Fishing Australia

Berley is a great way of attracting fish to your bait and while my favourite product the “Stimulate Range” is the most comprehensive ‘go to’ range of berley products on the market knowing how to use it will catch more and bigger fish!

For example on a recent trip to Lake Conjola on the NSW South Coast I was in the all too familiar situation of making sure I caught lots of fish for my show (and kids) in double quick time so I immediately employed some sneaky little berleying techniques.

We could’ve stood on the edge of the shallow channel and started berleying straight, which would’ve worked, but crossing the channel in a hobie while sprinkling a little pre-mix ground berley along the way was an extra good way to attract our target species, the yellow eyed mullet.

The mullet practically followed us to where we stopped, and while the ultrabite in the ground berley always gets them going crazy I had attracted more fish than ever thanks to the cross current berleying technique which covers more water!

We got out in the knee deep water and caught as many mullet as we liked!

The rig was simply a couple of size 8 long shank hooks one meter under a bubble float. You bait one with bread, which must be kept fresh so it stays on the hook, and the other with instant bait which stays on really well. Cast beyond the school of mullet and wind your float through them so when they mouth the bait the line is tight and hook ups are easier.

The setting was typical of many smaller estuary/lake system entrances you will find in the southern half of Australia. Shallow edges for wading and a deeper channel flowing through the middle.

You can catch plenty of mullet in estuaries that are closed to the sea and have no current but you will need a breeze to help spread the berley along the surface.

A little berley often is the golden rule; this way the fish come to the source of the berley rather than getting full tummy somewhere off in the distance. In the case of the Stimulate pre-mix berley it is already ground up finely so over feeding the fish is almost impossible!

Mullet are a strong fighting and sometimes acrobatic species on light tackle and they taste great when taken from such clean clear water.

If mullet are not your thing fear not because other species like garfish, tommy rough, whiting, Australian Salmon, flathead, bream, trevally, tarwhine, leatherjackets, tailor and many more will soon sniff their way up the berley trail. A suitable sized piece of instant bait is a good way to snare some of these species, especially the bream and flathead. Interestingly the notoriously fussy blackfish also really love instant bait!

The pre mix ground berley has to be one of the most convenient and effective ways to fish shallow water and it is great value for money. If you want to stretch your dollar even further you can coat some old bread in the pre mix but make sure you wet the bread and mulch it up before throwing it in other wise it will feed the fish and sometimes it will even drift away on the surface and take the mullet with it!

Spring, summer and autumn are much much easier times to berley and catch fish in the shallows because they are numerous and spread out through the systems. In winter many of the above species are dormant or out at sea. That being said berley is as an effective method as any in winter so ask around and find out where they are hanging out. The ultrabite will get them feeding but you have to be in roughly the right vicinity to start with.

The prawn scented pellets with Stimulate also represent excellent value for money and are ideal for deeper water and bigger fish because they sink further down.

It is no secret that I use ultrabite gel on my lures but another little known trick of mine is that I often smear a good coating of ultrabite gel on my bait, it takes the ultrabite straight to the nose of any fish that inspects a bait coming down. This without question helps trip fussy or wary fish into biting and can turn a quite day into a memorable one via a trophy fish.

There is stacks of other user friendly products in the Stimulate range that are well worth using, you can check them out at www.freetime.com.au

See you on the water.

Rob Paxevanos

Robs Column Proudly Sponsored by the Hellenic Club of Canberra.