I can’t stand fishing. I know the proponents might find it relaxing or stimulating or something but not me. After about 2 months of being dragged around by my boyfriend to likely ‘hot spots’ and dragged upstream by likely branches that my hook invariably got caught in, I had made up my mind. Fishing is to walking, as yoga is to napping – a good way to ruin it. However,…
Category: Stuff we’ve learnt
Pumping nippers
Nippers are undoubtedly one of the best estuary baits around. Pretty much anything that swims in an estuary will eat a nipper. Also known as pink nippers, ghost shrimp or yabbies, they are plentiful in most of our south-coast estuaries, and anyone keen to catch a feed of fish should consider using them on their next outing. Nippers live on…
The basics: collecting, caring for and cleaning shellfish, cephalopods and crustaceans
Squid- Size limit NSW- Nil, Bag limit NSW- 20 in total (all species) First, catch squid. Fish over weed beds, using squid jigs, a slow lift and drop retrieve is usually the go, but more on squid fishing in later posts. So, now you’ve caught the squid, how do you kill it. Well its easy. There are three humane methods.…
The basics: rigging and fishing with soft plastics
As part of ‘the basics’ series of posts, I thought it would be important to go through the fundamentals of rigging and fishing with soft plastics. It’s been such a huge revolution in fishing over the past decade or two, but there are many people who still lack confidence to experiment with this versatile and effective style of fishing. The…
The basics: Knife selection, knife care, filleting and cleaning your catch.
Following on from how to kill your catch, the next episode of fishing basics series is going to cover filleting and cleaning your catch. First off I’ll cover knives, then knife care and finally actually filleting and cleaning your catch. Knives A little bit of knowledge about the styles of knives and knife selection, while not necessary is good background…
The basics: Killing and caring for your catch
So this is the next post in our back to basics series, where we aim to cover some of the bedrock basics of fishing. For a lot of you this probably won’t be a huge amount of use, you’ll already being doing all this anyway. The purpose of these posts is to provide basic information to beginners. While you would expect…
Advanced Mullet fishing techniques ;)
We (Hamish and Lee) are going to start a series on posts on catching bread and butter species for beginners, with hopefully enough know how to also be useful for more experienced fishermen. So to start things off we are going to begin with the most humble of estuary species. The Mullet. I’m sure most fishermen can remember cutting their teeth on this…
Poddy mullet trap
Poddy mullet are one of the most versatile and effective baits for use in our south coast estuaries. They are also, arguably, underutilised. This is partly because most people don’t realise how easy they are to catch. Here’s a simple poddy mullet trap you can make out of household materials that will be effective in most situations. Get a clear,…
Reflections on lure fishing, a philosophical guide for beginners
Lure fishing can be tough, especially when you are starting out. I remember my first forays into lure fishing as a kid, which were often hard work. It took many many years to finally be able to catch fish on lures consistently. What had got me hooked on it and what made me persist through all those learning years was…
Surface gar and mullet…
I’ve been thinking about how to catch those annoying garfish and mullet that so often follow poppers but rarely have a go. Next time I’m out on the flats, I’m going to try tying a small fly on a short length of light line behind the popper. The theory is that the fish will be attracted to the commotion, and…