Silver Bullets — Lubin Pfeiffer

and quickly acted the selfless friend offering him the casting opportunity, too proud to admit that I could not see a bloody thing after my long western lakes layoff. However, I didn’t feel I was missing out too much when my companion was refused on every cast, his good presentations were ignored and made fun of by a slow and deliberately tantalising inspection. Funnily enough, by watching these refusals, I was getting my eye in.

Cloud cover continued to darken the view, to the point where even my companion admitted a reluctant sight fishing defeat. A cold north westerly breeze reminded us of how much our early hopes of calm weather could be dashed by the unpredictability of the Central Plateau. I was happy that he wanted to have a break to decide our next move, our difference in leg length was slowly telling, I observed how much smaller his torso was than mine, which only served to highlight our difference in leg length, I think he’s part bloody emu. As the cloud was against us, we decided our best hope was a mayfly hatch somewhere, both knowing the back lakes well, we knew where to look.

Twenty or so minutes of shuffling along 30 metres behind the gazelle, a much calmer tarn glinted in the flats below us and rising fish instantly greeted us. Whilst no monsters, these were better than the average back lakes fish and almost as if the shore was made for us, there were two rocky points that allowed us to reach the rising trout and talk to each other as we watched our flies bob around in the ripples. Conversation was broken when a head broke the surface and slurped down my fly. Now, I’m a minimalist with everything, including fly fishing gear and so it seems backing. As the fish leaped and took me to the other side of the lake, I was down to the backing knot before I knew it. My long-legged companion offered some advice that I should continue to let the fish take line, “what line!?” I replied as I pointed to my empty reel. Luck however was on my side, somehow, it didn’t break. Three more fat dun feeders followed until things went quiet again. My friend grabbed his pack and suggested we head further south; however, my short-legged shuffling was never going to achieve it, “I’m a stayer, not a sprinter” I said, as old mate made a “twinkle toes” Fred Flintstone sound effect as I tried hard to stride out towards him. I could tell that he wanted to do a bigger circuit, but he seemed happy enough to turn around and head back after our success with the rising fish, thanks for letting me shuffle along for the day Baz. After all, we’d witnessed the TWWHA wake up, taken in the view, and caught a few fish, which is a mere bonus in this place, a place that deserves to remain wild.

“It’s not all about catching fish, or the fact that the area contains trout, that’s a scenario we were given by previous generations. It does however give the TWWHA another powerful stakeholder, to recognise what can be lost to privatisation and noise disturbance. World heritage area deserves to be wild; it’s earned that right for offering the planet another refuge from the expansion of the human population machine, a machine that seems to have a thirst for devouring more and more natural landscapes by the day for pure greed alone. It may not have an audible voice to stand up for itself, but it sure can speak to your soul”. Keep the Western Lakes wild and public. Brett Michael Smith & Mitchell Crowden

Light spin outfits will bring the best results with artificials

SILVER BULLETS

Lubin Pfeiffer

Tasmania is home to some fantastic inshore and estuary fishing. One of my favourite ways to experience this is by targeting silver trevally with lures. Silver trevally fight hard, will smash a well worked lure with gusto and taste great on the plate. When they get 1kg - 2kg in weight they become a real challenge to land on light tackle and a stack of fun. In this article I’ll run you through where to find the best trevally fishing I’ve experienced and also how to catch them.

Silver Trevally can be found in most bays, coastal rivers and around the inshore reefs that dot the Tasmanian coast line. I’ve had great sessions right along the east coast and all the way west towards Stanley. Like all of Tasmania’s fishing, there are still so many areas to explore! Of all the locations I’ve visited there are a few that have really stood out. The Scamander river on the states east is an amazing fishery and has some great Trevally to be caught. I’ve caught them from the mouth all the way up the river. When the Scamander river mouth is open, the blue holes below the town bridge are absolutely loaded with hungry silvers making it the ideal spot to target trevally from the bank. Travelling further up the river you will find trevally hunting schools of bait. These fish can either been seen smashing the surface, or down deep with the use of good electronics. The next location that is a must visit if you are looking for trophy sized trevally is the magical Ansons Bay. The spectacular fishery in the states North-east has the biggest silver trevally that I have caught and in very good numbers. The great thing about Anson’s is there is just so much water to explore. The shallow weedy main bay has a plethora of lure casting locations that I have only scratched the surface on. Heading toward the mouth of Ansons are some of the best flats I have fished in Tasmania and this is where I landed my personal best trevally this season. The trick here is to work with the tides. I really like an incoming tide for this location. You will find the big A selection of the authors favourite trevally lures

silvers hunting the sandy drop offs as the incoming tide brings the blue water in from the open ocean and stirs up the sandy bottom. Like the Scamander River, the Anson’s river also holds a very good population of bait hunting trevally. These fish are often bigger than the ones you will find in the Scamander. I’ve seen fish of around two kilos hanging around the fallen timber with the bream. I can tell you they take quite a bit of skilled rod work to extract them! If you’re exploring a new area in search of trevally, just look for areas of current that have signs of baitfish. The trevally are sure to be close behind.

Light spin outfits are my preferred option when targeting silver trevally. These are very easy to cast and work a lure with, and a light rod will also give you best indication as to what your lure is doing. I like to take a couple rods with me and swap depending on what level the wind is at. My first outfit is a 2.1m 1-3kg spin stick matched to a 25 or 2500 size spinning reel. The reel is loaded with 2 kilo braid in a highly visible colour such as yellow. Using brightly coloured braid will allow you to see it at all times, notice any small bites when the lure is sinking, and also when the lure has reached the bottom The other rod is once again 2.1m in length but a slightly heavier 2-4kg rating. This is perfect for punching in to the wind if you need to. I always prefer to fish as light as possible but having two outfits will increase the amount of fish you catch. I’ll run a 4kg fluorocarbon leader on both outfits about a rod length long and find this to be more than enough to stop most trevally in the bays and rivers. My leader is attached via an Albright knot.

Techniques

It is quite amazing how many different styles of lure fishing are now available for anglers that are willing to try new things. Yes, the old standard techniques still work very well but the tackle scene is constantly evolving and we as anglers get to reap the benefits. I’ll run you through a few of my favourite styles of fishing with lures that are super effective for silver trevally.

Nedrigs

Nedrigs are something that is quite new to me but they have really proven there worth in the short time I have been using them. A nedrig is a particular type of jig-head that allows the plastic to sit upright when it is at rest. This allows you to fish very long pauses in between moving the lure. I’ve been matching my nedrig heads to the ZMan TRD bugs or crawz which are an awesome yabby imitation. Silver trevally simply can’t resist these type of baits as they love to gorge themselves on sand yabby’s and small crabs. I was quite amazed how lifelike nedrigs are in the water the first time I saw them. Using a plastic such as the ZMan brand is important with this technique as they naturally float, so the plastic will sit upright and wave around at rest. Once again you have to be in contact with the lure without moving it, so it takes a little bit of practise to master. It was very cool the first time I tried this technique as I was surprised how hard they smashed the lure after it had be sitting static for a number of seconds. They must eye it off for a little while before plotting an attack and coming in and nailing it. I’ve had most success with the bloodworm colour matched to a black jig-head for clear water presentations, and for water with a bit of colour I like to use a colour such at the hot snakes with a hot orange or chartreuse jig head. There are lots of other colours that would produce so its just a matter of trying a couple different ones to see what works best in your local haunts. The nedrig jighead weights come in 2 - 3 gram which is great for getting them to the bottom in a range of locations. I really like using these on open mudflats or sand flats where the fish are mooching around and can be harder to tempt with other techniques. Big Ansons trevally caught using a nedrig.

Grubbing

Well worked soft plastic baits will catch a stack of fish

Nothing catches estuary fish quite like a 2.5inch Zman grub in my opinion. For Tasmanian waters the motor oil and blood worm patterns are true stand outs. I like to use grubs around structure. Any thing from timber, man made structure and along rock walls. The great thing about a grub is that you can skim the lure underneath pretty much anything to get it sinking right in the shadows or you can burn the lure back if you see a fish bust up in the middle of the river. For the most part, while using this technique, I expect the bites to be while the lure is sinking freely. With that in mind, select a jig head that gives you the most amount of sinking time. I like to use jig heads between 1.5 - 2.5 grams and change accounting to the wind speed and tide. If it’s blowing or flowing hard, go heavier, otherwise stick with the lightest you can get away with. It is a pretty

The bays and coastal rivers are one of the best places to hunt trevally.

simple method but does require a little bit of skill and finesse to have very good contact and be able to feel the bite. You want to have that grub sinking as freely as possible, but still have tight enough line that you will either see the line move or feel a tick when the fish grabs it. Usually I just fish the first half of the cast before winding it back in and recasting at the structure.

Blades are a sensational Trevally catcher and really come in to their own in deeper water scenarios. For me, a blade is best fished from the edge, casting in to deeper water along drop offs, rather than at structure. They are also the perfect bait to drop at a school of fish that you have spotted on the sounder. Because of the slim fast sinking nature of the lure, it is easy to get in touch with the bottom and work the first couple metres of water. A simple lift and wind up the slack technique is all that I use. Because you can cast a blade a very long way they are a great searching lure that can cover a lot of water, quickly finding any feeding fish that may be around. Quite often if I’m fishing a new area with not a lot of structure, a blade will be the first lure I will tie on. Unlike a grub, I will fish the entire cast using a blade as you can never be sure how long they will follow it for before they eat it. Bites can come on both the lift and the drop so contact is once again very important. I never sink the lure with a heap of slack line as you will miss at least half the takes. I like small blades for trevally, 50mm in length or less. As far as weight goes I find the 3.5 gram models work a treat. Colour has never really been all that important when using blades but I do like black, green or gold.

On The Plate

Trevally are one of my favourite eating fish and I love to take a couple home with me at the end of the day. They are the perfect fish to have as sashimi and I would say one of the best that Tassie has to offer. We like to have ours with soy sauce, ginger, kewpie mayonnaise and some wasabi. If sashimi isn’t your thing, trevally are also fantastic just dipped in whipped egg and bread crumbs before shallow frying. I prefer to take the skin off my trevally as I find this is far easier than trying to remove their scales. Remember to only wash you fish in salt water during preparation as this will increase the flavour of the fish. Lubin Pfeiffer Searching the Scamander River in the states North East.