the many tuna that are around right now. Albacore are definitely on the short list and are responding well to both trolled lures or cubes, as are the yellowfin and more recently some big-eye tuna. There are plenty of stripies attracting quite a lot of mako sharks. Don’t rule out a chance at late season marlin. Back on shore the local wharf is popular as schools of trevally are showing up to provide plenty of action. Passing salmon schools are welcome catches for those who like casting a lure while bonito are interested in a well-presented live bait. Other species regularly encountered are yellowtail, garfish, luderick closer to the rocks and tailor at night.

Think outside the square – some tuna take jigs. Have a squid jig handy – this is the time of year they may show in good numbers. Adjacent to Tathra Wharf are some excellent rock platforms providing great fishing. Schools of salmon, bonito, tailor and the odd kingfish provide activity towards the surface, while baits fished in the wash will account for many drummer, bream, trevally or one of those mighty blue groper. Things are quiet in the Bega River with cold water conditions slowing the feeding activity of the fish. One species that feeds

well in these conditions is estuary perch. Expect to find them in the lower areas towards the entrance along the rock walls. Bream, flathead, trevally or the odd mulloway are all in there. Expect to do a lot of work to encounter them. Surrounding estuaries that are open to the ocean are harbouring lots of good bream, trevally, garfish and plenty of luderick on weed. Lately schools of reasonable salmon will turn up just to make things interesting. JUNE 2017

Hope it will rain on our parade before winter MALLACOOTA

Kevin Gleed captainkev@wildernessfishingtours.com

We’ve had excellent weather over the past month with little to no rain here in Mallacoota. The rain has been to the north and to the south of us, but here on the corner it has been missing us no matter where it comes from. Recently, the town has been busy with fishers enjoying the good weather. It’s pretty standard to have 50-60 boats at the boat ramps each day. The past month has seen some great fishing offshore. Boats

using the Bastion Point Boat Ramp have had no problems as the harbour has recently been dredged and the seas have been flat with only the odd day of big seas. Out wide, the water temperature has been up and down with the water around 24°C. There were mahimahi caught. Those who were lucky enough to latch onto a few fish are still talking about how great they are to eat. Striped tuna were also caught in the same area. Out around the Star Banks, good numbers of yellowtail kingfish have been caught with fish up to a metre in length. Fish were

being caught on jigs, with live slimy mackerel the best choice for bait. Broadbill are still being caught with anglers travelling up to 70km offshore to catch fish. Good numbers of sand flathead are also showing up. Tiger flathead have not featured in the catch as much as they had in the past few months. Gummy sharks are still being caught to the north and south of Mallacoota. The water temperature really dropped, but recently it warmed up again. It won’t be long before it cools right off, only to warm up again around Christmas. Along the beaches, salmon have started to turn up along

Tailor and trevally are about in good numbers in the far south coast estuaries.

As we head into winter, good numbers of tailor are on the move.

with good-size tailor. Fish are being caught down around Tip Beach and the entrance to the lake. The entrance to the lake is a touch wide, and with the way it’s going the lake could be closed to the ocean soon with a heap of sand inside the entrance really choking things right up. There is sand built

up where it hasn’t built up before. Good numbers of silver trevally are in the lake along with tailor. Plenty of small pinkie snapper are also in the lake. If the lake closes for any length of time there will be some good fishing for these fish. A few yellowfin bream are also being caught. Black

bream are a real challenge to catch. Bait fishers are still coming in with good bags of fish. Flathead are still being caught, but they have really slowed down as the water is cooling. Plenty of schools of whitebait are in both the Top and Bottom lakes, giving plenty of tucker for fish to eat over the coming months.

Eden’s fabulous fishing variety EDEN

Kevin Gleed captainkev@wildernessfishingtours.com

The autumn weather was very mild and this winter will probably hit overnight, reminding you that you are on the far South Coast. There has been no shortage of visitors in the area, with plenty of caravans travelling along REV G.T

A L LY . S N A P P E R . EST

UA PE R RY

. WH AD

the coast taking advantage of the great weather, and fishing is one of the things on the agenda. Fishing from the local beaches has been great. Big numbers of salmon are starting to move along the coast and fish have been caught as big as 3kg. With the water still around the 20°C mark a variety of fish are still being caught. Yellowfin bream and sand whiting are being caught

on bait with beach worms and prawns the top choice. There are good gutters about after a few weeks of decent swell. This has stirred things up. Fishing from the local headlands has been good with drummer and luderick caught, along with good snapper for those who are prepared to be on the rocks first thing in the morning. The salmon are also turning up along the headlands. The inshore reefs

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have been fishing well with good catches of snapper, morwong and gummy sharks. Kingfish have been caught a bit further offshore. Heading out towards the shelf, mahimahi have been caught along with striped marlin and striped tuna. As yet, there have been no reports of yellowfin tuna. With little rain, all the local estuaries are clear and the water is warm. This has every species still on the chew. Sand whiting and yellowfin bream are being caught around the entrance area on fresh bait. Flathead are still taking a variety of soft plastic lures. Silver trevally and tailor are about in good numbers. This winter the fishing for these species should only improve. A bit of rain is needed to get the rivers flowing and the bass moving, so as we head into winter rain will help to fire the fishing right up.

Steve Jones with a Spanish mackerel that snapped up a ganged pilly.

Which electric motor is the right one for you? NSW STH COAST

Steve Starling www.starlofishing.com

Last month we looked at the benefits of using an electric motor. Now it’s time to examine the choices on offer and decide which make, model and configuration might best suit your particular fishing needs.

If you watch footage of any of the top-flight bass tournaments out of the United States, you’ll quickly notice that almost every American bass pro opts for a cable-steer electric. Many Aussie bass and bream tournament fishers have followed this lead. Their reasons for choosing cable steer are two-pronged: Firstly, cable-steer electrics

either wireless or connected to the motor via cables (most modern units are wireless). This more complex setup results in slower response times from the head unit. However, the advantages are that these electronic controls can be operated from anywhere on the boat (or even a short distance away outside of the boat!) and many also offer

The author with a handsome javelin grunter taken with the help of a modern, sophisticated electric motor.

Bow-mounted electric motors allow pinpoint placement of your boat for accurate, effective casting. Electric motors are available in a range of styles and configurations, making it potentially tricky for first time buyers to work out exactly which setup is best for them. It really pays to do your homework, talk to more experienced anglers and shop around before laying down your hard-earned cash for a ‘lecky. The first decision to be made is an important choice between a bow-mounted or transom-mounted unit. Transom-mounted electrics are considerably cheaper and easier to fit than quality bow-mounts and are generally only available in 12V versions with reasonably modest power outputs or thrust ratings. They’re a good choice for kayaks, canoes, car-toppers and little tinnies, but rather limited in their functionality on larger craft. A transom-mounted electric works quite well for trolling, but its usefulness when manoeuvring a vessel to cast lures or flies at specific targets is rather marginal. That’s why most serious users opt for a bow-mounted unit on their larger trailer boats. Once we move our attentions to the pointy end of the boat, we still have some vital choices to make when picking a bow-mounted electric. The most significant decision is whether to go with a cable-steer or electronicallycontrolled version.

employ a rugged, relatively simple mechanical steering mechanism. There’s not a lot to go wrong. Secondly, the steering response of these units is extremely fast; tilt your foot one way on the control and the head, shaft and prop of the motor rotate immediately in that chosen direction. Tip your foot back the other way and the motor rotates in the opposite direction. This process becomes highly intuitive over time, and is extremely useful when manoeuvring in tight spaces (such as between oyster racks) or dealing with fast, powerful fish hooked close to cover. By contrast, electronically controlled motors have a remote hand or foot control (or both) that is

integrated GPS-controlled functions such as ‘Spot Lock’ or ‘Anchor,’ as well as the ability to maintain a compass heading and a set speed, to track along a

designated or pre-programed course, or go directly to various stored waypoints. These sophisticated, electronically-controlled units are by far the biggest

Today’s bow-mounted electric motors offer a host of really handy features and can even be integrated with your sounder and plotter unit for increased functionality.

Smaller trailer boats are well served by 12V electric motor systems with 40-60lb of rated thrust.

sellers in Australia today. Once you’ve decided between stern or bow mounting and cable or electronic control, you’ll need to pick a power and thrust rating, a brand and a model. Electrics come in 12, 24, 36 and (rarely) 48V versions, and their power output at the propeller is generally rated in pounds of thrust from about 15 or 18lb in small transom units to more than 100lb in the biggest bow-mounts. For most trailer boats up to about 5.2m in length and with an all-up weight of half a tonne or less, a 12V unit with 40-60lb of thrust is fine. Larger vessels or

those operating in areas with consistently strong tides or winds will be better served by a 24V system with at least 75lb of thrust. Some makers offer a choice between saltwater and freshwater versions, with the major differences being related to the powder coatings or paints used, the metals selected, and whether or not sacrificial zinc anodes are fitted as standard. Not surprisingly, saltwater models are greatly favoured by Australian anglers. Finally, there’s the matter of choosing a brand and a model. The range of choice in this area expands each year. As a rule of thumb, you get what you pay for, and cheaper units may not last as long or perform as well out of the box as top-line offerings. They’re also likely to have less built-in features. The two big brands in electric motors have been in this business a long time and have the runs on the board, as well as established dealer networks and aftersales service records. As with fishing tackle, buying something significantly cheaper from a lesser-known maker can potentially end in tears. My advice is to buy the best you can afford, look after it really well, and don’t be afraid to contact the Australian distributor immediately if you experience any operating issues. If you’ve been contemplating going electric and have put it off, I strongly urge you to bite the bullet this year. No other single piece of kit will have a greater positive impact on your lure and flyfishing results than a quality, bow-mounted electric motor. JUNE 2017

WHAT’S NEW FISHING EUREKA DEEP SEA JIGS

Eureka Lures’ quality range of deep sea jigs have unique designs and actions for different depths and conditions. The fast sinking Riot Jig is rigged centre balanced with a scalloped-out reverse side to increase the flutter on the drop. It is available in 180g and 240g sizes and six colours. The Ambush Jig is a long, thin jig that dances in the water and is rigged centre balanced. It comes in 150g and 220g sizes and six colours. The Pirate Jig has a scalloped out back that creates an amazing flutter throughout the water column to create a unique swimming action. It weighs 220g and comes in four colours. The Diamond Bait Jig is a real baitfish profile with the weight on the tail, and its sliced opposite reverse side maximises the sliding action. It comes in 130g and 200g weights and six colours. All Eureka Jigs feature glow belly sections and come pre-rigged with Mustad assist hooks that feature 200lb Kevlar that is heat shrink rubber coated. www.jurofishing.com

SHIMANO TRANX

The Shimano Tranx is designed to go toeto-toe with the toughest predators. This series of baitcasting reels have been resized and spec’d up, and are perfectly suited to trolling for barra, micro jigging reefies or swimbaiting a Murray cod. The Hagane Body provides a rigid yet highly durable outer shell that’s free from body flexing. Additionally, High Efficiency Gearing (HEG) leverages an enlarged drive and pinion gear that is further supported by X-Ship for the ultimate in smooth operation. Providing unrivalled saltwater protection is Shimano’s CoreProtect technology, ensuring bulletproof performance in all conditions. Available in both a 300 (5.8:1 and 7.6:1) and 400 (7.6:1) size, the Tranx features 5+1 bearings and outputs 10kg to 8kg respectively. Despite being larger in size, the Tranx keeps a low profile design and still remains extremely ergonomic. Appealing to a range of fishing styles, the AHG models come fitted with a Power Knob, and the A model comes fitted with a double paddle handle. www.shimanofish.com.au

BAITCLOUD ATTRACTANT

BaitCloud originated in Canada, after the inventor saw a need for an attractant to switch on fish activity. This product has now become much sought-after for anglers in Canada and the USA, and has started expanding into Europe. BaitCloud activates the five fish senses – sight, smell, taste, feel and hearing. It’s ideal for when the action is quiet, or when you want to entice fish out from under rocks, banks, mangroves or snags. You just throw the ball, and as soon as it hits the water it starts fizzing. This noise is what first attracts the fish, and then the all-natural, biodegradable ball scents the water and activates the fish’s other senses. BaitCloud attracts baitfish first, which draw out the predators. Then all you need to do is cast your lure or bait around the cloud. It lasts for 1-2 hours, depending on the current. There are seven varieties to choose from. Price: SRP $10.99 www.baitcloudaustralia.com 74

JUNE 2017

HURRICANE STING 37

PRODUCT GUIDE

Hurricane has been extensively testing and tweaking the Sting 37 vibration shrimp-style blade, and the finished result has been dynamite on bream, bass, perch, yellowbelly, flathead and more. Hurricane designer Peter Nord said his goal was to provide anglers with the fastest and most solid vibration possible out of a 37mm blade of this type and shape. “When anglers try this lure for the first time, their first words are along the lines of, ‘Wow – I can feel the lure vibrating really strong and fast with the smallest rod lift’. This vibration is what drags the fish over to the lure and entices the bite.” The Sting 37 Blade features super-short stinger hooks, which greatly increase the hook-up rate. It measures 37mm long, weighs 5.7g, and comes in eight natural colours. Price: SRP $14.95 www.hurricanelures.com.au

STARLO’S FINESSE FISHING WEAR

Well-known fishing writer and presenter, Steve ‘Starlo’ Starling, has joined forces with clothing manufacturer Mad Keen Australia to launch his own line of highquality apparel: Starlo’s Finesse Fishing Wear. The current range consists of vented, long-sleeved, button-up fishing shirts and baseball-style caps in unique camouflage colours, each featuring a distinctive water ripple pattern. The two colours currently available are Cobalt (blue) and Sweetwater (brown), with a third colour not far away. Shorts, long pants, buffs, fleeces and accessories are also in the pipeline. “The concept of finesse lies at the core of my fishing philosophy,” Starlo explains. “My aim is always to reduce my visibility to fish while maximizing comfort, protection from the elements and freedom of movement.” A great deal of thought has gone into limiting the opportunities for lines, lures or ropes to snag on the clothing, and the fabrics all carry high UPF ratings. This gear is also extremely comfortable to wear and looks great! You can purchase Starlo’s Finesse Fishing Wear at tackle stores and on the Mad Keen website. Price: SRP $24.99 (cap), $89.99 (shirt) www.madkeen.com.au

FISH INC. LOCK

The Lock jerkbait from Fish Inc imitates a long, slender baitfish. This versatile lure can be used to target a wide variety of species including kingfish, salmon, mackerel and more. The Lock has a built-in weight transfer system that assists with casting distance and provides an erratic action to attract predators. This lure comes out of the pack already fitted with #4 Owner hooks, ready to go. The Fish Inc Lock measures 160mm, weighs 29g and comes in six colours: pearl red head, pink belly shad, rainbow, smelt, blue shad and ayu. For more info head to the Fish Lures website, or look them up on Facebook. Price: RRP $18.95 www.fishlures.com.au

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PRODUCT GUIDE 7

WHAT’S NEW FISHING SAMAKI MURRAY COD SHIRT

Samaki’s latest fishing shirt puts a new twist on the iconic Murray cod. The Samaki Murray cod shirt features this gorgeous species in all its glory, with an electric blue design detail that enhances each and every feature – from the sharpness of the fins to the depths of the mouth. You can really see the detail in the flesh, and the extensive layers of teeth inside that bucket mouth. Like all Samaki fishing shirts, this lightweight, long-sleeve shirt is UPF50+ rated, and the soft-touch 100% polyester material is comfortable to wear all day. It also has the added bonus of being breathable, keeping you cool and dry. Adult sizes range from S to 3XL, and youth/kids sizes range from 2-14. Other species in the range include barramundi, snapper, giant trevally, coral trout, marlin, mulloway, mud crab and more. Price: SRP $59.95 (adults), $49.95 (youth and kids) www.samaki.com.au

HURRICANE SLAM 47

STRIKE PRO TINY BUSTER JNR

The Strike Pro Tiny Buster Jnr is the smallest model in the famous Strike Pro range of Buster Jerk lures. These highly popular baits have sold over 1,000,000 units throughout the world in the past 10 years. The Tiny Buster Jnr is a slide bait that has an amazing action that many fish find appealing. The Tiny Buster Jnr’s enticing gliding and darting action has proven to be extremely effective on species such as bass, sooty grunter, barramundi, mangrove jack, mulloway, tuna and more. The Tiny Buster Jnr is 6.8cm long, weighs 10.3g and is a sinking lure that dives to approximately 6ft. It is available in four proven, realistic colours, and since its launch last year it is fast becoming a hit throughout Australia, as it has been throughout the rest of the world. www.jurofishing.com

MUSTAD KAIJU ALUMINIUM PLIERS 11

The Hurricane Slam 47 is a very versatile lure. With a working range of 0.5-4m, it can be worked over and through many different and demanding scenarios, such as rock banks, shallow to deep drop-offs, deep water, shallowish water, structure and timber. The Slam 47 is also very snag-resistant, due to the bib of the lure hitting most obstacles first. This lure will sit bib down in the water column, so with a little care you can work it in the kinds of gnarly areas that most other lures would snag up in. This 47mm, 5.7g lure can be slow rolled or twitched, and it is suspending in freshwater and has a slow float in saltwater. It’s currently available in 18 fish-catching colours, and suits bream, bass, perch, flathead, jacks and more. Price: SRP $18.95 www.hurricanelures.com.au

Mustad has introduced a new range of precision made, high quality stainless steel bearing swivels. These little pieces of machinery are designed to last, and nothing escapes as these swivels are world leaders in terms of start up inertia and ease of movement. Made from the strongest stainless steel possible, in a factory owned by Mustad to ensure the strictest quality control, these swivels are assembled with surgical precision and have undergone intensive testing by machine and during heavy fishing. Mustad claims these items have unmatched strength, reliability and performance – something game fishers demand. Mustad Stainless Steel Ball Bearing Swivels come in nine poundages ranging from 110lb all the way through to 880lb, so these swivels are built for heavy game. www.wilsonfishing.com

DAIWA 16 CERTATE 9 LOW SPEED

GEECRACK ORENTA

In 2004 Daiwa introduced the Real Four Concept in the original Certate, and since then the Certate has continued to evolve. The 16 Certate HD models introduced a Monocoque Body design – a symmetrical, one-piece structure. The gears of the new 3500 and 4000 Certate HD models are embedded in the Monocoque body construction, providing more rigidity and a better sealing mechanism. Now, by popular demand, Daiwa has reintroduced a low-speed 4000 model to the 16 Certate HD range. The longawaited, low-speed 16 Certate 4000 HD boasts a 4.9:1 (86cm) gear ratio and will only be available in Australia, giving Aussie anglers opportunities for more powerful fishing styles with lighter tackle. The HD 4000 has 8+1 ball bearings, weighs 405g, pulls 8kg of drag, and has a capacity of PE 2.5/300m or 3/250m. Other features include: Mag Seal, Mag Sealed line roller, Magseal bearings, Airbail (one piece construction), ABS II, Zaion Air Rotor, Rotor Brake, silent oscillation, Real Stopper and ATD (Automatic Tournament Drag). www.daiwafishing.com.au

The concept of the trusty metal vibe has been redefined with the arrival of the Geecrack Orenta, made in Japan and now available in Australia through Dogtooth Distribution. With an incredible swimming action, designed to maximise predator attraction, coupled with a 12 highly detailed colour combinations, this lure is a must for every serious fresh and saltwater angler. Japanese lure manufacturer Geecrack is becoming renowned in Australia for high quality and attention to detail. The Orenta is no exception to this. Tried and tested in a number of Australian states, the Orenta has been highly successful in our freshwater fisheries (predominantly on Australian bass) however many of the colour combinations lend themselves well to saltwater environments as well. High grade manufacturing materials ensure durability in all Australian conditions. Available in three sizes (50mm, 60mm, and 70mm), with weights ranging between 7g and 14g, the Orenta will be available in all good tackle stores soon. Price: SRP $19.95 www.dogtoothdistribution.com.au

Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au JUNE 2017

WHAT’S NEW FISHING BAGLEY LURES MINNOW B 05

GEECRACK DAISY 13 SPIN

The Bagley Minnow B 05 is a 5” floating jerk minnow with Bagley’s trademark action and rattle chambers that call fish to the lure. Twitch it and pause it to attract brutal surface strikes, or punch, roll and pause it sub-surface to draw fish out of the snags or across the flats. Easy to cast and versatile, the Minnow B 05 is at home in the northern rivers and estuaries chasing barra and jacks around snags, drains and prop roots, casting and trolling the flats for flathead, or fishing the creeks, rivers and estuaries for a wide range of species, from salmon and tailor, to trevally and a mixed bag of other baitfish eating predators. Built from durable, quality components and fitted with chemically sharpened, black nickel hooks, the Bagley Minnow B 05 is ready to swim straight out of the packet. It measures 5” long, weighs 3/8oz, dives to 3ft and comes in six colours. Price: SRP $16.95 www.tackletactics.com.au

SALTIST DEMON BLOOD 2017

With a ‘more muscle and less fat’ attitude at the core of its design, the Saltist Demon Blood 17 combines the reputation of the famous Saltist name with contemporary styling, features and the latest design concepts. At the heart of the Demon Blood’s blank design is HVF – High Volume Fibre, producing a blank with maximum graphite density. Cross directional wrapping eliminates twist and distortion to increase rod strength and sensitivity. 3DX ensures power is distributed evenly in all directions, allowing the rod’s power to be located at the lower section for more power and less angler fatigue. The Bias Wrap construction in Demon Blood’s V-Joints allows the rod ferrule to flex with the rod to eliminate weak spots, ensuring that multi-piece blanks match the performance of one-piece blanks in flex, power and responsiveness. Other features include Fuji Alconite K guides, heavy-duty Fuji reel seats with locking rings, and ultra-tough EVA grips. www.daiwafishing.com.au

SUDDEN IN-PACT BAITS

Loaded For Bass Sudden In-Pact Baits are handmade jig/spinnerbait trailers designed to hold a large amount of catch scent and to keep releasing it for longer. Made from a synthetic and natural blend of biodegradable materials, these supple trailers are extremely durable, won’t tear off, dry out or become distorted. Being super absorbent, the attractant won’t be washed away after a few casts. That means fewer scent applications throughout the day. There are nine models in the range: the Classic Frog, Jumbo Frog, Finesse Frog, Classic Craw, CrenCraw, Striper Viper, Split Tail, Beaver Tail and Pact Strip. Sizes range from 2.25” (6cm) to 5.25” (13cm), and colours include brown, red, green, yellow, blue, black and white. Custom colours can also be ordered. To view the range or place an order, visit the Loaded For Bass website. Price: USD $5.99 (approx. AUD $8) www.loadedforbass.com 76

JUNE 2017

PRODUCT GUIDE

Small but deadly, the Geecrack Daisy Spin is a highly effective metal vibe, with the added attraction of a built-in spinning Colorado blade. Designed and manufactured by leading Japanese tackle provider Geecrack, the Daisy Spin is now available in Australia through Dogtooth Distribution. The Daisy Spin features a solid lead body which sharply descends to the desired target range. Upon retrieval, freshwater predators can’t resist the swimming movement and attractiveness of the spinning blade. This same body weight ensures excellent casting ability and additionally produces a strong vibration up through the line and into the rod, which is easily felt when retrieving the lure. Well suited to a lift-and-fall technique, in addition to a cast-and-retrieve technique, the Daisy Spin has been highly successful in landing many Australian freshwater species including bass and estuary perch. The Daisy Spin comes in eight eye catching colour combinations, and two sizes (60mm – 1/4oz, and 70mm – 3.8oz). Price: SRP $12.95 www.dogtoothdistribution.com.au

PRIMAL SPINNERBAITS

Primal Spinnerbaits are a new Australian spinnerbait maker taking the industry head-on. This range of handmade spinnerbaits features various weight and colour heads ranging from 1/2oz to 4oz, and heaps of different coloured skirts to keep the Murray cod guessing. The introduction to the twin spin set-up has taken off in the past few years, and the keen fishos that get amongst it on Lake Eildon have done well with these spinnerbaits. They have strong Mustad long shank 6/0 hooks with a big hook gape for that big fish waiting to latch on. Grub tail and paddle tail soft plastic trailers are made in-house. The full range is available at Eildon Bait & Tackle in the Eildon township, and they also do mail orders (ph. 03 5774 2348). If you’re after a custom colour, weights or blades, contact designer Daniel Piazza via the Primal Spinnerbaits Facebook page. www.facebook.com/Primalspinbaits

SUFIX 832 METERED 18 BRAID Sufix’s famous 832 braided line featuring Gore performance fibre is now available in a multicolour metered option suitable for jigging, deep dropping and more. Sufix 832 has proven over a long time to be one of the toughest braided lines on the market. Its combination of seven Dyneema fibres combined with a Gore performance fibre is woven together 32 times every inch, resulting in a smooth and round profile, and unmatched abrasion resistance. You can find the new Sufix 832 metered braid in both 300 and 3500m spools in 20lb, 30lb, 50lb and 80lb breaking strains. The new addition of metered multicolour options adds to the existing neon lime and low-vis green colours. For more information on Sufix 832, check out the Sufix website. www.sufix.com.au

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PRODUCT GUIDE

WHAT’S NEW FISHING TESTED

Alvey 625BRRT Rip Fighter Fresh from the production line of the Alvey factory in Brisbane, the Alvey 625BRRT Rip Fighter is packed with features, and I was lucky enough to be able to test one recently. The slim design, handsome looks and smooth feel of the Alvey Rip Fighter reel are sure to appeal to long-term as well as potential new Alvey fans. This reel is suited to chasing whiting, trevally, flathead and chopper tailor in the surf, and would be suitable for all native species in the fresh. It has a line capacity of 300m of 5kg line, or about 500m of 6lb line. FEATURES The Rip Fighter is an Alvey 625 series. For those not familiar with the Alvey model numbering, this means the reel has a spool diameter of 6.25” (160mm). By way of comparison, the 650 series reels (popular with tailor anglers) have a diameter of 6.5” (150mm). This is only the second model of

means, compared to the deeper spools on the 600 and 650 series, you require much less line to spool up effectively. The other big advantage is weight. The Rip Fighter weighs in at 585g compared to the 600BT which is 50g heavier. The difference is even more significant when compared to the 650BRR, which is 866g. Another new feature is the Rip Fighter has a thinner spindle (compared to the 600B) which means it will spin faster, and have a smoother and more free running spool. The spindle is also supported by a quality long-life stainless steel bush. A ‘bush’ is the circular support or alignment mechanism for the spindle, which is fitted inside the spool. The Rip Fighter includes a dual handle with an outer direct 1:1 wind handle and an inner rapid retrieve knob, which can give you around 30% increase in recovery rate when required. The Rip Fighter also incorporates the new

The dark design of the Alvey Rip Fighter makes it stand out from the pack.

The thin spindle and stainless steel bush make casting and retrieving baits a pleasure.

First cast, and a nice whiting!

Close up of the Rip Fighter loaded with 6lb line and yet another fish.

If you’re using two rods, you can set the star drag on the Rip Fighter and set the rod with confidence of catching most fish that take the bait. reel Alvey have released in the 625 range, with the other being the 625B which has fewer features than the Rip Fighter. Another point of difference is its narrow, shallow spool. While this means the reel has a smaller line capacity, it also has a few advantages – including the fact that the shallower spool means it has the same recovery rate as a 650 model. When you’re targeting the likes of tailor or whiting, it’s unlikely that you’ll hook anything that will peel off a couple of hundred metres of line. That

Turbo Cast system. This means the reel is positioned slightly further off the rod, giving longer casts. An added benefit is the Turbo Cast system more easily enables the reel to fit in a normal bull bar style rod holder. It only took a few casts to train my brain to the push lever rather than the lever turning mechanism (which can become stiff at times). Other features include a lightweight graphite back and a metal star nut that allows you to add drag or tension to the spool, which is very handy during transport.

One final point is the attractive black, smooth finish of the Rip Fighter. This is a great looking reel that stands out from the pack. PUTTING IT TO THE TEST I spooled my Rip Fighter with 6lb line for a recent holiday to Evans Head, NSW. On the very first cast I threw out a large yabby. I was enjoying the incredibly smooth turn of the reel, thinking that it would be giving a very natural look to my yabby bait, when after about five turns the rod buckled over and I was on! The reel was a pure delight to use during the fight and before long I’d landed a 29cm whiting. Turning to my mate I said, “Well, it looks like it works!” I then proceeded to catch and release another 20 or so legal whiting to 40cm, and a bunch of small and medium size bream that session, so I was able to give the reel a good workout. The reel cast exceptionally well, had a

finesse-like feel when turning the handle slowly, and when I wanted to get a smaller fish in fast, or check my bait, the rapid retrieve knob was a bonus. It was also noticeably lighter to use than the 600B series I have. I also tested it out by setting the rod in the holder. I was able to adjust the star nut accordingly, and soon had a number of big whiting and bream catching themselves due to the smooth, consistent turn of the reel and my soft rod tip. While I used the 12’ Alvey 625L rod with it, I preferred using a lighter 10’6” rod in the river. However, I will revert to the slightly heavier Alvey 625L rod or the 650 rod if throwing heavier lures or baits when chasing tailor with it. WEIGHING IT ALL UP All in all I was pleasantly surprised by the looks, feel and features of the Rip Fighter. I’m already thinking I want a second, so I can spool one with 6lb line and one with thin diameter 7kg line for Tailor. – Sean Thompson

JUNE 2017

PRODUCT GUIDE

WHAT’S NEW FISHING

Tatula Swimbait TAT76H-SB and HD 200H combo Swimbaiting as a fishing technique is nothing new. What is new is the amount of coverage it’s had, and more importantly the amount of specialised gear that has been made available to Aussie anglers through local wholesalers and retailers. Daiwa, a company with a rich history in swimbaiting in the US and Japanese markets (where this technique really evolved from) have been supplying international anglers with quality gear for decades. Now they have brought it to Australia.

certainly nothing with a ‘HD’ attached to the end of it. As soon as I opened the box I liked what I saw. The 200 size did scare me a little, as I like my reels nice and compact, but to my surprise they’ve engineered this much like modern cars – they’ve fit a lot into a shell that’s not actually that big. The aircraft-grade aluminium spool offers as much space as you’re likely to find without going to an old school barrel-style baitcaster, and that’s just the start of the fun. The 200H features an impressive 6kg of drag, which I found to be quite smooth during

The first fish tamed was this 85cm king threadfin salmon from the Brisbane River. Not a bad way to christen a new rod! GOOD NEWS FOR US! Being a gen Y dude born in the 80s, with an attention span no longer than my arm, I’m a sucker for new trends. When Cranka Crabs came out, I had to have a dozen, even though I don’t fish for bream much. iPhones? I’ve had ‘em all. I did manage to avoid having a man bun, so points to me on that occasion, but once the big bait craze hit our shores it was only a matter of time before I called Daiwa HQ in Sydney asking them to invoice me for a swimbaiting combo. Boy, did they deliver. THE ROD The Tatula Swimbait TAT76H-SB is a 7’6”, 5-9kg beast with a fast taper and a split butt built to launch big lures a long way without you having to spend more at the chiropractors than you did on the rod. Built on Daiwa’s SVF carbon blanks with tough EVA grips, it surprised me just how light it was in the hand. I have literally cast all night on this thing without ending up feeling like I’d gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. While working a lure you can feel every thump of its tail or bump on structure, thanks to the minimalist skeleton reel seat which keeps the reel low and out of the way, and once you hook up the fun really begins. “The tug is the drug” as they say, and even a smaller fish will put a smile on your face. The fast taper not only helps with extra inertia transfer when casting, but also means you can have plenty of fun when hooked up. That’s true whether you’re connected to a run-of-the-mill sized fish or a real giant of the species, and there’s still plenty of balls in the back end to keep you ahead in the fight. THE REEL My Tatula HD 200H is the first larger (200 size) Daiwa baitcaster I’ve owned. I’ve had smaller models from the Pixy and Alphas range for throwing light lures at bass, but

JUNE 2017

TESTED

a fight. Some of the older Daiwa baitcasters had a reputation for being a bit stop/start and biting too hard at times, but that has improved out of sight. Daiwa’s patented T-Wing System allows for extra casting distance and line control not found in any of my other baitcast reels. My only tip when using a T-Winged reel is to practice and perfect your knots so they pass through without hassle. Another improvement on models I’d used 5-8 years ago was the cast controls. I took the time to throw a casting plug a few times in the front yard, and once it was set it stayed how I like it and made for very few bird’s nests. The ones I did get were from my own overexcitement and lost concentration. No fault of the reel. You’ll notice I did make some changes to the reel with the help of Daiwa’s Reel Custom series of bits and pieces. This goes back to my need for trendy new things, and I’ll talk about those bits later. THE LINE Having spent much of my life working in a tackle industry, fondling every braid that came through the door – from bulkier, traditional American fibres right through to the thinnest of Japanese offerings – J-Braid 4 would probably not have been my first choice. Being a 4-strand construction, it’s a little coarser and thicker than I’d normally go for – even on a baitcaster, where a slick profile isn’t as necessary as on a spin reel (the physical turning of the spool does lots of work for you on the cast). I was still excited to try it though. The price is certainly right – you can pick up a 135m spool for around $23! If I’m to be honest with you, the loyal readers of Fishing Monthly, my first few casts I wasn’t completely sold on the J-Braid 4. It was holding some water and felt waxy. It took

The Tatula combo is equally at home in the salt as in the fresh, as evidenced by this nice flathead taken working large plastics along a break wall. probably 50 decent casts before it properly softened up and ran smoothly. Well and truly worth the $23, but not as nice as I’ve used in the past. Since that point though, it has been really nice to use. The knot strength is great, abrasion resistance is above average and it’s held colour quite well. It’s now accounted for some nice king threadfin salmon, flathead and Murray cod, all of which tested its limits on various types of structure in both the fresh and the salt. CUSTOM PROJECT Anything that allows me to be me is a winner. Weird coloured shoes? I’m in. Offensive punk music? YEP! So it’s hardy surprising that I identified with the endless possibilities that the Daiwa Custom Project offers me as a fisherman. Spools, handles, knobs, caps and accessories let me express myself anywhere I am on the water.

Aside from the aesthetics, they also offer functionality by way of different constructions and sizes. You can add or drop weight, have longer or shorter handles and in just about every colour of the rainbow. It’s a winner. I chose a swept aluminium handle and a couple of Zaion handle knobs, and couldn’t be happier. AS A WHOLE COMBO Love it. I’ve thrown everything from little 7cm stickbaits and soft plastic jerkshads right up to 6oz+ swimbaits and wakebaits without thinking twice. I’ve had friends on the boat with combos twice the price who haven’t been able to match the capabilities of the Tatula. It’s a weapon. Weather you’re fishing the surface or working a sinking swimbait down deep, it’s got everything you need and is tough as nails. Sexy, 7’6” black nails with Fuji guides. - Rupe

The Tatula combo: a perfect storm of performance and beauty.

Journey to the ever-charming Jounama Creek JOUNAMA CREEK

Adam Smith

Jounama Creek is a small creek that winds its way from the Snowy Mountains high country to the base of Talbingo

Jounama Creek can be found a short distance down the dirt track coming off the Snowy Mountains Highway directly opposite the Talbingo township turnoff. About 500m down the dirt track is the Jounama Creek campgrounds, a couple of

rapids and pools. In no time you will bag yourself a pristine mountain stream trout for dinner. I’ve found targeting the feeding trout by casting into the pool above then dragging the lure down though the small white waterfalls generally

Jounama Creek offers a picturesque backdrop to lay a floating line and a dry fly over with excellent results. Jounama Creek is packed with small rainbow and brown trout boasting beautiful colours and markings. Mountain. Believed by some to be an natural trout spawning stream, Jounama Creek is packed with small rainbow and brown trout boasting beautiful colours and markings. It was my pick of the mountain streams this summer.

park benches, ample grassed flat ground to pitch a tent, swag or park your caravan and a pair of his and hers pit toilets. Once there it’s all pretty straight forward. Throw on your waders, grab a rod and rock hop your way upstream casting at both

produces fish each time. If you have received a hit or drop a fish, casting again at them is usually a futile endeavour and it’s best just to move up the stream and attack the next pool. Bouncing small spinners over the smooth river rocks is by far my

most preferred method of enticing a Jounama Creek trout and some of my favourite lures include the locally made FTL Lures no. 4 inline spinner, the Blue Fox Vibrax size 1 in hot pepper black and the Panther Martin 1/32oz in salamander gold. Hardbody lures in a brown trout pattern are also great to tie on in the deeper runs of the creek. For the spin fisher, the tackle you use is pretty important. A light whippy rod is essential paired with a 1000 to 2500

sized reel. For the avid fly thrower the Jounama Creek offers a picturesque backdrop to lay a floating line and a dry fly over with excellent results. I always run a bead headed nymph under my dry to increase my chances of enticing a bite from these wild trout twofold, if not more. If surface action is all you desire than running a straight dry will produce fish over these summer months. Wading in the creek is a must in places, due to thick patches of blackberry bush

impeding the access from the bank. When wading the Jounama you will encounter the occasional random slippery rock, which could easily turn into a twisted ankle. This is where an investment in decent wading footwear specifically made for wading small streams by Patagonia, Orris, Simms or Korkers could save you a trip to the hospital. Jounama Creek is extremely scenic and family-friendly; it’s well worth devoting a weekend away to enjoy all it has to offer.

FISHING & BOATING LIFESTYLE PROGRAM KIERAN REEKIE & ALAN BLAKE + many others talk fishing and boating

SAT / SUN 4am - 7am For the spin fisher in Jounama Creek, the tackle you use is pretty important. A light whippy rod is essential, paired with a 1000 to 2500 sized reel.

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JUNE 2017

Upsize, upgrade and up the stakes in June YARRAWONGA

Kyle Dalrymple, Mat Rogers and Mal Stone

With regular reporter Phil Bennett fishing up a storm in the Northern Territory this month, we have compiled a report from three anglers in the Yarrawonga area: Mat Rogers, Kyle Dalrymple and Mal Stone. MAT ROGERS In recent weeks, anglers fishing downstream of the Yarrawonga weir have been catching some great fish, with metre-plus fish hitting the decks of several boats. Most have been taken on big surface lures at first light. One of the best reports came from local angler Wes, who caught three fish over 1m in a single overnight session below the weir wall, all on surface lures.

The lake itself has continued to fish extremely well. Anglers have been scoring large numbers of fish around the legal size, and there has been a mixture of really solid fish amongst them. Mick Massier and Matt Pejkovic caught 40 across a three-day long weekend, with a couple up in the 80s and one in the 90cm range. The most productive lure was the 200mm Jackall Gigantarel. Local gun angler Kyle Dalrymple has also been catching solid fish in recent weeks, scoring specimens up to the mid-90s in and around the Corowa area casting the new Ruthless lures. I’ve been catching a few nice ones lately around the Bundalong area on Kuttafurra Therapys and the new Zerek Live Mullet soft plastics.

Kyle Dalrymple’s 93cm cod caught on a prototype Ruthless lure.

In the wake of the first heavy frosts, the larger fish will be coming on the bite. That should see more anglers heading out throwing big surface lures at first and last light. Additionally, now that the river is slowing up and running lower and clearer, larger deep divers will be very effective in probing those big snag piles that are normally out of reach in the fast current of the main river. If you don’t mind travelling further afield, try heading up into the mountains to have a crack at the spawn run in the Eucumbene and Tumut rivers. The Tumut in particular is fishing well for trout on fly, spinners and hardbodies. KYLE DALRYMPLE Over the last month the fishing has fired up pretty well. The river has dropped and the water is nice and clear, and the fish have come on the job. In two sessions over one weekend I was fortunate enough to get six fish ranging from 56cm to 96cm, which I caught casting lures. I like to look for water that has little back eddies with nice big, older timber that’s been in the water for quite some time. I start casting at the base of the tree close to the bank, and slowly work my way out to the tip sitting further out in the river. My outfit for these fish consisted of an 8kg, 7ft Venom rod with a Chronarch

reel and a prototype Ruthless lure. The lure was designed by Aaron Young from

Kuttafurra Lures, and looks like a small Murray cod. The first Ruthless lures should be out later this year.

There’s still the odd yellowbelly in the Murray, mostly caught as a bycatch. Most of them have been taking hardbodies around the 100mm mark, such as the Kuttafurra Mudhoney, and the Gangsta Lures Outcast spinnerbait in green colour. Yellas tend to hang off the end of shrubbier trees, with lots of little twigs and sticks, in around 1-4m of water. Just to change things up, I recently got the fly rod out to chase some cod. Myself and two friends ended up with six cod to 60cm. Even though they weren’t massive, it was something different and a lot of fun. The fishing in June is going to be hard work but it should pay off with some better quality cod. The yellas should still be pretty active as well. Traditionally, low light periods are the best times, but lately there have been some good catches around lunchtime, which is surprising. MAL STONE Down below the weir wall, people have been picking up some nice cod on surface lures, yabbies and cheese.

The Zerek Live Mullet being tested at Mulwala has proven to be an effective lure that the fish totally inhale in the slower, cooler waters. The lake itself has cleared up a bit, and on those sunny winter days it’s nice to troll around and pick up a few cod. Good lures include the 75mm Oar-Gee Plow, 90mm AC Invaders, and No. 1 StumpJumpers in the darker colours. Many cod have also been taken on spinnerbaits, with the best colours being whites, natural colours and purple. The cray season starts on the first of June, and you can pick them up from clay banks and around timber, as well as in the backwaters. The most popular baits are ox liver, hearts and chicken carcasses. Check the DPI website for regulations. The surface fishing is quite good at the moment. Good times to throw a surface lure are an hour or two

before daylight, and just on sunset. The action goes a bit quiet just after dark, but then picks up again around 10pm. Good lures include the King Hit Paddle Snake, Oar-Gee Malibu, Kingfisher Mantis and Thirsty Lures by CJ. The frosty mornings will cause the fishing to slow down a bit in June, but the average size will be bigger. There’s the chance of getting a good cod on the troll using bigger 120-150mm lures. If you’re looking to experience the fishing on Lake Mulwala, Mal’s Boat Hire Yarrawonga can set you up with one of their 4.55m poly boats, including safety gear. Local fishing knowledge is supplied free of charge! You can contact Mal on 0422 820 372 or visit www.malsboathire.com.au.

Goldens haven’t slowed down for winter MILDURA

Darcy Scherger

Golden perch have been providing tight lines for many local anglers targeting them. Recent catches along the Murray River around the Mildura region have proven that

there has been no slowing up for golden perch fishing leading into the cooler months. Both lure and bait fishers have been keeping busy on the water recently tackling good numbers of solid golden perch in a session. This is a good sign and has proven that the species weren’t affected as

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severely as the Murray cod throughout the natural black water event. Going out for a troll or cast for a couple hours before dark and picking up three or four solid perch in a couple hours would not be unusual to hear at present. The areas that consist of snags, rocks, clay banks, uneven bottom and structure

will be the areas to target most. Both casting and trolling have been very productive in these areas. Using a range of 50-80mm hardbodies will work a treat on golden perch. Casting and retrieving can also be a very productive method to put you onto a golden perch. Cast around snaggy and rocky areas where you

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move to the next stretch. Sometimes you can pick a good trolling run by looking at the bank and trying to visualise how the bank continues to go under the water. Look for banks that are steep, rocky and snaggy for a good start. Though that might sound easy, sometimes it’s

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can bounce your lures off submerged timber and reefs where the perch will be sitting ready to pounce. Using your depth sounder to find the areas will become very useful and once you have found a good stretch of overlaying timber or rocky reefs, even if it is only 50-100m, troll it several times. This should entice a hit. If not,

The elephant in the room ROBINVALE

Rod Mackenzie codmac@bigpond.net.au

If you are looking for cod in our local waters, then Swan Hill has been the place to fish this past month. Good numbers of Murray cod ranging from small up to a metre have been on the chew from the Swan Hill Road Bridge upstream to Pental Island. Anglers trolling lures have had the most success with

StumpJumpers, Codgers and Old Mates working well. The best lure colours have been a wish wash of darks and brights. As is usually the case, the colour closest to the hungry fish is the one that gets eaten. Bait fishers are also catching a few good cod with grubs and scrubworms working best, followed by cheese. Both Murray cod and golden perch have been captured in good numbers all the way from Swan Hill to just below Boundary Bend where

Golden perch are still a regular catch in the Murray River around Robinvale.

the cod numbers begin to drop away the further you head downstream. From Robinvale downstream to Renmark in South Australia, the absence of Murray cod in our local waters has now become the elephant in the room for local fishers and businesses alike. Lengthy discussions with fish ecologists and departments of environmental management reveal what it is most of us already know. The Murray cod population through this lengthy stretch of river has taken a serious hit and for the next few seasons, cod fishing in our local waters will be quite bleak. In 2010, the Darling River high in flood provided numerous giant Murray cod a sanctuary from the toxic black water. It also mixed the main body of the Murray downstream of Wentworth, providing sustainable oxygen levels that insured most of the Murray cod would survive. These fish then returned back upstream in the following few years, finding their way back as far as Euston below the lock. This time round the Darling was but a trickle as the From page 80

hard to find a good run. It can be hard to predict what is underneath. Running a good depth sounder over areas that tickle your fancy will soon let you know if it is fishable or not.

Jade Tiller with a solid golden perch taken on a Jackall TN60.

Blackwater passed through. With no refuge, the Murray cod population bore the full brunt of the black flows. Other than the bottom few locks in South Australia, the cod population has been decimated. There is no magic fix to this problem and for those that believe these giant fish will return need ask themselves exactly where are they are going to return from. The length and destructive power of the black water the recent flood contained has never been recorded throughout the history of the Murray Darling Basin. It seems without corroboration from all parties, black water events of this magnitude will be the new normal, and this has been stated several times now by departmental people, including an on stage presentation at the Murray Codfrence held in Shepparton on 11 December 2016, where almost 300 guests were in attendance. Stop and think on this for just a few moments and the real truth of our once great fishery looks set on a path of no return. Instead of future floods promoting an explosion of life and the optimal breeding conditions for our

While there are still a few cod left between Boundary Bend and Renmark the average size is very small. Murray cod, they will continue to have the opposite effect. Without breeding, there will be no small cod and yet we now know from the past two black water events that virtually the only cod that survived the main flows of black water were small. If you follow this line of thought with each flood, Murray cod numbers will become less until they are

all but gone. At this exact moment, this is where we stand and without transparency and backing from all parties involved, the future of our cod fishery looks very bleak indeed. On a brighter note, good numbers of golden perch have been caught all the way down through Robinvale past Hattah to Mildura and through to the South Australian border.

Using a depth sounder to find submerged logs and casting at them has produced solid fish. With plenty of fish being caught, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let the cold weather keep you off the water, and get out there!

Darcy Scherger with a solid golden perch taken on the cast.

Jade Tiller with a perch taken on the troll.

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Last chance for end of season trout in rivers JINDABYNE

Steve Williamson steve@swtroutfishing.com.au

June has arrived and so has winter. The start to the snow season isn’t far off, nor is the close of the river fishing which will last until the October long weekend. I’ve reflected back on the last river fishing season. We had a very slow start to this river fishing season – it was December before there was any real action – and it may have been a very short season with river fishing slowing as the weather cooled in mid-April. However, it was in fact the best river flyfishing season in almost 20 years! In fact, with so many small fish seen in the streams, all I can say at this point is that if all goes to plan, it is going to be another spectacular flyfishing season later this year from early November, depending on the weather once again.

Depending on the method of trout fishing you prefer, you are always going to have good and bad years. While boat trolling, bait fishing and lure spinning may not have been spectacular in the first half of 2017, the fantastic dry flyfishing certainly made up for it! The June Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend is the last chance that you have to target the early spawning trout in the Thredbo River. For those who do come to fish the river, it is a very busy weekend and a lot depends on the rain and weather as to how the trout will behave. Remember, this year the rivers and streams close to fishing at midnight on Monday 12 June. If we get some good rain leading up tho the closing weekend then the fishing will be great. If we don’t, the fishing will be hard on the rivers and my suggestion is to fish the lake instead

Gaden Trout Hatchery Come see the new displays at our visitors centre!

about the Snowy’s most important trout hatchery. • Learn • See how four species of trout and salmon are bred. • Find out where and how Gaden’s juvenile fish are released. Learn how trout stocking benefits recreational fishing and • local economies. • Find out about kids fishing workshops. • Enjoy the beautiful picnic-BBQ area.

Guided tours at 10 am and 2 pm. Feed the large fish. Open 10–4 daily. Gaden Rd (off Kosciuszko Rd) Jindabyne P 02 6451 3400 CLOSED DAYS: ANZAC, CHRISTMAS, BOXING. SMALL ENTRY FEE. dpi.nsw.gov.au/ fisheries/info/ gaden

as the trout fishing on the lakes has been great over recent months. Let’s have a look at what will happen over the month in more depth. With only a week or so to go before the rivers close the focus will be on the Thredbo River and early spawning trout. Flyfishing on the Thredbo River will be good for using Glo Bugs, nymphs and maybe tandem fly rigs. Cast into flowing water and make certain the fly is very close to the bottom for the best results. If using lures, you may find that the best will be bigger minnow lures. Trout will often be quite aggressive and think that the lure is a little fish competing with it for eggs or even challenge it over a female trout. Lure colours that work best for trout are those with a little pink or orange on them. If you can’t flyfish and lure fishing isn’t your interest, use a rig with a float that can be half filled with some water to give it casting weight and with rubber stoppers either side of the float so you can slide the float up and down on the line to adjust the depth of the fly. This way the fly is close to the river bottom. This is a simple way of catching trout in a river. BOAT TROLLING Back on the lake, boat trolling over the last month has been good with plenty of hard fighting rainbow trout in excellent condition giving the lake trollers a lot of fun. I would expect this pattern to continue. In winter the trout are more aggressive and more likely to take a bigger lure, so bigger lures are often better. We quite often troll 9cm and 11cm lures for the bigger fish and early in the day is often best. You can troll lures all day long in winter. Try orange and pink

lures. These are aggression colours in winter and the trout will strike these hard. There are still plenty of big fish at Creel Bay up near Waste Point near the mouth of the Thredbo River and it’s not too difficult to fish, given there is so much more water this year. You can down rig some very big brown trout using bigger minnow lures. If you don’t have a downrigger, try putting the big minnow lure onto your lead core line and put four colours of lead into the water and then another 20m of 20lb Dacron backing and this will get you down to where the bigger browns are holding out, but remember to troll slowly at about 2km/h. Use your fish finder to see where the trout are holding and keep on working them. Most of the bigger fish are going to be down near the bottom of areas like Waste Point and Creel Bay where the Thredbo River runs into the lake. The other good areas to troll are in the shallow bays like Hatchery Bay and Hayshed Bay, Sids Bay at East Jindabyne is also a favourite as it is a weedy bay with lots of food for trout. LAKE LURE FISHING Unlike summer, you can spin all day in winter. On sunny still days, choose the deeper drop-offs where the fish will cruise looking for something to eat. I find that in winter smaller lures are best for the deeper water on still days and the 13g lures work on the windy days. Pink is a great colour in winter. Orange minnow spins are also great off the bank.

JUNE 2017

You can fish all day during winter but don’t fish too deep, as the fish often feed in close to the shore. Bait fishing with scrubworms or artificial bait works well in winter, so long as you don’t mind sitting back and waiting. This method works at any time, day or night. Artificial salmon eggs have been very good for catching some bigger trout at the moment. Both the worms and artificial baits are fished off the bottom with a running sinker. Remember to fish light and keep the bail arm open to let the trout run with the bait. Grease the line with musclin to reduce friction if the trout are running and dropping baits. Artificial baits are great in winter and you only need to just use a

be the hardest and coldest months for flyfishing. If you brave the cold you will find that with the higher lake levels and fish hanging about the bays, the better areas are Creel Bay, Hayshed and Hatchery bays, Mill Creek Inlet, the Claypits, and the Snowy Arm. Rug up and enjoy your trip to the Snowys. If you’re coming down for a snow play trip, don’t forget your fishing rod! SHOP NEWS Please note from Monday 12 June to Saturday 1 July, I will be taking a well-earned break to head to the saltwater for a bit of personal fishing. During that time my shop will be closed, reopening at 9am on 1 July. Thanks for your support over the past season. After June, if you would

JUNE ROUND UP – THE BEST OF THE BEST! Best method Bait fishing with scrubbies teamed up with artificial baits. Best depth Bottom fishing. Best lake lure Tasmanian Devil in pink 55 or bigger minnow lures. Best lake area East Jindabyne pumping station and the Claypits. Best fly method Black Woolley Buggers on the lake. *The rivers are all closed to fishing until October. You can also spin with small bladed spinners in the shallow weedy bays on the lake and I like golds or reds. Overall, soft plastics for trout would have to work the best in winter. Flicking them out and working them slowly through the snags and above weed beds when the lake is low is the best way to catch trout. Like bream fishing down the coast, metal blades are working well on trout both in the rivers and the lakes. It’s worth a try. LAKE BAIT FISHING Over the winter months, I think the bigger trout will be cruising the bays and inlets for a feed, so that is where you should be also fishing.

Lauchie Maloney, eight years old, with a lovely winter trout.

small ball of artificial bait, just a little bigger than a pea. A small size 12 hook will catch more fish than big hooks and big bits of bait. Gamakatsu manufacture a fine wire hook called a Single Egg Hook and these are great for PowerBait. You can use a size 8 or 10 hook for trout in winter. Over the next few months, the areas to catch a trout on bait are Wollondibby Inlet, Creel Bay at Waste Point and Stinky Bay near town. Just remember the lake is weedy and that’s where the fish like to hang out. WINTER LAKE FLYFISHING June and July on Lake Jindabyne would have to

like a bit more information on what trout fishing is available on Lake Jindabyne in winter, please call into my shop at Discovery Holiday Parks Jindabyne next to the Shell servo, (02) 6456 1551. • If you would like some personal guiding, I will be available over the coming months for fly-fishing tuition and lake trolling trips. Lessons can be booked from 2 hours’ duration, and trolling trips from 3 hours to a full day. If you want to know more about the latest in fishing conditions, just give me a call on (0264) 561 551 or check out my website at www.swtroutfishing.com.au. You can also see our daily Facebook updates at https:// www.facebook.com/LJTFA.

Big cod waking up for winter WAGGA WAGGA

Rhys Creed

Many anglers believe that winter is the slow fishing period and the fish go dormant and hibernate for the winter months. That could not be further from the truth! I will agree that

food is sparse and the cod are alert for food because they need to feed. The trout become active during winter and come out to feed in the shallows and on the surface. The trout become the main food source for the cod during winter and this is why we cast large soft plastics early in the morning – to

best technique. June is when this great winter bite starts and it’s usually from mid to late June. However, when we start to see the night around 3°C and freezing is when the fishing will really get good! MURRUMBIDGEE RIVER June in the Murrumbidgee River is similar to Blowering. The food disappears and the big fish still need to feed. Even better, the rivers are super low due to the end of

If the region receives lots of rain, the river will come up, it will flow dirty and the fishing will be very tough. If we get 20-40ml over a few days the river will go dirty. It should clear up within 4-6 days. So the fish could be great, but it all depends on the rainfall. TUMUT RIVER The trout season closes on the June long weekend, which doesn’t leave much time for targeting trout this month. If the Tumut River

Monster winter metre Murray cod that smashed the FX Fury soft plastic. you target the broken and fast running water, as this is where the feeding fish will be. Always make sure you are fishing where the fish are feeding – it will help you

Jack Zyhalak with an early morning winter cod that took the Mud Guts Big Guts spinnerbait. the smaller fish and the food all disappear, but the monster Murray cod switch right on! BLOWERING DAM I talk a lot about this lake, but get ready for it over the

match the hatch! We have had the best success on large FX Fury soft plastics in the rainbow trout pattern. Casting them tight in against the bank and slow rolling them back is the

catch more fish! June is a time of year when the fishing does slow down and you’ll catch less fish, but the size of the fish gets much bigger!

LEAVEY LURES BIG COD CAN’T RESIST THEM!

The Jew Lure

MAX-D The Murray Moth

The author cuddling a Blowering monster that measured 110cm and was the reward for a number of fishless trips.

It may be cold, but getting in the water to support the weight of the fish is the best way to look after them. next three months, because the fishing is about to get good! The past few months have been slow but the winter months are the time to be on the lake, battling the elements, the freezing days and the icy conditions. The rewards can be spaced out and sometimes difficult to get. When these huge cod fill your arms, you forget about all the hours of work. The reason the monster Murray cod feed well during winter is because the smaller fish and food all hibernate. The big Murray cod still need to feed and with less food they are more opportunistic and are more likely to take a lure. Blowering is a special lake because it has both native species and trout. This mix of species helps us to catch more cod. How? You already know that the

irrigation flows. This allows us to access the big logs, which are sitting down in the deep holes. This is where the big fish are hiding. The only issue with this is over the last three years the river has come up in height due to large amounts of rain.

is running low (below 0.3m in Tumut) then it will be well worth a crack before the season ends! Casting hardbody lures like Rapalas and Berkley 3B Cranks, FTL Twin Spins and Berkley PowerBait soft plastics will work. Make sure

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New record carp captured in Canberra lake CANBERRA

Bryan Pratt

Canberra has long been home to some giant European carp. Local angler Jeffrey Morphett may have blitzed the field with a monster fish

weighing 15.5kg caught recently in Canberra’s southernmost lake, Lake Tuggeranong. The fish was caught on a scrubworm on light line and took 40 minutes to subdue. It eclipses the previous ACT record carp which weighed 14kg,

Brown trout that look like this for most of the year will soon be coloured up and running up the Eucumbene and Thredbo rivers on the annual pre-spawning run.

coincidentally also caught in Lake Tuggeranong, and may well be the largest ever taken on rod and line in the whole of Australia. There is no official recording system for the weights of carp caught around Australia, so if anyone knows of a fish larger than Jeffrey’s, we would be glad to hear about it. I seem to remember an anecdotal report of a 19kg fish caught in a net in South Australia some years ago, but can find no official record of it. DRAIN REJUVENATION Lake Tuggeranong has some news also. There is an exciting project to convert a concrete drain to an urban wetland. The drain currently carries stormwater and, accidentally, domestic rubbish from local suburbs to the lake and the Murrumbidgee River. The drain is now being ripped out and replaced with pools, shrubs, trees and aquatic vegetation native to the area. When the wetland is completed, rubbish will be trapped by baffles and vegetation and can be removed mechanically. Water quality will be

enhanced by prolonged exposure to sunlight. The wetland will then be stocked with golden perch and Murray cod and will naturally attract native birds and other wildlife. It is pleasing to see such forward thinking from the government and recognition of the value of improving water quality in an urban environment at minimal cost for maximum effect. URBAN LAKES REBOUND Golden perch and Murray cod were recently hard to find in Canberra’s urban lakes. They now seem to be coming back on the bite. They probably realise that winter is coming and they need to feed more heavily to put on condition to get through the leaner months when food is scarce. A few nice cod in the 45-80cm range have been caught in Lake Burley Griffin and Lake Tuggeranong. Local lure master Rory Ben-Clibborn ducked out for an early morning session with a large wakebait and landed a cod measuring 105cm. To page 85

Young angler Will Heritage with a hefty European carp. He has an even bigger target to aim for now with the news of a 15.5kg carp caught in Lake Tuggeranong.

Cod upsizing as winter sets in TAMWORTH

Dean McFarlane

In recent weeks we’ve seen some waterways fish extremely well, and others very poorly. One of the best locations has been the Peel River, which has been producing excellent catches on poppers and spinnerbaits. In recent weeks we’ve had great results on the AusSpin 1/2oz Cod Botherer in dark purple, and black/ chartreuse has also been

working well. When it comes to surface lures, two of the best have been the Custom Crafted Moonwalker and the larger Jackall Pompadour. Anglers fishing with bait have also been doing very well in the Peel River. The weather has been great, and the water is nice and clear. We’ve had good flows of water through summer, and it’s been an awesome season, which bodes well for winter cod fishing. The dams have been quiet except for Chaffey,

which has been fishing very well over the last three months. With the water level around 96%, there’s plenty of submerged vertical structure to attract the fish. The yellas are still feeding, and the best way to catch them is to vertically jig soft plastic grubs around the trees. We’ve had the best results on 3” Gulp Grubs. If you prefer to troll you’ll probably catch your share of yellas, but vertically jigging grub tails around the trees would be best. Keepit and Split Rock been very quiet. Still, this

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should change as winter sets in, when the bigger cod come out to play. If you want to travel further afield, Copeton has been fishing sensationally lately. Big lures have been catching the bigger cod, with good catches on wakebaits, surface lures and plastics. If you want to wet a trout line, the streams have been yielding some good catches. There are nice flows in them, and anglers have been getting nice trout on a variety of flies and spinners. THE MONTH AHEAD In June we can look forward to catching big winter cod at both Split Rock and Keepit, by casting the shallow foreshores. Look for gently sloping grassy banks; you don’t need steepness or structure. The cod will be in the warmer water there, and will readily take big spinnerbaits. Good times are from 5pm to midnight, or 3am to 8am. As far as I’m concerned, if you have to get by with only three hours sleep, so be it – it can definitely be worth it! Another great thing about winter is that the willow trees fringing the rivers start losing their leaves. That allows us to cast spinnerbaits underneath the branches, up tight against the structure

The warmer months have seen plenty of catches of smaller cod like this one, but now we can expect the bigger models to take their place. that we couldn’t reach before. Big cod live under there, and now’s our chance to catch them. This month’s report has been supplied by the crew from AusSpin Lures and Tamworth Fishing Tackle. For more information on what’s biting and where,

drop into the store at 15 Roderick St, Tamworth or phone (02) 6766 7100. The friendly staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have. You can also check out the full range of AusSpin spinnerbaits, all manufactured in-store.

From page 84

The golden perch came mainly from Burley Griffin and were taken mostly on yabbies, with the occasional fish on a Jackall or Burrinjuck Special. One angler fishing at Lennox Gardens in Burley Griffin had five follows from golden perch without a hook-up, but was compensated when an 80cm cod took the Jackall. GOOGONG SUCCESS Googong again fished well, with several reports

of cod to 105cm caught on spinnerbaits and Massy Vibes. Fat golden perch to 49cm have been caught as well as some big redfin. The redfin were mostly 42cm with a couple just touching 48cm. They were easy to find even in the deepest water. Some of the cod were initially spotted on the sounder then tempted with the lure being bounced in front of them. One angler landed two of his three cod using this technique. The reservoir is

full and the water clear, providing perfect fishing conditions. BURRINJUCK RESPONDING Burrinjuck Reservoir was around 68% full recently and starting to fish well again after a lean spell of several weeks. Murray cod in the 45-80cm range have been taken on spinnerbaits and other large lures, mostly in open water. It’s a matter of putting in the hours. Time on the water generally means fish in the boat.

Canberra’s drinking water supply reservoir, Googong, is a splendid recreational fishery experiment and is currently yielding some large Murray cod, golden perch and redfin. There are no carp in the reservoir.

Golden perch have been responding reasonably well amongst the flooded trees, and the best catches have been on shrimps and yabbies. Shrimps have been curiously hard to find this year and there is speculation that they have all been eaten by the hordes of redfin in the lake. Nice goldens have been taken on cast or trolled lures, and Gulp Grubs in black have worked well. Bank fishing along the rocky shoreline with scrubworms, yabbies and lures accounted for just as many goldens as trolling and casting from a boat. Redfin are around in huge numbers and many of them are full of eggs, which means we will have a few million more of them in the near future. MOUNTAIN LAKES Fishing has been reasonably productive in the mountain lakes, with most anglers landing at least one fish in each session and sometimes more. One flyfisher at Eucumbene landed 13 fish to 2.5kg in three nights, and others fishing with bait and lures reported catching three to five fish per session. A few nice fish were caught in the running water at Providence Portal in Lake Eucumbene. A few fish also came from the lower reaches

Some good bags of browns and rainbows have been taken in Eucumbene on fly, mostly in the late afternoon and at night. of the Eucumbene River but the main run of fish has not yet started. The prespawning run is expected to be in full force up until the season closes on the Queen’s Birthday weekend. The new car park at Denison has been completed and will prevent vehicles from accessing the riverbank and churning up the national park landscape. Jindabyne attracted a big crowd recently and the best fish came from the usual hotspots at Waste Point,

Kalkite, Hatchery Bay and East Jindabyne. Bait fishers fared best with scrub worms and others were taken on wood grubs and PowerBait. Small fish were a common problem throughout the lake, but this looks good for the future. Tantangara fished well with large numbers of small to medium sized browns being taken on lures, baits and flies. It has been popular with anglers looking to stock up the freezer for future feeds.

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Exercise your powers of observation LITHGOW/OBERON

Glen Stewart stewie72@bigpond.com

Seasons come and go. Autumns roll into winters and winters into springs. As fishers we sometimes see and seek the changes and, depending on your experience, the things you notice will vary. Modern distractions – life, as it were, can cloud or muddy the waters.

Most of us live in towns and cities, surrounded by concrete and tar, manicured lawns and gardens. Snippets of the seasons can still be observed out the kitchen window, but you really need to look hard, and a lot depends on your setting. I cannot recommend highly enough that you take the time on your next trip to the Central Tablelands to concentrate on what is happening around you. It can start in the car en route.

Take mental notes on if it’s dry or fresh and green – obvious things. How does this relate to where you are going fishing? The spawning bed you fished last year on the river may be high and dry, the timbered gully in Wyangala that you did so well in this time last year fishing for cod may have 5m of water over it, so straight away you have to make adjustments and you haven’t even stepped out of the car.

Observation skills are so important in fishing. Midday hours on rivers and streams when shade pockets become smaller can concentrate baitfish, making fish-holding locations easier to find.

These are the conditions that make most stalwart TCD anglers froth: cold and raining with little or no breeze when the rain on the surface is just enough to disguise anglers but not enough to prevent you from making a good presentation to sighted fish. Nice work, Muz.

The subtleties are much smaller pieces of the seasonal puzzle, and can take some time to get your head around. Practise makes perfect. It’s all about immersing yourself in your fishing environment. I’m sure you will have noticed how much better you feel, and fish for extended stays on the water, consecutive days, with limited distractions. Suddenly those cloudy, muddy waters that I mentioned earlier start to clear; you start to see and seek more changes, pointers and clues that in the end put more fish in the boat or on the bank. THOMPSONS CREEK DAM Thompsons Creek Dam will be on every flyfisher’s hit list this month, especially when we start to move into the latter part of the month. The false spawn of rainbow trout on the clear shallow gravel beds is a drawcard. Seeing big fish that for the most part spend most of their time in deep cool water is spectacular. Catching them is a challenge. The procession of frustrated anglers heading back to the car park always outnumbers the successful

ones. More often than not I’m in the frustrated bracket. It’s tough. A few pointers I’ve picked up along the way from those that do much better than me is to fish mid-week, get there early, downsize everything, go when it’s cold and windy and make sure you dress for success. Quality outdoor clothing isn’t cheap, but when everyone else has had enough and is heading back to the car park because their back teeth are loose from chattering, you’ll be smiling. REDFIN AND COD Redfin and cod (like carp, bony bream and crucian carp) intertwine in waters where they cohabitate. You are going to hear more about this in the coming months and years as more anglers tune into what is happening. I’m not suggesting that the links have not been made before, but it’s the depth and lengths that we are now going to that is really pushing boundaries. Technology is playing a major role in this, specifically sounder technology advancements. The visual displays that are now available to us on screens, not just under the

boat but off to each side and in some cases all the way around, have given us a much bigger window into the underwater world that we fishers all crave to see. The guesswork is being taken out of the equation. Every single cast made from the boat can be directed at fish. Seeing them and catching them are two very different things, but I’m sure you can appreciate the advantages of putting your lures in front of fish more often than not. A school of crucian carp in open water is not always going to have two or three big cod tailing them around the dam on any given day. You wouldn’t put bigger cod in the same category as tuna or marlin, that’s for sure. They move a lot more than we realise, or more to the point, they move and position themselves on a regular basis at different feeding stations to take the best advantage of the topography and the food that surrounds them. It’s very much a developing picture that in some ways will always remain a little foggy. That’s what I like about chasing these fish.

The relationship between big cod in impoundments and the areas they choose to position themselves in to eat schooling fish is something you are going to be hearing a lot more about in coming months. 86

JUNE 2017

Natives and trout are worth going out for BATLOW

Wayne Dubois waynedubois@westnet.com.au

Winter is finally here and although the weather is getting colder, the fishing certainly isn’t. The trout fishing this month alone will be nothing short of amazing. There should also be a bit of native action going on as well as plenty of redfin action. BLOWERING DAM Casting small lightly

number one producer of redfin in Blowering Dam and most of our southern impoundments as we move deeper into winter. Now is a good time to stock up on them. HUME WEIR If trolling for natives is your thing, Lake Hume is the place to be. Good to very good numbers of golden perch have been caught lately by anglers trolling medium to large hardbodies. It is also pleasing to report that more and more Murray cod are being caught

Blades and lipless crankbaits has been the standout lures at both Tantangara and Eucumbene. Bait anglers have struggled lately, but this will pick up this month, especially for those that prefer to use dough baits. Big fish are already starting to push into the shallows and are now well in reach for land-based anglers. JOUNAMA DAM The redfin in this lake have been responding to the same techniques as the redfin in its bigger brother

makes a great alternative to the Eucumbene for spawn run fishing. The Tumut experiences far less pressure and still gives you the chance of a trophy-sized fish in between loads of smaller fish. There is some awesome fishing to be had this month. It may be cold, but if you rug up and dress appropriately and brave the elements, you’re likely to experience some of the best fishing to be had all season. I know I will be making the most of it. • If you want to be even more up to date with what is biting and when, follow me on social media. On top of posting regular fishing reports I share a lot of strategies, technical info and so much more. To keep up to date on Facebook, check out the ‘Mr Freshwater’ page and on Instagram you will find us @insanitytackle.

The Tumut River will be the place to be if you don’t like the crowds associated with the spawn run. There is still the opportunity to catch trophy-sized fish, but little to no anglers to contend with.

The Eucumbene River will be super popular this month with thousands of trophy-sized brown trout like this on offer. Vehicles in the background of shots like this will be a thing of the past now due to the new car park at Denison restricting anglers from driving along the riverbanks. weighted 1-2” curl-tail plastics from the bank is still producing plenty of small to medium sized redfin, however not in the same numbers they were a month ago. Hopping small rubber vibes and blades out a little wider is accounting for the bigger numbers and bigger fish. Vertically jigging with ice jigs will soon be the

in this lake and they are now a targetable species. Trout have also started to appear more regularly in this lake, although most have been by-catches while targeting the natives and redfin. Trout are now worth targeting themselves. TANTANGARA DAM It’s all about flat line trolling up top this month.

The redfin at Blowering are moving deeper, but can still be caught from the bank. Hopping rubber vibes like this Insanity Tackle Mini Vibe is still accounting for plenty of fish. Even getting two at a time is still possible.

Blowering Dam. The redfin have been on average much larger in Jounama Dam. The big resident trout are starting to show up more regularly as well and the trout fishing should continue to improve as we move deeper into winter. Casting and retrieving small rubber vibes, plastics, minnow style hardbodies or blades will be successful this month. Bait fishing with dough baits and wood grubs should also account for plenty of big fish. TROUT RIVERS There are less than two weeks left in the official trout season, so it’s well and truly time to get your fix if you haven’t already. If you haven’t, no worries at all. Now is the best time to hit the rivers, especially the Eucumbene River. There will be loads of anglers to contend with on the Eucumbene River, but there will be more than enough trout to go around for everyone. Thanks to the new setup at Denison, anglers now have to park at the campgrounds and walk down to the river. Due to this, the river won’t be as busy as previous years, won’t have as much illegal activity going on and will save the banks from unnecessary erosion and wear and tear. All in all this new car park setup has way more benefits than not having one at all. If crowds aren’t your thing then the Tumut River

Flat line trolling lipless crankbaits has been producing the goods at Tantangara and Eucumbene dams.

DAM LEVELS brought to you by w w w. b a r g a i n b o a t b i t s. c o m . a u

Dam............................... % Full

Dam March April May Blowering 73 65 65 Brogo 93 101 101 Burrendong 87 90 87 Burrinjuck 72 66 64 Carcoar 92 91 91 Chaffey 165 99 98 Clarrie Hall n/a n/a n/a Copeton 44 46 47 Dartmouth 77 77 78 Eucumbene 42 41 41 Glenbawn 90 90 90 Glenlyon 62 76 77

Dam March April May Glennies Creek 81 83 83 Hume 74 61 60 Jindabyne 64 58 60 Keepit 58 62 62 Lostock 76 102 100 Oberon 92 91 90 Pindari 81 100 100 Split Rock 29 30 29 Tantangara 16 16 17 Toonumbar 86 101 100 Windamere 50 50 50 Wyangala 88 88 88

(All levels correct at time of going to press. Dam levels can change at any time, so please check with local authorities to ensure safe boating and fishing.) JUNE 2017

Gear up for the best dam bass fishing all year HUNTER VALLEY

Peter Phelps

June marks the start of one of my favourite seasons to be out on one of the Hunter’s local lakes. The rivers and creeks are under the bass closed season and while fishing for bass in the rivers is not banned, the bag limit is zero. Some anglers prefer not to target them and let them do their business for the future stocks. Winter is a great time of year to make your way to the impoundments. Even though the dam bass don’t breed

they feed up in readiness for spawning. Big fat bellies full of roe and mouths full of baitfish as they hit the deck – this month and July can have the best fishing you’ll see all year. Autumn was kind to us and we had some good rains at the start. This helped give a level rise to both lakes, and replenish some ground water for the rivers. Both Glenbawn and St Clair will fish similarly this month. The water will be cold and should be 16°C or lower. Smelt, gudgeons, minnows, fry and other baitfish are the main source of food at this time of year. Leave your big reaction

lures at home, as June will be dominated by finesse techniques. Smaller, less aggressive sized lures that represent a baitfish are what you’re aiming to imitate. A jerkbait is a great shallow water structure lure. Anywhere you can see some cover, whether it’s weed, rock or timber, chances are there will be fish close by. A jerkbait worked nice and close to the structure with a good hard 2-3 twitches and a pause will work. This style of fishing is very visual as you can sometimes see you rlure disappear behind a dark flash as your slack line rips off the water’s surface. It

The author with a bass caught on a paddle-tail plastic cast towards the edge.

feels like they line up your jerkbait from 6ft away before slamming it. This is good way of working out if the fish in the area are active and up feeding shallow. A jighead-rigged plastic like a paddle-tail or grub is going to be your main producer this month. You can rig them on a 1/16oz jighead and work them shallow over cover, right the way through down to a 3/8oz and fish them deeper. They are the most versatile lure you can throw, as you can fish them anywhere in the water column. Little twitches in your retrieve can turn lookers into biters. Keep the colours nice and basic. On sunny days I like to use natural greens and browns, and on low light or overcast days I like whites and chartreuse. You can use plastic dyes like Spike It to give your natural colours some added spice, though you should be more focused on where and what you’re doing with your plastic than what colour it is. When casting to an edge, concentrate on keeping your plastic close to the structure and follow the contour all the way back to the boat. If you’re lucky they’ll be up high and eating throughout the water column. The closer you can be to the weed, rock, or timber, the more fish you will catch. Dropping your plastic down to fish on the sounder will work as well. Both lakes have plenty of fish in them and your sounder should be

Jerkbaits can catch some big fish when they are up shallow. constantly seeing fish come through. Slow roll, burn, twitch or hop your plastic in front of these fish, if the ones on the edge aren’t biting. An ice jig is an effective lure for getting deep water fish to bite in the winter months. Moulded from lead with wings on the tails, these lures quickly sink down in front of the fish’s face. Small, sharp hops send them darting around in circles, looking like an escaping baitfish. Mix up your retrieves on any day, as the fish might want something slightly different. Constant hopping, or hop-pause-hop and even sharp hops then dead sticking will work.

Cooler morning cod catches

Aberdeen Fishing & Outdoors

NEW ENGLAND RIVERS

Adam Townsend

LOOK FOR THE BOAT ABOVE THE VET CENTRE

The first frosts have already landed and the cooler mornings are here to stay. If chasing XL Murray cod is on your bucket list

then it’s time to chuck on the thermals, rug up and hit the water in search of that fish of a lifetime. It’s not only the impoundments that fish well at this time of year. Local rivers have produced some trophy-size fish recently, and

after the latest floodwaters clearing out the river, it’s the best it’s looked in a while. Although the Beardy River has multiple fish species throughout the system, fishers need to remember that most trout waters are closed

“Drop in and ask our friendly staff what they’re biting on!”

LAKE GLENBAWN

LAKE ST CLAIR

ABERDEEN Phone 69 New England Hwy, [02] 6543 7111 Aberdeen NSW 2336

www.aberdeenfishingandoutdoors.com.au 88

JUNE 2017

I like to stay mobile with ice jig fishing, always slowly moving around looking for active fish. Sometimes if it is tough, the only option is to stay put and wait for the fish to bite. A small profile that’s not too heavy is the key, so look for an ice jig under 60mm long. Colours can be another debate with ice jigs, as everyone has their favourites that they swear by. I prefer lighter colours like white, silver, fluorescents and even UV colours, but don’t stress too much. As with most of your freshwater fishing, concentrate on what you’re doing with the lure more than what colour it is.

An early morning Copeton cod caught on a Westin Percy the Perch Hybrid.

for spawning just after the June long weekend, including this waterway. Check local guides or the NSW Recreational Freshwater Fishing Guide for more info. The Severn River has settled after the April floodwaters passed through and stirred up the river. It is now fishing better than it has in a long time. The water clarity is still not 100% compared to what the river is known for, but the fish don’t mind at all. Spinnerbaits in both smaller and larger profiles are producing some nice fish all through the day, making for some very exciting and non-stop fishing. Surface lures have also been accounting for some healthy cod in low light hours, and even a few extras after the sun is up. Pindari Dam has been fluctuating in level but was recently sitting back over full capacity after a few small rainfalls. The To page 89

Big cod on the job! COPETON DAM

David Allen manager@copeton.com.au

At the end of April, Joel Edwards ran the inaugural JJ’s Plague Topwater Invitational Competition. The rules were simple, you were allowed to fish topwater lures only, no subsurface and no trolling. Fishing times were from after the briefing at 4pm on Friday until 8am Saturday, then again from 5pm until 7am Sunday. The invitational saw some of the best cod anglers in the country gather for a chance to test their skill against each other and Copeton’s monster cod. The fishing was tough,

but the anglers who cracked the code caught and released some terrific fish. The winning team managed nine fish for the weekend, which measured 676cm. There were 30 cod caught on top over the weekend for a total length of over 24m. The biggest cod for the weekend was caught by Daran Ryan from Coffs Harbour and went 118cm, a new PB for Daggs. There was a total of five fish over a metre. Cod were caught on a wide variety of lures during this comp. A lot of the competitors were cottage lure makers, and it seemed that a lot of prototypes were being thrown over the weekend. The lures that caught fish varied from small

Billy with his 115cm cod that he caught on a surface paddler. From page 88

fishing has continued on just as well as previous reports, with lots of good fish being caught, including multiple fish over the 120cm mark. The dam conditions haven’t changed with the top half of the dam being dirty where the water has been running in, and the basin being a lot cleaner.

The yellowbelly action hasn’t slowed down either, with lots of good fish still being caught around the main points of the dam, and along the front of the spillway as well. For many anglers, Copeton Dam has been the place to be in past weeks, with lots of fish being caught on a heap of different techniques and at

lures like the Jackall Mikey, through to huge ‘one offs’ up to 400mm! It’s going to be very interesting to see the new lures that are going to hit the market this year. Early indications for this winter season are that if the big fish are a bit hesitant to hit the surface, then swimbaits will be the lure of choice. The Jackall Gantarel, now available in three sizes, has been the stand out, but there are others becoming available. Lucky Craft have some good models as well. I also know that some of the Australian lure manufacturers are working on their own models, which should be available soon. Watch this space. The dam has continued to rise slowly through the autumn months. This, combined with the cold weather, has bought most of the big fish action onto the flats. Now is the time to get out of the boat and fish these shallow banks. You will not disturb fish hunting the shallows if you are quietly walking the shore, and we find each year that some of our biggest fish are taken this way. There is just something special about fishing this way as well. A handful of lures and a pair of lipgrips (big ones) and that is all you need. Maybe a brag mat and all times of the day, although the early morning bite has been the most consistent for catching bigger Murray cod. Wakebaits, swimbaits and chatterbaits have been the standout lures lately, claiming several fish over the metre mark. A recent JJ’s Plague Invitational Topwater Comp saw fishers drive from all over the country to gather

Murray Stewart looking super proud of one of his winning fish. camera, if you want to be able to back up your stories. So, pull on the thermals, jackets, beanie and gloves and get to Copeton for the best big cod fishing in Australia. Remember that the surface fishing is at its best now, and happens mainly between sunset and sunrise. • Copeton Dam is one of the best lakes in NSW to catch a trophy Murray cod. Dave runs the Copeton Waters Holiday Park and is a great source of up-to-date, local information on what’s biting. Contact the park on (02) 6723 6269 for information and accommodation bookings.

Father and son team Glen and Murray Stewart took out the inaugural JJ’s Plague Topwater Invitational Competition recently.

around for the weekend and share knowledge and stories as well as get amongst some awesome surface action. Between the 50 anglers there were 30 cod caught for a total length of over 24m over the two sessions, proving that Copeton Dam is a big cod fishery. The dam is rising slowly and is currently sitting at the 46% mark. Good luck to all braving the cold this month. Frozen guides, cold hands and knots in the shoulders will all but be forgotten when that fish of a lifetime finds what you’re offering on the other end of your line.

A great mug shot of a metre cod caught in the gorge.

Get your hands on some Rodents! THE RODENT Weight: 65gm Length: 127mm

RODENT JNR. Weight: 21gm Length: 89mm Available from the website and selected retail outlets.

weflikinlures This healthy Copeton cod was seduced by a Westin Inline Percy the Perch.

weflikin_

www.weflikinlures.com.au | 0410 350 435 JUNE 2017

TOURNAMENT CALENDAR 2017 JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

3-4 Jun

Cania BASS Pro Qualifier #2 Cania Dam

www.abt.org.au

7-8 Jun

Boondooma BASS Pro Qualifier #3 Boondooma Dam

www.abt.org.au

10-11 Jun

Round 8 Hobie Kayak Bream Series 9 Port Macquarie

hobiefishing.com.au

17-18 Jun

BASS Electric #4 Borumba Dam

www.abt.org.au

5-6 Jul

Lake St Clair BASS Pro Qualifier #4 Lake St Clair

www.abt.org.au

8-9 Jul

Glenbawn BASS Pro Qualifier #5 Glenbawn Dam

www.abt.org.au

15-16 Jul

Richmond River BREAM Qualifier #6 Richmond River

www.abt.org.au

22-23 Jul

Round 9 Hobie Kayak Bream Series 9 Gold Coast

hobiefishing.com.au

30-Jul

BASS Electric #5 St Clair

www.abt.org.au

13 Aug

Round 10 Hobie Kayak Bream Series 9 Mooloolaba

hobiefishing.com.au

13 Aug

BASS Electric Major #2 Moogerah

www.abt.org.au

19-20 Aug

Gold Coast BREAM Qualifier #7 Gold Coast

www.abt.org.au

26-27 Aug

Round 11 Hobie Kayak Bream Series 9 Swan River

hobiefishing.com.au

2-3 Sep

Clarence River BASS Pro Qualifier #6 Clarence River

www.abt.org.au

16-17 Sep

BASS Electric Convention TBA

www.abt.org.au

16-17 Sep

Round 12 Hobie Kayak Bream Series 9 Forster

hobiefishing.com.au

29 Sep-1 Oct

South Coast Might Bonanza Fishing competition Tomakin Fishing Club, Tomakin

Adam Martin 0418 570 131

30 Sep-1 Oct

St Georges Basin BREAM Qualifier #8 St Georges Basin

www.abt.org.au

14-15 Oct

BASS Pro Grand Final Richmond River

www.abt.org.au

30 Oct

BARRA Tour Round #1 (Evening Event) Teemburra

www.abt.org.au

31 Oct

BARRA Tour Round #2 (Evening Event) Kinchant Dam

www.abt.org.au

3-4 Nov

BARRA Tour Round #3 (Evening Event) Peter Faust

www.abt.org.au

6-7 Nov

BARRA Tour Round #4 (Night Championship) Peter Faust

www.abt.org.au

16-19 Nov

Hobie Kayak Bream Series 9 Championship Western Australia

hobiefishing.com.au

1-3 Dec

Lake Macquarie BREAM Grand Final Lake Macquarie

www.abt.org.au

Add your tournament or competition to this list by emailing jthomas@fishingmonthly.com.au or calling 07 3387 0800 in office hours. Just supply a date, venue, tournament name and a telephone number and contact name. 90

JUNE 2017

Topwater Invitational a unique cod experience The inaugural JJ’s Plague Topwater Invitational tournament took place from 21-23 April at Copeton Dam. The event was created by Joel Edwards, owner and operator of JJ’s Plague Lures. He is widely recognised as one of the most consistent big cod fishers in NSW. Some of the best cod anglers in the country were

Wilderness yak around, making casting difficult. I did have a follow from a big cod, which chased my lure along a bank where I wouldn’t have thought there would be a fish. For competitors who hadn’t fished the dam before, this proved to be the biggest stumbling block as the fish at Copeton do not sit in traditionally profitable structure like sunken timber

and it was great to see anglers like Steve Starling chatting to the younger generation and passing on his hints and tips. The Saturday night session proved to be much better with most anglers getting action and a number of anglers landing good fish. The standout lures for the Saturday proved to be the JJ’s Rat, Mudeye Rattle Snake

completely hammered the week before during the Easter long weekend. However, this event was never meant to be about the amount of fish nor the size. Joel created the event to bring like-minded cod anglers together to share experiences and develop networks so that we can learn even more about one of our most iconic sportfish. The great atmosphere around camp coupled with the amazing positivity on the water is a testament to Joel and he is to be commended on what was a brilliant competition. Special thanks must also go to Joel’s partner Shannon for helping to organise the event along with Brett Howie of Bash Lures who also aided Joel in getting the project off the

Daran Ryan took out biggest fish with this 118cm beast caught on a Far-Q Lures Platypus wakebait.

Father and son team Tim and Murray Stewart took out first prize. among the 50 participants, including Josh Usher, Steve Starling, Jacko Davis, Stephen Booth, Adam Townsend and many more. The event was catch and release and anglers (in teams of two) were only allowed to use topwater lures during the two overnight sessions, making it a truly unique competition. Prizes were awarded for biggest individual cod as well as a total combined length of all cod caught by each team. Competitors were given a brag mat, angler number and were asked to photograph their catch on the brag mat and then report back to the marquee to have their measurements tallied at the end of each session by Joel’s partner Shannon. The competition started on Friday at 5pm with anglers fishing from the shore, boats and kayaks. The conditions were tough with the wind picking up throughout the afternoon session making surface fishing difficult. However, there were a few large cod caught during the first session with a 118cm beast caught by Daran Ryan proving the fish were there if anglers targeted the right parts of the dam. Many anglers opted to fish right through the night during the first session with some lamenting big misses and lost opportunities at camp the next morning. I spent the Friday night session fishing from a kayak and it proved pretty tricky with waves throwing my

and instead sit on the flats feasting on ‘bobby cod.’ These small fish are the big cod’s favourite and it was a case of finding the bait to find the cod. During Saturday most anglers got together around the marquee to talk about the previous night’s session and it was here that Joel’s vision came to fruition with top cod anglers mingling around the fire talking all things surface fishing. Joel wanted his event to be more about the conversations than the fishing and it was great to see everyone getting along and sharing their vast knowledge with other anglers, young or old. It was during the Saturday that I learnt about fishing the barren banks of Copeton from Adam Townsend

and the Jackall Pompadour. The standout team was Glen Stewart and his son Murray. Ultimately, Daran’s 118cm fish was not beaten during the final session meaning he took out first prize for largest individual cod caught over the two days and Glen Stewart and his son Murray took out the team section with an overall length of 676cm of cod caught. Special mention must be made of this father and son effort with Glen landing his first ever metre Murray cod on the way to a big win. In the end, 50 anglers competed in 26 separate teams with 30 cod caught by 18 anglers. This is an amazing achievement, especially considering the fishing conditions and the fact that Copeton got

Over the tournament weekend 50 of the best duked it out. ground. It is also important to thank all of the sponsors including Fishing Monthly, Spotters, Crashpad, Starlo’s Mad Keen, Skeleton Spinnerbaits, Water Stalker Lures, Wilson Venom, By the Gills, Outcast, Raid Japan, Heritage, Lowrance JJ’s Plague and CMap Genesis. All these sponsors contributed amazing prizes and most anglers walked away with something thanks to raffles and giveaways throughout the event. Joel has told me that he has already started thinking about next year and plans to make it even bigger and better than this year. It’s hard to imagine, but I’m sure that Joel can make it happen. – Toby Grundy Tim Mutimer with an outstanding specimen.

Organiser Joel Edwards with a cracker cod caught during the event. JUNE 2017

Cannizzaro conquers the river THE FUTURE IS HERE Self-contained Electric Outboards

STORM

Ross Cannizzaro has claimed victory at the ABT BASS Pro Series round presented by BassCat Boats on the banks of the upper Hawkesbury River. This event marked the first time an ABT BASS Pro event has been run on the Hawkesbury River and a keen group of almost 50 anglers registered to have their shot at taming the tides of the mighty Hawkesbury. For most of the regular anglers on the BassCat BASS Pro Series, tidal fisheries are totally new. Usually confined to the stocked impoundments of the Hunter Valley and South Burnett, wild bass fishing in rivers is a new challenge and brings with it a wealth of new opposition. Anglers familiar with the Costa BREAM Series have been fishing rivers and systems like the Hawkesbury River since ABT’s inception in 1999. To them, tides and the perplexities of river fishing are never far from their minds, and it was indeed an angler with a background in bream that came out on top after the final bag was weighed. The other important thing to note with this tournament was the inclusion of estuary perch to the allowable species. estuary perch and Australian bass co-inhabit the Hawkesbury River, and would both play a part in making this a truly unique event. Cannizzaro has left his mark on the ABT BREAM

Series, winning multiple events and stamping his name as one of the sport’s best. His entry into the Hawkesbury River BASS Pro was his first dive into the deep end that is bass tournaments, and his victory was a testament to his angling talent and the transference of skills learnt over years of tournament bream fishing. His 10/12 6.41kg limit was more than enough to secure victory, claiming the win by over a kilo from his nearest rival Jason Harlock. Cannizzaro targeted predominantly estuary perch within 2km of the start at Wisemans Ferry and looked to find fish sitting wide off the bank in 15-20ft of water tucked in behind boulders or drop-offs that sheltered them from the strong currents. For all sessions Cannizzaro started at his primary location, a rock wall upstream of Wisemans Ferry where he had found a congregation of estuary perch sitting just behind a drop where the wall plummeted from 10ft down to 20ft. The estuary perch were using this straight drop as a current break, where they could conserve energy out of the strong current, and also wait for any baitfish to be washed over their heads past the drop-off. Cannizzaro used his extensive repertoire of bream techniques and modified the specific lure to target the fish to put them in the boat. A 1/8oz Nitro Dam deep jighead

Ross Cannizzaro dominated on the Hawkesbury, targeting estuary perch rather than bass to claim the win. fitted with a new Berkley Tournament Series T-Tail minnow in pumpkinseed fleck was the lure of choice. Cannizzaro commented it perfectly replicated the small prawns and baitfish that were prevalent in the area. He’d cast the offering up into the shallower water of the tapering rock wall, paying

His outfit of choice was an Abu Garcia Salty Stage light spinning rod, paired with the newly released Abu Garcia Revo ALX spinning reel. “Abu Garcia have been supporting me for a long time and this outfit is the best I’ve ever used. Light in the hand with power to burn – it’s my go-to outfit for

WINNING WAYS “It was a matter of metres in converting one of the fish to react. If I didn’t quite hit the mark, I wouldn’t get bit.” close attention to hit the ‘sweet spot’ of the drop-off where he was getting all of his fish. “It was a matter of metres in converting one of the fish to react. If I didn’t quite hit the mark, I wouldn’t get bit. I had one boulder that if I could feel it and hop my bait off the back edge, I knew it was in the zone and a bite was likely.”

Ross with the spoils of his BASS Pro victory.

TOP 10 BOATERS Place Angler

Visit www.abt.org.au for entry forms. For general enquiries phone ABT on (07) 3387 0888. 92

JUNE 2017

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fish

Weight (kg)

Payout

Ross Cannizzaro 10/12 6.41 $2,000 Jason Harlock 8/12 5.39 $1,300 Daniel Bonaccorso 8/12 4.75 $850 Greg Beattie 6/12 3.81 $500 Kristoffer Hickson 5/12 3.75 Duffrods Big Bag (3.19kg) Brian Everingham 5/12 3.73 Tom Slater 5/12 3.69 Warren Carter 4/12 3.49 Peter Phelps 4/12 3.08 Steve Morgan 4/12 2.83 For full result listings, see www.abt.org.au

both bream and bass fishing and I couldn’t imagine using anything else.” Cannizzaro spooled the ALX with Berkley Fireline Exceed 4.4lb and topped it with a 4lb fluorocarbon leader, much lighter than what most of the field was using. It was Cannizzaro’s strong morning sessions on both Saturday and Sunday that ultimately proved the turning point in winning him the title. A tougher afternoon session on Saturday produced only two fish, but it was still enough to stem the charges from down the field and claim his first ABT BASS Pro Victory. Now Cannizzaro’s attention turns to his new Bass Cat Sabre FTD and Evinrude G2 boat and motor package that just landed in the country and to the remainder of the Costa BREAM Series for 2017.

BASSCA BASS PR T PRESEN O TED BY

Harlock Holds On For Second Another BREAM Series regular Jason Harlock finished runner-up after leading for the first two sessions. It was again a case of the BREAM techniques being adapted to a new species as Harlock proved the foray into rivers for the Bass Cat BASS Pro Series is opening plenty of doors for growth. “It was my first-ever BASS tournament,” said Harlock. “I just approached it exactly how I’d approach a bream tournament. I imagined I was fishing for bream and it was just a matter of taking the lure and making a small adjustment to really

trigger those bites from the estuary perch and bass.” Harlock’s pre-fish began slow and he struggled to find consistent bites. The turbid water conditions sparked an idea to add some vibration and flash to the small soft plastic he had been throwing all morning. It was then that Harlock added a beetle-spin arm to his soft plastic and enjoyed almost immediate success with estuary perch and bass hammering his offering. “After I had confidence in the beetle-spin and soft plastic combo it was just a matter of finding a few key areas and to do that I looked

WINNING TACKLE Rod: 6’10 Abu Garcia Salty Stage light spinning rod Reel: Abu Garcia Revo ALX Line: 4.4lb Berkley Fireline Tournament Exceed Leader: 4lb flurocarbon Lure: Berkley Tournament Series T-Tail minnow (pumpkinseed fleck) rigged on a 1/8oz Berkley Nitro Dam Deep jighead

for eddies and areas those fish could relax out of the strong currents.” Harlock keyed in on a rockwall upstream of Wisemans Ferry that was located on a bend in the river. The sharp bend of the river swirled the current, and the backside of the rockwall had far less current pushing over it and featured plenty of sunken boulders for fish to hide behind in ambush. “I would cast my lure close the edge of the rock wall. I was getting the odd fish up shallow, but most of my bites would come in water deeper than 10ft. I’d slowly work my bait down the face of the wall, trying to keep the bait banging the boulders that protrude out into the current. I’d find almost all of my bites would come just after my bait had struck a rock, so those fish were definitely using those rocks as a hideaway from the current and to ambush the prey.”

Shake

TOP 10 NON BOATERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Fish

Weight (kg)

Jason Harlock showed his angling prowess, finishing second in his first-ever BASS Pro event.

BIG BASS James Reid claimed the Big Bass Prize at the Hawkesbury BASS Pro, with the bass junky picking up the $500 fish on day one fishing with Warren Carter.

Pryce Has Perfect Start

Berkley T-Tail on Dam Deep Jig Head

Place Angler

Harlock relied on a Millerods Control Freak spin rod fitted with a Daiwa Caldia reel spooled with 6lb J-Braid and finished with a combination of 4 and 6lb leaders. The specifics of his lure shared similarities with tournament champion Ross Cannizzaro, as the pair both relied on a Berkley Tournament T-Tail minnow as their go-to bait of choice. Harlock heaped praise on the river’s fishery and shared weight format of the ABT BASS Pro events. His day one non-boater Dane Pryce took top honours for the event, winning the non-boater section in a tightly fought race. Harlock thanked his sponsors Costa Sunglasses and Hobie Fishing Australia for the support over the last few seasons. Harlock now qualifies for the season ending BASS Pro Grand Final, which is also slated for a tidal river fisher,y the Richmond River at Coraki in NSW in September.

Payout

Dane Pryce 7/12 4.57 Bassman Prize Pack Peter Morgan 6/12 4.49 Prize Pack James Reid 5/12 4.37 Prize Pack + Big Bass (1.16kg) Keeghan Painter 6/12 4.22 Prize Pack Lochie Rutherford 7/12 4.01 Prize Pack Eathan Martin 6/12 3.81 Prize Pack Rebecca Fazio 5/12 3.77 Prize Pack Tony Khouri 5/12 3.41 Prize Pack Orton Marchant 5/12 3.28 Prize Pack James Hickson 4/12 3.08 Prize Pack For full result listings, see www.abt.org.au

Dane Pryce couldn’t have wished for a better first taste of tournament fishing, taking top honours at the Bass Cat BASS Pro event on the Hawkesbury River in his first-ever tournament. Fishing day one with Jason Harlock and day two with Wayne Robinson, Pryce was treated to the dream start, leading after sessions one and two thanks to his and his partner Jason Harlock’s fantastic day one bags. The non-boater section was tightly contested, with first to fifth separated by just over 500g, a stark contrast to the boater division. In the end Pryce’s 1/4 0.53kg fish bag on Sunday’s final session was just enough to hold off a fast-finishing Peter Morgan. Fishing Saturday with Jason Harlock, Pryce also relied on a beetlespin rigged soft plastic presentation to tame both the local estuary perch and Australian bass. A 1/8oz jighead was the preferred weight to sink the bait down in the strong current to the desired depth of 20ft where they’d located the majority of the fish. A simple slow roll retrieve was all that was needed, just fast enough to ensure the blade was spinning and creating turbulence and flash in the dirty post-flood conditions. Sunday’s morning session was a lot tougher on the newcomer, weighing only a single fish for the

Dane Pryce tapped into his river bassing experience to claim the Champion Non-boater title at the BassCat presented event. session, but it was enough to claim the victory and qualify Pryce for the season ending BassCat BASS Pro Grand Final on the Richmond River later this year. Pryce was full of praise for his two boating partners over the weekend saying the shared weight format promoted teamwork and the sharing of knowledge perfectly fit ABT’s motto, ‘Who shares, wins.’ Pryce walked away with a prize pack jam-packed with ABT sponsor products and a beautiful trophy courtesy of Joseph Urquhart at Casino Outdoors and Disposal.

The Bass Cat BASS Pro Series now turns it attention north to the picturesque impoundments of Cania Dam and Boondooma Dam for the Queensland doubleheader bass road trip in June. If you’re looking to get a taste of tournament bass fishing then there’s arguably no two dams better to give you a taste than these two. Trophysized bass and plenty of rod-bending action are sure to await anglers when they hit the water in a few weeks. To keep up with the tour, head to www. abt.org.au.

DUFFRODS BIG BAG Kris Hickson secured the Duffrods Big Bag at the opening round of the 2017 BASS Pro Series, with the current BASS Pro Angler of the Year bouncing back in session two after a quiet session one, weighing in the heaviest limit for the tournament (3.19kg) to head home from the event with a new Duffrod to his name. – ABT JUNE 2017

Morgan wins Franklins Open Australia’s BREAM tournament calendar has been missing one very prestigious event in years past. This year saw that event return in spectacular fashion both on the water and online, streamed to tens of thousands of keen observers. The Franklins BREAM Australian Open paid tribute to its fallen mate and fellow angler Greg Lee, with Steve Morgan from Queensland taking home the Greg Lee Memorial Trophy after the three competition days. The BREAM Australian Open is easily the toughest test of BREAM tournament fishing ABT can serve up. Three days across two venues and fishing with no co-angler in the boat means it’s all down to the angler, the fish, the venue and the decisions.

THE FUTURE IS HERE Self-contained Electric Outboards

This year’s event saw a multi-venue format implemented, testing anglers across the perplexing waterways of both Sydney Harbour and the Hawkesbury River. Anglers fished the first and third days on the harbour, mixing it up with a day on the Hawkesbury in between. The prizes on offer were fitting for a tournament of such stature with $5000 rewarded for first place, $3000 for second and paying down to fifth spot. In the end it was in-form BREAMer Steve Morgan who stormed home on the final day, weighing the biggest bag of the day to jump from seventh to first to hoist the Greg Lee Memorial Trophy. “I started fishing the open back in 2004 and I realised pretty quickly that to be successful over three days you needed

The highly coveted Greg Lee Memorial Trophy. to fish new ground,” he said. “If you hit the same spots each day, you definitely wore the fish out.” With favourable weather

STORM

Morgan prepares to head off on day two of the Franklins Australia BREAM Australian Open.

Kris Hickson with a brace of bream from the Hawkesbury that helped him secure second place.

RESULTS

Visit www.abt.org.au for entry forms. For general enquiries phone ABT on (07) 3387 0888. 94

JUNE 2017

Place

Angler

TW (kg)

Payout

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Steve Morgan Kristoffer Hickson Mark Healey Ross Cannizzaro Tim Vickers Mark Crompton Richard Potter Brad Biddleston Daniel Scott Denis Metzdorf

15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 14

10.96 10.95 10.94 10.62 10.01 9.92 9.82 9.76 8.94 8.81

$5,000 $3,000 $2,000 $1,500 $1,500

For full result listings, see www.abt.org.au

during the first day of the event, Morgan concentrated on fishing the tightest structure he could find. Beginning his day throwing a crankbait at the Iron Cove Bridge, Morgan paid no attention to the myth that catching a fish on the first cast is bad luck, bagging a solid fish straight away. From there it was structure fishing 101 from The Open champ, as Morgan rotated through moored boats, pylons, jetties and any other tight structure to put together a 3.6kg limit. Morgan targeted the structure with a two-prong approach of a Heavy Cranka Crab in olive colour, and an Ecogearaqua Bream Prawn 50mm in salt and pepper colour. “The crab is good for when the fish are sitting deeper on the structure, like underneath a large boat hull or on the base of pylons. The Aqua really excels when the fish are suspended or sitting up high and you don’t want the lure to sink past them too quickly. It’s also the ideal lure to skip into places you might not be able to get to with a crab.” The second day on the Hawkesbury River began at a much slower pace, and it wasn’t until the last few hours of the session that Morgan began to put a bag together. After having spent the morning fishing outside of Pittwater, Morgan returned to catch the rising tide and went to work winding back the clock to a time when Stick Minnows dominated tournaments all over Australia. “It was old-school Stick Minnow fishing, back to 2lb straight through fluorocarbon line, my old G Loomis SR842-2 ultra light rods and a Tiemco Stick Minnow or Austackle Shinku fitted with #16 barbless trebles.” Morgan is probably the best proponent of this technique on the BREAM tournament scene and it all revolves around line management. “The Stick Minnow’s

Close friends and a close finish, only 10g separated Morgan and Hickson. action is all to do with the sink. That subtle shimmy is what the bream love, but you’ve got to be careful of any pressure being applied to the nose of the lure through your line. If you pull the lure away from the structure it’s not going to shimmy properly, and you’re less likely to have a fish follow it,” Morgan commented.

Atomic Crank

“You need to mend your line much like a stream fisher mends his fly line as it floats down the river. I do this by moving my rod to straighten the line at just the right moment so as to avoid moving the lure away from the structure at the same time.” Once the lure reached its target, Morgan would let

Tiemco Stick Minnow

Wind

the lure sink until it hit the bottom before commencing a series of 3-4 sharp rips off the bottom to make the lure dart up in the water column so it could begin its seductive shimmy all over again. “Every bite will come on the drop. Sometimes you feel it and other times you’d go to rip it up again and there would be weight on the line,”

explained Morgan. Salvaging the day with an over 3kg bag had Morgan within striking distance moving back to Sydney Harbour for the final day. “The third day is when you win or lose the Open; you can lose it on the first two days but today’s the day you can win the whole thing.” That was the quote at the beginning of Morgan’s day three livestream video and it rang true as viewers were taken through a crash course of topwater bream fishing in Middle Harbour. With a forecast of increasing gusty winds rolling through Morgan knew it would be prime conditions for a consistent topwater bite. Making the run to Middle Harbour Morgan concentrated on natural banks lined with rocks and boulders. The fish were up high and active as he tempted them with a combination of OSP Bent Minnow 76 and OSP Bent Minnow 86 topwater lures. “The final day was nothing like the first two.

Ecogearaqua Bream Prawn Cranka Crab OSP Bent Minnow White

- SC

TENT -

RE ONLINE MO

CON

AN THE

that would have turned the tables on the last day. “Lost fish will always hurt, but they hurt a whole lot more when you end up losing by such a small margin. I left a few fish out there today that would have helped my cause no doubt, but that’s fishing and it’s hard to win big tournaments with this calibre of field when you’re plagued by lost fish.” Hickson’s tournament pattern revolved around a number of different outfits, baits and tactics. But his go-to technique was fishing a

The fish really responded to the topwater on the final day, and there’s no better way to catch a big bag and run down the leaders than on surface in Middle Harbour.” Morgan’s topwater approach was one suitable for the masses, turning to the cheapest outfit on board his boat a Daiwa Spellbinder rod matched with a Daiwa Sweepfire reel spooled with 15lb braid and 10lb leader. In the end it turned out

to be the closest weigh-in in ABT history, with Morgan claiming honours by the smallest measureable margin of 10g over Kris Hickson, who beat out Mark Healey also by 10g. To have the top three anglers only separated by 20g over 15 bream and three days of intense tournament fishing just goes to show the quality of the anglers the ABT tournament system is producing year-in, year-out.

WINNING TACKLE Bent Minnow Outfit Daiwa Spellbinder rod matched with a Daiwa Sweepfire reel spooled with 15lb braid and 10lb leader. Stick Minnow Outfit GLoomis SR842-2 and 2lb straight-through fluorocarbon. Lures Atomic Crank 38 Deep in GGB colour, Cranka Heavy Cranka Crab in olive colour, Ecogearaqua Bream Prawn 50mm in salt and pepper, Tiemco Stick Minnow or Austackle Shinku colour fitted with #16 barbless trebles, OSP Bent Minnow 76 and OSP Bent Minnow 86.

www.fishin.com.au

Weedy bottom

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Hickson relegated to runner-up What weighs 10g and costs $2000? That’s the margin between Kris Hickson’s three-day total at the Franklin’s BREAM Australian Open and event champion Steve Morgan’s. When Hickson presented 3.38kg to the scales on the final day it was the opening Morgan needed to swoop home to victory. For Hickson, it was not his first close call on Sydney Harbour or the Hawkesbury River and in the end it came down to a few key lost fish

The spoils of victory went to Steve Morgan in the Franklins Australian sponsored event.

Cranka Crab on tight structure during the first and third days, and fishing flats in the Hawkesbury River on day two. He presented the lure on a combination of Daiwa outfits. It was mainly a Luvias and Black Label V2 combo spooled with Evo 8 braid and 4 and 6lb fluorocarbon leaders. Watch out for Kris Hickson’s full Franklins Australian Open coverage on an upcoming episode of The Next Level broadcast on Channel 7 later this year. Steve Morgan’s live videos were viewed

by over 50,000 people come tournament’s end, broadcasting tournament fishing to more people in Australia than ever before. To watch each day’s highlight videos, you can head to the Fishing Monthly YouTube channel. Attention now turns to the upcoming BASS Australian Open, which will be held for the first time in Queensland later this year. For all the information on upcoming ABT tournaments you can head to www.abt. org.au. – ABT

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www.fishin.com.au 0425 230 964 Blue Bottle Fishing 0409 333 380 or www.bluebottlefishing.com Mo Tackle (02) 6652 4611 or www.motackle.com.au Adrenalin Flies www.adrenalinflies.com.au Techni Ice www.techniice.com Jayro Tackle www.jayrotackle.com.au

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This section in NSW Fishing Monthly consolidates the trades and services in your area that are relevant to your fishing and boating. Whether you’re a local looking for more options or a travelling angler fishing around the state, this guide will direct you to reputable businesses in the area you’re searching. 96

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Boats & Guided Fishing Tours Directory Holiday With Us, Sussex Inlet (02) 4441 2135 Surf Beach Holiday Park (02) 4232 1791 Kendalls on the Beach (02) 4232 1790 Werri Beach Holiday Park (02) 4234 1285 Seven Mile Beach Holiday Park (02) 4234 1340 Kiama Harbour Cabins (02) 4232 2707 Ulladulla Headland Tourist Park 1300 733 021

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FRESHWATER Burrinjuck Waters State Park (02) 6227 8114 Winter Keep (Snowy Mountains) www.winterkeep.com.au Grabine Lakeside State Park (02) 4835 2345 Alpine Tourist Park (02) 6454 2438 www.alpinetouristpark.com.au Lake Glenbawn State Park (02) 6543 7193 Milani Trout Cottages (02) 6775 5735 www.milanitroutcottages.com Wyangala Waters State Park (02) 6345 0877 Chifley Dam Cabins 1800 68 1000 Copeton Waters (02) 6723 6269

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boats & kayaks

In the skipper’s seat 100 Why choose a fibreglass boat Inside story...

Brooker boats started more than 45 years ago when Norm Brooker saw a market for a new design of aluminium boat. His engineering business grew quickly, building and assembling many thousands of boats and trailers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. His philosophy was to build strong, high quality and affordable boats. To this day, the industry sees Brooker boats as superior fully welded construction through to their finish.

Made for...

Brooker makes for affordable boating by allowing the use of smaller motors for comparable performance.

This month...

Gary Brown jumps in the skipper’s seat of the Brooker 535R Discovery.

Wayne Kampe looks at the reasons to choose fibreglass when looking for your ideal boat.

105 Lowrance HDS Carbon review

Sounder guru Nabeel Issa takes a look at the new innovation from Lowrance, the HDS Carbon!

106 Winter yakking

Our resident kayaker Justin Willmer looks at some of your options from the kayak in winter.

108 Glenbawn goodness We all know how good Glenbawn is, but what can it offer a kayaker? Toby Grundy finds out!

110 Whittley CR2180

Editor Steve Morgan climbs aboard this luxury rig for testing on Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay.

Selecting the right boat for the job: Fibreglass PART 3 BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

In the last couple of issues I’ve cast the net pretty wide in regards to selecting the correct fishing craft for the job. Initially I covered vital issues such as freeboard, sea keeping capability, ride quality and fishing room, as these are essential

well as some of the downsides of the deal. FOR THE RIDE, GO GLASS Let’s face it: glass boats have been around for a very long time so they must have something pretty good going for them! First is the ride. There can be no denying it – these hulls are formed into shapes that enhance ride quality and sea keeping as well other important features of a good boat.

hours to form and set up once they are completed the basic hull and other important bits and pieces can be turned out when needed. The glass manufacturer has a lot of latitude with hull forming. Keeping the fibreglass to the minimum (while still maintaining adequate strength) will reduce weight. Add more glass in layers and the hull will be thicker, stronger and heavier, either way the beautiful eye catching lines

The complex hull shape of the Pioneer centre console is exclusive to fibreglass construction. Here it’s displacing water very cleanly in a turn to starboard.

The Keel Shield on the author’s 5.5m glass hull allows the craft to be drawn onto ramps or other rough areas with impunity. considerations in selecting a just-right rig for most fishing activities an angler might have in mind. I also pointed out that all boats will involve some compromises that the owner will need to work around. That aside, the smart angler doesn’t go out and just buy a boat. The idea is to work out what sort of fishing lifestyle you want and then select the craft. In last month’s issue I highlighted one of the most important decisions you might make – whether to opt for alloy or fibreglass in the final cut. While emphasizing the fact that I would not be making an alloy versus glass debate, I did point out quite a few benefits (plus a couple of drawbacks) of owning an alloy – pressed sheet or plate – craft covering everything from carefree operation through to more bang for the buck, as

Here’s why: fibreglass hulls are laid up within a mould (actually there areseveral moulds) to form all sorts of complex curves and shapes purpose-designed to offer what the manufacturer considers the ultimate in ride, handling attributes and interior features. So while the hull’s moulds might take a lot of

will always be there! Aluminium, on the other hand, has limits regarding shaping, forming and stretching. While computer designing, programming and new manufacturing techniques have lifted alloy craft to new levels today, the material itself has limits for forming angles and final shaping that

glass doesn’t, as aluminium is formed in a fluid state. The major result of the two differing manufacturing processes comes down to glass hulls having softer and more pronounced lines depending upon what the manufacturer wants. The reality is that any shape, angle or curve is possible with glass construction. Denser material also means more weight. Fibreglass craft will usually be heavier, which is no drawback as a heavier hull will tend to slice through waves easier, and offer much less hull slap and noise when underway. Far less bounce to the ounce, so to speak! The overall result will usually be more stability both underway and at rest, and a

With ultra light glass the Cross Country car topper combines rigidity, strength and a very user-friendly weight.

The ultra light weight of infused glass craft makes them ideal for car top travel. How many craft of this size are so easily loaded by one person! JUNE 2017

Glass can be worked with just as easily as any other material with the added bonus that there is no issue whatsoever with electrolysis, which is the one big concern with alloy craft where stray electrical currents and water are always a cause for worry. It starts with bubbling paint and ends with tiny pinholes in the material – nasty indeed.

Function follows fine form: note the very well designed bow and upper sections of this glass half cabin rig.

quieter and better ride because the hull is not being pushed around by wind or waves but is tracking more true under all conditions. The glass hull will rarely have to slow down in conditions that would see you reducing the throttle setting of the same sized alloy hull.

100

Sharp handling – cornering ability – is also a big plus with glass rigs where the hull can be thrown into hard turns without dislodging passengers. Would a more advanced design and perhaps heavier hull require more power? This is not so. Many glass hulls – thanks to their very sleek design parameters – require astonishingly little power to perform well.

ALL STYLES IN GLASS RIGS Just like alloy rigs, all styles of boat are available. From lightweight tiller steer infused glass car toppers (the Cross Country range comes to mind) to tiller steer sub-5m outfits right through to larger centre consoles and cabin craft, every design is on hand. The ease of installing fittings, equipment and items to make fishing that bit better becomes a non-event.

AT THE RAMP Much is made of the fragile nature of glass boats but this is somewhat of a furphy. Fibreglass is less forgiving around very hard surfaces, but as most of any boat’s life will be spent on the water, it’s only at launch or retrieve time that the owner needs to be careful. A hard belt on an alloy hull will cause at least a dent. The same impact on glass will usually cause only a scuff mark. I’ve been there and done this!

When it comes to complex hull shapes for specialized performance work, fibreglass is in a realm of its own.

Let’s be real; if you’re launching on an ocean ramp where surge and wave action is prominent, glass is not the best choice for a rough day launch. It’s far better to have selected plate alloy, but for most glass launching and retrieve work there are ways of protecting the product. A Keel Guard, Keel Shield or an inbuilt rubbing strake on the bow will take all the worry out of allowing the fibreglass to contact the concrete or other hard surface. I used a Keel Shield on my 5.5 glass Galeforce centre console for a long time and really enjoyed the protection it gave the bow section of the hull. Pulling the hull onto gravel or a ramp was suddenly no problem; it

was just that good. Repairs to fibreglass aren’t the problem you might think. If you’re far from home and a tinny gets a rip in it or starts to come asunder through weld failure, there is no option but to head for a specialized alloy welder for repairs. Use the welder that’s back at camp? Not likely! With a glass boat a simple fibreglass repair kit with its matting and catalyst will save the day nicely. While it might not look as good as the original section, it sure won’t be leaking once the glass and resin cures. It’s time to go fishing again! THE OUTCOME Those are just some of the things to consider in enjoying the ownership

and fishing from a fibreglass fishing craft. True, the advanced performance and ride quality come at a price. The expertise involved in crafting a quality glass hull will usually see it costing more than a similar sized alloy craft. Many anglers will shrug the price point issue aside as a trade-off for superior ride quality if most of their fishing involves less than smooth water. In that situation glass is very hard to beat, even if the mass of a larger rig might involve a larger towing vehicle to move it about. At the end of these alloy/ glass discussions – with those ever-important parameters of seaworthiness, ride quality, stability and suitability for

A lesson in hull design, the fibreglass Pioneer sports a hull shape that cannot be achieved with alloy. Note that prominent reversed waterline chine.

Fibreglass hulls have a smooth ride. A look at the bow section of this craft certainly shows the complexity of design that contributes to this fact. fishing requirements – it’s easy to work out that glass has the glam ride while alloy corners the convenience. A SMALLER FIBREGLASS RIG The one major factor with alloy is the availability of small – sub 5m – rigs that are ideal for use in sheltered water such as lakes, rivers, estuaries and even quieter sections of the bay. Fibreglass boat manufacturers largely leave these smaller craft to the alloy builders, which is why for several years I owned a 5.5m Galeforce glass rig for

bay and offshore work with an aluminium 4.3m TABS Bullshark punt alongside it for bass, barra, and river or estuary fishing. Both performed well within their allocated roles. I always reflected that if a Galeforce rig with the freeboard and overall performance of the 5.5 was available in sub-5m configuration I would jump at the chance of owning one! As luck would have it, Galeforce Boats of Maryborough are now turning out a 4.5m craft and I’ve ordered one.

This newby is likely going to cause a lot of hard decision making for anglers looking for an all-round rig that will be just as useful in impoundments and other sheltered water as out in the bay. The reality is that instead of alloy, here’s a smaller glass rig with the ride, the handling and freeboard – the works. In the next issue we will have a very close look at this craft and see exactly what it offers. Ours is going to be a centre console and will be fulfilling a host of roles as our only boat.

The perfect boats for barra, bass or bream

You’ll find them where the fish are... since 1967 Mako 214 CC

For more than 20 years, Nitro have continually refined and delivered serious fishing boats for serious anglers. Nitro boats are foam-filled to exceed US Coast Guard survey requirements. This gives you the safety of level floatation, security and comfort – and additional fishing stealth – all backed by a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

Mako 234 CC Mako 284 CC

Fishing with Nitro is a blast! Whether you’re a tournament pro or a weekend warrior, Nitro boats will ignite your passion and pack more fun into your day. Just getting there is half the fun!

The latest offerings from Mako feature the deepest internal freeboard of any boats in their class, while still providing large underfloor fish boxes, and the huge safety benefits of a true self-draining cockpit and foamfilled hull. You’ll enjoy your offshore fishing more knowing that Mako’s 100% composite construction is totally rot-free, enabling Mako to give you the best warranty in the business – the Mako Assurance Life Time Warranty

The world’s #1 aluminium fishing boats! Tracker’s outstanding quality and unique manufacturing process have made them the world’s largest boat builder – producing more than 40,000 aluminium fishing boats per year. Their foam-filled, unsinkable, 3mm plate alloy hulls are robotically welded to deliver superior quality at a lower cost – and are backed by a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Tracker’s Pro Guide series is designed with a deep-vee hull for exceptional performance, even in rough waters. Their Diamond Coat finish is a Tracker exclusive that resists oxidation, providing protection and a shine lasting 70% longer. Standard features include a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance colour sounder, plus tournament-ready live well systems and rod lockers.

Call Tim Stessl now on 0429 680 504 to arrange a test drive or email tim@flboats.com.au Hopefully it will be rough, as you’ll be stunned by the performance of these boats when the weather gets challenging!

Fishing and Leisure Boats, 167 Currumburra Road, Ashmore, QLD 4214

www.fishingandleisureboats.com.au JUNE 2017

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WHAT’S NEW BOATING MACRIS MIU-L10 UNDERWATER LED

For boat owners requiring a small light with big performance, AMI have announced the brand new MIU-L10 underwater LED light from Macris Industries. An ultra-bright 1500+ fixture lumen display means the L10 can enhance night time entertaining, or light up the water and wake, attracting fish. It’s ideally suited to vessels from 5-8m. Made in the USA, and with the same ultra-low profile and impact resistant PMMA acrylic composite design that the rest of the Macris range is known for, the L10 is a mere 200mm long, yet is powerful enough to rival larger competitor models. It’s rated IP68 as standard. The light is available in ice blue, royal blue and white. Price: SRP $353 www.amisales.com.au

BENNETT AUTOTRIM PRO

The new Bennett AutoTrim Pro is an all-in-one trim tab control system for boats of all sizes. It packs a stack of essential features into an easy-to-use, space-saving keypad. AutoTrim Pro automatically levels the pitch and roll of your boat, adjusting your trim tabs to changes in vessel speed, sea conditions and shifting weight. Auto Mode allows you to store and access your preferences, and you can shift to manual mode at any time. ‘All Up’ and ‘All Down’ buttons allow for one-touch manual adjustments, and Automatic Tab Retraction protects tabs during storage and trailering. AutoTrim Pro can be added to all existing Bennett electric and hydraulic systems (with minor modifications in some applications), and most others as well. It is both 12V and 24V capable. With plug and play waterproof snapon connectors, assembly is easy; you just connect the helm display and the control unit. Price: SRP $1135 (hydraulic or electric kit) www.harroldmarine.com.au

STAR TRON CARBON 3 ELIMINATOR+ Star Brite Star Tron Carbon Eliminator+ has been formulated for quick, DIY removal of engine deposits. It’s easy to use – you just spray directly into the carburettor or air intake – and it’s suitable for use in all petrol and diesel engines. Star Tron Carbon Eliminator is formulated with the latest technology deposit control compounds, plus a proprietary enzyme package specifically developed to remove even the toughest carbon, gum and varnish deposits. It comes with free sticky rings to improve performance, reduce fuel consumption, restore power and extend engine life. Star Brite recommends that you use Star Tron Carbon Eliminator+ at the beginning of each season and every 100 hours of operation. Price: SRP $27.30 (355mL) www.bla.com.au 102

JUNE 2017

LOWRANCE LINK-6 VHF

PRODUCT GUIDE

Lowrance has announced the new Link6, a Class D DSC Approved VHF marine radio. The Link-6 features a dot white matrix LCD screen with inverted light mode, four backlit mic buttons and an easier front-mount installation with snap on edge bezels. A replacement for the Link-5 VHF Radio, the Link-6 has a new Startup Wizard for easier radio set-up, improved scanning features, a Favourites shortcut for customising your favourite settings, and a My Channels list, enabling users to only scan desired channels. Link-6 controls are designed for left-hand operation, allowing for right-hand control of the helm. Key features include: intuitive rotary and keypad controls; four-button fist microphone; dedicated channel 16 keys; tri-channel watch function; multiple scan modes; easy bracket or flush-mount installation; and IPX7 waterproof. Available from mid-2017, it has a 2-year warranty and comes in black or white. Price: SRP $279 www.lowrance.com/en-au

VESSELVIEW MOBILE

Mercury Marine has announced the Australian release of VesselView Mobile, providing boaters with SmartCraft engine data on their smartphones and tablets. VesselView Mobile operates via a module which is connected into the SmartCraft harness, and transmits SmartCraft engine info, using Bluetooth, to iOS or Android mobile devices via the VesselView Mobile app. VesselView Mobile can be used on any SmartCraft-capable engine – 40hp and up – built from 2003 onwards, and can handle single to quad engine applications. VesselView Mobile lets users perform a range of functions, including: connecting to the SmartCraft data network in your boat via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0); seeing SmartCraft engine parameters like engine hours, fuel burn, water temperature, battery voltage, RPM, etc. (parameters are specific to each engine family); getting fault code diagnostic info so you know if a fault is urgent, or whether it can wait until you get home; monitoring fuel management for accurate fuel usage data; seeing points of interest for your body of water, and more. To receive the data, just download the free VesselView Mobile app. www.mercurymarine.com.au.com.au

GARMIN PANOPTIX PS51-TH

The Panoptix PS51-TH transducer brings Garmin’s revolutionary Panoptix technology to an even greater range of boats. This new phased-array multi-beam through-hull transducer delivers premium Panoptix FrontVü sonar. FrontVü is a narrow beam, forward-looking sonar that focuses on the bottom in front of the boat, which displays the bottom up to nearly 100m ahead of the boat at 8-10 times the current depth. The PS51-TH also delivers LiveVü Forward, which shows targets moving toward or away from the boat, even while stationary, in real time. It is also compatible with a wide range of Garmin units. Price: SRP $2399 www.garmin.com/en-AU

Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Product Profile

Lowrance HDS Carbon an impression innovation SOUTHERN BAY

Nabeel Issa

It’s no surprise that marine technology is constantly changing. In the past when it came to fish finder technology we would have to wait years before anything new hit the market. Now we don’t have to wait long at all! Some anglers like the fast advances and some don’t. Either way, it means the

using a touchscreen Lowrance becomes second nature. Straight out of the box you can expect to get the sounder itself, mounting bracket, power cable and instructions. Also depending on the bundle you bought you may also get a transducer and mapping card. I recommend having a good think about your type of fishing and buying the right transducer to suit. The transducer connects you to

you context, if you have recently upgraded to a new cell phone, one of the first things you notice is how fast and responsive the new one is. This is exactly how the new HDS Carbon feels. My favourite Lowrance feature of all time is Structure Scan. The upgraded Solarmax screen and processor make Structure Scan on the HDS Carbon a treat to use. The clarity is mind-boggling. I tested this sounder with a The HDS Carbon units come in four different sizes: 7”, 9”, 12” and the new 16”. to do a bit of prior research or get the helping hand of a professional. If you are upgrading from a HDS Gen 3 like myself, no changes are needed. I used the same bracket and cables as were already installed. Just plug and play, it’s that simple. The HDS Carbon units

come in four different sizes: 7”, 9”, 12” and the new 16”. This is the largest unit available in its class and for those that have the space to fit it on their boat, it will be a very welcome addition. I have already been measuring up my console to work out how to fit one in!

Prices start at $1999 (RRP). These are rolling out to stores now. With the upgrades to what was an already impressive machine, these units are a worthy investment if you are in the market to upgrade or to purchase a new sounder.

Structure Scan is a must-have. Being able to scan massive distances makes fishing easy! consumer is getting access to bigger and better things, which I am all for. A few months ago, Lowrance announced the upcoming release of its latest and greatest fish finder, the HDS Carbon. An upgrade on the previous Gen 3 model, the Carbon boasts some handy additions that will make it that much easier for anglers on the water. I have only briefly had my hands on the unit, but in that time I gave it a fair work over for this review. WHAT IT IS The HDS Carbon is a touchscreen fish finder/ GPS unit. If you’re out of the loop with what’s currently available, touchscreen sounders have basically dominated the market over the past few years. They make it very easy to navigate around a sounder. If you are familiar with using a smart phone,

the water and is extremely important! WHAT IT CAN DO Internally this sounder has had some major upgrades over its predecessors. One of the first things you will notice with the HDS Carbon is the clarity and brightness of the new Solarmax screen. Colours are far more vibrant and images are clearer. The greatest benefit of the Solarmax screen is that in full sunlight, even while wearing polarised sunglasses, you can easily see what’s on the screen. Gone are the days of having to use your hand to shade the screen to see what’s on the sounder. It now runs a dual-core processor and the ram has been doubled. This means that the unit is faster and far more capable. Running split screens with Structure Scan 3D, GPS and Radar is now possible. To give

Structure Scan 3D transducer and was able to scan over 100m either side of my boat! That’s covering a 200m span while still being able to pick out structure and fish. Another handy addition is the ability to network dual sonar views. For example, if you have two transducers set up on your boat (one at the transom and one on the bow mount electric motor), you can view both sonar readings at the same time. This is great for running different frequency transducers or running high, medium or low chirp. INSTALLATION Installation with these units is simple. There are complete instructions that come with the sounder but it is a straightforward task. However, it is important that transducer setup is done correctly, so it always pays

The home screen layout makes it very easy to navigate the sounder.

$199

The new Solarmax screen makes it easy to read the unit in full sun and glare. JUNE 2017

105

Seafood basket from a kayak BRISBANE

Justin Willmer Find me on Facebook at Yaks On

With the chill of winter in the air some anglers opt to put their kayaks away in the garage or shed until

the table, by bleeding fish, getting them straight into the ice or cleaning it soon after capture. Shorter daylight hours, cooler temperatures and chilly winds often make winter kayak fishing less attractive. However, there

Crab pots held on with occy straps and ready to be dropped for the night high tide. the weather warms again. Others make the most of stable weather patterns and glassy days, the influx of bait into the rivers and estuaries and the cool weather species coming on the chew. Winter is a favourite time of year for my family of anglers. We are already enjoying the plentiful bait and the snapper, bream, yellowtail pike, tailor and other species this influx of bait attracts. There are also still a few crabs around along with other seafood options including prawns and squid. Winter in my local waters is seafood basket time with the mix of tasty treats on offer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for ‘limit your catch, don’t catch your limit’ and ‘fish for the future.’ I also enjoy a tasty feed of freshly caught seafood and we have some of the best seafood in the world. We don’t abuse the resource, in terms of seasonal species or spawning seasons. We release the larger breeding fish, including larger flathead, and we also respect our catch so that it is kept in optimum condition for

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and peace of mind when using battery headlamps. Railblaza also offer some excellent lighting options for kayak anglers, covering both visibility to others and visibility for the angler. SCUPPER PLUGS A simple thing that can make your fishing much more comfortable in winter is the addition of scupper plugs to your kayak. Scupper holes in your sit-on-top kayaks are designed to allow excess water from waves to escape from the cockpit of the kayak. Some kayaks however, especially for larger paddlers, allow water to enter the cockpit through these scupper holes when paddling and fishing, making the cockpit area wetter and colder. On those calm winter days scupper plugs can be inserted to stop water

The gold rush colour in ZMan 3” MinnowZ proved effective in the dirtier water.

from entering the cockpit area, leaving it dryer and in turn warmer. Sit inside kayaks offer excellent protection from the elements in winter. It’s important to do more investigating to see if a sit inside suits your applications. CLOTHING Appropriate clothing can also make your winter fishing more enjoyable, comfortable and safer. This can include neoprene booties and even SealSkinz waterproof socks, gloves or beanies. Dry pants that include neoprene waist and ankle cuffs can keep the bottom half dry and they are available in lightweight materials for warmer parts of the country. Head scarves are not just for sun protection and can offer excellent warmth and wind resistance in cooler months. When it comes to the top half, consider layering as a means of better regulating your body temperature. Rather than wearing one heavy layer that may see you snug for the early morning start and then overheating when the sun gets higher in the sky, consider three or four layers that can be removed or swapped as required and stored in a dry bag when not required. Again, a dry top is a good option as an outer layer, with lightweight options available for warmer

Top: Sheri with a quality winter flathead on a soft plastic. Above: Flathead filleting. We release plenty, but it’s hard to beat a feed of fresh seafood.

are a few things you can do to make your experiences safer, more comfortable and more productive. LIGHTING Early starts can produce some red-hot sessions. With less daylight hours, a quality waterproof LED headlamp will make gearing up, rigging up and handling fish much simpler and safer. Avoid rechargeable lights or at least ensure they have an adequate run-time for your adventure at full power. A spare set of batteries in a dry bag or waterproof box ensures plenty of run-time

The author with a flathead from a cool early start.

A handful of winter bream.

climates. Another aspect to consider is visibility, with some excellent high-vis clothing options available. CRABBING We have been making the most of the end of the sand crab (blue swimmer crab) season, with plenty of sand crab sangas, seafood pizzas and seafood mornay. Don’t forget the crabs, crays, craws and other crustaceans that are available from the kayak in your region. Whether it’s sneaking up a mangrove drain in search of mud crabs, chasing sandies on the channel edges or going in search of freshwater

yabbies or shrimp, it’s all achievable from the kayak, and dropping a few traps on the paddle to your favourite fishing spots may be your ticket to a seafood basket of your own. Recently we discovered smaller, 50cm diameter versions of the crab pots that we use for chasing sand crabs and these are perfect for the kayak angler. We have had them out on some reasonably large tides without them drifting. Although we christened them with a female crab (that couldn’t be kept), we

Gearing up for squid.

soon recovered with a crab sandwich model. We’re definitely looking forward to picking up a few more of these and it will make kayak crabbing simpler and more manageable. Check out what tasty crustaceans are available in your region and how to catch them. Remember to check the local regulations. FISHING There have been plenty of flathead hitting the decks for us, as always, while throwing soft plastics. Winter has also seen a few snapper, quality bream and a few tailor, swallowtail dart, flounder and plenty of yellowtail pike turning up. Make the most of the

Left: The C-Tug Kayak Trolley makes transporting the kayak to and from the water a breeze. Right: The C-Tug Kayak Trolley disassembles for storage in a kayak hatch. again recently when some of our favourite natural, lighter colours couldn’t switch on a bite. A quick change to black and gold and a better silhouette colour in the dirtier water produced plenty of fish. The theory

depths and you can lift the top cap to add water to cock the float, increase casting distance or add a chemical light for night fishing. It’s early days in our squid fishing, however we are starting to nut them out

The first crab from the smaller crab pots. Unfortunately, it was a female that had to go back. advantages the kayak offers you and get up on those flats, work those mangrove edges and push up into those drains where the influx of bait is trying to feed and find protection from predators. The shallow draft, low profile and low shadow of

large numbers and it’s worth investigating other preparation techniques such as fish smoking to get the most out of these winter species. This includes salmon, tailor, swallowtail dart and even yellowtail pike. One tip for anglers

This flathead coughed up a large squid and inspired another adventure. the kayak allows you to sneak into some shallow, warmer water that often produces the goods in the cooler months. Some winter species are often considered less desirable than others on the table, however they are readily available in

fishing soft plastics during the cooler months is to ensure you have a variety of colours. The winter winds can stir up the water occasionally, or make it super clear when the westerly blows. The colour of your plastic can directly impact on your results. This was reinforced

can bring you some more tips for kayak squidding in a future issue. NEW KIT After using a C-Tug Kayak Trolley for many years we finally added the solid wheel version to our kit. The original pneumatic tyre version was the best kayak trolley I had owned until purchasing this newer version. We now don’t have to worry about ensuring our tyres are inflated or worry about getting a flat. The solid wheels have

that won’t corrode in the salt and a design that allows it to be dismantled and stored in a reasonable sized kayak hatch. If you are looking for a kayak trolley, make sure you check out the C-Tug option. Even though the days are shorter and the weather is cooler, it doesn’t mean that you have to put the kayak in storage for a few months. In fact, winter can produce some of the best fishing, along with a range of other tasty morsels to catch, that can see you put together your own seafood

Only one claw, but this legal blue swimmer crab is still a keeper. that generally works for us is this: in clearer water on brighter days fish a natural, lighter colour and in dirtier water fish a darker colour with glitter in the plastic. This should also catch the available light and trigger a bite. If neither of these are working, throw something with fluoro colours in it, such as pink or chartreuse. SQUID After catching a flathead that coughed up a large squid and then investigating our local boat ramp pontoon for stains of ink left by successful squid fishos, we decided to try our luck at catching a few. We set ourselves up with a few smaller squid jigs that were recommended for our region in size 2, 2.5 and 3 sizes and a variety of colours. We also had some small chemical lights and a few A-Just-A Bubble Floats in case we wanted to suspend the jigs under a float. These floats are an excellent option for squid fishing or fishing with baits, as they feature internal surgical rubber that twists and locks onto the line when you twist the top cap. No knots or stoppers are required. There’s no line damage. It’s quick and easy to adjust your dropper

and the squid fishing will get better as we move further into winter. The kayak is a great craft for targeting squid. The edges of the shadows surrounding boat ramps, bridges and other areas with artificial lights are a prime area to target, along with the weed beds where they hunt and feed. All of this is within easy access of paddle craft and you can beat the crowds that sometimes occur when land-based fishing. Stay tuned and we

A seafood basket of fresh sand crab, panko crumbed flathead and salt and pepper squid. a rubber grip on them that we have taken on and off road without issue, and the trolley still has the same great design that includes tool free assembly, quality materials

basket. Get your kayak fitted out, lighting and clothing in order and you can get out there and make the most of our Aussie winter wonderland. See you on the water.

Winter can produce some glassy days that are perfect for kayak anglers. JUNE 2017

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Grinning at Glenbawn Dam CANBERRA

Toby Grundy

I’d always wanted to fish Glenbawn Dam. There is just something about a big bass dam that has always excited me, even way back when I was a young fisho living in Canberra where

also get fuel at the shop and the place is always a hub of activity where the savvy angler can pick up a few hints as to where the fish are biting and what on from locals and staff. There are also powered and non-powered camping spots at the dam along with cabins and excellent places to

yellowbelly who fight well on light spin gear. TECHNIQUES I focused on two simple techniques during my visit and four lures to tempt the bass from their snags. Both techniques produced action. Certainly one outstripped the other in terms of fish hooked and landed.

The dam becomes crowded during school holidays. there are no bass within a hundred kilometres. I finally got the chance over the Easter long weekend and my hands were shaking as I peddled out into the middle of the dam. What I found was an incredibly exciting impoundment to fish, because there are so many different areas to explore and so many different angling puzzles to solve. FACILITIES Glenbawn Dam is located near the town of Scone is in the Hunter region of NSW. The town has all the usual amenities including petrol stations, restaurants, cafes and a good tackle shop. At the dam itself, you will find a small shop that sells basic camping and food supplies along with a decent selection of lures. You can

launch your yak right around the perimeter caravan park. Make sure you bring all your own safety gear including a life jacket and beacon. Glenbawn is a huge dam and though there is phone reception at certain points around the dam, it’s patchy at best. Pack plenty of food and water. This is especially important if you get caught in rough weather (a distinct possibility) and have to pull up in one of the quieter bays for a few hours. SPECIES Glenbawn Dam is filled with Australian bass, golden perch, carp, catfish and a couple giant Murray cod. Most anglers target the bass, but there is a growing number of anglers who also fish hard for the resident

I used a slow roll when fishing blades (Ecogear ZX) and vibes (Jackall TN50 in brown dog). First, I would cast towards a likely snag and then allow the lure to sink before simply retrieving towards my kayak. This method produced both yella and bass strikes, provided I put the lure 30cm or so from the snag. I found that plastics (Squidgie 80mm wriggler in Gary Glitter) and small divers (Ecogear SX 48) were by far the most effective lures to use when fishing the smaller bays that I was able to reach in my yak. I twitched plastics close to timber and over the top of long weed beds and picked up several bass. Long pauses inserted after the twitch resulted in better strikes and

more solid hook-ups. When I used the same twitch/pause with divers, the bass hit just as hard. I fished lures in natural colours and always have for bass. I’ve heard that a lot of anglers have success using bright/fluoro colours. I think it comes down to personal preference and there is no right answer. Just fish a colour you are confident with. THE KAYAK I used my Native Propel 13 and it handled the rough conditions well. Boat traffic and strong winds made for an interesting peddle back, but I was never close to tipping. This kayak has plenty of storage for food and water and an angler can stand and cast, which is handy when drifting the bays. A peddle or paddle kayak is fine provided it is large, especially if heading out into the middle of the dam in search of schools of bass. I didn’t use a sounder as I was only on the dam for a few hours. A good sounder would make fishing the dam a lot easier. That said, it isn’t a necessity.

The author’s rig for Glenbawn. was packed with water skiers and speed boats. Also, the water was pretty cold and the bass were still on. Though I caught plenty of fish, I would recommend fishing the dam during periods where it hasn’t seen heavy boat traffic for a while

if a cod did turn up, I wanted to be in with a chance! I used a Daiwa Harrier baitcaster 2-5kg rod matched to a Daiwa Pixy reel spooled with 10lb braid for working blades and vibes. I like using baitcasters with these types

The Squidgie Wriggler 80mm in Gary Glitter is deadly on Hunter bass, but works especially well at Glenbawn.

The author’s first Glenbawn bass taken on a plastic. 108

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LOCATIONS If you are new to the dam, I recommend sticking to the bays and inlets near the caravan park. These areas form part of the main basin and offer a lot of different fishing options including trolling, casting and jigging. However, if you are up for a paddle, head towards the middle of dam and Yellow Buoy Bay where you can jig and cast for bass sitting deep. TIMING I fished Glenbawn at Easter and it was fantastic. There were lots of fish, plenty of hits and I got dusted a few times in heavy snags – all this despite the fact that it

like late winter or early spring. Avoid the crowds and the fish I’m sure will be even more receptive, especially when you sneak up on them from a kayak. TACKLE For working plastics, I used a Daiwa Gen Black V2 1-3kg rod matched to a Daiwa Gen Black 2000 spin reel. This 6’4 stick has plenty of power in the butt, which is why I like to use it in big dams. It also has enough finesse in the tip to work plastics over weedbeds. I used 10lb braid and leader because the bass in the dam are big and run hard. It’s important to have some stopping power. Also,

of lures as the improved casting accuracy ensures I don’t get as many snags and I have more control over the fish when it tries to brick me in the timber. CONCLUSION Glenbawn Dam is an intimidating waterway for the kayak angler. Paddling out from the caravan park is daunting but it is definitely worth a crack as the fishing is unreal. The key is to focus on a few bays and work the entire bay thoroughly with a small selection of lures. Don’t overthink it, keep it simple and you will be blown away by the power and size of the bass in this beautiful dam.

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Whittley CR2180 with Volvo is a real rocket ship FMG

Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

What do you get when you cross a fishing boat with a luxurious cruising boat and then add some extra horsepower? The answer is Chris Odgers’ Whittley package that we took for a spin recently out of the Patterson River on Port Phillip Bay. The ‘CR’ prefix to the model name is short for ‘Cruising,’ a genre of boats that Whittley Marine Group has been successfully building for over 50 years. But as a keen angler, Chris wanted the boat to be fishable as well, so it was interesting to see how he achieved this. One of the big decisions

for Chris was making the jump from an outboard powered boat to an inboard. “I hadn’t owned an inboard engine before, but since I’ve owned it, I’ve never looked back,” Chris said. His main concern was not being able to see the angle at which the leg was tilted. All outboard owners know that you only need to look back to judge this with an outboard. “Once you learn the gauges, though, it becomes easy and I can now go anywhere that I could with the outboard,” he continued. Performance wise, one can’t help but giggle at the pickup that the Generation 5, 200hp Volvo Penta delivers through its single-leg DuoProp system. It’s seriously like someone

The DuoProp leg throws the 2180 up and onto the plane in a matter of seconds. 110

JUNE 2017

Main: If only images could come to life. They can if you scan the QR code above to watch the video interview. The 200hp Volvo turns this CR2180 into a rocket ship in disguise. Above: If you don’t have fun driving this rig, then it’s time to re-evaluate your priorities. dropped a V8 into a fishing boat. It sounds mean, it runs hard and it jumps onto the plane with the speed of a startled mullet when you plant the throttle. It’s everything a grown man needs to enjoy the driving experience. Comfort-wise, this boat puts my house to shame. With a large, well-appointed cabin, concealed kitchen areas and sinks in addition to a generous carpet lining on any surface that would take glue, The inboard motor cover is cleverly used as the base for a workbench that’d be equally at home with morning tea or tying a paternoster rig. The main fishing area

separated from the clean and comfortable interior. Is this the ultimate fishing boat? It’s not. Is it a cruising boat that the family will love? You bet. If the pendulum must swing towards family friendliness rather than spartan fishability, then you’ll need to check out the 2180. Finally, you may think that a well-appointed boat like this would cost six figures. You’d be way off the mark if you did. CR2180 packages start at around $75,000. As tested, Chris’ boat would cost around $90,000 – that includes the stainless steel BBQ and the flat screen TV! Make sure you visit www.whittleymarinegroup. com.au for more information

is compartmentalised onto the massive duckboard that covers the DuoProp leg. Providing both security (against falling in) and a convenient place to rest a SPECIFICATIONS Length..................5.5m Beam..................2.33m Fuel...................... 112L Sleeps................... Two Capacity...Six persons Deadrise................ 19° Boat weight.......920kg Dry weight BMT.1796kg Water capacity......40L

A totally dry ride is a given when you climb aboard this luxury cruiser. baited line, the duckboard work station is the place where you can rig baits and cook the BBQ – keeping all the messy business

or call your nearest dealer. You can also like Whittley Marine Group on Facebook to keep up with what Whittley and their owners are up to.

Left and above: The Whittley CR2180 is a cruising boat with some fishing chops. Cleverly, it separates the messy stuff, like fishing and BBQing, onto the duckboard.

The Whittley looks good in and out of the water.

Underway, the CR2180 is as smooth as silk.

Comfort is a key consideration in this boat, with plenty of room to kick back.

Inset: Even the side pockets are classy in this rig. Left: The duckboard is truly huge and offers excellent opportunities for fishing, diving and swimming with the kids.

Left: That’s probably the best-appointed cabin seen in a Fishing Monthly boat test, with plenty of legroom and headroom. Check out the flatscreen TV! Right: The helm is well organised and everything is flush-mounted. Left: For most blokes, this is the second most important part of the boat. If you’re a hook-to-cook person, the Whittley ticks all of the boxes. Right: A sneaky under-seat sink makes clean-up a breeze and saves a lot of space.

Above: There’s a whole lot of blade there on the DuoProp leg that transfers the power of the Gen5 200hp Volvo through to the water. Below: Like all Whittleys, space is used wisely. See the combination footrest and cooler receptacle?

Most toilets are mounted in the middle of the cabin. The 2180 features a toilet in front of the helm. It’s a little more private.

Imagine the family spending some quality time here while the fishers among you get down to business a few feet away. JUNE 2017

111

Brooker 535R Discovery with Mercury 75hp

SYDNEY SOUTH

Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

The Brooker 535R Discovery is a spacious boat that would suit anyone who likes to go fishing, water skiing, cruising or just being out and about with family and friends. This rig is rated to take six passengers at approximately 75kg each. That means if you’re a family of two adults and four kids, you can get yourself out on the water or even tow a tube behind the boat. Not only would this be a great family boat, you could also get out for a fish with a few mates in the estuary. It would even be ideal to take offshore and chase snapper, morwong and flathead while drifting. Or maybe you could have a go at trolling

for kingfish, tailor, salmon, mackerel or even marlin. Now that I have gotten your interest, I will take you through what this rig has to offer. From a standing start, the Mercury 75hp, 2-stroke ELPTO outboard was able to pull the boat out of the water with ease. It only took about 15m for the boat to be on the plane using half throttle. Although I was only able to test this rig in the calm waters of the Nepean River at Penrith, I’m certain that the deep sides and V-shaped hull would make fishing comfortable both offshore and in bays and estuaries. The wrap-around windscreen with grab rail was at a height where it didn’t impede your line of sight when sitting down driving the boat. And if you prefer to stand when driving, there’s plenty of clearance underneath the

bimini – so long as you are under 6ft, like me. If you’re tall you would probably have to sit down to drive. Either way, the bimini would be great when you are sitting out on the water waiting for a bite and the sun is beating down. The rig that I tested didn’t have any wraparound clears, but that would be a great accessory to have, especially on those cold and wet mornings. In this boat I never felt cramped. The forward removable, fold-down swivel seats are positioned so you don’t have to stretch to use the controls or operate the sounder/GPS. When you sit down to drive, you still have plenty of leg room while still having storage space up front. Not only was there storage upfront, you also have a couple of long side pockets and the seat at the rear also coupled as

Top: The deep-sided 535R Discovery would be an ideal boat for two anglers fishing offshore or in the estuaries. Around 16 knots was no effort for the Mercury 2-stroke 75hp ELPTO outboard, but if you want more power you can upgrade to 100hp. Above: There’s plenty of room in the cockpit to move around. When fishing out the back of the boat, the swivel chairs allow you to sit under the canopy when it’s hot. The high 61cm high gunwhales make it easy to brace yourself when fishing. 112

JUNE 2017

a storage bin. To give yourself a bit more storage, you could do away with the 25L fuel tank and have the underfloor fuel tank installed. This would give you more storage at the rear of the boat, plus more fuel for those long days on the water. Some boat users don’t like having a carpeted floor. For me, it’s a must. Not only does it give you more comfort underfoot, there is less noise when you drop something, and the carpet cuts away all the glare that an aluminium floor would give off. The reinforced, walkthrough, aluminium framed windscreen made dropping and retrieving the anchor easy. The walk-through windscreen would also make using the boat by yourself less complicated, as you could lean over the front of the boat and hook up the strap before getting out. Driving the boat onto the trailer is very simple, as the self-centring rollers move around to help position the boat onto the trailer. It’s just a matter of slowly moving forward until the front of the boat is close enough to clip on the strap. Then you just turn off and raise the motor, climb out through the windscreen, hook on the safety chain and drive off to tie down your boat. FEATURE OVERVIEW The Brooker 535 Discovery and Mercury 2-stroke 75hp ELPTO outboard comes with many features, depending on the package you choose. They are as follows: front and side grabs; two padded adjustable pedestal seats; full-width rear pod with transom ladder; an anchor well capable of taking a sand anchor with 3m of chain

SPECIFICATIONS BOAT ONLY Length �� 5.35m Width �� 2.2m Weight boat only ��490kg Gunnel Height �� 61cm Side Thickness �� 3mm BottomThickness �� 3mm Min Recommended Motor �� 75hp Max Recommended Motor �� 100hp Shaft Length �� Long Maximum Load ��730kg Maximum People �� 6 Recommended Trailer ��1516MRB Height on Trailer �� 2.3m Length on trailer �� 6.5m and 50m of 10mm rope; bow roller and front bollard; four plastic rod holders; shallow side pockets that run about half the length of the boat; bilge pump; navigation lights; inland waters safety kit; a battery; lockable glovebox; fully carpeted floor; 25L fuel tank; provision for underfloor fuel tank; a walk-in dashboard; painted white hull and a wrap-around, walk-through windscreen with grab rail. Optional extras include a custom bimini, Raymarine Dragonfly 7 sounder with CHIRP and GPS, and more. The base model of the Brooker 535R Discovery with a Mercury 75hp, 2-stroke ELPTO outboard, complete with wrap-around windscreen, wrap-around back rest, a 1516MRB Brooker trailer, trailer and boat rego, inland waters safety kit, one battery and a bilge pump comes in at $30,099. The rig tested on the day comes in at $34,958, and this included the custom bimini and clears, the Raymarine Dragonfly 7 sounder with

CHIRP and GPS, trim gauge and a Mercury 75hp 4-stroke ELPT and three gauges. The EPIRB, compass and VHF and AM/FM radios in the test boat were added later, and are not included in the standard price. PENRITH MARINE Penrith Marine service all late model outboards at very competitive prices, and their service manager is one of the top Mercury mechanics in the industry. The business is a Premium Mercury Outboard and MerCruiser Dealer, and they have been dealing for over 30 years. They also have a great selection of chandlery. And if you have a family member or friend who wants a boat licence, Penrith Marine provide courses. They are a Western Sydney based trainer for Maritime & Safety Training NSW RTO # 90440. Penrith Marine is located at at 4/133 Coreen Avenue, Penrith. For more information you can contact them on (02) 4731 6250, email sales@ penrithmarine.com.au, or visit www.penrithmarine.com.au.

The removable storage unit at the rear can be moved up to midway in the cockpit, allowing you to fish from the back while at anchor. You could also install a preparation tray with a couple more rod holders. The rig tested had two 25L removable fuel tanks on starboard side, while on the port side there was a single battery for starting the motor and all the electronics. I would prefer to add an extra battery for cranking.

Even though the passenger was sitting in the back, the Mercury 2-stroke 75hp ELPTO outboard quite easily powered the 535R Discovery out of the water. There is still plenty of room for a few more passengers.

If you like to drive sitting down, the walk-through windscreen is at the right height for you to see over. There is also a small storage compartment up the front for fenders or lifejackets. The test boat came with a Raymarine Dragonfly 7 sounder with CHIRP and GPS, trim, MPH, RPM and motor hour gauges.

The self-centring rollers on the galvanized, braked, multi-roller Brooker trailer make launching and retrieving easy – so long as you don’t come in too fast! I like to sink my trailer, as it means that I can drive on the boat by myself. Remember to give the trailer a good wash down inside and out when you get home.

The anchor well was only big enough to take a medium-sized sand anchor, 3m of chain and about 40m of rope. The bow roller made it easy to drop and retrieve the anchor. If you want two anchors you could ask about having a larger anchor well installed.

At the rear of the boat you have plenty of room on either side for fuel tanks and batteries, or anything else you might need.

Left: There is plenty of storage room underneath the padded removable rear seat. It’s great for storing your safety and fishing gear. Right: The fold down/up aluminium ladder gives you easy access when the boat is on the trailer, or when you want a swim.

On both the port and starboard sides of the boat there is a long storage tray. The wide gunnels are supported by a brace that goes onto the ribs.

The stainless steel 48-16986, 16P propeller helps to make the ride much smoother.

The waterproof lockable glove box would be great for storing your phone and car keys. JUNE 2017

113

2017 2017 Local Time

SYDNEY (FORT DENISON) DENISON) – NEW SOUTH WALES SYDNEY (FORT (FORT – NEW NEW SOUTH SOUTH WALES WALES SYDNEY – LATDENISON) 33° 52’ LONG 151° 13’ JANUARY JANUARY Time mMAY Time

Time Time 0432 0432 0627 1101 1101 1232 1738 SU 1738 SU 1811 MO 2339 2339

0516 0516 2 0038 1142 1142 2 0732 1819 MO MO 1819

TU 1340 1916 0025 0025 0143 0603 0603 0839 1225 TU 1225 TU WE 1451 1902 1902 2030 0114 0114 0252 0656 0656 0940 1312 WE 1312 WE TH 1558 1950 1950 2143 0207 0207 0359 0755 0755 1035 1406 TH 1406 TH 1655 FR 2042 2042 2249 0306 0306 0457 0902 0902 1123 1509 FR FR 1744 SA 1509 2138 2138 2347 0407 0407 0548 1017 1017 1204 1620 SA SA 1826 SU 1620 2237 2237

33 44

55 66 77

0509 0509 0036 8 1134 1134 8 0632 1732 SU SU 1732

MO 1242 2336 2336 1904 0609 0609 0119 1244 1244 0714 1841 MO 1841 MO TU 1315 1939 0033 0033 0159 0705 0705 0753 1345 TU 1345 TU 1347 WE 1942 1942 2013

10 10

0129 0129 11 0235 0800 0800 11 0830 WE 1441 1441

WE TH 1418 2038 2038 2045 0221 0221 0313 0852 0852 0909 1531 TH 1531 TH 1450 FR 2130 2130 2118 0313 0313 0350 0942 0942 0947 1620 FR 1620 FR 1524 SA 2220 2220 2153 0402 0402 0430 1030 1030 1027 1706 SA 1706 SA 1600 SU 2309 2309 2230 0452 0511 0452 1115 1110 1115 1749 SU 1749 MO SU 1640 2355 2309 2355

12 12 13 13

14 15

m m 0.50 0.50 0.37 1.78 1.78 1.41 0.34 0.34 0.62 1.37 1.37 0.52 0.52 1.80 1.74 1.74 0.43 0.35 0.35 1.36 0.70 1.37 1.37 1.71 0.55 0.55 0.48 1.69 1.69 1.36 0.37 0.37 0.73 1.38 1.38 1.64 0.58 0.58 0.50 1.62 1.62 1.40 0.39 0.39 0.73 1.41 1.41 1.60 0.61 0.61 0.51 1.53 1.53 1.46 0.42 0.42 0.69 1.45 1.45 1.57 0.62 0.62 0.50 1.46 1.46 1.54 0.43 0.43 0.63 1.52 1.52 1.56 0.59 0.59 0.50 1.40 1.40 1.61 0.43 0.43 1.62 1.62 0.58 0.52 0.52 1.54 1.39 1.39 0.50 0.41 0.41 1.67 1.73 1.73 0.54 0.41 0.41 1.52 1.40 1.40 0.51 1.71 0.39 0.39 0.51 1.84 1.84 1.50 0.30 0.30 0.52 1.43 1.43 1.75 0.36 0.36 0.49 1.93 1.93 1.47 0.22 0.22 0.55 1.46 1.46 1.76 0.35 0.35 0.48 1.98 1.98 1.44 0.16 0.16 0.58 1.47 1.47 1.77 0.34 0.34 0.49 1.99 1.99 1.41 0.16 0.16 0.61 1.48 1.48 1.76 0.36 0.36 0.51 1.96 1.96 1.37 0.19 0.19 0.65 1.47 1.47 1.73 0.41 0.54 0.41 1.87 1.33 1.87 0.25 0.70 0.25 1.44 1.68 1.44

16 16 MO MO TU

17 17 TU TU WE

Time Time 0540 0540 0556 1159 1159 1156 1831 1831 1724 2352 0041 0041 0645 0628 0628 1247 1241 1241 1815 1912 1912

0127 0127 0043 18 0717 0717 18 0740 1323 WE WE 1323

TH 1345 1952 1952 1915 0215 0215 0141 0811 0811 0836 1409 TH 1409 TH FR 1448 2035 2035 2026 0307 0307 0245 0913 0913 0930 1503 FR 1503 FR 1548 SA 2123 2123 2136 0402 0402 0348 1022 1022 1020 1608 SA SA 1642 SU 1608 2217 2217 2241 0500 0500 0447 1133 1133 1108 1716 SU SU 1730 MO 1716 2313 2313 2340 0555 0555 0543 1235 1235 1155 1820 MO MO 1819 TU 1820

19 19 20 20 21 21

22 22 23 23

LAT 33° 33° 52’ 52’ LONG 151° 151° 13’ 13’ LAT LONG Times and Heights of High and Low Waters Times and and Heights Heights of of High High and and Low Low Waters Waters Times MARCH FEBRUARY MARCH FEBRUARY JUNE Time m JULY Time m Time m Time m

m m 0.47 0.47 0.57 1.76 1.76 1.30 0.33 0.33 0.75 1.63 1.42 1.42 0.60 0.55 0.55 1.28 1.63 1.63 0.79 0.42 0.42 1.39 1.39 1.58 0.62 0.62 0.61 1.49 1.49 1.29 0.50 0.50 0.81 1.37 1.37 1.55 0.69 0.69 0.59 1.37 1.37 1.33 0.56 0.56 0.80 1.37 1.37 1.54 0.73 0.73 0.55 1.27 1.27 1.42 0.60 0.60 0.75 1.39 1.39 1.56 0.73 0.73 0.49 1.21 1.21 1.53 0.62 0.62 0.66 1.43 1.43 1.60 0.70 0.70 0.43 1.19 1.19 1.66 0.62 0.62 0.54 1.49 1.49 1.64 0.63 0.63 0.38 1.21 1.21 1.80

0005 0005 0036 24 0644 0644 24 0637 1326 TU TU 1326

0.60 0.60 0.42 1.56 1.56 1.66 0.55 0.55 0.35 WE 1242 1913 1.25 1913 1.93 1.25 1907 0052 0.57 0052 0.32 0.57 0130 0728 1.63 0728 1.66 1.63 0731 1409 0.47 WE 1409 0.34 0.47 WE TH 1330 1958 1.29 1958 2.02 1.29 1956

WE WE TH

TH TH FR

Time Time 0000 0000 0118 0551 0551 0810 1208 1208 1424 1834 1834 2006 0047 0047 0221 0643 0643 0904 1256 1256 1525 1919 1919 2116

0140 0140 0323 3 0741 0741 3 0954 1349 FR FR 1349

SA 1620 2009 2009 2224 0237 0237 0422 0848 0848 1040 1451 SA 1451 SA SU 1710 2107 2107 2324 0340 0340 0515 1006 1006 1121 1606 SU 1606 SU 1753 MO 2212 2212

44 55

0447 0447 0015 6 1126 1126 6 0601 1725 MO MO 1725

TU 1200 2318 2318 1832 0553 0553 0100 1237 1237 0645 1836 TU TU 1236 WE 1836 1909 0021 0021 0139 0654 0654 0727 1338 WE WE 1311 TH 1338 1936 1936 1944 0119 0119 0216 0748 0748 0806 1430 TH 1430 TH 1345 FR 2029 2029 2018

m m 1.50 1.50 1.71 0.45 0.45 0.47 1.71 1.71 1.41 0.32 0.32 0.74 1.51 1.51 1.60 0.49 0.49 0.52 1.61 1.61 1.44 0.37 0.37 0.75 1.52 1.52 1.52 0.53 0.53 0.55 1.50 1.50 1.49 0.43 0.43 0.73 1.53 1.53 1.46 0.56 0.56 0.56 1.39 1.39 1.55 0.48 0.48 0.69 1.56 1.56 1.43 0.56 0.56 0.56 1.32 1.32 1.62 0.51 0.51

Time Time 0042 0042 0013 0644 0644 0702 1246 TH 1246 TH 1313 FR 1859 1859 1846 0123 0123 0105 0731 0731 0753 1328 FR 1328 FR 1410 SA 1937 1937 1952

16 16

17 17

0209 0209 0205 18 0828 0828 18 0845 1417 SA SA 1417

SU 1508 2023 2023 2103 0303 0303 0310 0933 0933 0938 1520 SU 1520 SU MO 1605 2120 2120 2215 0405 0405 0415 1048 1048 1030 1636 MO 1636 MO 1700 TU 2227 2227 2320 0509 0509 0518 1157 1157 1122 1749 TU TU 1753 WE 1749 2330 2330

19 19 20 20

1.62 1.62 0.64 0.51 0.51 1.42 1.30 1.30 0.56 0.50 0.50 1.67

21 21

1.70 1.70 0.58 0.42 0.42 1.41 1.33 1.33 0.56 1.72 0.47 0.47 0.54 1.78 1.78 1.40 0.33 0.33 0.57 1.38 1.38 1.76 0.42 0.42 0.50 1.86 1.86 1.40 0.26 0.26 0.57 1.44 1.44 1.79

0607 0607 0022 22 1252 1252 22 0618 1846 WE WE 1846

23 23 24 24

1.51 1.51 0.40 0.57 0.57 1.54 1.24 1.24 0.38 1.96 0.62 0.62 0.29 1.58 1.58 1.55 0.49 0.49 0.37 1.31 1.31 2.05 0.56 0.56 0.22 1.66 1.66 1.54 0.41 0.41 0.37 1.38 1.38 2.09

m m m 0.49 0.49 1.56 1.50 1.50 0.45 0.50 0.50 1.46 1.57 1.57 0.66 0.54 0.54 1.48 1.41 1.41 0.46 0.56 0.56 1.52 0.64 1.54 1.54 1.42 0.59 0.59 0.47 1.33 1.33 1.60 0.63 0.63 0.58 1.50 1.50 1.39 0.64 0.64 0.45 1.25 1.25 1.71 0.69 0.69 0.48 1.46 1.46 1.40 0.68 0.68 0.43 1.19 1.19 1.82 0.75 0.75

1.61 1.61 0.58 0.52 0.52 1.31 1.27 1.27 0.58 0.60 0.60 1.69

0309 0309 0013 21 1001 1001 21 0608 1558 TU TU 1558

1.43 1.43 0.36 0.68 0.68 1.42 1.17 1.17 0.39 0.77 0.77 1.93

1.62 1.62 0.52 0.50 0.50 1.33 1.28 1.28 0.57 0.60 0.60 1.73

22 22

1.44 1.44 0.26 0.65 0.65 1.46 1.20 1.20 0.36 0.75 0.75 2.00

1.66 1.66 0.47 0.44 0.44 1.34 1.34 1.34 0.55 1.77 0.55 0.55 0.43 1.72 1.72 1.36 0.37 0.37 0.55 1.41 1.41 1.79

23 23

1.49 1.49 0.18 0.58 0.58 1.49 1.27 1.27 0.35 0.69 0.69 2.04

24 24

0.48 0.48 0.41 1.77 1.77 1.36 0.32 0.32 FR 1436 0.54 MO 2015 1.49 2015 1.80 1.49 2107 0203 0.43 0203 0.40 0.43 0345 0823 1.79 0823 1.37 1.79 0941 1453 0.30 SA 1453 0.55 0.30 SA 1515 TU 2057 1.54 2057 1.79 1.54 2145

1.56 1.56 0.15 0.50 0.50 1.50 1.36 1.36 0.35 2.02 0.60 0.60 0.17 1.65 1.65 1.50 0.41 0.41 0.38 1.47 1.47 1.95

m m 0.33 0.33 1.51 1.77 1.77 0.53 0.26 0.26 1.44 1.66 1.66 0.75 0.35 0.35 1.40 1.68 1.68 0.57 0.32 0.32 1.47 0.75 1.67 1.67 1.33 0.40 0.40 0.59 1.57 1.57 1.52 0.40 0.40 0.71 1.65 1.65 1.30 0.46 0.46 0.60 1.44 1.44 1.57 0.49 0.49 0.65 1.62 1.62 1.30 0.51 0.51 0.59 1.33 1.33 1.63 0.56 0.56

0319 0319 0037 6 1002 1002 6 0619 1604 MO MO 1604

22 33 44 55

TH 1202 2155 2155 1841 0430 0430 0118 1119 1119 0703 1725 TU TU 1242 FR 1725 2309 2309 1918 0541 0541 0156 1227 1227 0744 1832 WE WE 1320 SA 1832 1955 0015 0015 0232 0642 0642 0823 1324 TH 1324 TH 1358 SU 1928 1928 2030

16 16

17 17

18 18 19 19 20 20

FR 1156 2139 2139 1830 0417 0417 0110 1111 1111 0707 1713 WE WE 1251 SA 1713 2251 2251 1923 0522 0522 0203 1208 1208 0801 1813 TH TH 1345 SU 1813 2353 2353 2015 0617 0617 0254 1256 1256 0855 1900 FR 1900 FR 1437 MO 2104 0045 0045 0342 0704 0704 0945 1337 SA 1337 SA 1529 TU 1942 1942 2153

Time Time Time 0003 0003 0254 0630 0630 0900 1237 SA 1237 SA 1543 TU 1830 1830 2219 0056 0056 0400 0632 0632 0954 1237 SU 1237 SU 1638 WE 1825 1825 2320

11 22

0055 0055 0502 3 0742 0742 3 1046 1345 MO MO 1345 TH 1728 1930 1930

0201 0201 0011 4 0855 0855 4 0556 1503 TU TU 1503

FR 1134 2045 2045 1813 0315 0315 0054 1005 1005 0642 1618 WE 1618 WE 1218 SA 2200 2200 1853 0424 0424 0131 1107 1107 0722 1719 TH TH 1259 SU 1719 2306 2306 1930 0524 0524 0207 1159 1159 0800 1810 FR FR 1338 MO 1810 2008 0003 0003 0242 0615 0615 0838 1242 SA SA 1417 TU 1242 1853 1853 2045 0052 0052 0316 0700 0700 0915 1321 SU 1321 SU 1458 WE 1932 1932 2122

55 66 77

0155 0155 25 0309 0820 0820 25 0910 SA 1453 1453

0113 0113 10 0308 0735 0735 10 0902 FR 1411 1411

25 25

0135 0135 26 0225 0808 0808 26 0828 TH 1446 1446

11 11

26 26

11 11

0131 0131 26 0429 0748 0748 26 1034 SU 1415 1415

11 11

27 27

0348 0348 12 0408 1010 12 1010 1004 SU 1639 1639

0319 0319 27 0455 0941 27 0941 1100 MO 1606 1606

0250 0250 12 0422 0907 12 0907 1022 SU 1530 1530

27 27

12 12

0255 0255 28 0415 0925 28 0925 1021 SA 1559 1559

13 13

28 28

13 13

0302 0302 28 0558 0916 28 0916 1212 TU 1533 1533

13 13

0516 0516 14 0530 1131 1131 1131 TU 1751

29 0639 1250

0414 0414 14 0543 1026 1026 1151 TU 1638

0350 0350 29 0012 1003 1003 0640 WE 1615

30 0047 0729

0.53 0.53 0.24 1.69 1.69 1.63 0.40 0.40 TH 1418 0.36 FR 2038 1.34 2038 2.08 1.34 2045 0215 0.49 0215 0.21 0.49 0320 0846 1.75 0846 1.75 0924 1.59 1523 0.35 FR 1523 0.41 0.35 FR 1510 SA 2116 1.38 2116 2.08 1.38 2137

0.45 0.45 0.22 1.80 1.80 1.54 0.30 0.30 SA 1602 0.47 SU 2155 1.42 2155 2.04 1.42 2230 0335 0.43 0335 0.27 0.43 0514 1003 1.82 1003 1.48 1.82 1119 1635 0.28 SU 1635 0.55 0.28 SU 1658 MO 2234 1.45 2234 1.95 1.45 2323

0417 0417 30 0612 1043 1219 1043 MO 1714

0.42 0.33 0.42 1.82 1.43 1.82 0.27 1714 0.62 0.27 TU 1756 MO 2316 2316 1.48 1.48

0502 0502 31 0019 1125 0712 1125 1753 TU 1321

0.42 1.83 0.42 1.78 0.41 1.78 0.28 0.28 WE TU 1753 1.41 1859 0.69

0.36 0.36 0.47 1.86 1.86 1.36 0.25 0.25 SU 1535 0.63 MO 2243 1.52 2243 1.77 1.52 2206 0432 0.39 0432 0.49 0.39 0447 1052 1.78 1052 1.78 1046 1.35 1715 0.30 MO 1715 0.66 0.30 MO TU 1616 2323 1.51 2323 1.74 1.51 2245

1751 TU 1700 WE 2327 0002 0615 0002 0600 1220 0600 1209 WE 1209 TH 1750 WE 1825 1825

0.44 0.44 0.51 1.68 1.68 1.33 0.37 0.37 0.70 1.69 1.49 0.52 1.49 0.51 1.33 0.51 1.57 0.73 1.57 0.45 0.45

0.49 0.49 0.18 1.74 1.74 1.53 0.33 0.33 SA 1452 0.40 SU 2051 1.46 2051 2.09 1.46 2121 0236 0.42 0236 0.19 0.42 0402 0900 1.80 0900 1.80 1005 1.51 1530 0.28 SU 1530 0.44 0.28 SU 1545 MO 2130 1.53 2130 2.03 1.53 2213

Time Time 0533 0533 0038 1139 1139 0714 1739 TH 1739 TH 1335 SU 2359 2359 1929 0615 0615 0136 1216 1216 0805 1812 FR 1812 FR 1433 MO 2041 0036 0036 0243 0700 0700 0901 1257 SA 1257 SA TU 1534 1847 1847 2157 0118 0118 0354 0751 0751 1000 1345 SU 1345 SU WE 1635 1931 1931 2308 0208 0208 0503 0852 0852 1059 1445 MO 1445 MO 1733 TH 2029 2029

Time Time 0451 0451 0142 1108 1108 0817 1725 WE 1725 WE 1442 SA 2337 2337 2042 0541 0541 0239 1154 1154 0905 1807 TH 1807 TH 1537 SU 2150 0024 0024 0339 0635 0635 0952 1245 FR 1245 FR MO 1630 1853 1853 2255 0115 0115 0437 0735 0735 1037 1340 SA 1340 SA TU 1717 1944 1944 2350 0213 0213 0531 0845 0845 1121 1445 SU 1445 SU 1800 WE 2044 2044

0212 0212 10 0253 0839 0839 10 0845 FR 1516 1516

25 25

0.38 0.38 0.47 1.90 1.90 1.39 0.22 0.22 FR 1420 0.59 SA 2115 1.49 2115 1.80 1.49 2053 0301 0.36 0301 0.47 0.36 0330 0926 1.90 0926 1.38 1.90 0925 1559 0.22 SA 1559 0.61 0.22 SA 1458 SU 2200 1.51 2200 1.80 1.51 2129

TH 1214 1845 0025 0025 0119 0656 0656 0716 1337 TH TH 1306 FR 1337 1932 1932 1937 0112 0112 0215 0740 0740 0814 1416 FR 1416 FR 1359 SA 2013 2013 2030

m m 1.47 1.47 1.63 0.57 0.57 0.53 1.45 1.45 1.35 0.52 0.52 0.75 1.44 1.44 1.58 0.64 0.64 0.52 1.34 1.34 1.40 0.58 0.58 0.75 1.42 1.42 1.54 0.69 0.69 0.50 1.25 1.25 1.48 0.64 0.64 0.71 1.40 1.40 1.52 0.71 0.71 0.47 1.18 1.18 1.58 0.68 0.68 0.63 1.41 1.41 1.52 0.70 0.70 0.43 1.16 1.16 1.71 0.70 0.70 0.52 1.44 1.44 1.53 0.65 0.65 0.40 1.18 1.18 1.84 0.67 0.67

0.37 0.37 0.24 1.83 1.83 1.48 0.24 0.24 0.50 MO TU 1640 2210 1.59 2210 1.93 1.59 2303 0403 0.34 0403 0.31 0.34 0547 1024 1.82 1024 1.45 1.82 1155 1645 0.24 TU 1645 0.58 0.24 TU 1735 WE 2252 1.64 2252 1.79 1.64 2355 0.39 1.43 TH 1833 0.65 1.65 0.47 FR 1345 1.42 1935 0.71

0.40 0.40 0.40 1.78 1.78 1.38 0.31 0.31 SU 1557 0.57 WE 2136 1.58 2136 1.76 1.58 2223 0333 0.39 0333 0.41 0.39 0501 0947 1.73 0947 1.38 1.73 1105 1605 0.33 MO 1605 0.59 0.33 MO TH 1642 2214 1.60 2214 1.70 1.60 2303 0.41 0.41 0.42 1.67 1.67 1.40 0.38 1638 0.62 0.38 TU 1730 FR 2249 1.60 2249 1.64 1.60 2347 0454 0.44 0626 0454 0.44 0.44 1102 1.59 1241 1102 1.42 1.59 1709 0.44 WE 1709 0.65 0.44 SA 1826 WE 2324 2324 1.59 1.59

0.50 0.50 0.22 1.72 1.72 1.49 0.34 0.34 SU 1620 0.43 WE 2021 1.57 2021 1.84 1.57 2240 0216 0.41 0216 0.29 0.41 0514 0832 1.78 0832 1.78 1123 1.47 1454 0.28 MO 1454 0.51 0.28 MO TH 1711 2102 1.67 2102 1.70 1.67 2326 0.33 0.33 0.38 1.80 1.80 1.45 0.25 0.25 TU 1803 0.59 FR 2144 2144 1.76 1.76

0.28 0.28 1.55 1.78 1.78 0.46 0.26 1615 1.43 0.26 WE SA 1300 2228 1.82 2228 0.66 1.82 1859 0440 0.27 0059 0440 1.41 0.27 1052 1.73 0723 1052 0.54 1.73 1657 0.30 TH 1657 1.42 0.30 SU TH 1352 2315 1.84 2001 2315 0.71 1.84

Local Time Time Local APRIL APRIL AUGUST Time m

0136 0136 10 0353 0742 0742 10 0956 MO 1355 1355 MO TH 1541 2009 2009 2201 0216 0216 0430 0821 0821 1038 1427 TU 1427 TU 1626 FR 2043 2043 2243 0255 0255 0510 0858 0858 1123 1458 WE 1458 WE SA 1715 2116 2116 2328 0332 0332 0552 0934 0934 1212 1528 TH 1528 TH 1811 SU 2148 2148 0411 0411 0019 1012 1012 0640 1559 FR 1559 FR 1305 MO 2222 2222 1915 0451 0118 0451 1050 0733 1050 1631 SA 1631 TU SA 1405 2259 2030 2259

0533 0533 31 0152 1143 0809 1143 1742 FR 1446

0.29 1.29 0.29 1.63 0.59 1.63 0.37 0.37 MO FR 1742 1.43 2110 0.72

 Copyright Copyright Commonwealth Commonwealth of of Australia Australia 2015, 2015, Bureau Bureau of Meteorology  Bureau of of Meteorology Meteorology Datum of of Predictions Predictions is is Lowest Lowest Astronomical Astronomical Tide Tide Datum Times are are in in local local standard standard time time (UTC (UTC +10:00) +10:00) or or daylight daylight savings time (UTC +11:00) when in effect Times daylight savings savings time time (UTC (UTC +11:00) +11:00) when when in in effect effect New Moon First Quarter Moon Phase Symbols Full Moon Moon Phase Symbols New Moon First Full First Quarter Quarter Full Moon Moon

m m 1.83 1.83 1.22 0.34 0.34 0.62 1.52 1.52 1.46 0.47 0.47 0.69 1.79 1.79 1.19 0.40 0.40 0.62 1.41 1.41 1.50 0.57 0.57 0.63 1.72 1.72 1.20 0.46 0.46 0.61 1.32 1.32 1.56 0.65 0.65 1.66 1.66 0.56 0.49 0.49 1.24 1.29 1.29 0.58 0.69 0.69 1.62 1.63 1.63 0.49 0.49 0.49 1.28 1.33 1.33 0.55 0.67 0.67 1.68 1.64 1.64 0.42 0.46 0.46 1.32 1.40 1.40 0.51 0.62 0.62 1.73 1.66 1.66 0.37 0.43 0.43 1.35 1.48 1.48 0.48 1.77 0.55 0.55 0.33 1.67 1.67 1.39 0.41 0.41 0.45 1.56 1.56 1.78 0.50 0.50 0.31 1.67 1.67 1.42 0.40 0.40 0.44 1.62 1.62 1.78 0.46 0.46 0.30 1.65 1.65 1.45 0.41 0.41 0.44 1.66 1.66 1.74 0.45 0.45 0.31 1.61 1.61 1.47 0.44 0.44 0.46 1.68 1.68 1.68 0.45 0.45 0.33 1.56 1.56 1.49 0.47 0.47 0.49 1.70 1.70 1.59 0.46 0.46 0.37 1.51 1.51 1.50 0.51 0.51 0.53 1.69 1.69 0.49 0.49 1.49 1.45 1.45 0.42 0.56 0.56 1.52 1.68 1.68 0.56 0.52 1.39 0.52 1.39 0.46 1.39 0.62 1.55 0.62 1.64 0.56 1.64

Time Time 0533 0533 0228 1132 1132 0834 1709 SU 1709 SU 1511 WE 2338 2338 2149 0622 0622 0345 1219 1219 0941 1752 MO 1752 MO 1617 TH 2301 0025 0025 0500 0717 0717 1045 1315 TU 1315 TU FR 1720 1846 1846

16 16 17 17

18 18

0120 0120 0004 19 0819 0819 19 0602 1421 WE WE 1421

SA 1145 1953 1953 1817 0225 0225 0059 0922 0922 0658 1531 TH 1531 TH 1242 SU 2107 2107 1910 0332 0332 0147 1018 1018 0748 1631 FR FR 1334 MO 1631 2215 2215 2000 0432 0432 0233 1107 1107 0835 1722 SA SA 1424 TU 1722 2313 2313 2046 0526 0526 0315 1152 1152 0920 1806 SU SU 1512 WE 1806 2130 0005 0005 0356 0615 0615 1004 1234 MO 1234 MO TH 1559 1850 1850 2214

20 20

21 21

22 22 23 23

24 24

0055 0055 25 0434 0703 0703 25 1046 TU 1316 1316 TU 1645 FR 1933 1933 2255

0145 0145 26 0511 0753 0753 26 1129 WE 1400 1400

WE SA 1732 2018 2018 2336 0237 0237 0547 0844 0844 1212 1445 TH 1445 TH 1823 SU 2105 2105 0330 0330 0019 0937 0937 0626 1531 FR 1531 FR 1258 MO 2154 2154 1919 0426 0426 0109 1032 1032 0711 1621 SA 1621 SA 1350 TU 2245 2245 2026 0524 0211 0524 1130 0806 1130 1714 SU 1714 WE SU 1450 2340 2138 2340

27 27

28 28

29 30

m m m 0.57 0.57 1.31 1.33 1.33 0.49 0.68 0.68 1.59 1.60 1.60 0.51 0.61 0.61 1.28 1.27 1.27 0.49 0.74 0.74 1.67 0.42 1.55 1.55 1.30 0.65 0.65 0.46 1.23 1.23 1.76 0.79 0.79 1.50 1.50 0.32 0.66 0.66 1.36 1.22 1.22 0.41 0.82 0.82 1.85 1.49 1.49 0.23 0.63 0.63 1.42 1.26 1.26 0.35 0.80 0.80 1.91 1.51 1.51 0.17 0.58 0.58 1.48 1.34 1.34 0.32 0.74 0.74 1.93 1.56 1.56 0.15 0.50 0.50 1.52 1.45 1.45 0.30 0.64 0.64 1.89 1.63 1.63 0.18 0.42 0.42 1.53 1.57 1.57 0.33 1.82 0.53 0.53 0.23 1.70 1.70 1.53 0.36 0.36 0.37 1.70 1.70 1.70 0.42 0.42 0.31 1.74 1.74 1.51 0.31 0.31 0.44 1.82 1.82 1.57 0.32 0.32 0.39 1.75 1.75 1.49 0.29 0.29 0.52 1.92 1.92 1.44 0.26 0.26 0.47 1.72 1.72 1.45 0.31 0.31 0.59 1.98 1.98 0.24 0.24 1.32 1.66 1.66 0.55 0.36 0.36 1.42 2.00 2.00 0.65 0.25 0.25 1.22 1.58 1.58 0.61 0.44 0.44 1.40 1.96 1.96 0.67 0.30 1.15 0.30 1.49 0.65 1.49 0.53 1.40 0.53 1.89 0.66 1.89

31 0324 0911

1.13 0.66 TH 1554 1.43 2244 0.61

Last Quarter Last Last Quarter Quarter

Tide predictions for Sydney (Fort Denison) 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

JUNE 2017

NOT ALL FISH STORIES ARE EXAGGERATED.

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