Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i Fishing World

FISHING is a great excuse to travel. For some of us that means hitching up the boat and hitting Highway 1 in search of new water. I love this style of fishing travel. It's relatively inexpensive, so you don't need to be rich, but you do need time and plenty of motivation. For most of us that isn't a problem. Australia has some amazing country to explore and I'd encourage anyone to search out new areas and species. Jumping on a plane to other states or countries is another popular option. The price of airfares compared to 20 years ago is cheap and that means this style of travel is within reach of so many more fishos. Better yet, tackle companies have recognised the trend and built gear suited to…

FISHERS are reminded to fish responsibly and respect others following recent anti-social behaviour and mess left behind at Sydney’s Walsh Bay. The area is an iconic location for recreational fishers, with a long history of offering safe and convenient access for families, shift workers, people with disabilities and novice anglers, as well as being very popular with dedicated sportfishers targeting key species such as kingfish and mulloway. The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is aware angling access to Piers 2 & 3 at Walsh Bay has been temporarily disrupted due to construction work and that fishers have shifted to Pier 8. DPI Group Director Recreational & Indigenous Fisheries Peter Turnell said in recent weeks DPI has received reports that a minority of irresponsible and selfish anglers on Pier 8 are…

One of the primary reasons why I relocated to Hervey Bay in April 2018 was to chase longtail tuna. My first introduction to the Fraser Coast was targeting longtails on fly in 2014 with Andrew Chorley of Hervey Bay Sport and Fly Fishing and I was instantly gut hooked. To see numerous schools of 10 and 15 kilo longtails smashing bait on top as far as the eye could see was Nirvana after decades of chasing salmon and bonito on the NSW south coast. Arriving up here in April with a new boat, meant we were straight into the action and the learning curve began. There’s a lot to discuss and learn about tuna on lures and fly so let’s get straight into it. I’m going to detail chasing tuna…

Late season bass can be tough critters to catch. Bass wise up to the relentless fishing pressure over summer and for any real success you either change tactics or shift locations. I opt for the latter! This time of year is a great time for heading bush in search of Aussie bass. The weather is cooling, making long walks more bearable, and fish are often easier to find as they prepare for their annual migration towards the salt. How adventurous and off the grid you go is up to you. What’s more important is finding seclusion; that could mean a hidden corner of an urban stream or a multi day trek through virgin forest. The more effort you make, the greater the reward! WHERE? This is the fun part. I’ve…

1 Logan Vessey caught his first jewfish with help from dad off the Werribee marina rock wall, Victoria. 2 Nelson Eigenmann with a barracuda caught in Fiji. 3 Clive Jones with a Sydney Harbour kingfish. 4 Hayden Jones with a trout caught in a secret mountain stream. 5 Eight-year-old Isaac Mason caught some nice dusky flathead whilst out on Wallis Lake, Forster fishing with Pop and brother, Riley. Visit the Shimano Junior Anglers’ website at www.shimanofish.com.au…

I think one of the great features of our sport is seasonality. Those fluctuations in climate which in turn influence the movements and behaviours of the fish we chase, and therefore, our own activities as anglers. To a keen fisho, the current "season" does not mean the basic question of cold or hot or wet or dry; instead, the season means what’s currently on the chew in their local waters. We’re really fortunate in this country to have such a diverse range of fish species and fishing options. In most places, this means that seasonal changes just bring a switch to a different type of fish or method of fishing, rather than a boom and bust scenario where fishing isn’t an option for parts of the year and gear and…

THE Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) has been quick to counter claims that an expanded network of “no-fishing” reserves is required to meet global sustainability targets in the fisheries it controls. It points out that it has set conservative biomass levels of 48% of unfished biomass, which it claims is amongst the highest in the world. It says that since 2006-07 it has implemented management measures including a by-back of commercial fishing licences, reductions to total allowable catches and the introduction of harvest strategies. With the support of the CSIRO, it has introduced an ecological risk assessment framework to regularly assess over 1,000 species across the whole marine ecosystem, rather than focussing on commercial target species. For the last four years, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES)…

SHIMANO 2019 STELLA SW SHIMANO recently unveiled its updated version of their highly regarded flagship saltwater spinning reel, the Stella SW. Shortly afterwards I received a 2019 Stella 14000XG test reel to take on a short trip across the ditch in pursuit of kingfish on topwater lures from the rocks – a harsh proving ground for new tackle! Upon first glance of the newly released Stella, it didn’t appear to look too dissimilar to the 2013 Stella SW. However, upon closer inspection the differences in design become quite apparent. When comparing the 2013 and 2019 Stella 14000XG, the body and rotor of the new Stella are slimmer and more compact and the bail wire is slightly thinner. Most noticeably, the rotor body has two water draining ports that would help…

Wooli is a coastal village south of Grafton on the NSW North Coast. It lies about 635 km north of Sydney (9 hr drive) and 330 km south of Brisbane (4hr drive), well within a day’s drive from either. The Gumbaynggirr name for Wooli is Wooli Wooli, meaning two waters, assumedly because the village is located on a narrow sandy peninsula bounded by the Wooli River to the west and the ocean to the east, providing both bluewater and estuary options for the visiting angler: which is very handy when conditions off the ocean. Wooli holds a special place in my angling life because it is the spot where I experienced one of my best days ever. Spiney Norman and I had towed an old tinnie north with my old…

If you’re like me, you probably follow a few gun anglers on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook. And if you’re like me, you probably also look on with envy at their frequent posts featuring awesome catches. Don’t get me wrong, all these guys (and girls) are first-class fishers – they’re much better than I’ll ever be and they’ll always outfish the average angler. Always. But the images and posts they’re sharing only tell part of the story. What you don’t see is the hard work put in behind the scenes by each and every one of these elite anglers. What you don’t see are all the fishless hours in between bites, and the all the early starts, late finishes, kilometres travelled and time and energy invested. I can…

GARMIN is a big player in the marine electronics world with a full suite of products aimed at everyone from the casual weekend fisho to the serious tech-depended game fisher. The company is widely recognised brand with a footprint in many outdoor and fitness pursuits. What the company excels at is merging its technology across its broad product range to create innovative solutions and cutting edge integrated technology. So what does a brand like Garmin need to keep this innovation moving in the right direction? A boat, a really good boat with a generous dash to show off and test the latest gear in a real world scenario. Garmin wanted to support an Australian boat company and thought Cruise Craft was a good match. Fisho recently had the opportunity to…

ONE problem US fisheries managers share with ours is the need to “extrapolate” from small data samples to make accurate assessments of recreational impacts on fisheries. Like ours, US commercial fishermen have had to give full reports on each of their fishing trips, in their case since 1976. Again, as with us, recreational effects are based on sampling techniques of questionable accuracy such as dock-side surveys. The new act aims to improve recreational data collection by allowing additional, more appropriate management tools. The one that’s causing most debate is the introduction of limited access programs, sometimes called “catch share “ programs, in which individuals, communities or other organisations must obtain permits to harvest a portion of a fishery’s total allowable catch and are required to report on their results. There’s…

The migration of fish is a complex and often little understood part of the biology of the marine world. Anglers are usually closely tuned into the way that fish migrate and turn up at a particular spot at a certain time of year. The following article shares a few of my observations based on years of experience, and without doubt things have changed in the last decade or so, with new species turning up in places they haven’t been seen before and the number and abundance of certain fish changing each year. “The movement of fish is little understood, and like birds in the sky these creatures move phenomenal distances over time.” The East Australian Current is a highway for migrating fish. It starts to wind its way south in…

1. Pass the tag end of your line through the eye of the hook and back up toward your main line. 2. With heavy diameter lines complete 3 twists back up to your main line. This can be increased with thinner lines. The easiest way to do this is by placing your finger through the bottom loop and twist it around in a circular motion. 3. First pass the tag end through the lower loop created near the eye of the hook and then back through the new loop created above it. 4. Lubricate the knot well and gently tighten it and slide down toward the hook before locking it securely. Trim off the tag end to complete.…

WALKING around a shallow bay or river and flicking around a bait or lure is a fun and relaxing way to fill a few hours and catch a few fish. Pumping a bucket of nippers and wading shallow sand flats flicking unweighted baits for whiting still rates highly on my list of fishing favourites, as does sight fishing for trout on a lake or mountain stream. Safety is a key consideration when wading and you’ll need to employ some degree of stealth to avoid spooking too many fish in the shallows. Keeping comfortable and having all of your spare tackle on hand is another couple of key pointers that help when wading and are detailed further below. MAINTAINING STEALTH Remaining inconspicuous as possible whilst wading is important to avoid spooking…