Fishing Australia

FAMILY FISHING MEANS GOING WITH THE FLOW

Amongst a mad hectic personal and work schedule I put aside 3 hours at the weekend for a well deserved outing with my 9 year old daughter Emily. Also keen to catch up was another good mate who’s been my freshwater fishing buddy for some 12 years now, and the three of us went for a ‘look’ at nearby Googong Dam. I say ‘look’ because we planned to walk into some spots we haven’t been into for years and they could easily be different to how we used to know them.

You can’t help but relax when you feel twigs and rocks crackling under your step and as we got to the top of one of the hills we were greeted by a fantastic view of the lake. By then we were sucking in the refreshing bush air and feeling really good about being in the great outdoors.

Emily was wrapped to be counting how many kangaroos there were in the big mobs, and she spotted echidnas and lots of birdlife as well. But the track soon got tougher-during the drought the high water tracks were not used much and as a result have became heavily over grown with 10 year old bushes and trees. It was a colder overcast day, so not much threat of snakes, but there were massive spiders the size of golf balls everywhere!

Spiders seem to love spinning their web across walking tracks, and it was a tiny bit daunting for Emily at first, especially because she was still a bit tired from her soccer match the day before. With this in mind I sent my mate ahead to check our old favorite spots while we took a rest in a little clearing.

Then it started to drizzle, but interestingly enough Emily and I started to laugh at the situation, we had jackets and couldn’t care less. As it turned out, the short lake side track we traversed was almost totally over grown, so we only managed to have about 10 casts each with lures amongst the tight cover-the more remote parts of Googong are certainly a kayak or small boat proposition at the moment! By now we were used to seeing spiders and other creepy crawlies along the track and started having a good laugh at these too. As for the fish-well a few casts isn’t nearly enough to catch a decent fish at Googong-you need at least a couple of hours full on fishing to be in the running.

However I was impressed with Emilys ability to cast in such tight cover. She’s been practicing in the back yard at home and it shows. Most of all I was impressed with myself for not doing all the casting or making Emily stay until we caught a fish-it was her time off as much as mine so I just went with how she was feeling-after all I want my little buddy to come fishing next time the chance comes up-ditto for my other 2 daughters who also enjoy an outing in the scrub.

BURRINJUCK

Meanwhile Michael Dempsey took his son Ethan out to Burrinjuck to participate in a family fishing convention. Hoping to make Ethan’s first weekend away fishing a positive one, Michael took the time to notice that rather than trolling or casting, Ethan was enjoying the bait fishing the most…playing with Yabbys and worms can after all be a big part of the fun.

With the mood now set, Ethan went on to reel in a stack of redfin and a prized golden perch but was most impressed, as any kid would be, with a solid 2 kilo carp. Ethan’s catches summed up the results of a great convention-heaps of redfin, a few golden perch, and some carp-especially if you use worms or yabbys. There was also a 70 cm cod landed, but most importantly Ethan didn’t get bored and I’d say Michael has secured a future fishing buddy.

TROUT

Not to be left one mum from school reported good times and a few fish at Lake Eucumbene where the water level is up and the rainbow trout in particular are in excellent condition. For more experienced parents with bigger kids the Eucumbene and Thredbo River are already producing spawn run trout-not as tasty as their lake dwelling versions, but good fun none the less.

ESTUARIES

On the coast, bait fishing around the mouths of the estuaries has been the best bet, especially where waters are still discolored from the heavy rains in recent weeks. Saltwater yabbies, prawns, shrimp or poddy mullet are the best bait, and catching them is half the fun, again, especially if you are taking the family along.

PATIENCE IS A…

Like any sport, it is all too easy to go flat out to catch the biggest fish , but if you want your kids to enjoy, learn and get hooked on this potential life long hobby, you have to get onto their level and see what they would like to do on the day. A little bit of patience now can pay big dividends in the long run.

See you on the water.
Rob Paxevanos