Fishing Australia

TINY HOOKS TOPPLE TROUT

After some searching at my local BCF store I found the tiniest little hooks are sometimes hidden in the fly fishing section. I suggest you scour your local tackle store for these the same way I did if you intend to go bait fishing for trout.

You see a small hook between size 10 and 16 is light enough to allow floating artificial baits (eg power bait) to float up off the bottom when using a running sinker rig.  This means the bait will be clear of the weed and yabbys making it by far the most effective way to catch a rainbow trout.

I always check to see the baited hook actually floats before casting in. After the cast I wait for the sinker to hit the bottom and then, importantly, pick up the tension very slowly otherwise you will drag the sinker which pull the floating bait towards the weed/mud where it will get snagged and be far less effective.

Size 16 or 18 hooks are also great if you intend to use a mudeye under a bubble float. This technique works well on rainbow trout and will also add a few brown trout to your creel.

A small hook sets it self with very little drag pressure and far less expertise is required on the strike. Before you know it you will have a nice trout dancing across the lake; it really is that easy ‘if’ you use nice small hooks.

REDDIES MAINSTAY

In Canberra’s urban lakes redfin have been reliable for those willing to move about and find a school. Cast bibbless minnows with a loud rattle, or troll lures with a rattle and you will locate a school in double quick time. Small curl tail softies are a good bet once the school is located.
There’s also a few golden perch and the occasional murray cod responding to the same technique.

OCEANS GOT THE MOTION

Big swells driven by strong easterlies last week have stirred things up considerably. Not only have beach gutters reformed in some places, blue bottles, weed and other things have been blown into the coast line in some parts. This can actually be good news for inshore anglers, especially where it has pushed warm water, bait schools and predators in right in close.

Indeed there has been a few more black marlin caught in close from the Royal National Park down to Green Cape. These are still rare catch and require extreme dedication, but if you are going to catch a marlin off the rocks or from a small boat the next few weeks will continue to be awesome. Weather conditions permitting of course!

WINTER REIGNS IN SUMMER.

Gun lady angler Vicky Winter has been entering a lot of fishing competitions and whipping a lot of blokes in the process. Her all female team of anglers has been consistently ranking high in competitions’ against fields made up predominately of male competitors, and this consistency proves her success is no fluke! But like all good anglers she is simply trying to improve on her own fishing skills and loves getting stuck into the huge variety of fishing on offer on the south coast when ever work allows.

Vicky reports that St Georges Basin is fishing well with plenty of bream in the deeper water, snapper up to 62 centimeters and tailor up to a whopping 92 cm.
In the shallows popper fishing for whiting has been excellent.

JEWFISH HEAD SOUTH

Hot spots of earlier in the year like the Basin, the Clyde and Wagonga have produced a few solid jewfish, but judging by reports the motherload of them have moved south, perhaps due to wall of warm water pushing down the coast? These fish are still not as easy as flattys or bream but this week I have received many more reports of jewfish than ever before.

Estuaries near Merimbula, Eden and estuaries further south have produced multiple catches of 3 to 6kilo fish for anglers who have come across them when they decide to feed. There has been a few 8 to 12 kilo fish and the occasional thumper coming from the same schools! Even more interesting is that beaches in front of closed estuaries are also producing surprising numbers of these fish.

Fisheries say that jews stocked in Botany Bay have been proven to travel down the coast for hundreds of kilometers, and no doubt less netting of juveniles and brood stock in the estuaries is multiplying this effect. 

Congrats to those anglers who wrote in about their first jewfish and also those who fluked one while fishing for other species. It’s full points either way.

See you on the water.

Rob Paxevanos