Game fishing is sometimes described as long periods of boredom punctuated by short moments of excitement or terror. While this quote originally referred to war, the idea of dragging lures around a vast blue ocean for hour after hour hoping to cross paths with the fish of a lifetime makes this an apt and often used analogy for game fishing.…
Author: Graham Fifield
Hobie goes backwards in moving forwards
Hobie has just announced that their patented ‘Mirage Drive’ is getting a makeover for their 2017 fishing kayaks <drum roll> they are getting a reverse gear. In previous reviews of Hobie kayaks we wrote about all the good and the bad aspects of these pioneering boats. The primary bad thing, apart from some durability issues, was the lack of a…
Bonefish on lures – the addiction begins
If you’d asked me 6 months ago what I knew about bonefish, I could probably tell you about this much: 1) They live in tropical places. 2) They live on vast sandy tidal flats which are impossibly white. 3) Rich white men pay a lot of money to fly to tropical places with vast sandy tidal flats which are impossibly…
Match the hatch – surface lures for Murray Cod
I cast my big jointed surface lure to edge of the river and it landed with a distinct SPLOOSH. Within a couple of seconds there was a second SPLOOSH. A water dragon had left its sunny rock and plunged into the water nearby. It raced over to the lure and started to give chase as the lure blipped and blooped…
Kayak fishing spots in south east NSW – 3 of the best (in one long weekend)
The poor kayak has been neglected of late. In fact since we purchased Tudo (our 4m estuary boat) last year I can probably count the number of kayak trips on two fingers. Unlike the kayak, Tudo allows me to fish with someone else (more social), to control the drift around snags and structure with the electric (more effective) and to…
Bidgee Cod on surface lures – video
We were lucky enough to sneak in a Murray Cod session just before Christmas. Lee, Curto and I made our way down to the Murrumbidgee River armed with half a dozen spinnerbaits and crankbaits. But it was the prospect of throwing the big surface lures in the bottom of the tackle box that had us really excited. The 110mm jointed…
Audio books about fishing; The River Why?
Fishing trips are synonymous with driving. In a country like Australia, this can mean lots of driving. To look at it another way, lots of driving means lots of time that is spent not fishing! So why not spend these wasted non-fishing hours thinking about fishing, learning about fishing or developing a greater understanding of fishing. It was this life…
One fish does not a fly fisherman make
I might be many things; a passionate lure fisherman, an aspiring photographer, a lover of the outdoors, a conservationist, but I’m not a fly fisherman. Before the opening of this year’s trout season I can name you exactly 3 times I have been fly fishing. 1) When I strayed into a privately owned trout farm in Tasmania about 10 years…
Seals, spiky fish, salmon, surf and sun; A weird and wonderful weekend at Wallaga
Winter is over folks! I’m happy to call it. I spent nearly all of last weekend on the south coast of NSW in board shorts and thongs – and at last count I still have ten fingers and ten toes. With another winter behind us it’s time to cast our minds (and our lures) forward to 9 glorious months of…
The Natural Trout Stream Paradox
The paragraph below appeared in my email inbox recently, advertising a fishing film festival. “Gin-Clear Media’s Backcountry: South Island is the feature film of the festival. The South Island [of New Zealand] has vast tracts of some of the most intact, undisturbed natural areas left on our planet—these last truly wild places deliver beauty and isolation in spades but it…
The Temptation of Tuross lake – the winter Mulloway day trip
Sitting in the office all week, I felt the itch. And it got worse and worse as the week went on. Sitting inside does something to me. Immersed in a world of computers and email, it makes me feel disconnected from the ‘real’ world – it makes me want to be outside! With an eagle eye on the wind forecast…
Estuary fishing in winter – find one fish, find em all
Pick the right day and a fishing session on the NSW south coast in the middle of winter can be a beautiful thing. Pick the wrong day and you will wonder why you ever left the comfort of the leather recliner – you know the footy is on right? Fortunately the human brain, or perhaps just an overly-keen angler’s brain,…