Queensland Fishing Monthly - October 2014 by Fishing Monthly

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Soft side to bream • Hardcore prawn – Malaysian style • Insight Genesis: custom-made charts • Campout in a trailer boat • Jocumsen makes the Elites •

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October 2014, Vol. 28 No. 12

Contents SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Tweed Heads 14 Southern Gold Coast 16 Gold Coast Canals 18 Gold Coast 20 Jumpinpin 22 Brisbane Offshore 24 Brisbane 26 Northern Bay 28 Southern Pumicestone 30 Caloundra 32 Noosa 34 CENTRAL QUEENSLAND Rainbow Beach 36 Hervey Bay 36 Fraser Coast 38 Bundaberg 40 Lake Monduran 42 Rockhampton 44 Yeppoon 46 Mackay 48 Stanage Bay 49 TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND Bowen 50 Townsville 52 Ayr 54 Lucinda 56 Hinchinbrook 57 Cairns 58 Port Douglas 60 Cooktown 62 Weipa 61 Karumba 63 The Cape 62

From the Editor’s Desk... Well, after a very substantial break, I’m back in the chair of the magazine that I started writing for in December 1987! Thanks so very much to Stephen Booth, who looked after the title exceptionally for more than a decade and who both picked it up and left it as the most popular regional fishing magazine in Australia. And a lot has changed in the interim. Back when Steve Booth took the reins, ABT was in its infancy, AFC hadn’t aired its first episode and we didn’t have a Victorian/Tasmanian magazine. The latest upswing in soft plastic baits had just started and Phil Lomas’ BREAMIN’ 1 and 2 was the must-watch VHS tape. Fast forward and we have an ABT Series, which has given away nearly 30 boats and millions of dollars in cash. AFC is about to

show Series XI and airs throughout China and Asia as well as North America and domestically in Australia. Back then, micro-jigging was winding a lead slug as fast as you could up and along a shipping beacon in Moreton Bay and the most popular Japanese lure was a bait jig. It’s not until you step back and look at the wholesale changes that have happened in this industry that you get some perspective on where we’ve come from and where we are going. Lots more fish are released nowadays – data from Queensland’s fantastic tagging program shows it. And anglers are becoming much more skilled and better at catching fish. The tools are better and the talent is always improving. We’ve also got better management of our fisheries. I know that big flathead are

easier to catch now after the introduction of the slotlimit. There’s still some argybargy between commercial and recreational sectors, but as long as we retain access, all’s looking fairly bright for the future. It’s in this climate, then, that I take the reins back. And I’m looking forward to it! AUSSIE SUCCESS If you’re plugged in to social media and like your fishing, it’d be hard to have avoided the hype and congratulations that surrounded Toowoomba’s Carl Jocumsen upon his qualification for the Bassmaster Elite Series in the USA. It’s been a real journey for Carl – a product of the ABT system and Queensland’s artificially stocked freshwater impoundments added to a drive and determination usually reserved for elite athletes.

QFM caught up with Carl and puts it all into context in a feature in the Tournament Section. We’ll all enjoy cheering him on next year. Plenty have shot the mouth off about ‘mixing it with the big boys’ in the USA. Carl gets to deliver on that threat! BRING ON SUMMER You’ll notice that the magazine gets noticeably bigger over the warmer months. It didn’t really used to happen that way, but it seems like summer is when we like fishing and like buying. No apologies for this at this end. It’ll probably take you longer to read, but we don’t see an issue with it. After a killer Spanish mackerel season in most parts of the state this year, we’re hoping for more of the same in the next few months. Not just for Spaniards, but for all species that ride the EAC or enjoy the warmer water.

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Soft side to bream SUNSHINE COAST

Mitchell Fredericks

Bream nowadays would have to be one of the top fish to catch on a soft plastic. When you hook a bream your reel starts screaming and the line starts peeling off, giving you only a few seconds to tighten your drag and pull them from the structure. If you’re not on the ball you’ll be dusted up and end up with a nice frayed leader. This challenge, and the associated adrenalin rush, is why I always go back for more. BEST SEASONS When using soft plastics you have to think like a fish. A soft plastic isn’t like a bait

where you can just sit it there and wait – you actually have to work the plastic to represent a wounded baitfish. The key is presentation, so you really want to match the hatch. The best time to chase these spooky species on soft plastics would be at the end of summer and right the way through winter and half way through spring. When winter arrives and the cold snap comes on, you will find bream will stop feeding off the surface very quickly and will start to move deeper to get ready for spawning. That’s when soft plastics come into their own, and it’s also when the big sea bream move in on the high tides. This can be an advantage because when bream spawn they tend to hang

in schools and can be very aggressive at some points. This means you can hook and pull in more than one bream out of the school. However, some schooled-up bream can be very timid which means you will get one touch or one fish before the school will be spooked, quickly swimming off to different structure or deep water eddies. As spring starts, the bream will move closer to the top of the water column and start hitting the baits off the surface, really committing to your surface lures. Some people may think surface fishing for bream is easy but it’s not. Why? Because bream tend to hit the surface only in the early morning and late afternoon. As the sun rises it starts to create shadows and movement which bream hate. On some occasions when it is very overcast and dark, bream will hit the surface lures all day depending on

Stud bream like this will often grab lures fished for other species like flathead and trevally. Maybe there is something to the idea of bigger lures for bigger fish. anglers are chasing bream on soft plastics, giving the fish a chance to learn the difference between plastics and bait. To fool these educated fish you really have to concentrate, persist and watch what the

type of structure for bream it is important that you position the boat correctly, fish the structure on the right angles and stay the right distance away to eliminate spooking any fish. The best structures

Left: A typical bream hook up. Right: Bream love a well-presented grub styled soft plastic.

the tidal changes, but that’s not the norm. When I talk surface lures I mean using soft plastics on the surface with unweighted worm hooks or even a lightly weighted jighead, as some types of plastics float. You should work your surface plastics with a slow roll or a twitch with the rod tip. FINDING BREAM Today’s bream are getting smarter because many more

bream are feeding on and match the size of the bait, because they are probably smart enough to figure out which is which. If you present your soft plastic correctly and make it look as natural as possible, you should be able to trick them into eating it. The key when bream fishing is to find structure. Find some good structure and you’re in with a good chance of success. When fishing any

of all are jetties and moored boats. They provide food like crustaceans and baitfish, shelter from the boat traffic and direct sunlight, and are a great spot for spawning. Although you can catch bream all day long (particularly if you’re using bait), I have found early morning is best. At first light there is hardly anyone on the water, which means no boat traffic, and often the bream

are really firing and quite aggressive. Another prime time for bream is late afternoon. During the day bream normally cruise the deep open water and the shallow flats hunting for food like prawns and yabbies, and when the sun starts to fall the bream swim back to find shelter like jetties in which to spend the night. This provides another great bite time to use soft plastics on bream. With bream fishing you need a good tide. At high tide all the structures like pontoons and jetties are well underwater, but as the tide drops and the water gets low the bream slowly move out into the deeper water and shallow sand flats. Then, as the water rises the bream move back into the structure. The best time to be chasing bream around structure is one hour before high tide as they are starting to move back to the structure and are normally hanging in schools. All of the structure is well underwater at that time, and the bream will be waiting for baitfish and crustaceans to swim by. If the bream are quiet and not too hungry I fish all of the run-out tide, when the bream start moving out of the structure into the deeper water. They normally start feeding as the tide lowers. They generally don’t eat as much when they’re right out in the open because of fear of predators like sharks, whereas in structure they feel safe

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enough to focus on food. Whatever time of the day or tide you’re fishing, it’s important to match the size of your plastic to the size of the bait. If you’re fishing a bigger soft plastic and not having much luck, you may think the bream aren’t there. In actual fact they could be, they just mightn’t want a food item that big. Try downsizing your soft plastic and see what happens. There is a surprise bream fishing can bring and that is sighting bream at a type of structure. When this happens the best thing to do is position the boat on the opposite side on an angle against the tide, while making sure you can still cast at them. Position the boat a bit further out than normal because if you can

Let them have a play with it and hook themselves. Just remember – you must have the right-sized soft plastic on or you’ll spook them. Bream are very spooky fish. TECHNIQUES AND TACKLE When fishing for bream you need to go light as possible. That means a nice, light rod and reel combo with light braid and leader. Inexperienced anglers look at the size of the soft plastics you’ll be throwing around and ask, ‘How will you cast that plastic and achieve so much distance?” The answer is to have the correct gear set up for this form of ultra-light fishing. The combination to choose is an ultra-light rod and reel set-up. A nice thin-

FISHING STRUCTURE Good bream structure includes overhanging trees, submerged timber, oyster racks, rock bars, mangroves and concrete walls. When approaching the structure, position the boat on an angle facing the tidal flow. Sit about 5-10m away from the structure so you don’t spook the bream. Always approach the structure with as little noise as possible, so no vibrations go through the water. see them they can see you! Cast your soft plastic with the lightest jighead possible about 5m in front or behind the bream so you don’t spook them, then just let your plastic sit there and slowly drift.

profiled graphite rod with a rating of 1-2kg or 2-4kg (depending on the area you’re fishing) matched up with a 1000-2000 sized spin reel is the perfect combination. When chasing bream

on soft plastics it’s good to choose a rod with a soft tip section. This doesn’t mean get a rod that’s soft right the way

and 0.15mm in diameter. If I’m only casting short distances around structure I’ll go for the thinner diameter,

LINE AND LEADER Suitable lines include 6lb Sunline Super PE, 3-6lb Stren Microfuse, 2-6lb Berkley Fireline Exceed, 6lb SAS Braid (Tasline) and 6lb Ikuza Braided Fibreflex. I use a wide range of leader material from the cheap stuff to the most expensive stuff. The best fluorocarbon leader I have ever used is Sunline FC Rock in 3-4lb. I use it a lot because it’s extremely thin in diameter and is super clear and has very good abrasion resistance. through the blank down to the butt – only the tip should be soft. The advantage of a soft tip is that it allows you to work a small plastic (around 60mm) correctly, and allows the plastic to swim freely and look more natural on the retrieve as there is no pressure on the soft plastic when retrieving. A rod that’s too stiff will impede the action of the small soft plastics because there is no play in the tip. Your casting distance will also suffer. Line choice is also important. There are braids out there that are super thin and super smooth, but some of them can cause non-stop wind knots and breakages around the knot area. For that reason I tend to use a slightly thicker braid for trouble-free angling when fishing all day. The diameter of the braid I use ranges between 0.1mm

around 0.1mm. Using 2lb right the way through to 8lb is perfect for this style of soft plastics fishing. The next thing to consider is which leader to use (you can’t tie your plastic straight to braid because it has zero stretch and is visible underwater). When fishing for bream I like to use a thin diameter and high abrasion resistant fluorocarbon leader. Why fluorocarbon, you ask? Because the fish can’t see it and because it sinks, which is excellent when using soft plastics. Now that you’re correctly set up, you can work your small profiled soft plastics with ease and won’t have to stress about getting wind knots and so on. Small paddle-tail soft plastics around the 40-55mm size can be slow rolled with your rod tip facing down towards the water. Alternatively you

can naturally let them drift under structure looking like a wounded baitfish with the tail vibrating side to side and with your rod just up to the end of the tip under water. When it comes to using minnow styled soft plastics it is best to work them then let them sit there, imitating a small shrimp. A good technique is to twitch the rod tip three times then just let the plastic sink back to the bottom with the rod at waist height to feel those finicky bites. The last main key to bream fishing using soft plastics is what size jighead and hook size to use in each plastic. The easiest explanation I can give you is to use the lightest jighead possible depending on

the current. You want your soft plastic to look natural when you’re working it, and you want it to sink slowly to give the bream a chance to hit the plastic on the drop, which happens most of the time. Use a hook that fits your soft plastic perfectly; you don’t want the point to hang way out the back near the tail. If you use a heavy lead around the 1/8oz mark around structure for bream you’re wasting your time – it will sink too fast and make your soft plastic look too unnatural. It will also make too much of a bloop when it hits the surface, scaring the bream. All in all, the key word for fishing for bream is ‘finesse’. Without finesse you will struggle a lot!

JIGHEADS AND PLASTICS I use a wide range of jighead sizes from 1/20oz right down to 1/60oz, depending on the current. When it comes to hook sizes, I use a 1, 1/0, 2 or 2/0 depending on the size of the soft plastic. I use ‘hidden weight’ jigheads as they give the plastic a more natural look and don’t make a loud noise if they hit a boat. he following plastics have proven to be the best for T me: • Ecogear Grass Minnows 3” - pink • Berkley Gulp 2” Shrimp - banana prawn, pepper prawn, molting • Berkley PowerBait Bass Minnows 3” - pearl watermelon • Z-Man GrubZ 2” and 2.5” - motor oil and bloodworm • Squidgy Wrigglers 65mm and 80mm - silver fox and bloodworm

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Staying safe around the rocks in October THE TWEED

David Solano

I’ve been struggling to catch anything worth a mention in the upper reaches of the Tweed, so after discussing this dilemma with my mate Pete, he suggested a rock wall expedition around Fingal Lighthouse targeting tailor at a place known to the locals as Devils Island! Now I have to stress, rock fishing is one of Australia’s most dangerous sports! Here’s why I haven’t fished the place for months: another mate, Dic and I were

Spots like this can be teeming with fish, but care needs to be taken when approaching and fishing them. fishing for tailor off Fingal Beach when we saw a group of panicked people heading past us to get to their car. One

bloke was in strife, his chest was covered in blood and he had a nasty gash on his head, his mates were carrying

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Kevin & Meth Youngberry

what was left of his rod and reel - half a rod and 1/3 of an Alvey - it turned out he suffered broken ribs and concussion and a bruised ego. In my opinion, he’s lucky to be alive, as to get to Devils Island you have to cross a causeway, which on the high tide can be extremely dangerous in some conditions and it was like that on that particular day. Old mate panicked, lost it, then got worked by a big wave. Rock fishing will always pose risks but there are ways to counteract them. I’ve been a rock hopper for 4 decades, so I’d like to pass on some of the safety tips that I’ve come to develop and incorporate in the rock fishing hunt. ROCK FISHING SAFETY TIPS 1. Check out from a distance where you intend to fish, which is very easy to do at Fingal. Watch what the waves are doing for at least 15-20 minutes, longer if you’re unfamiliar with the place. If the unease is too strong, don’t do it, better to be safe than sorry! 2. Although I do it sometimes, I suggest never fish off rocks alone. 3. Always wear a life jacket. 4. While observing your spot, pick an escape route in case you go in. If you can’t swim, don’t try rock fishing! 5. Let someone know where you are going. 6. The use of good shoes

is recommended as it gets slimy. I prefer bare feet, but I noticed some guys the other day wearing boots with metal spikes, which would be ideal. 7. I always wear a pair of fingerless gloves and carry a phone in a water proof bag. 8. If the worst happens, don’t worry about your gear, think of your escape plan; preserving your own life is more important! In all the years I’ve been rocking I’ve never gone in the water. I’ve fallen off my kayak about 20 times, but that’s a story for another day. WHAT’S BITING Luderick are running amuck in the usual spots and there’s been a significant drop

in yellowtail kingfish numbers, maybe they’ve gone! I thought I’d try the popper out last weekend in the shallows and within half an hour I’d caught 4 fish, 2 bream, a flathead and a whiting, all undersize but encouraging none the less. There’s been a lot of small trevally caught under the bridges, particularly Boyds Bay. The usual choppers, bream and school mulloway have been caught off the rock walls out front. Last month we were getting pounded by big swells, so maybe this month things in the river could turn around as the fish love a good wash.

To get to Devils Island, you need to cross this causeway. When the tide is high like this, it is recommended that anglers don’t attempt to cross it.

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As winter months fade well and truly in our memories, the South East Queensland area harbours have some fantastic angling opportunities. OFFSHORE October is usually the number one month of the year to target cobia. These hard fighters can grow well over 80lb and there will be plenty of these great fish.

Fishing a live bait of substantial size is probably the best method. Slimy mackerel, tailor, juvenile snapper and tarwhine are all really good cobia baits. When fishing, I will try to vary my baits to different depths and different species, although some days you just need to take what livies you can get. When live baiting I will use 2 hooks but I will go back to one hook if the bait isn’t very big. My rig usually consists of an 8oz barrel sinker with a swivel above it and a brass

ring below it acting as stops, and then about 1m of 80lb trace to either one or two 9/0 Mustad Hoodlum or Gamakatzu live bait hooks. Cobia can be found on most offshore reefs. The 18 and 24 fathom reefs east of Surfers and Burleigh, Kirra, Palm and Nine Mile are all good spots. Try anchor where baitfish are present. Find bait and big fish won’t be far away. There’s good numbers of snapper around. They can be tough to catch but with a bit of

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Big reds will be available to those who fish the offshore reefs in October. finesse it’s often easy to fool a few. A pair of ganged 7766 Mustad hooks with a small running sinker is my choice of rig. It’s advantageous to use a McCubbin Glow Sinker when fishing like this. Keeping terminal tackle to a minimum is a definite must for snapper. Strips of tuna, squid and pillies are all baits that work really well. I usually fish with 30lb monofilament line straight through to the hook. I like mono line because you pull far less hooks compared to using braid. When looking for snapper try around the 18 and 24 fathom line, Fidos Reef and the Mud Hole. There will be the odd

light tackle gear dusted off and ready to go. INSHORE October is the best month if you want to target big flathead on the Gold Coast. Every year the big breeding females move into the local mouths and inlets to breed. These breeding fish are usually big with a fish of 80cm or more being nothing out of the ordinary. When targeting these big fish try targeting places like the Southport Seaway and the Tweed Bar. Drift along the drop-off where the rocks meet the sand and slowly hop your soft plastics. When fishing around rocks, try to stay tight to your line at all

October is when the big breeding flathead move into the river mouths and inlets. Big fish over 80cm are common at this time of year. striped marlin showing up around the back of the 36 and 50 fathom line. Pusher style lures in sizes of around 7-12” would be your best bet. Blacks Snacks, Pula Kai and Meridian lures are all proven performers in this area so they are always a safe bet. Using 50lb line is sufficient for striped marlin. Reports from up north indicate that we are in for a bumper little black marlin season, so start getting your

times, this will reduce the chance of being repeatedly snagged. Vary your head sizes anywhere from 5/8 and 3/4oz when the tide is slack and up to 2oz when the tide is running. I don’t think flathead are particularly shy of a heavy head so just make sure that you are regularly making contact with the bottom. The 4-5” paddle tail from the McArthy stable are a shad tail with good body roll and work well on monster lizards.

These fished alongside a 5.5” DOA is a pretty lethal combination. School sized flathead will also be on offer right through this month. By casting 3-5” plastics at weed beds at the top of the tide in areas like Crab Island, behind Sea World and the mouth of Tallebudgera Creek, you should be able to catch a few. Use a jighead of either 1/4 or 3/8oz for this style of fishing and varying it according to the wind. I also like to use the McCubbin Glow Heads, as I think that extra bit of colour can bring on a bite! Blades definitely have their day and you will find there will be times when you can’t get a bite on plastics, but blades will continuously get fish. Ecogear Blades are my favourite for action and minimal fouling. The VX40 is my favourite size blade and any baitfish colour will work fine. As the tide drops try fishing where the water drains and where these weed beds drops into deeper water, the flathead will be there waiting for an easy feed. There will be some nice bream and whiting around towards the end of this month and they can be regularly caught on yabbies, beach worms and small black soldier crabs. I like to fish a rig of a smallish ball sinker down to a swivel and then 1m or so of trace down to a size 4-6 long shank. Keep your rig simple and you will have most success. Bream and whiting will be found around the Council Chambers in the Nerang and the Piggery in the Tweed. I find the better quality fish come at night. If you can time the later part of the run-out tide and the early stages of the run-in just after dark you will be in with a great shot. There should still be some nice tailor in October. Try fishing the Southport Seaway on the first of the run-in tide with poppers or metal slug type lures. Look for diving birds, schools of bait and fish chopping on the surface. Cast your lures around the edges of the schools of fish and use a moderate paced retrieve. If the fish are around, they will climb all over it!

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better! Already we’re seeing good numbers of mangrove jack, bream, flathead, trevally and Australian bass. Flathead are in great numbers at the moment and this is a good sign for the Gold Coast Flathead Classic (2-4 Oct.). A lot of big fish have been taken at the mouths of our canal systems an hour into the run out tide. If you’re attending the competition I’ll see you there! Bass have been caught in Clear Island Waters on hardbodied vibes with a nice rattle, Z-Man KrusteaZ, TT Lures Vortex Spinnerbaits in purple or green and shallow diving hardbodied lures. If you don’t have a boat or yak, don’t stress as there’s plenty to offer land-based around the weeds and bridges. These fish go hard and can get quite big in our systems, so they’re plenty of fun on light gear! A few other nice spots include Ski Lake in Coomera and various hinterland creeks around

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A cool little queenfish taken from a hot surface bite on the new Z-Man Slim SwimZ in blue glimmer! These fish are great fun at any size!

A solid flathead taken in the Runaway Bay canals on the old faithful TT Lures 1/8oz Switchblade. You will start to see more fish like this in October. Nerang. Try and find some nice holes or snaggy trees where a few bass should be sitting! Make sure you use snagless jigheads. I recommend the TT Lures Snagless Weight System. Jacks are certainly out and about taking anything from 2.5-5” plastics and diving hardbodies. They aren’t the easiest fish to catch, but if you persist and put the hours in on the water they will come! They don’t mind crunching a live bait like a herring and live or dead mullet. Fishing bait at night around structure is a good option for these canal beasts! Bream have been caught in good numbers in deep water and under jetties. Blades, small plastics and hardbodied lures seem to all be working at the moment. Natural colours like green and purple are my go-to. Juvenile queenfish have shown up in greater numbers in the seaway, however I’ve seen a few bust ups in

the canals and lakes. They are fish that range from 20-50cm. Try using small plastics and small surface hardbodies. Keep your lure on the surface and cast to surface action. They can be very finicky, so keep it finesse. Tailor are still about in

small numbers around the seaway and Broadwater. Paradise Point and around Sovereign Island is a hot spot for tailor with the deep water around the island. Trolling hardbodies or casting plastics early morning is a good ploy for these little speedsters. Trevally are in good numbers and are heaps of fun, I get a few as by-catch when jack fishing. Casting around jetties and bridges seems to be the best way to fool these guys. Plastics around 3” seem to be the perfect size lure, keep your lure in the strike zone and hold on! In the next month or two we could see some more rain and flooding, which will be good for our canals and give them a flush out. This should bring on the fish such as big bass, flathead and bream. Fishing in the rain really does prove successful, unless it’s blowing 50km/h winds, which can make fishing impossible. That’s it from me this month! I hope you catch a few and don’t forgot to post them to my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ joshdunnsfishing! I wish all anglers fishing the Flathead Classic good luck, find a few fish and have a great couple of days!

Jarrod Nobrega with a decent bass taken recently at Clear Island Waters on the new Z-Man 2” CrusteaZ in gudgeon. Bass will take a variety of lures and will start to really bite this month.

Building up to The Classic GOLD COAST

David Green

October is flathead month in our local estuaries. So far the flathead fishing has been quite variable with good fishing sessions interrupted by westerlies, a lot of mid water weed and dirty water. The fish are starting to move into the deep water and a lot of fish over 80cm are starting to turn up in all the usual spots. The Gold Coast Sport fishing Club’s Flathead Classic will also run over the first few days, and it looks like over 200 teams will be competing this year. Tr o l l i n g small hardbodies has been very productive this season and has produced plenty of fish between 40-60cm. As usual, pink Lively Lure Micro Mullets have been very effective. In shallow weedy areas, the small Zerek hardbodies have been very successful as they run a bit shallower and can pass over the top of the weeds. I recently lost a big 80-90cm fish on a shallow flat on 2lb braid. I saw it two days later sitting up on the flats in clear water with my lure

strapped to the top of its head but it didn’t bite the second time! Casting Gulps, soft vibes and blades has all produced good fish. It pays to mix up your presentations

The author with a lumpy flathead taken on a trolled Lively Lure Micro Mullet.

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for the table have been full of small black crabs. Mangrove jacks are now in full swing in the Gold Coast rivers. This month as the water warms the fish become a lot more active and feed hard. The Gold Coast mangrove jack population has adapted well to floating pontoons as this provides them with an all tide hunting spot, plenty of food and shelter. There seems to be a lot more jacks around now than there were a decade ago and I think the pontoons have provided the red devils with ideal habitat and they have flourished. The most popular and effective method is to cast

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paddle-tail soft plastics along the pontoon edges and retrieve quite quickly using a 3/8 or 1/2oz jighead. The key is to get the lure working about 15-30cm under the pontoon, and the inside and leading edges of the structure tend to work the best. Adjacent rock walls and bridges also produce fish. This method can also produce trevally, cod and some really big bream and at times even flathead will rise to take a lure being retrieved under a pontoon edge. October is also a great month for chasing mulloway on soft plastics in the Seaway and around Jumpinpin using larger plastics, such as big jerk shads. Some days produce quality fish over a 1m on a regular basis, and other days see plenty of big flathead. In general, I’ve found when the mulloway are thick not too many flathead turn up and when the flathead are stacked up on the spawning beds you don’t catch many mulloway. Whiting and crabs are also on the menu this month and up in the Nerang River the fish will push upstream if conditions stay dry. Some of the best whiting fishing is at night using yabbies and worm baits. The area around the Council Chambers generally fishes well for whiting this month. If we get a bit of rain it is definitely worth putting out the crab pots. GOLD COAST OFFSHORE October is a transition month on the offshore grounds but there are some good opportunities, and this year everything seems to be running about a month behind the usual fish calendar. Reports from more northern ground show there is a good run of small black marlin heading south, and there is the possibility of

Aykut Ahmet nailed this very large mahi mahi around the offshore grounds. a few little blacks turning up towards the end of the month. There may also be a few mahi mahi about. If the water is blue and warm it may be worth a troll. I like to look up Fishtrack. com as it gives a good idea as to current and water temperature. The snapper will start to slow down a bit this month but there should still be a few good fish on the 36 and 50 fathom lines. Pearl perch and amberjack are also common at this time of year. If the current picks up, deep water jigging using fast sink 300g knife jigs can be a very good option. Some of the biggest amberjack, samsonfish and kingies are caught in October, with many falling to deep fished live baits. In closer to shore anchoring up and berleying on the 18 and 24 fathom pinnacles can produce cobia, mulloway, snapper and teraglin. If you get out well before dawn it helps a lot. I like to fish

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suspended live baits and slowly drifted pilchards and strip baits in the berley trail, and retrieving a big soft plastic paddle tail can be a very effective method when chasing cobia, snapper and mulloway. Out past the edge of the continental shelf the current should pick up a bit and the water temperature should rise a degree or two. There should be a few yellowfin, striped marlin and the chance of a blue marlin for the persistent troller. This fishing should improve later in the month, and over the past few seasons November has been a very productive month on the wider grounds. Overall, October is a good month to fish the Gold Coast. The Flathead Classic is now one of the largest catch and release tournaments in the country, and this is its 21st year! With good weather it should be a cracker tournament this year, and to all competing I hope you have a great time and catch plenty of top fish.

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October offers opportunities JUMPINPIN

Mick Morris gembait@tpg.com

Flathead will be all the rage this month with heaps of lizards being caught as they feed up after their spawning season. There are plenty of them out there so for your best chance to catch one of these big flatties try drifting from Kalinga Bank to Swan Bay in the deep water, the sand flats at the top of South Straddie, Little Rocky Point, the Stockyards, Willis Island and Cobby Passage. Your chances will definitely improve if you move around. All the best flathead anglers I see never anchor up to catch flatties. Most will use their electric outboards to hold them in place while they work that spot with plastics or bait and if they find no fish they quickly move on to the next spot. When you find fish, a few tend to be in the same area so it’s worth working the same patch. Big baits mean big fish when lizard hunting so don’t be shy to throw on a large mullet, big pilly, gar or big 6-8” soft plastic as they are

very aggressive fish and will have a go at almost anything. If you stick with small lures and baits you will find that you’ll catch a lot more undersized fish. The whiting have been picking up in size and in numbers from the Broadwater, Wave Break

the Pig Styes and the top of Crusoe Island. Sticking with either sand or blood worms and using red tube and beads will increase your chances of a feed. If you’re trying for a big bream, then most of them are caught at night near the top of the tide near rock walls or

Releasing a 91cm flatty is a great feeling. Island, Couran Cove, the Green Bank, Slipping Sands and the western side of the Never Fail Islands. A few good fish have come from the Pimpama and Logan rivers in the deeper holes and also from the sand flats between Kalinga Bank to

areas that are covered heavily in snags. Using a little heavier line is recommended as they can snag you up real quick. Berleying up is definitely beneficial and larger baits such as half pillies, heaped mullet or chook gut or large flesh baits will definitely

entice the bigger fish in. For a big bream try around Kalinga Bank, the dead trees at the bottom of North Straddie, the point of Short Island, the Stockyards and, as I said, any rock wall or deep snag you can find. Dust off the crab pots as the muddies usually fire up about now. If you love a feed of crab start at the lower reaches of the Logan River and head outwards towards Long Island, Redland Bay Channel and further to Cobby Passage and out from Jacobs Well sticking along the mangrove-covered shoreline and holes. Chopper tailor have finally shown up off the South Straddie beach across from the Bedrooms and at the top of the island across from the Lagoon with some good sized greenbacks amongst them, up to 3kg. Picking the run-in tide in time with a late afternoon/ early evening fishing session will give you a great shot at the bigger fish. They should be sticking around for a while taking pillies, bonito and even tailor flesh. The best thing about tailor is they are constantly on the move and can turn up anywhere from the Bar to

Julian Morrow caught this decent lizard on the troll. the Logan so using a pilly or whitebait in mid water can produce some great fish. There are some really big mulloway in these waters up to and over 30kg which puts them at about 1.4m long and very hard to land. Targeting fish like these is a very specialised form of fishing and not for the fainthearted. Patience is the key as you can sit out in the boat all night and possibly not even get a hit. Live baits once again are a must and a large mulloway will take a 30cm+ mullet and larger. Flesh baits of course are second, either mullet, bonito or tailor flesh. A reel

with free spool is helpful as they can run up to a 100m before actually eating the bait so be patient before striking, which is hard to do when you’re onto a big fish. Most of the really big mulloway come from the deep water near the Pin Bar or try the point of Short Island, Fishermans Channel, Giants Grave or Marks Rocks and the Gazebo in the Logan River. • Thanks for all your reports and if you need any advice or want to find out what’s biting drop us a line at Gem Bait & Tackle on 07 3287 3868 or email gembait@ tpg.com.au.

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Reefs firing, weather permitting OFFSHORE

John Gooding

The weather through August was certainly unseasonal for this time of year and other than a few charters at the start of the month and a few more at the end, it was a blowout for offshore fishing.

quality fish. The 42 fathom line is where most of our kings and amberjacks are coming from and the 33s, 35s, and Deep Tempest have been most consistent for us on snapper. During the spring months the shallows also start to fire up and we normally start fishing the Shallow Tempest

productive time east of the South Passage Bar with plenty of options both in close and out wide, so if we see some good runs of weather, there should be plenty of fish caught. If the area of reef you’re fishing is not producing, don’t be afraid to move around, as we are fortunate east of Moreton and North

to do some exploring to figure out what works. Snapper will continue to dominate catches this month and I expect numbers and quality should be good right through to Christmas. • Until next months, enjoy your fishing, take care on the coastal bars and if you’d like to join me on a charter (maximum 8 persons) give me a call on (07) 35229527 or 0418738750. You can also visit my website at www. outlawcharters.com.au.

Kingfish, amberjack and snapper are on the chew in the outer reefs.

Snapper are also getting in on the action with quality specimens coming from shallower water. When we could get offshore, the fishing was first-class, with amberjack, yellowtail kingfish and quality snapper on the chew. Lets hope October delivers us some better weather to get out and get stuck into these

line of reef. There’s normally quite a bit of bait holding in the area at this time of year and snapper, sweetlip, Moses perch, yellowtail kingfish and cobia all get in on the act, harassing the baitfish. Spring is usually a

Stradbroke to have many reef lines in close proximity to one another. You don’t have to travel far before you’re fishing again. Different lines of reef will fire on certain moon phases, weather conditions and time of day, so you need

Anglers can expect mixed bags this month. This will keep fishing interesting on the Brisbane offshore reefs.

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Opulent October options BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

For anglers getting out enjoying the sunshine and warmer conditions October offers, there are some respectable angling rewards to be reaped. Estuarine, bay and offshore anglers will be treated to a broad array of angling targets including prime sportfish and table species. October is an awesome time to do a trip to Moreton Bay, the rivers or even the canals and creeks. Let’s look at a few of the opulent options for October. JACKS BACK With water and air temperatures on the rise, mangrove jack activity will increase throughout the river and estuarine systems. While jacks can be caught in numerous locations in these waters, it is usually the more heavily structured areas where the greater majority are encountered. I say encountered not caught because jacks are an aggressive and powerful sportfishing target that can bust off a complacent

angler, or even an alert and skilled angler, in the blink of an eye. They will readily hit their prey on the return journey to their structure which leaves little time to react, pull the slack out of the line and put some serious hurt on the jack in an attempt to pry it away from its snaggy sanctuary. Anything above a 50% capture to hook-up rate is a good outcome for most jack anglers. As jacks will eat a broad array of baitfish and crustaceans, they will also attack a wide array of lures. Hardbodied minnows, lipless crankbaits, soft plastics (especially paddletails), surface offerings and numerous others can all work a treat. Fishing the lure well and getting it close to the structure where jacks lie in ambush mode is of highest priority. Accurate casting is a must if you want the best opportunity of hooking a jack. This is the reason why the majority of serious jack anglers use baitcasting tackle with 15-30lb line to deliver their lures. However, quality spinning outfits can still cast accurately in the hands of experienced

fishers and shouldn’t be disregarded totally. Live baits work exceptionally well, with poddy mullet, herring, prawns and pike being some of the more popular offerings. These are usually pinned lightly on a 3/0-6/0 livebait or octopus pattern hook (sometimes on a twin hook snelled rig) with 30-50lb fluorocarbon or monofilament leader. Use just enough lead to keep your bait in the strike zone and be ready to react, strike and wind quickly when a jack hits. Try around sunken mangrove banks, rock walls, concrete retaining walls, bridge and jetty pylons, pontoons and other prominent structure, especially that which alters the current flow or creates eddies adjacent to it. Areas where light shines on the water at night will attract baitfish and often jacks might be lurking in the general precinct. Paddle-tail and crustacean profiled plastics fished on jigheads or the weedless snakehead rigs will allow you to fish the offering close to submerged structure, preferably rattling over it.

A chunky Brisbane River flathead being measured before release. For pontoons, bridge pylons and other structure that is higher in the water column, bibbed minnow lures offer a great approach. Late afternoon, night and early morning sessions with surface offerings such as poppers and stickbaits will provide some kneetrembling strikes around eddies adjacent to structure and also areas where baitfish congregate, such as lighted areas in the canals and rivers. Jacks are an awesome target and very palatable but remember to limit your catch of this iconic estuarine sportfish.

when fishing this waterway. Even land-based anglers have worked out where and when it’s easiest to catch them on both baits and lures. The downside of targeting threadies is that the larger specimens (which can exceed 120cm) don’t take well to handling and are best to be released boatside without lifting them from the water. Threadfin are spread right throughout the Brisbane River from the leads beacons at the mouth right up to Mount Crosby. The lower section of the river, from the Gateway Bridge down to the river

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THREADFIN Another great Aussie sportfish is the king threadfin salmon. We are fortunate in Southern Queensland to have an amazing fishery for this species, especially in the Brisbane River where they have been prominent captures for over a decade. However, they have also spread to other systems such as the Caboolture River, Logan River, throughout areas of the Pumicestone Passage and other waterways over the years. The Brisbane River definitely offers the better concentrations of this species and it is very common to capture them

mouth is probably the hardest hit by anglers but continues to produce some respectable captures on a regular basis. Good offerings include an array of plastics and vibration baits, yet in certain areas you can also successfully use minnow lures, micro jigs, blades and even baitfish profiled flies. Live baits including mullet, herring, pike and banana prawns are prime offerings and probably the easiest way for inexperienced anglers to get amongst a few threadies. Even the humble pilchard and other dead offerings can produce the goods at times.

One quality threadfin is more than enough for several meals so careful handling and release is recommended if we are to keep healthy stocks of threadfin in our waters. SNAPPER There will still be quite a few quality snapper around for anglers fishing the numerous grounds within Moreton Bay. I often get some of the better specimens as the water is starting to warm as summer approaches. The numbers are usually down a bit but the quality more than makes up for this most of the time. Additionally, while hopping plastics and vibration baits around the bay island fringes and the artificial reefs during October there is a good chance of tangling with other species such as sweetlip, tuskfish, school mackerel, estuary cod, flathead, tuna, bonito and numerous others. The larger tides generally produce the better results but I have caught quality snapper during all sorts of tidal movements and moon phases. The usual offerings, both natural and artificial, will work well during October however if the water is still fairly clear you may need to use more neutral coloured offerings and thinner leaders to produce strikes, especially in the shallower waters. SCHOOL MACKEREL As outlined in the September issue, school mackerel can be reasonably prevalent in certain areas of Moreton Bay around this time of the year. The eastern end of the Rous Channel is probably one of the more reliable spots however they can be fickle as to what stage of the tide they like to feed on in this area. Usually however, if you fish the last few hours of the run-in and the first 2 hours of the run-out then you should be able to secure a few. At times however it is like shooting fish in a barrel

and every lure or bait put in the water is soon engulfed with vigour. Try drifting pilchards rigged on ganged hooks or trolling lures to secure your result. The commercial sector troll small spoons (such as No.3 Halco Barra Drones) behind a paravane or trolling board however I regularly use deep diving minnow lures up to around 120mm in length. Around the beacons in the northern bay, try jigging chromed slugs and slices or drifting gangedhook rigged pilchards. I prefer the period around the change of the tide (either high or low) for this pursuit but mackerel can be caught at any time of the tide if there is baitfish present. If you have some success at one beacon and the bite subsides then go and try another for a while and then return to try again later. Trolling deep diving minnow lures on tops of the flats out from Tangalooma and around Middle Bank can also be highly productive at times. COBIA Another prized predator in Moreton Bay during October is the brutish cobia. I must admit to not having a lot of success on this species during the few trips I have put in to target

them over the last couple of years but the early reports this year from further north have been fairly inspiring. Large live baits are generally the best offering however large soft plastics, jigs and even trolled minnow lures will produce the goods in the right scenario. I like to use whiptails, larger demersal species (adhere to size limits), sand crabs and school mackerel for targeting cobia. The areas around the beacons in the northern bay, Kianga Channel, Yellow patch, artificial reefs and the shallow offshore reefs and coffee rock areas are all worth probing. Usually I find if you catch one then you will get another soon after. The larger specimens are exceptional eating in my books and one quality specimen over 15kg will provide a huge amount of succulent fillets. FLATHEAD A prominent estuarine target during October is the humble flattie. These are available in increased numbers during this period because the larger females come inshore to breed, closely followed by hordes of smaller males. While these females should be left alone to do their business, or returned

to the water quickly if caught, the males make a good target for the estuarine angler. These can be taken on a huge array of lures and baits. Once you know their habits then targeting them can be predictable as you will generally have a good idea to where they are most likely to be lying in ambush mode. Casting lures, such as soft plastics, vibration baits, flies, minnow lures,

and working them over these areas is a successful technique. Trolling is also a great way to find a flathead or two, especially for inexperienced anglers. This allows you to cover a sizeable area of water in a fairly short time. Once one flathead is found then trolling the same area repeatedly will often produce more captures. When you do find a couple then take note of

the type of terrain you are fishing and the stage of tidal movement as this will add another piece to the flathead jigsaw puzzle to help you improve future results. A good strategy is to work the tops of the banks on the higher stages of tidal movement and the edges of the banks where they decline into the gutters and channels as the tide begins to fall. The mouths of creeks, channels and gutters

Matt Mundy with another quality mangrove jack taken on a deep diving minnow lure from a Gold Coast canal.

are also prime areas on the falling tide. Limit your catch of flathead and release the larger females, especially those over 75cm (as the law dictates) and this fishery will remain healthy for years to come. In the same areas where you locate flatties, you are also likely to catch bream, whiting, tailor, trevally and other species on the same lures and baits, just to add a little variety to your day. CONCLUSION In addition to all these great targets, there will be some excellent opportunity for mud and sand crabs, longtail tuna, yellowtail kingfish, sweetlip, estuary cod and a host of other species during October. With longer days and warmer conditions, anglers will need to be aware of the effects of the sun and temperature with sunburn, fatigue and dehydration being more likely than in recent months. Overall however, it is a great time to be out on the water with warm days and nights and plenty of prime sportfishing targets and succulent species available. Hope you get to enjoy a day or two on the water sampling October’s opulent options.

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Bream and flatties munching lures NORTHERN BAY

Grayson Fong graysonfong@bigpond.com

It’s deep into spring and we are full steam ahead looking down the barrel of yet another good summer. Weather predictions are as hard to pick as an Australian One Day cricket side but who cares, time on the water is time on the water. You could probably go your whole life as an angler worrying about the weather but I guess the best plan of attack is no plan! When the weather is good, make the most of it and hit areas you wouldn’t normally do like inshore reefs or out in the bay. When the weather is sour, hit your favourite estuary spots, the ones you love and revel in the fact you are wetting a line as that’s what our hobby is about. So where have the fish been biting? Let’s look around the northern bay and see what whets your appetite. REDCLIFFE PENINSULA Over the last month fishing was a little up and down on the peninsula with anglers getting a mixed bag of results for a days fishing. Juvenile snapper numbers have been sporadic with better fish still coming in the lower lighted times of dusk and dawn. Days after rain periods have also been working for fishers with the decrease in water clarity, making juvenile snapper more aggressive. Soft plastics have been the pick of the baits with pilchard halves accounting for good catches aswell. Flathead reports have been on the increase with anglers hitting the creeks for better numbers. Hays Inlet

Bream have been prevalent around the peninsula of late and have been smashing surface lures. and the lower reaches of the Pine River have been the pick of the spots at the lower end of the peninsula, with anglers also picking up flathead along the foreshore between Pelican Park and Woody Point Jetty on the top of the tide. Bream numbers have been the most sporadic over the last month but with the warming waters and southeast winds we have experienced of late, things should be on the turn around. The flooding tide is working the best when chasing bream on rubble flats and shallow bommies with surface bites keeping anglers on their toes. Using ‘walk-the-dog’ style lures like Megabass Dog X Jrs, Berkley 3B Scumdogs or Atomic K9

Walkers is proving to be a winning formula with a slow twitching retrieve ensuring

your lure walks side-to-side to give you the best chance at nailing hungry bream. Diver whiting numbers have been solid lately in Deception Bay, especially towards the Scarborough end. Bloodworms have been the stalwart bait for whiting with squid also working well and a size 4 long shank hook. Light ball sinkers are a must with a 30-40cm trace being the optimum rig. PUMICESTONE PASSAGE With warmer days and increased water temperatures, we are finally saying goodbye to the weed that inhabits the passage during the cooler months. Flathead have been the mainstay of late with hotspots being Lime Pocket and dropoffs between White Patch and Sylvan Beach. Z-Man Slim SwimZ, Atomic 3.75” Jerk Minnows, 80mm Squidgy Wrigglers and Shad Lures 3” Ribbed Candys are the pick of the soft plastics. Anglers are also slow rolling hardbodied lures to great effect. Worth a noted try are Atomic Shiner 45, Ecogear SX43F, Imakatsu

Mick Thompson enjoying one of Redcliffe’s finest, chunky bream on surface!

Justin Wilmer with a modest Pumicestone flathead caught on a blade. Dilemma 60 and Kokoda Sprog. Upgraded leaders are a must as these smaller hardbodies get more bites but can end up a fair way down a flathead’s throat. Bream numbers are rising with ebbing tides at night being the prime time to get among them. Creek mouths like Ningi, Elimbah and Glasshouse creeks have been fishing well with the mouth of Hussey Creek worth a look on the smaller tides. Surface biting bream are on the go at Cooks and Tiger rocks along with the Ningi flats on the larger tides. Good summer whiting are still being caught on the southern beaches with Red Beach being the pick. LOWER NORTHERN BAY Diver whiting are still being caught in Bramble Bay but are set to slow as the weather heats up. The mouth of Nudgee Beach and the

Compass Adjustment Buoy are still the go-to spots with some whiting being caught around the rock groynes near Eventide. Flathead are still being pulled off the Hornibrook and Ted Smout fishing platforms along with bream in the evening hours. If bream is your flavour, check out Cabbage Tree Creek, where areas around and between the trawlers tend to house a few legalsized bream. You can work these areas both land-based and on a boat with the top of the run-out the best time. FONGY’S MONTHLY TIP If you are new to using braided lines on your reel, one of the easiest knots to join a fluorocarbon leader to this braid is a double uni knot. It’s easy and effective and with a little practicse you can tie it in no time! Check it out on the web. Happy Fishing.

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Hot seasonal sessions ahead STH PUMICESTONE

Jason Wallis

This month we will see some pronounced change in water temperatures and this will turn some species on and others off the bite. Our mighty mangrove jack will turn on with an upward spike in the water temperatures. A sharp rise of 4–5°C is all they look for. Once they get this it will be go time! They get ultra-active later in the afternoon after a warm day with low breezes. They will be taking lures and bait punched tight into the snags, pontoons and pylons; if you can juggle a hot day, low tide, low light with a making tide, you will be in for some action. Don’t forget to take some persistence with you as they can do your head in some days with hour upon hour of no action and then all hell can break loose. You will need to be quick to react as they can towel you up in the blink of an eye and leave you tearing your hair out. This month is one of our best months to hook a queenfish or two. The trick to these guys is if you find one, chances are there will be a big school of them with it. Keep working the same area and work it hard, punch it over and go back the next day and do it again - same spot same tide, same presentation; chances are you will come up tight. Once they find an area that holds good numbers of bait, they won’t leave it until it’s diminished. A good day can see you with a great queenie, but a bit of thinking and persistence can see you landing multiple fish and can turn a good day into an unforgettable one. Queenfish love big baits or lures; they will swim past small lures and bait to nab a big one. The 7” Gulps are

a good plastic to try. If you prefer hardbodies, try Halco Laser Pro’s or Halco Rooster Poppers. If it’s bait you prefer try big live gar, pike, mullet or hearing, the bigger the better. Using a 30lb fluorocarbon leader is a minimum requirement for these guys as

Bream are thick at the moment with fish regularly coming in around 1kg. A handful of these guys can make a great feed, so the locals tell me. I prefer to let them swim away and fight another day. When they are as thick as they are at the moment you

around 70cm. I have not seen this yet, but I have come close. Lures or fresh bait in the bigger models has been bringing them up. Ensure you use light gear as they go a bit shy on the heavy-handed approach. Very early mornings and later afternoon is your only window; keep in mind the numbers and size will taper off as the water temps climb. Mulloway are patrolling the passage and creeks with most fish coming on soft plastics. Most of them are under size (coming in around 60–70cm) making them catch and release only, with a minimum size lime of 75cm. There is the odd one going over size and stretching out to the metre mark making it a real handful for the light line anglers but a real treat once landed. Flathead have been a little hard to find throughout the system but once found you can have a ball with quite a lot

The author with a decent snapper taken during an early morning session. of small fish getting around. A few fish are going well over size leaving you with high five moments and a grin from ear to ear that can last a week. Soft plastics are the key to

consistent no fuss results. Dugongs, dolphins, turtles and big rays are thick throughout the passage at the moment so take it easy and you will have a great time.

A ‘crocodile’ class dusky that pushed the tape to 90cm. Flathead like this are out and about during October. they pull ultra hard and chafe through line quite quickly if hooked deep. Nine times out of ten they will put on an aerial display worth watching, much like a barra. Eating quality is poor so a quick picture and release is the best outcome hands down.

will see the bream nuts and locals making the most of it. They have been taking well-presented lures and fresh baits. The snapper have been a reliable target throughout the system at the moment with rumours of fish coming in

Jack Lees with an 80cm Lake Monduran barra caught on a Jackall Squirrel.

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After a long run of poor weather throughout the winter months we have jumped right back into summer. After what can only be described as a very poor winter session we are looking forward to a good run of our early summer reef species and pelagics. Two of the favourite

targets at this time of year are the cobia and pearl perch. There are still plenty of winter species available with larger snapper frequenting the deeper water areas around Wide Caloundra and the Barwon Banks. Tuskfish will be a good target species this month and they can be found around many reef systems, particularly if there is a rocky bottom or pinnacles. This month can also be a little slow, but if you know the basics of finding

fish you will always get a feed. The most important tip for this month is to find the bait schools and look around until you find the fish among them. Once you have located them work the depths they are feeding in with soft plastics, jigs or baits and once you determine what is biting you will be able to hone in on the skills needed. The inner reef systems around Mooloolaba and Caloundra will be good target areas for evening

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fishing this month. A making tide is by far the best time to fish them and if it falls between 7-9pm you will find that the fishing will be hot. Live yakkas or squid are by far the best baits for snapper or pelagics and if they are not available then the humble pilchard or fresh squid baits will do the job. The Caloundra 12 Mile holds good areas of rocky reef and pinnacles, which hold any number of species and it is just a matter of spending an hour of your fishing day hunting around for better new ground to fish next time. The pelagic scene is exciting this month with the onset of the bigger cobia and kingfish. The kingfish are more consistent around the deeper wrecks and reefs while cobia can cruise in very shallow water and are often spotted swimming close to the surface. Channel markers, artificial reefs and known hotspots are the places to target cobia and by far the best bait is live yakkas or

Pearl perch are another species you can enjoy this month, especially if you’re after a quality feed! moment particularly with the warm weather and then cool changes a couple of days later. Whiting have been taken around the weed beds south of Bells Creek and along the main drop-offs adjacent to the shallow sand bars within the Pumicestone Passage.

rig with whole pilchards will do for the tailor but peeled prawns, chicken gut or squid will catch most of the species that will be around the surf this month. Overall we are looking for a slow transitional period through to November as the winter species change

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Mackerel are another great summer species that will only come further on the chew as the water warms. slimey mackerel. We have always fished the top or bottom of the tide for best results and you need to be ready because the bite period can be as short as 15 minutes. The estuaries will begin to see the change from winter to summer species this month with the larger bream leaving the inner systems. Species like trevally, tarpon and whiting will be raising their heads soon so brush up on your lure casting and retrieval techniques. Military Jetty has seen a few chopper tailor biting of light rigs but few have been landed. There have also been a good number of Moses perch and happy moments caught throughout the daylight period. Pelican Waters canals has been mixed at the

The area around the Caloundra Bar saw a few mulloway taken last month and they may still be among the many species to be caught in this deep fast running water this month. The surf area around Happy Valley still holds good numbers of smaller dart and most of the areas along the beach front have ample amounts of dart, whiting and bream. The beaches should be an area to look at this month because there are still good quality tailor, mulloway and some other surprises that I will leave for you to discover around the holes on the turn of the tides. Currimundi is a good beach to have a fish and is friendly for the kids to play while you enjoy wetting a line. Again either a paternoster rig or a gang

over and bring on the hot summer run that we have grown used to. Remember that the pelagics are on this month and if you have never targeted cobia, pop into your local tackle store and get some hints on the rigs and terminal tackle that you need to use for a successful trip. The estuaries will slowly change over but in between times there will be stacks of bread and butter species to target. Don’t forget to have a fish on the beaches this month and target some tailor. A recent trip to Frazer Island has renewed my passion for the species and having just tried smoked tailor, thanks to an old mate, I am keen to get a few from the local area as well. Have Fun!

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Rivers a top spot for spring NOOSA

Peter Wells

The Noosa and Maroochy rivers will be firing up this month with some good bread and butter species coming on the chew. INSHORE Flathead will be about in good numbers as they make their way down river to spawn, look for those

shallow banks on the run-out tide as this will be prime territory for a big mama flathead to hang out, and where there is big mamma there will be lots of smaller males vying for her attention. The best plan of attack is to position your boat at the edge of the channel casting up onto the banks. You need to time your run for the last couple of hours of the run-out tide,

cast your lures in a scatter pattern over the bank and if you hook up, continue to cast to the same spot. This time of the year flathead are very social creatures and where there is one there will often be more. If you have no luck simply move up the bank. We have found that the best results are on soft plastic style lures like the Z-Mans and Berkley Gulps with the brighter colours

Six year old Gus Anderssen ‘winded in’ this 9.5kg cobia while his dad was hooked up on another fish at North Reef on Sunday.

being the most successful. Heavier jigheads are the key as you want to make sure that you are staying in close contact to the bottom all the way back to the boat. Spring also means the arrival of warmer days and warmer water and with this the arrival of the mangrove jack season. Jacks are one of the great sport fish and are plentiful in both the Noosa and Maroochy rivers. There are a variety of ways to target these fish and one of mine is to be up nice and early and head up river looking for those snags and drop-offs where a hungry jack loves to sit. The run-out tide is best with the fish they are feeding on coming down the river. This is a great time to get a baitcaster outfit out so you can get those lures in nice and close to bank to be in the strike zone, if you are too far off the mark you will not be able to temp Mr Jack away from his snag. As the sun gets a little higher in the sky it’s time to switch to trolling as the fish tend to move to the deeper water to feed. The Cultiva Savoy Shads and the River2Sea Live Minnows are a couple of my favourites and have been responsible for more than a few nice captures in the past.

Charley Stuart-Taylor’s cheeky smile and quality bream (which he released) won him this week’s $50 Davo’s Fish of the Week prize. flickering on the surface as these are signs of predatory fish in the area. If you don’t know where to start and want to try soft plastics or surface fishing Drop into Davo’s Tackle World Noosa and we will hook you up with one of the team who will teach you all you need to know. On the beach there are some nice gutters scattered along the Noosa’s North Shore with tailor and goodsized mulloway on the chew. Some good catches of mulloway will also come from the river mouth at this time of year. Tailor and mulloway will also make their presence felt around Point Arkwright and all the

with the odd cobia and plenty of small pearlies thrown in. Over at Sunshine Reef the coral trout are about with the odd extra-large fish among them. Tuna action has dominated in the bay and with some fantastic sessions just outside the river mouth. Look for the bird activity and you will usually find these missiles of the sea attacking from underneath. One of my favourite spots to fish offshore at this time of year is the Barwon Banks; and with the east side of the middle stretch being 80-90m, you will usually find this area loaded with big pearlies and snapper at this time of the year. Anglers

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OCTOBER 2014

Tailor and trevally are also about with GT, diamonds, cale cale, big eyes and golden trevally are eager to take a lure or bait. Woods Bay in Noosa comes alive early mornings with tailor and trevally keen to pounce on a well-presented lure, but if you want some real excitement try tying on a surface lure. ZBL Skinny Pops or Lucky Craft Sammy 65s are the go if you want to get into some fast surface action. These lures are best fished with a side to side motion with your rod tip to really get the lure working, also keep any eye out for any type of bust ups or bait

way down to the mouth of Maroochy River. The low light periods are the best time to target these fish with the odd night fish well worth the effort. Some of my favourite baits for mulloway are either fresh mullet or some local squid. Use larger baits at night, as this is the best time to tangle with those larger fish over a metre. OFFSHORE October usually has some of the best weather for the year and the blue water brigade will be out in force. The snapper are increasing in numbers at Chardons and North reefs

tend to fish this spot mostly with big soft plastics and jigs. Find the wire weed and you will find the fish. Chicko is our resident expert in all things offshore, so come in and have a chat and we will hopefully get you onto the fish. • For all the latest information log onto www. fishingnoosa.com.au for up to date bar and fishing reports and don’t forget to drop into Davo’s Tackle World Noosa or Davo’s Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola to find out where the fish are biting, and remember tight lines and bent spines!

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Rumble with reef fish RAINBOW BEACH

Ed Falconer

The weather hasn’t been quite as kind as it was earlier in the year, but we have still managed to get a few offshore fishing trips in. OFFSHORE Reef fishing remains consistent with a few snapper showing up around the full moon and we have been doing extremely well on the bottom dwellers like parrot, Moses perch, hussar and gold spot wrasse. The first half of this month should see a pretty good run of snapper. Bottom bashing with nice fresh mullet strips means you can sit in one spot for a few hours just

chipping away until you have yourself a full esky. We have been catching some quality red and spangled emperor on our northern grounds, but they have been a bit fussy and we have had to change our tactics and fish fairly light to trap these big specimens. October is a good month for getting offshore and into the reef fishing. In the past we have landed some good red emperor and it has also been a great month for your big pearl perch. ON THE BEACH The beach continues to fish well for whiting, especially toward the lagoon at Double Island Point and there has been a good run of chopper tailor with some decent catches of them, but I haven’t seen any monsters yet.

GREAT SANDY STRAITS There has been a little bit of tuna action right at the camping area at Inskip Point and spinning small silver slugs has been the way to connect with them. Some good whiting and flathead have been caught around the mouth of Kauri Creek using soft plastics. • To enjoy a day on the water with Keely Rose Fishing Charters phone Ed Falconer on (07) 5486 3150 or 0407 146 151 or visit www. keelyrosefishingcharters .com.au.

Fun fishing in the estuaries HERVEY BAY

Scott Bradley marlin81@bigpond.com

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A quality spangled emperor landed aboard Keely Rose Fishing Charters.

October can be a tough month for fishing in Hervey Bay, with a howling northerly usually keeping all but the keenest angler on shore. No two seasons are the same any more. At least, that’s how it seems these days! Hopefully we’ll get a reprieve and have a chance to wet a line.

IN THE BAY The estuaries are firing with bread and butter species like flathead and bream being a reliable catch through September. The quality of the bream being caught has been amazing, with fish in the 35-40cm bracket being a regular catch throughout the bay. The flathead fishing just keeps getting better, and after a cracker winter you can expect them to be all fired up this month in the warmer water. The reefs don’t usually

get much pressure in October due to the wind, but if you do get out you can expect a blend of summer and winter species on the bottom. You can also tangle with all the tuna and mackerel species that swim in our waters, so a live bait or pilly on a gang is a must. For me this month is all about chasing pelagics, and with a bay full of mackerel, tuna and marlin to play with why wouldn’t you want to target them! Casting plastics, slugs and poppers at surface bait bust-ups or

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trolling a spread of lures between Arch cliffs and Rooneys will keep the adrenalin and the lactic acid pumping through your veins. Just work the bait, or if you can’t find bait just troll the contour lines and vary your depths and you will find fish. NEW REEFS FOR THE BAY Two new artificial reefs have been given the go-ahead for Hervey Bay finally after many years of speculation. The Hardie Reef will be built northeast of Little Woody Island at a depth of 16m, and the Simpson Reef will lie in 10m near the Outer Banks. Both reefs will be constructed of purposebuilt concrete reef modules and should be completed by June 2016. Our existing Roy Rufus arti is also earmarked for further expansion, with more concrete pipes to be dumped in the future.

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Ray Scholes receives excellence award Ray Scholes Marine located in sunny Noosaville in Queensland has won the Quintrex National Sales Excellence Award for their outstanding customer service. Each year Quintrex’s Sales Excellence Award is presented to the dealership who has achieved outstanding sales with quality customer feedback, for 2013-14 Ray Scholes Marine ticked all the boxes. The dealership has been operating on the Sunshine Coast since 1976 under Dealer Principal Ray Scholes and not only offers years of experience in the marine industry but they have been selling and servicing Quintrex boats for over 31 years.

Selling a wide range of boating accessories and specialising in Mercury Marine, MerCruiser and Yamaha outboards they truly are a one stop shop for all your boating needs. As fully accredited sales and warranty service agents for their brands Ray Scholes Marine offer a fully equipped service centre with three technicians allowing a fast turnaround on services and offering thorough pre-delivery and on water testing on all packages they sell. Dealer Principal Ray Scholes said with the business beginnings dating back to 1954 the longevity of the business was something the team was very proud of.

“We are all locals and have been here all our lives, I think it gives the business credibility and reason for locals to visit us, they know they will get good service and help in the long term,” Ray said. “So with our knowledge and experience over the years the team at Ray Scholes Marine are all about customer service.” Norma and Mark Horton started business in 1954 with Ray as an apprentice and are still partners in the business today. “Even with Norma turning 90 in January she still comes to work every day,” Ray added. Quintrex National Account Manager Cameron Wood said the team at Ray

Scholes Marine offered their customers good old fashioned quality service and salesmanship. “Ray Scholes Marine always get an A+ when it comes to customer feedback, they are always proactive following up leads and have some of the best product knowledge in the business,” Cameron said. “A big congratulations to Ray Scholes Marine from the whole Quintrex team,” Cameron added. To get in contact with the team at Ray Scholes Marine head to www.fishingnoosa. com.au/rayscholes.htm and for more information on the Quintrex Range head to www.quintrex.com.au – Quintrex

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Beaches open to all fishing FRASER COAST

Phil James p_j_james@bigpond.com

Fraser Island’s tailor season made a slow start this year. In early August when you would expect to see action along the entire ocean beach, it was only those anglers fishing north of Waddy Point who made worthwhile catches. The annual closure between Indian Head and Waddy Point was in effect then, but this month the beaches and headlands

will be open to fishing for all species. Of course, this excludes the year-round green zone closure of Middle Rocks, and the small beaches between the rock outcrops. While tailor were hard to locate early in the season, mulloway have been particularly active along much of the ocean beach. As I have reported in other years, there has been an abundance of undersized fish with just a few making the grade of 75cm. In fact, a fish of over 10kg was considered to be quite exceptional. Last season

with plenty of juveniles still in attendance, more legal fish were taken. In the last few months, mulloway between 16-22kg have been landed between Happy Valley and Eurong, particularly around Yidney and Poyungan Rocks. In one short session a group of six anglers landed 18 mulloway up to 22kg. Only two made the 75cm limit with the other 16 being carefully returned to the sea. Colin Smith caught a 22.2kg (1.5m) fish, which was one of the largest recorded at Poyungan Rocks for at least 10 years.

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DINGO ATTACK It has been disappointing to learn of yet another incident involving human and dingo interactions when a local chef, walking alone on the beach near Happy Valley, was attacked by a group of three or four of the wild dogs. This was the most serious incident since the fatal attack on Clinton Gage at Waddy Point Beach in 2001. This time the person was lucky to escape with wounds that were serious enough for him to be taken to Hervey Bay hospital for surgical treatment. There has been much controversy about the way the dingo population is managed on Fraser Island and I don’t want to be drawn into that right now, but it has become obvious that it is not a good idea to walk the beach alone, particularly at night. The party of six guys who enjoyed the mulloway fishing were doing the right thing by fishing in a group from a safety perspective. The situation now, like it or not, is that we have wild and unpredictable animals roaming freely on most of the island. They have become a significant tourist attraction for hundreds of visitors who, often not deliberately, exacerbate the dingo problem by giving them access to food. As much as I have enjoyed fishing the beach by myself for decades past, I’m not keen to do it anymore.

Colin Smith’s 22kg mulloway was one of the largest recorded at Poyungan Rocks for a decade. particularly in some of the deeper channels south of River Heads around Long Pad and Turkey Island. With the spawning season for yellowfin bream over, these spent fish are making their way back to their usual haunts, anywhere from reefs to the brackish upper reaches of the streams. Pikey bream have a later spawning season in and around Hervey Bay so they’re still being taken around River Heads and in the Susan River. Sand whiting are not restricted to summer, as many anglers would expect. Some of the best quality catches are made during the winter but it is in spring and early summer that these fish produce some reliable family fishing from beaches around the city and on the inside of Fraser Island. There is always a spectacular run of whiting in the inner channel of the pier on the

reefs until early December. In the meantime, some of the deeper reefs often start performing well as early as October. You only need to travel a few minutes from the mouth of the Urangan boat harbour to reach some of the most reliable areas at this time of the year. Extending from just south of the pier to a few hundred metres south of the harbour, and towards Round Island, broken ledges in up to 15m of water hold good numbers of a variety of reef species including grass sweetlip (coral bream), blackall, cod, juvenile snapper and blueys (black spot tuskfish). It is just a matter of sounding around the area and picking out some broken ledges and you are in business. I like to use a tide with a reasonable current flow, avoiding the neaps when fish turn right off, and the big spring tide when you can

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OCTOBER October is always an interesting month in and around Hervey Bay. Some typically winter species are still hanging on while cooler inshore water temperatures persist, while other species are just waiting for a temperature increase so they can move into their early summer haunts. Diver (winter) whiting are still worth chasing,

The PICNICS (see enlargement)

morning flood tides. This has already started but there should be more to come this month. With the onset of summer we might expect to see the popular reef species starting to fire. As water temperatures increase slowly, fish will gradually move over the shallow reefs and flats. I usually don’t get too serious about the shallow

only fish successfully in a very small window either side of the turn. Although both ebb and flood produce fish, I prefer to work the early flood either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Of course, there are plenty of other good choices a little further afield. These include the Artificial Reef, the Channel Hole, Boges Hole and Bogimbah Ledge.

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Find the bait, find the fish BUNDABERG

Jason Medcalf topwater@bigpond.com

Warm weather, light breezes and sunshine is the order of the month for October. Finally the warm weather is here and it hasn’t come soon enough for me. This time of the year is what I look forward to over the winter period as the water temperatures rise, the baitfish move in and the fishing just gets better. THE BURNETT RIVER The Burnett has been fishing pretty well lately with some nice flathead,

bream and whiting caught throughout the river. The surprise packet of late has been the salmon and grunter and one of our local super keen anglers Royce Taylor has been really getting into them. Royce has been getting salmon up to 1m long and grunter to well over 3kg and he has mostly been getting them fishing deeper water. His technique is quite simple but needs to be done correctly to be successful. He fishes a variety of sinking lures like blades and soft plastics but he picks his spots based on the influence of the tide. It takes a fair bit of practise

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but once you get your head around presenting your lure to the fish at the optimal time it really isn’t that complicated. You just have to spend more time on the water. As the water warms there will be a lot more bait turning up in the river and this will fire up the fishing. We should see the start of the Spanish and school mackerel hot on the heels of the bait and that means early mornings on the close in reefs trolling or floating a bait. The many different tuna species that traverse our coastline are also being following the bait schools and they are great fun and make great bait when fishing the reefs. THE BAFFLE Once again the Baffle has been fishing well with flathead everywhere and the mangrove jack and barra starting to fire up. Roger from Baffle Creek Caravan Park has been getting some great fish in the last few weeks. Roger says it’s all about the tide if you want flathead. Fish the run-out tide around the sandbars at the mouth with small plastics or troll

a hardbodied lure over the sandy drop-offs. The mangrove jack have started to show up around the rock bars and are hitting hardbodies and soft vibes. The water temperature will be on the rise quickly throughout the system and this should spread the jacks around so make sure you travel around looking for that warmer water as this will be where the active jacks will feed. OFFSHORE October is a great month for early offshore mornings as the weather warms. As previously mentioned the bait will be moving and so will the pelagics so grab a handful of lures and slices and get into these great fighting speedsters. Trolling for mackerel isn’t that complicated; you tie on a proven lure like a 3m Halco Scorpion 120 in chrome and purple and you troll at around 8-10 knots and do loops around the baitfish schools until a big silver train grabs the lure. The key is speed, too many boats slow down because they aren’t getting bites, what you should try first is deeper diving lures

Coral trout will be on every offshore angler’s minds in October. or a different colour but maintain the speed; they love lures moving quickly. The bottom fishing has also been pretty good and should keep improving. The warmer water species like coral trout will really

start to fire up when the bait moves in. Big live baits, blades or big plastics will also temp these great eating fish from their lairs. October is a great month to be fishing so get out there and enjoy!

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LAKE MONDURAN

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rest of the warmer months. Constant winds will without a doubt provide the best predictability on where to find feeding barra. It doesn’t matter if the constant wind is from the southeast, east or from the north, just as long as there is not too much variance in its direction. From last September onwards the early morning and late afternoon bite times were exceptional and we certainly don’t expect anything too different leading into this season. September started fishing well midway through the month and as usual I have

If you are staying here at Lake Monduran Holiday Park and the fishing is tough, all is not lost. There are a handful of other fishing adventures at your disposal to make the most of your holiday. All these spots are within one or so hour’s drive in any direction of the lake and you can access prime estuary systems, rivers, lakes and also the ocean. Here are just a few suggestions. ALTERATIVE OPTIONS Turkey Beach Located 1hr and 15 minutes north on the Bruce Highway. Main fish species on this beach are barra, mangrove jack, flathead,

way include barra, mangrove jack, flathead, grunter and trevally throughout the estuaries. It also boasts good offshore access to the Bunker Group (Southern Great Barrier Reef) with the weather permitting. This offshore region offers many different reef species and pelagic fish. Baffle Creek/Winfield Located 50 minutes east. Fish species up this little creek include barra, mangrove jack, flathead, whiting, grunter, queenies, trevally, threadfin salmon and the odd reef species. There are rock bars through this system, so local knowledge is advised.

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Chris with a fat Monduran barra caught in September around the sticks. been finding plenty of barra cruising the shallow bays and points. Once you’ve found where the barra are most concentrated, your best option is to tie up, sit there and keep casting at them. Make sure the knot you tie up with is easy to undo because when you hook up you may need to get manoeuvring on your electric motor straight away. Suspending Jackall Squirells have been working well in the pink eye suji, boney and snub nose colours, as well as the ever-reliable Pro Range Slik Rig 110mm in the lorikeet, ginger meggs and the evil minnow colours. Make sure you are using 30-50lb braid for your mainline and at least 60-80lb monofilament leader. If you use anything less you risk the chance of getting dusted. Not everyone can be Johnny on the spot when organising a fishing trip. The majority of people have to book holidays and fishing trips well in advance; this can unfortunately sometimes result in missing optimum fishing times and conditions.

whiting, grunter, trevally and mud crabs. 1770/Agnes Water Located 1hr and 20mins northeast. Fish species up this

Miara Located 1 hour southeast. Miara is on the Kolan River system, this is where Lake Monduran leads to the ocean.

Barra and bass are prevalent throughout the whole of this waterway. In previous years Lake Monduran has flooded, releasing barra and bass downstream. Other species in the saltwater section include mangrove jack, threadfin salmon, flathead, whiting, trevally, grunter, queenies and muddies. Burnett River, Bundaberg Located 50 minutes southeast of Lake Monduran. Main fish species include mangrove jack, threadfin salmon, bream, grunter, estuary cod, flathead and whiting. Lake Gregory Located 20 minutes southwest of Bundaberg and less than 1hr south of Lake Monduran. Lake Gregory is stocked with bass, saratoga, silver perch and sleepy cod. LAKE MONDURAN FAMILY FISHING CLASSIC The comp this year will be held on 18-19 October You can nominate for the comp on Friday afternoon from approximately 2pm or you can head to the MASA website at www. masa-fishstocking.org.au to print out and post your registration form. There are heaps of great prizes to be won with $1000 cash for the biggest barra, $500 for the biggest Australian bass, $500 for the biggest catfish and the major lucky draw prize is a boat, motor and trailer package. There are also plenty of lucky draw prizes throughout the weekend. The MASA group know how to put on a great weekend so don’t miss out. • For fishing info and accommodation enquiries contact us at info@lakem. com.au and follow my fishing charter updates on Facebook, Lake Monduran Guideline Fishing Charters.

Big Mondy barra are cruising in 3m and less. This is the sort of stuff that gets anglers excited.

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OCTOBER 2014

Tricks of the trade in tagging ROCKHAMPTON

Clayton Nicholls clay94_fishing@live.com.au

There’s some great fish are around this month, from barra in the river to smaller specimens in the lagoons all the way through to bream, flathead and whiting in the creeks. This report will guide you through what’s happening, where it’s been happening and a quick tip when it comes to tagged fish. THE FITZROY The river is getting fired up at the moment and has been producing plenty of healthy barramundi and threadfin salmon. The typical way of getting the barramundi at the moment is to use a variety of soft plastics, most notably Z-man, Gulp! and Zerek. At this time, the barramundi have been more prominent around the rocky ledges and drop-offs. The rocks that emerge with low tide along Victoria Parade, especially between the two city bridges has produced some very large catches. The salmon have been a little less active than previous years, this could

be because of the lack of prawns at the moment or the fresh water flow rate or a variety of other factors. Some anglers are still picking them up but not at the same rate as last year during this month. The salmon have typically been caught along the banks where the water drops from

around 1m to 3m and will sit on the edge of the drop off trying to get the prawns. THE NARROWS AND LOCAL BEACHES The estuaries have seen some nice fish of late and even though the days are heating up the nights are still pretty cold, which is holding a lot of those winter species in the estuaries.

There are some great fish being caught in the estuaries on curl-tail grubs, flick baits and prawn imitation plastics. The bream and whiting are still out and about but have recently been more switched on to small hardbodied lures and there have been less captures on plastics.

Catching a tagged fish like this one should always have its length recorded and submitted to Infofish.

Connor Duffy has been picking up barra lately on Z-Mans in the Fitzroy.

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to find a patch with less weed should be all you need along with a few poppers and weedless plastics. I may even see you out there while I’m chasing some barra. TAGGING Over the past month a lot of tagged fish have been caught, which is great. This will give Infofish a good amount of data for research purposes. The idea for tagging species such as barra is to monitor their movement and growth rate. If you wish to report a re-capture or want to start tagging species yourself then head over to www. suntag.org.au and follow the links.

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The local beaches and creeks have had a decent amount of grunter over the winter period and there have been no signs of them leaving with plenty of large captures along the creek mouths and rubble patches along the creeks. FRESHWATER LAGOONS The freshwater lagoons are tipped to fire up again but it will not be all in one big hit. The cooler nights are still shutting off some fish and the weed levels are holding off the fishing. Some people say that with the fish they are catching there it is still worth a look, a quick walk around the bank

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OCTOBER 2014

Make way for the sensational summer species YEPPOON

Scott Lynch ifishcq2@bigpond.com

Most of the area’s summer fish have started the season in fine form. All the usual species have come out firing as the mild dry winter is long gone and a fairly warm spring is progressing. The Coral Reef Fin Fish Closures are almost on us again. This year they are from 21-25 October. Don’t complain because the closures and the Green Zones combined have made a fair difference to the catches in our local area. They have been designed to allow the popular species the chance to produce the next generation in peace and that is something we all want. That doesn’t mean we can’t catch a fish, it just means we have to target different species and fish different spots. We can still catch mackerel, cobia, trevally or any of the other pelagics. Grunter, cod and snapper are among the bottom fish that can be taken. Look up the regulations on the DAFF website if you are unsure. October is the right time to chase coral trout in shallow water. The line fishers and the spearos alike always do well over the next month or so. The trout around the islands are mostly bar cheek but in October we see an increase of blue spot coming into shallower waters to breed. This brings them into play for the guys who don’t have the means to chase them in the wider areas. Spots like the outer rock rubble grounds and those patches just wide of the islands can produce some quality trout this month. Look at depths of around 15m for blue spot over

the next couple of months. They will be aggregating on rubble type sloping reef on the weather side of the reef. Bar cheeks at this time of year can be taken in shallow depths in as little as 4-5m of water. Nearly any headland and rocky outcrop around the islands where currents pass over can hold trout. There are lots of shaleridden or coral plate type structure areas around the islands where trout can sit under a lip and peek out waiting for a feed. Quite often in the last few years we have taken trout on poppers and lures meant for queenies or trevally. They are a very inquisitive fish and will come out of cover to check out any prolonged activity. This means that a few casts normally won’t cut it, whereas those extra casts can draw them out and provoke a strike. I tend to use natural colours for clear days and fluoro colours when there is plenty of movement

or wash where you are fishing. Trout can be aggressive predators smashing reasonably big live baits that you would think are too big. Rosy rock cod, just legal hussar, yakkas and small rainbow runners are the most available livies around here. Livies and big flesh baits are my go-to for trout because they give the trout a bit of time without pickers cleaning it up before the trout gets there. The wider grounds have turned up quality red emperor, red jew, rosy jobfish, parrot, coral trout and sweetlip. The grounds out from here that have been producing aren’t the high structures, they are more often than not rubble beds and low reef covering large areas. Many times we score the best reds or nannies just off the patch when you are ready to start the motor and head back up the drift pattern. Bait schools can mean so much more than big structures alone. Where there is bait

Nick Kann with a fine golden trevally from Barren Reef. there are predatory fish not far away. Doggies (Queensland school mackerel), spotted, greys (broad barred), Spanish and sharky

Ethan Robertson landed this absolute cracker of a bream at Coorooman Creek.

mackerel are all making a show this month. There were fish at Ironpot, Bangalee, Rita Mada, Forty Acre Paddock, Findlay’s, Halftide Rocks, Outer, Man & Wife, Barren, Flat, Perforated and Cape Manifold, Farnborough and Ross reefs as well as most of the islands off Emu Park and Zilzie such as Cave, Pelican and Wedge. Barren and Child, Man & Wife, Outer, The Pinnacles, Liza Jane and Flat all hold populations of cobia over summer. Flathead have continued in great form with a fair few of them well over the take size. It has been much the same as last year as more and more of these fine fish are landed. The change in fishing practises has seen fish like flathead have a noticeable increase in numbers across all of our local waterways. The reduced maximum size limit from a few years ago and the trend of catch and release is returning huge

dividends. The layout of our estuaries is also conducive to holding vast quantities of flatties and a number of those are extremely hard to fish or get access to on a regular basis, which in turn helps fish like flathead even further. The drop in rainfall has let many species of fish get further into the creeks and the river than all but the driest of previous years. Last month we were throwing a few hardbodied lures around looking for jacks or barra in the section of Waterpark Creek upstream of Corbett’s Landing right up past Stony creek to the top rocks. We only saw a couple of the targeted species however we scored a handful of fine flathead where the fresh meets the salt. I have never heard or ever seen this before, it made a welcome addition to the esky when all the barras were just under. These fish were mostly bigger sized males and not the usual big females we

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capture downstream. In recent years 600-700mm males are very rare, it was a pleasure to put most of them and the couple of females back to continue their line. King salmon are very active lately in the river and some of the bigger creeks across the area, particularly those with decent mud banks. They use the banks to prey on a whole range of small critters from prawns, mullet, herring and crabs. Kings really go ape over fiddler crabs, they work each bank on a rising tide and will often be hammering the banks in very shallow water. This makes it easy to predict when they are likely to be at a particular spot. Look at the dints, if the edges are sharp then the salmon are still working this bank and when the edges are rounded off there has been a few tides over them since the kings fed here. Queenfish are thick in a few spots at present. Little Corio Heads right on the northern end of Corio Bay has several large bommies where huge queenies hang in numbers whenever there is a bit of white water around. Throwing a decent sized popper into the wash and

John Reed caught and released this flathead in Coorooman Creek. Fish of this size should be returned to the water so they can continue with their breeding. ripping it back towards the boat as fast as you can is the go. This is the time of year I pull out the old Shimano TSS 3 just for queenies. The faster the wind the more fish you will get. The beaches at the back of South Keppel are among the best spots

I have ever seen for big queenies. Wreck Beach is special even when they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t schooling, there is always a population there somewhere. I usually search out the hardiheads or greenback herring schools to locate the queenies and trevally. This is very easy sometimes when the queens

and trevally are raising white water and splashes that can be seen from the other end of the beach. Big whiting have been a feature lately in areas around Kellys Landing, Long Beach, Nine Mile, Coorooman Creek, Three Rivers, Farnborough Beach and The Keppels.

Nicholas Willet with a little flathead caught in the Pine River. The fish was caught casting a soft plastic to the mangrove edges.

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Shipping channel shows up the red delights MACKAY

Keith Day habdays@bigpond.net.au

Last month it was great to see we were having a few days straight of light north northeast winds there were reports coming in of good catches of small mackerel around the close inshore islands, well within the reach of a 4m boat. This is a time of fantastic weather with night temperatures still dropping down to the mid teens but the day temperatures are rising quickly and during October will be in the high 20s to low 30s. Little wind at night and warmer weather will see the local dams be popular for the night barra chasers. The dams are also being topped up by MAFSA Inc who have just released another 30,000 barra into Kinchant and Teemburra dams during September. These latest stockings will ensure the high quality of these fisheries will be maintained into the immediate future. Eungella is next on the list and MAFSA members are getting the hatchery ready for what we hope is a bumper breeding season for sooties.

Dam bound barra will be on the chew and the best times I find are late in the afternoons and into the night. There is usually a hot bite in the very wee hours of the mornings and in Kinchant, you should get out around the edges of the heavy weed beds or in among the lilies. Poppers and my favourites, the Tango Dancer and Popzfrog in the largest size, are definite must-haves in any barra anglers tackle box. Barra just love these lures and surface strikes next to the boat at night really get the adrenaline going! The sooty fishing will go ahead in leaps and bounds through October as the warmer weather becomes more frequent and MAFSA brood stock collection will start in earnest this month. Hopefully we can get some ripe females into the hatchery in the near future. But it’s not all about the dams this month, as the creeks and estuaries are now firing up big time and there are plenty of fish for those who want to get out on the briny and there are heaps of shore-based spots around Mackay. The south harbour wall is closed but my spies tell

me that it may open up for weekends, which will be terrific. Right at the end of this southern wall is one great spot to hook a Spanish mackerel from the shore. Currents swirl past the tip and there is always bait hanging in close to the rocks and where there is bait you will usually find a predator or two.

Smaller macks like doggies and spotties will be on the chew all over the place. The best spots will be around the islands off Seaforth. Watch the zones in this area, Slade, Flat and Round Top islands are just out from the harbour and Pioneer River respectively. There will be the odd tuna mixed in with them and sometimes the

GT and golden trevally will muscle in too. The islands down Sarina way will all produce the small macks too but they can be a bit out of range for the 4m brigade. Trolling lures or pilchards works well on these smaller macks and standing off and casting slugs or shinies to them is also great fun and productive.

Have a go at this stonking reddy caught by Chris Rippon in the shipping channel last month.

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Whichever way you choose to catch them, make sure to bleed them quickly and then immediately ice them down. The difference this system makes to the end product is phenomenal. The calmer weather has also let many of the bigger boats get out to the reef and reports are in of good numbers of red-throat, grassy lippers, trout and nannies being caught. The shipping channel has been turning up some nice reddies, and recently Chris Rippon scored a beauty. Up in the mangroves and estuary systems things are hotting up too, with plenty of barra, jacks and golden snapper all willing to smash a lure. October is the last bash at a saltwater barra before the closed season and I expect places like Reliance, Constant, and Murray creeks to be getting plenty of attention. Try to avoid the more crowded areas in these creek systems. For lure fishing, fish the half tide out to the half tide window, it seems to give good results. Each year there seems to be a gun lure that is out fishing the others and a chat to the guys at the local tackle

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shops will get you updated and likely a bit lighter in the hip pocket. I always urge visitors and locals alike to make use of the knowledge that these guys have as they all fish, and can let you know what is on the chew where. Buying a couple of lures will

always get you better info. The creeks still have good numbers of flathead, bream and whiting and these can all provide a delicious feed or two. Blue salmon seem to have pulled their disappearing act but the king threadies are

still around and chewing the hell out of small metal blades and plastic vibes. These fish in the larger sizes are really fitted with an afterburner and when they get that big tail working they can really motor. They truly are great fun!

An often overlooked part of our fishery here is the beach fishing. During spring and summer dart range along the beaches and can provide heaps of fun on light spin tackle with small blades or plastics. Their bigger cousins, the

queenfish or skinnies are also regularly found right in close and patrolling along the beaches. GT and golden trevally are also quite on the cards and will respond to lures or baits of yabbies or prawns. They seem to hunt along the

beaches looking for small pipis or eugaries in the sand. Spring going into summer is a fantastic time to live here and the fishing options during October are endless, so why not come and join us in paradise? See you at the ramp!

Go tangle with a tail-slapper this spring STANAGE BAY

Von Ireland

I’ll start this report by congratulating our Coast Guard on securing the new VHF channel 83, which reaches now to the Percy Isles and beyond. This channel operates daily from 6.35am and starts with the latest weather. It winds down at 9pm, with weather updates throughout the day and upon request. It’s not a chat channel, rather a log in and out channel. You can chat ship-toship on most channels other than 79, 81, 83 and 16. Remember that the volunteers need sleep, so midnight calls aren’t appreciated unless it’s an emergency. If you ever need help, please address the Coast Guard as ‘Coast Guard Thirsty Sound’. The guys all work hard, and any help or funds donated are always much appreciated. The road to Stanage is getting very good with the council road workers giving it their best. Well done and thankyou. For an unsealed road it’s in very good shape. We get the odd city slicker who has a grumble about it because they’re used to sealed roads, but we find most anglers don’t think twice about travelling on an unsealed road to access great fishing. The estuary is coming alive with the monster mulloway, and yes – I have seen the fish and pics to back up these claims! The salmon are still here and so too are the big bream. Unfortunately the muddies have all but slipped into the deep. Still, on the western side and the southern jigsaw isles on the end of Long Island you can pick up monster muddies if you have the good pots. A good pot forces the muddies to actually enter your funnels before they can eat the bait. Make sure you have lots of nice fresh mullet or roo. If you visit me in the tackle shop I can top up the bait you have or help you with extra info. The reef and islands have delivered many tailslapping reefies, including reds, sweetlip (emperors),

trout, trevally and Spanish mackerel. Results obviously depend on the gear you use, the bait and of course the spot. Recent weeks have seen hot daytime weather and chilly nights, and conditions ranging from glassed-out to very lumpy. No day is the same at Stanage, and if you can use the three ‘P’s – passion, persistence and patience – you will have the best time here. Well done Jared and Moo and all your crew staying in the Pacific Oasis for having fun on and off the water, exploring and catching great fish. It’s great when you’re in the situation where you don’t need a fish measurer. If a fish (or crab) looks like it needs a measurer, you don’t waste any time on it – you just throw it back! Our accommodation is getting even better for the

spoilt fishers, with flush loos, more lighting and tank water. Bookings for 2015 are already being struck off the calendar so ring me on 07 4937 3145 or email stanagebaymarine@ bigpond.com to secure your place. October, November and December this year are heavily booked but I do have a few holes left if you want to visit this year. Until next time, take time to smell the fish! • Pacific Villa and Pacific Oasis at Plumtree Stanage (07 4937 3145) provide slate pool tables, table tennis, darts, big TVs with Foxtel Sports and extras along with normal digital TV, DVD and CD players. They’re close to the tackle shop, pub, store, servo and boat ramp. For some good insurance, join the Thirsty Sound Coastguards Free Tow social club (07 4937 3107) for only $66 a year.

Mulloway queen Judy with a cracker of a fish.

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OCTOBER 2014

From warm to red-hot BOWEN

Dan Kaggelis dkaggelis@gmail.com

If September is the start of the warmer weather fishing, then October is certainly the month where things really begin to heat up. Consistent warmer mornings and the return to 30°C temperatures will bring the creeks to life, especially as the humidity begins to ramp up.

While most North Queenslanders curse the onset of the humid weather in October, those who love to wet a line for jacks and barramundi will welcome it with open arms. These heavy oppressive days will signal the beginnings of those hot creek sessions where anything that hits the water will be engulfed by a toothy red devil or chrome-sided silver slab. It’s not hard to notice this change in the creeks as the mosquitoes and sand

flies become a little thicker, sweat starts pouring out of you, and most importantly the atmosphere comes alive with the symphonic sound of chops and boofs of mullet being violently devoured. Throw in a couple of afternoon storms and the action in October can really be amazing. One of the other reasons I love to chase jacks and barra in October is the water in the creeks is still yet to be tainted or effected by the monsoon rain. Coming out of

Big jacks will be a prime target in October. It’s also a top time to target them using surface lures as they are highly aggressive.

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a dry winter the waters around many Bowen systems are pretty clear, which allows for some awesome visual fishing. Not only can you spot fish hanging high in the mangroves or cruising the flats, this clear water allows for lures to be easily spotted by fish. This means you don’t have to be right on the money with casts and also you don’t have to throw right into structure as the extra levels of aggression and hunger brought on by the warmer water will have them leaving the structure with little thought. October is certainly the month for hardbodied lures and while I fish predominately soft plastics these days, I really do love a good suspending hard body session in the middle of October. Lures like Lucky Craft Pointers and Rapalas that suspend and roll are the best option, especially those that can hang in the water for long periods. These will be extra effective in Bowen’s deeper systems to the south where the snags are often hidden or unseen in deep water. This is where being able to get those lures down deep into the strike zone and leave them hanging in a

fish’s face will bring results. There is nothing better than cranking down a Lucky Craft into a deep snag, then leaving it suspend for a couple of seconds before giving it a tweak and then feeling the rod load up on a big barra or jack. These snags often hold big numbers of fish as well and can give up big numbers, especially if you fish it on the right tides and conditions. Vibes also provide a similar plan of attack and there are plenty of options on the market at the moment. My advice is to buy the ones that provide the strongest terminal tackle as they do take a pounding. This is due to the fact that they are often fished close to the bottom and close to structure on a vertical retrieve. This puts a lot of pressure on rings and hooks and big fish will find holes in these quickly if they are not up to scratch. If you are not a lure fisher and prefer to wet a bait or two the best option is fresh or live bait. Jacks tend to prefer fresh dead slab bait while barra will prefer the live wriggling stuff. Many anglers will often pin their live baits through the shoulder when fishing

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Offshore the golden snapper will begin to feed hard.

for barra, however, this can be very ineffective at times especially when the tide is running. This technique can see the bait spin due to the hook position, which can cause your bait to die quite quickly. I prefer to hook the fish through the eyes. This provides a better purchase than hooking through the lip and means the fish have to really hit it hard or swallow it to get it off the hook. Either way, fishing live baits for barra can be tough going as they do love to mouth a bait for a while and if you strike too early you will often lose the fish. This is where bait runners are a top idea as they allow the fish to run for a while without feeling the pressure and eventually swallowing it down. The warmer weather will not only see the creek fish fire up but also the inshore wrecks and shoals. October is a top time of year to target big golden snapper, especially at night. While most serious golden snapper anglers target them with live squid or mullet, soft plastics like the Berkley Squid Vicious, and the Z-Man Jerk Shadz are just as effective. Large vibes like the Koolabung Reef Fizzer are also an excellent option. If you are finding the bite a little slow, don’t hesitate to scale down the size of your plastics as well as sometimes the big goldens will bite on smaller plastics over the larger models. The best times to target these fish is during the evening and on sun up. Often the bite time is very short but when you get connected to a big golden snapper the thrill is amazing. Coral trout also tend to become a lot more active over the warmer months in these areas as well. Next month this fishing will only get better however there will be more interruption with larger tides and the onset of rainfall, which can make the fishing a little less consistent. The key to fishing November is to be on the water when the conditions are calm and clear as this is when the fish will bite the hardest.

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Unseasonal conditions challenge anglers reports of fish over the metre mark have been caught, with the Bowling Green rivers such as the Haughton River and Morrissey’s Creek showing its class with fish to 120cm being displayed proudly by anglers. As the full moon in early September waned, so too did the winter runs of mackerel. As water temperatures climb and

TOWNSVILLE

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What a crazy old year it has been in our topical waters! Unseasonal wet weather along with the unpredictable hot and cold spurts has really been testing out local anglers, myself included. It seems even some cold water apex predators decided that our waters were more than welcoming with a fur seal spotted lounging in Lucinda as well as photos of orcas obliterating an unlucky manta ray in Weipa. Old Mother Nature loves throwing in some curve balls to keep it interesting, I must say!

the small black marlin now move into SE Queensland waters, most hardcore game fisher are moving further out towards the shelf to tempt the larger versions of the species. The shoals have been giving up some great nannies again, with local anglers hitting various locations and also some hidden ones such as secret wonky holes producing the quality.

Shoals further south and closer to shore have also been giving up the trademark golden snapper, always a welcome catch for the dinner table. A solid report has come in that Trunk and Britomart reefs are firing with the usual trout and sweetlip of various varieties, with the biggest specimens coming off live baits and

A nice mangrove jack off a drain. These red devils will start to fire in our creeks in the next few months.

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The barramundi are firing up in local waters, and are good fun on light tackle, but not too light! fresh strip baits such as those off a mackerel or tuna. Controlled drifts around rubble bottom seems to be the most successful technique and are more common these days as opposed to the traditional hanging off the anchor method. GPS and quality depth sounders have definitely helped this along in recent years.

Although the weather has been kind to us recently, if the wind once again blows your socks off the line, pick up a light spin outfit and head up any one of our local costal creeks for some sweetwater action. Google Earth is your friend, looking for access points from main roads or bridges and fish your way

the rewards come in the form of sooty grunter, jungle perch, mangrove jack and barramundi can be mind blowing at times. Easier to access spots such as Crystal and Rollingstone creeks, the Murray, Tully and Burdekin rivers are also gems in their own right. Small spin sticks like a 4-10lb, 2500 size reel with 4lb line is all you really need, a selection of poppers, small plastics, blades and hardbodies is enough to cover most bases. This would have to be some of the easiest types of fishing to do, with finding consistency the hardest part. If you really want to get your kids out from behind a computer game then drag them along, I guarantee they will build some precious memories also.

as far as your legs will carry you, the best fishing is the farthest away from civilization. Some of the best fishing I have done is the Herbert River Gorge, fond childhood memories hiking into remote sections of the gorge with my old man still rate up with my favourite fishing moments. Any amount of time can be spent up there and

Chasing the very beautiful jungle perch is a good option on those windy weekends.

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Live greenbacks producing decent black jew AYR

Steve Farmer

Black jew aren’t a common catch in the Burdekin area, but a couple of local fishing mates recently scored quality fish within a week of each other. Paul ‘Beefy’ Armstrong and Nigel Hole were targeting golden snapper on 2-mile Shoal off Phillips Landing and probably weren’t expecting the catch of a lifetime. Beefy was the first to score just on sunset, with the black jew engulfing a live greenback herring he was using for bait. Black jew are renowned as powerful fighters on any tackle and Beefy’s 8kg outfit was pushed to its limits. Beefy said it took him at least 10-15 minutes to bring the big fish alongside the boat. When it was eventually safely aboard it measured 1.23m and 19.7kg! Black jew are similar to the mulloway found in southern waters and range from about Central Queensland, northwards around the tip and into Gulf of Carpentaria waters. They grow to about 150cm

in length, although most captured specimens average 80cm or so. The minimum legal size is 75cm and there is a possession limit of 2 per angler. Black jew are known to be good on the plate and Beefy said he took a bag of fillets to work and got rave reviews from his workmates, with one co-worker comparing it to barra. Beefy said they also managed to bag two golden snapper to 48cm and a cod of 50cm. The cod took one of 3 squid they managed to catch after sunset. However, as impressive as it was, Beefy’s record didn’t stand for long. Less than a week later Nigel texted him to say that he had just landed a black jew which measured 144cm and 33kg! Once again a live greenback intended for golden snapper did the trick and Nigel took a good 20 minutes to land the big fish. In fact, the big jew almost spooled his 14kg outfit a number of times and they had to give chase with the boat. Nigel said he probably would have released the monster, but it was close to exhaustion by the time he brought it to the boat.

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OCTOBER 2014

Nigel and his mate also ended up with 3 golden snapper measuring 40, 45 and 70cm. While most Burdekin anglers probably haven’t been catching black jew over the past month, quite a few have been doing well on black bream and grunter. Most estuaries have been fishing well for black bream to about 35cm, although there are a lot of undersized fish mixed in with the keepers. The best baits have been slabbed mullet or peeled prawns. There are no prizes for guessing where the grunter have been on the chew. The waters of Bowling Green Bay have once again been the number one grunter spot, with 70cm fish not being unusual and a few whoppers reportedly stretching to the 80cm mark. Needless to say there has been an armada of vessels full of hopeful anglers scattered across the bay, but the fishing has been challenging enough to ensure many still come home with only modest catches. Flathead have been scarce over the past month and those that have been caught have been pretty ordinary in size. I prefer the

larger tides for flathead and suspect the small tides at this time of the year may be putting them off the bite. We targeted the old lizard a couple of times and struggled to bring a single fish home. OCTOBER FORECAST It’s October already and the barramundi closed season is just weeks away. Of course that means that every would-be Burdekin barra fisher will be out on the water madly trying to catch a fish before the season closes. Live baits, especially prawns are probably still the most effective way of catching a barra, although as the weather warms up lures, both trolled and cast, will be worth a try. Don’t ignore the shallower waters if conditions are still relatively cool as this is where the warmer waters (and, in theory, the barra) will be. Mangrove jack and golden snapper are the other two species which will be becoming more prominent in estuary and inshore waters this month. On the inshore bluewater grounds Spanish mackerel will be getting pretty scarce but don’t let that stop you trying your luck if conditions allow.

At 144cm in length Nigel Hole’s black jew is close to the 150cm maximum size this species reaches.

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Scene is set, it’s game on! LUCINDA

Jeff Wilton jeffwilton83@hotmail.com

October is upon us and it is very hard to wipe the smile off my face when I reflect on what the last month had in store. I know that I refilled plenty of my reels with braid, and the tackle companies made good coin off me with constant purchasing of jigheads and plastics due to multiple bite offs and the many defeats in the jetty pylons. October will be more of the same but with the added benefit of the Hinchinbrook Channel starting to come to life. That’s right folks, the iconic barramundi will start to look interested again and capture rates will start to climb. HINCHINBROOK CHANNEL So now is the time to get the tackle box out, sort through the barra lures and start replacing hooks and split rings that have not seen much action for a few months. When buying hooks and rings, buy quality, as the saving of a few dollars will not be worth it when that fish you worked so hard to hook earns its freedom prematurely. It’s very important to pick good times to head out in search of barra, follow a simple rule that the last half of the run-out tide is best for luring and the first half of the run-in for live baiting. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but this is a simple game plan. Barra at high tide will be down in deep structure

or up in the flooded mangroves and not really feeding, as the tide drops they will start hunting baitfish that are pushed out of their safety zone. During this stage of the

tide, barra will be holding in strike zones waiting for food to be brought to them with the receding water. For throwing lures and plastics, this is where you need to keep your eyes open and

Along with all the barramundi madness in the channel, the marlin will be starting their annual run offshore.

think like a fish, structure that is being hit with current (not raging current) and has baitfish in proximity is worth examining. Lure and plastic choice is then critical as it is not really worth throwing a shallow diver into a deep water snag as the fish are normally holding metres below and most probably won’t rise that far to eat. As the tide bottoms out, barra will normally leave the creek in schools hunting baitfish along the shallow edges of the sand and mud banks. When the tide turns, these fish will follow the bait and current back into the creek. This is when you want to be anchored up with some good live baits such as mullet, gar or herring. If you get this right, they will normally bite like clockwork and it is the norm for every rod to get hit. I have had multiple sessions where if my rod gets hit, my mate will grab the next rod along and get ready. I must point out that it is important to only set as many rods as you can handle due to messy tangles! Around this time of year, the large golden grunter will slowly start making their way inshore and places like the first half of the sugar loader jetty and the bluff will have plenty of boats anchored up for the morning or afternoon run in tides. Grunter like gritty conglomerate mud shell bottoms and a tip is to check the anchor when bringing it up, if you have that sort of mud stuck on the prongs, you are in the right area!

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Waters are finally warming up at Hinchy! HINCHINBROOK

Ryan Moody www.hookedonhinchinbrook.com

Here’s hoping that with the waters warming we are going to see an awesome end to the barra season. The recent winter was a punishing one with many weather changes and cold fronts interrupting the barras’ winter time movements and habits. Water as low as 17°C has been experienced up north and is some of the lowest I have seen in my career. This has been why the barra have almost come to a standstill over the winter period, with many fluctuations in the barometer accompanied by the associated weather changes driving them down and not feeding for days at a time. Apart from some average barra fishing recently we have been able to fill the void with some great catches of golden snapper and some very good fishing on the pelagics. The fingermark have taken a liking to the live greenback herring over any other method. Dropping soft plastics and vibes on their heads has seen minimal

Big barra should start to move shallow in October provided the water warms sufficiently. interest but a step back to grass root techniques has seen them respond well. Live greenbacks have always been a favourite of mine even back in the early days it was our number one choice when it came to targeting them.

Spaniards have been alive around the islands and offshore on the bait schools. Many anglers are enjoying the great season and the hot bites that these tropical speedsters have provided. It doesn’t seem to matter what techniques work best

this year as they are taking everything from trolled and drifted baits to metal slices retrieved at high speeds. Don’t forget the bag limit of 3 per person and minimum size of 75cm. I have heard of a few instances where visiting fishers have taken

undersize Spaniards thinking they are school mackerel. Fisheries will not be lenient when it comes to the identification issue that sometimes surrounds this species. For those that have identification problems, get to know your species before you get into trouble. Cobia have also been prevalent around the inshore islands and offshore wrecks. They are often caught by many different methods. Anglers using bottom bouncing techniques and those practising Spaniard methods will run into them as well. They are a fish that can turn up anytime and can be caught almost any way. Always make sure you have played them out before bringing them alongside as they always play up like a second-hand chainsaw when you gaff them! This month I hope will see a great barra season ending and I’m hoping that we will notch up our 2000th metre-plus barra for our career by the end of month, only 44 to go so fingers-crossed! Anglers will most likely see the barra turn back to the shallows and get hungry again after their deep water slumber of

the winter just gone. Lure casters should notice a big difference in what goes on in the gutters, drains and backwaters over the coming weeks. October will see our pelagics move a bit wider and some good light tackle marlin fishing during the month before they disappear south. The reef still fishes well in October but will start to decline as the November northwesters come in. Fish deep when this happens, or go out at night as this seems to be another remedy for slow warm weather reef trips. Those of you wanting to do our barra basics e-course only have until 6 October to enrol. It won’t be available again until 1 Feb next year as we only do 2 launches per year. Head on over to our website at www. ryanmoodyfishing.com to check out the product tour and register your interest. • If you would like to book a charter or join our fishing community for some great fishing competitions etc, head on over to www. ryanmoodyfishing.com. And you could also win a free charter drawn twice a year.

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Awesome action on the light gear out wide CAIRNS

Garry Smith garrysmith@fishingmonthly.com.au

The light game fishing has been hot when the weather has allowed boats to get offshore and October should offer more opportunities to head east. The waters will be warming rapidly and coral trout should spawn in the lead up to the new moon on the 24 October. The warmer water temperature will also see the estuaries fire up, with barra, jacks and golden snapper getting into the action. Here’s hoping October produces its usual awesome weather and fishing. The first of two coral reef fish closures for 2014 occurs on 21-25 October, so keep this in mind when planning your reef fishing this month. Trout will be up shallow this month, so work areas of bommies in the 20-30m depth range. Large mouth nannygai will be around in quality, if not quantity, in the deep water. There will also be reef jacks, spangled emperor and the odd red emperor to add variety to the catch.

Ryan Tivey caught this magnificent sailfish during a great light tackle fishing day off Cairns. Cobia will be around this month, so don’t cut off what seems to be a shark at first sight, until you have had a close up inspection. Speaking of sharks, they were horrendous this time last year and their over-abundance so far this year indicates they will be just as bad this time round. A floater out the back will put you in with a chance of nailing a Spanish mackerel, which will still be around, although not usually that

thick. All up the reef should be productive when Huey grants access. Other pelagics will be turning it on for the dedicated light and heavy tackle anglers. If the start of the light tackle season is any indication, anglers are in for some hot action. As well as Spaniards, there will be northern bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, small black marlin and the early big blacks to keep the sports fishers on their toes. The first of the really big

blacks will be starting to turn up on the continental shelf and the marinas will be abuzz with stories and excitement in anticipation of a great heavy tackle season this year. Closer inshore, around the wrecks, reefs and islands there should still be a few late season school mackerel, the odd Spaniard and a few northern bluefin tuna to keep the popper, slice and minnow tossers and trollers occupied. Estuary anglers will be turning their focus to

nailing a barra as the water warms. They will be active from the upper reaches to the headlands and it will mainly be the weather that dictates the best location to fish. If the winds are calm and the weather warm, make a beeline for the headlands, by foot or sea. Focus your efforts around dawn and dusk and the tide changes, with lures and live baits. Luring from the rocks and live baiting from the boat is a pretty sound approach. When the winds blow, the estuaries are the go, with the better barra hanging around the river and creek mouths. Look for the closest snag to the mouth of a river, creek or drain and work it with lures or feed in a live bait as the current slackens around the tide change. Many lure tossers make the mistake of not getting deep enough into a snag when luring and deep enough works both ways. The lure needs to be as far into the snag as you can land it and you need to get it deep in the water. This immediately puts sinking lures at a big advantage when peppering the snags. A floating lure will still work but are best in shallow water. By the time

you crank a floater down deep enough it is often away from where the fish are sitting. Imitation prawns or soft plastics, rigged with a weedless jighead, are perfect for this approach. Practise your casting so you can consistently land the lure in the same spot and gradually allow it to sink further each cast until you are getting right to the bottom under the snag. Often the biggest and best fish are sitting right at the base of a snag and need to be teased into action. The same approach works for mangrove jack and the heavier the timber the better. If a snag looks so thick that it seems near impossible to pull a fish out of it, then it is the ideal place to nail a red devil. Start landing the lure on the outer edges of the snag and gradually work it deeper as you find your range and confidence. If you are a little more accurate with your casting, get that lure right to the base of the snag first cast and hang on! Golden snapper will also be getting in on the action in the deeper water in the estuaries, Cairns Inlet and along the headlands.

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Ryan was stoked to swim the fish back to life and watch it power away. Jigging, casting and trolling deep diving lures will all produce the goods with this prized and difficult to catch fish. Sardines, mud herring, mullet, prawns and squid are all proven live baits for nailing trophy fish. Bait soakers will find plenty to keep them entertained, with grunter, mangrove jack, juvenile trevally and queenfish all willing to take a wellpresented dead bait. Grunter, queenfish and trevally will tend to bite best towards the mouth of a system on the last of the rising tide, while I have

always preferred the falling tide for jacks. A good outing is to fish the flats and gutters near the mouth, on the rising tide and the first of the run out, then move upstream and fish the mangrove edges for jacks as the water drains out of the mangroves with the receding tide. Jacks tend to push too far up into the mangroves feeding with the rising tide but will often patrol the mangrove edge on the falling tide, waiting for bait to come back out of the timber with the receding water. October offers a plethora of fishing options and it is a great month to do some serious angling before the heat and the rain restricts your opportunities.

Chris Jordan with a 71cm flathead caught trolling using a Halco Poltergeist. The fish was caught at Nudgee while he was fishing with his family.

Anglers will be hoping to tangle with a trophy barra like this one caught by Justin Thaggard in Cairns Inlet earlier this year.

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It’s game on for blacks! PORT DOUGLAS

Lynton Heffer

October is the month when the fishing stakes reach fever pitch in the tropics. Literally all forms of fishing are generally red-hot whether you are angling inshore or offshore. On the game fishing scene we’ve seen a really successful small black marlin season over the past couple of months as the small stallions gathered in prolific numbers on certain grounds. A tournament in Cairns recently produced 168 tagged small black marlin over a 3 day period, which gives you some indication that the billfish were around in solid figures. Now as we enter the next phase the light tackle

gear will be replaced with the heavy tackle (80-130lb outfits) and the pursuit will be on for the big black marlin. Every year the big females roam in from the Coral Sea and converge on the continental shelf where they meet up with the resident smaller male marlin and proceed to breed. Our fishing grounds between Port Douglas, Cairns and Lizard Island are the most famous in the world where approximately 80% of the world’s recorded 1000lb billfish are tagged and released on our doorstep. It is exciting times for the region as marinas are inundated with game boats, which travel from all over the country to participate in this famous migration. There are also 2 big heavy tackle tournaments

scheduled over the next month or so including the Lizard Island Tournament and the Port Douglas Marlin Challenge. Here, the best in the business compete for honours in a bid to tag and release the most billfish. Outside of targeting the big black marlin there is also sensational stand up light tackle action to be enjoyed along the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef at this time of the year. Big yellowfin tuna, wahoo, mahi mahi, sailfish and Spanish mackerel are all on offer and reels can be turned on a regular basis. What a lot of vessels do is crack into some light tackle fishing in the mornings and then revert to the heavy tackle in the afternoons when the big black marlin generally come out to play. On any

Saltaire Charters are just one of many who will be out there targeting the ultimate fishing goal, a mighty big black marlin. given day a combination of grand slam catches can be part of any trip. It simply doesn’t get any better. For the more sedate angler our reefs will continue to provide more than ample opportunity on our tropical reef species. It’s been a pretty consistent year to date and there has been quite a bit of variety and quality about the fish. Red emperor, coral trout, large mouth nannygai, reef mangrove jack, red-throat and spangled emperor, Spanish mackerel, gold spot and tea-leaf trevally have all featured heavily in recent times. The only challenge this year has been the wind, but October generally flattens out and offers some glorious conditions. Keep in mind the reef

Brad Haskins with his 78cm snapper PB caught on 8lb gear in Moreton Bay. Photo was taken by Reece Thomas.

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closures between the 21-25 October, whereby reef species cannot be targeted. Pelagic species such as trevally, tuna, billfish and Spanish mackerel are all okay to target during these closures. Closer to home the coastal fishing can offer some outstanding fishing as well for the small boat brigade. Our inshore reef and headlands have been producing really healthy numbers of grey and Spanish mackerel. In our larger rivers we’ve seen a really good run on the big 1m queenfish following the cooler months and they should be still there and along the coast as well. There’s been a steady supply of mid-sized giant

trevally in most systems for sometime now and they will remain prevalent. Our more tropical species, which appreciate a rise in water temperature, are gathering momentum by the day and mangrove jack, golden snapper and barra will be readily available. These couple of months leading into the build up of the wet season probably offer the best water conditions for these prime targeted species. Other than this there are plenty of quality grunter and blue salmon to be caught over the flats. The coming month is the peak of the fishing calendar in the tropics and those that live locally or even visiting from abroad will be intent on cashing in on our wonderful fishery.

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Bring on the billfish! WEIPA

Josh Lyons thesportfisher@gmail.com

October is the month the fishing really starts to heat up on Cape York. While there’s no doubting things get moving and most fish species begin to stir in September, it’s at some point during October that given the right conditions any form of fishing can go nuts.

Early October will see the last few days of the open barra season. After this, barra are a no-go to keep or target until February next year. The last few days of the season can be a great time to get out and chase these iconic fish. Barra of all shapes and sizes will begin to move throughout estuaries throughout the gulf with some amazing sessions to be had. Just remember most of this increased activity relates to the fact that these fish

Small black marlin are on the cards this month and these acrobatic speedsters should keep offshore anglers entertained for some weeks to come.

are getting ready to spawn for the year, most fish over 70cm will be carrying eggs while the smaller males will be carrying their part of the puzzle. So while I love to have a nice fresh feed of barra before the season ends, make sure you do the right thing and let any big girls over 80cm go. After the barra season shuts in the Gulf of Carpentaria, most fishers in Weipa start to turn their attentions offshore. Southeasterly trade winds begin to die off throughout October with light to moderate westerly sea breezes the norm. Thanks to Weipa’s geographical location, sea conditions can be worked in reasonable comfort throughout the day. An early morning run out to the wider grounds will generally give you a following sea from the southeasterlies while the trip home in the afternoon will also be a following sea as the westerly sea breeze moves in. Spanish mackerel will be one of the main species to target on these wider grounds. These exceptionally large schools of Spaniards use the rich gulf waters to also spawn

October is the premier month to target sailfish and small black marlin. at this time of year. Like any form of pelagic fishing, locating the bait is the first step in locating the fish. For this reason, trolling is one of the favoured methods used to target Spaniards. At a speed of about 6 knots I like to tow a range of lures. Go-to lures for the spread include Halco Crazy Deeps in red and white and Extra Deep X-Raps in a range of colours. With one of these lures on one side I like to run a gold coloured mid range lure that dives to 3-4m on the other. It’s hard to go past silver or natural coloured Halco Laser Pro out beyond the bubble trail down the middle. Once the spread is

set and all lures are tracking straight a good eye needs to be kept on both the sounder and on the horizon. Birds are an obvious giveaway to a bait school’s location and learning the different bird species and habits will really help understand what’s going on under the water. Something to keep in mind also when working the sounder in the gulf, is it’s literally full of life and at times you can troll for miles with bait schools and blobs filling your sounder screen the whole time. The key is to find the bait that the target species is feeding on and if you have been working over

an area of bait for a while with no success, it’s probably time to move on. The bait you are marking might be the not-so-tasty trumpeter or ponyfish type critters. Last month the water out wide was beginning to clear and reports of the first billfish for the season were coming through. October is the premier month to chase sailfish and small black marlin off Weipa and the Weipa Billfish Club’s annual tournament is just around the corner. Dates for the event are the 3-4 October and I will report on how it all went down in next month’s column.

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Final assaults for barra CAPE YORK

Tim O’Reilly aggott88@gmail.com

Both the weather and the fishing really begin to heat up in October. Warmer water temperatures reach a consistency by now to keep some of the more finicky fish on the chew. Let’s face it, many Cape York fishers are concerned primarily with barramundi and

they will be having a final assault on every drain, snag and rocky point likely to yield a big ‘chrome cricket bat’ this time of year. The netters will also be out in force hoping to secure the last of the season’s catch. Thankfully we have the protective measure of a closed season applied to barramundi from the 7 October onwards in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This ensures spawning barra aren’t netted like they once were

in easy to pinpoint spawning locations down the length of the west coast. East coast fishers can continue fishing for barra up until 1 November, providing a realistic chance to catch good numbers in the build-up period. One of the most pleasurable fishing experiences has to be targeting silver-tinged barra around shallow rocky-reef country in the gulf. These fish always fight exceptionally hard and will often rise to shallow diving minnows, flies and soft plastics. Around the shallow

For Queensland fishers, October is the last period to lock horns with a ‘chrome cricket bat’, with 7 October marking the last day of the season in the Gulf of Carpentaria and November 1 on the east coast.

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A beautiful silver-tinged barra swims up boat side after a solid fight. oyster-covered rocks, success has even come from fishing jigheads loaded with queenfish skin, which wafts and flutters near the surface, showing the aggressive nature of fish this time of year. Sandy points and gutters at the mouths of creeks and rivers will be top spots to try in early October. A steady incoming tide will sea mullet, garfish, sardines, whiting, herring, hardiheads and bony bream streaming in across the sand flats with the tide. Barramundi being the great ambush predators they are will sit adjacent to current lines and in deeper pockets of water, picking off baitfish as they float by. Often the first hour of the run-in will hold the magic bite when casting from the sand into the first major hole in the river yields results. Begin with shallow diving lures and work deeper with plastics and vibes as the tide moves in. Vibrating lures fished near the bottom will also get bites from grunter,

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black jew and blue salmon with catfish as a frequent and unwanted by-product. Blue water fishers will be licking their lips as some of the offshore grounds begin

to yield exceptional catches for both a reef and pelagic fish. Pockets of calm weather will see possibilities for trailer boats to get right out to some of the outer reef edges, banks, shoals and paddock grounds responsible for all the larger game species. Black marlin, sailfish, cobia, mackerel, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, big coral trout and job fish will be some of the target species. All these species will feed at the surface and respond to a well presented troll bait. As with all types of fishing, locating patches of bait and flocks of sea birds will present the best clues to where fish are hiding below. On a calm glass-out, even the

flutter of tiny flying fish across the water’s surface can be seen from hundreds of metres away. Follow the clues. The commencement of the heavy tackle season for billfish north and east of Cairns will be bringing some financial backbone into the charter industry. There are some immensely skilled crews operating out of Cairns and Port Douglas this time of year and no amount of gear can make up for time spent on the water chasing that big 1000 pounder. With some upheaval caused to Lizard Island and surrounding reef areas by Cyclone Ita this year, some interesting captures may come in from some unusual areas in the big game.

From barra to billfish COOKTOWN

Nick Stock

Another world famous Lizard Island Black Marlin Comp has been and gone. No doubt that the world class XOS marlin fishery on Cooktown’s doorstep has continued to impress competitors from around the globe like it does every year. There have been a few breaks in the weather that have allowed trailer boats to get out on to the blue water. The quality of the large mouth nannygai and red emperor have been outstanding and well worth the wait. Owner of Cooktown Barra Charters, Tom Nevins, has just upgraded his charter vessel to a 6m Cairns Custom Craft and recently christened it on his maiden voyage with a bag limit of quality red fish with some of the better fish around 8-9kg. Cooktown’s other guided operation, Gone Fishing, has been doing what they do best over the last month, putting smiles on clients’ faces with plague numbers of big Spanish mackerel and plenty of tasty trout from the headlands and inshore reefs. Mark Privett is a fanatical fly fisher and the warm tropical waters around Cape Bedford are about as good as it gets for pelagicchasing fly anglers. The rivers are clear and are

still producing great catches of the usual estuary culprits. Jacks, grunter, golden snapper, barra and about 6 species of trevally are being caught daily. As usual, live prawns and sards are hard to beat, however plenty of fish are falling victim to well-presented hardbodied lures. Whatever your favourite brand is, rig them so they are slow floaters or suspenders and you will see the results instantly. One of the main reasons why I only fish timber lures when I am using hardbodies is the fantastic suspending properties of a well-shaped barra lure. The more time your lure can stay in the target species zone, the better results you will have. Both the Annan and Endeavour rivers are producing some great flathead at the moment. Soft plastics are hard to go past for chasing big flatties and the original Squidgy Fish in killer tomato colour sure takes some beating from big lizards. The bank out the front of the old prawn farm in the Annan is as good a spot as any to start working these lures for flatties and rarely will your trip fail to turn up a few decent fish. The deep hole in the Annan at Crocodile Bend has some horse tarpon schooled up at most stages of tide. Some of these fish are rippers nudging 600mm and a few hours can

be wasted chasing them and their aerial antics are always good fun on 4lb. The shallow bank directly across from the hole is also worth giving a good nudge for flathead and smaller barra. The month ahead will see Lakefield really fire up for barra and unfortunately some monster catfish! People often go into the park with unrealistic expectations about catching barra all day long. You have to remember that it is one of the most heavily fished areas in FNQ for about 3 months of the year. Most tourists spend all day trolling Barra Classics in the main basins of the better-known creeks and lagoons. Think outside the box and you will usually be rewarded. Do a bit of footwork and fish the areas with less human signs. Look for places without things like campsites, wheel tracks, rubbish and fresh fires. Try a variety of lures from soft vibes, poppers and hardbodies and if you must toll, try working a fishy looking stretch over and over again rather than troll for 5km in either direction in the middle of the river! Until next month, stay safe on the water and check out the range of hand-crafted timber barra lures that I make on Facebook by searching Twin River Lures.

Lessons learnt last month KARUMBA

Alan Gurney awes0me@bigpond.net.au

The strong winds in September made fishing difficult and we can only hope that October gives us a friendlier wind setting. We only have until midday on 7 October to catch a barramundi before the season shuts so make the most of it. The season for 2014 does not open until 1 February at midday so please leave them alone to breed in between seasons. Our barramundi hatchery has been breeding some good numbers of fingerlings that have been released into the local rivers by our dedicated Gulf Barramundi Restocking Association. James Cook University has helped to get the job done and I would like to thank them for continuing to support our efforts to have plenty of fish in the rivers. This time of year is a good time to chase king threadfin salmon around the rock bars at

Normanton. Lures and live baits will work but be careful when navigating the river as there are plenty of rock bars that come out of the water at low tide. I can also confirm that there is an awesome crocodile over 18ft up above the bridge so watch for that as well. The mud crabs have been around in good

numbers so bring your pots and you should find them out the front, along the mangroves and up the river. Please make sure that you place the pots in enough water so that they do not come out of water at low tide as the sun will kill the crabs and the Fisheries will fine you as well. The morning glory

Remember to always leave the car in forward gear when launching or retrieving your boat from the ramp.

The boys at the wharf had to jump in and put a rope around the floating vehicle to tow it back to the ramp.

clouds have been awesome and they should keep coming in October. The thrill as they get overhead is awesome. This scenario only happens in two places in the world so you need to check it out! The mouth of the Norman River at Karumba will have plenty of barramundi about looking to breed with the females. The bend in the river between the mouth and town is a good place to start and trolling lures that occasionally touch the bottom will help you catch them. We had an unfortunate incident at the boat ramp where a gentleman, who weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll call Terry, reversed his Toyota Land Cruiser down the ramp with trailer

attached to recover his boat. He left the motor running and the car in neutral with the handbrake on rather than wait for the turbo timer to turn off the engine. While winding the boat onto the trailer he heard a big bang as the handbrake cable broke and then saw his vehicle head into the water for a swim. Luckily the canopy on the back was airtight and kept the vehicle afloat as it drifted downstream to become stuck at Wilsons Wharf. The Wilson boys jumped in to put a rope on his new floating Toyota and were able to tow it back to the ramp and recover it. The lesson is, always place the car in a forward gear and chock the back wheel if able.

OCTOBER 2014

Getting serious on the surface ILUKA

Ben Pilch bjpcdh@gmail.com

As far as I’m concerned, October signals the start of getting serious on surface luring. There is nothing better than watching a fish trying to eat your surface lure… the anticipation is addictive! And in October we are lucky to have so many species of fish to target on surface in the mighty Clarence Valley. We usually have a run of larger tailor in late October and early November, and these fish love nothing more than hitting a well-worked pencil popper. Mixed in with these tailor usually are a few trevally. Most average around 2-4kg with the odd better one up in the 10kg bracket. My favourite lures for this kind of work off the headlands is the locally made Get Bent pencil popper, which has accounted for many anglers’ BP tailor including my own. And the Caesar Lures stickbait is a gun lure to tie on and

entice a bite from a dirty great big greenback tailor in those more challenging calmer conditions. In the river the whiting should start getting around

pay for, and when you’re throwing it around the sand flats there isn’t much of a chance of losing it. That’s unless a big flatty decides to take a liking to it, which

colour of many a flatty hunter on the Clarence, and the go-to plastic of choice is the Gulp 4” Minnow. When it comes to blades, the TT Switchblade 1/4oz in the colour (you guessed it) chartreuse is the stand-out. We should also start seeing the prawns running in the river which means places like Oyster Channel bridge and Harwood should

Kaleum Gannon with a decent river mulloway.

My favourite colour in the Croaker lure range, new moon, has seen a bit of work of late. this month. If bait is your thing, live worms and nippers will be the best baits to get some tasty whiting for the table. More importantly, if you’re a lure fisho the whiting will be hitting the surface as well, and by far my favourite lure for them is the Bassday Sugapen 70. This lure is more expensive than most but you do get what you

has happened on more than one occasion! Speaking of flatties, we should start to see better numbers of them in the lower reaches of the river this month, with places like Browns Rocks, North Arm and Oyster Channel producing good tablesized fish on soft plastics and blades. Chartreuse is a hands-down favourite

A nice little 14kg model couldn’t resist the new moon colour. start producing consistent numbers of school mulloway. Working down deep and slowly hopping

blades is a great way to get in to these fun sportfish. Hanging around the prawn schools as well

should be some nice size trevally, and on light gear they can definitely test your steel and skill, especially when hooked close to structure. They are another October species that likes to hit the surface, and working a 60-70mm popper around the prawn schools should see you connect up to a couple of these great brawling sportfish. October usually sees a couple of trips up to the sweetwater up past Grafton chasing another great brawling sportfish: the humble old Aussie bass. From now on as the weather starts to warm up over the next couple of weeks the bass will come alive, hitting surface lures as well

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When it rains it pours! BALLINA

Tristan Sloan tris.sloan@gmail.com

This month’s report is a marked contrast from last month when I was moaning about the incredible water clarity and tough fishing conditions in the crystal clear Richmond River. Let me tell you, with two straight weeks of torrential rain and almost cyclonic conditions in terms of wind and swell we are now looking at a situation where we’ve had too much rain! While most local anglers look for the silver lining on this type of weather, planning to catch mulloway from the walls and make the best of a bad situation, the hot bite didn’t really eventuate. Only a few big fish were caught over a week, and not the dozens that are normally landed when the river runs really high and dirty. I have a feeling that while the rain was consistent it wasn’t severe enough over a short period of time to push all the baitfish down to the river to where the mulloway were waiting. Strangely, there were plenty of big bull sharks landed by anglers fishing live and dead baits in the lower river, but a definite shortage of

mulloway. Every time I drive over Missingham Bridge and see the Learn to Surf school swimming in the chocolatecoloured water I wonder when one of them is going to receive a nasty bite. It’s only a matter of time. It isn’t all bad news though – the flood waters gave the river a much-needed flush out, and there are still plenty of fish to be caught, especially if you fish the edge of the clean water as it pushes upriver on the rising tide. Yabbies are the gun bait right now in the cleaner water, especially for school mulloway and luderick. If you find yourself fishing the dirty stuff use oily and smelly baits like mullet flesh and gut and pilchards, and remember to restrict your efforts to the

lower reaches unless you like catching catfish. There seems to be a plague of them in the river from about Pimlico Island all the way upstream. OFFSHORE While the swell and rain kept boats from heading offshore there are always a few snapper caught this time of year from the rocks after a big blow. Good spots to try are Snapper Rock at Evans Head or The Chair at Cape Byron. These fish move in close to clean up the scraps washed off the rocks and are particularly susceptible to a squid or octopus bait fished at first light around a tide change. When the boaties do manage to head out to sea I wouldn’t be surprised if the close reefs fire up for the next month or so. This year’s snapper season

Due to the dirty water quite a few bull sharks are turning up in the lower river.

All geared up and ready to go. hasn’t exactly been red hot but the decreased water clarity and all the baitfish forced out of the river with this floodwater should liven things up. BASS One of the saving graces of this month is that the season for bass is finally open. I love fishing for these great sportfish, and they will be heading upstream into their summer haunts as you read this. All this rain will help these fish migrate upstream and allow them to pass some of the structures that normally block access for them due to low water flow. In summer these fish can be found in all the freshwater creeks and streams from Woodburn to the back of Lismore, Bangalow and Byron Bay. However, the trick to

finding the fish at this time of year is to quickly prospect water and keep moving until you start catching fish, as the bass will still be travelling in schools. Once you find a school you can consistently catch fish until they wise up to your tricks.

In this dirty water stick with lures that give out lots of vibration and noise. Brightly coloured hardbodies and spinnerbaits would be my first pick as the bass find it hard to locate the more subtle soft plastics in dirty water.

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Hardcore prawn – Malaysian style BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

Worldwide, these tasty crustaceans are favoured and savoured by people from all walks of life. Recently I read somewhere that at least 343 species of prawns have been identified worldwide, with many more possibly out there in our oceans and rivers. Whether you call them prawns or shrimps can be attributed to which country or region you live in. I have regularly used my trusty cast net to secure a fabulous feed or some prime baits in my local waters, but on a recent trip to Malaysia I was introduced to a new way of catching one of the world’s larger prawn species. We had flown into Miri city in northern Sarawak on the island of Borneo a few days earlier. Miri is just south of Brunei and is the second largest city in Sarawak, with a population in excess of 360,000. A bustling city supporting the local fishing, petroleum and farming industries, Miri is also attracting a lot of tourism

due to being the gateway to Luconia Shoals, an extensive reef system that offers some exciting fishing prospects. In addition to the offshore fishing, the area also boasts some interesting inshore fishing in the numerous rivers and stocked ponds. On this occasion we were heading to a river about an hour outside Miri to try a spot of prawn fishing, a popular pastime throughout Malaysia. Apart from fishing in the rivers for our quarry, you can also visit one of the numerous prawn fishing parks where

you can catch your own tasty crustaceans and even get them cooked for you. One place actually advertised their park as a romantic and interesting location to visit with your Valentine’s Day date! I’m not sure how romantic prawn fishing could get with a lady friend at one of these stocked ponds, but I was venturing into the Borneo jungle with a bunch of blokes from NZ, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Sarawak. Even though things in the bus were getting hot, with air temperatures approaching 40°C, there was

them in this section of the river, where brightly coloured houses adorned the bank every few hundred metres. With so many people living along the river, pollution is a bit of a problem, especially considering that many of the jetties sported drop toilets. After rigging all the rods, which were only about a metre long and sported soft, solid glass tips, we loaded some food, drinks and large bags of small, live shrimps and set off up the river. We stopped at the first spot, not far from where some of the Singaporean guys

Catching prawns on lines is a popular pastime, especially in the rural areas of Malaysia. only sweating and swearing going on... definitely no swooning. We passed a lot of agricultural land en route to the river where crops prospered in the red soil. Small settlements and clusters of simple houses were scattered amongst the palm oil, cocoa bean and other plantings. We entered a small settlement with a few simple grocery stores and a small market nestled behind a row of houses that lined the riverbank. Next to the large concrete jetty there were a few small watercraft sporting ancient two-stroke motors and plastic outdoor chairs. These were our craft for the day’s prawning. Apparently saltwater crocodiles inhabit the area but we didn’t see any sign of

Heading off on our prawn fishing trip. Numerous prawn-filled rivers filter through the Borneo jungle. with me. We got acquainted with each other, exchanging jokes (mainly sheep ones). Today, our basic rig consisted of a small bean sinker threaded onto the main line which was then tied to a small snap swivel. Onto this was clipped a short, pre-tied (commercially) snelled rig with a no. 6 or 8 hook. These snelled, single-hook rigs are very popular there for a lot of light tackle situations and come in a packet with about 10 in each. It was not my idea of finesse rigging, but I guess it makes a quick change if your leader gets scuffed or your hook blunted. The hooks were mainly a slightly curved pattern,

The rig was basic yet worked a treat.

to catch Malaysian prawns in the past. Areas with a bit of shade and overhanging foliage seemed to be best, possibly because crustaceans often feed in bottom silt (on this occasion rotting leaf litter and other debris). I can’t say the action was full on because it wasn’t. We shifted several times before Daryl managed to hook the first flicking beast. Although the drag didn’t scream and the rod hardly bent, I was keen to catch one myself. After landing several fish, which included fork-tail catfish, a colourful gudgeonlike critter and an awesome looking piscator that resembled a queenfish, yet with the tail of a saratoga and the whiskers of a threadfin, I was finally locked and loaded on my first Malaysian prawn. The take was gentle and I gave it plenty of time before I lifted the rod and felt the telltale surge as it flicked its tail. Another one ticked off the bucket list! OK, it was never on my bucket list but was nice to catch anyway, just to say I had. Although the fight with a prawn is virtually non-existent, you still have to coerce them to the surface gently to avoid tearing the hook. These crustaceans, which are very like the cherabin you get in the

were already trying their luck. Jamie, the other Aussie, as well as Brett and Darryl from NZ were sharing the boat

We caught numerous catfish and other species including these spectacular feather-back.

My best Malaysian prawn was one of the prized blue-clawed specimens. 66

OCTOBER 2014

almost like a circle hook, and of a fine wire construction. Onto this we put the small live shrimps, although other baits such as liver and worms are also commonly used. Anticipation was high for most, except for Jamie, who had unsuccessfully tried

Northern Territory rivers, actually eat the bait and get hooked in the mouth. The bite is gentle and you have to give them time to mouth the bait, often lowering the rod tip to create slack line as they move away with the bait, to avoid suspicion. Once you think a

We asked why nobody used baited pots, like we do in Australia, and didn’t really get a conclusive answer. I got the impression that prawn fishing in Malaysia is a bit of a cultural experience. It isn’t only about securing a feed, it’s also about the art and experience of fishing for them. That was fine by me. We shifted up and

combined the catch, which was to be cooked for us later that evening at one of Miri’s top seafood restaurants. Some of the Singaporean guys had caught four or five good ones each but I was happy with my three Borneo Jungle prawns and had thoroughly enjoyed trying something new. Everyone had also caught a few fish, including a couple

fishing is popular right across Malaysia with numerous charter operations to take you on a day trip to rural rivers or stocked ponds. Many are close to major population bases where you can go for just a few hours… maybe even on Valentine’s Day if you want to spoil that special someone. I must thank Tourism Malaysia for organising this

trip for me and Malaysian Airlines for getting us to this amazing country. There are plenty of great fishing options and other things to do in Malaysia, and if you chat with the folks at Tourism Malaysia it will be a huge asset in organising your trip. I thoroughly enjoyed my hardcore prawning and I’m sure you would too.

Some of the combined catch, which was later cooked for us at a Miri restaurant. Darryl Crimp with a large Borneo jungle prawn. prawn has swallowed your bait, the strike is a simple and gentle lift of the rod to take up the tension and hopefully hook the wily prawn. Often you can feel the gentle taps and scrapes on the line as the prawns use their long, gangly claws to hold the bait in an attempt to get it to their mouth.

A little later I caught another decent one, and then one of the prized larger specimens with their long, thin blue claws. These prawns can reach over 80cm in length with their claws laid out, and we were told that a single angler can catch over 1kg in a session.

down the river, sometimes interacting with the other boatloads of prawn anglers from our group. It was blazing hot and we consumed plenty canned drinks, many of which contained things such as sea jellies, aloe vera, tea or sports supplements. Mid-afternoon, with a storm approaching, we decided to call it a day. We all liaised back at the ramp and

of decent feather-back, which were also kept. While I doubt if you would go to Malaysia just to go prawn fishing, it makes an interesting side trip to your main holiday or adventure. The simple nature of this form of fishing makes it ideal for inexperienced or junior anglers and I’m sure the kids would love the adventure if you were in the area. Prawn

Some experienced prawn anglers managed to catch numerous large prawns on the day.

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OCTOBER 2014

Spring on the sweetwater NSW STH COAST

Steve Starling www.starlofishing.me

Spring is a fantastic time to wet a line in any of our diverse freshwater environments, from the cool trout waters of the deep south all the way to the jungle perch and sooty grunter streams of our tropical rainforests. This month, Starlo offers some valuable freshwater fishing tips for new chums and old hands alike. It was the legendary Australian outdoor writer and doyen of fishing journalism in this country, Vic McCristal, who first popularised the term ‘sweetwater’ to describe our more pristine freshwater angling environments. It remains a particularly fitting label for these magnificent places. Whether you ‘re keen on chasing those speckled immigrants, the trout, in Tasmania, Victoria and the high country of NSW, inland natives such as cod and yellowbelly west of the divide, bass in the coastal rivers, or sooty grunter, jungle perch, saratoga and barra up north, the period from now

until Christmas is prime time for a little sweetwater adventure. As the weather and water warm up, all of these fish become increasingly active and more willing to grab a bait, lure or fly. Bait fishing is a great way of getting started in

at one time or another. (As a matter of interest, garden worms also appeal to bream, whiting and even flathead in the salt, especially after rain.) Rigs are best kept simple and, as in most fishing, anglers using smaller sinkers and finer lines or leaders usually get the most bites.

Soft plastics are spot-on for freshwater targets like golden perch, especially if the water is reasonably clear. the wonderful world of freshwater fishing. All of the species described so far will happily eat a range of natural and not-so-natural baits. Common, gardenvariety earthworms make a great starting point and will catch most freshwater species

A simple running sinker rig with a small ball sinker sliding freely on the line right down to the hook works well in many freshwater scenarios, although some anglers prefer to add a small swivel 30 or 40 cm from their hook, with the sinker running above

this. In really snaggy areas, a dropper or paternoster rig with the weight at the bottom may be better. However, if at all possible, dispense with the sinker altogether and go weightless. You’ll catch more fish. One valuable tip is to keep your worms in a shovelful of soil taken from the bank of the creek or hole where you’re fishing. This quickly gives your wriggling baits a bit of local “flavour” and increases their appeal to resident fish. Catching other baits is also easy and fun. Check local regulations to find out what you’re allowed to use and how you’re permitted to catch it before securing supplies of shrimps, yabbies, cherabin and insect larvae such as mudeyes (dragonfly nymphs). But don’t rule out oddball baits, either. Frozen saltwater prawns, strips of skirt steak, chicken breast and cheese all catch their share of freshwater fish, so be prepared to experiment and mix it up. Many anglers will soon wish to move beyond bait soaking and begin casting or trolling a few lures in the sweetwater. This is an exciting and active way to fish. Start out with a small selection of basic lures and don’t spend

Golden perch or yellowbelly tend to be at their most active and catch-able in spring, particularly as the water temperature rises above about 17ºC. a fortune on bizarre and expensive offerings that you may never end up using. Talk to the staff at the local tackle store about the lures that work best in your area and also seek

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Spring fires in the fresh TOOWOOMBA

Jason Ehrlich fishability1@bigpond.com

Last month I was suffering from a severe case of bass fever. I’ve had it before and the only cure is to get out on the water and try to whack as many big, fat bass as you possibly can. At this time of year, bass are still carrying their roe making them really fat and heavy. Bass in the

impoundments can’t complete the breeding cycle with the lack of brackish water. They do, however, school up in numbers and now we’re well into spring, they feed more voraciously. This makes it an ideal time to get out there and whack a few monsters. Other species can take a little longer to get into full swing. The warming water should see a big increase in the action from other species this month. The dams, rivers and creeks will fire up with

plenty of golden perch, saratoga, sooty grunter, barra and Murray cod in Queensland where the season isn’t closed (closed in the border rivers and south into NSW). There will be plenty of species to chase over the next few months so start planning your next trip. Hopefully the following fishing reports will help you decide where to head to next. Until next month, buckled rods from the Colonel!

This is what bottom-hugging bass look like on a Humminbird 1198. You can notice 3 bumps on the bottom. These are bass sitting hard on the bottom and could often be missed. Shows like this are often big bass at this time of year. SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND CRESSBROOK CLOSEST TOWNS: TOOWOOMBA, CROWS NEST There are a few schools of bass around the lake. The toilet points up both arms have held fish at times. Deer Island is always worth a look on the point extending out towards the rock wall and closer to the campground are also holding bass. The schooling fish are holding deep with most life showing on the sounder at around 10m. These fish, in typical Cressbrook fashion, have been difficult to entice. Holding off the school and using long casts is the best way to get the bites. Tail spinners and blade baits are

great for getting a reaction. Soft plastics can work well and when the fish school up under the boat are often the only way to tempt them. Bait fishing with live shrimp will be slow unless you locate the schooling bass. A shrimp dropped onto their noses will be hard to resist and you will almost catch a bass with each one dropped over the side. The entry fee at the boom gate has been removed but the 8knots speed limit is still in place. Hours for boating and day use of the recreation area are 6am-8pm. For all your supplies, expert advice and to check on the boating restrictions, call in at Fish’n’Bits in Alderley Street,

Toowoomba, or give them a ring on (07) 4636 6850. The boys at the store all compete in bass tournaments and really know their stuff. SOMERSET CLOSEST TOWNS: ESK, KILCOY It’s on! The bass fired up last month as expected and plenty of 2kg+ fish were caught. Some of the better quality fish were 50cm to the fork and weighed over 3kg. The flats around Kirkleigh have been holding good numbers of bass in around 10m of water. Plenty of fish were found opposite the point at Kirkleigh and to the north last month. These fish are likely to head south and visit the flats and drop-offs as they work their way towards the main basin. If the Kirkleigh

            

OCTOBER 2014

14 31

Weipa

Toowoomba

BRISBANE 27

23 Impoundment Dams 1 Tinaroo Falls Dam 2 Peter Faust Dam 3 Burdekin Falls Dam 4 Eungella Dam 5 Teemburra Dam 6 Kinchant Dam 7 Cania Dam 8 Lake Monduran 9 Isis Balancing Storage 10 Wuruma Dam 11 Lenthalls Dam 12 Boondooma Dam 13 Bjelke-Petersen Dam 14 Lake MacDonald 15 Gordonbrook Dam 16 Borumba Dam 17 Somerset Dam 18 Wivenhoe Dam 19 Pindari Dam 20 Copeton Dam 21 Moogerah Dam 22 Maroon Dam 23 Leslie Dam 24 Connolly Dam 25 Coolmunda Dam 26 Clarrie Hall Dam (NSW) 27 Hinze Dam 28 Lake Cressbrook 29 Callide Dam 30 Lake Awoonga 31 Lake Samsonvale 32 Fairbairn Dam 33 Koombooloomba Dam 34 Cooby Dam

25 Cairns 1

19 20

Townsville 2

3 4

Proserpine 6 Mackay

Rockhampton

Emerald 29

Gladstone

Bundaberg 9 11

Highlighted dams are covered in this issue

Maryborough

Roma

BRISBANE

Sam ‘Slippery’ Moyle caught a pile of Somerset bass on an old Bass Pro Shops tail-spinner worth about $2 last month. area is quiet, try the flats out from Queen Street, One Tree Point, Bay 13, The Eagles Nest and Pelican Point. The

Gold Coast

fish can be tough to locate when they move but if you put in the time sounding around to locate them, the

DAM LEVEL Report DAMS MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP Atkinson 68 65 60 56 55 Awoonga 98 96 94 93 92 Bjelke-Petersen 68 67 65 63 62 Boondooma 77 76 74 72 72 Borumba 100 100 99 98 99 Burdekin Falls 100 99 97 94 91 Callide 64 63 61 60 58 Cania 92 91 90 89 87 Clarendon 75 73 69 65 62 Clarrie Hall n/a 99 n/a n/a 98 Cooby 83 81 79 n/a 67 Coolmunda 51 50 49 48 47 Copeton 33 33 33 32 33 Cressbrook 98 97 97 n/a 92 Dyer/Bill Gunn 77 74 71 66 63 Eungella 100 99 99 99 99 Fairbairn 51 50 49 48 45 Glenlyon 37 37 37 37 37 Hinze 93 92 90 88 88

Gympie

rewards will come. Casting soft plastics and using a dead slow retrieve will account for some of the biggest Somerset bass. These fish tend to hug the bottom and a plastic rolled past their nose will often get them to bite where faster presentations fail to get a response. Smaller fish around 40cm will love faster hopped offerings. Mask Vibs and blade baits bounced past them will see them reacting in the desired way. Aggressive strikes and repeated hits are common when the fish get fired up. Tail-spinners have been very popular and are smashing the bass around the lakes. I guess they are a lure the fish haven’t seen for some time and have a

For fortnightly updates Julius 76 73 69 67 65  Kinchant 98 97 99 99 98 Koombooloomba 92 97 97 73 59  Leslie 38 37 36 36 37  Macdonald 103 100 97 95 97  Maroon 95 94 92 91 92  Monduran/Fred Haigh 87 86 85 84 84  Moogerah 91 90 89 91 87  North Pine/Samsonval 76 74 72 70 69  Peter Faust/Proserpine 96 95 94 93 93 Pindari 17 17 17 16 17  Somerset 99 99 98 97 99  Storm King n/a n/a 62 59 n/a  Teemburra 101 101 101 101 101  Tinaroo 91 91 89 85 83 Toonumbar 100 100 98 94 n/a  Wivenhoe 91 89 88 86 86  Wuruma 81 80 78 78 78

on Sunwater dams visit www.sunwater.com.au



This symbol

indicates that a

Stocked Impoundment Permit is required to fish these dams. All figures are % readings Current as of 18/9/14

unique action and vibration. I have had a lot of success on 12 and 18g tail-spinners. I have also been rigging 1/2oz blades on beetle spin blades and getting a similar response when I hop these over schooling fish. While these lures are great for covering water quickly, they can also be used in other ways. My son has been fishing them vertical quite a bit and gets lots of enquiries even when letting the lure sit on the bottom or suspended below the boat (dead sticking). A mate and I had a hot session where we jigged them up and down about 0.5-1m off the bottom as you would with an ice jig. The fish went nuts on them and refused to eat an ice jig worked in the same school. The spinning blade’s vibration and flash is ticking the right boxes to make them eat. Golden perch have been a bit slow on lures but the action will fire up more this month. Trolling the creek beds in the northern part of the dam will account for bass and golden perch. Deep diving lures like Blitz Bagas and Golden Childs are ideal.

There is now a speed restriction in place in the timbered water north of Kirkleigh. Boats must travel at 6knots or below when venturing past the buoy line. With the warmer days now here, the place will be busy on holidays and weekends. With more than a hundred boats on the water on busy days, care should be taken and courtesy shown to others using this popular lake. WIVENHOE CLOSEST TOWNS: ESK, FERNVALE The fishing at Lake Wivenhoe has been pretty tough. The bass and golden perch, which were chewing around the steep banks have gone a little quiet. There are still a few being caught from these areas in the lower part of the lake by anglers using spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits. Bass schools are sure to turn up somewhere and hopefully with the ABT Bass Grand Final held on the lake last month, these spots will be revealed soon. Wivenhoe is a massive expanse of water to search on your own but with a fleet of boats searching for fish in the competition;

DARLING DOWNS GRANITE BELT REGION COOBY CLOSET TOWNS: HIGHFIELDS, TOOWOOMBA Lake Cooby has been a bit tough over the past month. There are a few guys who regularly fish the lake still catching the golden perch on bait and small blades but the majority are finding it hard to boat a fish. The deeper areas seem to fish well when the action is tough and most of the goldens will feed close to the bottom. This makes trolling hard work and is the reason hopping lures off the bottom or dropping bait down to the fish works well. As things heat up towards the end of the year, the fishing action will only get better. Last year we had a taste of the great fishing Cooby has to offer so let’s hope the fish turn it on again. If you are heading to the dam try using live shrimp and frozen saltwater yabbies for bait. If you have a spare rod for luring, stick with blades or ice jigs. Both bait and lures can be used at the same time and often the pair work better together than on their own. The commotion caused by jigging a lure draws interest as does the smell of a bait in the water. Being a small lake, Cooby is ideal for kayaks. Kayak sales are good in the Toowoomba and Highfields area yet you don’t see all that many out on the water. If you are looking for a place to enjoy some kayaking and fishing close to home then

head to Cooby for a paddling and fishing session. Be sure to take a life vest when paddling out into any open lake or body of water and learn how to get back into your kayak if you fall out. This can be a bit of fun and is best done in a pool or other safe, shallow area. Cooby is an electric motor only dam and is well suited to kayaks and canoes. The concrete boat ramp is on a shallow angle and when the dam is full and can be slippery in places, but a big electric powered boat can still be launched with care. Outboard motors can be left on the boat but must not be used. Live shrimp and saltwater yabbies can be purchased from Highfields Bait and Tackle on the New England Highway in Highfields. Call in and see Doug and check out the great range of fishing gear, kayaks and accessories he has on display. LESLIE CLOSEST TOWN: WARWICK There have been plenty of golden perch caught over the last month at Leslie. Lure fishers have had success in the deep water as well as around the lake’s edges. In the deeper areas target the creek bed drop-off or any of the underwater rocky structure. Rocky bottom is easy to find on a fish finder and shows up as hard uneven bottom. The deeper water areas can be fished with lipless vibes. Hopping small blades fitted with assist hooks rather than

Tim Pakullas caught this 56cm Somerset bass on a purple tail-spinner. someone is likely to come across numbers of fish out on the flats in the open water. Wivenhoe has been opened to powerboats. Only 4-stroke outboards or low emission 2-strokes are allowed to be used on the lake and boats must not exceed the 6knots speed limit. Even with these restrictions in place it is much faster to get around the lake than using just your electric and you don’t have the fear of running out of battery power. treble hooks is also very effective. The bonus of using the larger profiled lures is the by-catch of Murray cod. Cod have been quite common over the last year with some of the regulars to the lake boating them almost every trip. While most of the cod are smaller specimens, there is the occasional one caught or at least hooked which is over 1m. Around the edges, structure has again been the key. The rocks are easily visible on the banks and often the ridges continue down into the water. Landing lures close to the rocks and winding them back will see goldens whacking them. This shallow water action is best in the morning and afternoon. Lipless crankbaits are popular but hardbodied lures would certainly be worth a go. Flicked into the crevices of the rocks or working them down into shaded areas will not only fool golden perch but cod, which are sitting right up in the shallows. Bait fishing with live shrimp and saltwater yabbies will produce very good numbers of golden perch. Try fishing the drop-off to the creek channels and around the rocky structure. Fish can be caught all over the dam if you look for these areas. For any tips and gear for fishing Leslie Dam or the Warwick area, call in and see the guys at Warwick Outdoor and Sports in Palmerin Street, Warwick. The store stocks a great range of bait and freshwater gear, which is well suited to catching our Australian natives.

MOOGERAH CLOSEST TOWNS: BOONAH, ARATULA After a series of competitions and heavy fishing pressure over the past couple of months, Moogerah bass will finally have a little reprieve. This will mean the action will pick up and the fish will bite even better. The schooling bass can be found at the spit near the dam wall and inside the bay to the east. There are also good numbers of fish on the flats out from The Palms and at the entrance to the timber in the middle of the lake. Like most schooling bass, the fish will respond to

different presentations. There will be days when everything you throw at them works and others when they are very picky about lure type and the way it is presented. If you are heading to the lake you’ll need a few lures in your kit. Tailspinners in 12-18g, 14-21g blade baits, 12g ice jigs, lipless crankbaits and 1/2oz jighead rigged paddle-tail plastics will ensure you have all the bases covered. Switch between these lures to see if one is working better than another and you’ll soon put the fish in the boat provided you locate the schools. MAROON CLOSEST TOWNS: BOONAH, BEAUDESERT Maroon has been a bit quiet for some time but last month, the bass fired right up in the shallows. There have been some great reports coming from Maroon with

some exceptional bass to 50cm boated. There seems to be more and more reports of quality bass coming from this little lake, which has been well known for its smaller class of bass for several years now. The weedy edges of the lake are firing with bass smacking deep diving jerkbaits fished down the face of the weed. Soft plastics around 70mm long rigged on 1/8-3/8oz jigheads are also catching their share of bass. The warmer weather and high numbers of fish in the weed will see some great surface action this month. Throwing surface lures to the weed in the early morning and late afternoon is sure to entice some quality bass. Based on last month’s subsurface action, I wouldn’t be surprised if topwater lures pull several bass over 40cm over the coming months.

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WIDE BAY AND BURNETT REGION BOONDOOMA CLOSEST TOWNS: PROSTON, KINGAROY The bass and golden perch have been going off for the last month. Soft plastics, tail spinners, blade baits and ice jigs have been doing the damage with plenty of bass to 2.5kg being caught. Schooling bass have been lurking around the dam’s main basin, Pelican Point, and the start of the timber

in both arms. These fish may venture out into deeper water over the next couple of months where they will suspend about 7m down in up to 25m of water. Keep this in mind when sounding around for fish if they aren’t in the usual spots, which are less than 10m deep. Trolling will catch heaps of golden perch. These fish have been taking deeper lures like the Brolga and Blitz Baga. Colours like purple and dark green are

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very popular but don’t be devastated if you lose your favourite lure, as most of the colours in the range will produce fish. Golden perch can be caught off the steeper rock banks and points in good numbers but will turn up all over the place when trolling in 6-10m of water. Bait fishing will be a bit slower with the fish responding to lures better. At this time of year, the fish are active and quite willing to chase down a feed. Moving lures excite them while bait just sitting there can take some time to get their attention. Having said this, you will still catch fish on bait especially if you can position yourself right over the top of a school of fish. Both bass and goldens will take baits with live shrimp being the best for a mixed species bag and frozen saltwater yabbies ideal for golden perch. Boondooma is a great place to camp right near the water and sit by the fire while enjoying the view. You could also stay in more style and comfort by booking into one of the cabins overlooking the dam. The kiosk at the main office does hot food and other basic items. For campsites, cabins and bunkhouse rooms call Corey and Niki on (07) 4168 9694. BJELKE-PETERSEN CLOSEST TOWNS: MURGON, GOOMERI There will be plenty of quality golden perch and small bass to catch at Bjelke this month. This fish will move wider to the middle of the lake around the creek beds in the second basin area before the timber. The golden perch are of

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The weed and lilies in the freshwater stretch of the Kolan River near Bundaberg will be worth exploring for quality barra this month. exceptional quality with quite a few fish measuring up to 55cm and weighing around 3.5kg. Blitz Bagas in darker natural colours have been performing well on the deeper holding fish. There are lots of small bass in the low 30cm bracket, which will be willing to take a lure. These fish can be caught around the lake edges and points as well as out in the deeper water areas near drop-offs and flats. At this size, the bass will respond well to soft plastics and 1/4oz blade baits. For help catching Bjelke and Boondooma fish, call into your local Bass 2 Barra store. You can see Matthew at Kingaroy or Dylan in Dalby and the boys will have you all geared up and ready for action in no time. Bass 2 Barra stores stock an awesome range of gear suited to chasing our freshwater fish and the boys have all the knowledge to guide you on how to use it. ISIS BALANCING STORAGE CLOSEST TOWN: BUNDABERG The Isis Balancing Storage has been fishing quite well all over the lake. There are bass coming from the weed, timber and the deep open water. Around the weed beds,

bass are taking soft plastics worked down the face of the weed. The weed has died back a bit so look for the fresher stuff. This may mean examining weed when it comes in on fouled hooks. If it looks half dead or unhealthy, chances are it won’t hold as many fish. Because the fish holding weed is below the surface, you’ll need to rely on using a sounder to find the edge of it. Try to position the boat outside the weed face and work along it. If casts foul up, place a cast out wider or reposition the boat. It can be tricky fishing a weed edge, which isn’t visible to the eye and learning its shape may be the only way. The fish hiding in there will make the effort worthwhile. While soft plastics have been performing well, other lures like lipless crankbaits, small blades and spinnerbaits will also take a few fish from the weedy edge. Surface luring will be very successful this month. The warmer days and nights will see the bass more willing to rise to take topwater lures. Walk-the-dog style lures are ideal for walking over the top of submerged weed. Poppers are perfect for a slower presentation

around the lilies or inside weedy pockets. In the timber, bass are responding to olive coloured spinnerbaits fished in the deeper unweeded areas. Gary Leather from Salty’s Tackleworld has a secret spot inside the timber, which he fishes regularly and catches some thumper bass. Slowly rolling spinnerbaits through a deeper hole is his secret. The timbered area isn’t very big so chances are you’ll find his fish holding spot. Out in the deeper water, there are still a few scattered schools. These fish are suckers for hopped blade baits. You can try tempting the larger models by using a bigger profiled lure. I’m sure these fish would also love tail-spinners, which are performing so well on the southern lakes. The boys at Bundaberg’s Salty’s Tackleworld fish the dam on a regular basis. Being so passionate about their bass fishing, they are the ones to talk to if you are heading to the lake for a fish. Salty’s stock a great range of lures for both fresh and saltwater fishing and the Bundaberg area has plenty to offer.

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OCTOBER 2014

Blake and Jackson whacked some quality bass on soft plastics and tail-spinners last month. It was Jackson’s first fishing trip.

To page 73

From page 72

MONDURAN CLOSEST TOWN: GIN GIN Monduran was tough last month. There were some barra over 80cm caught but they took a lot of effort. Some of these fish were caught after a run of warmer days so it will only get better from now on as the water temperature warms up and becomes more stable overnight. Hardbodies have still been the most effective lure style. The spindly trees are

holding the fish and anglers scoring fish have placed their casts past the trees and pulled them back through close to the base of the trees. As you can imagine, when you hook a big powerful fish so close to structure, the fight doesn’t always end up with the angler smiling. The Monduran barra are big, fat and deep fish with heaps of power. If you are heading to the lake, try fishing areas up past White Rock or back in Bird Bay. There is a lot of water between the fish so look for points, bays,

healthy weed, lilies, windblown areas or combinations of these which may attract better numbers of fish. Below the dam, the Kolan River was quiet last month. There were a few caught after a run of warm days but otherwise the action was slow. I expect this to change big time this month and the Kolan will be one of the hottest barra spots around. Fishing the deep snags lining the banks will see rods bent and barra dancing around. In the lower part of the river, the weed beds and lily pads

will hold plenty of fish. These fish can be caught on topwater lures, lipless vibes and soft plastics. Take care when navigating this waterway, as there are plenty of submerged hazards including, rocks, trees, logs and shallow ridges out in the middle. It is the perfect home for kayakers who want to tangle with barra in a crocodile and shark free environment. The tackle store in Gin Gin, Foxies, stocks a range of effective barra lures. The store will mail order and you can check it out online

at www.barratackle.com. au. Be sure to call in and get directions to some of the best barra fishing in the area or pick up one of the detailed maps. Accommodation can be booked through Lake Monduran Kiosk and Tackle Shop. They look after all the cabins, houses, powered and unpowered campsites, as well as house boats and boat hire. You can also make bookings for Guide Lines fishing charters through the kiosk, on (07) 4157 3881. I usually stay at the Gin Gin Hotel, which is about

20 minutes from the boat ramp. The rooms are very affordable and pretty basic but you can get a great feed and cold beer. To make a booking, call (07) 4157 2106. Jamie Bein runs Lake Monduran Barra Charters and fishes that dam more than anyone I know. His regular visits ensure he has a good understanding of what’s going on. Contact Jamie on his mobile, 0407 434 446 or through his website at www.lakemonduranbarra charters.com.

over 3 different weeks all managed to catch fish from the dam. The barra being caught have been a bit over 80cm in length with a few bigger fish following lures all the way to the boat and shying away at the last minute. Hardbodied lures fished to thick trees in

3-4m of water have been the secret. The water temperature last month in Awoonga was reported at 22-24°C, which was warmer than the barra lakes further north. This may explain the early action. It’s hard to predict but this looks like the start of what may be a good season in Lake Awoonga. Fingerlings have been

going back into the dam each year since the floods, which allowed so many to escape. Things are looking good for the future. With some early action it will certainly be worth visiting Lake Awoonga over the coming months. If the lake fails to fire, you always have the Boyne River below the dam as a backup. From October through

to January, Awoonga Gateway Cabins are offering a meal deal with accommodation. Visitors staying for 3 days or more can get a meal package with their room meaning more time for the important things like fishing and drinking refreshments. If you are keen to try to

tackle some fish in the river or dam, give Lyn and Mark from Awoonga Gateway a call on (07) 4975 0033. At Awoonga Gateway you’ll find clean, modern cabins and your hosts will be full of useful advice to help you try to land that barra of a lifetime. Make sure you tell Mark I sent you and pump him for the secret spot.

being taken on slowly wound soft plastics, plenty are falling to a slow, steady retrieve with a shallow running hardbody. Surface fishing early in the morning in the shallow areas is sure to get some explosive bites if the fish are in the area. A weedless-rigged, lightly weighted soft plastic can be used if the area is very weedy. During the day the shallow water action has been slow. The better fishing takes place out

in the deeper water. The trees lining the old river and creek courses always seem to hold fish. Casting deep diving lures around these trees can see you connected to a big barra in tight country. Heavier line to 50lb may be needed to extract these fish and endure the rubbing on trees as barra weave their way around while stripping line from the reel. Strong split rings and solid trebles will give you the best chance of staying connected. Terminal upgrades can be made to successful lures

like the Barra Bait and RMG Scorpions, which dive to 5m. If you are heading out to the dam make sure you call in at Proserpine Bait and Tackle. The store is on the highway through Proserpine and stocks all the barra gear you could possibly need. The guys will be able to send you in the right direction and help with nailing the lake’s big fish. The storeowner, Lindsay Dobe runs charters on the lake and bookings can be made through the store on (07) 4945 4641.

CAPRICORN REGION AWOONGA CLOSEST TOWNS: BENARABY, GLADSTONE Big news this month! Awoonga has started to produce reasonable numbers of barramundi. In September, 3 different groups staying at the Awoonga Gateway Cabins WHITSUNDAY REGION PROSERPINE CLOSEST TOWNS: PROSERPINE, AIRLIE BEACH The barra fishing picked up last month with quite a few fish being caught during the day and even more at night. The nights and low light periods have been productive in the shallows around the western banks of the dam. Point, bays and lily pads are all worth prospecting. While some fish are

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Catch a queenie on fly BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

It was a long standing ambition of mine to catch a queenfish on the long rod. Every video and DVD I avidly watched always portrayed these fish as tremendous fighters, and I was jealous of anglers holding their fish for display. Queenfish, however, have always been a bit mystical for a South Queensland fly angler like myself. I always thought I’d need to go a long way up north to catch one, but I was wrong. I caught my first one in a Gold Coast waterway while fishing for other species on fly, and I caught another in a suburban canal system in the Redlands area. These fish were little tackers of around 45cm, spikey, and an obviously different fish from those in the tropical and sub-tropical waters of our east coast. The obvious differences with these local so-called ‘oceanic’ fish was the nasty array of dorsal spines plus a lack of spots on their sides, whereas the northern queenfish have distinct spots, are a bit less spikey, and commonly grow to more than a metre long.

Given their ability to jump and carry on once hooked, queenfish are a great sportfish and very popular with anglers of all persuasions. A look at a queenie reveals a deep but somewhat skinny fish with big eyes and a wide mouth, sporting an array of teeth

bait, and even faster work to escape from predators. DISTRIBUTION Where do we find them? Around the coast of Cape York and the western side of the Gulf, queenies are common enough to be almost annoying. However, as you go further south they

The author with a decent fly-caught queenfish.

Simple baitfish-style wet flies are readily taken by queenies. in an underslung lower jaw. The big mouth looks almost comical, but if you were a baitfish with a queenie on your tail I doubt you’d see anything funny about that mouth! Larger queenies always seem to exhibit four dark spots on their flanks. Their long but thin body is equipped with a deepforked tail built for fast work on

Poppers work well on queenfish but their wider profile makes casting them some distance a bit more difficult than their wet fly counterparts.

become somewhat patchy; a fish will frequent one area and leave others well alone for some reason. And in the more southern areas they are quite seasonal, turning up regularly in a particular locality and then moving on as a season advances. Unlike some other desirable fly rod targets such as tuna and mackerel, queenfish are obliging enough to be regularly seen working bait around steeper shorelines, sand spits, break walls, headlands and the like. In areas where they are common, a shore-based angler should have plenty of opportunities. These fish often feed right into the shallows. I’ve actually seen baitfish jumping up on the sand to escape marauding queenies, which proves these predators will certainly move in close enough for a fly angler to get at them. Although queenfish have a wide range along the coast, I really recommend fishing for them in the far north where they’re most plentiful. If you’re thinking about

making a trip up north, here are some hints for targeting these speedsters. FEEDING HABITS One of the really interesting features of these large-mouthed fish is their manner of feeding, which is different from the way tuna and mackerel feed. It’s easy to tell when tuna are feeding on balled-up bait, as they jump a little and usually show their tails or backs as they roll into the melee. Mackerel do much the same as far as balling-up bait goes, but they slash and rip the surface in a manner distinctly different from tuna. It’s usual to see flocks of birds working along with both tuna and mackerel when surface feeding. Queenfish are different. When queenies are working the surface there’s often a big flat splash, quite out of

true in the case of the larger fish, the ones we flyfishers like to engage. That big chop or massive swirl you can see isn’t where the fish is. It’s where he has been. TACTICS AND TACKLE The key to success is to give a feeding fish a fair amount of lead, get the fly as close as possible into its projected path, and then retrieve the fly at best speed. While queenies are only too willing to take a fly, they must see it first. That means the closer the better. Most small baitfishstyle wet flies will be taken readily, and poppers are also very good. If a popper is making some disturbance not far from a working queenie it won’t be long before it’s taken. The only drawback with poppers is some restriction in casting distance

is required only where it’s almost certain that there’s a run of larger fish. Your reel must be set up with a smooth drag and have at least 100m of backing behind the fly line: an intermediate sink rate line is fine for wet flies, a floating line being the alternative for use with poppers. A 10kg leader tippet should guard against bite-offs if a fish takes a fly deep. Queenies take the fly with a heavy jolt followed immediately by a scorching run and often a series of quick action tail-walking jumps, which can dislodge the fly. The clue is to hook up as the line jars tight with a strip-strike and then keep the rod low and to the side to discourage those crazy jumping tactics. Most queenies are good for at least

Shore-based anglers are able to take queenies on fly as these fish readily feed close to the shore. proportion to the size of the fish making it, with the next visible attack often some distance away. There may be bird or two in attendance but seldom a big flock. This is because queenies tend not to round up bait at all, instead using hit-and-run tactics to quickly snatch baitfish at random. This is particularly 74

OCTOBER 2014

due to their air resistance when compared to slim wet flies. Fly tackle should be robust. These fish are often a metre or more in length, and a fish of that size can give a rod and reel – and the angler – a decent workout. An 8wt outfit is ideal most of the time. A 9wt or 10wt

two decent runs before they begin to tire. These fish are actually not bad eating if bled and then kept on ice, but fresh is definitely best. They are great in a curry or as numus. Not familiar with numus? Do a Google search for the NT Government recipe, it’s delicious.

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OCTOBER 2014

Likeable Lake Lenthalls BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

Camping in peace and solitude is not something everyone is going to enjoy, but most anglers – myself included – just love it. That quiet serenity is exactly what you get at beautiful Lake Lenthalls, where the only night sounds are water birds, perhaps the slap of a nearby fish or the gentle whistle of a bush curlew in the adjoining scrub land. THE DAM Lenthalls Dam has an interesting history. Because the camping area has been operating for only a couple of years many people assume the dam is a new one. Not so. The impoundment was established in 1984 to supply water to Hervey Bay and surrounds and has, been stocked with native fish such as barra, bass and golden and silver perch since that time. The Fraser Coast Fish Stocking Association is currently stocking the dam and by all accounts doing a very good job. A Stocked Impoundment Permit (SIP) is required to have a crack at these fish. Lenthalls’ surface area covers 765ha, and it’s divided between three fairly slim main arms which run to six much smaller upper arms. The three main arms from the boat ramp at the camping area stretch south, west and northwest before dividing into the smaller arms. From the south these are Doongul Creek, Logbridge Creek, Harwood Creek, Sugarbag Creek, Duckinwilla Creek and Woolmer Creek.

Rustic amenities blocks add to the charm of a stay at Lenthalls. Lenthalls Dam was constructed just east of the junction of the three main sections which means it’s easy to launch near the dam and travel up any of the sections for a crack at the fish. Because this waterway is a relatively small one compared to other southern barra habitats such as Monduran and Awoonga, it’s an easier area to fish and is very suited to canoe and kayak anglers due to the shelter within the long arms. Power boats are permitted but must be 3-star eco friendly. Boaters are allowed to have direct injection two-strokes up to 60hp or four-strokes up to 60hp. A strict speed limit of 6 knots is in place. This dam is on the headwaters of the Burrum River system, and with a very large catchment area to the west in the Seaview Ranges it doesn’t take much rain to keep the impoundment topped. It’s a very rich waterway; pasture and tea-tree scrub grows virtually to the water’s edge with plenty of fallen or

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A fat little Lenthalls Dam barra taken on fly by Denise Kampe. fish are where you find them. No one section is best, and it’s a treat to cruise gently up a narrow arm in stealth (electric) mode and cast a lure or fly and wait for the tug of a bass or the wallop of a barra. OPEN PLAN CAMPING Wide Bay Water have

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couple of the restrictions that are in place. I will discuss these shortly. First, the camping area. This consists of a wide area of cleared and grassed land southwest of the dam wall. As there are no allocated camp sites it’s first in best dressed when choosing a site. It’s a necessary to contact the ranger (07 4129 4833) to book permission prior to camping as it’s restricted to maximum. 18 people at a time, plus up to six self-contained camper style vehicles, which takes in caravans and camper trailers. For day visitors wanting to fish there are no restrictions on numbers. At the camping area there are picnic tables, a fishing platform along one bank, toilets, and even a viewing platform near the spillway. The ranger’s office is also

easily located and with a couple of sets of toilet blocks and a shower (sorry, cold only!) plus a washing up sink behind the top toilet block, things are pretty well set up. However, there is no drinking water on site so you have to bring your own. Fires aren’t allowed either so you have to bring a gas cooker. Still, I don’t think this is too much to ask for a crack at fish in such a pristine environment. GETTING THERE This is the interesting bit. Most people agree that the road into Lenthalls Dam is pretty rough, especially after rain. Low sedan-style vehicles will be tested here. An SUV or 4WD is best. The dam and camping area is situated in the Wongi State Forest which starts

The Lenthalls Dam turn-off is not far north from there. Keep a look out for it as you approach the two conspicuous communication towers on the right side of the road, where the pine forest is. The Lenthalls Recreation Park sign is right opposite these towers. If you’re travelling south on the Bruce, these towers and the turn-off will then be 6.6km from the Torbanlea turn-off. Once you’re on the road within the Wongi Forest it’s a careful drive on an unsealed and sometimes quite rough bit of road to the dam turn-off. The sign is on the right a few kilometre in from the Bruce Highway. The road picks up a bit from there and the dam wall looms into sight after a few minutes.

Electric or paddle power is the best way to fish quiet arms like this one up near Wongi water holes, a southern arm of the dam. just north of where the Maryborough turn-off bisects the Bruce Highway. If you’re heading north on the Bruce Highway a very good local landmark is the service station with the popular Sexie Coffee restaurant adjoining it.

If you’ve made prior arrangements with the friendly ranger, it’s an easy task to set up camp and enjoy that first sunset to the west, basking in the anticipation of fishing next morning.

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Left: The Lenthalls Dam boat ramp is located at the southern corner of the camp grounds. Right: If you enjoy camping in very quiet places the Lenthalls Dam camping area is for you.

New Nissan X-Trail Wagon BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

First we got rumours, then a few leaked photos and then we got the real deal: an up-to-date replacement for the popular Nissan X-trail. It finally hit our shores a few months back. This new model X-Trail is a definite improvement on the previous wagon which, even with its aged styling, still maintained respectable sales figures for Nissan with around 140,000 units sold. But times change and a vehicle that has been with us for almost 13 years (including upgrades) has now been replaced with one featuring a revised and more upmarket interior, subdued and more sweeping lines all round and an emphasis towards on-road rather than off road ride and performance. A close look reveals the 2014 X-Trail’s styling is right up with the Pathfinder/ Murano/Qashqai genre, and its good looks disguise the fact that the new X-Trail is actually a little taller and 5mm lower than its predecessor. The Ti as reviewed does, of course, sit on 18” wheels which gives it considerable road presence! Eight variants within three specification levels of ST, ST-L and Ti are available and 2.0L and 2.5L petrol engines are available. Both seven and five seaters are options along with 2WD and AWD variants. The five seaters are confined to the AWD vehicles only. Many SUV buyers these days are happy to choose a

WELL APPOINTED The five seat ST 2.0L four-cylinder petrol (the only model with a manual gear box) might be the base model but it’s no poverty pack thanks to features such as bluetooth streaming, a rear view camera, six air bags, hill descent control, daylight running lights, 5” LCD screen and cruise control. The ST-L – an auto like the Ti – has a larger 7” touch screen with sat nav, dual zone auto leather trim on seats with electric adjustment

Svelte new lines make the new X-Trail a very stylish yet practical unit. standard and make the driving experience enjoyable. When it comes to fuel use, Nissan claim around 8.3L per 100km but on a mix of city

and country work I averaged 11.1L per 100km. Remember, I was disgraced on the ECO drive gauge! Too heavy footed it seems.

The Nissan’s rear cargo storage area has several layers of trays for storage of delicate or easily damaged items. Note the handy cargo blind. on front seats, digital radio and an Around View Monitor via a wide angle camera set up near the number plate. The Ti, as reviewed, has all this plus keyless entry, leather interior trim, LED headlights, power tailgate, panoramic sunroof and auto dimming rear view mirror plus the 18” wheels. Additionally, there’s blind spot and lane departure warning systems, and moving object detection. Those are just some of the luxury specs. Let’s look at what the buyer will find to their liking inside. From the electrically

Rear and side view on demand are important features of Nissan’s 2014 X-Trail. family SUV without AWD simply to save costs all round. The family can still enjoy all the usual benefits of luggage space, high driving and seating positions, comfort and interior roominess with two wheels doing the work, rather than four. While the AWD models will still take some market share, the predominant sales emphasis is expected to be on 2WDs.

computer offering information on fuel use, the driver’s rating as an ECO champion (I was quite mediocre) and further information on the AWD mode when in use via the console selector knob. Leather seats, leather wheel wrap and gear selector all added class while dash and side panels with their darker panels made a subtle yet impressive contrast. There were ample drink holders and general storage areas aplenty, plus an abundance of power

powered driver’s seat – large enough to be really comfortable on longer trips – the Ti’s interior was a subtle but very tasteful mix of brushed metal highlights, faux chrome sections around door handles vents and dash sections accented by contrasting darker panelling all round. The dash was particularly eye catching with a colour trip

outlets. The boot area was very clever with a couple of levels of large underfloor storage trays available, strongly made to cater for heavier items. As a five seater the Ti X-Trail offered ample leg and head room for all aboard, the high SUV seating offering a great view of all surrounds. AN EASY DRIVE The 2.5L four-cylinder petrol engine was no fire breather (126kW of power, 226Nm of torque) but mated to the Xtronic CVT unit it did a reasonable job of powering the solid wagon through traffic in the city with easy highway cruising a bonus. The engine and auto unit weren’t the quietest in their class and were certainly at their best when the vehicle was one or two up, not loaded fully with passengers and cargo. In the latter instance the CVT unit showed its mettle in responding to driver’s demands by working just that bit harder to achieve requirements. The drive is typically to the front wheels, with the usual auto mode instantly allocating power to rear wheels if any slip is detected. The console dial will lock AWD via the centre diff at a touch for muddy or snowy conditions. Drivers will find their new X-Trail to have an easy and well mannered ride which might be only slightly upset by the small sharp bumps in suburban car parking areas. Yet the suspension set up will easily cope with the normal, somewhat blemished surfaces of our major roads and many highways. Electric power steering, active ride control, hill start assist, active engine braking (on descents) are all

Leather trim, a neat and tasteful finish, plus seats with plenty of comfort and support make a long drive in the X-Trail wagon a pleasure.

SUMMING UP The new Version Two X-Trail is a very strong contender within the highly competitive segment of the mid-sized SUV wagon market. Overall it’s hugely improved and stacked to the brim with desirable features. While some of the competition might be considered to handle better or have peppier power plants, the X-Trail’s strengths of easy passenger access, huge rear luggage area accessed via a top opening door, plus its slick finish make it a serious contender for line honours. Warranty is three years/100,000km. Towing capacity is now 1500kg. Prices start from around $44,680 for the Ti AWD.

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The Torque The Torque of the Town. of the Town. The 150hp Mercury FourStroke.

The 150hp Mercury FourStroke.

We could continue to talk up its strengths. Instead it has spoken for And now, Australia’s leading marine reviewers can’t stop talking abo We could continue to talk up its strengths. Instead it has spoken for itself. Clearly the most compact and durable, lowest weight and highest And now, Australia’s leading marine reviewers can’t stop talking about it. “This engine was so good it actually displacement 150hp FourStroke outboard the world has ever seen. Clearly the most compact and durable, lowest weight and highest made me rethink my love of direct displacement 150hp FourStroke outboard the world has ever seen. Visit www.mercurymarine.com.au fuel injection two-strokes.” Visit www.mercurymarine.com.au Andrew Norton - Tradeaboat

“It takes the recent trend of making four-strokes smaller, lighter and more responsive to the next level.” Jim Harnwell - Fishing World

“I walked away impressed with the performance, technology, passion and insane amount of R&D... squeezed under the cowling of 150hp four-stroke.” Matt Jones - Tradeaboat

“The large cubic capacity 3.0L block means the engine’s more chilled out than a Buddhist monk, but with plenty of torque.” Matt Jones - Tradeaboat

Image courtesy of Shane Chalker, www.shanechalkerphotography.com Image courtesy of Shane Chalker, www.shanechalkerphotography.com

OCTOBER 2014

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Jim Harnwell - Fishing World

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News

Reefs are set to boost fishing Families will soon have a new exciting place to fish, snorkel and dive with the creation of two artificial reefs in the Great Sandy Marine Park. The 80ha Simpson Reef will be built in waters 10m deep near the Outer Banks and the Hardie Reef will be built at a depth of 16m northeast of Little Woody Island. National Parks Minister Steve Dickson said the reefs would cost $1.5 million, financed by the Queensland Government’s $50 million Marine Infrastructure Fund. “The Queensland Government is focused on creating jobs and opportunities by growing a four-pillar economy, with tourism one of those vital pillars,” Mr Dickson said. “The Great Sandy Strait is truly a top spot and a new artificial reef will enhance recreational and commercial fishing, as well as diving. “Artificial reefs provide marine life with protection from predators, shelter from ocean currents, breeding opportunities and a rich supply of food. “We’re investing $1.5 million in the construction of strong, low maintenance, purpose-built concrete reef modules between now and June 2016. “We expect divers to see interesting creatures around the structures within months of completion and fishing should have improved substantially within 18 months.” The names, locations and uses of the reefs were decided by a working group including the Butchulla People, Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol, Maritime Safety Queensland, the Queensland Seafood Industry Association (QSIA),

Member for Hervey Bay Ted Sorensen and members of tourism, fishing, diving and environment groups The reefs will be named after early lighthouse keepers – Woody Island’s first head lighthouse keeper John Simpson (1867 to 1870) and Peter Hardie (1870 to 1897). Mr Sorensen said the Middle Bluff lighthouse would also be restored in a $155,000 project. “Locals wanted more avenues to promote activities like fishing, diving and snorkelling for tourism and we have delivered,” Mr Sorensen said. Queensland Seafood Industry Association Director Elaine Lewthwaite said the reef would be perfect for family fishing trips from the Urangan Boat Harbour. “I congratulate the working group for the positive approach

that has delivered a great outcome for enhancement of the already diverse marine life important to commercial and recreational fishing in the Great Sandy Marine Park,” Ms Lewthwaite said. George Duck, President of the Hervey Bay Boat Club, said the area needed more artificial reefs and welcomed the announcement. “The Roy Rufus Artificial Reef East of Big Woody Island is testament to the success of artificial reefs in our area, with thousands of divers and angler visitors throughout the year attracted by the huge numbers and variety of fish,” Mr Duck said. “Boat club members, especially dive and fishing club members, will be thrilled to hear about the chosen locations for the proposed artificial reefs.” – National Parks

Woody Island lighthouse restoration One of the oldest buildings in the Hervey Bay area, Woody Island’s Middle Bluff lighthouse is set to be restored as part of a project to present the island’s cultural heritage to visitors. Member for Hervey Bay Ted Sorensen said the island, part of Great Sandy National Park, had rich cultural heritage and the potential to be a tourism destination. “Woody Island has two timber lighthouses from 1866, ruins of the light keeper’s cottage, a grave site, remnants of the original telegraph line, indigenous fish traps, and other sites and stories of interest,” Mr Sorensen said. “The hexagonal lighthouses at Middle Bluff and North Bluff worked in tandem as a navigational aid – an arrangement that is believed to be unique in Australia. National Parks Minister Steve Dickson said Middle

Bluff lighthouse would undergo a $155,000 restoration project. “Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service will restore the lighthouse to a safe and presentable condition, and install information panels full of the island’s stories inside, as well as at the Jeffries Beach camping area. “North Bluff lighthouse will remain a relic of days past, and both lighthouses have not been operational for decades.”

Former teachers Don and Lesley Bradley, who researched and produced historical booklets about the island for school groups, support the restoration work. Mrs Bradley, President of the Lower Mary River Land and Catchment Care Group Inc, said the Middle Bluff lighthouse was historically significant. “We believe it is the oldest existing building in the Fraser Coast area, having been built in 1866 using materials from the Fraser Island timber industry,” Mrs Bradley said. “The funding will provide for essential preservation of early maritime heritage for present and future generations to appreciate,” she said. The 660ha Woody Island is about 9km long and 1km wide, and is heavily wooded. The lighthouses overlook Hervey Bay, the Great Sandy Strait and neighbouring Fraser Island and Little Woody Island. – National Parks OCTOBER 2014

Tips for long range campouts in a trailer boat crocodiles and big bull sharks are about often invisible on the surface. I recently shot a couple of feral pigs on the bank only 300m from camp as they dug into a turtle nest and the next morning a bloody big croc-slide lead up to one that was missing. It was a good 50kg pig and was carried (not dragged) at least 15m back to the water. Our swags were only 10m up! I guess we just didn’t smell like pork. Boats need to be big enough to handle a bit of rough stuff and trailers need to handle the extra weight of the loaded boat. Modern-day 4-stroke or DI 2-stroke outboards have

HERVEY BAY

Mark Bargenquast

For over 30 years now I have had a real passion for travelling to exotic locations for a week or two to fish and hunt, however, despite the obvious rewards the sheer logistics is a real pain. Unless of course you decide to campout in your trailer boat. During the past few years I have been fortunate to do some pretty remote campouts from trailer boats; the fishing has been fantastic from centre console sportfishing rigs that double as guide boats in season. When faced with long range runs, some in excess of 250km over 2 weeks, things need to be right. Help is not just around the corner, neither is a service station, the extra fuel/food and water. These essential items take up valuable weight and

John Haenke and Fish Philiskirk with a double permit hook up while on a big six day 150km run. Swags and camp gear stored out of the way.

A quick breakfast then time to head out for the day. the other camp items need to be downsized to some extent. Since the recent boom in the camping/outdoor arena, the quality and development in camping gear has come forward in leaps and bounds. Gear has been steadily decreasing in size and weight but still holding quality and reliability needed for these trips, which is essential as breakdowns are certainly not welcome. Cooking gear needs to be just-right; melamine utensils/ plates and mugs are definitely the way to go as they are lightweight, strong and cheap. They can be stored in a small plastic tub that doubles as a washing sink. The creation of the butane gas stove is one of the greatest inventions yet for this type of campout, a small compact stove and a handful of cartridges will keep you going for a week. They only take a few minutes to boil a billy in the morning or cook a few snags or fish fillets at night. They do however rust if not looked after properly but for $15 you can replace them every year or so. Stainless versions are available now but for double the price. Another area of high importance is bedding, we no longer use the old style swags that end up huge when a pillow and sleeping bag is 80

OCTOBER 2014

exceptional fuel figures, which can cut up to 100L off some trips. Most modern GPS or combo units have built-in tide charts, which are invaluable when entering new areas on longer runs, often having 2 or 3 tidal differences over 50-100 miles of coastline. Eating good healthy meals is very important as well. Fresh fish is always welcome, we usually take some Tandaco coating mixes, curries, flour and breadcrumbs, these all make a great coating on fish. Even lower rate fish like trevally and queenfish eaten fresh with a Tandaco coating are very edible. A bag of

but additional lighting is often required at times to cook, wash etc. Small generators like the Honda eu10 are great, provide plenty of power and are super quiet; all the reputable manufactures make similar models. Small LED strip lights provide super white light and use virtually no power and can run easily for a week on a single car battery. No one wants to go for a week or two without a hot shower. Camp showers are the go, they are just a dark heavyduty plastic bag with a filler

boats are all around 6m and weigh around 2 tonnes loaded so if they become grounded on a falling tide that’s where they stay. We use a heavy front anchor with plenty of chain and a smaller ‘bruce’ style to anchor the rear of the boat to the bank. Most of the country we work is not the place to have to swim from your boat,

Always be vigilant about dangers and hazards when a long way from help. This 10’ crocodile was more than interested in our boat. Make sure you have a EPIRB that is up to date.

After a big day on the water, a small campfire and a good feed is very welcome.

rice, some muesli bars, and wheetbix are all lightweight foods that can keep for weeks without refrigeration. Remote locations are very do-able from the average trailer boat and offer some top satisfaction when it all comes together. There are even locations on the central East Coast I wish to explore in the next few years, the remoteness usually equates to no crowds (sometimes seeing no one for two weeks) and some awesome fishing usually follows. Do your homework, do the planning and I bet you will have a trip to remember.

It’s 1am on a run-out tide and she’s grounded! Luckily daylight will see the boat afloat for the day’s fishing. rolled up inside, or even the popular pop up tents that are so hard to store. We now use ‘biker swags’ which are a smaller more compact version with a built-in mozzie mesh. They take up half the room and seem just as comfortable. They can be stored under the front hatch or strapped to the front of the console, T-top or out of the way while fishing. During most of our trips, we are pretty mobile – fishing from one river to the next – so deck space is of importance even when fully loaded. The good old campfire is one of nature’s delights at night, giving light, warmth and comfort. Kids big and small love them (myself included)

cap one end and a shower nozzle on the other. Left laying on a deck or the beach for the day they use solar heat and around dark hang them up and shower. They do get hot and it’s amazing how little water you can shower with, 2-3L easy. Just wet yourself, soap up then turn the nozzle back on to quickly rinse – we get 5-6 showers from a single 15L bag. Just remember you’re not in a hotel room with unlimited water and forget morning showers. When you’re camped 100km from the nearest tap then freshwater is gold! When planning a long range trip take time to study tides and anchorages carefully. Google Earth is a big help, our

Adam Mcgloughlin with the rewards of a week camping on a remote river mouth, a big golden snapper!

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40 Chapple St GLADSTONE Ph 07 4972 0135 Fax 07·4972 0136

8 Ritchie St, BUNDABERG 4670 Ph 07 4153 1819 Fax 07·4153 1819 adriansmarinecentre@bigpond.com

s you may not be aware, from 2nd June, Australia Post will introduce 2 delivery timetables for their Print Post services, which will affect the delivery time of your magazines. The current delivery timetable continues but will be renamed “Print Post Priority.” The second Timetable will be named “Print Post Regular.” The names “Priority” and “Regular” reflect the different performance of the two timetables. Your magazines will be sent as “Regular” and Australia Post says it may take between two and four business days longer to be delivered than the “Priority” timetable. We will still endeavour to get your magazine to you before it goes on sale at the Newsagents but ultimately, we are at the mercy of Australia Post and have no control over them once they are lodged into their system. We welcome your feedback on your Australia Post experience to kym@fishingmonthly.com.au. OCTOBER 2014

What’s New FISHING

BALISTA S-POP

FISHING PRODUCT GUIDE

DAMIKI X10 ASSIST HOOKS

The Balista S-Pop wreaks surface havoc with a combination of large pops and big fizz from the holographic gills. Water squeezes through the gills on every pop, leaving a traceable trail of bubbles. It’s engineered to offer as many strikegenerating features as possible, allowing the Balista S-Pop to generate a strike when nothing else can. The 70mm S-Pop features a flashing red LED that’s water activated and scientifically proven to increase strike rates. The LED light grabs lurking predators’ attention, triggering both feeding and territorial strikes. The LED is at its most effective in lower light conditions. If you can notice the LED flashing in your hand you know it’s going to be highly visible to the fish. Whether you fish for barra, bass or anything in between, the UltraPoint Mustad #4 trebles are fitted for superb hookup rates. Price: $19.95 www.balista.com.au

Damiki X10 assist hooks, distributed by Searing Tackle, are high quality Owner hooks that use YGK Seahunter red line. These new hooks are primarily designed to go on smaller micro jigs from 20-40g in size. These hooks also have tinsel added to them for extra flash, maximising their visibility and attraction. They can also be used on hardbody lures, blades and also on ice jigs when chasing schooled fish. Damiki X10 assist hooks come in a pack of four in two sizes, and they’re available now. For more information or to find the nearest stockist, visit the Searing Tackle website at www.searingtackle.com. au or call 0404 719 944. Price: RRP $9.99 www.searingtackle.com.au

MIMIX CROX POP

The Shok Fishing Tournaments app was developed by two keen anglers who wanted to run a fishing tournament via smartphone. Not only can you compete in fortnightly tournaments where you can win prizes, you will also be able to connect with other anglers Australiawide to chat about fishing via the app blog. Once downloaded from the app store, you will see how user friendly it is. To register for the competition it costs $34.95 and this includes a free brag mat, stubby cooler and entry into the competitions for a year. All you have to do is catch a fish, access the camera phone through the app and take a picture on Shok’s brag mat and upload to one of four fishing categories. If you’re not a winner the first time around, don’t worry – the tournaments run back-to-back every fortnight. There are no restrictions on locations or times – just catch and upload for your chance to win. There’s also a free classifieds section for tackle, boats and camping gear. App Price: Free www.facebook.com/shokfishing

With a long body profile, strong and sharp double hooks and a special Long Cast feature, the Mimix Crox Prop certainly is the lure that you need to create the perfect surface commotion to attract and catch big fish! The Crox Prop can be fished like any other ordinary prop lure, or you can fish it with straight retrieve or twitch. This new lure has been designed and painted to look like a real baby crocodile found in the wild, so if you want to catch big nasty predator fish, you certainly need big nasty prop lure like Crox Prop! You can work the lure with the following retrieves: a straight retrieve with gentle twitching; a straight retrieve; or irregular twitching. The Mimix Crox Prop weighs 21g and measures 6.5cm. To see a video clip of this lure, hop on YouTube and search for ‘Mimix Crox Prop’ or scan the QR code on this page. To find your nearest dealer log onto www.jml.net.au. Price: RRP $19.95 mimixcorp.com

DAIWA SALTIST EXTREME

Replacing the popular Catalina and Saltiga Extreme ranges, Saltist Extreme takes the successes of its predecessors and combines it with the latest technologies and designs. The range includes models ranging from 5’6” power spin models, to lighter and longer spin sticks, and of course to the pint-sized 5’6” and 6’ overhead workhorses. There are 11 models in the series and range of styles to choose from. Daiwa’s carbon creates a rod that is lightweight yet very powerful, and X45 wrapping technology improves sensitivity and strength. 3DX allows the rod’s power to be located at the lower section of the rod for more power and less angler fatigue. Glatech construction features in many of the models and delivers an incredibly resilient blank, with backbone and lifting power to control and lead strong fish. V Joint technology ensures that multi-piece blanks match the performance of one-piece blanks in flex, power and responsiveness. Other features include gold accented custom reel seats with locking ring and Fuji SIC SUS guides. Price: too new www.daiwafishing.com.au

OCTOBER 2014

SHOK TOURNEY APP 2

SCATTER RAP JOINTED

Building on the classic articulated body of the Rapala Jointed, the Scatter Rap Jointed swims with an irresistible action. The jointed body combined with a Scatter Lip takes the legendary Jointed action to the next level when using a slow presentation, while speeding up the retrieve triggers the erratic evasive Scatter Rap action – and the bite. Measuring 9cm and weighing 7g, this lure is designed to swim at depths of 1.5m to 2.1m. The Scatter Rap Jointed is available in a range of natural baitfish patterns and comes fitted with premium VMC trebles. It’s available now, so keep an eye out for it during your next visit to your favourite tackle store. In the meantime, if you want to see underwater footage of the lure in action, search for ‘Rapala Scatter Rap Jointed & Shad’ on YouTube or scan the QR code hereabouts. Price: RRP $19.95 www.rapala.com.au

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What’s New FISHING

11 12

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FISHING PRODUCT GUIDE MAKO ROSE/ GREEN MIRROR

Mako’s new Rose lens with a Green Mirror (G2H5) and the Mako High Definition Filter builds on the previous top selling Copper and Blue Mirror combination currently available in the Blade frame. Initially available only in the GT frame, the G2H5 lens is exceptionally comfortable due to its use of ultra lightweight crown glass. The internal Green mirror also offers scratch resistance and durability in salty environments. The Mako Rose base colour has high contrast capabilities. It heightens the differences in brightness and colour that make objects discernable to the human eye, allowing you to see more structure and fish at a greater depth. The Green Mirror adds clarity and creates a lens that is wearable all day by reflecting just enough of that bright sunlight without inhibiting the operation of the Rose lens’ key attributes. Finally, the Mako HD Filter provides a better sight fishing experience by removing some yellow and orange wavelengths of light that cause blurring, especially at a distance. Price: RRP $289.95 www.makoeyewear.com.au

NEW FROM DAMIKI

INSANITY SLAP WALKER

Two of the latest releases from Damiki are the 6” Anchovy Shad and the 3.2” Ghost Shad. The 6” Anchovy Shad is a thin profile paddle tail swimbait ideal for barra, cod, flathead and snapper. It can be used as a spinnerbait trailer or rigged with a jighead. Its large paddle tail and high quality plastic construction allow the tail to come alive even at slow speeds. Available in a range of proven colours, the Damiki Anchovy Shad is great for targeting pressured fish. It comes in packs of four to suit jighead sizes from 1/4oz to 1oz (4/0-7/0). The 3.2” Ghost Shad has a soft texture and small paddle tail, providing a realistic action. This, combined with their inbuilt flash, provides an enticing action that fish can’t resist. Ghost Shads are ideal for bream, redfin perch, trout, bass, whiting and shallow water reef species like snapper. The 3.2” Ghost Shad comes in packs of eight and is available in five colours. Price: RRP $12.99 www.searingtackle.com.au

Insanity Tackle is the brainchild of Wayne ‘Mr Freshwater’ Dubois, and are uniquely designed to fool highly pressured, educated Aussie fish. First cab off the rank is the Slap Walker rattling lipless crankbait. These sinking lures feature amazingly detailed finishes and have three tow points which allow you to alter the amount of vibration, noise and running depth simply by changing holes. Running the lure on the back hole gives the most vibration and noise and also makes the lure ride more vertically in the water column, riding over snags much better then conventional lipless crankbaits. These lures appeal to all predatory fish in both fresh and salt water, and can be cast and retrieved, jigged or trolled. There’s a 13g, 60mm model and a 17g, 70mm model with six detailed colours to choose from. To find out more go to the Insanity Tackle Facebook page or contact Wayne on 0428 582 812 or waynedubois@ westnet.com.au. Trade enquiries welcome. Price: RRP $20 waynedubois@westnet.com.au

WILSON ROD CARRIER

The next generation of bull bar rod carriers is here. Wilson have developed this 100% Aussie made, fully adjustable rod carrier to suit all bull bars, straight or angled. It sits in the base, locked by the quick release pin that makes it easily removable when not in use. The Wilson Rod Carrier (#BBRC4RTB) is not only height adjustable but has a unique swivel action; with the stainless steel bolts it can be swivelled to any angle to suit the position of your bull bar. It has four rod holders with protective rubber caps on each to prevent friction on your rods in transit. It comes with 2” bull bar U-bolts as standard but has an option of a 3” bull bar conversion kit (sold separately) Powder coated in hammer tone black, this stylish and versatile rod holder ticks all the boxes. Price: from RRP $110 www.wilsonfishing.com

SAMAKI PACEMAKER

The Samaki Pacemaker sets the pace for high speed trolling lures. The Pacemaker’s sleek design has been tweaked and fine-tuned to allow you to troll faster with a wider trolling spectrum to attract a variety of aggressive fish species. The Pacemaker also has the flexibility to troll at high or low speed, with an ideal troll speed sitting at 6 knots for most pelagics. The Pacemaker handles this with ease and can even increase its speed up to 15 knots in most models. Structurally sound, the Pacemaker incorporates a one-piece stainless steel welded wire, heavy-duty split rings, VMC 3X Perma steel hooks, realistic fish-eye, prism tape insert and unique Samaki designed colour concepts including slimy mackerel, yellowfin tuna and mullet. This lure is dynamite on tuna, mackerel, wahoo, barra, kingfish and more. It’s available in 140mm and 180mm models and two diving depths, ranging from 2m to 8-10m. Price: from RRP $17.95 www.samaki.com.au

SHIMANO BOTTOM SHIP

Those sneaky Kiwis have been quietly going about catching a heap of reef and pelagic fish on Shimano Bottom Ship jigs for a number of years now, and Aussie anglers are finally getting the chance to try these deadly metals on our local species. A rear-weighted design gets Bottom Ship down fast, but colour and movement when slow jigged is the key to their success. Available in four colours including a luminous paint option, the trailing squid skirt hides a pair of in-line chemically sharpened assist style hooks rigged on Dyneema cord. Bottom Ship jigs come in three weights, 90g, 110g and 135g, and replacement skirts and hooks are freely available. Price: from RRP $19.99 www.shimanofish.com.au

visit www.tacklejunkie.fish for the latest tackle news - AS IT HAPPENS! OCTOBER 2014

What’s New FISHING

Z-MAN 2” CRUSTEAZ

Is it a prawn, crab, shrimp, yabby, insect… no it’s the 10X Tough Z-Man 2” CrusteaZ. This crustacean imitation will appeal to fish species that eat any of the aforementioned prey and that means almost any fish that swims in our rivers, estuaries and impoundments! Designed with bream in mind, the CrusteaZ will also appeal to anglers chasing bass, golden perch, trout, redfin, saratoga, flathead, grunter and almost any other small to medium fresh or saltwater species. The body design of the CrusteaZ allows it to be effectively rigged on a small jighead or worm hook and its claws provide action and movement without aggressively spooking timid feeders. Fish it across the surface, sink it around structure on a TTs Hidden Weight System jighead or slowly hop and twitch it across the bottom. The realistic feel of the ElaZtech will keep the fish biting until they find the hook and the 10X Tough construction equals more fish per lure. It’s available in eight colours, with six per pack. Fish on! Price: SRP $8.95 www.z-man.com.au

SHIMANO AERNOS FB

Shimano’s new Aernos FB spin reels are certainly a cut above their predecessors. The compact XGT7 body (a Shimano exclusive material that’s 200% stronger than ordinary graphite) has delivered a substantial weight saving, which is complemented by the compact body design. There are five reels in the range — a 1000FB, a 2500FB, a 3000FB, a 4000FB, and an extra compact 5000FB. DC die-cast gearing, stainless steel shielded bearings and a machined aluminium handle combine to make winding, even under load, as featherlight as possible. Varispeed II delivers neat and uniform line lay, while the cold-forged AR-C Spool and its special lip design permits greater casting distances as well as preventing wind knots and backlashes from forming. Additionally, each Aernos FB comes with a spare spool, so it’s possible to carry another line breaking strain with you, or one filled with mono if that suits a particular fishing situation better. Price: from RRP $169 www.shimanofish.com.au

ZEREK HOT LEGS

The new Zerek Live Shrimp Hot Legs make a great lure even better! Made with softer material and a slender body, the Live Shrimp Hot Legs are ideal for estuary situations. With the addition of fluoro legs, the Zerek Hot Legs Live Shrimp can pull fish in low light or bottom-dwelling areas because the vibrations of the legs are visually enhanced by the bright tips. The fish can’t help but notice! The Zerek Hot Legs (#ZLSHL) is currently available in two new sizes, 3” and 4”, and more colours to widen the range of targeted species. This lure really is the perfect estuary prawn imitation and gives you the option to rerig it weighed or weedless. To see video clips of these lures in action, search for ‘Zerek Hot Legs’ on YouTube. Better still, subscribe to the ‘Wilsonfishing’ YouTube channel to see vids of all the latest Wilson products as they come out. Price: from $12.95 www.wilsonfishing.com

DAIICHISEIKO LINE RECYCLER

OCTOBER 2014

You’ll never need to pay for line spooling again – now you can do it yourself with Daiichiseiko’s superior quality Single Shaft Fishing Line Recycler available from jroctackle.com.au. Reeling in the new line and replacing line on an empty spool is simple and easy with the recycler. It has a 3.5 times faster highspeed handle with three built-in ball bearings for a smooth and easy action. With a tension adjustment screw you can alter the tension while spooling at any time. The easy fit clamp screw enables the unit to be fitted to any table or bench for spooling on or off anytime, anywhere. You can transfer a brand new line from the spool to a reel while adjusting the tension. Line from the reel can be quickly reeled onto an empty spool and stored. This product is made from premium quality materials. Visit jroctackle.com.au for more info on Daiichiseiko products, including the Double Shaft Recycler. Price: RRP $89.95 (free shipping) www.jroctackle.com.au

MIGHTY MIDGET ROD STAND

The Mighty Midget is an entirely new concept in rod stands. The ‘trick’ with this unit is that it sits below knee height. When assembled it becomes obvious that rod racks have always been made too high. Once you have seen this unit and placed rods in it, you are left scratching your head wondering why it took so long to produce an efficient rod stand. It makes sense that a rod stand should be less bulky then the rods it holds. With an RRP of $74.95 this is a system you need before you damage yet another rod within your arsenal. The Mighty Midget is also the perfect present for the angler who has everything, or for the significant other who is sick of the garage being cluttered with rods. Measuring just W 44 x 29 D x 39 H, it’s available now from quality retailers across the country. Price: RRP $74.95 www.vivafishing.com.au

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Z-MAN 3.5” GRUBZ

Z-Man’s 10X tough, buoyant, super-soft and flexible ElaZtech construction gave new life to curly tail plastics, creating maximum action, even with minimal movement and at slow retrieve speeds. The built-in buoyancy also gives the Z-Man GrubZ range a seductive tail-up action on the drop and a natural tail-up feeding action when at rest on the bottom, over time accounting for an incredible variety of fish species. Add to this the 10X Tough construction and you have a plastic that can be smashed and crunched time and time again, even by toothy critters. The Z-Man 3.5” GrubZ fills out the family, now consisting of a 2”, 2.5”, 3.5”, 5” and 9” GrubZ, and it is sure to be as popular as it is versatile. Its profile and action will suit everything from bass and golden perch in the fresh, to flathead, mulloway and mangrove jack in the estuaries and out onto the shallow reefs and rubble patches in search of snapper and other reef species. It’s available in 12 colours with six per pack. Price: SRP $8.95 www.z-man.com.au

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FISHING PRODUCT GUIDE

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What’s New FISHING TESTED:

FISHING PRODUCT GUIDE

Light at the end of the transom

Just when you thought you had everything that a fisherman needs, you’re thrown a curve ball in the way of a boat bung LED light upgrade from the team at Marine Warehouse in Brisbane. That’s right, a bung light! We were lucky enough to have the chance to play around with a couple, and to say we were impressed would be an understatement. The Vigil LED bung light kit is very easy to install. You don’t need to be a tradesman or have an extravagant tool box to complete the job. We fitted one to our Bluefin Bass electric boat and one to our Vic & Tas Fishing Monthly rep’s Quintrex 435 Hornet Trophy. The Quintrex install was the easier of the two because the thread pattern was identical to that of the standard large size

Telwater bung housing. On the other hand, the Bluefin required us to replace the housing with the one that’s supplied in the bung light kit. It was as easy as drilling out the two pop rivets, removing the outer and applying a bead of good quality silicone around the hole, replacing the new base and fastening with stainless steel screws (you can re-pop rivet if you feel the need). Screw in the new LED bung and connect the positive and negative wires to your battery and you’re away. We wired ours straight to the battery but I would suggest going to your switch panel so it can be turned on and off easily.

On the water

The first outing was the Pine River for a spot of afternoon flathead fishing. We fitted the blue version to the Hornet and the spread area was bigger than expected; it spread out to about 3m in behind the boat. Baitfish were attracted to the light within minutes – a no-brainer for any style of fishing at night. Almost cheating! I have plans to venture out and see how the light will attract squid in the bay islands, and I also have some neat ideas for reef fishing with livies. I will be fitting one of these lights to my centre console with an on/off switch on the dash so I can use it for landing fish at night instead of using the old head torch when the fish come up to the boat. One thing to note is that these lights are not designed to run out of the water for long periods, as they need water to keep them cool. When we finished fishing for the night we left the light on by mistake, and I can tell you

TESTED:

it looks super cool cruising down the river with a bright blue wake! There are two colours available, white and blue. The kit includes 2m of tinned twin sheathed wire, and a waterproof Deutsch plug allows you to change your bung with no hassle and having to rewire so you can swap colours to suit your needs. Don’t worry about running your battery flat as these draw very little current. It’s great to have a product that not only is outstanding in performance but also incredibly easy to install. Check these out at your local marine dealer or visit www.marinewarehouse.com.au. - Greg Livingstone, FMG

Gloryfy unbreakable sunglasses

Every once in a while you come across a product that really stands out from the crowd. It can be something as simple as colour, it can be the shape or size. But in the case of Gloryfy Sunglasses it’s about the engineering, innovation and ground-breaking technology. I first met the guys from Eskimo Distributions (the company that distributes Gloryfy in Australia) at a boat show earlier this year. To say the product grabbed my attention would be an understatement! When you see a small lady swinging a hammer onto a perfectly fine set of sunnies you just can’t help but investigate further. Petra (the hammer swinger) was demonstrating the technology used in the construction of the Gloryfy glasses. These sunnies are unbreakable due to the patented materials used in both the body and lenses. Fishermen can be rough and tough with their gear at times and it’s not uncommon for expensive glasses to be broken while getting the boat

ready. Sitting on them, casting, stepping on them after they fall off your head… the list goes on. Now for someone like me who has a bad track record with breaking glasses, this was a great solution for my clumsiness. And when Petra from Gloryfy offered Fishing Monthly a pair of the G3 model to test I jumped at the opportunity. Gloryfy Sunglasses originate from Austria and were initially designed for the armed forces as glasses which were safety orientated and hard to break. From its beginnings to now having huge growth within the circles of extreme sports such as mountain biking and snowboarding, and due to their unique features, it was only a matter of time before the company moved into the marine and fishing market. Unbreakable frame and lenses: Yep, that’s right, you can’t break the frames or

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lenses. You can twist and turn them as much as you want and they’ll return to their original shape. The arms clip out when they get pushed to a certain degree, but they are engineered to do this and all you do is clip them back

in and they are as solid as before. The patented technology used to make the frames and lenses (G-flex and I – Flex technology) make the lenses and frames extremely flexible and they always return to their original shape (check out the YouTube clip showing how strong and unbreakable this product is!) Gloryfy lenses have the highest quality ratings and come optioned as polarised or not. You also have the option of getting them in prescription. These glasses are comfortable to wear with excellent wraparound clarity, which is what I like in my fishing sunnies. The comfortable and lightweight features of these glasses make is easy to forget you have them on while fishing. One thing I have noticed is you rarely need to adjust the glasses. When out on the water you can combine sweat, water and sunscreen which

sometimes results in heavier glasses sliding down my nose slightly which can be annoying – but this rarely happened with the Gloryfy frames. The G3 model I tested also sat comfortably when sitting on top of my head. This is important to me as I prefer to rest my sunnies there instead of taking them off when tying knots or applying sunscreen. This way, instead of wasting time looking for your glasses you can focus on making sure your fishing line is in the water as much as possible. You won’t catch fish if your line’s in the boat. As with other quality polarised sunglasses on the market, you will be looking to pay between $250-$279 for the polarised glasses. You get what you pay for with Gloryfy glasses, which is quality and innovation in all aspects. They’re great value and worth every cent. I’m not the only one to be impressed by these glasses, as they recently received the runner-up award for Best New Product in Accessories and Clothing at the 2014 AFTA (Australian Fishing Trade Association) trade show on the Gold Coast. To view the full range of glasses go to www.gloryfy.com. They are distributed in Australia by Eskimo Distribution, and they can be contacted on 0407 930 762 or email petra.tscherner@eskimodistribution. information. com.au for further - Ryan Limpus, FMG

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The Albright knot: easy step-by-step guide BRISBANE

Kim Bain

The Albright knot (aka, more correctly, the Albright bend) is a knot used to connect lines of different diameters such as heavy monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders to either braided or nylon mainlines. A bend is a knot used to join two separate pieces of line (or rope) together. The Albright is arguably the best knot to be used when the leader is of fairly heavy breaking strain and in my opinion the stiffer the leader line then the better the Albright is than the alternatives. With lighter leaders, other knots such as the Double Uni and the Slim Beauty are often preferred. It’s likely that we will review these knots for lighter leader in a future edition. The Albright is relatively smooth and passes through guides most of the time, but if the tag end of the leader is too proud of the join then it will catch and this can cause the knot to explode or unravel. A lot of anglers carefully taper

the tag end of the leader by cutting it at an angle so that there is a ramp at this end of the knot. Using glue or goo can also help you build this ramp. Obviously this isn’t a procedure that is suited to constant retying situations. Even when tied carefully the glueless Albright is not without fault, especially if it bashes through the guides when casting, and also when it gets wet for the first or second time it can slip. My theory is that the bashing (through the guides) disturbs the ‘bind’ as I call it, or the wraps of the lighter line and this allows the knot to move and then slip. A word of warning, if you fish often enough your Albright will slip one day; be it laziness or a rushed technique, it happens especially in your early days of tying the knot or when you change brands or diameter of either leader or main line. A good example of a change that can trip you up is changing from mono leader to fluorocarbon leader. A handy hint is not to use the Albright when heavyduty casting is involved. It is at its best used for trolling and bottom bashing.

Another handy hint is to trim the knot then glue it. Some will glue the knot, let the glue set, then trim the knot’s tag ends after the glue is dry. When tying, to reduce slippage, it is important to wrap the loops of lighter line neatly and firmly around the loop of larger diameter leader line. The more wraps that you use the greater the surface area in the connection and the more friction that will hold the bend together. Another way to increase the surface area is to tie a double in the main line and then wrap this double around the leader. This double option is particularly popular when connecting braided mainline to mono or fluorocarbon leader. Many anglers, including myself, when I have time, glue the knot and coat the knot with a rubber based goo that sets (which you taper by rolling between your fingers) to make it even smoother and more secure. Coating the knot and tapering a ramp from the braid to the leader, as well as cutting a ramp in the tag end when trimming the knot, helps

the knot pass through guides and rollers even more smoothly. There are many variations of the Albright knot; often they are referred

to as either the improved Albright, modified Albright or locked Albright. Some prefer the standard Albright with either a glue or flexible leader goo, Fluorocarbon or mono leader

Fold

STEP ONE Make a fold in the leader, use both hands to fold the leader over at the end, pinch the loop for a moment to close it up and then hold the folded loop in the leader with your left hand. Take the mainline (doubled main line) in your right hand.

I like to have tension in the mainline, to achieve this I take the mainline from the rod tip and have the line from the rod tip to the knot in tension (rather than hanging loose) with a little bend in the rod. This gives you firmness for the knot that you are tying and helps with the neatness of the knot’s bind. Lay the double

(underneath the loop)

STEP TWO Now wrap the mainline firmly away from the

tag end of the leader and bind the mainline towards the fold in the leader. Snug each wrap up against the

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OCTOBER 2014

previous bind as you go. When using light braid you may execute around two-dozen wraps.

Tag end exits where main line enters

CLEARANCE

LIMITED STOCK

under and along the leader. Complete this step by pinching the mainline to the leader with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand. A handy hint is to learn to tie this knot with both hand orientations; otherwise you will only ever be able to tie this knot with the rod on one side of you.

Braided main line

POLYCRAFT

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others prefer a modified Albright. In this edition we will tie a standard Albright (the one to use glue on). Next edition we will look at some of the variations.

Variation; tag line exits underneath main line and then out to the side

STEP THREE In the standard Albright the tag end of the mainline is passed though the leader fold so that the tag end exits the fold on the same side that the main line enters the fold. ALTERNATIVE STEP THREE Many anglers suggest that this makes the bulb

in the fold sit too proud of the mainline and causes it to catch on guides, weed etc. If you wish to reduce this and at the same time locking the knot off within itself, then try passing the mainline’s tag end under the main line and out to the opposite side of the fold as seen in the diagram. This variation was developed by my father Steve Bain in the late

70s and is known as the Steve Bain Albright. This variation is easily achieved by pinching the bind with the thumb and index finger of the left hand to hold all of the wraps in place, then push the mainline towards the knot and a little loop will form in the mainline at the start of the bind, now pass the tag end of the mainline through the free loop.

Snug the bind and pull tight to finish, then glue and trim

STEP FOUR Moisten the lines in the join (using spittle from your mouth is a common option). Then pull all 3 ends carefully and slowly to snug the knot down. The 3 ends

are: the leader, the main line and the tag end of the mainline. I like to hold the tag end of the mainline loosely in my teeth in order to keep it out of the way when snugging the knot down. Ensure that you keep all

of the mainline wraps to one side of the fold, a fingernail (thumbnail) can help here. Sometimes you will find it advantageous to keep a little tension on this tag end as well. Always remember to test all knots before fishing.

Fishing Fill-its

Boost for Bli Bli Barra Park The new owners of the Bli Bli Barra Fishing Park are pleased to announce the arrival of 400 new barra to their park. It’s been nearly 12 months since the new owners took over the park formerly known as Suncoast Barra Park at Bli Bli. After extensive renovations to the park that included draining the Barra Creek and removing some of the sediment that had accumulated over the years and adding some aerators to improve the water quality and fish habitat, the new owners felt it was time to add some more fish to help improve the fishing experience.

Mick, one of the new owners, said that the renamed Bli Bli Watersports Complex is designed to offer entertainment for the whole family and that is why the Barra Fishing Park has had new amenities such as BBQs, tables and shaded areas added. By recently stocking the park with an additional 400 fish of around 40cm, it means the whole family can share in the joy of landing a barra. The Park is not an overstocked farm where people expect to catch a fish every cast, it is designed as a fishing experience, where there is a chance of not catching a fish. However, with Senior Fishing Guide

Angus, new guide James and the other experienced staff on hand to deliver advice you know you’ll be getting the best advice and given the best chance of catching a barramundi. The Big Boys Pond has been reopened after being closed for several years. It has been stocked well below capacity in an effort to let the already big fish grow even bigger. There is a fish that when released in March was 96cm, last time it was captured in May it measured 102cm, not bad for a couple of months growth. Guide Angus said he’d like to see a few more ‘metery’s’ caught before adding more big fish and, with 20 fish over 90cm already released into the pond, it shouldn’t be too long before more are added. So it’s still a work in progress but with enough big fish to keep the serious fishos honest. The new owners are keen to try new ideas and after successfully running a winter barra comp, there are plans afoot to run a kid’s fishing contest and even opening later on certain nights to get that evening barra session in.

Don’t forget, if you’re not into fishing the Bli Bli Watersports complex is a destination in itself offering a huge range of activities for people of all ages. Apart from the fishing you can also try wakeboarding, stand up paddle boarding, tube rides or go on the very popular Aqua Park. Keep up to date via Facebook and our website as our hours will be changing as the days grow longer. – Bli Bli Barra Park

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OCTOBER 2014

Fish filleting: a short knife in a tight space BRISBANE

Lynn Bain

This filleting method is perfect for people who don’t have a wide range of equipment. It particularly focuses on the use of a short knife on a deep-bodied fish, which means cutting through the fish’s fillets from the top and then from the bottom. It is a good idea to scale the fish outside as they can

fly in all directions. Even after a good clean out, I have found scales lodged in the most hidden nooks and crannies. Likewise, it is easier to remove the stomach gills before entering the kitchen. If however, you are staying outside to clean the fish, then you can leave the scales on and remove them with the skin. The fish’s innards and skin make a good compost or even berley for your next trip.

1 A red nannygai straight out of the ice slurry, and the necessary tools – fish scaler, an EKA swingblade gutting blade and fillet knife (two knives in one handle; the blade swings between the two options and locks. I have used two knives to show both settings).

Scale the fish using the fish scaler.

2 4

Close up of the working edge of the knife with its protected tip. It is well worth investing in a good gutting knife.

Use the gutting blade to open up the stomach pocket.

Use the curved blade (or the knife point) to cut along the underside of the backbone.

Cut behind the head carefully, starting at the top/dorsal and follow the ‘dotted-line’ (I have already made the cut for illustrative purposes). Replicate this cut on the other side of the fish in order to remove its head. Removing the head makes it easier if you are working in a tight space or on a small cutting board.

Clean the cavity out with a gut brush.

8 Start at the top of the fillet with a shallow cut adjacent to the backbone. 88

OCTOBER 2014

11 9

Work your way down the dorsal length to the tail. When you get to the start of the tail wrist, push the point of the knife all the way through and out the other side.

Push the blade along to the end of the tail. Push the knife all the way out to complete the full depth cut through the tail.

On the underside start the cut; again follow the ‘dotted-line’ precut.

12 Get to the stomach cut and join up the cuts.

Back to the tail and run the knife edge along the backbone.

Keep cutting along the backbone until you get to the rib cage.

Move the knife to the top of the fillet and slowly stroke the knife down to the rib cage and then keep stroking it over the ribs. Cut all the way through and remove the fillet. Place the fillet skin side down and, with a long knife you can skin a fillet in one knife stroke; with a short blade make a start from the tail end, then try from the other end and each corner until they all join up.

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16 Cut out the little triangle that contains the pin bones, and you are ready to use the whole fillet in your favourite recipe.

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News Heading up river

Barra recapture caught on video It is not often that the recapture of a tagged fish gets caught on video. If you ever set out to do that it would be almost impossible to achieve. However Andy Thomsen of Andysfishing on Youtube from Proserpine recently managed to do that by accident. He was doing some videoing in the local area when he hooked a barramundi that was tagged. To add to the intrigue the fish had been tagged over 4 years previously and 300km away to the south around Stanage Bay (see map). If you would like to view the video it is available at http://youtu.be/02wgYMtYtoI.

ACTUAL TAGGERS FEB-MAY ACTUAL COMM FEB UNDERSIZE LEGAL

PERCENTAGE CHANGE

PREDICTED

Warren Schmidt is one of the new Suntaggers in Brisbane. As a young father starting out with a new family, he wanted to help out with tagging but needed a hand. Stones Corner Marine came to the party sponsoring his membership and equipment and boy has

it paid off. Warren has only been tagging for a few months but has already had an interesting recapture. A snapper he tagged at Lamb Island in July was recently caught in the Logan River making it only the second snapper recaptured in that river.

While it was out for only 38 days it managed to

cover around 25km in that time.

The future of fishing in good hands for being the top Junior tagger in the state for 2014. The good news is he’s not done yet. Lachie is off with his dad to Hinchbrook Channel to tag mangrove jack and with only two fish to go for his third achievement award he has the incentive to get them fast. Suntag wish him luck on his coming trip.

Lachie Baker is not yet 13 but he has already more than done his part to help ensure the future of the fishery in Queensland. Lachie has tagged 589 fish in total, including 211 snapper. He already has two Tagging Achievement Awards snapper (50) and grass emperor (50). It was no surprise when his efforts were recognized

The ten longest journeys by impoundment bass Stocked bass often spend years locked away in the impoundment they are released into but when the floods come

they can make epic journeys crossing over all sorts of barriers. Here are the top 10 longest journeys recorded.

Crystal Bowling the bounty The Rocky Barra Bounty is a very popular fishing event that tags Barra in the Fitzroy River. It is held each year around October and last year saw 670 barra tagged. We made a Crystal Bowl prediction in 2013 for the 2014 season that catch rates for legal fish in the Fitzroy would drop by 30-50% and catch rates for undersized fish would rise by 20-40%. Halfway through the season we calculated that the catch rate for legal fish had dropped by 38% and for undersized fish rose 36%. Based on that we have predicted that 400-500 barramundi will be tagged in this year’s event in a few weeks. Having put that in writing it will be interesting to see what actually happens!

OCTOBER 2014

Distance Days Out Tag

Recaptured By

Date

Length Started Out at

Ended up at

480KM

917

T44626

FOUND DEAD

26/07/14

N/A

LAKE BORUMBA

PACIFIC HARBOUR

320KM

2703

R05732

FORSTER N

2/03/14

400

LAKE BOONDOOMA

SPLITTERS CREEK

295KM

2023

R22550

FRANKEL S

17/07/12

450

LAKE WURUMA

BURNETT RIVER

290KM

539

K38706

YOUNG K

26/04/98

550

LAKE SOMERSET

SALTWATER CREEK

260KM

1664

P93984

HORVATH G

23/08/09

290

LAKE BAROON

TINANA CREEK

260KM

1655

P74689

SLATTERY C

3/10/09

290

LAKE BAROON

TINANA CREEK

245KM

2173

P15334

O’BRIEN T

31/12/10

400

LAKE SOMERSET

NORTH PINE RIVER

245KM

3681

SF09736 BRIGHT N

21/05/14

500

LAKE BAROON

MARY RIVER

235KM

245

T56003

BERG W

19/03/11

375

LAKE BORUMBA

BELOW TEDDINGTON WEIR

215KM

1916

P74655

PHERSSON P

23/05/10

385

LAKE BAROON

MARY RIVER

OCTOBER 2014

Insight Genesis: Custom-made charts made easy BRISBANE

Nabeel Issa

We all have our little secrets and tricks that help us get onto the fish, such as a particular lure, a rig or that special spot that always produces the goods. For most of us, time on the

water is limited so every little advantage we can gain on the fish is like gold! Now there’s an extra trick you can add to your arsenal. A relatively new tool available to Lowrance and Simrad sounder users ,called Insight Genesis, is helping anglers to increase their catch rates and make better use of their

time on the water. Here’s the lowdown. SO WHAT IS IT? Insight Genesis is a mapping tool that allows you to create custom maps of the waterways you like to fish. It can be used on any water system; all you need is a compatible Lowrance or Simrad sounder. With Insight The left shows an area covered by Insight Genesis at 1ft contour intervals. On the right, the same area is shown with a Navionics Gold map card.

This image shows part of the Gold Coast Seaway that I mapped on a recent fishing trip. There are a few spots I missed that I will cover on my next trip.

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Genesis you can create topographical maps with contour intervals as detailed as 1ft. The software also overlays bottom composition as well as vegetation, meaning it can show you on your map where the harder and softer bottom areas are. Definitely a valuable tool to have with you on the boat! HOW IT HELPS Most coastal waterways around Australia are available on mapping cards that slot into our sounders. These maps provide details such as basic contours, sandbanks and navigational markers. What Insight Genesis allows you to do is get a much clearer contour image of the areas you fish. If you’re into freshwater fishing in impoundments, you are probably aware that when it comes to mapping, there aren’t too many (if any) chart options for these areas. Insight Genesis allows you to create maps for these systems, so now when all the fish you find are in a certain depth, you can easily look on your maps and find every location in the dam with that same depth! It doesn’t take much of a change in topography for an area to hold fish, and being able to view your spots at 1ft contour intervals will give you a whole new understanding of what’s underneath you. MAKE MY MAP! Creating maps is simple and straightforward. You just Record, Upload, Review and Download.

Record To record the data your sounder needs to be set to ‘Log’ and the data needs to be saved to a blank SD card. As you drive the boat around, anything the sounder sees will be recorded. I like to set my sounder to record while I’m moving between spots or just sounding around at slow speeds. This process won’t work if you’re travelling at more than 32knots, so try to reduce your speed if you want to map the area. Make sure you don’t record to your current mapping card as you could lose information off the card! Always use a separate card for recording. Upload Once the data has been saved to the SD card it needs to be uploaded to the Insight Genesis Software. When uploading you will be given the chance to select whether you want to keep the map private; this way no one else will have access to your own secret map. Select the files from your SD card, click Upload and just wait for the magic to happen! Review Now it has been uploaded, Insight Genesis will create the map for the area that you have covered. You can review it or merge it with other trips to create larger maps. I usually wait until I have covered a substantial area before downloading the map. Whether this takes one or a few trips will depend on how much recording you have done.

A cool feature with the software is that you can also review your sounder readings. Click anywhere on the track and it will show you the corresponding sounder reading. I find it’s a good way to check if there were any fish about when I went over certain areas of the map. Download Once you are happy with the map you can download it back to your SD card, extract the file and put it into the sounder. Simple! SHARING IS CARING! I mentioned earlier about selecting the map to be ‘Private’, but if you choose to leave it public you are helping contribute to a library of mapping available for everyone to share. Social Map is where all public mapping is displayed. Anyone with an Insight Genesis account can view Social Maps and download these to their sounders. Currently a huge range of areas throughout Australia have been recorded and mapped to Social Map. It’s a great tool to use when travelling to areas you have never been. For instance, I plan on fishing Maroon Dam in the coming weeks. I have never fished there and have no idea about where to start. By looking on Social Map, I can get a great understanding of the dam and already know which parts I’m going to fish. LIST OF SOCIAL MAPS There’s a wide range of areas currently being covered, all thanks to

For the full range visit www.formosamarineboats.com.au BRISBANE Australian Marine Centre 3491 Pacific Motorway, Springwood, QLD Ph: (07) 3808 7333 HERVEY BAY Barney’s Marine Shed 3A Nissan St, Pialba QLD

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Depending on the model sounder, it will show up differently. This is how HDS Touch models will show the Log Sonar Screen.

anglers getting out there and hitting record! ACT: Jervis Bay, St Georges Basin, Sussex Inlet NSW: Berowra Creek,

River, Parramatta River, Pindari Dam, Pipers Creek, Pittwater, Shoalhaven River, Swan Lake, Sydney Harbour, Toonumbar, Tuross

Moreton Bay, Nerang River, Pacific Pines Pond, Packers Creek, Parrearra Channel, Paynter River, Pumicestone Passage, Robina Reserve Pond, Ross River, Sea World Pond, Slacks Creek, South Pine River, Teemburra Creek Dam, Tinaroo Falls Reservoir, Tweed River. VIC: Barwon River, Lake Victoria, Port Phillip Bay, Genoa River, Lodden River, Pykes Creek Reservoir, Glenelg River, Maribyrnong, Tambo River, Lake Bullen Merri, Patterson Lake, Tarwin River, Lake Eildon, Patterson River, Yarra River. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for something that can give you the edge on the fish for your next outing, have a look at Insight Genesis. For more information and to sign up to it visit insightstore. When you upload you have the option to keep your map private or add STA15827 OR-FM_Layout 1 25/08/14 3:03it PM Page 1 navico.com. to the shared pool of maps already uploaded by other anglers.

Mapping like these are available for anglers to access. Berrara Creek, Botany Bay, Brisbane Waters, Chipping Norton Lake, Clarence, Clarence River, Clyde River, Copeton Dam, Dawson River, Hastings River, Hawkesbury River, Kalang River, Lake Burrendong, Lake Conjola, Lake Glenbawn, Lake Keepit, Lake Lyell, Lake Macquarie, Lake Oberon, Lake Windamere, Lake Wyangala, Lake Yarrunga, Lansdowne River, Manning River, Manning River South Channel, Maria River, Marramarra Creek, Mooney Mooney Creek, Moruya River, Murray River, Myall

Lake, Tuross River, Tweed Reservoir, Wallamba River, Wallis Lake, Wandandian Creek, Wang Wauk River, Wilson River. QLD: Advancetown Lake, Albert River, Biggera Waters, Blair Athol Pond 1, Boondooma Lake, Borumba Dam, Boyne River, Burrum River, Chinaman Creek, Clear Island Lake, Connor Creek, Currumbin Creek, Elimbah Creek, Eungella Reservoir, Ewen Maddock Dam, Hull River, Lake Kinchant, Lake Maroon, Lake Moogerah, Lake Somerset, Lake Wivenhoe,

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An example of a map created by Insight Genesis. OCTOBER 2014

Bostock jigs to win Peter Bostock claimed victory in the 2nd Haswing BASS Electric Major of the 2013 Bluefin Boats BASS Electric Series with the

42year old BCF Manager fishing a deep water ice jig approach to catch his fish. Fishing a 16m deep timbered area of Moogerah,

BASS EL E Presente CTRIC SERIES d by Has wing

Bostock filled his limit early, catching his bag by 8am and then finding a red-hot patch around 11am that blew everything he knew about bass

5-6 ‘ Short hop to keep on the bottom

fishing out the water. “We’d catch the occasional fish, then we found this tree with our side scan that was simply loaded with

Rapala Jigging Rap (colour GFR) fish. We caught one fish and that just fired them up, and the action was insane until we left them biting to head back to the weigh-in,” explained Bostock. Bostock’s technique to catch his bass was textbook ice jig fishing, with the Moogerah champion finding the fish on his sounder and then dropping his ice jig straight down and working it with a lift and drop retrieve. “Initially the fish would eat the lure on the sink back down, but once they really fired up it didn’t mater how you worked it, they’d eat it, and eat it at any part of the retrieve,” explained Bostock. The bass blitzkrieg delivered Bostock 20 fish, while the two companions he had fishing with him both caught over 15 fish each! While the bass were aggressive to say the least, they did exercise a level of

discern in the lures they ate. “One lure stood out, an orange coloured Rapala Jigging Rap. We only had one of them, so we all took turns catching fish on it then passed it to the next guy in the boat,”

Bostock said. That bass-slaying Rapala eventually got towed home by a bass that Pete just couldn’t stop. With the victory, Bostock secured a $300 Haswing vocher, 13 Fishing rod and reel, and free entry into the Bluefin BASS Electric Convention in October.

It was smiles all-round before the 7am take-off. Thity-five anglers made their way Lake Moogerah for the 2nd Haswing BASS Electric Major for the year.

WINNING NOTES

Winning Tackle

Rod: Lox 2-5kg Reel: Shimano Stella 2500 Line: 4lb Berkley Nanofil Leader: 4lb Vanish Lure: Rapala Jigging Rap (colour GFR)

Hot spot shines

Winning Ways

Bostock used his sounder to locate fish, and used the side scan feature on his unit to pinpoint exactly where and how many fish were holding on an individual tree.

Big Bass

Peter Bostock claimed the Flow-rite Big Bass for the event, with the Moogerah victory catching his 1.70kg kicker early in the session on an ice jig. Lightly hooked, the ice jig fell out of the big fish’s mouth as soon as it slid into the landing next.

e 2nd Plac For event runner-up Les Smith, it was his best result to date on the BASS Electric tour with the 51year old Ipswich basser catching a 2/2, 2.64kg limit to claim a podium finish. Fishing a 30ft deep flat in front of the campground, Smith came

BASS Electric: Haswing Moogerah BASS Electric Major Angler Results Place Angler

Fish Weight Payout

1 Pete BOSTOCK 2/2 3.02 Prize Pack 2 Les SMITH 2/2 2.64 Prize Pack 3 Callum TEWES 2/2 2.62 Prize Pack 3 Nathan SWANSON 2/2 2.62 Prize Pack 5 Charles WEST 2/2 2.53 Prize Pack 6 Tom REYNOLDS 2/2 2.51 Prize Pack 7 Kym BALDWIN 2/2 2.36 Prize Pack 8 Hamish DUTTON 2/2 2.33 Prize Pack 9 John NOBLE 2/2 2.3 Prize Pack 10 Philip FITZGERALD 2/2 2.26 Prize Pack For full result listings, see www.abt.org.au 94

OCTOBER 2014

across his hot spot while motoring towards his preferred location on Sunday morning. “We were electricing across the flat and I spotted a couple of fish on the sounder, so we stopped to have a closer look,” Smith recalled. While his first cast produced a yellowbelly, it was the next cast that he and his daughter Rebecca each made that resulted in a double hook-up. “Once we caught that first fish they bit their heads off, and did so for next half an hour,” explained Smith. The technique that did the damage was a lift and drop of a gold coloured Ecogear ZX40. “The bites were rather tentative and would come either at the very top of the lift, or at the start of the drop,” said Smith. The approach delivered 12 fish for the session and secured Smith a spot in October’s Bluefin BASS Electric Convention.

ABT, PO Box 7196, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 Alternatively you can download an entry form from www.abt.org.au At any time you can call ABT on (07) 3387 0888 for help with your entry during business hours.

IES ASS SER KAYAK B d by Daiwa Presente On Sunday 31 August, 2014 Moogerah Dam in southwest Queensland’s scenic rim hosted round 3 of the Hobie® Kayak Bass Series presented by Daiwa. Located 2 hours inland from the Gold Coast, the 37.8m high wall of the dam holds back an area of water spanning 878ha, supplying local towns and agriculture. The word Moogerah is said to be a local Aborigine word meaning “place of thunderstorms”, a great place for a water catchment, but the picturesque area has much more to offer including camping, bush walking, stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and of course fishing. The dam, stocked with

Noble wins at magical Moogerah Australian bass, golden and silver perch, Mary River cod and saratoga is a rich and diverse freshwater fishery. An average depth of 10.8m and plenty of standing and submerged timber in the water make Moogerah Dam a perfectly suited venue for a round of the Hobie Kayak Bass Series. The round kicked off early Sunday morning with 24 competing anglers from 4 states and territories pedalling off from the Power-Pole starting line. Despite the picture perfect conditions that continued throughout the day, many anglers found the bite slow until the early afternoon when the bass switched on close to finishing time. Employing a catch-photorelease (CPR) system, anglers placed their legal size bass on a

The 12g Smack Ice Jig in red and black that did the damage for 1st place prize winner John Noble. standard measuring stick, took a photo to record the length and then released the fish back into the waterway. At the conclusion of the tournament session, anglers arrived back on shore, eager to place their key tags on the board, complete their catch cards and hand their camera cards to the tournament scorer. When all results were

finalised and confirmed by the tournament director, 19-year-old John Noble from Queensland, having caught a total of 40 legal bass over the course of the day, took out the major prize with a 3/3 124cm total aggregate fish length. Richard Somerton from Victoria finished the day with a 3/3 122cm aggregate catch while Glenn Hayter from New

South Wales, brought home a 3/3 120cm bag that was good enough to take out 3rd place in what was an amazingly tight finish. When asked about his plan of attack for the tournament. John Noble said, “I followed a pattern that worked for me in an ABT Bass Electric round that I fished in early August. I caught most of my fish just to the left of the boat ramp where it drops off from 38ft to about 40ft and there’s a little flat. You see one or two fish on the sounder and when you catch one about 20-30 fish follow him up from the bottom, so there is a lot of fish there”. Outlining the techniques he used to help unlock the mouths of some quality Australian Bass to win the tournament

CE 1ST PLA Noble said, “It didn’t matter what you did this morning. You’d just drop it to them and hop, hop you were on. I used double hops, let it sit there for 5 seconds, then big double hops, really slowing it down as the day went on. Later in the day they shut down and it became a case of less is more”.

Scan this QR code to watch the winner’s interview.

Somerton reels in second place CE 2ND PLA Richard Somerton, who is a regular competitor in the Hobie Kayak Bass Series, measured up short of the tournament winner by a mere 2cm. Illustrating how tight the event was the fact that Somerton was only 2cm over the 3rd place finisher Glenn Hayter. Somerton summed up

his trip to the Moogerah event by saying, “I managed a 2nd place on what I found to be a tough arena. The pre-fish didn’t go well with over half a day’s fishing only resulting in a yellowbelly and one bite that I dropped. After regrouping, Tanya (my lucky charm) and I went out again in the late arvo, which didn’t start well with of all things, a tortoise. But I found some bait in a bay and then a couple of fish and a plan was hatched for comp day! Comp day was a grind with nothing coming in the first hour, then it was

Tournament winner John Noble with his prize pack.

a fish about every hour after that. Then with an hour to go it was bite time! I’m happy with 2nd on a venue I hadn’t previously heard of, it was a challenging but fruitful day”. Richard has already

qualified for the 2014 Hobie Kayak Bass Series Grand Final so his and winner John Noble’s (also pre-qualified) grand final qualifying spots from this event will step down to lower placed finishers.

WINNING NOTES

Winning Tackle

Rod: Daiwa Redback Reel: Daiwa Redback 2000 Line: Shimano Power Pro 8lb Leader: 6lb Lure: 12g Smak Ice Jig in red and black with assist hooks

Winning Edge

Noble’s early morning location selection and getting his full bag before 7:30am set him up on his way to victory in a day when a lot of anglers struggled.

HOG’S BREATH BOSS HOG

Jason Garner won the BOSS HOG Big Bass Award with this stonking specimen.

ABT, PO Box 7196, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 Alternatively you can download an entry form from www.abt.org.au At any time you can call ABT on (07) 3387 0888 for help with your entry during business hours.

Special Thanks

Next Round

Thanks to Mal and Trish Gray from Sunstate Hobie for providing dealer support at the event and ABT and Fishing Monthly’s Steve Morgan for his special assistance this weekend. Like all of the events in the Hobie Kayak Fishing Series presented by Daiwa, this round could not have gone ahead without the great support of our generous sponsors Berkely, Atomic, Lowrance, Rhino-Rack, Strike Pro, Austackle, TT lures, Yamatoyo, Ecogear, Power-Pole and Hog’s Breath Café.

It’s time to start planning for the final round of the Hobie Kayak Bass Series presented by Daiwa, which will be held at Toonumbar Dam on September 14. The twoday October 25-26 Bass grand final venue will be announced soon.

Queenslander Jason Garner followed up his recent Hog’s Breath Café Big Bream win TOP 10 NON-BOATERS in the Redcliffe round of the Hobie® Kayak Bream Series presented by Daiwa BASS ELECTRIC SERIES taking the biggest bass from Moogerah, which measured in at a nice 49cm. The 49cm Australian bass took an Impact Tackle 1/2oz cracker colour spinnerbait with a green/copper Hooked On Plastics Grub attached to the stinger hook. HOGS BREATH BOSS HOG PAY TO:

Hogs Breath Boss Hog

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Fishing Tournaments bass • bream • barra

TOP 5 KAYAKERS

Place Name

Total (cms) Payout

1 2 3 4 5

124 122 120 117 114

John Noble Richard Somerton Glenn Hayter Denis Metzdorf Nathan Swanson

DATE:

$280.00 + Prize Pack $215.00 + Prize Pack $140.00 + Prize PacK $80.00 + Prize Pack Prize Pack

For full result listings, see www.abt.org.au OCTOBER 2014

Evans Head Classic The 19th Annual Evans Head Classic is over for another year. It was held from the 4-11 July and was host to over 690 adult anglers and 60 cadets and 260 juniors. Thanks to all the sponsors especially Wilson Tackle and Shimano who

provided thousands of dollars of merchandise as prizes and encouragement awards to the junior anglers. Team Shooters and Fishers Party was making its presence felt amongst the competitors and the locals. We had an absolute ball, caught plenty to eat, put

plenty back and met a lot of very keen supporters. We will definitely be back next year! For more information and results go to evansheadfishingclassic. com.au or visit their Facebook page. – Evans Head Fishing Classic

WINNERS IN HEAVIEST FISH CATEGORIES LIVE FISH Bream................................................ Jim Armstrong .............................. 1.470kg Flathead............................................. Tegan Hancock . ........................... 5.710kg Luderick............................................. Ray Palmer.................................... 1.325kg Dart . ................................................. Noelene McAndrew....................... 0.680kg Whiting.............................................. R Graham...................................... 0.615kg Tarwhine............................................ Bryan Layton................................. 1.220kg Snapper............................................. Klute Grant.................................... 97cm DEAD FISH Mulloway........................................... Warren Bell.................................... 22.520kg Tailor.................................................. Edward Scredge............................ 5.700kg Teraglin.............................................. Luke Pendrigh............................... 4.760kg Cobia................................................. Ben Bushell.................................... 24.740kg Yellowtail Kingfish.............................. Arthur Flynn................................... 11.785kg Pearl Perch........................................ Ben Campbell................................ 3.530kg

MAJOR PRIZE WINNERS: • Car or $20,000 winner was Mark McLean • Outdoor Garden Package winner was Ben Luker • 7 nights sanctuary Beach Resort winner was Ron Miller • 4 nights Berger Houseboats Tweed River winner was Warren McCombe

TOURNAMENT CALENDAR 2014

DATE DETAILS

CONTACT

OCTOBER Oct 4-5

Bjelke-Petersen Inland Family Fishing Classic Bjelke-Petersen Dam

Shona (07) 4168 4746

Oct 4-5

Saratoga Spectacular Bedford Weir Blackwater

Steven Schuh 0429 165 756

Oct 5

Bluefin Boats BASS Electric Series Lake McDonald

ABT 07 3387 0888

Oct 11-12

ABBT Basstasstic Bass Qualifying Rd 6 Somerset Dam

Russell Nowland 07 4167 8183

Oct 18-19

Bluefin Boats BASS Electric Convention Lenthalls Dam

ABT 07 3387 0888

Oct 18-19

Mackay Tournament Angers Round 2 Barra Teemburra

Geoff Newby 0419 183 188

Oct 23-25

Cardwell Barra Bonanza Cardwell

Chris Stoter 0429 427 590

Oct 24-25

Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic Lake Moondarra

www.lakemoondarrafishingclassic.com.au

For listings please email sbooth@fishingmonthly.com.au 96

OCTOBER 2014

2014 BCF Barra Championship A Gladstone fisherman has been crowned the 2014 BCF Barra Champ after winning the annual barramundi fishing competition. Sun Valley angling aficionado, Scott McAuley, netted the title with his whopping 127cm catch. This is the second time Scott has won the competition, which is now in its third year. The event has become a staple on the angling calendar, attracting contestants from across Australia. The inaugural Barra Champ in 2012, Scott

spent a gruelling three days fishing for his 127cm monster barramundi in the Calliope River. The avid angler has caught hundreds of huge barramundi in the past and holds a personal best of 134cm. Scott said the key to success was determination – and patience. “I was really keen to reel in the winning catch and didn’t want to take any chances!” he said. “I actually submitted three entries to increase my chances and ended up taking second place as well. “I fished day and night

until I landed my winning catch. There were at least another dozen guys out on the water with me, so my competitive side definitely kicked in.” BCF Marketing Manager Ben McConnell said the tournament was going from strength-to-strength following its inception three years ago. “The competition has grown steadily in popularity since the inaugural Barra Championship in 2012 and now attracts fishing enthusiasts from across Australia,” he said. “It’s a game of skill,

you’ve got to be strategic and have the right gear and fishing spots to be in the running. “At this competitive level of fishing, lady luck on your side will only get you so far - you need the best of the best tools and tackle if you want to hook the biggest barra.” As the official 2014 BCF Barra Champ, Scott wins the ultimate prize of a BCF fishing pack valued at $1,000, the Barra Champion Belt, 25% off all in-store purchases and barra-ging rights during his reigning year! – BCF

Annual Cania Dam Family Fishing Classic Cania Dam Fish Stocking Association is proud to host the annual Family Fishing Classic for 2014 at Cania Dam on 7-9 November. There will be free camping at the dam for nominated competitors, including a bar and food and even hot showers available. This year’s prizes come to a total of over

$15,000, including major lucky draw adult prize of a 3.5m alloy boat on a trailer with a 5.9hp outboard, registered and ready to go. There will also be a lucky draw for the under 16yos consisting of a two-person fishing kayak that is ready to hit the water. This year’s first prize for Big Bass Overall is $500 cash. Other prizes will be given for largest fish of

all species for each of the 3 rounds and largest overall saratoga for the weekend. The junior and senior categories for each section will get a great prize. The major sponsor is Wilsons Tackle in Brisbane, and the Cania Dam Fishstocking Association Club spends $10,000 of their own money to put the comp on. The event usually

Cardwell Barra Bonanza SEASON XI

11.30am Sunday Morning

attracts about 300 adults and 180 juniors from as far away as Pt Macquarie up to Mackay and as far west as Longreach. Last year over 1,600 fish were weighed in at the comp and everyone had a great fun weekend that’s getting more popular every year. For more information email maca1@nitro.net. au. – Brett Powter

e fish h t e r e Wh tell live to e! the tal

• 2014 •

Brought to you by Cardwell Sportfishing Club and

Senior Angler: Junior Angler:

$150 $70.00

Includes evening meals, competitor shirt, Live music Saturday (party) night.

October 23 - 25, 2014

Nominations close October 17 DAILY WEIGHTS OF: Mangrove Jack, Threadfin and Javelin

Airs from October 12 Australian Fishing Championships

ppor ted Proudly su ommittee by C150 C

Catch and Release Barramundi Thousands of $$$$$$ in Prizes

Web: www.cardwellbarrabonanza.com Email: cardwellsportfishingclub@hotmail.com Phone: Chris on 0429 427 590 OCTOBER 2014

Classic changing of the guard Mount Isa’s iconic Moondarra Fishing Classic has welcomed a new naming sponsor – the team from the local Clancy Corporation securing the coveted rights. Formerly associated with Mount Isa Mines for many years (still a major supporter) organisers Mount Isa Fish Stocking Group are very excited to see the naming rights opportunity go to another key local business. “Naming rights of the Classic is one of the most prestigious sponsorship opportunities in the region” said Steve Farnsworth, Event Manager. “Not only does the opportunity deliver the sponsor enormous exposure across Mount Isa, the North West and indeed the country; but as a family friendly, community focused event it is also a great chance for a local business to show their commitment to the community and demonstrate their social responsibility”. “With naming rights the highest sponsorship honour for the event we were very excited to have Dave, Lisa and the team from Clancy Corporation jump at the opportunity,” said Steve. Hosted in late October at picturesque Lake Moondarra in Mount Isa annually since 1999 the Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic is one of the major fundraising activities of the Mount Isa Fish Stocking Group; raising funds for re-stocking local impoundments with barramundi and sooty grunter. With 2014 a year of highs and lows for the Classic, with aspects like low lake levels calling for a program reformat, Fishing Classic fans have been assured that all of their much loved favourites will still be in the schedule; something that Clancy Corporation Director Dave Clancy admires in the Stocking Group and looks forward to immensely. “The Fishing Classic is definitely one of the ‘must do’ events in Mount Isa’s

annual events calendar. As a proud local, a family man and an avid outdoors fan I try to make the event every year. I often taking up the opportunity to camp out for the weekend” said Dave. “ We [Clancy Corporation] avidly support the Mount Isa Fish Stocking Group and their efforts to fundraise and host a social event for the local community, year in and year out”. “As an important fundraising platform for many community organisations, supporting the

SET TO ‘SPARKLE’ Planning is once again underway for one of Mount Isa’s largest annual pyrotechnics displays, the GE Mining Fireworks Spectacular; a part of the 2014 Clancy Corporation Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic. To be hosted at 8pm on the evening of Saturday October 25 following the presentation ceremony organisers Mount Isa Fish Stocking Group have once again called on the talents of ex-local and now Cairns based pyro-technician Ian

(formerly Industrea); longtime naming rights sponsors of the Spectacular. One of the key elements of the 2014 Clancy Corporation Lake Moondarra Fishing Classics entertainment program, the GE Mining Fireworks Spectacular attracts enormous crowds to the Classic and with the revised 2014 format making Saturday evening the close of the event organisers are expecting a celebratory atmosphere complemented by live music by North West country rock hero

The GE Mining Fireworks Spectacular mirrored over the water at the 2013 Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic.

Dave Clancy (far right) and the Clancy team in action at the first ever DIY Dragon Boat Regatta at the Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic in 2010. Fishing Classic also allows us to positively contribute to the wider Mount Isa community”. All the action of the 2014 Clancy Corporation Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic kicks off at 6pm Friday October 24, wrapping up late evening on Saturday October 25 with presentations followed by the much loved fireworks spectacular and live entertainment by local country rock singer Ron Sellars.

‘Thommo’ Thomasson of 5 Star Fireworks. Set to make the trip down for his fifth consecutive year Thommo has continually brought new special effects to the Isa and the Fishing Classic; 2013’s display featuring pink love hearts to tie in with the events breast cancer support fundraising and 2012 featuring fireworks from the water and a giant fireworks embossed sign paying homage to GE Mining

Ron Sellars following the display. When asked if he could slip any hints about this year’s special effects or if there was to be a theme naming sponsor representative Jason Laffin of GE Mining was tight lipped but did have this to say. “Thommo and the Fish Stocking Group have never failed to satisfy the crowds who turn out to see the fireworks and support the Classic. “This year we can

guarantee the GE Mining Fireworks Spectacular will certainly put a ‘SMILE’ on everyone’s faces and we encourage the community to make the trip out the Lake over both the Friday and Saturday to support both the efforts of the Fish Stocking Group and a great community initiative.” For full details on the 2014 Fishing Classic visit the events web page at www.lakemoondarrafishing classic.com.au – Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic

Pirtek Challenge $130K

The $130,000 cheque presented to Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. The world’s biggest fishing competition isn’t all about catching fish. The Pirtek Fishing Challenge is a charity event supporting Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. 98

OCTOBER 2014

This year’s Challenge had a record 8500 competitors and raised an incredible $130,000. The CEO of Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Associate Professor Anthony Lowe, accepted

the cheque, and said the funds would go towards further research and awareness programs. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia is a community organisation To page 99

Are you Queensland’s Best Angler? Do you think you might be the Sunshine State’s best fisherman or woman? Or are you just a local who loves to throw in a line? Either way, you should sign up to ‘Queensland’s Best Angler’ – Australia’s first and only online fishing tournament. With $600 to giveaway every month, and with $11,500 in cash prizes overall, it is well worth your while. “One of the great things about Queensland’s Best Angler is that you don’t actually have to be a brilliant angler to share in the prizes,” said Matt Palmer, the man who created the competition. “It’s also good fun, with people swapping From page 98

that works to reduce the impact of prostate cancer on Australian men, their partners, families and the wider community by promoting and funding research into prostate cancer; implementing awareness campaigns and education programs; and supporting affected men

There are lots of different prizes to giveaway, like this Mercury cooler won by Bob Dover and their families. Michael Guest, Stephen Dutton CEO Pirtek Fluid Systems and Dr Lowe were invited to join the crew from the Matty Johns Show which airs on Foxtel every Monday at 9pm. Gorden Tallis, Nathan Hindmarsh and Brian Fletcher are regular panel members on the show and are also great

supporters of the Fishing Challenge. Stephen Dutton commented, “It was great to have three Pirtek Brand Ambassadors together for the cheque handover. Both Nathan and Gorden have been fishing with Michael and have firsthand experience on what the Challenge is all about.

pictures and stories from across the state. We’ve got 700 members at the moment and they range from hardcore fishing addicts to people who just enjoy being a part of it all,” Matt said. Because it’s web-based, Queensland’s Best Angler lets people fish for what they want, where they want, when they want. Participants can catch 11 species of common Queensland fish, ranging from bream and bass through to sooty grunter and saratoga, and receive one point for every centimetre of length. Points are allocated based on photos sent to the site. All fish, of course, must be of legal length. Mercury Marine is a

proud sponsor, providing prize money for the top three places. “It really is a great concept because it offers something for everyone – camaraderie, competition and cash,” said John Temple, General Manager

of Mercury Australia, New Zealand and Pacific. “And, unlike other competitions, you can participate anywhere.” To find out more and to sign up to join the fun, just visit www.qldsbestangler. com. – Mercury

Pirtek are very proud to be supporting prostate cancer research and awareness programs.” In the last six years the Pirtek Fishing Challenge has raised almost $650,000 for prostate cancer. The Challenge is an annual event held in late March every year. The competition is open to anglers right

across Australia with 20 target species and $150,000 in cash and prizes. Mi chael G uest , Director of the Pirtek Fishing Challenge said, “$130,000 is a figure all fishos should be proud of. It’s amazing what a group of keen anglers can do when they get together. We’re looking to make the

Challenge even bigger for 2015 with a target of 10,000 competitors.” Pre-registrations are open now at www. pirtekfishingchallenge. com.au. Every month one lucky person will win a $100 Berkley tackle prize. Pre-registrations will be open until 1 December, 2014. - PFC

2013 winner of Queensland’s Best Angler was Braith Young.

CLANCY CORPORATION

Over $55,000 in total prizes

LAKE MOONDARRA FISHING CLASSIC

MA T R O F W NE

24-25 OCTOBER 2014

BLACK ROCK PARK, LAKE MOONDARRA, MOUNT ISA

N” O W E B T S U $5,000 “MA WATER BOARD MOUNT ISA IGHT BARRA!!! E MYSTERY W ENT NM

TERTAI HUGE LINE UP OF EN NORTH WEST CE INCLUDING COMMER REGATTA DIY DRAGON BOAT VOLLEYBALL BUFFS CLUB BEACH KS SPECTACULAR GE MINING FIREWOR ING COMPS YABBY RACES CAST EXHIBITS LIVE BANDS TRADE LD SHOWERS CO & T HO . CAMPING INCL MORE! BAR, GREAT FOOD &

NOV 14-16, 2014 Drifter Tournament

Catfish

TWO LUCKY DRAW BOATS TO GIVE AWAY!

22 PRIZE CATEGO BROGDEN RIES ’S FURNIT U R E COURT L THOUSA UCKY GA NDS OF TE PRIZE $$ WORT H OF TR CASH & OPHIES, PRIZES U P FOR G RABS

NOMINATIONS: $10 FOR JUNIORS OR $30 FOR SENIORS. ENTRY: GOLD COIN DONATION AT THE GATE.

• Lucky draws • Early entry prizes • Catch, photo and release

• All fishing styles permitted • All fishing craft permitted

Lake Maroon is approximately 90 minutes from Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The competition will be based at Camp Lake Fire, which has direct boat launching access. Early Entry – Senior: $30; Junior: $15 (Junior must be under 14 years on November 15, 2014).

Registrations through www.sportstuition.com.au

TRADING AS

Dave Clancy

powering the future

FISHING’S JUST THE BEGINNING!

LAKEMOONDARRAFISHINGCLASSIC.COM.AU

CONNECT WITH US: OCTOBER 2014

Country Fishing Classics Rd 1, Boondooma Lake Boondooma Caravan and Recreation Park hosted round one of the Austackle-Bluefin Country Fishing Classics.

perch using an Austackle prototype Berserker lure. Needless to say, Wayne will be back for more freshwater fishing!

MAIN CATEGORY WINNERS Catch and Release (C&R) Senior Male............. Terry Allwood............ 758 points Senior Female......... Kimberly Allwood...... 794 points Junior Male.............. Nick Howard............. 302 points Junior Female.......... Layla Allwood........... 244 points Dead Weight (DW) Senior Male............. Barry Weier..................... 3.30kg Senior Female......... Kim Waldron................... 5.25kg Junior Male.............. Trey Crumblin.................. 4.05kg Junior Female.......... Chenille Ssaardema........ 1.10kg

Austackle-Bluefin Country Fishing Classics is a family friendly, all ages event with a focus on promoting sustainable fishing. Over $100,000 in Random Draw prizes are on offer throughout the series, including two Bluefin boat and trailer packages to be given away by random draw at the Grand Final. This means you don’t have to be a top gun angler to win a prize! Round one was no exception, with over $16,000 giveaways handed out during the event.

CAUGHT ON AN AUSTACKLE LURE Senior Longest Fish.......... Wayne Campbell.............. Golden Perch................ 52cm Junior Longest Fish.......... Nick Howard.................... Golden Perch................ 50cm Senior Heaviest Fish......... Norm Townsend............... Golden Perch...............1.10kg Junior Heaviest Fish......... Lucas Townsend.............. Golden Perch...............1.15kg Perfect spring weather and cooperative fish kept the 75 keen entrants of all ages smiling throughout weekend. The biggest fish for the tournament was caught by novice freshwater angler Wayne Campbell. Wayne, who had never caught a freshwater fish before, only fished for an hour and landed a 52cm golden

SUB CATEGORY WINNERS Sub Categories: Senior C&R Longest Bass............................... Kimberly Allwood.................... 50cm Senior C&R Longest Golden Perch................. Audra Blinco........................... 55cm Junior C&R Longest Bass............................... Layla Allwood......................... 45cm Junior C&R Longest Golden Perch................. Nick Howard........................... 50cm Senior DW Heaviest Bass............................... Barry Weier............................1.00kg Senior DW Heaviest Catfish............................ Rosemary Price.....................1.25kg Senior DW Heaviest Golden Perch................. Kim Waldron..........................2.40kg Junior DW Heaviest Bass................................ Lucas Townsend....................1.00kg Junior DW Heaviest Catfish............................ Hayley Crumblin....................0.45kg Junior DW Heaviest Golden Perch.................. Trey Crumblin.........................2.40kg



Country Fishing Classics Catch and release plus deadweight sections - “No live well required”

Target Species: • Barramundi • Bass • Golden Perch



• Saratoga • Catfish

Dates and Locations:

Round 2: Round 3: Round 4: Grand Final:

 Entry Fees:

Every junior walked away with at least one prize. Adults received a show bag to the value of $110 each in addition to the many random draw prizes. Not a bad return for a $30 entry fee. With a Catch, Photograph and Release category and also a Dead Weight section, the event caters for sporting anglers, as well as those taking home a feed of fresh fish. Captures for the Dead Weight section is restricted to one fish per species, reinforcing the mission of CFC in promoting awareness for sustainable fishing. Local Fish Stocking Associations will financially benefit from these events to assist them

Wayne Campbell won the Senior Longest Fish category with this 52cm golden perch. in their important work in keeping our fisheries healthy for both present and future generations.

More information including full results and entry forms at: countryfc. com.au. – CFC

FOR PRIVATE SALE 1994 Riviera Mariner 27’ Targa Sports Cruiser “They don’t come better than this one. This is an exceptional vessel. There is no better value in a 27’ Sports Cruiser” $58,000 ono

100,000

over $

IN PRIZES TO BE WON BY RANDOM DRAW!

Includes: Senior and Junior Boat Packages!

Supports and Promotes Sustainable Fishing

Part of proceeds go to local fish stocking associations

Mary River (Maryborough) BP Dam (Murgon) Paradise Dam (Biggenden) BP Dam (Murgon)

1st – 2nd Nov 2014 17th – 18th Jan 2015 28th Feb – 1st Mar 2015 18th – 19th April 2015

• Length: 27’ (8.3m) • Beam: 10’3” (3.10m) • Draft: 2’4” (.72m) • Fuel: 400 lts

Specs: • Water: 240 lts • 290HP Volvo Penta • Rib Tender with 3.3hp • Fridge

• Shower • Toilet • Galley • BBQ

• Fishing • Cruising • Lifestyle • Comfort

*Early bird rate applies to entries received 4 weeks prior to event date

Family affordable! Single Round: Seniors $30 (Early Bird $25) Grand Final: Seniors $40 (Early Bird $35)

Juniors: (16 & under) $10 Juniors: (16 & under) $15

Reluctant sale of a wonderful memory making vessel. Manly Marina, Queensland. Too many features and inclusions to list. Full details and inclusions, please visit:

Mailing Address: PO Box 3473, LOGANHOLME QLD 4129 Fax: (07) 3806 3031 Email: info@countryfc.com.au www.countryfc.com.au 100

OCTOBER 2014

www.verandis.net

Please note - Hi-res images, may take time to download

Enquiries: Email: salty67@iinet.net.au

Phone:

0407 165 617

HAWK FISHING • FIND-A-WORD COMPETITION

Fish you don’t boast about catching

Name

BLUBBERLIPS LEATHERJACKET SLEEPY COD BULLROUT

LONGTOM

SMALL SHARK

CARP

PIGFISH

SPANGLED PERCH

CHINAMAN

RAY

STRIPEY

EEL

REDBASS

SWEEP

FUSILIER

REMORA

TRIGGERFISH

GRINNER

SARGENT BAKER

Address

P/Code

IODINE BREAM SLATEY

Phone (day):

The first correct entry at the end of each month will win a Hawk Fishing cap, Hawk Fishing line, Hawk HB Lure, assorted Panther Martin lures and 3 packets of Youvella chemically sharpened hooks. SEND ENTRIES TO:

QLD Hawk Tournament Competition PO box 3172, Loganholme Qld 4129 QLD OCTOBER 2014

FINS SCALES & TALES by A. Both

SUBSCRIBER PRIZE The subscriber prize winner for August was B Murchie of Torquay, who won a Korr Lighting 120w LED Row Light Bar valued at $369. All subscribers are entered in the monthly subscriber prize draws. Prize delivery takes up to 8 weeks. – QFM

FIND THE SPECIALTY FISHING FISH WINNERS BARRA COUNTRY by Brett Currie

BITE ME by Trisha Mason

The Find the specialtyfishing.com.au logo prize winners for August were: J Smith of Thornlands, P Carrington of Deception Bay, R Taskis of Ashmore, M Wilson of Murgon, B Tieman of Beenleigh, R Hilton of Goondiwindi, C Ramage of Davistown, P Batchelor of Clinton, M Reynolds of Gladstone, P Thompson of Murwillumbah, R Pitt of Gatton, D Harvey of Strathpine, L Culey of Bundaberg, T Pedofsky of Currumbin Waters, N Humble of Rockhampton, P Cox of Edmonton, T Jamieson of Morayfield, K Edwards of Nikenbah , P Symonds of Kallangur, B Stephan of Helidon Spa, G Anderson of Emu Park, L Finney of Manumbar, D Park of Highfields, J Willmann of Windaroo, B Fisher of Roma, B Freier of Ningi, M Gillett of Boonah, O Kemball of Carrara, D Goodyear of Narangba, K O’Brien of Burrum Heads, L Etter of Richlands, B Anger of Kabra, B Evans of River Heads, G McArdell of Point Vernon, R Schefe of Point Vernon, T Grice of Caboolture, R Bignell of Roma, D Helm of Alexandra Hills, E Lezuchowski of Darra, B Lobley of Silkstone. Prize delivery takes up to 8 weeks. – QFM FIND THE SPECIALTY FISHING AUGUST LOCATIONS

GEORGE & NEV by Michael Hardy

The answers to Find the Specialtyfishing.com.au logo for August were: 16, 25, 30, 36, 48, 55, 63, 75, 76, 85, 99, 103, 105, 117, 120. – QFM

FIND-A-WORD WINNER Congratulations to Debra Kennedy of Caboolture, who was last month’s winner of the Hawk Tournament Find-a-Word Competition! Monthly winners receive Hawk Tournament Tested Bayer Perlon IGFA line, assorted Panther Martin lures, Youvella hooks and a keyring. Prize delivery can take 8 weeks. – QFM 3

• DECEMBER 2010

Carl has completed his journey to the Elites Toowoomba angler Carl Jocumsen, has finally completed his quest to qualify for the highest level of tournament bass fishing on the planet – the USA’s Bassmaster Elite Series. It’s a journey that’s taken him much more than the recent fouryears Stateside to achieve. It’s the culmination of a lifetime of thinking, breathing, sleeping and living fishing and fishing tournaments. Surviving and excelling in a ridiculously difficult pathway proved that Carl (who is yet to reach his 30th birthday) not only had the technical skills to compete with the world’s best, but he also has the mental and

“Whatever it takes” is Carl’s motto. Particularly on the water.

In a very short time compared with other competitors, Carl has become in tune with the American largemouth bass. INTERVIEW

Here’s an example of the kit Carl uses to compete on the USA Bassmaster Tours. physical aptitude to mix it with the big guns. After all, none of the current Elite series pros had to travel to the other side of the world – to a different hemisphere – to ply their craft. All of them grew up fishing for largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. None of these fish exist in Australia. All but a few of the Japanese pros didn’t have to contend with Visas, travel and a government that gives you limited scope to follow your dream and become a truly professional angler. Carl did. And on Saturday the 13 September, 2014, Carl weighed in a limit of bass in his final Central Bassmaster Open event of the year to seal the deal.

Soon afterwards, Fishing Monthly (FM) caught up with Carl via phone to hear from the man himself about the successful climax to his Stateside campaign. (Click the QR code to listen to the full interview.) PRESSURE COOKER To say that Carl had a lot of pressure on him to perform in this final event of the season is a huge understatement. He’d made himself a solid platform for qualification by coming into the event at 4th in the Central Opens Angler of the Year (AOY) points. This was through great finishes at Lake Amistad (6th) and the Red River (23rd). These results were in fields of near-200 boats. To gain an invitation to the Elite Series, Carl

Scan to watch a recording of Carl’s final weigh-in.

needed to finish in the top three anglers in the AOY points race. Possibly lower if qualifiers ahead of him were already Elite Series anglers. Carl had come close before. In 2012, Carl was the next-in-line for qualification through the same series. Unfortunately, the anglers above him all took up their invites. And after an underwhelming 2013 campaign, this year saw

Carl’s first success for the 2014 season was at Texas’ Lake Amistad with a 6th place – and some donkeys like this to show off.

Carl on his last year of his USA Sportsman’s Visa, which allowed him to stay in-country. “I don’t think I’ll ever have as much pressure on me as I had fishing that last day of the event. I only weighed 4 fish on the first day and knew that I needed to catch a limit to seal the deal,” Carl explained. Trouble was, though, with a cold wind blowing, heavy rain, depleted batteries on his electric motor and all of his best spots blown out with muddy water, Carl had no fish in the livewell at noon on that final day. “One thing I’ve learned through the past four years is that I should never let a negative thought in myhead. I knew that I had to catch them and I knew that I was going to catch them,” Carl continued. And that’s exactly what he did. Picking up a spinning rod and finesse fishing like he did so well back in Australia, Carl used his Power Poles to hold position on stumps and root mounds in shallow water to accumulate a limit. “As soon as my 5th fish was in the livewell, I didn’t really have time to celebrate, I just got my lure back in the water to fish for upgrades.”

CARL’S SPONSORS

Want to help Carl out from a sponsorship perspective? Have a product that needs exposure in the USA? Email xtremeangler@yahoo.com 102

OCTOBER 2014

Being the top level of bass fishing on the planet means that Carl can now seriously expect to make a living from fishing. Each event of the Elite trail is broadcast domestically in the USA and internationally.

If Carl makes the top cut of an event, he’ll get some serious air time. And that means some serious value for his sponsors. Entry fees are big (approaching $5,000 per event), payouts are big (how does $10,000 for 50th

INTERVIEW

Scan to hear Carl’s interview after qualifying for the Bassmaster Elite Series.

Carl’s Skeeter/Yamaha has a distinctive wrap with an Aussie theme – thanks to Richie Potter’s design prowess from X-Factor signs in Sydney. Carl upgraded twice, with his last fish – a solid three-pounder – ensuring that his fate was secured. “It didn’t really hit

me that I might have done it until I was loading the weigh-in bag. It was then that I started getting tears in the eyes,” Carl continued.

WHAT IS THE ELITE SERIES? So, what’s the big deal about qualification for the Bassmaster Elite Series?

2015 BASSMASTER ELITE SERIES SCHEDULE Mar 19-22..................................................................Sabine River, Orange, Texas Apr 9-12................................................ Lake Guntersville, Guntersville, Alabama Apr 30 - May 3.................................... Sacramento River, Sacramento, California May 7-10................................................Lake Havasu, Lake Havasu City, Arizona Jun 3-7............................................................... Kentucky Lake, Paris, Tennessee Jul 30 - Aug 2.....................................St. Lawrence River, Waddington, New York Aug 13-16............................................ Chesapeake Bay, Cecil County, Maryland Sep 24-27............................................................Lake St. Clair, Detroit, Michigan

abt

Here’s Carl’s first 10 pounder. First of many, we bet.

place sound?) and running costs are high. As such, Carl now has to pick up enough cash sponsors to cover a $120,000-ish operating budget for the year. Sounds scary? Sure, but we reckon that raising the money will be easier than the qualification process that he’s been through so far. “Currently I’m backed by some of the best companies in the industry and I’m grateful for their support to date. I hope that I can give them back their value ten-fold when I fish the Elites in 2015,” Carl finished. We’re sure he will and like you, we’ll be following him throughout his 2015 Bassmaster Elite campaign!

e t i s b e W T B A w Ne  Launched Feb 2014 RRA  BREAM, BASS and BA all on one site  Mobile phone friend

 Calendars  Entry forms  Tournament Results deo  Photo gallery and vi

u a . g r o . t b a . w Visit ww OCTOBER 2014

103

Cooking

Preparing sushi BRISBANE

Lynn Bain

This month we look at how to make and prepare sushi using the traditional method. Rice Ingredients 1 1/2 cups sushi rice

Rice Preparation

1 3/4 cups water 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar 2 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp salt Sushi Ingredients Tuna, thin slices Cucumber, deseeded and thin sliced Green shallots, thin sliced Nori sheets

To make the rice wine vinegar seasoning for the sushi rice; in a small bowl stir together the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Continue to stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved.

Put the rice into a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover the rice. This water is not the 1Âž cups mentioned in the ingredients list. Gently stir the rice with your fingertips. The water will become cloudy. Drain the rice in a strainer and discard the water. Repeat this step two or three more times. The Japanese traditionally repeat this step until the water runs clear. Transfer the rinsed rice to a large pot (with lid) and add the water from the ingredients list. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until all of the water has been absorbed. Remove from the heat and let it stand, still covered, for 5 minutes.

Rinse a rice paddle or large spoon with cold water and use it to transfer your rice to a large shallow bowl. Gently fold the rice repeatedly. As you fold, fan the rice with a square of stiff cardboard or a light cutting board. This is to bring the temperature of the rice down.

3 4

When the rice is tepid, gently tip the seasoned rice wine vinegar, a little at a time into the bowl while still folding the rice. Once complete, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cover the rice with plastic wrap or refrigerate.

Rolling Sushi

8 104

To roll the sushi, you will need a sushi mat and nori sheets. Place the sushi mat on a clean work surface so that the mat rolls away from you and position a nori sheet on top.

Use your fingers to lightly hold the filling in place. Pick up the bottom edge of the mat and roll the rice covered nori over the fillings to enclose them. Grasp the roll with your fingers and press firmly on the mat to secure the roll.

OCTOBER 2014

Moisten your hands with a little water and pick up about half a cup of the sushi rice. Using your fingertips, gently press and spread the rice evenly to cover the nori sheet.

While raising the edge of the mat, continue rolling the mat forward to complete the sushi roll. Grasp the roll again and press firmly on the mat to finish shaping the roll. Remove any excess sushi rice that has been squeezed out as you roll.

Place your filling end to end across the centre of the rice.

Carefully remove the bamboo mat and allow the roll to sit for a few minutes before cutting to allow the moisture from the sushi rice to soften the nori sheet. The completed tuna sushi rolls presented with soy sauce, wasabi paste and pickled ginger.Â

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105

Tech Tricks

It pays to put on a paternoster plastic rig BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

Over the last decade or so, soft plastics have become a large part of many anglers’ fishing effort. Whether you are targeting bass in the impoundments, flathead in the estuaries or snapper in the briny blue ocean, there’s a huge array of soft plastics that are ready and capable of getting the job done. There are numerous rigging options including jigheads and weedless worm hooks that can be used to rig your plastics. However, for anglers fishing deep offshore waters numerous problems arise when using these classic shallow water rigging options due to water depth and currents. Enter the paternoster plastic rig, which allows you to fish plastics in extremely deep waters and strong currents.

PATERNOSTERS There are many reasons to consider plastic presentation via a paternoster rig when fishing the depths. Once you require more than 3oz or so to get your plastic into the strike zone, the overall presentation suffers somewhat. When rigging the 6-8” jerk-shad style plastics, which are commonly used for this sort of fishing, with a jighead larger than 3oz, the combination looks rather odd. You end up with this large lead head and an out of proportion tail trailing off it. One of the easiest and more successful ways to fish plastics like this is by rigging them on a paternoster rig (often called a dropper rig) which sees separation of the plastic used to tempt the fish and the weight used to get it into the strike zone. This rig is the same as is often used for fishing baits, so we know it works. In fact, bait can still be offered on one hook of the rig

At the top of the loop, twist the shorter tag end of the leader material around one side of the loop approximately 4-5 times, leaving a small loop as shown.

Keep pulling evenly on all 3 pieces until the knot comes up tight. Do not pull this up too fast or jerk on the leader as you will burn and weaken the monofilament or fluorocarbon leader at the knot. Once the knot is secure, the dropper loop is complete.

Twist the loop around and then pass it back over the hook again so that it is crisscrossed over the hook shank as shown. Pull this up tight. 106

OCTOBER 2014

if anglers new to lure fishing are hesitant. However most are usually surprised to note that the plastic is the one to produce the bites. For fishing plastics you do not need a double paternoster rig. I generally only use the one plastic offering. I will demonstrate the double hook rig for the sake of this month’s demonstration and you can make your rigs however you want. The paternoster rig can be fished with all kinds of tackle from larger overheads to baitrunner rod and reel outfits to quality light spin rods. The soft plastic and braided line combination has less drag in the water than baits fished off heavier rigs and therefore less weight is often required to get the offering into the strike zone. PATERNOSTER PIECES To make this rig you will only need a few fairly basic pieces of terminal tackle

and a couple of jerk shad or larger curl-tail plastics. I predominately use Gulp Jerkshads and Z-man StreakZ for fishing the depths but there is a huge array of good products that will catch most deep water dwellers. The main leader portion can either be fluorocarbon or monofilament, generally between 40-100lb depending on the size of the main line being fished and the type of tackle and terrain. I generally opt for around 60lb monofilament (I am dubious as to how much difference fluorocarbon makes in deep water where minimal light penetrates) as I commonly fish around 40lb braided mainline in 80-130m. There are numerous hooks that can be used for this application and the only stipulation is that the hook is strong enough for the task at hand and is also an inline (not offset) pattern such as an

Take the opposite side of the loop and pass it through the smaller loop that was just formed from twisting the two sections together.

Fold the dropper loop flat and pass it through the hook eye from the gape side of the hook. Pass the loop over the entire hook as shown.

Pass the hook through the plastic with the hook coming out through the belly slit of the plastic (if your plastic has one). Pull the hook eye just inside the head of the plastic. Turn the hook 180° in the plastic and then pass the hook point back through the plastic at the position where the rear of the hook bend is.

O’Shaughnessy. A selection of snapper leads or bomb sinkers will allow you to change the weight at the bottom of the rig, depending on the current. At the top of the paternoster we generally put a swivel to decrease the amount of twist and to allow easy attachment to the main line via a blood or uni knot. Let’s put all these together

to make the paternoster plastics rig. ASSEMBLY To make a double paternoster you will need around 2.5m of leader material, two hooks, a swivel, a bomb or snapper sinker and one or two plastics. For the sake of this knot tying demonstration I am using some cord to make it easier for you to see.

Make a basic loop in your leader material approximately 1m from one end. The larger the loop of leader material the longer the completed dropper loop will be. I generally start with a loop that is around 20cm across.

Pull the loop through further while keeping tension on both sides of the tag ends. Pull evenly on all 3 pieces of leader in a virtual triangle configuration.

You can push a short piece of piano wire or heavy (approximately 200lb) monofilament through the head of the plastic at the position of the hook eye. With this short section going through the hook eye, the plastic will be extremely difficult to pull back off the hook. I sometimes use a flame to mushroom each end of the monofilament after I have inserted it to stop it pulling through. If you want to use a second plastic, about a metre along the monofilament leader (on the long end) repeat steps 2-8 to form your second dropper loop with hook and plastic. On the end of the leader above this attach your swivel with a blood knot or uni knot. On the other end, use an overhand knot to form a basic loop. This can be passed through the eye of your sinker and over the bottom for quick attachment and easy changing of weights. Your paternoster plastics rig is now ready for use. These rigs can be made in many sizes and I even know some anglers who use these (using smaller sizes of plastics and leader) when drift fishing in shallower water. However it is in strong currents and deep water where it is the most productive way to fish your plastics.

10 things to check on your trailer before you go SYDNEY

Christian Bold

Anglers who use their boat and trailer over the colder months generally check their trailer

LIGHTS If you still have globed lights on your trailer make sure you check them to ensure all lights are working. Although your lights may have been marketed as ‘submersible’, I believe that if you can remove a lens to replace a globe then it is not fully submersible. If you have LED lights, make sure that on each light more than half of the diodes (round things in the light) light up on each light.

regularly. However, for those of you who migrate in doors for winter and venture onto the water

once the temperature hits over 25°C, this is a must read for you. A lot of people neglect

RUST Although most boat trailers are galvanised they are still prone to rust. You will usually find that cross members are the worst offenders for rusting. If you notice some rust on your trailer, grab a wire brush and start rubbing it back. If you see raw metal that’s good. Grab a can of cold gal (galvanised spray paint) and give it two coats for protection. If you can’t see raw metal, grab a solid object (like a screw driver) and start poking the rusted area. If you can poke straight through the rust then it’s time to have the trailer repaired.

to service their boat trailer every year, and these trailers end up on the back of a tilt tray tow truck. I’m going to

BRAKES For those of you who have a trailer with a Gross Trailer Mass (GTM) over 750kg you must have a braking system on your trailer. If you don’t have brakes on your trailer and the GTM is over 750kg, get them fitted ASAP (it’s the law in Australia). Make sure your brakes are adjusted properly and there is plenty of brake pad left in your callipers. If you have rusted brake cable or brake line, have them changed before they break. It’s one thing to have brakes fitted to your trailer; it’s another for them to work.

Tyres should be checked for signs of wear.

TYRES Most trailer owners don’t think to check the condition of their tyres until it’s too late. Check the tread on your tyres for wear and the side walls for any cracks. If cracks appear in the tyre it’s an indication that the tyre is getting on in age and it’s time to change it.

Cancerous rust on rear cross member.

TOW COUPLING/SAFETY CHAIN Trailer owners rarely think to check their coupling and safety chain before they hook up to their car. The coupling can easily detach from a tow ball if its worn out and not locked on properly. Make sure your coupling fits onto the tow ball nicely and there is no play (movement) between the two. Ensure that there is grease in the coupling head and in the spring housing if you have an override coupling (used on trailers with brakes). Check the safety chain for any wear or warping. It is common to see chains too long and dragging on the ground when towing. This will weaken the chain.

give you 10 trailer checks you can do yourself to help keep your boat trailer on the road.

Mechanical brake calliper with worn and rusted brake pads.

MUD GUARDS A lot of people use the mud guards on their trailer as a step to get into the boat. Make sure there are no cracks or sharp edges on the mud guard as these can cause injuries to feet and legs if the guards give way.

This trailer has had replacement mud guards added.

BEARINGS Bearings are the cause of most trailer issues! To check the bearings jack the tyre off the road, place one hand at the top of the tyre and one on the bottom of the tyre, and move the tyre back and forth to feel for any play (wobble). If you can feel play in the bearing then there’s a good chance that the bearings need to be changed. Better to do it now then be stuck on the side of the road en route to your holiday destination.

Top: A damaged bearing. Above: A severely damaged bearing.

Trailer owners rarely think to check their coupling and safety chain before they hook up to their car.

WINCH STRAP/CABLE The winch strap or cable can start to fray over time. Straps can tear, which although annoying, will only cause you to lose your boat back into the water. Cables, however, can cause serious injury if they break while winching under load. The cable can flick back into the direction of the person winching and cause lacerations or worse still, loss of eyesight. Make sure you extend the strap or cable to its full reach and inspect for wear and tear. Although this is a checklist you can do yourself, if you are ever in doubt about the condition of your trailer it’s best to get your trailer looked at by a specialist. Make this

summer hassle-free and enjoy our beautiful waterways. • Christian Bold, also known as ‘The Trailer Guy’, is one of Australia’s leading trailer and caravan repair

SPRINGS Suspension on a trailer is vital for Australian roads. If your trailer doesn’t have the right springs or they are damaged then it will cause the trailer more harm than good. If you notice gaps appearing between the leaves of the spring and they’re compressed in the centre, it’s time to get a new set. Springs are what hold the axle, bearings, hubs and tyres to a trailer. If they break it can cause a lot of damage.

REGISTRATION It’s becoming more and more common now for people to forget to register their trailer. Now that rego stickers don’t need to be displayed on a trailer, people are forgetting to take their trailers for rego check and paying the registration. Make sure you keep your rego renewals in a visible spot until it’s due, that way you won’t be the one getting fined for not having your trailer registered.

specialists. As the director of Bold Trailers he is a licensed motor mechanic, auto electrician and automotive body builder. Christian is also an AUVIS and e-safety

examiner for the RMS. You can contact Christian at Bold Trailers on 02

8544 8114, or for more information visit www.

boldtrailers.com.au.

OCTOBER 2014

107

think An undedicated follower of fashion BRISBANE

The Sheik of the Creek

I broke my favourite pair of sunnies today. Bolles. Frames that dated back to the early 1990s. Kids used to give me curry about how old fashioned they were and said they made me look like a blowfly with glaucoma but I just ignored the little buggers and kept wearing them until they came back into fashion. The sunglasses that is, not the kids. So there I was, just looking through some rods in the tackle shop, tipped the head up to look on the top shelf, and bang, off they go. It seems a sad way for those glasses to end. These were the same glasses that sat for three months on a sandbank in the saltwater of the Mary River. Skipper took me under a mangrove branch when I was cast netting for some livies and knocked me overboard. The glasses came off and I couldn’t find them. That was until we came back to the same gutter at low tide three months later and there they were; sitting upright on the same sandbank,

waiting patiently. Upright, unscratched and not at all buried in the silt. How the tide hadn’t taken them off into the deeper parts of the gutter I can’t explain. It was a slightly bizarre experience, but I picked them up, spat on ‘em, and cleaned ‘em with some freshwater... good as new. So it seems ironic that after going through that, plus over 20 years of constant battering while driving, boating and hunting, that they should meet their end on the floor of a suburban shop. But the end it must be. One of the arms cracked off and a lens popped out when the frame broke. They’re just tired and need a rest. I know the feeling. But I feel disappointed that they didn’t go in a more exciting way. Falling under the soft tyre of a four wheeler while chasing a sucker across a melon hole flat, or whipping off my head while smashing across the Wide Bay Bar. Just an anticlimactic clunk onto a concrete floor. Some people wouldn’t be worried about losing a 20 year old pair of goggles, but I’ve always been

someone who likes to hang on to things, clothes as well as glasses. You couldn’t call me trendy. Well, actually you could, but you’d be very wrong. That would be like calling me Gerald. You could call me Gerald if you wanted, but you’d be wrong there too, as that is not my name. And never has been. I can’t say it never will be, because one day in the future I may very well change my name to Gerald. Who knows. So, anyway, I’m not one for following fashions; I like comfortable clothes, and when I find comfortable clothes, I stay with them. I like to hang on to those old shirts and shorts, and luckily Stuffer often spends coin on new clothes and throws his old stuff my way. These are good quality shirts and duds. Which would make the trousers Dudd’s duds, but not dudd Dudd’s duds. Mostly by the time Stuffer throws them my way, they’re no longer trendy, but as I mentioned, that’s no drama to me. I end up with quite a few. More than a few actually. Last Dudd’s trip Stuffer looked at me before a session at Turkey and commented

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that if I had only been wearing his jocks, I would be dressed completely in his old gear. I didn’t tell him about his old jocks I was wearing, that would have just made him smug. A smug bugger. Or maybe I should say it would make him even smugger. An even smugger bugger. So I’ve resigned to not having those old goggles hanging around any more. It’s a shame but life goes on. I’ll get over it... especially if I can get a discarded pair from someone. I’ll have to check the pockets in the stuff Stuffer is sending over this week. Never know your luck.

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THE RECREATIONAL ANGLER’S LINK October is usually one of the best months on the water in the south east, after the westerlies and before the southeasters kick in fully. But Mother Nature is nothing if not fickle, we got the August westerlies late. Luckily though there were some great catches of good size whiting starting to show. FISHERIES MANAGEMENT REVIEW •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The port meetings are well underway. They have so far been attended by a fairly diverse group. Disappointingly though the numbers are not what MRAG Asia Pacific the consultants in the review process were hoping for. I am not sure whether this is because previous consultations have had negative impacts on

recreational fishers, or the message about the high level policy review rather than local issues have discouraged them or just general lack of interest. The review is intended to look, at a strategic level, at ways to move fisheries management into the future. This can best be achieved by providing the committee with as

much informed comment as possible. I urge everyone to provide their comments to the consultants prior to 5pm October 30. Comments can be made at port meetings or via email to qldfisheriesreview@ mragap.com.au. Please don’t confuse these meetings with the compliance port meetings.

HIGH SCHOOL FISHING TRIP – MORETON ISLAND •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• The fishing trip is open to all high school students. The cost is $25 for all day. Any high school student interested in attending a fishing competition

on Moreton Island on Saturday, October 11, 2014 please contact your school sports teacher or John and Judy Lynne. Enter on your own or

form a team of up to 5 members. Schools may enter more than one team. This competition is being co-ordinated by the Junior Anglers Association.

RECREATIONAL FISHING TOURISM •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• This is an extremely important economic and social contributor to many local and regional communities. Currently there are nine areas that have been identified as having significant increased benefit to the Queensland economy if they were to be special management areas for recreational fishing. Rationale It is now an acceptance of fact that the economic and social benefits of recreational fishing can equal or exceed the economic value to the community of commercial net fishing in high population areas at considerably less expense to the environment. There is also an acknowledgement that commercial fishing in one form or another (including aquaculture) is a valid method for providing quality seafood to the non-fishing community. The Sunfish preferred option would be for that to be provided by aquaculture or line caught and provided to a domestic market only. Historically, areas that are fished by both recreational and commercial fishers at high density become confrontational or unfriendly at best. Recently it has become scientifically supported that commercial entanglement netting (not tunnel netting) is an activity that should not be in areas that are also high population areas for turtles,

dolphins or dugongs. Justification Queensland has 6,973km of coastline, this policy is only looking at 650km. Input has been received from across the State taking into account: • High population densities • High fishing tourism destinations • Populations of turtle, dolphins and dugongs • Commercial effort in identified areas by both number of participants and economic value • Relevant market value to buy out commercial effort in these identified areas. Recommendation That Net Free Areas be declared throughout Queensland in all areas where permanent netting closures presently apply and that additional netting closures be introduced firstly in the following areas with market value recompense to any identified commercial netting operation in these designated areas. Thereby resulting in: • increased enjoyment with a more valuable recreational fishing experience • increased marketability for recreational fishing tourism • with no reduction in TAC there will be an increased profitabilty for the remaining license holders. In 2003 the National Recreational and Indigenous Fishing Survey (funded by the Natural Heritage Trust) identified the importance of recreational fishing

SUNFISH KID’S FISHING DAYS •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Expressions of interest are open for the 2014-15 kid’s fishing days. We anticipate running between 30-35 events all

across the state. If you have a community group who may be interested in hosting an event please give me a call or send me

an email. We appreciate the benefits that this funding can provide to both urban and regional communities.

to regional economies. The survey stated 33% of Queensland households had at least one member who had fished in the last twelve months. The survey stated further that 60% of the catch was sourced from estuaries. Estimates of the direct cost or expenditure for recreational fishers targeting Barramundi suggest a value of approximately $51 per recreational fish as opposed to $19 per commercial fish (assuming a weight of 3kg). State governments (in particular, NT) have been prudent to recognise the recreational fishing contribution to local economies. In Darwin, for example it is claimed each recreationally caught Barramundi is currently worth $3,500 to Darwin’s economy. Many of these areas are at various stages of advancement, gaining support from and collaboration with their local communities. Next month I will commence to highlight and provide greater clarification on these individual areas.

www.sunfishqld.com.au

Email: judylynne@sunfishqld.com.au

What’s new boating

SEA JAY SAMURAI HULL

Sea Jay’s Samurai hull is designed with precision and accuracy using the latest manufacturing techniques. It makes for a stylish and streamlined hull that slices through the waves. Like all Sea Jay hulls it has been designed using 3D modelling to achieve the best performance. The Samurai hull is available in the Vision and Velocity models, both with a raised sheer line and Sea Jay’s reverse chine with 3mm sides and 4mm bottom. The Vision centre console has a sharper entry to improve the ride. It comes in three lengths with an optional T top. The Velocity’s increased deadrise and sharper entry means it parts the water like no other. It has a larger high front cast deck with lots of storage within the hatch. It can be fitted with a small centre or rear console, and a side console Sports model is available. It comes in three lengths. For more info visit www.seajayboats.com. au. – Sea Jay.

FORMOSA MK4 AND V2

Brisbane-based Formosa Marine (manufacturer of the popular Classic and Tomahawk Aluminium plate boat ranges) have launched the Classic MK4 and SEA-ROD V2 Hulls for their 520, 550 and 580 models. The boats will be officially revealed at this year’s Brisbane Boat Show (Sep 11-14). While maintaining the great performance and key design and strength features of the current range (4mm bottoms with longitudinal stringers, marine grade plywood floors and 32mm hand rails) Formosa has added some new enhancements. These include: • 4mm sides as standard in 520, 550 and 580 models; • Pillar post side ribs – allows for cables and hosing to be neatly run out of view; • No side sheet pressing – sleeker look; • Reinforced transom – upgrade in horsepower capacity available; and • New internal fittings. All models 430,455, 480 and 500 will still be available as a MK3 and V1 Deluxe hull. Further details can found at www. formosamarineboats.com.au. - FB

HUMMINBIRD AUTOCHART LIVE

Humminbird’s AutoChart LIVE is a DIY mapping program that allows anglers to create their own precision digital contour maps, live and on the fly. For anglers fishing waterways that haven’t been accurately surveyed or not surveyed at all such as estuaries, rivers, lakes, inshore areas, even offshore features – AutoChart LIVE comes into its own. On rivers and streams where changing water levels and underwater topography are frequently altered; in estuaries where storms change the landscape and create new channels and structure, AutoChart LIVE lets boaters navigate safely while discovering new fishing hotspots. Offered as a free software upgrade for users of Humminbird’s ONIX and ION Cross TouchTM touchscreen units, AutoChart LIVE provides eight hours of mapping data. After eight hours of data have been compiled, users can either erase the data and commence mapping, or buy a Zero Line Map Card (BLA Code 103648). The RRP is $179. For more info visit humminbird.com.au/technology/ humminbird-autochart. – BLA

MEGA FLOW EXHAUST OUTLET

These highly polished, 316 marine grade stainless steel exhaust outlets from Marine Town provide excellent protection against water intrusion. Each outlet incorporates an integral, pivoting 316 grade stainless steel flapper valve which is specially designed to inhibit water intrusion back into the exhaust system. To ensure engine exhaust water has minimal contact with the hull an ingenious stand off collar has been incorporated. This collar has been designed to keep residual drips, which have a tendency to streak and stain, away from the hull. For additional corrosion protection an earth/anode grounding wire connection screw has been incorporated into the retaining nut while a silicon hull gasket helps to provide a watertight seal. More detailed information and specs are available at www.bla.com.au. – BLA

SAVAGE’S 305 PUNT

Savage’s 305 Punt is every outdoor enthusiast’s best friend. The perfect size to take away on all your holidays and camping trips, this little boat will provide you with hours of on-water fun. The flat design and lightweight 42kg hull makes the 305 Punt the perfect car topper for your 4WD and is easy to launch and retrieve by yourself. This elementary boat has the bare essentials for boaters who want an easy, no-fuss boating experience. Standard features include bow and transom handles and rear and front bench seats, and the 305 Punt can also be optioned up to include a bimini and envelope, navigation lights and switch, a painted hull and full-length side rails. The Savage 305 Punt is available as a complete boat, motor and trailer package with a 3-year limited warranty. For more information on the 305 Punt or the entire Savage range visit www.savageboats.com. au. – Savage

GARMIN ECHO DV

Ideal for kayaks and smaller boats, Garmin’s new Echo DV fishfinders deliver near photographic views of structure and fish at a price that’s as compact as the units themselves. Comprising four models – Echo 551DV, Echo 301DV, Echo 201DV and Echo 151DV – the high-resolution Echo DV series includes an all-in-one transducer for 77/200kHz Garmin HD-ID sonar and DownVü scanning sonar, which can be displayed simultaneously on a horizontally or vertically split screen. The Echo DV series provides incredible underwater definition in shallow and deep, freshwater or saltwater – with remarkable below-the-boat views of bottom structure such as rocks, vegetation and drop-offs, as well as thermoclines, baitfish and target fish. Capable of displaying isolated targets and difficult-to-find secondary structure, DownVü’s finer, concentrated sonar signal allows users to see bottom structure more clearly, and helps anglers recognise variations bottom composition/hardness. Garmin Echo DV fishfinders have an IPX7 waterproof rating, with RRPs starting from $249 for the Echo 151DV. For more info visit: sites.garmin.com/clearvu-scanning. – Garmin

6 OCTOBER 2014

111

585 Bluefin Storm Cat BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

A brand new addition to their Cat series, the Bluefin 585 Storm Cat is a dedicated plate alloy tournament and sports boat set up to cater for

loaned his boat for a run up and down the Hinchinbrook Channel where, on a windy sort of day with plenty of chop about, I came away quite impressed with the angler friendly layout and overall performance of the sporty rig with its exceptionally eager 175 Yamaha on the transom.

SPECIFICATIONS Length of hull....................................................6.0m Length on trailer............................................. 7.65m Height on trailer................................................2.3m Beam..................................................................2.4m Hull construction.....4mm plate, 3mm plate alloy sides Weight of hull.................................................... 740k Deadrise of hull................................................... 16° Engines.....................................................135-175hp Engine fitted.............................175 Yamaha 4-stroke Fuel.................................................................... 110L Persons...................................................................5 Towing...................................Family 6 wagon or 4x4

seemed to be very impressive. The braked dual axle Bluefin trailer came with 10 central rollers plus 4 side support skids. It looked strong and the craft fairly flew off it when launched thanks to the multi roller system. On the water it was easy to take stock of features that showed just how much thought Bluefin Boats have put into the 585 Storm Cat to make it a successful tournament style craft. The craft was beautifully proportioned with not quite one half devoted to a forward casting deck, the remainder divided between skipper and passenger’s seating and associated helm area with additional area devoted to further casting decks aft. The finish was impeccable with the craft’s paint job

Hookless carpet is just one of the many angler orientated features found within the Storm Cat. the keen angler that prefers to invest hard earned cash in an Australian-made product rather than an imported rig. The reviewed craft was the pride and joy of Gavin Miles of Townsville, who generously

Gav’s boat was virtually stock standard throughout except for the electronics and electric motor on the bow pad to port. I found everything about this high performance craft

highlighted by an impressive side wrap. The 585 Storm Cat’s rod holder equipped wide side decks were carpeted in the same hookless carpet material as were all deck and floor areas.

Howling along at full noise the feisty Bluefin throws up an impressive rooster tail of spray. LAYOUT DEDICATED TO THE ANGLER There was lots of storage space with no less than 11 hatch equipped storage compartments – all featuring flat floor areas – throughout both front and rear work areas. Up front and immediately aft of the Storm Cat’s anchor hatch was a compartment large enough to accommodate both batteries for the craft’s Minn Kota electric motor as well as bags of clothing or smaller tackle boxes. Either side of the front seat spigot were 2 more storage compartments with another larger, full width, double hatch equipped compartment doubling as either an ice box or extra storage area. Complementing the 4 general storage hatches aft of the skipper and passenger’s seats was a dedicated 90L divider equipped live well linked to a Flo Rite Tournament Pro aeration system. The area amidships on the Storm Cat was dedicated to seating for skipper and passenger, although another 2 extra seat spigots on board provided flexibility in seating arrangements. The craft’s fully lined rod lock offered safe storage for rods around 2m in length and was situated

immediately to port of the first mate’s seat. A deck wash unit was set to starboard, tucked neatly into a side shelf immediately in front of the side console, which was equipped with a set of 6 upright rod racks, a grab handle and windscreen. The console’s flat upper

surface was dominated by two Lowrance HDS Gen 2 Touch units, a 9” to port and a 12” to starboard. The 9 does his navigation chores, and the 12 does the fish finding. This was a superlative set up, greatly enhanced by the Johnny Ray 360° swivel mount under the HDS 12, which allowed

Ready use outfits are easily stored within the Storm Cat’s big rod locker.

OUTBOARDS

MXT9.8S ........................................................ $1495 * MXT15S .......................................................... $1695 * MXT30EL Electric Start .................... $2495 * MXT40L Electric Start & Trim ..... $3745 *

See the full range www.maxusoutboards.com.au OR CONTACT A QUEENSLAND DEALER...

112

ANGUS SMITH MARINE TOWNSVILLE Plume St Townsville 4810 Phone: 07 4771 4046

REBEL AUTO REPAIRS WEIPA 27 Iraci Ave, Weipa Phone: 07 4069 7708

THE BOAT CHANDLERY BUDDINA 12 Orana St Buddina 4575 Phone: 07 5444 8625 or 0402 105 502

BUTLERS MARINE SERVICE BUNDABERG 1 Collins St Bundaberg East 4670 Phone: 07 4152 5660

SEA ADEX CAPALABA 2/82 Redland Bay Rd Capalaba 4157 Mobile: 0414 821 448

GOLD COAST BOAT WORX Unit 1/10 Pacific Ave, Miami 4220 Phone: 07 5572 0639

STEVE FLEETWOOD MARINE GLADSTONE 10 Morgan St Gladstone 4680 Phone: 07 4972 9463

BOATIES WAREHOUSE MARYBROUGH 21 Ellena St Marybrough 4650 Phone: 07 4122 4819 or 0423 219 717

TWEED TACKLE AND MARINE 47 Greenway Drive, Tweed Head South 2486 Phone: 07 5523 3535

OCTOBER 2014

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME

RELEASED

60HP $6500

*These prices at participating stores. Additional installation costs may apply.

KINGAROY GREAT OUTDOOR AND MARINE 1 Ivens St Kingaroy 4610 Phone: 07 4163 6333 BONZA AUTOMOTIVE 45 ARNOLD ST, AEROGLEN 4870 Phone: 07 4058 2776

BBB MARINE AND WELDING SERVICES PADGET/MACKAY 81 Archibald St Padget via Mackay 4740 Phone: 07 4952 1412 GATEWAY BAIT AND TACKLE BRIBIE ISLAND / PACIFIC BLUE MOBILE MARINE 1383 Bribie Island Rd Ningi 4511 Phone: 07 5429 8825 or 0417 027 086

the unit to be viewed while working up front. Lower on the console’s outer surface were gauges to monitor the big Yamaha 175 astern plus an 8-plug switch panel. A Fusion MS IP600G audio system was standard with controls also console mounted. Seating consisted of 2 very well padded and very supportive pedestal bucket seats, which provided high comfort levels when travelling fast. At the Storm Cat’s helm I noted ample legroom under the console, easily reached engine controls and ample visibility. The craft was a treat to drive and the engine extremely willing, with trim easily utilised and the sports feel wheel linked to the hydraulic steering adding to the enjoyment of the experience. Seating was by no means cramped and it was quite easy to move out from a seat to fish once the HDS12 indicated it was time to do so. Three gunwale mounted rod holders per side were standard while stern features included a check plate boarding platform each side of the Yamaha 175. STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE Stability is an important requisite in this style of sports fishing craft and I found the 585 Storm Cat was a virtual rock at rest. With a width of

A stylish eye catching wrap gives Gavin’s 585 Storm Cat a very unique appearance. 2.4m, prominent under hull pressings plus a hull weight of 740kg the big wide 6m long hull with its 4mm plate bottom and 3mm plate alloy sides was very hard to put off a level attitude. In my trials even three of us on one side made virtually no difference at all. As I saw it, up to 4 anglers could fish in comfort and not be in each other’s way when working thanks to overall roominess and stability. The Storm Cat’s performance was really outstanding; the ride a real eye opener. The maximum power 175 Yamaha 4-stroke purred into life as the key turned and gently pushed the Storm Cat onto an easy plane at 16.4km/h at 2100rpm. The big punt, with 3 people aboard, plenty of fishing gear and ice plus a full 110L of

fuel aboard, cruised sweetly at 28.6km/h at 3000rpm. At 4000rpm, we saw 47.4km/h on the HDS9 unit while 5000rpm saw her slipping over the chop at 68.4km/h. Wide open throttle (5700rpm) from the 2.8L DOHC in-line four saw me hanging onto my hat at 74.8km/h. While the speed was impressive, the sheer gentleness of the ride as the powerful craft whipped over chop demonstrated just how well designed the Bluefin Ezi Ride hull was, with impact reduced to mere slight bumps and the well designed bow slicing cleanly and pushing water well away from the hull. An impressive rooster tail of spray naturally followed us up and down the channel at speed although no spray came aboard while powering

across chop. When travelling across waves, with the wind quartering, some spray was evident but I was surprised at how dry the low profile hull was in conditions that might have caused us to be donning wet gear. It must be acknowledged that speed is the trick: keeping the craft moving fast and trimmed out a little keeps the ride dry. Engine wise, I would have no hesitation in rigging the Storm Cat with a 150hp outboard given the ease that the hull shifted along. SUMMING UP In summing up, and discussing fishability, there’s no denying the fact that this sort of sports and tournament rig is a highly specialized craft suited probably best to sheltered or semi sheltered waters with estuary work on good days no issue at all. The stability, sheer speed and overall roominess make it a formidable fishing machine and the manner in which Gavin has set up his particular craft is very impressive to say the least. The factory finish of the Bluefin was quite outstanding with welds neatly finished, upholstery of best quality and the paint job also well executed. In all, I saw the Blue Fin 585 Storm Cat as a great craft for the enthusiast or competition angler wanting a

top-performing rig. Price, as provided by Cunningham’s Marine of Clontarf, Brisbane, and with the impressive electronics package was $69,900. Basic boat, motor and trailer packages start at $54,990 with 175hp Verado. • Quoted performance

figures have been supplied by the writer in good faith. Performance of individual boat/motor/trailer packages may differ due to variations in engine installations, propellers, hull configurations, options, hull loading and trailer specifications.

Top: A divider equipped live well is an important feature in a serious sports fishing rig. Bottom: Ample comfort and plenty of support were offered by the Storm Cat’s well-designed pedestal seats.

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113

Sensational 6400 Yellowfin Synergy BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

Telwater’s Yellowfin plate boats have a very interesting history. They gained a popular following in the 1980s, were discontinued for a spell, then resurrected in late 2009 as value for money, well finished and strongly constructed plate craft with a ‘modern as tomorrow’ design. Features within the new range of Yellowfin cabin and centre console craft were designed to make fishing as easy and successful as possible. At the initial release of these new Yellowfin boats, I liked the concept of scupper drainage of tread plate floors, live bait wells, kill tanks for the catch, berley buckets, welded rod holders, big transom doors, wide side decks, useful large side pockets and bait stations. Complementing these attributes were vee hull designs that emphasised ride quality and easy handling. Heading far offshore in search of serious fish would never be a chore in these well-designed craft.

trailer, was that the design parameters would see the craft ideally set up for keen anglers, yet still quite suited for blue water fishing as well. Offshore at Mooloolaba, Damien Duncan of Telwater explained that both the 6400 and 6900 Synergy Consoles were designed with northern anglers in mind: two 150L underfloor fuel tanks, three pedestal seats, six seating positions, a 65L live bait tank, four welded rod holders, up front storage compartments,

and a 130L compartment that could double as an ice box. SOLID CONSTRUCTION A BIG PLUS Putting the solid list of features aside for a moment, the Yellowfin success story starts at the Coomera Telwater factory. Construction is rigid thanks to a robust underfloor frame work of solid longitudinal and cross bearers linking the extruded keel to the craft’s 4mm plate sides and 5mm plate bottom. A solid tread

plate floor adds to the overall rigidity, as do full welds. Yet there’s more to the craft than an almost over-build construction. Finish is up with the best, welds visible but smoothed, hatches were neatly recessed with strong hinges, the paint job designed to look good while lasting for years. As the craft is well kitted out in standard form there are not many options on the factory’s list. A radio, bimini

QX064

6400 SYNERGY CONSOLE EXTENDS THE RANGE Complementing the existing Yellowfin range are newly released 6400 and 6900 Synergy console craft, which offer all of the traditional centre console work room, as well as ready access to the hull’s storage areas. My initial impression on surveying the big 6400 centre console rig, on its dedicated Quintrex drive-on

Left: The new 6400 Yellowfin Synergy is a very trim looking craft. Above: A dedicated roll-off/drive-on trailer made ramp work with the solid Yellowfin very easy indeed.

Built tough by the best boat guys in the business. Trailers can be optioned up with a swing away draw bar if you have size restrictions in your yard or garage.

Swing up jockey wheels are standard across the range.

Extensively tested, undergoing a simulated 100,000km around a specialist Army ‘Torture’ test track. Constructed from rolled aluminium I-Beam creating an overall stronger frame with no weak points and less flex.

The first aluminium trailer suited for boats as small as 4.2m.

All Quintrex trailers have drive-on capability.

Our range has a proven lifespan 3 times longer than steel trailers (aluminium is extra resilient to rust and corrosion).

You love our boats, now you can love our trailers. The new range of Quintrex aluminium trailers are perfect for your current Quinnie or as an upgrade for your existing boat. We’ve built in some unbeatable features and created a range big enough to match a long list of old and new boat sizes. See the full range and find your nearest dealer at quintrex.com.au 114

OCTOBER 2014

Top: The Yellowfin’s large forward storage compartment could serve many purposes, even storing an icebox for the catch. Above: The elevated cast deck could see three anglers working with ease. Take note of the generous size of the storage compartments.

and envelope, deck wash and berley bucket are listed along with anchor winch plate, winch and two-tone paint. The 6400 Yellowfin Synergy Console is a lot of boat; bare hull weight is 860kg, beam is 2.4m and overall length is 6.44m. A freeboard of 1.3m ensures a high degree of sea keeping ability and matched by deep interior depth inspires great confidence when working in wild conditions. The craft had three seat positions at the console, another two near the cast deck, plus another on the deck. The set up allows for easy weight distribution during those tropical runs where two hour’s travelling to a favourite bit of rubble or barra water is nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever. The 380mm high front deck was set up with two hatched storage bins suited to either tackle, tucker, or in the case of the larger compartment, a convenient place for the catch. A WELLPLANNED LAYOUT The Yellowfin’s trim centre console was well thought out. Handholds on top and both sides were standard, there was an EPIRB mounting point to port, plus a storage shelf inside for personal items. On the test craft paired Evinrude I-Command gauges and a switch panel were set into the vertical upper section of the console but the gauges could easily be relocated and a couple of 12” screens installed in lieu. Helm seating consisted of well-padded and very comfortable bucket style seats on pedestals. The 6400 was a sweet craft to helm: hydraulic steering offered fingertip control while the 175hp E-Tec engine controls set into the starboard side of the console were slick, instantly responsive, and without jarring or glitching. Aft of the helm area the

cockpit side pockets were long and wide enough to offer good storage space and, moreover, offered toe-holds under them to brace against. The cockpit door, to starboard, was quite large and had an accompanying boarding ladder for a swimmer’s use. Solid bow and stern rails complemented the Yellowfin’s design without being intrusive. The craft’s clear lidded live well was set into the port quarter of the wide transom that housed, on its lower area, compartments for a pair of batteries complete with an isolator switch. SUPER RESPONSIVE 175 E-TEC Power ratings were 115-175hp. The maximum

solid Yellowfin hull, with three aboard, perform like a small Stacer or Quinnie. It burst the craft onto the plane and, most importantly for offshore work, offered a rolled gold guarantee of instant power response when required. And if you don’t think that’s an important power consideration, you’ve never had a big green one breathing down your transom! The fuel injected V6 175 two-stroke could be throttled back to 3000rpm to offer a gentle ocean cruising speed of around 38.2km/h with a fuel consumption of just 18.9L per hour. Ocean cruising saw the Yellowfin in its chosen element. Swells pressing from astern caused

TECHNICAL INFORMATION Length hull:......................................................6.44m Length on trailer:.............................................6.80m Height on trailer:..............................................2.75m Beam:..............................................................2.40m Construction: . Plate alloy bottom 5mm, sides 4mm Weight of hull:.................................................. 860kg Deadrise hull:....................................................... 20º Fuel:...................................................................300L Engine ratings:.......................................... 115-175hp Engine fitted:......................... 175 E-Tec Oeda 3 star Persons:...................................................................5 Towing:................................... 6 wagon or larger 4x4 rated 175 Evinrude E-Tec offered instant, almost fierce, response offshore from Mooloolaba and made the

not the slightest deviation from a chosen course and incoming rollers were crested in a surprisingly gentle

The twin Evinrude I-Command dials offered a wealth of information for the skipper. manner without any fuss or nasty impact whatsoever. The other recorded speeds were: planing occurred at 2300rpm at 18.9km/h, 4000rpm saw 52.9km/h, 5000rpm a feisty 61.5km/h and WOT of 5400rpm saw 66.7km/h on the I-Command gauge. Not every owner will require maximum power of course and I’d see a 130 E-Tec still making easy work of powering the solid Yellowfin with larger payloads, a 115 when two up would be the norm. SUMMING UP The ability to travel far in comfort then fish with ease is foremost in these top end orientated rigs, as it should be. Stability of the solid plate rig with its 20º outer spray chine equipped vee hull was impressive with even three

on one side hardly causing any leaning whatsoever. Like other centre console craft, virtually all of the interior offers fishing room. A couple of anglers could work aft with ease, another three up front on the big fore deck would do it just as easy. The flexibility in seating offers just that bit extra comfort when undertaking a long trip while the storage space caters for individual gear requirements, tucker and tackle. In summing up the Yellowfin 6400 Synergy I’ve given it full marks as a well set up, great performing fishing craft. Rated for five people it has a lot to offer in terms of value for money and comfort levels for those aboard. Ramp work was easy

Flexible seating was a huge bonus in the 6400 Synergy. going thanks to the rig’s dedicated trailer; also at day’s end that self-draining floor would be very easy to clean after hard use. The well-finished and impressive looking Yellowfin comes with a 3 year Telwater backed structural warranty. Price of the rig as reviewed from Springwood Marine would be $64,435 with 175hp E-Tec or basic package with 115hp E-Tec for $58,990.

Contact Springwood Marine on 07 3297 8200 or visit www. springwoodmarine.com.au. • Quoted performance figures have been supplied by the writer in good faith. Performance of individual boat/motor/ trailer packages may differ due to variations in engine installations, propellers, hull configurations, options, hull loading and trailer specifications.

CONTACT A DEALER NEAR YOU

SW4200 2 models - Open/Centre Console Design - Ride - Safety - Stability

BRISBANE

Pacific Marine Centre Ph 07 3801 1722

SUNSHINE COAST

North Coast Boating Ph 07 5493 9376

HERVEY BAY

Buccaneers Boats Ph 07 4124 6988

GLADSTONE Colour Chart

Centre Console

MACKAY

AT LAST! What the boaties have wanted and needed is all available in this ‘Perfect for Fishing’ Smartwave SW4200. Wow! You won’t beat this boat for stability, safety, dry and smooth riding even in the rough waters and best of all it is seriously user friendly.

Curtis Coast Marine Ph 07 4972 0135

Ocean Marine Ph 07 4952 2436 With its flat internal floor and hidden conduits, all cabling for steering etc. is right out of the way allowing for an excellent safe and clean layout. This means the boat is ideal for the serious fishing guru or the whole family - kids and all.

CAIRNS

Bills Marine Ph 07 4051 6733

www.smartwaveboats.co.nz Phone: 1800 073 463 OCTOBER 2014

115

This section in QLD 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.

SUNSHINE COAST

Boat Mechanics – Mobile

Promote your Sunny Coast boat hire business here! For as little as $15 per month. Phone (07) 3387 0800 Email ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

Advertisers wanting to be involved in this directory can call (07) 3387 0800 or email ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

GOLD COAST

CAPE YORK

For all your Honda sales and service needs

Bait & Tackle

4/26 Taree Street Burleigh Heads Qld

GOLD COAST

Phone 07 5522 1933

BEST LURE RANGE THE Fishing GOLDON COAST

MOBILE SERVICE AVAILABLE

PHONE: 07 4069 3695 www.capeyorkboats.com.au

CAPE YORK, QLD

TOP BRANDS • TOP SERVICE • GREAT PRICES

INSIDE SPORTY’S WAREHOUSE

07 5526 2786

MAIL ORDERS

WELCOME

32 Straithaid Rd BUNDALL 4217 QLD

Boat Licencing BRISBANE

GOLD COAST

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Tackle Warehouse Brisbane (07) 3398 6500

CLA SSE AVAIL S OVEABLE WEE R KEN DS

BCF www.bcf.com.au Victoria Point Bait and Tackle (07) 3820 9581 Spinnaker Sound Chandlery Ningi (07) 5497 6007 FTO Tackle Outlet Brisbane 0416 017 094

Boat Hire – House GOLD COAST

www.bundallmarinecentre.com.au

5504 7446

Bundall Marine Centre

No.1 Ashmore Rd, Bundall

BRISBANE WIDE

0422 198 651

MACKAY / WHITSUNDAYS

Great family and fishing boats!

Marine Mechanics

+ 50km of sheltered waterways on the Gold Coast’s Broadwater + No Licence required + Boats from $895 + 2-12 berth

W h ui ttsbuOnadrady O entre C

GOLD COAST

We Service all Motor Brands! 1 William Murray Drive Cannonvale Qld

07·4946 7286

• Sales • Service • Spare Parts • Warranty and Insurance work * REPOWER SPECIALISTS *

+ 07 5502 6200 + houseboat.net.au

www.runawaybaymarineservice.com.au

2/247 Bayveiw St Runaway Bay

Boat Hire – House

GEOFF NEWMAN PH 55774411

Marine Trailers Oceanic Boat Trailers (07) 5597 0577

Lake Monduran House Boat www.lakemonduranhouseboathire.com.au

Boat Hire – Trailer

Bundall Marine Centre – Servicing all makes and models. MOBILE SERVICE AVAILABLE (07) 5504 7446 Whitewater Marine (07) 5532 4402

GOLD COAST

Walk on/off, or tow away Fish finder/gps, marine radio, all safety gear Half day, full day, and overnight rates True locals with great advice www.goldcoastboathire.com.au 20 Georgia St, Coombabah 0432 710 892 Boab Boat Hire - 1300 002 622

www.whitsundayoutboardcentre.com.au

QLD HONDA DEALER OF THE YEAR 2011/2012

CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

Authorised Mercury Outboard and Mercruiser Motor Sale and Service Centre

Seatrail Trailers www.seatrailqld.com.au Tinnie Tosser (07) 5498 7339 Sea-Link Special Trailers (07) 3881 3568

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Brisbane Yamaha (07) 3888 1727 Northside Marine (07) 3265 8029

Marine Electronics

MARINE ELECTRONICS

Coastal Powerboats (07) 5568 0904

SALES • REPAIRS • INSTALLATIONS

Coorparoo Marine (07) 3397 4141

ONSITE AND MOBILE INSTALLATIONS

Capalaba Boat Centre 04011 728 379 Holt Marine (07) 3353 1928 Cunninghams Marine (07) 3284 8805 Caloundra Marine (07) 5491 1944 Bribie Boat Sales (07) 3408 0055

NORTH BRISBANE Reef Marine Mackay (07) 4957 3521

WANT IN? EMAIL : ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

• Sounders • GPS • Electric Motors • Marine Radios and accessories • Stereos • Televisions • Radar Units • Autopilots Unit 4/1440 New Cleveland Road Capalaba www.trymax.com.au PHONE: 07 3245 3633

Boat Modifications and Repairs

FLUSH YOUR ENGINE WITH

• • • • • • •

WARNING!

9 out 10 engines fail from salt corrosion

D&H REEL REPAIRS

•

CORROSION CONTROL SALT REMOVING TREATMENT

Rod and Reel Repair

SAMPLE AD -BUSINESS NAME Spray painting Re-sprays Fairing Paint protection Touch ups Repairs New or old Anti-fouling Fiberglass repairs

This is where your copy will appear. You will have approximately 50 words Professional paint jobs made last. within a 5x2 to ad size. Email job too big or too small! Noads@fishingmonthly.com.au

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rts needs irs and spare pa pa re el re ur yo l For al Servicin Phone/Fax: 07 3372 2740 or major b g all call Duncan on 0439 717 839 rands Email: dhreelrepairs@bigpond.com Drag upgrades available • Rod repairs • Mail orders welcome

Shed 3 Redland City Marina 100 Beveridge Road Thornlands 4146 Qld

WWW.BRISBANEBOATPAINTING.COM.AU

Marine Outboard Wreckers SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND

www.reelrepairs.com.au North Queensland 110 Sherbrooke Rd, Willawong Qld 4110 JT Reel Repairs, Mackay 0427 552 485 or (07) 4955 2485 Southeast Custom Rod Building and Repairs 0438 055 877

ACT NOW AND PROTECT YOUR VALUABLE BOAT, ENGINE, TRAILER, FISHING AND DIVE GEAR.

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SALT-AWAY IS A MUST FOR:

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This is where your copy will appear. You will have approximately 50 words within a 8x2 ad size.

WASHING BOATS FISHING & DIVE GEAR

1800 091 172

VISIT www.salt-away.com.au SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND North Queensland Outboard Wreckers Townsville 1800 812 748

Online Tackle Products Continued

07 5529 2292

U-Make-Em Sort Plastics www.u-make-emsoftplastics.com.au

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND

CUSTOM MARINE WELDING & ELECTRICAL Marine and Auto Electricial n All types of Welding n Stainless Steel n Aluminium n Mild Steel n Boats Repaired n Fuel & Water Tanks n Canopies n Bow and Stern Rails n Custom Vehicle Tool Boxes

Hemingways on Tin Can Bay (07) 3219 9376 Bribie Island Real Estate (07) 3408 1006

MORETON ISLAND

BOAT TRANSPORT AUSTRALIA WIDE FROM A TINNY TO 50 FEET WEEKLY SERVICE BRISBANE TO CAIRNS

Shed 1 281 Jacobs Well Road Behind GEM Service Station, Alberton 4207

Mob 0427 142 201 Fax 3807 2468

www.custommarinewelding.com.au Bluewater Windscreens Brisbane (07) 3382 7883 ASM Mobile Welding Brisbane 0409 624 402 Marine Windows and Doors Brisbane (07) 3284 5088 Small Craft Electrics (mobile) 0408 063 064 Boat Collar (07) 5441 3636 CMC Marine Sales 0409 910 808

• • • • • •

moretonbeachhouse@bigpond.com

MOBILE MARINE CANOPIES Canopies Bimini tops Cockpit covers Front and side clears Full boat covers Upholstery Pontoon carpet ... and more!

Professional paint jobs made to last.

all!

No job too big or too sm

0433 356 620

0403 704 555

BRISBANE

•

✦ Beachfront accommodation ✦ Sleeps up to 12 ✦ Self contained ✦ BBQ ✦ TV ✦ Foxtel ✦ Walk to “Gutter Bar”

Marine Trimmers

Boat Painting

Spray painting Re-sprays Fairing Paint protection Touch ups Repairs New or old Anti-fouling Fiberglass repairs

Moreton Beach House Kooringal

DJ Freight Marine Transport 0418 793 357 0427 341 076 contact@djfreight.com.au

Phone 3807 7846

•

Holiday Accommodation

Marine Transport

Aluminium fabrication • Steel fabrication • Boat repairs Boat modifications • Aluminium sales

•

ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

She Left Camera Sunglasses www.hdvcs.com.au

20 Wrights Place Labrador Qld 4215 website www.brumbsmarine.com.au email brumbsmarine@bigpond.com

Shed 3 Redland City Marina 100 Beveridge Road Thornlands 4146 Qld

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FRASER ISLAND

OVER 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE

Fraser Island Fishing Units INDIAN HEAD

For bookings or enquiries contact: Cliff Andreassen 07 5449 9346 or 0428 712 283

Martin Costello 0434 615 936 www.mobilemarinecanopies.com

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Rowland Street Boat Trimmers Springwood (07) 3208 9511 Brisbane Yamaha (07) 3888 1727 Rays Canvas & Marine Caboolture (07) 5499 4911 Affordable Boat Covers Gold Coast 0419 424 587

A FISHO’S DREAM

bearfish@bigpond.com Waddy Lodge on Fraser 0414 516 364

WANT IN? EMAIL : ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

Hooker 1 Charters Gold Coast (07) 5528 6469

BURDEKIN

Sea Probe Fishing Charters 0400 312 330

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Fully setup fishing accommodation

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JC’s Fishing Charters 0438 753 382

Coastal Sports Fishing Charters Gold Coast 0412 691 929 Gone Fishing Charters Gold Coast (07) 5529 7833

Fairdinkum Fishing Charters Townsville (07) 4751 5324 Cairns Reef Charter Services 1800 119 044 Cairns Charter Boat 0427 533 081

Advertise here - $195 + GST for 6 months Email: ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

Cairns Fishing Charters 0427 400 027

Fishing Guides BRISBANE

SAMPLE AD - BUSINESS NAME

Frenzy Charters Brisbane (07) 3209 4576

This is where your copy will appear. You will have approximately 50 words within a 8x2 ad size.

Tom Cat Charters (07) 3820 8794

River of Gold Motel Plenty of room for boats and trailers PH: 4069 5222

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John Gooding Outlaw Charters 0418 738 750

Cardwell Beach Motel - www.cardwellbeachmotel.net (07) 4066 8776 or info.cbmotel@bigpond.com

SUNSHINE COAST Keely Rose Deep Sea Fishing Charters 0407 146 151 Odyssey Charters Deep Sea Fishing (07) 5478 1109

SAMPLE AD -BUSINESS NAME This is where your copy will appear. You will have approximately 50 words within a 5x2 ad size. Email ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

Smithy’s Fishing Charters Sunshine Coast 0407 574 868 Top Catch Charters Sunshine Coast 0429 013 012 Fish n Crab Charters Mooloolaba 0412 155 814

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Offshore Reef and Game Fishing 0413 485 402 Sunshine Coast Fishing Charters (07) 5500 0671 Fishing Offshore Noosa 0418 889 956

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND

Noosa Fishing Charters (07) 5665 8170

Suncoast Barra Fishing Park www.suncoastbarrafishing.com

Hervey Bay Fishing Charters (07) 4125 3958

CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

Incredible Charters 1300 655 818

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND

Lake Monduran Barra Charters 0407 434 446

HERVEY BAY

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Grassed Beachfront Camping • Air-conditioned Lodge Rooms Self-contained beach house • Licenced dinning facilities 4WD Cape York tours • Fishing charters • Boat Hire Booking agents for Peddells T.I Tours, gateway Horn Is tours, Brazakkas Helicoters and more.

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Fishing on TV Ph: 4069 3372 Fax: 4069 3770 Patsy: (07) 4069 3808 fishcapeyork@bigpond.com • www.loyaltybeach.com P.O Box 49, Bamaga QLD 4876

FRESHWATER

www.herveybaysportfishing.com.au

Andrew Chorley

CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

Yallakool Caravan Park on Bjelke-Petersen Dam (07) 4168 4746

Bite Me Fishing Charters Yeppoon 0419 029 397

Lake Boondooma Caravan Park (07) 4168 9694

Ultimate Sportfishing Charters 0450 753 726

Lake Cressbrook Regional Council 131 872

MV Capricorn Star 0408 755 201

Yallakool Park and Kiosk on Bjelke-Petersen Dam (07) 4168 4746

Charter Boats NORTHERN NSW Evans Head Deep Sea Fishing Charters 0428 828 835 Reel Time Fishing Charters 0428 231 962

GOLD COAST

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Fish’s Fly & Sportsfishing Weipa (07) 4069 9957

Paradise Fishing Charters 0403 531 428

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WANT IN? EMAIL : ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

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visit mercurymarine.com.au for details *Terms & conditions apply. Savings are based on RRP and is subject to change without notice. Prices exclude local freight charges, Fit up and local statutory charges. Offer available on selected new consumer outboards from 25 to 350hp purchased from participating dealers from Sept 12 to Nov 15, 2014. Offer is subject to availability and engines must be 2013 & 2014 build product and installed and registered by no later than Dec 31, 2014. Offer available to recreational and commercial use customers and is not subject to any further promotional offers or rebates. **Terms, conditions and credit criteria apply, offer available over a maximum 36 month term. The comparison rate is based on a secured loan of $30,000 for a term of 5 years at an annual percentage rate of 5.08%. The amount of credit provided to you and the term of the loan may be different to this. WARNING: The comparison rate only applies to the example given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might results in a different comparison rate. Finance is provided by Mercury Finance Pty Ltd ABN 28 156 248 092. Australian Credit Licence Number 421347