As keen anglers we are frequently asked for advice on where to go to find a decent coastal fishing spot within 2-3 hours drive from Canberra. As many of you will know, it’s both an easy and a difficult question to answer, because pretty much any beach, rock formation, estuary or coastal river will produce good (or terrible) fishing at…
Category: Think like a fish- fishing techniques
A few days fishing on the Murrumbidgee
Graz and I recently spent a few days fishing the Murrumbidgee west of Narrandera. It was a great chance to catch up with Grazza, who has spent the last year on the sunny shores and tropical mountains of Hawaii. We arrived fairly late after a decent 3.5 hour drive from Canberra. We only had a few km of dirt roads…
Back to basics – bait fishing off the beach
I spent the long weekend at Arugunnu, a campground in the Mimosa Rocks National Park on the far south coast of NSW. It is a special place for me, as it’s where I caught my first fish and spent a lot of time camping with my family as a kid. The thing I notice most when I get close is…
Catch and release: a little perspective goes a long way
The catch and release movement has grown considerably over the last few decades. Initiative like #keepemwet and others have done incredibly well at building strong support for catch and release in some parts of the fishing community. Social media has helped spread the message, driving a strong commitment to catch and release amongst many angling communities. Which is great! The fishing…
The best lure in the box
The trout were there. I could see them. Every few casts, a fish would follow the lure. Every so often, one would swipe, its white mouth flaring as it tried to kill its prey. I even hooked a few, but kept losing them to their jumping antics. Part of the problem was that the fish were small. This is definitely…
Some tips for fishing streamers in small streams
Its that time of year again. The leaves are turning brown, orange, yellow and every colour in-between, the water is cooling down, the fish are not looking up as regularly and I’m dusting off my streamer box. Autumn isn’t just pretty, it is a great time to throw some meat around. While people generally associate streamer fishing with larger waterways…
To cod or not to cod?
In this post I wanted to ask the question (as much for myself as for anyone else): ‘to cod or not to cod?’ Part of this relates to my lack of success last season. It went something like this: Around 15 predominantly topwater sessions totalling roughly 24 hours of cod-targeting. Most of this was spent on my local stretch of…
Different lures catch fish with different “personalities”
A study has just been published in PLOS one looking at whether certain angling techniques catch fish with different behavioural traits, or more colloquially, “personalities”. The study angled 100 rock and largemouth bass using two separate techniques, actively fished flashy lipless crankbaits or passively fished artificial worm lures and then tested in the lab whether the fish caught using each…
Sand flathead basics
I’m not big on meat fishing. My fly fishing addiction means that most of the time, I’m more than happy to go fishless, as long as I’ve got the long wand in my hand. In Eden though, getting dinner is always part of a day out on the boat. After a number of years, me and dad have come to…
Will there be an evening rise? Listen to the birds.
I was talking to Brett recently and he made an interesting observation. If you want to know if there is going to be a good evening rise, listen to the birds. Brett lives out in Creswick, meaning he is lucky enough to live close to some of Victorias best trout lakes. Hepburn, Newlynns, Deans. Great Victorian trout fisheries. It also…
Product review: Wildbait Lures
A few years ago, we got in touch with a lovely fellow named Peter Pomorski, maker of Wildbait Lures. I feel horrible that I’ve never written a review until now, but I honestly haven’t had much of a chance to try them out. I’ve recently been getting into using hardbodies more frequently, and wanted to share my experience of using…
How to become a better fisherman: learn to fail.
The biggest factor in me becoming a better angler over the last three years has been learning to fail. When I started fly fishing three years ago I sucked. I could barely casts 30ft, I spent most of my time with my flies tangled in trees and stream-side vegetation. Generally it was a disaster for the first few months. If…