Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Fishing World

BACK in 2015 the Victorian Government announced its Target 1 Million initiative. The $46 million plan involved growing rec fishing participation by 2020 through smart environmental strategies, stockings, fishing festivals, grants, kids’ fishing programs and more. How refreshing to see a Government enacting positive changes for its fishos, the fishery and the economy. Sadly it’s a different story in NSW. The NSW Government has just sold out the state’s fishers with a proposed marine park between Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong. According to NSW DPI the announcement “has a focus on ensuring the benefits of recreational fishing can continue for generations to come.” The reality, released in a series of detailed maps, shows around 25 key fishing areas locked up and out of bounds to anglers. Extreme environment groups behind the…

A 10 year study by the University of Tasmania and the University of Technology, Sydney looking at 200 fish species over 544 sites across Australia concluded that on fished reefs the number of large fish had declined by 36% over the study period, as compared to marine park areas where there was either limited fishing or no-take zones. In lmited fishing zones the decline was 18%, and in no-take zones stocks remained stable. The study suggested that the main cause for decline was overfishing, with climate change also contributing. The study results, published in Aquatic Conservation were heavily criticised by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) which questioned the way in which the research scientists reached their conclusions. Acting CEO Dr Nick Rayns claimed that the finding that “there has…

OVER the past 12 months I’ve had the opportunity to field test the new Ecooda Black Hawk 2 series of spin reels. In my 21 years of writing for Fisho this is the most extensive field test I’ve undertaken for the magazine. Over this time the Ecooda Black Hawk 2 - 2000 and 5000 size reels have been used as my primary work horse spin reels for all my freshwater, estuarine and inshore lure and bait fishing. During this period the reels have received the most basic of maintenance comprising a freshwater rinse to remove built up salt and grime at the end of each fishing session. Words really can’t describe how impressed I am with the durability of these spin reels. They are operating as smoothly today as when…

Born it the Australian Alps, the River Murray is our country’s greatest body of freshwater, meandering some 2,530km to the Murray Mouth in SA. There’s something special about the river - something that’s hard to describe until you’ve spent time on the Murray. The towering redgums, golden cliffs, the vast backwaters and birdlife all culminate to make the river a very special place. I used to spend a fair amount of time camping and fishing along the Murray when I was growing up, and I’ve had a soft spot for the river ever since. I still remember the first fish I caught in the Murray, which was a redfin, and I remember the excitement of catching my first golden perch. Not surprisingly carp used to dominate our catch back in…

1 Double wrap the end of the line around the reel spool. 2 Create a loop in the end of the line, facing the tag end back toward the spool of line from where it came. 3 Now make a series of wraps in and around the two lines that are created by the loop and main line running back toward the spool. The thicker the line is the less wraps required. Start with an average of 5-7 wraps. 4 Lubricate the knot, and gently slide it down toward the reel spool to tighten. Trim off the tag end to nish.…

WE’RE a funny lot us fishermen. We all have that secret spot that we guard like gold bullion and will do anything, and tell any lie, not to divulge. In 45 years of serious sportfishing I can let you in on a little secret - there are very few real secret spots left in fishing. The days of finding some undiscovered piece of water that sees very little fishing pressure and produces a heap of fish are long gone. These days we have social media and the Internet so there are very few secrets in fishing. We also have a lot more fishos out there looking for that next secret spot. The reason they’re doing that is because all the spots they normally fish are over run every weekend and…

THE thing about targeting snapper with soft plastics is the unpredictability of it all. Not only does water temperature, moon phase, tide and wind play a role, but you never quite know what you’ll catch next or what you’ll see out on the ocean. In shallow water, which is where I fish, there’s always the fear factor of getting reefed by a big red, and the powerful up current run leaves little room for doubt when a big fish is encountered. In the midst of our best snapper fishing, the humpbacks are active. Sometimes they are thick and sometimes not, and lots of whales that are in a breaching mood make for a load of excitement as does the possibility of seeing a great white … which we did yesterday.…

It wasn’t long ago only the bigger, more expensive, and fancier boats featured quality sound systems. How things have changed! These days the affordability and quality of marine entertainment systems have broken down the barriers and allowed owners of boats of all shapes and sizes to enjoy music on the water. To be honest, until I installed a decent entertainment system on a previous boat I never really listened to music on the water. Again, that all changed when I realised how simple it was to play music on demand, not to mention the quality of sound available. Now there’s always music playing during long runs to and from spots or when the fishing’s slow. It always gets fired up when I’m in the garage working on the boat or…

Flathead are plentiful, popular and good to eat. Normally they’re easy to catch and will strike at most lures you put in front of them. Unfortunately, through the season there are a few days when they shut down and it is hard to get a bite. We know from experience even when most fish are not biting there are always a few willing to respond. It’s a matter of toiling away for small rewards. On hard days, anglers prepared to work a variety of options are more likely to locate and tempt the few fish prepared to respond. This article is all about strategies for flatties “behaving badly”. WHY THEY GO OFF THE BITE… The reasons flatties go off the bite are generally environmental. Flattie anglers tend to subscribe to…

THE Senate disallowance motion on the series of Commonwealth Marine Parks has been defeated. As a result, the Coalition’s sensible and balanced plans will remain in place for now. Seafood Industry Australia (SIA), the national peak body representing Australia’s commercial fishers, has welcomed news of the five failed disallowance motions against the Commonwealth Marine Park management plans. “Firstly, I would like to thank the Coalition and crossbench Senators who upheld their position of support of the plans and voted against the disallowance motions,” SIA CEO Jane Lovell said. “This is a momentous occasion for our industry – the uncertainty that has plagued much of our wildcatch sector is now gone. We thank the Senate for staying the course and confirming its support of the Australian seafood industry. We also thank…

There’s a funny thing that happens when Aussie fishos head offshore to drop lines to the seafloor in deeper waters. There’s an almost entirely black and white, fork in the road split between fishing for sport and purely chasing a feed. Those after fillets can’t understand why fellow fishos would put in all that huff and puff battling a fish quite a distance to the surface only to let it go, while sport-focussed anglers can’t find the fun in dragging up meat from the depths. As a result, we tend to view certain species that inhabit the depths beyond the old fashioned 20 fathom line purely in those two veins – sportfish or meat fish. Up in the tropics, some of the most common sportfish found out here are members…

SOMETIMES you have to get out of your comfort zone and explore new things. I’m pretty happy to catch a range of species from blue marlin to flathead on my home turf, and I have always enjoyed all styles of fishing. Cold water is rarely a part of the equation, there are no bears on the banks of the rivers I fish, and waders are not required. In a week, however, all of this will change as I head off to the wilds of Alaska chasing all four species of Pacific salmon in a far away stream that hosts the world’s largest population of brown bears. I’m pretty used to spending time in crocodile filled rivers, don’t mind the company of snakes and have no real fear of sharks but…

I had a couple of memorable weekends away this past summer chasing natives in the northern Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). After each session, I’d get home and think how lucky we are as recreational fishers to have easy access to a range of iconic freshwater species; many of which don’t occur anywhere else in Australia (outside of the MDB), let alone the world. There are many threats to native fish of the MDB such as loss of habitat, altered flows and in-stream barriers like dams and weirs that stop fish from migrating and spawning. There’s been significant efforts over the past 15 years or more to address these threats, which is good news for recreational fishing. However, these threats have manifested over decades and it will take some time for improved…

Each month we will select five lucky winners for our Grin & Win section. Grin & Win winners will each receive a cool Shimano cap and Squidgy DVD! E-mail your entry and contact details to: pictures@fisho.com.au Please include your name and age and details of your catch. Also provide a postal address so winners can receive their prize. Good luck! Visit the Shimano Junior Anglers’ website at www.shimanofish.com.au…

Grady White has become a well-known and respected brand in the boating world. Australian distributor Short Marine, based at The Spit in Sydney, has continued this tradition locally with great success selling these high-end boats into the Australian market over recent years. Fishing World recently took a visit to The Spit and jumped onboard three very different Grady Whites to see what the fuss was about. The first boat, reviewed by James Hill, was published in the September of Fishing World. The Express 330 was a fine example of a high end fishing/cruising boat. With twin 350hp donks, the 330 featured everything you could ask for, with a suitable price tag to match. But as a die-hard fisho it was the much smaller, yet no less impressive, Fisherman 180 which…

Q What type of boat do you own and what marine electronics are onboard? I have two boats, an Edgewater 208 with twin 12-inch Evo2 Simrads, and a 17 foot Haines Hunter centre console. On that boat I have twin Simrads, a bow mount Evo2, and another Evo 2 on the console. Q What is it you like about this set up? With the bigger boat I run the twin 12-inch units in the dash. I have a S5100 module, which is an external black box for the sonar and a high and low frequency 1kW thru-hull transducer which run through the S5100. The S5100 allows more power to each transducer and better transcribes what information is being fed back to the sonar. In the big boat I do a…

THE NSW Government has announced major changes to its rec and commerical mulloway rules. Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, said mulloway is a highly regarded sportfish and an important commercial species. “In 2013, the NSW Government introduced a ecovery plan with a number of new rules to halt the decline of Mulloway stock and help the recovery of the species,” Blair said. “Despite efforts by fishers, a recent scientific review showed Mulloway are still overfished. “In order for stocks to recover, the review recommended that more action needed to be taken. “Given the seriousness of the issue, I asked both the commercial and recreational advisory councils to come up with actions for their sectors, with each council establishing expert working groups to investigate the best options.” The advisory councils…

SHIMANO’S SLX REELS NEW for 2018, the SLX series is the latest addition to the ever-growing Shimano baitcaster range. It features an aluminium Hagane Body, the same body size as the Curado 70, but offering the line capacity of a conventional 150 sized reel. Inside the SLX’s Hagane Body, durable brass gearing delivers reliable cranking power and three SUS bearings and one roller bearing means everything turns smoothly. Casting is made effortless with the adjustable 6 pin VBS brake system. A longer 45mm Throw Handle working in conjunction with two model options featuring gear ratios of 6.3:1 and 7.2:1 means that the slow and methodical lure worker and the angler who likes a bit of speed are well covered by the new SLX series. On top of this, max’ drag…

For most estuary and offshore anglers dams can be tricky places to try and work out where fish will be. Superficially these “still water” impoundments appear very different to the rivers and reefs we may be familiar with, and it can be very frustrating spending fishless hours on a large freshwater impoundment. There are no tide changes, water flow is generally minimal and in most dams fish don’t show themselves on the surface. The following article is a guide to picking up some of the more subtle features that will help you find fish. It is important to realise that dams are quite dynamic bodies of water that change constantly, and wind and water temperatures can be the keys to unlocking a good bite. In the past I spent a…

THE warmer weather and rising water temperatures of spring always signal the start of a new fishing year for me, even if the calendar says otherwise. This heralds a time of tackle preparation for the piscatorial opportunities that the coming months will hopefully bring. The basics of gear maintenance and tackle preparation are the same whether you chasing mullet or marlin so this month we’ll have a look what you need to be doing to ensure you’re ready to go for the coming season. The first task that I undertake at the beginning of the season is to check the line loads on my reels and any that are low or have done a lot of work over the preceding year will be replaced. Neither GSP or nylon monofilament lines…

Weipa is a fisho’s paradise located on the western side of Cape York, a region which attracts anglers from around the world seeking a multitude of hard-fighting species. My wife Leeann and I have made regular trips to Cape York for over 15 years. It’s a fantastic destination for doing combat with anything found in the fresh, estuaries, beaches, to the pelagics and reef species using fly tackle. Although we’ve had great pleasure in making some crazy catches on the long wand, my most recent trip to Weipa was to target sailfish in the bluewater, considered an exceptional fishery by the locals. The following article describes the recent trip and how to prepare for such an adventure yourself. PREPARATIONS AND EQUIPMENT What gear to take and the amount of planning…

ALMOST everyone has access to a smart phone these days. They help us stay connected with people, keep up to date with the latest news, complete online shopping and banking transactions along with allowing us to easily take pictures and videos. There is a plethora of apps available however a few key apps are extremely useful to help find fish and stay safe while on the water. I take my phone everywhere I go and make sure it’s fully charged when going out on the boat, it is another valuable addition to my toolkit and has many useful tools and saved websites that I use often when out on the water. BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) is a government agency that provides weather services, observations and forecasts.…

Ultimately, you could go and aimlessly troll the ocean without knowing what’s underneath you and you might get lucky, but let’s face it, in the time poor world most of us live in, we need everything working for us. And whilst luck is a big part of fishing, getting lucky is a combination of time on the water and level of effort applied to fishing in the most likely areas. To help with this we need our transducer to be the clearest and strongest set of underwater eyes possible. Then we need to be able to understand what it’s showing us. Like most things these days, technology is moving so fast, with side scanning, down scanning, chirping, 3D scanning and so on. Many of us struggle to keep up, or…