Spin reels and snapper go hand-in-hand. Aidan Robertson used a 3000 size threadline and 7kg braid to subdue this Sunshine Coast knobby. Photo by David Granville
Positive Spin
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What Trout Want
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The Ex Factor
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The Worm Has Turned
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Northern Exposure
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Brilliant Broughton
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A local angler enjoys a beautiful sunrise over the Solitary Islands off the coast of Coffs Harbour. Photo by John Featherstone
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They’re commonly known as ‘spinning’ reels and although some prefer to call them ‘threadlines’, everybody knows what an ‘eggbeater’ is. By any name, they are clearly the most widely used reels in fishing today. Warren Steptoe explains why.
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Wherever you live, one of the most useful outfits an Aussie fisho can own is a light ‘flick stick’ mounted with a small spinning reel. It’ll serve equally well anywhere from the wet tropics to Tassie trout water, with a multitude of fisheries in between, where most of us live and fish.
No doubt the least attractive aspect of JP fishing is the proliferation of wait-a-whiles. A spin reel’s ability to flick casts with minimal room to load the rod never stood us in better stead.
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A clump of wriggling beach worms on a chemically sharpened hook invariably proves irresistible to bream, whiting, flathead, and of course, jew.
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The working end of a super-adapted polychaete. The three sensory feelers can detect microscopic amounts of food in the rushing water, and they react by reaching around until they clamp onto it with their jaws. Much of their diet is drifting weed. The working end of a super-adapted polychaete. The three sensory feelers can detect microscopic amounts of food in the rushing water, and they react by reaching around until they clamp onto it with their jaws. Much of their diet is drifting weed.
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Chasing giant black marlin in Queensland’s far north is on most anglers’ bucket lists. Making the trek from the bottom end of the continent to get his first taste of the heavy tackle scene, Chris Baty maximised both his airfare and his time away by adding a little more than marlin to the piscatorial menu.
Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma’am! Throwing poppers and stickbaits around the reef edge will account for hard hitters like this red bass.
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Ticking off the bucket list. Northern Queensland’s black marlin draw keen anglers from all over the world, however there is much more to discover. Photo by David Granville 79
Quality browns like this one caught by Ben Harris are the norm for the Broughton River.
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The Broughton River lies in the mid north of South Australia and is an oasis of angling opportunity in a desert landscape, as Lubin Pfeiffer explains. Spinnerbaits are a great tool to fish the cod pools with. They have a good amount of flash and pulse, and the fish just love them. 95