BNB Fishing mag | Feb 2017

Hot fishing options for February

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February 2017 Print Post Approved PP100001534 Volume 28, Number 2

Getting jiggy offshore Freshwater features

Sensational Sykes Reef

Cape York adventures Fishfinder fundamentals Boat reviews • Anglapro Chaser 424 • Formosa 660 Tomahawk

Hot estuary action

Spanish mackerel tips and techniques Hervey Bay brutes

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02

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 1

Page 2 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

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www.bnbfishing.com. au

Inside this month Gold Coast

Mackerel turn it on

P15

P23

Kayak fishing

Moogerah monsters

P45

easier to get amongst quality fish and crustaceans during February.

Crustaceans Prawns and crabs will

OUR COVER

G IN

FISH ING ’S

A

LI

☛ continued P6

Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email: ben@bnbfishing.com.au Internet: www.bnbfishing.com.au PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163 Unit 2, 39 Enterprise Street, Cleveland, Qld 4163 AFTA PRINTER: Rural Press, Ormiston DISTRIBUTION BY: Fairfax Max. recommended retail price $4.50 (includes GST).

CORRESPONDENTS: Editorial contributions are welcome, as is news from clubs, associations, or individuals; and new product news from manufacturers. Entire contents copyright. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. It is the responsibility of advertisers to ensure the correctness of their claims and statements. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.

RA

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EDITOR: Ben Collins ADVERTISING: Ben Collins, Liz Gosling PRODUCTION: Jo Hendley, Daniel Tomlinson

AUST

MARCH edition will be on sale in newsagents from February 24. See subscriber offer on Page 72; the first 45 subscribers in February will each receive an innovative Rod Ruler valued at $6.95.

Bush ‘n Beach Fishing magazine is published monthly by Collins Media Pty Ltd ABN 43 159 051 500 ACN 159 051 500 trading as Collins Media.

E TUR FU

BEN WESTON (main) with a cracking queenfish.

KEITH STRATFORD (left) extracted this mangrove jack on a Lucky Craft Pointer, article Page 5. NICK PATON landed this incredible diamond trevally with relative ease, TRI TON’S article Page 34.

be at the top of many people’s lists this month.

I know a few people who only pull their boats out of their sheds when the prawn season is on.

Luckily for them, we get a fair crack at the prawns for about six months of the year.

February is the ‘official’ start of the local prawn run in the rivers and creeks around Brisbane.

Prawns are always able to be caught earlier than February, but if you’re looking for quantity and quality banana prawns, this is the month to start having a really good look around.

You won’t be the only one out there looking.

Unfortunately, the prawn run brings out a lot of inconsiderate people who are more than happy to motor straight over to within arm’s reach of your boat and start casting.

This normally happens after they see more than five prawns wedged in the top pocket of your net.

An electric motor and a bit of smart thinking works really well to keep them away.

Turning the boat away from those watching while you are bringing the net up after feeling a lot of prawns flicking in the top pocket is a good start.

Keeping the top pocket of the net close to the boat instead of lifting it high in the air is another good way to keep your catch to yourself.

The rivers and creeks around Brisbane turn on

ATI ON

The school holidays have finally finished, so the rivers and creeks will be back to normal after a crazy couple of months on the waterways.

This will make it a lot

Local Luring

by KEITH STRATFORD

CI

F

EBRUARY is a great month for variety in southeast Queensland.

O

■ Bream and jacks a good bet

N

FIS

AS

S

Tips to catch a feed of tasty crustaceans

Bream and jacks a good bet ......by Keith Stratford................................P5 Offshore action ............................by Bill Corten .......................................P9 Fishfinder fundamentals ...........by Justin Welsh ................................P12 Whiting and prawns ..................by Leeann Payne...............................P13 Broadwater Region ....................by Wayne ‘Youngy’ Young ..............P15 How to spool your reels ............by Sean ‘Skip’ Thompson ...............P17 Tips of the trade...........................by Brad Smith ....................................P18 Getting jiggy offshore ................by Jordan ‘Grinner’ Koschel ..........P19 Land based on Gold Coast........by Heath Zygnerski ..........................P20 Power Boat Anglers...................by Mick Clutterbuck ........................P22 Rain flushes mud crabs out..... by Steve Wilkes ...............................P22 Tweed Coast.................................by Gavin Dobson ...............................P23 Bream and bass at Ballina...... by Brett Hyde.....................................P24 Whiting and flathead on fire....by Gary ‘Squidgie’ Palmer .............P26 Underwater camera footage ......by Jason ‘Birdy’ Bird .......................P28 Prime time at Iluka .....................by Tye Porter ......................................P29 Sunshine Coast............................by Wade Qualischefski...................P30 Mackerel madness off DI ...........by Craig Tomkinson .........................P32 Fishing gear for kids ..................by Tri Ton .............................................P34 Moreton Island adventure ........by Lachie Baker ................................P36 Boat review ..................................by Daniel Tomlinson ........................P38 Boat review ..................................by Ben Collins ...................................P40 Bundaberg Offshore ...................by Joel Johnson................................P42 Prawns and mackerel ...............by Brad Young ...................................P43 Exploring Oxley Creek...............by Tom Laszlo ....................................P44 Kayak fishing in canals.............by Jack Burling.................................P45 Charter Directory ................................................................................. P46,47 Readers Forum............................................................................................P48 Product News .............................................................................................P49 Trip to Sykes Reef .......................by Mati Bats.......................................P50 Gladstone Region....................... by Gary Churchward .......................P51 Stanage Bay .................................by Von Ireland....................................P52 Crabbing around Gladstone .....by Mick Clutterbuck ........................P52 Cape York ......................................by ‘Billanbong’ Bazz Lyon ..............P53 Far north fishing trip...................by Melissa Frohloff ..........................P54 The Great Ocean Road ..............by Craig Tomkinson .........................P55 Recipe ........................................... by Melissa Frohloff..........................P55 Off-road canopy for HiLux ....... by Todd Eveleigh ..............................P57 Outdoor survival tips ..................by Paul ‘Chief’ Graveson ................P59 Hunting rabbits............................. by Neil Schultz..................................P60 Barra on the hunt ....................... by Donna Gane .................................P61 Monsters at Moogerah............. by Steve Wilkes ...............................P62 Prehistoric jewels ......................by Zac Charlton .................................P63 Impoundment bass fire up ........by Mitchell Townsend ....................P64 Come in spinner ..........................by Noal Kuhl ......................................P65 Impoundment fishing ................ by Matthew Langford......................P66 Somerset Dam ............................ by Andrew Mitchell ........................P67 Wild bass fishing ........................by Caine ‘Caino’ Goward ................P68 Glenlyon Dam.............................. by Brian Dare ....................................P69 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation..........by Drew McGrath .............................P70 Trading Post.................................................................................................P72 Subscription form ......................................................................................P72

PRO TE CT

The author pulled this pig of a jack out of nasty structure. The fish ate a Lucky Craft Pointer cast along a rock wall.

P62

HIN G T R A D E

W

HAT a hot and humid start to 2017.

Unfortunately, in addition to the heat, the wind and storms have made it a bit harder to get on the water, but I’m hoping this changes in the very near future.

In saying that, a few summer species have been biting well due to the conditions and spanish mackerel are becoming more prevalent when the odd southerly change appears.

I’d suggest getting your gear primed and ready to go, so when that window in the weather appears you can make the most of it.

While I didn’t specifically make any New Year’s resolutions, I’m going to have to try to prepare my gear in order to get out on the water more over the next 12 months.

Prior to Christmas, we reported on the discovery of white spot disease in Queensland prawns (though some rumours indicate it may have been around for much longer).

Despite 112 production ponds on five different farms being treated with more than 2.8 million litres of chlorine, there is still a ban on all prawning, crabbing and yabby pumping in the Logan and Albert rivers.

I remain a little concerned about what the future holds, so will be waiting with anticipation for any news regarding this issue.

We will keep you posted as updates come to hand at bnbfishing.com.au I guess the upcoming prawning season will shed more light on the subject and give an indication of how widespread the disease is.

For the sake of the Australian prawning industry, I hope it is contained and eradicated, with the impact on wild stock kept to a minimum.

It has been revealed that the Federal Government is pursuing criminal charges against one importer alleged to have deliberately flouted the testing regimes.

Another four importers are under investigation and green prawn imports have now been suspended.

This seems like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, especially as concerns have been raised for years in regards to the importation of green prawns.

Hopefully this incident will enable Australia to better protect its borders from disease in future.

Australia has some of the best seafood in the world and more value needs to be placed on protecting this vitally important industry.

I’m not sure why we seem intent on exporting our top-quality seafood and then importing inferior products from other countries with quality assurance standards far lower than our own.

The government also needs to do more to ensure foreign fishing vessels do not illegally fish our waters.

Australian Border Force commissioner Roma Quaedvlieg recently said more than 100 Vietnamese fishers were caught fishing Australian waters in 10 boats last year.

And these are only the ones who were caught.

Ben Collins

December prizewinners CONGRATULATIONS to Rodney Adams, Pelican Waters; Glen Chambers, Burrum Heads; Tony Wright, Morayfield; Andrew Farr, Grantham; Gary Hunter, Sandstone Point; Sandra Pratt, Wellington Point; and Gavin Colledge, Banksia Beach who have each won a How to Use an Echo Sounder/Fish Finder book valued at $49.95.

Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 5

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Page 6 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Quality bream will eat a range of lures this month.

Jewies will feast on the large numbers of prawns around during February. This one ate a 3” Z-Man ShrimpZ, which is one of the author’s favourite plastics.

Tips to catch a feed of tasty crustaceans ☛ from P5

excellent prawning and it’s not hard to reach your bag limit in a short time.

Some people struggle to understand that 90 percent of the time, the prawns will be there the next day as well.

If you stick to the bag limits, you won’t have anything to worry about.

Fisheries officers know a lot of prawns are being sold on the black market and it’s only a matter of time before these people are caught.

Mud crabs are also plentiful at this time of year.

It’s amazing any crabs are left after so many people get out chasing them over the Christmas

holidays, but they seem to keep standing up to the punishment.

The good thing about mud crabs is they are quite easy to capture.

Some people catch loads more than others, but the average angler is also capable of taking a couple from the bank.

Fresh baits such as mullet and chicken frames work really well.

Leftover fish frames also work and I’ve even resorted to using fresh catfish at times when nothing else is available.

They get really stinky quickly though, especially in summer.

Mud crabs like a bit of structure to hide in.

Weed beds, rocks, mud banks and mangroves are all likely places to find them.

When the crabs are on the move and feeding, it pays to regularly check your pots.

It’s surprising how quickly they can get into a pot when they’re hungry.

Fishing Bream is the standout species around Brisbane’s northside this month.

Large numbers of quality bream will be widespread throughout most of the rivers and creeks.

They are particularly fond of the prawns that school up over the next few months.

Bream are in excellent

condition at this time of year and they aren’t shy when it comes to eating lures.

Casting and jigging small plastics is my favourite way to target bream.

I also find it is the most consistent way to catch them.

Small blades are productive and are a bit easier than most lures to get down in a strong current.

The by-catch can be outstanding when fishing blades down deep.

Jewies, flathead, tarpon, trevally, cod and mangrove jack are just some of the species that will eat a blade.

Staying connected to

these species is the hardest part when using light gear and a light leader aimed at bream.

Mangrove jack will continue to bite well this month.

Persistence is a word often used when anglers talk about catching mangrove jack.

The more time you spend on the water, the more you will learn about the habits of these awesome fish.

This will lead to getting the bites and then to the fun part of trying to stop them.

Get out there and into the prawn action.

I hope to catch you on the water.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

New marine engine emission standards

T

HE Boating Industry Association welcomes the recent announcement from the Department of the Environment confirming Minister Frydenberg’s decision to introduce marine engine emission standards under the National Clean Air Agreement.

With a date of July 1, 2018 announced for commencement of new regula-

tions, BIA National CEO Howard Glenn said: “We welcome the certainty this decision provides for our members who are now able to plan new product development with a clear understanding of how future regulation and standards will impact their products and businesses.”

Noting the extended transition of the full implementation of the regulations through to July

2019, Mr Glenn said the BIA was very pleased the department had been able to provide a long phase-in period, allowing industry to ensure any non-compliant product stocks they hold have been appropriately cleared.

The BIA also noted the decision not to include evaporative emission standards at this time, but to undertake further consultation with industry.

The BIA will ensure boat manufacturers are represented in these consultations, and aims to see an agreement on these standards as soon as possible.

“The boating industry and boaters are very protective of the marine environment and play a big role in maintaining the quality of our waterways,” Mr Glenn said.

“These standards are a

small but important contribution to continuous improvement in environmental management.”

Full details of the standards to be introduced are available at the department’s dedicated web page at environment.gov. au/protection/air-quality/ publ icat ions/work i ngtowards-australian-emis sion-standards-nrsiee-up date-paper

Australian fish stocks report card released

C

ONSUMERS of Australian seafood can have renewed confidence in the sustainability of buying fish from Australian stocks with the release of the latest edition of the ‘Status of Australian Fish Stocks’ reports from the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

In total, the reports look at 83 of the most important species and species complexes, representing about 90 percent of both volume and value of Australia’s total fisheries production.

FRDC executive direc-

tor Dr Patrick Hone said the reports provided a simple way for seafood consumers, fishers, managers and the public to understand how Australia’s fish stocks are performing.

These reports delve into the depths of each species, looking at the local level.

In total, 294 individual stocks were assessed.

The reports include 15 new species, some very iconic, such as the Western Australian dhufish, while others like the orange roughy have endured a chequered past but are showing signs of recovery in some areas.

Prawn lovers should celebrate, with prawn stocks scoring the highest across the board ratings.

Not surprisingly, given they also have the highest number of Marine Stewardship Council certified fisheries.

Almost 100 of Australia’s fisheries scientists were responsible for producing the 83 species reports.

In addition, a further 50 fisheries scientists anonymously reviewed the reports to ensure they were as accurate as possible.

The reports are available online at a new web-

site: fish.gov.au This website provides easy access for everyone to dive into this wealth of information.

The reports also highlight that fish stocks are dynamic and require constant monitoring.

Assessments by the numbers • 83 species (or species complexes) were assessed across Australia.

• 294 individual status assessments were carried out for the 83 species.

• 174 stocks were classified as sustainable – representing 84.93 percent of the total.

• Nine stocks were

classified as transitional – recovering.

• 26 stocks were classified as transitional – depleting.

• Five stocks were deemed environmentally limited.

• 17 stocks were classified as overfished. Importantly, all have recovery management plans in place that aim to rebuild the stocks.

• 49 stocks were classified as ‘undefined’. It is important to note all these stocks have management in place, however there was insufficient data available to confidently classify the stocks.

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New festival to celebrate everything marine

T

HE first annual Lifestyle on Water Festival will be held at Pelican Park in Redcliffe on April 29 and 30, 2017 and incorporate the Austackle Moreton Bay Madness fishing competition.

The event will include a high-octane spectacle of the 2017 National Closed Course PWC titles, which will showcase 500hp jet skis vying for the title of national champion.

Also on water will be jet packs and jet ski stunts, freestyling and demonstrations.

Local marine dealers will be exhibiting a range of products as well as offering on-water boat testing for those wanting to test their new purchase.

In the arena will be a food and wine expo showcasing the region’s best

produce and seafood, with local prawns and Moreton Bay bugs on sale.

On the main stage will be headline acts, local artists and cooking demonstrations, along with live music all day and into the early evening.

Great Northern Brewing Co, as the official beverage partner, will keep the patrons hydrated in the GNBC bar, while a selection of food trucks will offer snacks and gourmet delights.

All visitors to the festival will go into the draw to win one of five Bluefin Boat packages, one drawn each day as a lucky door prize, with two of these packages reserved for entrants into the Austackle Moreton Bay Madness fishing competition.

In addition to the boats, $250,000 in total prizes will be given away to fes-

tival visitors.

Festival organiser Carl Richards said the vision is to celebrate all things marine by bringing together all the elements people associate with boating.

He said Pelican Park is a spectacular location to host the event where you can enjoy great music, take in high-energy jet ski racing, enjoy a bucket of prawns with a cold drink and have the opportunity

to win one of five boats.

It will also be a family friendly event with a dedicated kids’ area.

Entries into the fishing competition and festival ticket sales will be available online in February.

The fishing competition will be conducted by Steve Wilkes and Sports Tuition.

Steve said this is an eco-friendly catch and release competition with

multi species targets.

“We will have prize categories for both junior and senior anglers, so we welcome families to get involved whether from a boat or the shore,” he said.

For more information, visit facebook.com/life styleonwaterfestival People wishing to sponsor or exhibit should contact Carl at ca rl.j. r icha rds@gmail. com

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 7

Page 8 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

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BRISBANE (NORTH)

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More warm water should end wait for dolphinfish

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www.bnbfishing.com. au

F

OR a change it was great to have good fishing weather in the lead-up to Christmas and during the week of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Rather than dealing with the strong southerly current that dominates at this time of year, most fishing days were workable and enjoyable.

The one day where the current really picked up saw an increase in water temperature of almost 2C, however dolphinfish were notably absent and at the time of writing we still haven’t sighted a single dolphinfish under the boat.

Mind you, I have been patiently waiting with a Wilson live bait/dead bait wire rig of a 2/0 Hoodlum hook and a short single strand of mason wire connected to a size 2 6X treble, ready for a livie to be attached and cast at the first dollie sighted.

They just don’t seem to be able to resist this combination when around the boat, but the lack of current has seen a very quiet start to the season for most people chasing surface fish.

I heard some mackerel had arrived on the Gold Coast so I trolled over the coffee rock reefs north of South Passage Bar around the new moon but the water was very dirty, surface birds absent and baitfish sparse on the inshore grounds.

The fish will arrive eventually and everyone is looking forward to the sound of screaming ratchets.

Live baits, including small bonito, which make great mackerel bait, have been easier to catch on the reefs along the 33-fathom line and a mix of fresh fillets and live baits has been the saving grace when targeting bottom-dwelling reef fish.

Even a nicely trimmed and rigged bonito fillet has been the downfall of a few snapper on floated baits in mild current.

Mind you, those snaps that are still around haven’t exactly liked the low-barometer days, but the livies have accounted for excellent teraglin and amberjack as a trade-off.

Both species are a good backup around the new moon and mostly you need livies to

Offshore

by BILL CORTEN

really get them going.

Some days when they are biting well you can swap to dead bait and they will stay on the chew.

A number of the teraglin have been up to a metre long and at that size provide a very decent fillet.

The amberjack have been pretty well spread over the

Moreton Island reefs of late and are a welcome pick-up to add volume to the icebox.

Square Patch is a typical location for ambos but try being broader with your focus and you will find them in a lot of other locations too.

A couple of other places include the line of reef running ☛ continued P10

Samson fish have a big mouth perfectly suited to inhaling large live and dead baits.

Twelve-year-old Kai Nichols with a very solid 29-fathom reef venus tuskfish.

Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 9

Kelvin Watson was content with a feed of teraglin of this calibre on live bait.

Maddie Barnes was pretty happy with this snapper on her first offshore trip.

More warm water should end wait for dolphinfish ☛ from P9

This samson fish made Western Australia-based Tom Anderson’s day while catching up with family at Christmas. Note this fish had half its tail missing.

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in to the west on the way to Point Lookout.

I recently spoke of the back ledges along the 35-fathom reef line and have caught several amberjack along that area in recent weeks as well as on the broken sections of reef past the northern end of the 33-fathom reef line.

I enjoy catching big highfin amberjack but find the heavier they are, the tougher their flesh is.

Bled straight away, the flesh will go whiter and you can usually tell the eating quality of the fish when the fillet is being taken off the frame.

If the knife runs light and smooth it will be pretty reasonable to eat, but those tougher ones make for hard work on the blade and you know straight away what you are getting.

Even the smaller, darkcoloured highfin AJs are not really flash in my opinion.

While the highfin loves to scoff a live bait, it is surprising how many are caught on a just-legal snapper suspended on a single hook under the dorsal fin and dropped to within a couple of metres of the bottom.

Some of the 35s back ledges and the reef ridges south from there have been home to large samson fish of late.

They are distinguished from amberjack by a wider body and mottled pattern along their sides.

These fish pull pretty hard, and when they run straight for the bottom to bust you off in 60-80m of water, they’ll give anyone a fair workout.

They have a broader fillet and lighter-coloured flesh that is more visually appealing than the highfin AJ. Live baits such as yakkas and slimies are their preference and they will aggressively attack bonito and mullet fillets too.

In the small to midrange size they are great to eat and a welcome addition to any summer trip offshore.

Along the northern 33-fathom line we have hooked several of the seriola family known as the greater amberjack.

These are a more slender amberjack and have a thin band of yellow that runs from the back of the head to the tail.

They look something like a small yellowtail king but don’t have anywhere near the same fighting qualities and are good eating.

Regardless of the species of amberjack, there is a generous minimum size limit of 50cm, so it is rare to catch one undersize, and with a bag limit of two fish per person you’ll have plenty of

fish to go round.

Usually an amberjack is spent by the time it is brought to the surface and doesn’t thrash around boatside like a yellowtail king.

Rather than using a gaff, a good-sized landing net will allow you to remove the fish from the water relatively unharmed where it can easily be released.

Alternatively, if you would like to impress your friends, try putting your hand under the gill cover and lift them one handed from the water.

Over the next month we are likely to get plenty of low-barometer days as we come under the seasonal influence of the low-pressure systems and the amberjacks are reasonable backup species on these days.

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Cliff Hayward with a summer snapper from the 33-fathom reef.

Page 10 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

www.bnbfishing.com. au

See all the new releases at Gold Coast International Boat Show & Marine Expo

A

MASSIVE marine showcase featuring hundreds of brand-new boats, jet skis, marine electronics, engines and every nautical accessory you can possibly imagine kicks off the Australian boat show season on Queensland’s sunny Gold Coast this March.

The Gold Coast International Boat Show & Marine Expo from March 17-19 is a major boon for the boat-loving public and has experienced unprecedented support from the marine industry.

Event & Marketing manager Emma Brown said if you love to spend your leisure time on the water, the Gold Coast is certainly the place to be in March.

“Our giant display circuit and two marinas will feature more Australian and world premieres than ever before, with many of the world’s leading businesses and brands reserving more space and berths to exclusively premiere their new-year releases,” she said.

“Visitors will be able to experience and enjoy everything their families need to have fun on the water, and at a time when their boating considerations are top of mind.”

Mrs Brown said the industry-led show in March continues to innovate to

create an even more engaging and fun boat show experience, and the firm focus on enhancing the boating enjoyment of families remains a key priority.

“The Gold Coast International Boat Show & Marine Expo is a boat show for real boaters,” she said.

“Being lifetime boaters ourselves, we know that families who go boating together, stay together, so we have ensured the show will have something for every member of the family.”

The Gold Coast International Boat Show & Marine Expo – now with its new March dates – builds on six years of growth and success.

In 2015, the event was named Australia’s Best Exhibition, and in 2016 was a finalist in the same category at the Australian Event Awards.

“Our industry boat show is unique in so many respects – nowhere else in the world is a massive marine showcase held right in the heart of the largest boat builders and recreational shipyards in the host country,” Mrs Brown said.

“On the water, we will present a showcase of luxurious yachts and boats of all designs and sizes, including a massive super yacht that’s certain to create an incredible marina experience.

“Our very popular sea trials will also return in 2017 – last year over 1000 sea trials were conducted, with many families being able to experience boating for the first time with the Mercury Edge program.”

Mrs Brown said many new features would also be introduced on land to further enhance the enjoyment of visitors.

“We have factory tours of the giant Riviera and Quintrex boat-building facilities, and working demonstrations at the Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard,” she said.

“Riviera will demonstrate the world-class construction processes behind its new 68 Sports Motor Yacht, while Quintrex will proudly premiere its new models for the first time in the world – and that’s in addition to many new interactive demonstrations and live entertainment every 15 minutes across our giant display circuit and two marinas.

“With so many exhibitors releasing new models and products this year, we have created a new section on our website GCBoat Show.com called ‘See It First’, where we will detail all the firsts you will be able to see in March.”

Stefan Ackerie from Stefan Boating World said moving the boat show date to March was ‘genius’.

“There will be more exhibitors, more people and more choices than ever before,” he said.

“Stefan Boating World will have an enormous range of brand-new boats here at that time – in fact the largest range of boats under one roof in Australia.”

Mrs Brown said the Gold Coast International Boat Show & Marine Expo will feature everything from super yachts to luxury motor and sailing yachts, kayaks, jet skis and fishing equipment, and everything else in between.

“Based on direct sales for exhibitors, our event has in the past two years alone injected over $100 million into the Gold Coast and Queensland economies,” she said.

“Most telling from our 2016 visitor feedback was that 96 percent of visitor respondents said they would recommend the Expo to their boating friends, and over 75 percent said they would return to the Expo in 2017.

“If you love boating, the Gold Coast is definitely the place to be from March 17-19, 2017.”

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www.nsmarine.com.au Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 11

When sitting stationary over a school of fish such as bass, single fish show as long continuous lines.

Low-frequency wide beams will highlight a larger area and help find fish in the water column, but lack the bottom detail of a high-frequency narrow beam.

Fishfinder fundamentals H

EY mate, do you pick up Channel 7 on those things?”

“

Harder bottoms will show as a thick ‘hot’ colours on your sounder screen.

Fish moving all the way though the sonar beam while the boat is moving will show as a full arch.

Yeah, that’s the usual comment I get at the local ramp.

I guess when you see a 5m sportfishing boat with multiple 10” and 12” sounder and GPS displays hanging off it, it’s a fair question.

Though I always have a laugh, those screens are my eyes underwater and without them I would be lost.

No matter if you have a little 3” sounder or a set of 16” multi-function displays, knowing how to read and understand your sonar will put you well on the way to becoming a more successful fisher.

Fishing is all about confidence, and being confident you’re on the fish to start with goes a long way to catching them.

Sonar basics The basics are always a good place to start, and to understand the funny little pictures on the sounder screen, it’s best to understand how they first got there.

Part 1 – 2D Sonar

by JUSTIN WELSH

Your unit is made up of three key things: a power source, head unit or display and a transducer.

The head unit gets power from your battery, that power is sent to the transducer and inside that transducer is a range of ceramic elements.

These elements turn the electrical signal into a sound signal called a ‘ping’.

This sound travels down through the water and when it hits something such as the bottom or a fish it echoes back to the transducer.

The transducer then listens for this echo, turns it back from a sound signal into an electrical signal and highlights a range of pixels on your head unit’s screen.

Once you have a few pings come back and forth, your unit will begin painting a graphical history of the bottom.

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For product information and to find your nearest authorised dealer contact Graham HyDrive Engineering Pty Ltd – Queensland Unit 12, 73-75 Shore Street, Cleveland 4163 T: 07 3821 6580 E: qld@hydrive.com.au W: hydrive.com.au Page 12 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Frequency As sound travels, it has a wave pattern called a frequency.

And like any sound, the ping the transducer emits has a frequency.

Almost all sounders on the market today are dual beam or dual frequency.

This allows the user to tune the unit to send either a high frequency or a low frequency.

A high frequency results in the wave pattern being very close together.

This allow that when the echo comes back it is in higher detail, but the disadvantage is it can’t penetrate as far into the water while still returning a strong echo.

So when you are in deep water chasing pearlies, snapper or kingies, the high frequency won’t be able to give you a good picture, or even a picture at all.

This is the time to switch to the low frequency.

A low-frequency wave pattern is spread further apart so it can penetrate further into the depths and still return a strong signal.

This means that in deep water you will be able to paint a good picture of the bottom as well as locate the fish.

The disadvantage is it won’t return the same detail as the high-frequency setting.

However, it’s still a lot better than not seeing the bottom or fish at all.

Beam angle Your transducer’s ping travels not only with a frequency but also in a shape.

In its most basic form, it looks like an upside-down ice cream cone.

High frequencies generally have a narrow beam angle of about 20 degrees.

Being a high frequency and a narrow beam angle, the picture of the bottom will be more defined, so when you go over a piece of structure it will build up the edges of the structure very clearly.

Low frequencies generally have a wider beam

angle of up to about 70 degrees.

Looking at that same piece of structure with a wider beam will tend to smooth off the edges because the structure spends much longer inside the sonar beam.

The big advantage of running a low frequency/ wide beam angle in shallow water is finding fish high in the water column.

A wider beam angle means you’re looking at a larger area between the bottom and the surface, so finding suspended fish and bait can be easier.

Bottom hardness Think of your ping as a tennis ball.

If you drop that tennis ball on something soft, such as carpet, it will not bounce very high, which is just like your ping and echo.

If the ping hits a soft bottom, not a lot of the signal is returned to the transducer.

In contrast, if you drop that tennis ball on concrete it will bounce nice and high.

So when your ping hits something hard, lots of echo comes back to the transducer.

Different bottoms are displayed on your screen as different colours.

The hotter the colour, the more echo has come back from the bottom.

So running on the standard colour palette, blue and green are the ‘softest’ echoes, while yellow and red are the ‘harder’ echoes.

This makes it easy to differentiate between the bottom types when you move from a soft bottom such as mud up onto hard reef, but one skill that’s important to learn is distinguishing between a relatively hard bottom such as sand and genuinely hard reef.

The trick here is looking at the thickness of this ‘hot’ line.

The thicker it is, the more echo you’re getting back.

Also remember that hard bottom is a great place for soft corals and weed to grow, so in this instance look for a nice and thick red return with a slim line ☛ continued P13

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Whiting and prawns on the menu Fishfinder fundamentals A ☛ from P12

of cooler colours on top.

Fish arches Now you’ve turned the ‘fish symbols’ off on your unit, what do fish actually look like on your sounder?

Really you should be looking for any ‘hard’ return separated from the bottom or structure you’re over.

Single fish will be single marks or lines, while bait schools will look like a cloud with a red centre and softer colours on the outside.

Fish arches are what people are looking for but it’s sometimes hard to achieve them.

To achieve the perfect arch, the fish needs to move all the way though the sonar beam quite quickly.

Normally this happens when fish are sitting stationary or moving very slowly and the boat is driven over the top of them.

The reason a fish shows as an arch is actually pretty simple.

When it first enters the transducer beam, it is as far as it can possibly be from the transducer.

When in the middle of the beam it is

straight up and down and the closest it can be to the transducer.

The fish has now built the ramp to the top of the arch.

Then when the fish leaves the transducer beam, it gets further away and the rest of the arch is painted on your screen.

Because of the greater width of the beam, you are more likely to see fish arches when using the lower frequency.

When you are sitting directly over the top of fish on anchor, spot lock or slowly drifting, you’re not likely to see fish arches.

You need to be looking for red blobs or red lines.

If a fish enters the transducer beam, stays in it for a while and then exits, it’s going to show as a long line at a continuous depth across your screen.

Time to target that fish!

And one last thing… get out on the water and use your unit!

Nothing beats getting familiar with your sounder.

Next issue we will look at how to tune your unit to get the most out of it.

S I pen this article for Bush ‘n Beach, a total of five southeast Queensland prawn farms have been devastated by white spot disease and I really feel for the farmers who have put their heart, soul and a lot of work into these farms and have now lost their livelihood.

What the future holds for them and other fishers in southeast Queensland is very much up in the air, particularly due to white spot disease being found in prawn samples taken from the Logan River.

Reports indicate the disease hasn’t established in wild stocks and fingers crossed it doesn’t ever because a line drawn across a map on paper certainly won’t keep infected prawns, yabbies, crabs or the water in the river from entering our beloved Moreton Bay. We are so lucky in Australia to have some of the best produce in the world, yet our industries are under constant threat from diseases in overseas imports.

It’s heartening to know of the recently imposed temporary ban on importing green prawns (closing the gate after the bull has bolted!) but for the sake of protecting our stocks both wild and farmed, why the heck isn’t it made permanent?

That said, we are still in the lucky country where our waterways are consid-

Fishing Australia

by LEEANN PAYNE

erably cleaner than some of those overseas and therefore we have mighty fine wild fisheries at our doorstep.

This is an excellent time to be chasing mud crabs (except in the Logan River!) and the usual bream, whiting and flathead in our estuaries.

We’ve been across to Moreton Island and the Rous Channel over the past month and have captured good numbers of trumpeter whiting, which are also known as diver or winter whiting.

We have also found toadfish in large numbers, along with juvenile spangled emperor.

Winter whiting are an exceptionally easy fish to catch, partly due to their high numbers in Moreton Bay. If you can put a bait in the water, you have a good chance.

It is why these fish are kid friendly and our two kids love chasing winter whiting and really enjoy holding onto the rod and waiting for a fish to take their baits.

Robert used light gear to catch a winter whiting.

Unable to contain their excitement once they hook a fish, it is enjoyable watching the smiles, listening to their little mumbles about how hard the fish is pulling and finally winding the whiting in to be unhooked.

It’s substantially different fishing to what Robert and I have done in the past because we’ve always been so full-on about getting into it and getting the job done, but with younger kids we’ve had to take it a bit easier so they get to enjoy the day on the water in the hope the trend will continue as they age.

We usually drift for whiting and mark the productive areas on the sounder.

Once the boat has drifted into unproductive waters, it’s just a matter of idling back to where the action is.

Of course, another method is to anchor and berley the fish to keep the school in the vicinity of the boat.

When this is done, the bait can be slowly wound in because that little bit of movement can trigger the fish into biting.

Though squid and worms can be used, we generally use prawns that we have put aside from the previous prawning season.

Trumpeter whiting can be caught pretty much year round but in the next couple of months numbers will be on the increase.

☛ continued P14

John showed off one of his whiting with Robert.

FISH » WAKE » SKI

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 13

Mud crabs are in abundance at the moment in most southeast Queensland rivers and creeks.

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A small number of boats fished the Rous Channel with Moreton Island’s Sandhills in the background.

Entertaining kids with a couple of fish in a bucket can fill out the day for them.

Whiting and prawns on the menu

☛ from P13

There is a very generous bag limit of 50 trumpeter whiting per person, with no size limit.

With whiting freezing well, I have no hesitation taking the limit for a number of meals.

While mentioning the bait of prawns, it’s just about time to dust off the cast net for this season because a few prawns are already being caught.

Last year’s season started quite early and continued for months with no end in sight.

In the end I think so many of us had our bag limits (10 litres in possession, including prawns in your home freezer) and I for one had had enough of eating prawns in every

which way I could think of, so even though the reports were still coming in thick and fast, we were just prawned out.

If you haven’t ordered your specialised prawning net, make sure you do it shortly.

The start of the season will depend on nature, with freshwater flows, wind, currents and water temperatures all having a say on when it takes place.

Hopefully white spot disease will not affect prawns outside of the Logan River system because the worstcase scenario is we won’t be able to use cast nets.

Prawns congregate in deep holes and along ledges in the channels leading to Moreton Bay from the Cabbage Tree and Jacobs

Well boat ramps.

If you are just getting into prawning, good places to try are the bottom of Lamb Island, near Rudy Maas Marina, near the powerlines (out from the Logan River mouth) and Russell Island to name some of the areas where they have turned up consistently in the past.

When to target the prawns in each location can be very tide dependent because certain areas will fish well at the change of tide, during an incoming tide or sometimes in the middle of a tide.

Using a sounder to watch for ‘clouds’ of prawns is a good idea and often the prawns can be found towards the bottom.

After casting, ensure the

net reaches the bottom before slowly pulling it up again.

Once the prawns are found, use a GPS to keep track of them because casts are made while on the drift.

When you find the prawns and are on your lonesome, don’t advertise the fact they are there if you want to continue prawning in peace.

Obviously, with the grapevine working in an

instant, it doesn’t take long to get swamped with other boats.

Importantly, once you have caught your prawns, get them into an ice slurry as soon as possible.

In my local area of Logan, Dave Molnar from Waterford sells bulk ice that lasts.

He can be found at 4 Jordan St, Waterford and you can call him on 0412 811 865.

Good fishing to all!

Report white spot disease Call Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23 and visit bnbfishing.com.au to stay up to date.

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No definitive source of prawn disease found

T

HE Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources continues to work collaboratively with the Queensland Government to determine the origin of the outbreak of white spot disease in prawn farms in southeast Queensland.

Deputy Secretary Lyn O’Connell said media commentary suggesting a definitive cause of the disease outbreak had been found was not correct.

“The department con-

tinues to investigate how this outbreak of white spot disease has occurred, but no definite link has been determined at this point,” Ms O’Connell said.

“We are still looking at a number of pathways that may have resulted in the white spot disease incursion in Queensland, including imported feed or probiotics, contaminated equipment, or even discarded uncooked prawns – or bits of prawns – that were bought to eat.

“In the course of our investigations, the department came across recreational fishers using imported prawns labelled for human consumption for bait in the Logan River.

“Subsequent testing of the product returned positive results for the virus.

“What this tells us is that fishers using infected imported prawns for bait is one possible pathway for this disease to get into our river systems and onto prawn farms

– and is why prawns imported for human consumption should never be used for bait.”

The Director of Biosecurity suspended imports of uncooked prawns earlier in January to ensure that pathway does not present an unacceptable risk to a currently vulnerable industry.

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is responsible for managing Australia’s biosecurity system, which is in place

to safeguard Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries worth over $60 billion to our economy.

Biosecurity is a shared responsibility and it’s imperative that Australian industry and the community are aware of their obligations.

For information about the status of the outbreak, visit daf.qld.gov.au For further information on the trade suspension, see agriculture.gov.au/ import/goods/uncookedprawns

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Good fish about when you can get on the water H I everyone, I hope you had a great holiday pe-

Broadwater Region

by WAYNE ‘YOUNGY’ YOUNG

riod.

Unfortunately the busy waterways and damn northerlies made the fishing more difficult than it should have been.

The future looks better though, with a bit of rain and southeasterly wind to increase the water temperature offshore, which will bring the pelagics out to play.

A lumpy swell and strong northerly wind limited offshore trips over the holiday period but when we got out we found quality fish and even a couple of monsters, as the photos show.

Good snapper and moses snapper (formerly moses perch but now officially renamed by Fisheries Queensland) as well as big jew and cod were caught.

Mackerel are just starting to show at the time of writing.

With all my offshore fishing, I like to give myself a chance of catching a wide variety of species.

I have found the best method for enticing a range of fish is to float line whole pillies.

As the pillie slowly floats down, any mackerel

in the upper water column will attack the bait violently, but if no mackerel are about, as the pillie nears the bottom, snapper and other reef species are the main catch.

An unweighted live yakka free swimming out the back of the boat is also a good option, especially towards the end of February when the spanish mackerel start to turn up.

It is very important to find a good show of bait where you’re going to fish and sometimes this can see you slowly driving over the chosen area for 10 to 20 minutes to find the best spot to anchor.

A good berley trail is essential for a consistent catch rate of mackerel and reef species, with minced frames and pillie pieces best.

You just never know what your berley will attract.

Over the holidays we used the above method and landed a 1.4m, roughly 40kg black rockcod.

For an old whiting fisherman, it was a big surprise.

Back in the estuaries, mud crab captures have been getting better after the rain in January, and this month will see the quality of muddies improve.

Over the holidays, the muddies were not full of meat but this month will see them in much better condition after an extra month’s feeding time.

The best locations for a feed of muddies will be the Pimpama River from the mouth to the stockyards and the Aldershots between the north and south arms of the Coomera River on both sides of the main channel.

In the Coomera River, the deep water between Hope Harbour and Sanctuary Cove will be ideal.

Mud crabs love whiting frames as bait but we have also had success with reef fish frames.

The best shop-bought bait will always be mullet chopped in half to allow plenty of scent into the water.

While the water stays clean, sand crabs are

around as well, with the mouth of the Nerang River providing the betterquality sandies.

This is great for us whiting fishos because we can drop off a couple of pots on the way up the Nerang to get our next feed of whiting and more frames for the crab pots.

The past month has seen whiting catches a little less consistent than normal.

We’ve still had no trouble getting a feed but the bite periods have been ☛ continued P16

The author with a very large black rockcod caught on a close-in Gold Coast reef.

A pleasant surprise when float lining for snapper was Jamie’s 115cm jew.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 15

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very erratic.

For an hour or so during the trips the fish will bite their heads off and then go quiet for a while.

Whiting are continually on the move looking for food, and this normally means they are feeding over a large area and are taking their time returning to the area around your boat.

It’s very frustrating but the quality of the fish has been good.

The water is currently very clean and the whiting are biting much better after dark.

If we can get a heap of rain to make the water dirty, we should be able to get a few fish during the day.

Whiting fishing in the Coomera River has been a little quiet but this will improve now the heavy boat traffic in this area has eased.

The big sandbank at the end of Paradise Point and the sandbank on the north-

R E D R O , S R E B D NUM

LIMITE

the jetties or anchoring up and bait fishing the same jetties.

The best time to target these fish with bait is an hour either side of a tide change.

ern side of Jabiru Island are good places to try.

Yabbies are a good bait because they are plentiful in this area.

The past 12 months has been the worst fishing period I have seen in the Seaway and its surrounds.

While still holding the odd good fish, we’ve found no big schools of predators chasing bait as we have in the past.

Hopefully things get back to normal once we get some rain that pushes all the bait back downstream into this area.

At the moment, I would recommend fishing the Jumpinpin Bar area rather than the Seaway for jew.

The odd flathead has been picked up around the Aldershots and this location is an option if you want to have a fish between checking the crab pots.

Mangrove jack fishers have had a great time in the Coomera River and Runaway Bay canals of late.

Most have either been flicking soft plastics at

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Live herring and strips of mullet or bonito are perfect baits.

Mangrove jack will continue to be caught right up until Easter.

Patience and persistence

is needed to catch one but you will never forget your first jack.

Let’s hope this year brings great fishing for all.

‘Til next month, fish for the future.

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How and why to spool your fishing reels

F

ISHING line is one of the most crucial pieces of tackle between you and the fish.

The Rogue Line Spooler is a very handy device at home.

The author rigged up using the Rogue Line Spooler.

Check line packaging to find out the line diameter.

First, it gets you to the fish and second, once you are hooked up it keeps you connected to the fish.

Therefore, it is critically important that you can cast far enough to the fish and also have the line in good condition so it won’t break unnecessarily during the fight.

Maximise your cast Ever wondered why your mate or the experienced angler next to you casts so much further than you?

Take a look at your reels.

One of the most common mistakes I see anglers make is fishing with reel spools that are only half filled (or less) with line.

Apart from the risk this carries of anglers getting ‘spooled’ by a fish that runs and takes all the line, it also considerably reduces the distance you can achieve from a cast.

If the spools on your reels are not filled to within a couple of millimetres of the edge of the spool, you are losing several metres in casting distance.

The reason is simple science.

A full spool allows line to peel off less hindered by friction or obstruction caused by the lip of the spool.

This can have a significant effect on the distance you will cast.

A full spool of braid is particularly important for casting and retrieving lures.

If you throw lightly weighted hard-bodies or jig heads, you want to

Fishing Tips

by SEAN THOMPSON

maximise the distance you cast so neither you nor the boat spooks the fish and you are able to cover more ground.

Remember too when considering new line for your reel that thinner-diameter line will cast further.

Quality lines will generally have a thinner diameter, so always check the packaging for the diameter of the line and compare products.

By way of example, I use Platypus Super-100 in 6lb, which is 0.19mm in diameter, while many of its competitors are 0.23mm.

Thinner line also has the advantage of less drag in the water, which is particularly handy when beach fishing or battling strong currents from a boat.

Replace old line Another factor that can affect casting distance is the age and quality of your line, particularly monofilament.

Poor quality, cheap imported line often has a lot of memory.

This means if it spends too much time coiled up on your spool without use, it retains that shape and will therefore have more friction coming off the spool.

It will also be less aerodynamic and have more chance of knotting up.

Further, over time fishing line will become worn, sun damaged (due to ultraviolet rays) and susceptible

to breakage.

Therefore, it is critical you replace it if it is in poor condition or a couple of years old.

I will replace line on reels that see very regular use as often as once or twice a year.

Otherwise, replace older line, even if it hasn’t been used regularly, at least once every couple of years.

How to spool up with new line When topping your line up or putting new line on your spool, you need to make sure it is on firmly or you will end up with loose coils of line and tangles.

You also don’t want it wound on too tight and cutting into itself.

To avoid this, you have a few choices when spooling up.

First, good tackle shops will have spooling machines and should spool new purchases of line for you for free.

Some might only spool new reels you buy in store, but you won’t know unless you ask.

A great alternative for rigging up at home is to use the handy inexpensive clamp device that is pictured.

It has a suction cup mount for you to attach it to the wall or your boat and wind the line on under pressure.

It is also fully adjustable for different spool widths.

My version is made by Rogue and is available for

just over $20 from BCF. A third way is to get a friend or family member to hold the new spool of line with a screwdriver through it and stand back a metre or two with the line running through the first guide of the rod.

A final option if you are on your own is to place the spool of line in a bucket of water and wind it on.

This reduces friction, which can burn your fingers and damage the line.

In all cases except at a tackle shop, to spool up your fishing reel you want to follow these steps: 1. Connect your reel to your rod.

2. Open the bail arm on your reel.

3. Insert the line through the bottom guide of your rod and pull it towards the spool.

4. Tie the line onto the spool with a double overhand knot or uni knot, making sure you lubricate it before you close it up to avoid friction on the line.

5. Hold the line with your index finger while you wind line onto the spool (use a wet cloth for braid so you don’t cut yourself), holding it not too tight or too loose.

6. With an Alvey, guide the line from the outside of the reel towards the centre, that is across the spool back and forth, or it will bunch up. This should mean the line angles down slightly towards the front of the spool so it comes off one strand at a time in a cast.

Spooling with braid Finally, when tying braided line onto your spool, always run a backing of monofilament line onto the spool first.

This is because braided line doesn’t stretch, so it can’t bind or hold onto the metal spool, resulting in the braided line turning independently of the spool.

This backing can be as little as a couple of metres long; it just needs to be enough to cover the metal spool before you tie a joining knot onto the braid.

I hope these tips help you take better care of your line and have it in tip-top condition for maximumlength casts.

For more tips, reports and giveaways, check out my Ontour Fishing Australia Facebook page.

Until next month – bag your mates, not your limit.

Good tackle shops such as Fishermans Warehouse will fill your spool for you.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 17

Joel Williams with his first jewie taken on a blade in a deep hole in the Tweed River.

This aggressive little jack smashed an Atomic 85DD lure.

Tips of the trade ■ How to find different fish species

G

’DAY everyone, I hope you had a very relaxing Christmas and new year with rewarding days on the water.

A quality flathead taken on the troll by the author.

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In this month’s article I am going to pass on some of my tips of the trade for finding a variety of species.

It is no secret within the industry, and I am not being egotistical, but after well over 20 years as a professional guide using only lures, I have never had a day on the water without catching a variety of species for my clients.

This is not to say that every day is a Cinderella story where we catch cricket scores of fish, but on a lot of occasions we do.

It is not on the good days when all the crucial conditions align that you need help; it is during the tough days on the water that these tricks might help you.

The first and most obvious tip is to learn your areas of operation intimately, which comes with spending time on the water, making a lot of moves, studying your sounder closely and taking a full account of the depths and structural variations that occur on the screen.

This type of exploration is vital, particularly when it comes to the deeper holes in rivers.

Instead of just pulling up in a deep hole and casting lures or baits around randomly, take the time to study where the hole starts and finishes and if there is a bit of reef or an old log or any other type of structure present on the bottom.

Some of my best backup spots when times are tough are small, isolated drop-offs in the middle of nowhere with a small tree branch that has sunk to the bottom.

Anglers drive over these spots every day without realising their presence.

I have a saying for this situation: if a farmer has only one tree in a paddock, that is where the cows will be.

The next tip is to keep a very close and constant eye on everything going on around you throughout the day.

Some of the signs to

Gold Coast Guide

by BRAD SMITH

look for include studying the structural elements along the riverbanks at the bottom of the tide.

Low tide might show some snags and isolated rocky outcrops that would be covered on the high tide.

Current lines created by the tide running from shallow to deeper water or a tide line that shows the presence of clean and dirty water colliding are good indicators of potential fish-holding areas.

The presence of any bird or surface activity is a given sign of fish activity.

Another visual indicator of a fish-holding spot and one that very few anglers are aware of is a freak of nature known as a wind lane.

A wind lane is hard to describe but it is the smooth and sometimes oily streak that appears on the surface on windy days that on close inspection will capture all types of flotsam such as leaves, twigs and (unfortunately) litter within it.

Respond quickly when a wind lane appears because they can come and go as quickly as they are formed by the contours of the bottom as well as the speed and angle of the tide and wind.

The secret to successfully fishing a wind lane is if it captures litter on the surface, it will often concentrate schools of bait below.

While speaking of bait, it is vital to learn the whereabouts of permanent bait grounds in the rivers such as yabby banks, bloodworm grounds and areas that might support bait including weed beds.

When moving around throughout the day, keep a close eye on your sounder for the presence of bait schools.

Find the bait and you’ll find the fish.

Another tip that helps on the tough days is to keep your composure and not get frustrated.

Try to enjoy the challenge!

Think of it as a game of chess and plan your next move with a positive mindset.

In your decision-making process, consider all the variables.

For example, if you like the look and feel of a location and it does not fire, don’t give up on it because you could try it again later on a different tide or tide change and get a hot bite.

If you decide to fish the

shallows and nothing happens, change tactics and try fishing deep and vice versa.

If continuous casting and retrieving is not working, take a break and cover some water by trolling lures or drifting with bait.

If your favourite lure and colour is not working, make a change because on some days a simple variation in lure colour can turn things around.

Fishing in the calmer or lee areas of the rivers is something you always hope will work but if this is not paying off, I often go to the flipside and fish areas disturbed by the wind blowing against the tide.

Though these areas are rough, they suit the fish because the turbulence stirs up the bottom and the bait.

To conclude, we would all like to enjoy explosive results every time we hit the water but expect more hard times than good because we are dealing with Mother Nature and her continuously changing moods.

We have to learn to adjust our best-laid plans and in the end this teaches you to become a smarter angler.

The author scored a jack in the Nerang River.

Peter Myers and a great size bass hooked while fishing deep structure.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Getting jiggy offshore A

S you whip a knife jig through the water column and your rod is nearly ripped out of your hands, you know you’re in for a battle, a battle that can easily be cut short by some of the brutes our offshore grounds hold.

Whether it be an amberjack or yellowtail kingfish, you’ll be in for a great fight, line will be

Offshore Action

by JORDAN ‘GRINNER’ KOSCHEL

peeling off your lockedup reel, your jig stick will have a serious bend and on the end of your jig will be a steam train of a fish that wants to go back into the structure it was holding on.

You can’t expect any-

Dion with a beautiful AJ taken on the Slow Jerk PE1-2 rod. On this lighter gear they really are brutes of fish.

thing less when jigging for these fish.

They have the ability to make you squirm around the boat and scream like a little girl.

A knife jig is long and skinny and when ripped through the water it imitates a fleeing baitfish, while when allowed to sink it flutters.

Fish cannot seem to stop themselves from attacking a knife jig.

I’m not sure if this is out of aggression or sheer desperation for food but either way it all ends the same way: being locked and loaded and getting your arms stretched.

Success doesn’t occur straight away though.

Fish won’t just immediately climb all over your knife jig, before then a few factors have to come into play.

The first of these is: are the fish actually there?

It may seem silly but if you’re jigging over nothing you’re better off not putting yourself through the very physical technique.

The way to find schooling AJs and kings is to use your sounder.

I’ll say this time and time again in my articles because it’s your secret weapon and definitely your advantage over the fish.

Schooling fish will always be holding on bait and structure, be that a ledge, wreck, reef, wire weed or pinnacle.

On the sounder screen the AJs and kings will look like tight squiggly lines hanging around balls of dots (patches of bait).

It may take a while to figure out what they look like compared to a school of other fish but with trial and error you’ll soon have the hang of it and know when it’s time to drop a jig through the fish without burning yourself out jigging over something that won’t hit a 300g knife jig.

Another factor that comes into play is jig selection.

You want to choose something that will work ☛ continued P20

A nice little tuskfish for Dion on the micro jig.

The perfect example of a knife jig: a UV belly and a pink outer side. This jig has proved itself time and time again.

Dion brained it this day and showed that lighter gear can undo bigger fish.

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.com.au/brand/ZMan Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 19

Land based on the Gold Coast W

E have found the offshore fishing very hard over the past month, with constant northerly wind and cold water hampering our attempts to get into the mackerel.

Dylan with a solid giant herring.

Mitch landed this stonker giant herring on a piece of pilchard. It took 20 minutes for him to land it on 6lb gear.

It’s been several years since we’ve had such a poor start to the season, with very few fishable days.

The water is still fluctuating between 20-26C, which when you think about it is ridiculous for this time of year.

We got a bit of a southerly blow in early January, which cranked the water temperature up and those lucky enough to be out the

Mitch caught a little trevally on a soft plastic.

Gold Coast

by HEATH ZYGNERSKI

day after were rewarded with good mackerel fishing.

But apart from that, it has been a very hard slog.

I think we are in for a tough season and anglers are going to have to pull every trick out of the book to get good fish, at least until things settle.

The fishos heading wide haven’t fared too much better, with only the odd small marlin caught.

Reports of mahi mahi and wahoo have been almost non-existent.

So with the offshore scene a bust, the local creeks and canals have copped a flogging and excellent catches have been reported.

My young bloke Mitch and his mates have been fishing non-stop since school ended in December and they’ve killed it.

Fishing from the bank most days, the boys have hooked into mangrove jack and giant herring on a daily basis, catching and releasing in excess of a dozen fish on more than one occasion.

Giant herring have been their most common capture, with fish over a metre landed.

At this size the herring go hard, with long, blis-

tering runs and acrobatics similar to barra.

On 6lb gear they provide an awesome fight that sometimes lasts as long as 20 minutes.

The gear used is similar to what you would use for bream, with a light rod combo and single hook.

Bait doesn’t seem to matter, with anything from pilchards to prawns eagerly accepted.

Giant herring have a tough and rough mouth not unlike a cobia, with some of the bigger fish rubbing the boys’ 20lb leader off during the

prolonged fight.

Giant herring don’t fare too well if handled roughly.

Netting them is best and if you plan on taking a photo, do it quickly and get them straight back in the water.

I have been told they are terrible eating and full of bones.

Trevally have been around in good numbers, with schools busting up chasing (non-giant) herring in the canals.

Of course, plenty of jacks are around and ready to smash a wellpresented lure or live bait.

Fish the structure and you’ll eventually be rewarded.

The local bars are in varying shape.

Tweed Bar has sand building up inside the walls, making it very shallow at the mouth and forcing waves to stand up on the run-out tide.

Currumbin Bar is trying to clear its throat, with a shallow gutter around the groin and along the beach on low tide.

On half a tide you can get over the bank with no worries.

Tallebudgera Bar claimed another victim over the holidays, with a boat turning over.

The bar is shallow and you’ve only got a narrow gutter to work with, so take care.

The Seaway is in good condition.

‘Til next month, screaming reels to you all.

This pup mangrove jack was promptly released.

Getting jiggy offshore ☛ from P19

A school of AJs hugging a school of bait. Two drifts with 350g knife jigs produced six fish.

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in the conditions you’re fishing in.

When selecting a jig, consider the water depth and current.

The idea is to keep your jig straight up and down under the boat – you don’t want to be jigging on a 45-degree angle as this will make your jig’s action useless.

My favourite colours are blue with a white UV underbelly, pink and on the odd occasion I like to mix it up and drop a green knife jig.

Every lure colour will have its day.

In terms of gear, you want something that can handle a solid fish and a tough fight.

The rod I run for our local fish is the Jig Star Ninja PE3-6 because it has an incredible amount of power and feels amazing in hand.

As with everything in fishing, final choices come down to the angler because at the end of the day you could get away with using just about any brand.

For your reel, you want something that can handle the big amounts of drag pressure needed when chasing these fish, especially the larger ones.

The Daiwa Saltiga Dogfight and Shimano Stella range are of suitable quality.

If your budget is a bit tight, a Shimano Saragosa

is another very acceptable reel for the price you pay.

Jigging is not all about the elephant gun gear.

Slow-pitch and micro jigging are also starting to take off big time, especially in our local waters when targeting reef fish.

This style of jigging is, as the name suggests, a smaller and slower version of its older brother, with lighter rods, smaller reels and bucket loads of fun.

Micro and slow-pitch jigging present a very effective way to target snapper, pearl perch, tuskfish, redthroat emperor and many other species.

These jigging methods have a few really good advantages.

Because the profile of the jig is smaller compared to a knife jig, it really does imitate those

smaller baitfish that hold on our shallow reefs year round.

The attraction of micro jigs isn’t limited to reef species, as pelagics also love to smash them.

Species such as mackerel can’t control themselves when a little flickering jig goes past them.

In addition, all the tuna species love to chew on micro jigs, as do jobfish, wahoo and many more.

Another advantage of smaller jigs is they quite often turn the fish on and get them to start chewing, especially if things have gone quiet on the baits.

You’ll commonly find that once you get one fish on the micros you will get a few in quick succession.

This technique is a lot slower compared to fastpaced knife jigging.

You simply employ sharp winds of the handle to crank the jig up and then allow it to flutter back down.

A mixture of slow lifts and sharp winds will allow the micro jig to come alive and entice any fish in the area.

When micro jigging, my gear of choice is the Jig Star Slow Jerk PE12 matched with a Daiwa Ryoga and PE2 braid.

When it comes to jigs, I really enjoy using the Storm Koika jigs, but again, each to their own.

On any given day a certain lure will catch fish, it’s just about putting in the time and effort when using them and seeing what works for you in the areas you’re fishing.

The Jig Star Ninja PE3-6 in full flight and the Daiwa 5000 reel with line peeling off it. Fishing doesn’t get much better than this!

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Challenging times offshore

P

REPARING for the last trip of 2016, commodore Rob Schomberg was hoping for a decent turnout but alas was left a bit deflated when no northside boats signed on, leading him to pass to the dark side and join the southsiders for the day.

On the upside, it doesn’t take long to get to the southside and they’re generally a friendly bunch, even if they do look a bit funny.

Rob on Salty hit the ramp at 4.15am and waited for the rest of the boats to arrive.

Blackers was the first of the locals to turn up, shortly followed by Anthony and his sons.

Motley Crew was next and as always, motley by name and motley by nature, but not wanting to hold anyone up, Bruce sent the boys on their way, saying he and Neil would catch up in the Extreme.

As the boys arrived at the Rous Channel and looked back towards land, a fast-approaching rooster tail was a fair indication the big Extreme would indeed be with them shortly.

The bar was pretty good when navigating via the middle channel but it hadn’t been smooth sailing for everyone, with a small sailing boat sitting high and dry

Power Boat Anglers

by MICK CLUTTERBUCK

on the big sandbank.

Once outside the bar, a few of the boats hit the Sevens trolling and bobbing soft plastics, but couldn’t raise a scale.

Next stop was the 35s where they did a lot of looking for not much action at all.

They continued leap frogging their way to the top of the 35s, managing a few fish but nothing really to talk about.

Motley Crew and Blackers then headed further north, with Salty moving over to the 33s.

Rob and crew eventually found a good show, landing a solid snapper and pearlie, but to say things were slow was putting it mildly.

Scotty was struggling to land a fish and when the call came in from Bruce that he was onto pearlies, everyone took the dash for hopefully greener pastures.

Bruce was finally located east of Square Patch on a little pinnacle but with a couple of boats around him they left him to it.

Elsewhere, Blackers and Dale were trying their hardest on Tempest and despite all efforts the fish just hadn’t come to the party.

All the crews had kept on the move, looking for that elusive patch of fish on the bite but only managed a few here and there.

By early afternoon the ‘bite’ had totally shut down and it was time to head home.

Anthony had headed south but had pulled the pin early, with just the one parrot in the box.

He had driven from out near Gatton for that one fish, so Schombie wasn’t feeling that bad with his two fish in the box.

The trip home, just like the fishing, was uneventful, but seeing the sailing boat still in the same place left a few of the boys wondering if maybe they did have a better day than someone else after all.

Next meeting The first club meeting of the year will be held on Monday, February 6, followed by another on Monday, March 6.

Meetings are held on the first Monday of the month at the Bulimba Bowls Club located in Quinn St, Balmoral.

Please feel free to come along and see what the club is about.

Until next month, safe boating.

Willow pulled up this impressive mud crab, however, the shell was soft, indicating the crab was empty, so after the photo it went back into the water.

Rain flushes mud crabs out

F

OR something a little different, over the break I had the opportunity to do a few mud crabbing trips.

So off came the electric and on went the 25hp outboard, enabling the Bluefin Drifter to scoot up the Coomera River.

The recently bought 25hp Mercury twostroke sees the 3.8m Drifter go like a rocket.

I opted to have a floor built into the boat, which makes it a very comfortable fishing and crabbing rig with plenty of room for all the pots on the floor in the centre of the boat and

storage at the bow.

Launching from the Jacobs Well boat ramp, we reached our target spot in the Coomera River in quick time.

We were lucky enough to pick up a few mud crabs on each trip.

I was stoked my daughter was keen to go crabbing too and even more stoked that she enjoyed eating mud crabs.

Our success came from using the heavy-duty deluxe crab pots from Wilson Fishing.

These pots are solid so they don’t move around with the tide and they have a built-in bait pock-

et, making it quick and easy to bait the pot.

The recent rain has def i n itely f lushed more muddies into the rivers, so it’s worth-

while chasing a few.

Sitting around the dinner table and eating fresh mud crab is hard to beat.

Steve Wilkes

The author with a nice, full buck that was perfect for the dinner table.

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Southerly change turns spanish mackerel on L

AST month I wrote we usually start to see a few pelagic species arrive for a Christmas present.

Well relentless northerly wind put paid to that.

Boats got out on December 20 and 21 but the water was cold.

Then the northerly wind blew again right through the new year.

The first opportunity was a southerly change on January 4 but it was just too blustery.

It was forecast to back off a touch the next day and everyone had the same idea.

I reckon 50 boats went out the Brunswick Heads Bar and mine was one of them.

Pretty good bait was around in the form of big slimies and a few pike.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I just threw the anchor out on a bump I have caught a few jew on over the years in the hope of hedging our bets if the mackerel weren’t there.

Feeding out a live pike saw it get bitten in quick time.

In a typical mackerel strike, the fish took a big run and then swam at the boat with a lot of head shakes.

I had my uncle Ron and cousin Melissa with me and Melissa was on the rod.

Tweed to Byron Bay

by GAVIN DOBSON

After a few minutes of good work and with pressure on the line, the hooks just fell out.

Welcome to mackerel season 2017.

Boy they can be frustrating fish!

I then fed a live slimy out and after half an hour I thought I saw the foam float bob under the water, so I pulled it in to check.

Sure enough, the slimy had the short back and sides.

Out with another bait and it ended up with the same treatment.

Bait number four produced a solid hook-up and run and Melissa set to work, hoping this one stayed on the line.

The first fish had given her a bit of practice and she had good style as she wound this fish to the boat.

It wasn’t completely without drama as the fish circled the boat but fortunately went over the anchor rope.

Finally, I put the gaff into our first mackerel of the season, a decent spanish of 11.8kg.

We clicked a few photos and Melissa’s phone buzzed away as favour-

able comments filtered in on Facebook from friends and family who were beginning to wake up.

Things slowed after this, so we moved wider and re-anchored.

Another strike resulted in a bite-off.

As we sat waiting for further action, we were rewarded with what every mackerel fisher wants to see: a fired-up spanish launching into the air with your bait in its mouth.

As it landed, the line came tight and Ron started the fight.

A couple of ripping runs later, I gaffed our second fish from six bites for the day.

We didn’t get any more bites for a while, so decided to leave the rain and wind and head for home, but not before trolling up a few bonito off the bar for use as future mackerel baits.

The next morning, Ron and Melissa had to take off at about 6am, so I saw them off and headed out a bit later than usual and found bait in ready supply.

I managed another two spanish mackerel, which I was happy with for a late start.

Coming back to the bar, I tried to troll up more bonito but they had moved on.

However, I was lucky enough to have a few bigeye trevally take the lure and they provided a good feed.

Small trevally aren’t many people’s favourite fish to eat but I love them.

The weather was pretty good on this day and a lot of boats headed out wider for the first time in weeks and found dolphinfish on the FAD off Cape Byron ☛ continued P24

Melissa was all smiles with her first spanish mackerel.

Ron’s no stranger to spanish mackerel but this 10.8kg model was his first for a few years.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 23

Big year for bream and bass anglers at Ballina ☛ from P24

and beyond has seen a massive increase in current over the past couple of weeks.

If you are thinking of heading out there to chase kingfish, amberjack, snapper or pearl perch, make sure you have plenty of lead on board because we’ve had reports of the current being as strong as five knots, making it nearly impossible to fish depending on the prevailing wind on the day.

The heavy current has balled up the baitfish, so you may need to target the back edge of the pinnacles with knife jigs or bomb your live baits to the bottom with heavy sinkers to chase the fish hunting these bait balls.

Back in the Richmond River, it has been a little difficult to find a spot that someone hasn’t already fished given the number of tourists over the holidays.

It’s great to see so many people in town enjoying

Craig landed a monster flathead on live bait.

this wonderful part of the country, but I think the best advice I can give if you want to catch fish at this time of the year is to either be out really early in the morning and beat the crowd or be prepared to stay out really late after everyone has gone to bed.

Having said that, reasonable flathead are still coming from the mouth of the river up to Pimlico Island on the run-out tide.

Bright soft plastics of 3”-4” have worked for the lure throwers and the best baits have been live herring for the larger fish and white pilchards and prawns for the smaller models.

The run-out tide has also produced good-quality whiting behind the CBD and in the lower reaches of North Creek on live worms and yabbies.

The run-in tide has brought solid whiting to the sand flats above the ferry and around Pimlico Island but their numbers seem to be down compared to previous years.

We should see these quality fish hang around for the next couple of months, so persist as their numbers may improve.

The larger tides around the new and full moons will be the best times to try your luck.

Good catches of school mulloway have been reported over the past month.

Live herring has certainly been the standout bait but the odd fish has also taken

a worm or live yabby.

As usual, the change of tides has been the best time to target them, with most of the fish coming from the deep holes between the Burns Point Ferry and Broadwater.

Wardell Bridge has also been quite productive for these silver ghosts.

Several mangrove jack have come from the pylons while anglers have been chasing mulloway.

Mud crab numbers have rapidly improved over the past month.

Some really warm weather along with a few small patches of rain appears to have fired them up.

North Creek is still a little on the quiet side, while Emigrant Creek and the Richmond have produced the bulk of the crabs.

Most of the reports are coming from further up, so I suggest starting at the highway bridge in Emigrant Creek and working your way upriver.

Certainly don’t be shy about going past the double bridges at Teven.

If chasing crabs in the Richmond, I would look at starting around Pimlico Island but you could certainly launch from either Wardell or Broadwater and work your way upriver because crabs have been caught as far up as Rileys Hill.

Well that’s all from me this month.

Until next time, tight lines!

Gobblers Lures designed to catch fish

G

OBBLERS Lures is certainly not the ‘new kid’ on the block.

Now in its fifth year, you just haven’t seen much of Gobblers in the pages of fishing magazines because the business does things a bit differently.

Gobblers Lures has exploded in recent years, though it has not been a fast-launch strategy, rather, Gobblers has built its products and brand up over time, slowly and methodically, based on results.

Part of the Gobblers strategy was to not flood magazines with ads, which can be an obvious place to start when creating a new brand, but instead develop a much-needed

Australian-made product with a higher specification than anything else on the market, offering it online only to begin with and letting the word spread organically.

Gobblers Lures founder Andrew Turnbull said, “Doing it this way takes time and I agree, we’ve done it the hard way, but I think the right way.”

“We’ve just let the business grow organically through repeat customers and strong customer interaction through social media.

“We never tried to force growth.

“People have discovered our soft plastics through word of mouth, which is the most powerful form of marketing.”

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Most of the content is generated by customers, which leaves Gobblers Lures to focus on designing and making amazing soft plastics right here in Australia.

If you take some time to have a look at the Gobblers Lures website, you will soon understand how this strategy has paid off.

A massive variety of species readily take Gobblers Lures, and as the brand has grown, so have the fish, with some sensational catches that really demonstrate what is possible using soft plastics.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 25

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Whiting and flathead on fire

W

ITH the silly season over and most of the holiday-makers returned whence they came, Evans Head is slowly reverting to the little laid-back town I love.

In saying that, we do love the holidays because these periods inject much-needed funds into our economy.

With all the bad publicity about the shark dramas, we have not seen tourist numbers drop off as badly as we thought they might.

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A good size flathead taken on a Megabass Pop X.

WITH SEAN CONLON

Evans Head

by GARY ‘SQUIDGIE’ PALMER

measures should take a very hard look at themselves because if it was their kids taken, they would be the first people wanting nets out there.

The beaches have not fished very well for bream and tailor but whiting and flathead are going great guns.

You just need to move around to find the gutters where they are feeding and use worms, yabbies, peeled prawns or pipis for bait.

You could even try squid strips.

I have talked about squid in previous articles, but briefly, you just cut 6cm-long pieces of squid, run a size 6 hook through twice and let the rest hang down looking like a worm.

Additionally, whitebait and bonito cubes will work on flathead.

The Evans River is fishing really well for whiting and the run-out tide has produced the best bites.

Due to the constant northerly wind, the water has been very cold on the run-in.

As I sit and write, the wind has turned to the south and this means hot currents heading our way, which will result in the run-up tide being the go.

To find out why the water cools after a northerly wind, check out this article on the Bush ‘n Beach website: bnbfishing.com. au/fishing/water-coldernortherly-wind Beach worms, yabbies and peeled prawns are the best whiting baits, however for lure fishers, Megabass Baby Pop X and Dog X Jnrs, Bassday Sugapens, Lucky Craft Sammys and most poppers will work.

Try to stay away from the cheap knock-off lures because most don’t work.

Usually they’re either too light to cast or they

sink after a few casts.

When whiting fishing with lures, l like to use a 2-6lb, 7’ rod.

When using walk the dog style lures or poppers, most of the action comes from your wrists.

So cast the lure out, wait until it settles and all ripples are gone, then start winding in, moving your wrists left and right.

Go slowly at first until you get the lure moving from side to side and then start increasing your speed.GeoWhiting love nothing more than a fastmoving target.

They will bite out of

reaction, thinking the lure is a darting prawn running away.

I add trailer hooks too.

Ecogear ZX trailers are popular but I find the new Atomic Trick Bitz assist hooks with flecks in them work better.

When bait fishing for whiting, a lot of other fishing writers use 2m of leader, but that’s not me.

As a small boy I was taught whiting fishing by my dad and uncles and we fished the Illawarra area around Windang.

In those days, rods were not the norm and all we had were handlines.

If you try to cast a handline with a 2m leader, I think you might find it a bit hard. ☛ continued P27

This big flathead engulfed a Megabass Pop X.

Geoff Hancock nailed this whiting on a Bassday Sugapen in the Evans River.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Whiting and flathead on fire

☛ from P26

Things have changed a bit since those days but I still use a 30cm leader with a size 6 hook, 4” of red tubing on top of it and a small 3 ball sinker on top of that.

I can’t get my head around using 2m of leader.

I capture heaps of whiting with my rig but all fishers have their own way of catching whiting, or any fish for that matter.

Flathead are at the bottom end of the Evans River around the sand flats and near the green buoy at the Bream Hole.

You can use live herring or poddy mullet for bait but I find whitebait the best.

If you prefer lures, most from 65-100mm will work and I like bright colours such as green, pink and gold.

Work them slowly and

When trolling for flathead, I would use 10lb leader and make sure the lure is at least 30m away while targeting the sand flats in water up to 1.8m deep. even try using suspending lures.

In terms of soft plastics, I fish a lot of Squidgy products for flathead.

The Squidgy Black Gold Fish in 70-100mm sizes, Squidgy Bloodworm Wriggler 100mm, Squidgy Flick Bait, Berkley Gulp 3” Pepper Prawn

A Geneo Kustoms-coloured Pop X worked a treat on this whiting.

Minnow and 4” Pink Shine Minnow will get you a feed.

Another soft plastic I have had great success with is the Atomic Prong.

With 14 moving parts, this lure works a treat.

When flathead fishing, I like a 4-8lb or 6-12lb rod.

These rods can handle

most big crocs and even the big jewfish that sometimes poach baits meant for flathead.

If bait fishing for flatties I’ll run 20lb main line and if luring I’ll downsize to 8-10lb.

Your leader is very important.

If you go too light you may lose the fish of a lifetime but if you go too heavy, fish may not take your offering.

You need to weigh up what leader to use against what lure you’re using.

So for a 100mm paddle tail soft plastic, I’d use 20lb leader because big jew will happily take this offering as well.

The flathead that eats this size plastic will likely be a big female.

However, I have caught a lot of small fish eating lures as big as them.

With baits, if using herring I will go as low as

A Megabass Pop X accounted for this whiting.

10lb leader but if using small mullet I’ll upgrade to 20lb because once again jew will attack a well-presented mullet.

When trolling for flathead, I would use 10lb leader and make sure the lure is at least 30m away while targeting the sand flats in water up to 1.8m deep.

In the Evans River, I like the yabby banks near the kiosk and the yabby banks on the western side of the bridge.

You should be travelling at no more than two knots when trolling, which is basically idle speed.

Use as many lures as you like by setting them up at different lengths behind the boat, but I think two is the maximum for me.

Out in the deep blue, plenty of small dollies are hanging around the FAD. Kingfish and snapper are being taken on the wider grounds while trag and jewfish are chewing on our closer grounds.

Mackerel should not be far off and I reckon they will be firing by the time you read this article.

A few small black marlin have been sighted but I’ve heard no reports of any landed as yet.

Limit your kill, don’t kill your limit.

Tight lines and smelly fingers.

This tiny whiting was not afraid to hit a lure the same size as it.

Kingfish are biting wide off Evans Head.

This snapper surprisingly smashed a knife jig in deep water.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 27

Two teraglin at 90m with their gill covers glowing like neon lights.

Coral life growing on a mud and sand bottom. Such an area is very difficult to find but well worth fishing.

Deep underwater footage – Minnie Water

R

ECENTLY I have been exploring old ground with my deep filming rig and although I have sounded over these places dozens of times, when I get the chance to film them to see exactly what is there, I don’t hesitate to drop the camera.

Two huge mulloway of 15kg or more resting up in a cave in 90m of water. A third, even bigger fish was just out of shot.

The area of filming was the northern NSW coast, about 16 nautical miles east of the Sandon River and Brooms Head.

This area is a large, undulating plateau in 7090m of water, with rocky

Coral life on a flat reef featuring the two types of wire weed mentioned in the article and the other corals that grow alongside wire weed.

A ALLIIA TTR RA S S U U A A S S M SSY YSSTTEEM R E R E D D A E A LLE mance

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Page 28 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Under the Water

by JASON ‘BIRDY’ BIRD

areas, ledges and isolated rocks mixed with mud and sand areas holding deep corals.

It took me a decade of searching the area to find life.

As the sounding gear I used got better, the areas I thought to be lifeless flat ground soon showed life, and once I filmed the sea floor I reassessed everything I do when searching for ground.

I use 1kW broadband sounding gear that will find fish in 400m of water but I was amazed at how this gear will miss shallow-growing deep corals and the fish sitting in them.

The fish in these locations live right in tight to the coral because there is no peak to direct current flow as there is on a reef.

They don’t hold in a certain spot, rather they hide in the coral for cover.

This means one very important thing: even the best sounding gear won’t show you separate targets when a 50cm pearl perch is sitting in 50cm-high coral in 90m of water, as both the fish and coral are lifeforms.

The only way to locate these areas is to sound very slowly and look for life, but not necessarily fish, more just life right on the bottom.

Once you have identified an area of flat ground with a sliver of life showing right on the bottom, drift fish the area with paternoster rigs and you may be surprised at what you find.

In stark contrast to rocks and reef areas, these spots of coral are rarely fished and hold serious residents.

Don’t get me wrong, rocks and reefs will always be fish magnets, with isolated rocks the best offshore fishing locations, but as our oceans become more explored, those rocks will see more pressure.

The flat areas I’m talking about are very diffi-

cult to find because most people will drive straight over them.

Even at trolling pace you may see nothing of interest, but if you put the time into searching for deep corals, it can be very rewarding.

Through filming these areas I have discovered interesting bits and pieces.

Wire weed is one such interesting factor.

For the purposes of this article, I will call it wire weed, however it is in fact a deep coral and not a plant as the name suggests.

I commonly see two different forms and colours at 70-90m.

First, a black (though could be red because red presents as black at depth), tightly wound version that grows close to the bottom and second, a grey, more loosely wound but much taller type.

All the areas I previously knew as wire weed grounds also hold deep corals and sponges of varying sizes and types.

The wire weed is certainly present but only in the same relative density as the other corals.

I think these areas are commonly referred to as wire weed banks because

the wire weed’s structure lends itself to tangling with fishing line and most times when a snag is broken and coral is bought to the surface on the rig, it is wire weed.

I have the distinct impression that if a wire weed forest was to be fished it would be almost impossible because the wire weed would snag every line as soon as it got to the bottom.

Another interesting observation I have recently recorded is at 90m the operculum (gill plate) of teraglin glows like a neon light, exactly the same as the operculum of pearl perch, which I observed some time ago.

These are the only two fish I have seen with this characteristic and it is only apparent at water depths where UV light is still present but most other colours in the spectrum have been absorbed by the water.

What this glowing plate means for fishing is hard to ascertain but I have a suspicion it is to aid hunting in low light because it may attract smaller prey to the fish, much the same as an angler fish does in zero light in very deep water.

It certainly adds weight to the theory that UVcoated vibes and other lures work better in deep water than non-coated lures, but I have not tested

that theory, so it is just a theory for now.

The last observation from this recent filming session is just how quiet and shut down really big mulloway are when in rest mode.

I drifted the camera into a massive ledge system in 80m of water where we have caught big mulloway in the past and three mulloway were holding under the ledge and in the cave on the northern side.

They were easily 15kg fish and one was likely over 30kg judging by the thickness of the flank.

These fish were sitting almost still, right up under the rock and not interested in hunting at all.

Two small nannygai, a known big mulloway bait, panicked and swam out from under the same ledge but this did not even raise a fin on the big fish sitting less than 2m away.

It just goes to show that when they don’t want to play, it is futile trying to catch them.

Three hours later on the tide change, I bet they would have been out prowling the ledge face for a feed.

I hope this article has been of interest to you.

If you have any questions, I am on the BNB Facebook page, so make a post or send through a message.

A close-up of the different deep corals that grow in 90m of water in NSW.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

February primed for good fishing F ISHING along the Clarence Coast of northern NSW during January saw most anglers returning home with a smile on their faces, with species such as flathead, whiting, bream and swallowtail dart biting freely.

The offshore brigade has been having a ball taking good catches of both spotted and spanish mackerel along with the odd longtail tuna from Black Rock

Just Jew

by TYE PORTER

in the north right through to Minnie Water in the south.

By far the most effective way to get amongst the mackerel is to troll lures at first light, then as the sun begins to rise, anchor up and get a good berley trail going.

To date, neither macker-

Jake Hyatt of Grafton snared this mud crab near Ulmarra.

el nor tuna have been taken from the breakwalls at Yamba or Iluka, however this will change late this month when these speedsters begin to move inshore to feed on the huge numbers of garfish that take up residence along the walls at this time of year.

I for one cannot wait to see the tuna show up because I like nothing more than hooking one of these rockets on a popper and watching my trusty 700A5 Alvey reel smoke backwards at a rate of knots.

Inside the Clarence River, flathead, whiting and mud crabs have dominated catches, with big muddies reported from above Grafton.

The water in the Clarence is extremely clear due to the lack of any worthwhile rain and this in turn has seen the saltwater levels all the way upstream to Grafton increase dramatically.

Bream, flathead and even school jew can be taken at Grafton in these conditions, however the number of mud crabs captured has everyone talking.

Young Grafton angler Jake Hyatt has enjoyed his fishing outings with his

family by taking big muddies, solid bream and even the odd flathead at Southgate just downstream of Grafton.

Whiting of about 30cm have been biting yabbies and live beach worms while flathead have been happy to chew on a variety of baits, from the humble green prawn to white pillies and soft plastic lures.

Lizards averaging a kilogram have been boated in numbers upstream at Brushgrove on prawns during the falling tide, while closer to Iluka, drifting the edges of weed beds and sand flats with white pillies has worked a treat.

Young Iluka angler Rebecca Ellis thought she would try using soft plastics along the sand flats at the old ferry approach at Iluka and returned home with a 4.314kg lizard on her first outing.

Rebecca used a 3” Killer Tomato Squidgy plastic and 3kg line, so I am sure she had one heck of a fight.

During the school holidays, you nearly had to book a spot along the banks of Goodwood Island because everyone wanted to get amongst the run of quality whiting.

The Iluka and Yamba breakwalls have been unusually quiet, with only the odd school jew and bream landed, how-

ever this will all change towards the end of this month when those spanish mackerel and longtail tuna begin to show up.

I have given up trying to work out what makes tailor tick because these frustrating mongrels have been driving anglers crazy by being thick one day and then disappearing for a week.

I managed to snare a 70cm chopper from the southern end of the Bluff on one of my home-made jew lures and other anglers have taken a handful of fish on metal slices.

Main Beach has produced great numbers of swallowtail dart and the odd school jew on beach worms but little else.

The beach at Shark Bay has fished a little better, with dart, bream, school jew and tarwhine keeping anglers happy during the holidays.

Offshore at Woody Head, big cobia are being boated in the shallow waters near Jackys Bommie, with fish ranging in size from 12kg to 27kg.

Out a little wider, spotted and spanish mackerel are on the bite, along with quite a few sizeable snapper.

All in all, February should see half-decent fishing for most species, so dust off the cobwebs and get out there.

‘Til next month, safe fishin’.

Rebecca Ellis of Iluka landed this monster lizard on 3kg line and a 3” Killer Tomato Squidgy plastic.

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www.salt-away.com.au Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 29

Fish come out to feed in February F EBRUARY is a great month for fishing on the Sunshine Coast.

Dee Lawrence was happy to boat this flathead.

Photos: fishingnoosa.com.au

With the school holidays over and things returning to a normal pace, the fish that have been a little spooked by the crowds will now come out to feed.

If you’re heading offshore, pelagics have been around in good numbers fairly close to shore.

Areas east from the Noosa River Bar out to North Reef, off Coolum and Old Woman Island have all seen predatory fish in good numbers.

Keep an eye out for bird activity because you only need a few to indicate the fish are there.

Also be on the lookout for bait balls breaking the surface with mack-

Angus Embery captured a quality snapper.

Sunshine Coast

by WADE QUALISCHEFSKI

erel in hot pursuit.

The trick is to not spook the fish, so make sure you approach the school stealthily.

Target the fish by throwing 20-40g slugs but if you can see the size of the bait, ensure your slug is the same size.

Using a 7’ spin rod with 6-10kg line on a goodquality 4000 size reel will do the job perfectly.

North Reef has produced pearl perch, maori cod, snapper and sweetlip while Sunshine Reef has yielded the usual bags of coral trout, snapper and sweetlip.

In these areas, once you have a nice catch of reefies and the fishing has slowed, try trolling the outer edges for a spanish mackerel or two using lures such as the Samaki Pacemaker.

If heading out through Mooloolaba, the Outer Gneerings, Murphys Reef and Wide Currimundi have seen good catches of snapper, grass sweetlip and moses perch.

These fish have mostly been captured on floating pilchards that take about 20 minutes to reach the bottom.

Don’t forget to place a small sinker above the hook if the current is strong.

Coolum Reef has held spanish mackerel and snapper.

The trick to catching snapper on this amazing piece of reef is to sneak

out before the sun comes up because the better fish have been hooked in the dark.

Most snapper are eating floating pilchards and whole squid sent to the bottom at a slow pace.

The Maroochy River has seen mangrove jack in better than usual numbers, with most fish extracted from the deeper holes upriver and in and around the mouths of Petrie and Coolum creeks.

The best baits for the toothy critters are bonito fillets.

If looking to chase good-quality jacks further downriver, try throwing shallow-diving lures such as the River2Sea Live Minnow 95mm at pontoons in the Maroochy Waters canals.

Flathead have mostly been taken around the motorway bridge and the Bli Bli islands stretch, with the Chasebaits 4” Paddle Baits enticing plenty.

Everyone’s summertime favourite the whiting has been captured at Black Banks, Chambers Island and Goat Island, mainly on worms and peeled prawns, with the run-in tide producing the bigger fish.

Mud crabs have been on the move, with good

reports coming from upriver, while sand crabs are being brought in from the lower reaches closer to the mouth.

Twin Waters is worth a shot for queenfish and trevally and most fish have hit surface lures such as Fish Candy Skinny Dogs.

The Noosa River has seen large catches of whiting and flathead from the Frying Pan, dog beach, Munna Point and the banks opposite the sandbags.

Live worms and yabbies have been the choice baits for whiting, with the flatties loving fresh mullet.

Alternatively, try throwing the Zipbaits Skinny Pop Jr lures, which give off an amazing distressed action.

The last of the run-in and the first half of the run-out has produced the better fish.

If you like to chase the larger river species, hit the stretch of water from the Tewantin ferries to the mouth of Lake Cooroibah for mangrove jack and threadfin salmon.

Try throwing lures at night if chasing these fish.

The Ballista Trigger 70mm and Firestorm 120mm do the job perfectly because they have flashing LED lights that imitate a bleeding baitfish.

When fishing for these top sportfish, make sure you are very quiet and use

minimal light.

Lake Weyba has held bream, moses perch, flathead and a few sand crabs.

I would suggest bringing extra surface lures when heading out because the Woods Bays are producing good size trevally.

On the beaches, good size whiting and dart are being taken on the run-in tide from Peregian to Pincushion Island, with anglers using worms and pipis hooking the most fish.

Yaroomba and Noosa National Park headlands have produced squire and sweetlip on fresh mullet.

Teewah Beach has been fishing well for whiting, bream and dart on pipis and beach worms, with the odd snub-nosed dart popping up.

The start of the year has seen flathead caught in the surf, mainly on baby blue pilchards rigged with two snooded 3/0 suicide hooks.

Make sure you place some red tube between the hooks to reduce biteoffs.

The occasional jew is also being hooked on fresh mullet at night on the last of the run-in tide.

For all the latest information, visit fishingnoosa. com.au and for up-to-date bar and fishing reports, drop into Davo’s Tackle World at Noosa or Davo’s Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola.

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This whopper tailor was landed by Johnny Beck.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 31

Mackerel madness off DI ■ Reef fishing action

H This client was pleased with his red emperor.

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Page 32 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

I, it’s Craig Tomkinson here.

The season’s first decent catch of spotty mackerel off Double Island Point was taken on the last day of 2016.

Ed Falconer and his deckie Kerry Doran on Ed’s boat Keely Rose saw clients bag out on good size spotties.

Both spotty and spanish mackerel should thicken up through February.

The bar leads reef is a good spot to target them, as is just off the bar itself and up along Fraser Island wherever you can find patches of bait.

Any of the reefs in close

Noosa to Fraser Coast

by CRAIG TOMKINSON

to the bar are worth a look.

You could also try the Pinnacles behind Wolf Rock.

A lot of mackerel are caught there but the sharks can play havoc.

Daytime reef fishing in close for species other than mackerel can be tough at this time of year.

To improve your catch rates, use lighter lines around 20lb, fresh bait such as squid, mullet and green prawns or live

yakkas and slimies.

Snapper, grass sweetlip and pearl perch should be around for those who put in the effort.

Mulloway and snapper should be holding on the wrecks at night as well.

But all this is only if you can get away from the flaming catfish.

They are everywhere in close.

Lately I have done three trips with Matt on board Baitrunner.

On the first trip, we headed north along Fraser and Matt drifted over one of his marks, with the first fish to hit the deck a justlegal red.

Didn’t that get the boys excited?

We did a few more drifts for maori cod and small snapper before the fish went quiet, so we moved to one of my marks and anchored up.

I am glad I talked Matt into getting rid of the Mooloolaba pick anchor the previous owner used 95 percent of the time.

Instead he put on a Manson Supreme plough anchor that holds much better.

As soon as the boat was anchored and settled in, I started berleying with chopped-up pillies.

After a while, good size hussar and then cracking grass sweetlip to 4kg hit the deck, as did a few spangled emperor to 4.5kg.

With quality fish being caught, the boat swung about 30m off the mark and things went quiet, so we re-anchored and got into the hussar again.

After boating more good fish off other marks in the area, the day was getting on, so we went back and anchored where the red was caught and straight away another red of 65cm was landed along with a number of other great fish.

With the Esky looking fantastic and full of colour, we headed in with happy clients.

On the second trip out, Matt decided to head east to new ground he had not fished before.

It was a pretty tough day, with just a couple of fish coming off every anchor.

The current was running a bit and the clients were not working as a team, with tangles every second drop and a fair few bustoffs due to over-tightened drags.

We constantly tell clients to not over-tighten their drags but some people think they know better or just do not care what we suggest and they pay the price and lose great fish.

With a decent number of fish on board, we headed in.

On the third trip out, Matt said I could drive while he was deckie for the day.

That sounded good to me.

I arrived at Rainbow Beach at 3.45am, expecting to be chasing mackerel, but Matt had been on the phone to the 10 clients for half the night, going backwards and forwards trying to get them to agree on a plan.

In the end, we went reef fishing with eight clients.

We headed over the bar at about 5am and travelled north along Fraser.

At the first spot, the clients got a few fish and then the boat swung right off the patch of fish.

So we pulled the pick and Matt sounded around looking for the fish.

After pulling up on a decent show, solid fish were caught but they shut down after a few were dropped.

We shifted to the next spot and the clients started catching good hussar and moses before I saw all their lines go slack because the anchor had let go and we’d dragged it for 40m off the fish.

We re-anchored but the fish had shut down.

After that, we shifted around all day and by letting out two or three more boat-lengths of rope the anchor managed to hold on every drop.

The anchor really needs another 6-8m of chain to help it hold better.

The clients ended up with a few fish each for the day and were happy.

‘Til next time, be safe on the water.

One of Matt’s happy clients with a grass sweetlip and stonker spangled emperor.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 33

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Diamond trevally of this size are a challenging adversary, however Nick landed this fish with relative ease.

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Page 34 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

A few things came to light during their tour with me and prompted this article.

The difficulty for many parents is they do not often go fishing or know too much about the sport, which makes it hard for them to make good judgements on tackle and accessories for their keen young fishos.

It’s not just the rod and reel that are important.

Let’s start with a general kit all kids should carry on their adventures.

First, a good backpack, preferably with either no zips or all plastic zips.

Metal zips corrode over time and let’s face it, kids probably won’t think much about maintaining their kit.

Into this backpack should go at least a litre of water, a good hat that stays on in windy weather, polarised sunnies and sunscreen.

While sunscreen is essential, covering up with long-sleeve clothing is better.

Make sure they’re wearing shoes because thongs are not for adventure.

Thongs can break and your feet can slip out of them.

I once destroyed the soles of my feet because my thongs gave way on an oyster-encrusted rock ledge.

Hobbling nearly a kilometre back to civilisation was not fun and digging the shell out of my foot was even less enjoyable.

Add some nibblies to the pack because adventuring is hard work!

Snacks that don’t need

Fraser Guided Fishing

by TRI TON

refrigeration are ideal.

A basic tool kit is also a good idea.

Long-nose pliers will help remove hooks safely, a glove and rag will help with handling fish and scissors and a knife are necessary for cutting line and bait.

Finally, pack a fish ruler for measuring the catch.

Now you must remind the kids to clean the tools in fresh water before oiling them with something like lanolin.

Otherwise, the next time they go to use the pliers or scissors they will find an unusable piece of corrosion.

If you make your kids pay for replacements, it will encourage them to keep up with maintenance.

> Hervey Bay > Fraser Island > Sandy Strait

I suggest parents explore simple, easy and local fishing options that are within walking or riding distance.

Encourage the kids to go on self-motivated adventures that require some

planning and systematic thought.

If we don’t tell kids a type of fishing is rubbish, they won’t know any better.

And if they are like me they will be happy catching catfish.

I spent many a day landing toadfish just to watch them swim around in a

land-locked pool at low tide.

As the tide pushed back in, my makeshift aquarium would flood and the toadies would be released.

Probably the hardest part is finding the best fishing options and introducing kids to them.

This will in turn govern ☛ continued P35

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This giant herring was so fat that it struggled to jump.

A solid summer queenfish was a nice surprise.

Fishing gear for kids ☛ from P34

the tackle required.

In the beginning, simple is best and any bent rod is good.

Unless of course the fish being caught are venomous, so it also pays to educate yourself and the kids on a broad spectrum of local species.

Don’t worry about cost because a day of fishing will probably work out cheaper than a day at the movies.

Good target species include whiting, spangled perch and garfish.

From there they can progress once skills accumulate.

Some kids would be happy doing basic stuff all the time.

I used to ride my bike 30 minutes to get to the Brisbane River with nothing but a handline and some pork fat my mum gave me.

Here I landed catfish for days.

I bet this scenario was more common the further back into history you go.

I think many of today’s parents are worried about the dangers of the modern

world and adventure can be taboo.

But think of the things your kids could learn and the self-reliance, motivation and problem-solving ability adventuring can foster.

Kids need these life skills as much as they need protection from harm.

You could argue that nurturing these positive traits may well give them the smarts to help avoid such harm.

To end, I will give you a brief run-down of the fishing in January.

As usual, January was hot.

We had a good few days early in the month, with spotted mackerel feeding heavily, but the action was short lived.

Tuna are scarce, only popping up in small patches out very wide.

Trevally have saved many trips and goodquality fish have been boated.

While the numbers boated aren’t always high, their size is usually great, with numerous metre-long fish landed.

‘Til next month!

2017 Surf and Turf Variety Bash to help Aussie kids in need

A

FTER a year off, the City Slikin Cowgirls Brenda, Heather and Laurie are getting ready for another epic adventure in the 2017 Surf and Turf Variety Bash.

The girls have got the ‘69er’ out of hiding, dusted her off and are preparing for the August 30 to September 8 event.

This year, they will head off from the Sunshine Coast and finish up in Airlie Beach.

That sounds like a

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lovely drive you might say, but no, the City Slikin Cowgirls will be bashing and this trip will take in the scenic route via Longreach with endless hours of dry, dusty, dirty roads.

Their trek will be as it has been every other year, filled with emotions and tears of joy as all those participating assist so many Australian children in need on the way.

Some require what we take for granted everyday – laptops, iPads,

CDs and toys, while others are in desperate need of life-saving equipment such as mobility chairs, medical equipment and insulin pumps.

Variety Bash entrants visit so many small towns along the way and have the pleasure of seeing children’s faces light up as they get a visit from the bashers dressed as clowns, Batman, fairies, minions, Oompa Loompas, Wizard of Oz characters, the Clampetts and so many more.

Some of these children attend schools with as little as five children, many are home schooled and an incredible number have never seen rain.

The entrants are aware they live a blessed life and are so pleased to be able to help these amazing Australian children in need, however, to make this happen they

need your help.

Your donation, no matter how big or small, goes a long way.

In both 2014 and 2015 the City Slikin Cowgirls raised well over $30,000 and this year they want to smash that effort.

To make a donation, please visit 2017qldva rietybash.everydayhero. c o m /a u /c i t y - s l i k i n cowgirls and follow the prompts.

Remember all donations are fully tax deductible – why give it to the tax man when you can help our little Aussie battlers.

Brenda, Heather and Laurie thank you in advance for any donation you are able to make to allow them to make this Bash a great success for both Variety and their all-girl team.

Already, Brisbane boat dealership Karee Marine has jumped on board by donating $5000 to the Cowgirls, which has earned them advertising space on the boot of the girls’ 1969 HT Holden.

The girls are now throwing down the challenge for any and all other marine dealerships or businesses in the fishing and boating industry to get involved with this fantastic cause and match (or exceed!)

Karee’s donation to support disadvantaged kids in rural Queensland.

This is your chance to help make 2017 the biggest and best Variety Bash ever!

COMPETITION DATES COMPETITION

DATE

LOCATION

2017 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Round 2 Boondooma Dam Yellowbelly FC Storm Intense Pro-Angler Bass Tournament Round 1 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Teams Event Round 1 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Round 3 ABBT* Bass Qualifying Round 1 ABBT* X-Factor Teams Series Round 1 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Teams Event Round 2 Moura Muddy Water Classic Family FC B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Round 4 ABBT* Bass Qualifying Round 2 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Teams Event Round 3 ABBT* Bass Qualifying Round 3 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Round 5 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Teams Event Round 4 ABBT* X-Factor Teams Series Round 2 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Round 6 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Round 7 Storm Intense Pro-Angler Bass Tournament Round 2 ABBT* Bass Qualifying Round 4 B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Atomic Pro Series Final B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Teams Event Final ABBT* Bass Qualifying Round 5 WTF Women That Fish Barra Classic ABBT* Bass Qualifying Round 6 Storm Intense Pro-Angler Bass Tournament Round 3

Feb 3-5 Feb 11-12 Feb 18-19 Feb 25-26 Mar 10-12 Mar 11-12 Mar 25-26 Mar 25-26 Apr 1-2 Apr 20-23 Apr 22-23 May 6-7 May 13-14 May 26-28 Jun 10-11 Jun 17-18 Jun 23-25 Jul 20-23 Jul 29-30 Aug 5-6 Aug 24-27 Sep 8-10 Sep 23-24 Sep 28-30 Oct 6-7 Oct 28-29

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 35

The author with a little bonito taken while casting off the beach.

The beautiful view from Cape Moreton.

Moreton Island adventure H

I all, the weather has been quite average of late, limiting the number of times I have been able to get out on the water, however a lot of bait and predatory pelagics are moving around.

Sunset at Moreton Island.

I recently managed to

This rat yellowtail kingfish ate a plastic beside a beacon off Cowan at Moreton Island.

A school mackerel hooked on a live bait at Moreton Island.

Moreton Bay Young Gun

by LACHIE BAKER

shoot out and chase mackerel in northern Moreton Bay. It was fairly slow fishing apart from one little spotty that ate a live bait on a gang of Mustad 7/0 Big Guns.

Not a bad way to christen my new 6-15lb Venom Spin from the Wilson stable.

Over the past month, I also went on a five-day adventure to Moreton Island.

Our group, consisting of two families, left the Port of Brisbane at 12pm on a Saturday, arriving at Tangalooma around 1.30pm.

Once the ramp dropped on the MICAT ferry, we took off up the beach towards our campgrounds just south of the bunkers near Bulwer.

I jumped at the chance to go for a ride in our friend Jason’s 79 Series LandCruiser with all the modifications you can think of.

It was certainly a cool change from our Mazda BT-50.

After three hours of setting up camp, we decided it was time to go for a paddle on the kayaks.

I left my rods at camp but my 10-year-old cousin Liam brought one of his and managed to catch a pufferfish, which was a good laugh.

The day finished with a few friendly dolphins cruising past our kayaks and the sun setting over the bay.

Early the next morning, my dad arrived in a demo boat from Stones Corner Marine.

Jason, Liam and I jumped in and set off for a close beacon, intending to do a spot of spinning for mackerel.

I tied on a 5” Z-Man StreakZ, cast near the structure and started winding.

Within three seconds a school of about seven

kingfish ranging from 5090cm swarmed all over my offering, and just my luck, the smallest one ate it.

It was a cool little fish but ultimately I was disappointed it wasn’t bigger.

The current and wind picked up so we called it quits and headed back.

We dropped the anchor out the front of camp and as we were swimming to shore a school of hardyheads began showering across the surface, which had Liam and I quickly swimming back to get a rod.

We both had numerous follows and swipes until I eventually managed to pin a school mackerel of about 55cm.

It was a fun fight on a 3-8lb Wilson Magnum Spin rod and 6lb braid in the shallows.

Unfortunately, the fish was hooked in the gills and bleeding badly, and when I tried to release it, it sank to the bottom.

After a few more attempts at swimming it, we decided the mackerel would become dinner.

Later that day, we went for a drive and ended up at the Bulwer wrecks.

We all went for a swim and what do you know, we saw hardyheads showering again.

After casting for about an hour and watching Liam lose a flathead at his feet, we decided we would come back early the next day.

It was a top day well spent.

So the following morning we returned to the same spot and about 20 minutes of casting up and down the beach resulted in a small bonito hitting a stickbait, which was a first for me.

We had to leave earlier than we wanted because the tide was coming in and we weren’t prepared

to get stuck there.

Once back at camp, we had an early lunch and set off for a day of exploring some of the island’s history.

We made it to Cape Moreton and climbed up to the lighthouse, stopping at the museum.

When we reached the top, we were greeted with a spectacular view of the crystal-clear ocean.

I spied a bunch of sea turtles swimming along just beside the rocks and what I thought to be a large cobia closely following them.

After a few pictures, we set off towards North Point for a swim in the champagne pools and a fish off the rocks.

It was quite frustrating watching a school of dart cruise through the surf and have a couple of half-hearted strikes at my 90mm stickbait, but that was the least of our worries when my youngest cousin Patrick was stung by a bluebottle jellyfish.

It was back to camp for us.

The afternoon wasn’t all bad because we had an encounter with a friendly dolphin that swam right up to me and nudged my leg.

I managed to give it a pat and it happily cruised off towards Tangalooma.

The following day, we went for a drive down the eastern side of the island, checking out the bunkers built in World War II. Apparently, one site de-

stroyed a Japanese submarine that was attacking an American ship!

We continued down the beach until we reached South Passage Bar, then headed around the southern tip of Moreton Island and back up to Kooringal.

After lunch at the Gutter Bar, we made our way to the Sandhills, which were a ball to climb.

Once at the top we again took in the views before sliding down the hot sand.

We collected a few soldier crabs around the sand flats, which were later turned into bream and whiting.

The day ended with a mackerel dinner – for both us and the resident dolphins, who got the mackerel frames.

On the final day, our barge was scheduled to leave at 3.30pm, so we spent a few hours at Tangalooma, paddling around the wrecks and throwing plastics about.

It was unfortunate that I left my rod packed in the car when half a dozen rat kingfish swam out and attacked a school of baitfish.

By the time I went back and got my rod, the kingfish had disappeared.

We said our farewells to friends and family as we got on the barge for the run back to the mainland.

It was an awesome trip and I can’t wait for next year’s.

‘Til next time, smoking drags and sore arms.

This small mackerel was captured while spinning at Moreton.

Looking back down Moreton Island from the Cape.

Page 36 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Hefty fines for undersized recreational catch in far north

T

WO recreational fishers found with a large catch of undersized fish and mud crabs in far north Queensland have been fined $19,000 in the Ayr Magistrates’ Court.

Quintrex Yellowfin 5800 the easiest way to go offshore

T

HE smallest in the Yellowfin range, the Quintrex 5800 is capable of serious offshore fishing while offering practicality and a lower price point.

The Yellowfin models are built strong for ultimate protection from the elements, with the 5800 featuring 5mm plate bottom sheets, 5mm transom material and 4mm side sheets.

Don’t be fooled by the smaller model, as construction-wise the 5800 proves that strength truly does come from within.

The ‘Marine Core’ construction features a subframe rib structure of longitudinal and latitudinal ribs made of 6mm vertical stringers and 5mm horizontal ribs.

Like the larger boats in the range, the 5800 features a fully welded checker plate floor with a box section floor frame offering extra strength.

You can guarantee ultimate power too, because the new transom design also allows for larger outboards in both power and weight.

With a maximum horsepower rating of

150hp and a 136-litre underfloor fuel tank, the 5800 can get you quickly and safely offshore and back home.

Quintrex national account manager Cameron Wood said the 5800 is available at a lower price point but still contains an impressive list of features.

“At less than 6m, the 5800 is easily towed and stored, making offshore adventures easier than ever,” he said.

“While it is the smallest in the range, the beauty of this model is the huge open deck space and massive cab-

Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol field officer Trevor Thomson said valuable information from a member of the public led fisheries officers to identifying the offenders.

“QBF P of f icers searched a van during a patrol at Barramundi Creek between Ayr and Townsville and found 56 undersize fish including 44 barred javelin, 11 pikey bream and one goldenline whiting, with 12 undersize mud crabs,”

limits, which are in place to protect fish stocks for future generations.

“This successful court prosecution also demonstrates how QBFP can achieve great results with the community’s assistance,” he said.

“If anyone suspects illegal fishing activity, they should report it to the Fishwatch hotline on 1800 017 116 so it can be investigated.”

For more information on Queensland fishing rules and regulations, visit fish eries.qld.gov.au, call 13 25 23 or download the free Qld Fishing app from Apple and Google app stores.

You can follow Fisheries Queensland on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@ FisheriesQld).

Mr Thomson said.

“Fisheries officers also discovered seven mangrove branches, which are a protected marine plant.”

Two recreational fishers were charged with nine offences under the Fisheries Act including possessing undersized fish and unmarked fishing apparatus, unlawfully damaging marine plants and obstruction of a fisheries inspector.

An Ayr magistrate fined one of the fishers $10,000 and gave the second man a $9000 fine, with no convictions recorded.

Mr Thomson said the penalties should serve as a reminder to fishers to adhere to Queensland’s fish size and possession

in, so you can still bring your mates along.

“You’ll definitely turn heads with the new YF decals, stripe design and updated logo.

“These boats really have the wow factor.”

The new models are fully equipped for reeling in trophy fish with features such as 16 rod holders, berley bucket, 110-litre kill tank and new live bait tank complete with viewing window and external pick-up.

For more information on the entire Yellowfin range, visit your local Quintrex dealer or quin trex.com.au

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 37

The small hull enables a tight turning circle and great manoeuvrability.

Anglapro’s Chaser 424 Spec has plenty of get up and go even when paired with the minimum 30hp Mercury TwoStroke. The hull is rated to a massive 50hp.

Anglapro Chaser 424 a good catch for fishos

A

NGLAPRO is certainly a boat brand to keep an

Boat Review

by DANIEL TOMLINSON

eye on.

Rear bench affords a comfortable driving position with your feet firmly planted on the standard carpeted flat floor.

This Australian boat company “specialises in no-nonsense fishing boats that don’t pretend to be pretty or trendy”.

A recent test day with exclusive Queensland dealer Brisbane Marine allowed me to put a tiller-steer Anglapro Chaser 424 Spec through its paces in trying conditions off Scarborough.

Straight off the bat I’ll admit I was unexpectedly enamoured with this simple little boat.

My money-no-object ideal boat has long been a 6m-plus, fast, offshore-

ready rig (like many others, I’m sure), but when reality hits and I realise I’m not bathing in $100 notes, a boat priced from $10,000 drive away starts to make a lot more sense.

And fancy that, you can have a Chaser 424 Spec from Brisbane Marine sitting in your driveway for just 10 large.

So what do you get for the dough?

A fair bit, as it turns out!

Let’s run through the standard inclusions: raised and carpeted cast-

ing platform with storage hatch; carpeted flat floor; full-length side pockets; large roto-moulded anchor well; bow rails; bowsprit with roller; rear step; transducer bracket; and more still.

Having perused the Chaser’s features, Dave from Brisbane Marine and I launched out of Scarborough harbour and were promptly greeted by a howling northerly wind.

Bloody northerlies are a pain when fishing but on this day I decided we had

great weather for truly testing a boat.

With waves cresting in the shallow water, we pointed the nose northwest and took the chop across the front quarter.

The Chaser 424 Spec’s hull benefits immensely from large reverse chines and a standard spray deflector at the bow but even these innovations couldn’t keep us totally dry, with the 25-knot wind curling some spray up and over the sides.

A simple solution was to hit the waves head-on, which resulted in the reverse chines and spray deflector working together to kick the spray wide enough to keep us dry.

Even more helpful was giving the 30hp Mercury TwoStroke full curry and skipping over the top of the waves, either going with or against them.

And skim it did!

The little 4.25m tinnie absolutely hooked considering the Chaser’s solid 3mm construction, the two blokes on board, a full 25-litre tank of fuel and crap conditions.

This was all with the minimum 30hp mind you – the Chaser 424 is rated to carry a whopping 50hp two or four-stroke thanks to an extra-thick transom.

Jeez, this thing would be a proper weapon with ☛ continued P39

See your authorised Mercury MerCruiser Dealer today BRISBANE Holt Marine 25 Queens Rd, Everton Park Q 4053 P: 07 3353 1928 E: info@holtmarine.com.au W: holtmarine.com.au

BRISBANE SOUTH Coorparoo Marine 57 Cavendish Rd, Coorparoo Q 4151 P: 07 3397 4141 E: info@coorparoomarine.com.au W: coorparoomarine.com.au

IPSWICH Ipswich Marine Centre 45 Huxham St, Raceview Q 4305 P: 07 3294 3944 E: enquiries@ipswichmarine.com.au W: ipswichmarine.com.au

BRISBANE NORTH Brisbane Marine 306 Duffield Rd, Clontarf Q 4019 P: 07 3889 3033 E: info@brismarine.com.au W: brismarine.com.au

HERVEY BAY Hervey Bay Marine Services 2 Driftwood Court, Urangan Q 4655 P: 07 4124 9955 E: info@herveybaymarine.com.au W: herveybaymarine.com.au

NORTHERN NSW/GOLD COAST Tweed Coast Marine 32 Machinery Dr, Tweed Heads South NSW 2486 P: 07 5524 8877 E: dan@tweedcoastmarine.com.au W: tweedcoastmarine.com.au

Page 38 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Anglapro Chaser 424 a good catch ☛ from P38

a 50hp motor on the back.

As it was, later in the day Dave and I jumped in an Anglapro Sniper 454 Pro and with just one person in the Chaser it easily kept pace with the bigger boat, which was running at 47km/h.

Plenty of punch for the dollars is an understatement.

Speaking of value for money, all Anglapro boats leave the factory with a stunning five-year warranty.

This far exceeds the warranty commitments of other leading aluminium boat manufacturers and clearly demonstrates Anglapro’s confidence in its product.

In the nasty conditions the hull felt as solid as a rock and it really impressed with stationary stability to rival significantly larger boats.

A generous 2.08m beam no doubt plays a part here, as do the reverse chines and flat attitude at rest.

This flatness continued when accelerating onto the plane and once cruising on the plane, even with just one person sitting down the back on the tiller.

With the nose sitting flat while hammering along at 45km/h into the chop, the Chaser 424 managed to walk the fine line between a stable and soft ride.

Swinging side to side on the tiller while under way saw the Chaser cutting neat S bends with mini-

mal cavitation and leaning from the hull.

The driving position was comfortable, with grab handles on the wide side decks providing something solid to hang onto through the turns.

Though the bench seats are un-padded as standard, seat cushions are optional, and if it was my boat I’d stump up the extra cash for a bit more padding.

Upon returning to the ramp I held the Chaser beside the pontoon while Dave and Tony loaded the Sniper back on the trailer.

Sitting on the pontoon, I was giving the idea of buying a Chaser 424 serious thought.

What a great little boat for the money!

While not my dream boat, it also wasn’t a massive offshore rig, meaning it would easily tow behind my Toyota sedan.

I haven’t bought one yet but the thought is still there.

The Anglapro Chaser 424 obviously made an impression and if you’re in the market for a genuinely affordable 4-5m tinnie I’d suggest checking Anglapro out.

For more information, visit anglapro.com.au or brismarine.com.au To book a water test and see the boats in the metal, call Brisbane Marine on 07 3889 3033 or head along to the yard at 306 Duffield Rd, Clontarf.

FLIR announces compact, low-cost marine thermal vision

T

Five hours of rechargeable power via an internal lithium-ion battery, combined with a range of selectable screen displays and the ability to record up to 1000 still images plus video, means the FLIR Ocean Scout TK is a valuable safety tool for all outdoors enthusiasts.

No matter if you are operating in total darkness or dazzling sun glare, the Ocean Scout TK uses a 160 x 120 VOx Microbolometer detector teamed with FLIR’s Proprietary Digital Enhancement software to clearly show what you otherwise might not see, giving you the power to fully assess and visualise your surroundings.

HE New Ocean Scout TK thermal vision camera from FLIR is designed specifically for fishing and boating, providing users with the ability to ‘see’ in total darkness or blinding sunlight.

Designed for one-handed use and built tough to handle extreme conditions, the compact yet powerful Ocean Scout TK uses FLIR’s class-leading thermal technology to display images based on heat, not visible light.

From showing buoys to rocks, boats and other obstructions out on the water, the Ocean Scout TK provides situational peace of mind in an affordable, easy-to-use package.

Combining fast startup and an intuitive user interface, the Ocean Scout TK is submersible (rated IP67), making it ideal for small boats and fishing kayaks.

A selection of video palettes – Black Hot, White Hot, InstAlert Rainbow, Iron, Lava,

Arctic and Graded Fire – allow you to customise the 640 x 480 LCD display to suit conditions and requirements.

The FLIR Ocean Scout TK measures in at just over 10cm in length and weighs 170g, meaning it can be easily stored in a pocket,

tackle box or console.

The unit comes complete with a lanyard for easy access out on the water, a protective lens cap and a USB cable for downloading images and video.

It is available now from leading marine dealers with a RRP of $899.

Bravely go where

no man has gone before

Substantial reverse chines provide stability and a dry ride. Solid rear step allows easy entry and egress.

Bow features a storage hatch under a raised casting platform. Bow rails, bowsprit with roller, large roto-moulded anchor well and wide side decks all standard.

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Visit your local Quintrex dealer!

Brisbane Brisbane Yamaha

Side pockets are a welcome inclusion on such a budget-friendly boat.

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174 Eastern Service Rd, Bruce Hwy Burpengary Q 4505 T: 07 3888 1727 brisbaneyamaha.com.au

Gold Coast Broadwater Boating Centre 46-48 Brisbane Rd, Labrador Q 4215 T: 07 5529 1777 broadwaterboating.com.au

Sunshine Coast Caloundra Marine

8 Baldwin St, Caloundra Q 4551 T: 07 5491 1944 caloundramarine.com.au

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Gold Coast Surf Coast Marine

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50-54 Brisbane Rd, Labrador Q 4215 T: 07 5563 7733 surfcoastmarine.com.au

91-93 Neil St, Toowoomba Q 4350 T: 07 4637 9511 waterskierswarehouse.com.au

Bush â&#x20AC;&#x2122;n Beach Fishing, February 2017 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Page 39

Designed and built to fish, the 660 Tomahawk will also double as a family boat.

The boxed pedestal seats provided comfortable seating and storage.

Formosa 660 Tomahawk Offshore Hardtop

A

T times manufacturers can play games with boat names, or more correctly boat sizes in boat names.

While not a designated walk-around, the toe rail on the side deck and the grab rail on the hard top mean you can access the bow around the cabin.

Offshore reef fishing fanatics WANTED One of Brisbane’s oldest deep-sea fishing clubs with a 100 percent safety record has vacancies for new members. Owners of suitable vessels encouraged. All levels of experience. Those without own vessels also invited to apply. Approximately 15 deep sea trips per year. One week-long fishing holiday to Town of 1770. Monthly meetings, video shows, guest speakers and free nibbles. 4WD beach fishing and camping. Inshore fishing also on the agenda.

Interested? Then call Darryl (0407 596 822) or Robin (3269 5013).

POWER BOAT ANGLERS REEF FISHING CLUB INC

Page 40 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

As a buyer, more often than not you want the biggest boat with the most features for your buck, but it is important to look further than just the name of the boat so you get exactly what you are expecting.

If you are seriously looking at spending your hard-earned cash, make sure you do your research and find out the exact specifications of the boats you are comparing.

I recently tested the Formosa 660 Tomahawk Offshore Hardtop, which boasted an overall length of 6.75m including the bowsprit.

Combine this with a massive beam of 2.5m and you end up with a very substantial boat, which I confirmed as I ran my eyes over it for the first time at the Raby Bay boat ramp.

My first impression was it was big for its advertised size and had a massive amount of deck space, which would make it ideal for multiple forms of fishing.

It could easily handle four or five reef fishing anglers offshore while being equally adept at trolling for mackerel, marlin and other speedsters with

Boat Review

by BEN COLLINS

plenty of room to fight the fish.

However, you could also convince the better half that it’s the perfect family boat with a large cabin providing protection, cushioned seats built into the seat bases and a cushioned rear folding lounge.

The 660 Tomahawk could also happily tow a few skiers, wakeboarders or tubers around.

While the 660 is on the larger side for these sort of activities, the economical 200hp four-stroke Suzuki would still make it an affordable day on the water.

And if the wind blew up after you had finished your water sports, you would have the benefits of a solid boat to get you home in safety.

And by solid, I mean a high-tensile 5083-grade 5mm bottom with 4mm sides and longitudinal stringers and an underfloor sub-frame welded to the hull.

Combine this with the self-draining deck, a standard feature of the Tomahawk Offshore range, the high-tensile hull and substantial reverse chines and you have a serious platform that

will handle a mix of conditions.

The Tomahawk Offshore also features a transom door with dive ladder to make entering the boat from a pontoon, beach or the water very easy.

Hydraulic steering is standard for the Offshore range and makes handling this big rig an enjoyable task.

The build quality of the entire Formosa range is top-notch, with plenty of pride going into each rig,

and the test boat was testament to this.

You also get a heap of standard inclusions such as an aluminium anchor well, fully welded side decks, large side pockets, sounder bracket, box pedestal seats, rod holders and lots more.

It is worth checking out the full list of inclusions in the Offshore range at formosamarineboats.com. au Even with this extensive list of inclusions and optional extras, it is still possible to customise your rig further with specific modifications.

Adding these custom

touches really allows you to personalise a rig so you get exactly what you are after.

In saying that, a lot of thought has gone into the design and layout to make it a very practical boat.

For example, the cabin area is seriously large, with the bunk in-fill allowing you to sleep two or three people.

The open entryway allows great access and loads of ventilation.

Under the bunk cushions is plenty of storage for larger items such as life jackets.

One compartment on the ☛ continued P41

The hard top ensures this is an all-weather fishing rig.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Formosa 660 Tomahawk Offshore Hardtop ☛ from P40

test boat was sealed off and could house a portable toilet if desired.

A clean layout made moving around the boat easy, and with that wide 2.5m beam and large reverse chines, stability wasn’t a problem.

The two seat boxes have loads of storage space and could even accommodate a tackle tray compartment.

At the rear of the test boat, the folding lounge was a cinch to lower and raise and the large bait board provided a practical work station at a good height in addition to being fitted with four solid rod holders.

More rod storage was accessed via the rocket launcher on the hard top that could house seven rods, giving you ample places to keep rods out of the way yet within easy reach.

The hard top also featured grab rails to assist in walking around the cabin to the bow or when jumping up on the side deck to grab a rod from the rocket launcher.

Performance wise, the 660 Tomahawk Offshore had plenty of horses with the 200hp Suzuki strapped on the back.

While rated to 225hp, the 200hp motor definitely did the job, though you might get a touch more top-end speed out of fitting the maximum horsepower.

The 200hp Suzuki de-

livered good numbers and at 4000rpm pushed the Formosa along at 40km/h.

A bit more throttle saw the revs climb to 4500rpm at 48km/h.

Interestingly, fuel consumption was around the same for both speeds at 1.6km per litre.

Even though this is a very solid rig, it still hit 65km/h at WOT with a pretty impressive 1km per litre fuel consumption figure.

The boat handled well through the entire rev range, either comfortably sitting or standing at the helm.

Overall, the Formosa 660 Tomahawk Offshore presented very well and had the performance to match.

While I predominantly see this as a hard-core fishing machine, as I said, it could readily double as a family boat.

With the addition of a camper cover (which can be fitted to the existing sail track in the hard top), it could also do duties as an overnighter for the family.

The test boat was priced at $91,990, which includes a host of standard features that you really need to see to believe.

For more information on pricing and what is included in the comprehensive BMT package, give the team at Australian Marine Centre a call on 07 3808 7333 or check out amcboats.com.au

Promising start to North Coast shark net trial

T

HE initial results of the shark net trial on the NSW North Coast show the majority of marine life captured was released alive.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries found that in the first month of the nets being in place, 72 percent of marine animals were successfully released.

Four sharks from targeted species (one white shark, two tiger sharks and one bull shark) were caught in the nets.

Three of these sharks were tagged, released and relocated alive in deeper waters.

NSW DPI director general Scott Hansen said

DPI is committed to doing all it can to ensure captured animals are released as soon as possible.

“These nets have provided greater peace of mind to the community, particularly during the school holidays,” Mr Hansen said.

“Our aim has always been to minimise the risk to swimmers and surfers from shark attacks and the amount of by-catch caught.

“The number of animals released alive in this past month is a promising start.

“Local stakeholders have reported that parts of the North Coast have enjoyed renewed con-

fidence in the tourism industry during this period.

“We remain committed to determining how effective the nets are at catching target sharks with minimal impact on other marine animals and how acceptable the approach is to the community.”

The NSW Government has also released the Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program 2015-16 Annual Performance Report.

This report provides details of the meshing program covering 51 beaches off Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong.

There has been an in-

crease in by-catch from previous years and as a result a review of the SMP will be undertaken.

Encouragingly, more than half the marine life caught in the nets was released alive (51 percent), up 12 percent from previous years.

The number of interactions with marine life fluctuates each year due

to a number of factors including natural variability, and more than half the marine life interactions (58 percent) were with rays, including 319 cownose rays.

The NSW Government will continue to monitor and refine all measures in order to both protect beachgoers and reduce by-catch.

TECHNOLOGY

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Neatly finished rocket launcher is encompassed into the hard top.

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Large bunk area.

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ADRIANS MARINE CENTRE 28 Ritchie St, Bundaberg QLD 07 4153 1819 E: adriansmarinecentre@bigpond.com W: adriansmarinecentre.com.au

WATER SKIERS WAREHOUSE (QLD) 91-93 Neil St, Toowoomba QLD 07 4637 9511 E: info@waterskierswarehouse.com.au W: waterskierswarehouse.com.au

CALOUNDRA MARINE 8 Baldwin St, Caloundra QLD 07 5491 1944 E: sales@caloundramarine.com.au W: caloundramarine.com.au

WHITE WATER MARINE 10 Hinde St, Ashmore QLD 07 5532 4402 E: sales@whitewatermarine.com.au W: whitewatermarine.com.au

Ample storage under the bunks.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 41

Leeah Bahr and a hard-fighting mack tuna.

The author with a solid mack tuna.

Getting the most out of your day on the water W

Leeah landed a cracking grass sweetlip.

E all have dreams and aspirations of being able to head out on the water whenever we please, but in reality something often gets in the way.

Leeah topped the day off with a beautiful venus tuskfish.

Bonito

Whether it is personal commitments or unpredictable weather patterns, the chances to get out can be very limited, so when an opportunity does arise you have to make the most of it.

After months of not being able to head out, I was keen as can be for a trip and would do nearly anything to get out in the boat.

Saying that the weather

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W W W. B O N I T O B O AT S . C O M . A U Page 42 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Bundaberg Offshore

by JOEL JOHNSON

has been unpredictable lately would be a major understatement, so finally coming across a promising forecast aligned with a free weekend had me sceptical about whether it would eventuate.

The weekend finally came and what was initially forecast to be reasonable conditions now changed to look ideal, so it was action stations early Saturday morning, prepping the boat and gear.

I’d been dying to take my girlfriend Leeah on her first offshore fishing trip because she is a keen fisher too, so the opportunity finally came and we set off to try our luck around some local offshore reefs.

We made our way to the boat ramp before setting off, heading for the wideopen ocean.

As we approached the river mouth, I could already tell the conditions weren’t perfect.

We began poking our nose out the mouth into a sizeable swell, with waves uncomfortably close together.

Knowing that these conditions are often exacerbated by the current and shallow depth of the river mouth, I decided to make our way to a reef only a short distance out to give us a true idea of what the ocean was like before heading any further.

Upon arrival at our first destination, my suspicions were correct and the swell was spaced more comfortably, so after a brief drift we motored towards the horizon, hoping the offshore grounds would produce the goods.

As Leeah had only ever caught river and estuary fish species, I was hopeful we’d come across a school of actively feeding tuna on our way out to give her a taste of the offshore pelagic scene.

Sure enough, about eight

nautical miles out, a large school of tuna was going ballistic, demolishing some kind of baitfish school.

With a metal lure already rigged, I handed Leeah a rod, positioned the boat within casting range of the school and before long she had pitched a cast right alongside the fish.

After frantically winding under my militarylike commands, she hooked up.

Her face was filled with excitement as the tuna screamed off in all directions.

The fish continued to peel the line Leeah had painstakingly worked for but eventually she had the fish beat and I was able to grab it by the tail.

The great-fighting mack tuna was an excellent start to the day, not to mention a fantastic opening to Leeah’s offshore account.

Once the fish was released, the school had travelled a long way in the wrong direction, so we continued our voyage to the reef, knowing we could come across more tuna throughout the day.

As we arrived at the reef, we noticed another school of tuna busting up nearby, so we couldn’t resist the

urge to have at least one cast before changing our rigs to suit bottom fish.

We made our way over to the school and this time I had my light baitcast outfit in hand to try my luck on the light tackle while Leeah continued using my 5000 spinning combo.

The fish were soon busting up around us and we were quick to cast amongst the action.

It didn’t take long for Leeah to hook up, so I went back to playing skipper while she fought the fish.

This time, the fight was far less intense because the fish was a lot smaller.

Still giving her a great run around, the little mack tuna was landed and put straight on ice to be used as fresh strip baits for targeting large bottom fish.

We travelled back over to the active tuna school, where I whipped a cast towards the mayhem and almost instantly hooked up.

Line peeled off my baitcast reel, just about burning my thumb in the process, but after a great fight I also had my fish boatside.

I quickly released the fish so we could get back into the action, which is what we did, both managing to land numerous more juvenile tuna.

It was excellent sportfishing fun.

Now with larger reef species in mind, we ap☛ continued P43

A very pretty hussar caught by Leeah.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Prawns in estuaries and spanish mackerel offshore T

HE heat since the start of the new year has given keen mangrove jack anglers a great opportunity to target this species.

The rains we’ve had have also spurred on the catches of prawns in most of our local rivers and creeks and spanish mackerel have appeared along our section of the coast.

I have provided information about fishing for spaniards in recent articles and I finally had an opportunity to chase them.

Targeting spanish mackerel With very few fair weather windows to provide an opportunity for an extended reef trip, I had one opportunity to head off the coast to chase mackerel with my mate Shane in his new Dusky centre console along with a couple of other guys.

After an early start from Burnett Heads, we headed to previously proven country hoping we would find good schools of bait that would attract big predators.

We planned our arrival time for daybreak because experience has taught us that once the sun fully rises and starts to hit the water, the action usually slows.

We enjoyed a smooth and dry trip out to our destination in the big Dusky, the length of the boat seeing us loping along through the small sea.

Once close to our destination, we deployed a couple of Rapalas in differing colours to test the waters.

Each was rigged on a 30kg single-strand wire trace of about 1m and then onto a heavier mono leader.

The wire is a necessity to prevent the razor-like teeth of

Bundaberg Region

by BRAD YOUNG

these fish and/or their gill rakers from slicing through the mono.

In our Rapala range, we had Red Head and Blue Sardine patterns as well as a Glass Ghost.

The variety provided the opportunity to see whether natural colours or bright lures would work on the day.

As well as having some colour choices, we had 20+ and 30+ lures to help test the waters at different depths, handy on this trip because the fish were closer to the bottom and we needed to get down to them to arouse their interest.

I have since added one of the new Rapala Magnum 40+ lures to my kit for the next trip.

As we made our final approach to the mark, we started to see small balls of bait on the sounder, as well as a few clear fish arches which we were confident were mackerel.

Our trolling speed was seven to nine knots, which appears quite fast if you usually troll quietly along the edges of sand and rock bars for other species.

The speed is necessary for spanish because they are large and feisty predators and the speed attracts their interest and excites them into attacking your lure.

Trolling with large live or dead baits is performed a little slower.

The next couple of hours saw the four of us enjoy a session hooking and landing (and

sometimes dropping) goodsized mackerel.

We finished with nine in the boat, one lost lure and a minor delay with some line caught around the prop (both mishaps thanks to yours truly... one of those days!).

As the sun lifted higher in the sky, the macks stopped biting and we decided to target reef fish to add to the box before we headed home.

Again, the Dusky provided us with a quick and dry trip home, running with the light northerly wind and seas.

I am looking forward to chasing mackerel again in the near future when weather and work provide an opportunity to do so, and with a burning desire to try the new Rapala Magnum 40+!

Once we had cleaned our mackerel, we prepared some for smoking and others as fillets to cook on the barbecue.

Recent rains equal prawns Prawns have been running after the recent rains and good hauls have come from our local rivers and creeks.

The best time to target prawns is around the bottom of the tide.

If they are running in the Burnett River, a small (and sometimes large) flotilla of tinnies is often a giveaway as they target a school of prawns.

You will also see the anglers’ cast nets opening up as they are thrown.

If you do want to ‘join in’

where several boats are already casting, take the time to check which way they are drifting before you head in closer.

With patience and consideration of others, it is quite possible for numerous boats to successfully and effectively work an area.

Remember the catch limit on prawns is 10 litres per person.

In recent years, a number of anglers at Woodgate have been caught with more than their quota.

Future fishing options Provided we do not have any cyclones or significant weather events with extremely heavy rainfall such as those north Queensland has endured, our fishing outlook is positive.

The rains we have already received will help keep our systems dynamic, with prawns and crabs becoming more active in the heat and the flushes of fresh water keeping them active.

Spanish mackerel should continue to bite until about March before starting to drop off, though they have appeared early this season.

I believe the jack fishos will continue to be happy too.

Enjoy the fishing and crabbing over the next month.

As always, I can be contacted via the BNB website bnbfish ing.com.au, by email at fishn boat@bigpond.com or mail at PO Box 5812, Bundaberg Queensland 4670.

Until next month...

Fresh spanish mackerel steaks on the barbecue.

Prawns have been running in Bundaberg’s rivers and creeks.

MORE

Getting the most out of your day on the water

☛ from P42

proached the outer edge of the reef system before cutting the motor and beginning our first drift across.

We sent down large baits and it didn’t take long to get an inquiry, but they weren’t the big thumps I had been hoping for.

A few small reef species came over the side and Leeah was getting a great insight into the variety of fish species down there.

It’s not always the fish on ice that bring joy, sometimes it’s the new experiences and spectacles that make the effort worthwhile.

Finally Leeah had hooked up to something that was pulling like a decent reef fish, and after fighting it to the surface Leeah landed her first grassy sweetlip, and a good one at that.

Stoked to catch something worth keeping, we were both keen to follow that fish with more beauties.

Soon enough, a couple of vibrantly coloured hussar made their way on board but I was yet to see Leeah get-

ting stretched by a truly big fish, so we persisted into the afternoon.

What I hadn’t counted on was what followed.

My large flesh bait was taken by something huge and quickly had me bent at the knees with 80lb braid rapidly disappearing from my almost locked-up 8000-size Shimano Saragosa’s spool.

At first I thought I had hooked what may be a cobia, but as the fight clocked well past half an hour, I got more of a sharky feeling.

I had put my body and gear under serious load, only to lose whatever it was without getting a glimpse.

A cleanly cut leader confirmed my suspicions of a shark.

We continued fishing but a gentle breeze was developing into a wind as the afternoon went on, causing our previously beautiful conditions to turn choppy and uncomfortable.

We decided one last drop was in order, so Leeah and I sent our offerings to the depths in a final attempt at landing that big reef fish.

In no time, Leeah’s rod buckled over and she was on.

This fish had eyes for the structure, taking line straight towards the reef.

She managed to turn the fish and battle it away from the danger zone, slowly but surely bringing it towards the surface.

After a spritely battle, Leeah topped the day off with a great-sized venus tuskfish.

Both of us were cheerful after an awesome end to a day at the reef, so we made tracks for the boat ramp.

Filling the Esky is a fantastic way to pay for the expenses of an offshore trip, but it isn’t everything when it comes to fishing as a sport and hobby.

Simply going out on the water with intentions of enjoying yourself in the process can be far more rewarding than going out for a mass kill.

It is a trip like this that opens your eyes to a whole new side of fishing and keeps you going back time and time again.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 43

K AYAKING & canoeing Exploring Oxley Creek O

XLEY Creek is a tributary of the Brisbane River and from its mouth at Tennyson meanders through the suburbs around Rocklea.

Tilapia are a common catch in Oxley Creek.

Each launch point requires between 50m and 100m of portage.

There are other ways to access the creek (for the brave).

Snakes are active at this time of year. Just give them a wide berth.

Page 44 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

It can be navigated by paddle craft for nearly 20km until it becomes too skinny and shallow behind Archerfield Airport.

The creek is tidal most of the way, but even though tidal influence extends as far as the Ipswich Motorway, it is relatively fresh from Corinda up due to the large amount of fresh water released into it at Rocklea.

The Brisbane City Council has installed several public canoe access points on the creek but the council website is devoid of any information on the canoe trail.

A concrete path leads down to a high tide accessible canoe ramp and all-tides pontoon at Pamphlett Park just off Graceville Ave at the mouth of the creek.

The next pontoon is located at the Oxley Creek Common off Sherwood Rd at Rocklea.

Here you’ll find toilet facilities and a concrete path to the launch point.

At the end of Cliveden Ave, Corinda is a pontoon at the end of a grassy paddock that provides access to the creek.

The last access point the council has built is at Kendall St, Oxley at the far end of a small grassy field.

This facility is a concrete ramp that is most suitable for higher tide access.

At low tide, I tend to paddle up to the rock wall next to the ramp and walk along the rocky bank, avoiding the knee-deep mud at the bottom of the ramp.

Other parks border the creek but it can be a bit of a mission to get into the water from these due to steep banks, soft mud and thick vegetation.

From Oxley downstream, the trail is navigable at low tide and if you launch about two hours before low tide, you will reach the mouth of the creek just as the tide turns.

Fishing the rising tide seems to be more productive than an ebb tide.

The creek is mostly mangrove lined and as in many estuaries, water clarity is poor.

You can easily forget you are travelling through the middle of a heavily industrial area as you drift along with the current.

I have caught quality bream around the salty

Kayaking

by TOM LASZLO

reaches of the creek, and catfish are the other usual suspects.

From about Oxley upstream, the water is fresh and the fishing more consistent.

Unfortunately, the species that plague this waterway are noxious pests, specifically carp and tilapia.

I am predominantly a catch and release angler, so species aren’t all that important to me because I mostly just enjoy the bend in the rod.

Both carp and tilapia cannot be released back into the water by law, so they need to be euthanased and disposed of or eaten.

Both species will attack small hard-body lures and soft plastics; just be prepared for a long fight from the carp.

Carp that take lures will weigh at least a couple of kilos and try their hardest to bust you off by running into overhanging vegetation.

One of the attractions of this canoe trail is it’s in the middle of suburbia and when paddling you

will encounter all sorts of wildlife.

While it might not be a fishing haven, it makes up for that by being secluded.

You can usually glide up near animals unnoticed.

I recently sat and watched a carpet snake curled up in a mangrove branch and was surprised to witness it strike into the water and come up with a small mullet that it constricted and ate.

I have encountered many snakes while paddling, and when spooked they often launch into the water to swim away.

Not once has one come at me, so unless you do something silly I doubt you’d be in much danger of one

slithering onto your yak.

At this time of year, young bull sharks are active in the creek and it isn’t uncommon to see a pack of them herd up mullet in a corner and take turns attacking the school.

Other shark sightings involve seeing single sharks getting airborne as a result of chasing something they want to eat.

Unless you hook one and try to wrestle it into the kayak with you, I doubt these sharks will want to cause you any harm.

Probably the best part of having this trail in my neighbourhood is I can regularly sneak out before or after work for a paddle and it works the core muscles in a way that helps me be a stronger kayaker with better endurance for those long days on the water chasing the big one.

Oxley Creek has a large population of carp and they often take small lures.

If you get adventurous, you can access the river around the city, too.

Floating weed can sometimes choke waterways, making paddling difficult.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

K AYAKING & canoeing

A wide variety of species inhabit the canals and will hit a range of lures.

Kayak fishing in canals W

ITH the warmer months upon us, so are the canal mangrove jack.

Over recent weeks I have been fishing the canals for bream and managing to pull up the occasional jack, which has proven a lot of fun, especially on ultra-light bream gear.

Targeting canal species from a kayak is by far the easiest way because a kayak allows you to get into places boats can’t, meaning you can throw skip casts under boats and pontoons to reach the bigger fish.

Lately I have been using 3” Keitech Easy Shiners, 2” Berkley Gulp Shrimp and Gulp Crabbys and all have been effective.

Cranka Crabs are fast becoming a favourite.

They perfectly mimic a crab falling off a pontoon and simply look too good for the fish to resist.

When the fish aren’t feeding or it’s hard to get a bite, you may need to change things up, whether it be your leader, knot or lure.

Throwing surface lures amongst pontoons and rock walls of an early morning or late afternoon is an effective way to chase bream and I find it to be the most enjoyable technique.

Kayak Fishing

by JACK BURLING

For bream, walk the dog lures including the Daiwa Slippery Dog, Bassday Sugapen and Atomic Hardz K9 Walker are the most popular.

To retrieve, employ a slow wind while twitching the tip downwards and causing the lure to dart from side to side.

Once you spot a bream in pursuit, try pausing the lure or speeding up the retrieve to trigger a strike.

Cranking the flats from a kayak is as stealthy as you can get, with no noise and excellent manoeuvrability.

When cranking the flats, my lures of choice are Cranka Cranks and Atomic Crank 38 Deeps.

Cast as far as you can and begin retrieving as slowly as possible, letting the lure bang along the bottom.

It’s a very effective way to chase bream and always good fun.

Recently I have been trying a new technique in the canals.

It involves rigging a Keitech 3” Easy Shiner weedless and skipping it

under pontoons and boats and has proven very successful.

A quicker retrieve with short pauses will often prompt the reaction bite.

Round eight of the KFT Australian Kayak Fishing Tournaments series was based at the Raby Bay canals.

The target species was bream and the mystery fish cod.

Showers in the morning saw the rest of the day remain slightly overcast, presenting ideal conditions for chasing canal bream.

I had a shocker, missing

numerous hits and dropping a 40cm-plus bream at the side of my kayak.

I’ll remember to pack a net next time!

In the end, I finished with a bag of three bream out of a possible five.

Congratulations to Warren Cossel on taking out the win and to Richard Orchard for finishing as Angler of the Year.

For anyone looking at getting into tournament fishing, the KFT series is a great place to start.

Visit facebook.com/kay akfishingtournament for more information.

Tournament fishing out of a kayak is great fun and 2017 offers many opportunities to get into it.

I hope you had a good holiday and got stuck into quality fish!

Yellowfin bream make for awesome sport in tight canal waters, always trying to bust you off on the abundant natural and man-made structure.

Kayaks make fishing canals for bream as easy and effective as possible.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 47

I have been getting some quality wild sweetwater bass on the Gold Coast lately.

This 51cm fish was my new PB. Stewart Macrae

I landed this bull shark on a mullet head off the Manly rock wall after nearly two hours of battling.

I lost seven others in the week leading up to catching this one.

Sam Singleton

My son Michael caught this jewfish at the mouth of the Brisbane River using 15lb Fins braid, 20lb Black Magic leader and a 1/0 circle hook with squid for bait.

It was the second biggest fish he has caught.

Blaine Korhecz

I recently took my beautiful mother for her first-ever offshore fishing trip and she is such a legend.

Even though she was a bit green for a while, she wanted to stay out and was rewarded with this cracker spanish mackerel.

What a start to the year.

Bait Soaker

This tailor went 63cm.

I had to check the 40g Halco slug into rehab after the trip.

Simon Clarke

Hi Ben, This is my seven-year-old son Harper with his massive 36cm whiting caught on a live yabby at North Creek, Ballina.

Cheers, Mick Ayre

To have a photo of your catch featured in Readers Forum, simply email ben@bnbfishing. com.au with a good quality picture, your name and details or hop onto our Facebook page and send us a message.

My son Chris Green with a nice golden off the flats around Bowen.

Don Green

I captured this 53cm bass on Lake Wivenhoe while trolling a deep-diving lure.

Nathan Peacock

■ Readers Forum ■ Readers Forum ■ Readers Forum Page 48 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

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WITH the increase in swimbait fishing techniques spreading across Australia, Samaki has designed two specific actions to suit the Australian market.

The 7’9” model is designed for medium to large swimbaits up to 5oz while the 8’ model suits the bigger timber swimbait lures up to 8oz.

Both have a long, double-handed butt design that is detachable at the fore grip, enabling easier transport and increased power when fighting fish, all without a loss of action.

In designing this series, the Samaki team took into account the need for appropriately sized guides.

When designing rods for international markets, certain markets require adjustments to the basic design.

In the US, anglers tend to fish monofilament straight though, whereas in Australia we fish braid with heavy fluorocarbon leader, which means we need bigger guides for increased casting distance and long-term performance.

Both Samaki Zing Xtreme Swimbait rods sport Fuji reel seats, Fuji guides, ultra-hard EVA camouflage grips and are a blend of 30 and 40-tonne Japanese carbon to obtain a perfect action when chucking large lures.

Although swimbaiting was originally developed in the freshwater scene by anglers chasing Murray cod, it has rapidly been adapted to targeting barramundi in the northern states and jewfish in the southern areas, so jump on board with this phenomenal fishing technique.

With a starting price of $349.95, visit samaki.com.au for more information and follow Samaki on Instagram and Facebook.

ATC Valiant CF carbon fibre reel

Samaki Zing Xtreme Swimbait rods

www.bnbfishing.com. au

AT last a super-lightweight threadline reel with all the features ATC technology provides has landed in Australia.

The Valiant CF is a full carbon fibre reel that immediately impresses with its ultra-light weight and host of features.

Three models are in the range, each coming with its own neoprene travel bag.

The 800, which weighs an incredibly light 165g, holds 100m of PE1 line.

The 2000 weighs 183g and holds 200m of PE1 line while the 3000 comes in at 217g and swallows 140m of PE2 line.

ATC’s two smallest reels in the range have tournament-grade carbon drags that can handle up to 4kg of drag pressure, while the 3000 has been ultra-tuned to handle 7kg of drag pressure if needed.

All reels feature 10 + 1 stainless steel ball bearings to ensure the ultimate in smoothness and performance and each reel features a high-grade aluminium and carbon handle.

Impressive in appearance, exceptional in performance and so light you’ll barely know you’re holding it, the ATC Valiant CF reel is making an immediate impact across the country. www.wilsonfishing.com.au

Bagley Rumble Mustad Micro B 11 hard-body Stainless Steel Camo Multi Plier

TACKLE Tactics is proud to make Bagley Lures available to Australian anglers, bringing over 60 years of US luremaking history and skill to our shores.

The team at Tackle Tactics has worked closely with the Bagley Lures crew, including Jarmo Rapala, former CEO of the worldwide Rapala group and part of the legendary Rapala family, to test and fit out a selection of lures for Australian conditions.

The Rumble B 11 is a floating, diving minnow that can be cast or trolled for a wide range of species, from creeks to the blue water.

It is 10.8cm long, weighs 10.6g, dives from 3-4.2m, is constructed from heavy-duty ABS and is fitted with three heavy-duty trebles, ready to fish straight out of the pack.

Colours have been hand picked to suit Australian conditions and fish species, including a couple of colour additions specifically for Aussie anglers.

Already proving a winner on barramundi, the Rumble B 11 has a loud rattle and strong swimming action when retrieved.

It has a seductive body roll on a straight retrieve or can be fished jerkbait style with a punch and pause in the strike zone to attract brutal strikes.

Available now in eight colours including Albino, Copper Mullet, Aussie Gold and Hot Perch, with a SRP of $17.95.

Are you ready to rumble? www.tackletactics.com.au/brand/ Bagley

THE Mustad Micro Stainless Steel Camo Multi Plier is a do-it-all tool that will be a handy addition to any tackle kit.

Featuring stainless steel construction for exceptional durability, the pliers feature a split ring plier nose backed up by a crimping tool.

Further into the jaws is a cutting edge that is able to cut thin-diameter braid as well as monofilament.

The handles hide a folding knife blade each, with one handle concealing a straight-bladed knife and the other a serrated-edge blade.

The jaws are spring loaded and can be locked closed with a simple latch.

All in all, the Micro Stainless Steel Camo Multi Plier is a great all-round tool that will help with many fishy tasks.

Visit wilsonfishing.com.au for more information.

The unique jig head is built on a quality Mustad UltraPoint hook and features a segmented weight system that begins at about 1/4oz.

By cutting off segments of the weight the EZ ShrimpZ can be made lighter for shallow-water applications such as fishing drains and mangrove edges.

The EZ ShrimpZ body features thin legs and antennae for added realism and lifelike movement, along with a segmented body that creates a lifelike kick and glide when fished.

Also available in an unrigged version, the 10X Tough, super-soft and flexible EZ ShrimpZ body rigs well on a TT Lures 3/0 HeadlockZ jig head or weedless 3/0 TT ChinlockZ, ChinlockZ SWS or SnakelockZ jig head for fishing heavy cover.

The Z-Man EZ ShrimpZ has already proven effective on a wide range of species including barramundi, mangrove jack, mulloway, flathead, bass and snapper.

Everything eats a prawn, so tie on a Z-Man EZ ShrimpZ and get it in the water.

Fish on!

Available in eight colours, with two per pack and a SRP of $17.95. www.tackletactics.com.au/brand/ ZMan-Lures

Samaki Mighty Mulloway shirt

Z-Man 3.5” Rigged EZ ShrimpZ

SureCatch Energy Braid

SURECATCH Energy Braid offers superior strength and sensitivity in a highly visible colour for ease of use.

A low diameter to breaking strain ratio allows anglers to fish lighter for more bites, yet retain the strength needed to muscle out big fish from nasty habitat.

The thinness also allows for exceptional casting abilities and less drag through the water, making this braid ideal for use as a lure fishing line, whether offshore, inshore or in the fresh.

For more information, visit wilson fishing.com.au

ON a new Samaki shirt design, the mighty mulloway chases down a Samaki Vibelicious Thumper Tail amongst the pylons, with a mullet, bream and squid lurking in the shadows so as not to draw attention to themselves.

The water laps around the pylons with so much detail you’ll feel as though you’re sitting atop the jetty yourself.

The lightweight fabric of this shirt is perfect for all outdoor elements, protecting you from the harsh sun rays with UV50+ resistant technology.

Samaki’s soft-touch 100 percent polyester material is comfortable and has the added feature of being breathable to keep you cool and dry.

Samaki designs are brought to you

by Australian anglers who love to design Australian species.

Mighty Mulloway shirts are availZ-MAN has introduced a great grab- able in adults, youths and kids sizes, and-go pre-rigged option for anglers allowing the whole family to get in on with the new Z-Man 3.5” Rigged EZ the action and out on the water.

ShrimpZ. RRP is $59.95 in adults and $49.95 Everything eats a prawn and this re- in youths and kids. alistic prawn profile comes pre-rigged For more information and stockists, with a unique jig head that locks in- visit samaki.com.au side the plastic, ready to fish straight You can like Samaki on Instagram out of the packet. and Facebook to keep up to date.

Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 49

This stunning 8kg red emperor fell to a large mullet fillet.

A view from above Sykes Reef captured by a DJI Phantom 4 drone.

Sensational overnight trip to Sykes Reef

W

ITH the weather being so unpredictable at this time of year, overnight trips tend to be quite difficult.

Goldband snapper came up in numbers after locating a new rock in 80m of water.

The boys and I had been following the fishing and weather reports from the Gold Coast up to the central coast, dying for a chance to get out for an overnight trip offshore.

We were lucky enough to find a break in the weather off 1770 and organised a trip as soon as we could.

A lot of preparation goes into these trips and it is important to get everything right because they can be quite pricey.

Everything from the right bait for the fish to the right food and hydration for those on board is crucial.

When heading off 1770 to Sykes Reef, we stock up on fresh cuttlefish, fresh mullet fillets, a box of IQF pillies and fresh squid.

The right bait certainly makes a difference.

It’s all well and good to have the best bait but

Fishing Trip

by MATI BATS

it also needs to be stored correctly and kept on ice and out of the sun.

On this most recent trip, we left Brisbane at 9pm and arrived at 1770 just before 4am.

Anyone who has done this trip knows it isn’t easy, but nine times out of 10 it is very rewarding.

The southwesterly swell made our lives easy to begin with because we were heading about 80km northeast to Sykes.

Over the past 10 trips to Sykes we have dedicated a lot of time to sounding around the shallows for trout and have been rewarded with quality fish, so on this trip our aim was purely to hit those wider rocks in 60-80m for red emperor.

In our past travels we had found good ground but it’s important to constantly keep exploring areas because of all the

untouched ground.

We put five hours into zigging and zagging up and down the reef systems trying to find isolated rocks.

We were looking for small rises of 1-3m because anything larger tends to hold sharks and they can become quite a problem.

No one wants to lose quality fish to the tax man.

Overall, we found eight rocks that showed a lot of potential, so we began fishing them from top to bottom.

All eight rocks looked to have reds on them but only four produced.

One spot in 80m of water held quite a weird show and at first we thought it was a school of trevally hanging off the bottom.

We dropped down a couple of different rigs and before we knew it we had

found an incredible goldband snapper spot.

The rock held a large school of these 60-75cm fish, which was really interesting.

At about 5pm we made our way back around Sykes to anchor up for the evening with a barbecue and a couple of beers.

A lot of effort goes into these trips and it’s quite easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you’re at work.

Sometimes you’ve just got to sit back and remember why you are out there: to relax and enjoy every moment.

The following morning, we fished shallow bommies for trout and sweetlip and then ended up spending the rest of the day diving and exploring Sykes Reef.

We were able to fly our drone out and capture some amazing footage of ☛ continued P51

Peter scored a schooling red on a 1.5m rise directly east of Sykes Reef in 60m of water.

MASSIVE PRODUCT RANGE IN STOCK AUSTRALIA-WIDE DELIVERY s "AIT BOARDS s #ONSOLES s 3EAT BOXES s ,IVE BAIT TANKS s 4ACKLE STORAGE s "ERLEY BUCKETS

Alex was rewarded with a goldband snapper from a large school.

www.prowave.com.au

07 5641 2338 info@prowave.com.au Page 50 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Sam nabbed these two trout back to back by floating whole pillies over the shallows.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

What does February hold for fishos?

T

HE festive season is over and most of us are back into the grind called work.

We’re not fishing as often as we’d like between work, partners, kids and house duties, so when we do get out, they can be rushed trips with bad tides and difficult conditions.

If you’re like me, the thought of saying “maybe I won’t go” never really crosses your mind unless the conditions are extremely bad.

You often say “let’s just go and have a look” and hope to find a little creek in which to get out of the wind and have a fish.

It’s these days that make you really appreciate the truly perfect outings where everything falls into place.

Let’s forget about the perfect scenario and go somewhere in between, when it’s not blowing the predicted five to 10 knots but it’s also not blowing 30 knots.

These are what I call common days.

The tides are OK and the wind, while enough to make it a little difficult, is not really a bother.

Most fishing days are like this.

You plan for the best but often it doesn’t quite work out.

However, the goal is to manage to get a few fish and have fun at the same time.

Once on the water, the spots you had in mind pre-trip may not turn out to be the best spots any-

Gladstone Region

by GARY CHURCHWARD

more due to being windblown or weed-covered.

You also need to keep in mind what the weather is going to be doing later in the day.

Crossing Gladstone Harbour and Port Alma can change from an easy trip to an uncomfortable slog with a change of wind or tide direction or an increase in wind strength.

This can easily happen when fishing up the creeks on the inside of Curtis Island where you might be protected and not realise the changes.

That’s not to say don’t start at these spots but you may need to cross the open water before the conditions change and head closer to home to fish more protected areas.

This will shorten the time you have to fish your preferred spots but gives you the chance to fish the close-by locations that you regularly drive past and think ‘I should try fishing there one time’.

Often these spots are so obvious and everyone thinks they get lots of attention, however because of this they may rarely get touched.

You could also luck out and hit these areas at just the right time as the fish start to bite, your lure could be different to everything else the fish have seen or maybe no one has

thrown a live bait in there and a well-presented livie will do the trick.

Even if you’re a dedicated lure fisher, in dodgy conditions you might have to change tactics and drop a live bait into a snag or on the edge of a rock bar.

You may need to change your target species from the more prized fish such as barra, jacks and threadies and look for more common catches including bream, flathead and whiting.

This will need to be thought about before you leave because you will need to adjust what tackle you take on the water.

On the fishing front, barra are back on the cards from February 1, so get your bigger lures out and change your trebles.

With the rain we had during the first few weeks of the year, the Fitzroy River may still be a bit fresh.

This will send the barra downstream towards the port and the lower regions of the river, however if it cleans up, try around the city.

Threadfin will be roaming around the entire river, so try Port Alma for the bigger fish and the city region to Devils Elbow for schooling fish.

Both the Calliope and Boyne rivers saw barra surprise people chasing

This small barra took a Sebile Koolie Minnow fished for jacks around fallen timber at Toolooa Bends.

jacks during the closed season.

With barra a legitimate target species once more (from February 1), people will be out chasing them in the deeper holes with larger lures and live baits.

Smaller fish will be caught around shallow timber and rock bars.

Gladstone Harbour holds good schools of fish but the trick is to find where they are sitting because they move on a regular basis.

Mangrove jack will be a common capture this month and the Boyne River is a prime target area because of the extra structure it contains over surrounding systems.

Reports indicate jacks, trevally and queenfish have been happily hitting surface lures and this is a spectacular way to target these fish.

Look for schools of herring sitting in slightly deeper water or around pressure points such as creek and river junctions and the back of rock bars and pylons.

Tarpon are worth a crack in the Boyne River as well.

Flathead will be chewing along the edges of the sandbanks in the harbour and at the mouth of the Lillies and Wild Cattle Creek.

Whiting will be caught in the same spots as flathead and I prefer to fish the rising tide for both species as the water covers the flats.

Awoonga Dam is fishing well and Justin from Gladstone Fly and Sportfishing tells me early morning is fishing better than the afternoon.

He’s also been fishing the flats in the salt when the weather permits, landing good numbers of giant and golden trevally as well as queenfish.

Visit gladstoneflyand sportfishing.com.au to see what fishing option suits you.

Mud crabs were moving around during January and the fresh helped most people get a feed.

Now’s the time to get out on the water, chase barra and take advantage of the hot weather.

Cheers and happy fishing from Gladdy.

Sensational overnight trip to Sykes Reef ☛ from P50

the reef system.

Occasionally you have to sit back and say wow.

It’s amazing what this beautiful country has to offer and how many people haven’t seen any of it.

We have fished plenty of destinations worldwide and we say it again and again: nothing beats Queensland’s fishery.

It’s got everything, from a huge number of species to incredibly high-quality fishing.

All it takes to capitalise and catch cracker fish is a bit of an idea, www.bnbfishing.com. au

the right gear and patience.

Like anything, good things don’t come easily.

You have to be willing to put in the miles to get the smiles.

After having caught a decent feed for the family and exploring Sykes, we began to make our way back in with light fiveknot southeasterly wind.

This trip was another success in terms of finding more ground, but most importantly it was relaxing and everyone was ready to head back to work the following day.

Redthroat emperor is a species you are almost guaranteed to catch when fishing off 1770.

A few fingermark are around. This one took a 95mm Zerek Fish Trap.

Phil with an 85cm barra caught while on a charter with Gladstone Fly and Sportfishing at Awoonga Dam.

Licensed fishers prosecuted for crab pot interference

F

ISHERIES Queensland has successfully prosecuted two fishers in separate cases of interfering with crab pots that belonged to other commercial operators.

Ingham A fisher from Ingham pleaded guilty in the Tully Magistrates’ Court to four charges of unlawfully interfering with fishing apparatus.

Surveillance cameras set up by another commercial fisher photographed the defendant removing crab apparatus from the water in Hinchinbrook Channel.

The magistrate issued a penalty of $5000 and awarded legal costs of $2298, with no conviction recorded.

Gladstone A fisher was found guilty and fined $7000 in the Gladstone Magistrates’ Court on five charges of unlawful interference with fishing apparatus.

Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers intercepted the Gladstone fisher’s vessel

at Gladstone Marina and found 19 crab pots that belonged to other commercial fishers, with 14 live crabs inside.

QBFP district manager Greg Bowness said crab pot interference by commercial and recreational fishers is prevalent, with instances being reported regularly to Fisheries Queensland.

“In this case, the offender caused the commercial fishers who lawfully owned the crab pots some financial loss when they were deprived of the use of their fishing apparatus,” Mr Bowness said.

“The intervention of QBFP officers means all their fishing appa-

ratus was recovered and will be returned to its rightful owners.”

QBFP relies on the ongoing support of the community to provide information about suspected illegal fishing activity.

If people suspect illegal crabbing, they should report it to the Fishwatch hotline on 1800 017 116 so it can be investigated.

For more information on fishing rules, visit fisheries.qld.gov.au, call 13 25 23 or download the free Qld Fishing app from Apple and Google app stores.

You can follow Fisheries Queensland on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@FisheriesQld).

Photo: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 51

Mulloway and mud crabs turn it on H ELLO from Stanage Bay.

Big trevally are a Stanage Bay mainstay.

Trevally of this size put up one hell of a fight.

Stanage Bay Marine

oAccommodationoBaitoIce oTackle

Aparadise fisho's

Monster crabs

Awesome fishing stanagebay.com Call Von 07 4937 3145

As usual we begin with the Stanage road.

When I recently travelled it, the road was full of corrugations and dodgy big potholes.

I say dodgy because if you are just cruising and taking your time, you can quite easily dodge them.

It is far easier to slow down and enjoy the drive than sit on the road with a broken spring on your boat trailer.

Or worse still, sit back and watch your mates launch their boats and go fishing while you have to pop into Stanage Bay Marine & Accommodation to get trailer parts.

Good for me, bad for you.

In Thirsty Sound, the muddies and jewfish have decided it’s time to give us humans a run for our bait and I recently weighed in a 19kg and a 12kg jewfish.

Well done, Josh and Liam.

While the hubbies put the pots in, the girls got active on the banks, pulling in parrotfish and grunter weighing 3kg and 5kg.

Good job, Leah.

The muddies didn’t get a chance to have their photos taken because they went from one pot to another before being hungrily consumed.

On the islands and reef, Matrix II got amongst legal size red emperor not far from the homestead on Marble Island.

Thank you, Gary, Troy, Justin and Tim for sharing your pics with me to accompany this article.

These guys did well to capture golden trevally, red emperor, nannygai, tea-leaf trevally, spanish mackerel, cod, grassy sweetlip and giant trevally.

The barra season opens on February 1, and if you are coming to Stanage to get into these beasts, I have a good range of lures here in the shop that will work.

Yep, I do try before you buy.

Stanage Bay

by VON IRELAND

Stanage Bay Marine & Accommodation might be small but the knowledge is grand!

The experimental stage is long gone for this little black duck, and because I haven’t won the lotto and don’t have a sugar daddy, I can only afford to stock what works.

Remember this and be sure to give me a ring before you go on a big shopping spree spending thousands of dollars on bait and tackle prior to your big adventure to Stanage.

Save the extra weight on your vehicle, trailer and tyres and buy local, at least for your bait, ice and fuel.

Mailing out sun shirts, hats, coolers, maps and charts is no problem either.

Give me a call on 07 4937 3145 or email me at stanagebaymarine@big pond.com Until next time, keep those rod tips wet.

Comment on Australian Defence Force plans You may or may not have heard about the Australian Defence Force’s proposed acquisition of many of the Stanage road grazing properties.

The Singapore Army has allegedly given the Australian Defence Force a lot of money and then with next to no homework the ADF has decided to throw around the dollars and buy out some of the most prestigious grazing land in the country.

Now that’s fodder for thought!

Here come my queries.

Yes I have been to one of the junket meetings and heard what the robot colonel had to say.

I have seen the days where the government said our pro fishers’ log books were confidential and would never be used against us… but then the government green zoned the most awesome areas.

Hinchinbrook Fishing Full and half-day charters

3 to 7-day packages including accommodation Two boats available catering for groups of 2-8

Experienced local guide Come on a Hinchinbrook wilderness fishing holiday and tick some of those trophy fish off your bucket list – barra, mangrove jack, coral trout, GTs, sooty grunter, spanish mackerel, black marlin queenies, nannygai and more!

Todd & Raylene Eveleigh T: 07 4777 2968 M: 0417 192 318 E: barra@crackfish.com www.crackfish.com Page 52 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Canoe Passage in Shoalwater Bay was closed basically overnight to fishing and mud crabbing, with no consultation and pros instantly out of work.

Now back to the Defence Force.

The ADF already owns huge acreages on the eastern side of the Stanage road leading to the ocean.

This land takes in mud flats, mangroves, beaches, bays, deep water and islands.

And now the ADF also owns, so far, one property on the western side of the Stanage road, ‘Lyndon’.

Heading a little further west, you will find Herbert Creek, which is a prime breeding nursery for barramundi, mud crabs and countless birdlife.

This waterway has direct access to the Great Barrier Reef, the Percy Isles and Swain Reefs.

It also leads to Thirsty Sound and Broadsound.

To the west of the Herbert is a cattle property called Glenn Prairie, which the ADF has allegedly bought for about $42 million.

More food for thought.

One wonderful senator with the guts to find out what’s been going on took the time to go to the meeting in Marlborough arranged by the graziers.

Until then she did not know of the problems that could and would arise if these land acquisitions continued.

My query to the Federal Government is: if the armed forces own both sides of the road, and plan on using both sides for training purposes, then shouldn’t we at Stanage Bay as a tourist township have been consulted first?

How will we get to and from the Stanage Bay township if the road is closed for training exercises?

And if we don’t have to worry about the above, could the Federal Government confirm this fact and put at ease the thoughts of those concerned about Stanage Bay and its future?

At the moment, the banks are seeing us as a hot potato and simply don’t want to know about us or any future purchasers.

Have we got five or 25 years left here as a township?

Mulloway have come alive recently, smashing baits and lures at will.

Crabbing around Gladstone

O

VER the holidays, I had been thinking of what to do that didn’t involve working on the house when I received a call from my mate Darrin in Gladstone.

He and another mate Col were planning a couple of days spent crabbing the inside of Curtis Island and wondered if I’d be interested in tagging along.

Well it’s hard to pass up a good feed of crabs, so I was in.

The plan was to head up, use Col’s 30’ SeaQuest as the mother ship and work the pots on the daily run-in tide.

The fact the trip was a couple of weeks away gave me time to work out a decent plan on how to break the news to the wife.

Strangely enough, she was receptive to the idea, which meant she had other plans for me down the track because she doesn’t even like crab.

Anyway, I could deal with that in future if indeed I was right.

The boys headed up to Graham Creek on a Thursday afternoon, while I dragged my boat up and arrived on the Friday.

At Gladstone I grabbed some extra ice and frozen bait and was soon on the water, heading out of the marina.

Conditions were pretty good, though I was met with a fair run-out tide as I passed Clinton Wharf.

The trip only took

Crabbing Trip

by MICK CLUTTERBUCK

about 20 minutes and I soon located the lads.

Timing is everything and I had nailed it on this occasion as fresh crab was just coming out of the cooker.

After a feed, we did a late check and rebait of the pots and set the ones I had brought, well three of the four, because I had miscounted and only brought poles for three.

Back on the big boat, we had a feed and a few beers and settled back to get dined upon by about three million sandflies that swarmed in as soon as the wind dropped out.

The next day, we ran the pots from the bottom of the tide, constantly moving them further into the mangroves as the tide rose.

If you want a decent

feed of mud crabs, this is the way to go, rather than plonking them down overnight and hoping for the best.

Crabs are very active and you would be surprised how much they move around.

Fresh bait is best and we’ve always had excellent results using reef fish frames.

This time around we also tried chicken carcasses and had great success.

We scored a good feed for ourselves and families and ended up coming home a day earlier than we had originally planned.

It turned out I was right about my wife having an ulterior motive – her newly painted shop looks great now that I’m done with it.

A bucket of crabs ready for the table.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

A perfect-sized cod for the table taken from a coral reef.

A salty barra taken from the mouth of a wet-season drain after the season reopened early last year.

Challenges for Cape York fishos F

EBRUARY holds a few challenges for anyone wishing to fish Cape York.

Even during an average wet season, the typically heavy rainfall makes access to most of the Peninsula impossible, or at least difficult, even for locals.

Yes, February is normally a little damp in the deep north!

This is usually on top of good falls previously in January and sometimes December.

The northern Cape certainly had a textbook start to the wet, with widespread storm activity in December.

There was also decent activity across Rinyirru National Park and parts of the Laura/Normanby catchments.

Now, looking out the window of our house near Cooktown, it is absolutely teeming down, with everything awash.

Which of course is absolutely brilliant for rejuvenating the country, rivers included, and providing ideal conditions for fish and other wildlife to breed.

The other good news is that this is the start of the ‘run-off’ period for bar-

Cape York by ‘BILLABONG’ BAZZ LYON

ra fishing, which can be mind blowing (the season reopens on February 1).

With more and more bitumen and higher bridges, the options for targeting these amazing animals are much greater than even 10 years ago.

Creeks and seasonal gullies draining into rivers in either fresh or salt water can be absolute gold, as are cascades and small waterfalls.

Also try around rocky headlands or boulders along beaches, as barra will use these features as ambush positions.

Lures and live baits of freshwater prawns or fish work equally well during the wet season.

Soft plastics, effective at any time of year, are possibly at their most productive now, especially the better prawn models.

During the wet, barra will also take flesh baits due to their much-improved appetites.

With fully sealed access, Cooktown is a good rainy-season destination

because it encompasses the Endeavour and Annan rivers, Archer Point and other beaches and headlands.

So too is the Normanton/Karumba area in the southeastern Gulf of Carpentaria.

All with due care of course, as even bitumen roads to these places can flood in heavy rainfall events, and in the case of the Gulf Country, for many weeks.

Problem areas on the inland Cooktown road are now mostly confined to the McLeod and Annan rivers, the latter at what is locally called the ‘Little Annan’ near Black Mountain.

Listening to weather forecasts and road conditions is, as always, essential.

On a side note, while working as a wildlife ranger in Mount Isa, I often used to fly on the Customs surveillance plane.

One day we’d head from Normanton north to Horn Island in the Torres Strait,

Barra, saratoga and sooty grunter were feeding below the small waterfall on the right.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

while the next day we’d fly west to Borroloola in the Northern Territory.

Seeing those coastlines was an amazing experience – like a huge 3D map spread out below – though sometimes the weather closed in and all we could see was cloud.

And outside of work hours I often took the opportunity to wet a line.

The muddy water that flowed down the Norman River during the run-off period looked so thick it could be cut with a knife.

Yet the barra were still able to locate a lure in that murk, and with fellow ranger Peter Hensler I enjoyed cracking fishing sessions.

I found that lures with stripes or spots to provide contrast produced the best results.

An ugly, home-made bibless shad painted red with black stripes was super deadly, and consistently out-fished anything else.

I must make a few more over this wet.

Again with care, trips to the magnificent coral reefs off Cooktown and Ayton (80km to the south) can result in excellent fishing at this time of year.

Good catches of coral trout, nannygai and spaniards were being taken in January in fine patches between the storms.

If the southeaster stays away, February mornings are usually glassed out, with a northeast sea breeze of 15-20 knots kicking in around lunchtime.

The resulting chop is more of a rough nuisance than a problem for any decent boat.

It’s the afternoon storms that can whip up a rough sea in very short time you need to watch.

Should you be new to tropical reef fishing (we all were once!), sound around to find decent reef drop-offs, pinnacles and rises.

Pressure points facing the current are often the most productive locations.

In more open water, rubble and low reefs are prime habitats for those cracking red emperor and large-mouth nannygai that reef anglers dream of.

Fish West Australian

pilchards in combination with a hard bait of squid or fish flesh on an 8/0 or 9/0 hook and a decent overhead or spinning outfit – or heavy handline for those with tough hands.

Reef fishing is alluring because you never know what you’re going to catch next.

Sweetlip, maori sea perch, cod, trevally, jacks and fingermark (more so around the headlands on eastern Cape York and the reefs on the west side) are all viable targets.

Egret and Boulder reefs are the largest reefs close to Cooktown and can fish very well.

A little further afield, Big Uncharted Reef to the east and Cairns and Rosser reefs to the south are also excellent and probably get less fishing pressure.

A wet February offers valuable downtime to service fishing and camping gear, as well as boats and vehicles.

Having just relocated from the Wenlock on the northern Cape to Cooktown for the wet, I’ve been full on into these tasks.

It’s very satisfying knowing that when the weather gods finally turn off the rain tap, everything will be ready and raring to go.

On the Cape with its ubiquitous rough roads, boat trailers take a fair hammering and need special and constant attention.

If the suspension in any way looks sad, replace it.

Wheel bearings need to be greased or replaced as a matter of course, along with those all-important hub seals.

The same goes for your vehicle, whether you get it serviced professionally or do it yourself.

My 29-year-old Land Rover is pretty basic, so I am currently changing all oils, greasing everything, renewing a few suspension bushes and servicing the wheel bearings myself.

All in addition to replacing a few pop rivets.

Otherwise she’s in good order and ready for another 600,000km.

Enjoy the green season, and good luck fishing!

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 53

Daly delivers $10,000 barra

A

NO T H E R Northern Territorian is thousands of dollars richer after catching a tagged barramundi in the NT Government’s second season of the Million Dollar Fish competition.

The 72cm barra was hooked on the Daly River

by Howard Springs man Craig ‘Curly’ Saxelby.

Mr Saxelby used live bait to hook the winner, which was the eighth prize-tagged fish and the fifth from land-based fishing to be caught this season.

Department of Tourism and Culture CEO Alastair Shields said, “A big congratulations to Craig on his prized catch – what a way to start the new year.”

“This win should encourage more anglers to have a go.

“There are still several weeks left in this year’s competition and plenty of tagged fish waiting to be caught, including the million dollar barra.

“Tagged fish were released across the Top

End of the Northern Territory, from Arnhem Land to the Katherine region, Tiwi Islands, Kakadu and Darwin.”

The lucky fisherman said he and his mates Christian Ehling and Dazza Nelson made a pact on the way down to the Daly River.

“We agreed if one of us caught a tagged fish the catcher would get $8000 and the two others a grand each,” Mr Saxelby said.

“The boys were on one side of the river and I was on the other, then with a big boof the barra smashed out of the water and I yelled that I had got a red tag.

“We were high fiving, cuddling and kissing.

“We couldn’t fish for the rest of the day, we were so excited.

“The Daly River is really pumping at the moment.

“We were in the middle of the floodplain on the culvert near the river, with water as far as you can see, and just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

The men said their prizemoney would go towards more fishing adventures.

CrownBet Strategic Partnership manager Brad Fanning said, “It looks like the barra are back on the bite.”

“CrownBet is extremely excited about Craig’s catch.

“Make sure you all get in and register and try your luck.

“There is still over $1.9 million worth of red tags swimming around the NT waterways and waiting to be caught.”

In season two of Million Dollar Fish, 101 barramundi were tagged and released across the Territory, with 100 carrying $10,000 cash prize tags.

This recent win means 92 $10,000 barra are still lurking and the prized million dollar fish is yet to be caught.

The Million Dollar Fish competition runs until February 28, 2017.

Participants must register online at million dollarfish.com.au

The lighthouse on the eastern islet.

Cape York – Pethebridge Islets

C

ARRYING on from last month’s Cape York article, more natural beauty is located 8km northeast of the Starcke River mouth in the form of the Pethebridge Islets, two islands that form part of the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef.

These islets are surrounded by coral reef and at low tide sections of reef are almost exposed.

Through a viewing bucket or by snorkelling in the crystal-clear water you can observe a maze of corals along with hundreds of species of fish.

Be careful when entering the islets’ foreshores so you don’t damage any coral.

Beaches that look sandy from a distance are in fact an abundance of brokendown coral that is impossible to walk on without the correct footwear.

The scattered vegetation

Fishing Trip

by MELISSA FROHLOFF

is home to many seabirds.

Pelicans congregate on the low tide banks to sun themselves and are not fazed by the occasional boat.

The waters of Pethebridge are part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the islets are in a blue zone surrounded by green zones.

Check out gbrmpa.gov. au to familiarise yourself with these zones.

Before you begin fishing in this area, establish the coral reef fin fish closure dates because these dates vary from year to year.

The Pethebridge Islets are situated about 1.2km apart, and trolling the channel between the two can produce mackerel and queenfish.

The eastern islet has a small lighthouse situated

on the eastern foreshore.

Trolling the edges of the reef among the coral structures surrounding the islets using lures that dive to about 2m will entice several species of fish including coral trout, cod and chinaman fish.

Chinaman fish are spectacular and hard fighters but are known carriers of

ciguatoxins and must be released.

Concentrating on casting topwater lures such as stickbaits and poppers will attract coral trout, cod and several species of trevally, including the prized GT. Jigging the deeper dropoffs will also get grass emperor intrigued.

If you are camping at Starcke River, I suggest you take every opportunity to check out the sights and fish the gorgeous Pethebridge Islets.

Dropping a jig on the rubble bottom around the edges of the islets produced grass emperor.

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www.kareemarine.com.au Page 54 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Sam hooked up to a solid Chinaman fish using his favourite Halco Laser Pro.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

4WDING & off - road The Great Ocean Road H

I, it’s Craig Tomkinson here.

With our three boys Troy, Magregor and Gavin on their high school Christmas holidays, I was getting itchy feet waiting for our eight-year-old daughter Lauren’s term to end.

I was trying to convince my wife Donna to pull her out of school two days early because the whole family was jumping in our old 1HZ 80 Series four-wheel-drive LandCruiser wagon and heading on a holiday to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.

I wanted to get down there before the school holidays started in Victoria.

Donna caved and on Wednesday night we threw some clothes, tucker and bedding gear in 45-litre plastic boxes.

In the back of the wagon we had a 100-litre box full of spare parts, my toolbox, five 45-litre containers of clothes, sleeping gear and our tent because I had not booked any accommodation.

We didn’t take our popup van because it needed new canvas.

With the wagon fully serviced, loaded and ready to go, we left Cooroy on Thursday at 7.15am, headed out to Esk and on past Wivenhoe Dam to the Cunningham Highway.

We drove through Warwick and on to the little border town of Wallangarra where the kids enjoyed the border crossing because they had not been out of Queensland.

That was great fun.

Driving on to Tamworth, we started running into big storms.

We had just bought KFC and were having tea as a huge storm hit us.

Aussie Adventure

by CRAIG TOMKINSON

We were parked in behind a big shed and I hoped the roof would not blow off.

Because it took us so long to reach Tamworth, I decided to travel on thought the night.

As we neared Dubbo around midnight, our lights started getting duller.

Bugger, the alternator had started playing up again and both batteries were going flat.

I found a spot to park with a good downhill run to clutch start the old girl in the morning and we went to sleep in the 4WD. After looking around I realised we were parked right across the road from a shop with a flashing red light.

The next four and a half hours until daylight were tough but we were warm and dry, which was one good thing.

Early that morning I clutch started the Cruiser and away we went.

Because we were in NSW, everything opened an hour earlier than we expected thanks to daylight savings.

We were at West Wyalong when the shops started opening, so I pulled up at the local auto sparky and got him to check the alternator.

He said it was buggered but he did not have time to fix it.

However, he had a new one there and it was slightly bigger at 130A. The bloke said the alternator was a bugger to fit, telling me you have to undo the air-con pump and tie it up out of the way and then loosen the bolts

on the brackets.

I said I had my own tools and he was happy because he said it was wheat harvest season and he was flat-out.

He was heading off on a call-out job but said I was welcome to fit the alternator right where the 4WD was at the shop.

I thanked him kindly and he was off.

The job took me about two and a half hours and by then the sparky was back.

He tested the new alternator for me and said it was all good to go.

All for $360, which was the same price I was quoted at home for a new alternator.

I was rapt.

From there we headed to Hay. Man, the open plains heading into Hay are huge.

The kids saw their first wild emus and big wedgetailed eagles.

We were getting tired so pulled up about 2pm and booked into a cabin on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.

We had a spell and then went shopping.

Later, Donna, Lauren and I went for a walk along the banks of the river.

It was flowing fast and looked very fishy but I did not even bring a fishing rod because it was purely a sightseeing holiday.

From Hay, we headed to Tooleybuc on the NSW/ Victoria border.

We crossed the mighty Murray River and headed towards Ouyen in Mallee country.

I have always heard of

the Mallee and I came this way to see it.

It was wheat as far as the eye could see.

Just fantastic.

From there, we travelled on towards Horsham but had a leg-stretching stop at a little railway siding of a place called Brim.

Here we saw incredible 30-40m high grain silos painted with murals of local people.

A sign said a young Brisbane bloke named Guido van Helten painted them all by himself.

They were amazing to me.

I felt that was real art.

Thousands of people come from far and wide to see them and we just stumbled onto them.

How lucky were we?

From there, we headed through Horsham to Hamilton where we stayed the night in a cabin.

The Hamilton area is very volcanic, with many dormant and extinct volcanoes not far from the town.

The next morning, we headed to Portland at Point Danger.

As we approached, Donna and I could see Australasian gannets flying around the point.

We are both mad-keen birdwatchers, so this was fantastic.

When we pulled up, we came to a big fence with a dummy-locked gate.

There were no signs saying keep out, so we figured it was just a verminproof fence to keep out wild cats and foxes.

So through the gate we all went, dummy locking it behind us.

We were met by Brian, a volunteer who keeps an eye on the gannets.

He thought we were another group that had booked in with him. ☛ continued P56

Murals on grain silos at Brim.

Recipe

by MELISSA FROHLOFF

Breakfast omelette together with a fork. Heat nonstick pan on medium to high.

Ingredients • 2 eggs • 1 rasher of bacon • 1 tablespoon milk • 1/2 small onion, finely diced • 1 tablespoon parmesan, grated • 1 tablespoon garlic chives, finely chopped • 1 tablespoon cheddar, grated • 1 large mushroom Method 1. Place onion, bacon and mushroom in pan and slightly brown. Set aside.

2. Lightly beat the eggs with milk, sea salt and cracked pepper

3. Pour in the egg mixture, ensuring the egg is being cooked evenly on the pan.

4. When the egg mixture starts to bubble, scatter the grated cheeses, bacon, mushroom and garlic chives on one half of the omelette.

5. When the underside of the omelette is golden, fold in half.

6. Slide the omelette from the pan onto a plate, sprinkle with extra cheese, garnish with garlic chives and serve immediately.

Serves one

Cook’s tips I love serving an omelette with a dollop of good old-style tomato relish.

Possibly the steepest boat ramp in the southern hemisphere.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 55

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The author and his daughter Lauren on the bank of the Murrumbidgee River.

Great Ocean Road adventure ☛ from P55

We had a quick chat and he let us take a look around.

It was an amazing experience.

Brian guided us and four professional birders around and told us this was the only spot on the Australian mainland where these birds nest.

About 100 breeding pairs nested at this spot but on the island about a kilometre offshore were another 6000 breeding pairs.

Donna enjoyed getting some nice photos of the gannets.

From here we could see huge wind turbines, so we went and had a look at them and on the way I spotted a koala sitting in a tree near the road, so we got photos of both.

We headed north to Port Fairy but it was very busy with tourists, so we

travelled along the coast past Warrnambool, which marks the start of the Great Ocean Road.

Up along the coast where it starts getting rugged I spotted a boat ramp sign and thought ‘how in hell could they get a boat in there?’

So I went in for a look and there was a singlelane boat ramp into a little cove.

And man, it was steep.

I got into low-range first gear to drive down it and turned around at the bottom to come back up.

It was very pretty down the bottom.

I was later told by a local that it is the steepest boat ramp in the southern hemisphere.

We quickly drove up the coast and found the 12 Apostles tourist information centre.

After that, we headed back towards Warrnam-

bool to find a cabin for the night.

Over the years, we have found if you start looking for a cabin at about 2pm you will often get one but later in the day you will miss out.

We found a cabin at Hopkins River and it was the best cabin of the trip so far in a lovely spot.

Donna, Lauren and I went for a walk to the Hopkins River and found a local fishing club hut built right on the riverbank with a jetty protruding into the water.

It was a beautiful spot but it was cold because the southerly wind was blowing hard and it was freezing.

We did not stay long.

Early the next morning we drove back to the info centre to see if we could book a flight for the family on a seven-seater helicopter.

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They said we could go right away, so we did.

It cost $145 each for the six of us plus $45 to have the flight videoed, so just under a grand for the 15-minute flight.

We would have done the 25-minute flight but we didn’t know if our kids would get airsick.

The operators gave us a safety briefing, fitted us with life jackets and away we went.

It was awesome to see the looks on our kids’ faces.

They were blown away.

We flew down the coast to London Bridge and back.

It was just amazing and I would recommend the flight to anyone.

We spent the rest of the day looking at the Apostles and related sites and then poked around trying to find out where we could see penguins come in at night.

We soon worked it out ourselves, because at the London Bridge viewing platform we spotted all these funny footprints on the beach above the highwater mark.

So we headed off to Port Campbell, booked into a cabin and went back to see a group of about 100 penguins come out of the surf just on dark and up the beach to the nest holes to feed the young ones.

We could see the young penguins standing outside the burrows waiting for mum or dad to feed them.

The next day, we headed north up the coast to the Otway Fly Treetop Walk.

It’s supposed to be the tallest in the country at 47m to the top tower.

Donna and the kids

loved it but it made my legs go wonky because it was long and the high tower was way up in the trees.

I could hardly come down, I was shaking that much.

What impressed me most were the mountain ash trees the treetop walk went through.

They were the tallest, straightest limbless trees I have seen.

Just fantastic sticks of timber.

From there we drove through the forestry to a stand of American redwood trees that were planted around 1937 as an experiment to see whether they would grow.

Let me tell you, they grew all right.

They were big around the base and as tall and straight as the mountain ash but not limbless.

From here we drove to the Cape Otway Lighthouse because I have always wanted to have a look inside a lighthouse and this one offered tours.

On the way we saw loads more koalas.

I cannot remember ever seeing so many.

The Otway Lighthouse has been operating since 1848 and stopped working as a lighthouse in 1994.

The tour guide did a great job and made the tour a real highlight of my trip.

Gee the lighthouse keepers, and their wives especially, had a hard life, that is for sure.

The day was getting on, so we drove up the coast and got a cabin at Apollo Bay. ‘Til next month, be safe on our roads.

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Page 56 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Australasian gannets, their nests and chicks at Point Danger, Portland.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

4WDING & off - road Off-road canopy for HiLux I USUALLY talk about fishing in the Hinchinbrook Island area but this month Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to discuss something else I am passionate about, which is getting out bush or up north with the family and going camping.

Normally when I go hunting or fishing with my mates we keep it pretty simple.

A swag, Esky, little butane gas cooker, beers and bangers and we are away.

But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a little different with a young family and, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face it, I am getting old and starting to like a few creature comforts.

My wife Raylene and I had been thinking about getting a camper trailer or caravan and went along to quite a few camping and caravan expos, getting a really good look at what was available.

And wow, some fantastic off-road caravans and camper trailers are on the market.

After looking at a heap, we narrowed it down to a couple we really liked.

But when we sat down and thought about what we like to do and the places we like to go, we realised 90 percent of our travels involve a boat or going to a place where it is just too rugged to tow something in there.

About 12 months ago, Raylene and I discussed a Jackoff-style canopy to go on the ute.

We felt this was a decent idea for a number of reasons.

First, we could still tow a boat to remote fishing locations; second, we wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to pay any extra registration; and third, when not using the canopy we could simply jack it off and store it in the shed, allowing us to still use the ute as a ute.

So after sitting down and drawing up several floorplans, we sent our ideas off to a couple of fabricators for pricing.

We opted to get an aluminium canopy built to our specifications and I then proceeded to do the fit-out myself, which liter-

4WDing

by TODD EVELEIGH

ally saved us thousands.

Doing this allows you to add those little custom touches and modifications to best suit your needs.

The canopy was made to fit our extra-cab Toyota HiLux. Our tough Lux is an oldie but a goodie.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a 2008 model with all the extras such as a suspension lift, BF Goodrich Mud-Terrain tyres, ARB Air Lockers front and rear, a winch bar, winch, spotties, snorkel, long-range fuel tank and the list goes on.

It is decked out to conquer most remote roads and get into those harder to reach fishing destinations.

The canopy setup has two big doors, one on the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side and one on the passenger side.

On the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side against the headboard we fitted a full-length drawer that opens right out.

This is just a general storage drawer where we can put firearms, camp chairs, tools, spares and heaps of other miscellaneous items.

Just next to that is another drawer that we use to store clothing, towels and toiletries.

Also on the driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side is a roll-out awning measuring 2.5m x 3m.

We got a tent that clicks onto the awning and then we took it to a trimmer to have it modified to seal around the opening of the door.

This gives us a nice tent section on that side of the vehicle that opens up into the back of the canopy.

This is where the kids sleep and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an area where we can sit at nighttime totally sealed off from mosquitos, bugs and the elements.

As for bedding, we have a queen-sized mattress that fits perfectly on top of the drawer system for Raylene and I to sleep, while two single mat-

tresses sit on top of our bed until we are ready to sleep and we then slide these mattresses onto the floor in the tent section to give the kids a comfortable place to sleep.

On the other side of the vehicle are another two drawers.

The back drawer slides all the way out and this is our custom kitchen, with a four-burner gas cooktop and kitchen sink with a built-in cutlery drawer.

The next drawer in is a huge pantry where we store all our food for long trips.

We have a big Evakool fridge that sits against the headboard and is lifted out onto the ground for easier access. â&#x2DC;&#x203A; continued P58

The authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HiLux with jack-on canopy, awnings and tinny topper rack.

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The back of the canopy features a gas bottle holder, jerry can holder, spare wheel and Smarttek instant hot water system.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

www.erps.com.au Bush â&#x20AC;&#x2122;n Beach Fishing, February 2017 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Page 57

4WDING & off - road

The ladder leads to a queen-size mattress located above the drawer system.

Awning with tent.

Off-road canopy for Toyota HiLux ☛ from P57

Passenger side of the canopy with slide-out kitchen including four-burner gas stove, cutlery drawer, sink and pantry drawer.

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I want a drop-down fridge slide but I haven’t quite worked out how we are going to do it just yet.

A work in progress.

The kitchen side is screened off so no bugs can get into our sleeping quarters or over to the other side of the tent.

Another 2.5m x 3m awning rolls out on this side to give us shade over the kitchen, tables and chairs.

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Once we’ve pulled up we put a ground sheet down to help minimise tracking in sand and dirt.

Because we run the fridge, we also required a second battery, so we run a deep-cycle battery with a REDARC isolator.

This allows us to run the fridge without draining our vehicle battery.

We went for the Evakool fridge because it is quite big at 70 litres but is still very efficient and can run on that one battery for three days without a recharge.

To power the canopy, we have run a lead back to the REDARC system and the headboard with an Anderson plug.

I then wired the canopy separately to the other side of the Anderson plug so it can be disconnected when we jack off the canopy.

The wiring was really pretty easy.

Other than that, we have another Anderson plug for the fridge to connect to and two switches for cabin lights in the kitchen and inside the tent.

I wired in a USB and

cigarette lighter plug to charge the electronics and installed a water pump switch.

We also threw in an LED voltage metre, which allows me to keep an eye on the battery power.

On the back of the canopy is a spare wheel rack for our spare, a jerry can holder and a 9kg gas bottle holder, which is more than enough for our cooking and hot water system.

Yes that’s right, a hot water system.

This thing is absolutely amazing and I thoroughly recommend you get one.

Quite a few are on the market but we opted for a Smarttek instant hot water system.

The Smarttek is permanently mounted on the back of the canopy and under the tray are 110-litre and 45-litre water tanks.

The Smarttek just clips onto the water tank with a hose fitting, so when we jack the camper onto the back of the ute, it is simply a matter of clipping the hose from the Smarttek onto the water tank and opening the water valve.

Once connected to the water supply, the hot water system connects to the gas bottle and you simply switch on the pressure pump and screw the shower head on.

Flick a little switch on the bottom of the system, and being battery operated, it ignites as soon as we flick the shower head on and gives us instant hot water.

It is fantastic and has two settings for either summer or winter.

The winter setting will just about scorch your hand, which is great for washing dishes, and the summer setting is ideal for bush showers.

Our sweet camp setup only takes a maximum of 10 minutes to set up completely, which is fantastic if we want to pull up during the night to break up a long drive.

I hope you liked the article!

Until next month.

P.S. it’s been raining lots and the barra season kicks off on February 1 – yeeha!

steeringandsuspensionwarehouse.com.au 1300 4STEERING Page 58 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

f

A clip-on tent was modified to seal onto the opening of the canopy doors.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

C AMPING & outdoors Watch out for widow makers W E’VE started 2017 with a range of conditions that in many cases could be labelled extreme.

In the Mary Valley we’ve had storm wind that would blow a dog off its chain and hailstones the size of cricket balls.

I suppose one positive is my property has unintentionally become a testing ground for identifying safe camping spots.

Watching healthy trees drop branches that have the capacity to crush a car leaves you thinking ‘could you imagine being under that in a tent?’

It’s common to read of bushwalkers and campers coming face to face with injuries and even death while taking part in what seems a safe and healthy outdoor activity.

I’ve read many reports of caravans being crushed in campgrounds and you could only imagine the number of lesser incidents that go unreported.

Statistics show that 11 percent of outdoor deaths

Outdoors

by PAUL ‘CHIEF’ GRAVESON

in Australia are a result of falling trees and branches.

Unfortunately, there is no protocol to assist with identifying potentially dangerous trees.

Scientific and government bodies have investigated the matter but we still have no real recommendations.

In saying that, we’re still in the peak camping season until the Easter period, with the ongoing possibility of rain and even cyclonic conditions.

I know many will argue that choosing a perfect camping spot is purely common sense and you should never set up camp under or around dead or leaning trees.

I feel the task of keeping your family and friends safe requires a little more thought than that.

The first rule worth considering is don’t ever

This tree looks in good health but you can see the scar left by a fallen limb.

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think choosing a campsite in a paid camp facility instantly allows you to be complacent about site selection.

Local knowledge, whether fishing, hunting or camping can be invaluable, so why not have a chat to the park managers about their recommendations.

They are usually the ones controlling park upkeep and will have a recent history of any tree problems.

Many variants in nature can cause a perfectly healthy-looking tree to throw a limb.

Temperature changes, severe drought, heavy rain, disease and insect infestation are all factors in the equation.

A common phrase used by many grey nomad travellers is “widow maker” when referring to some of our native gum trees.

So how do you recognise the visual signs that make a tree dangerous?

The only real answer is you can’t.

For example, in times of drought, perfectly healthy-looking gums will throw limbs to assist in retaining moisture for the good of the rest of the tree.

I’ve heard many theories over the years such as taking a look at the leaves for signs of discoloration, which may be a symptom of branch rot disease, or checking for dark sap released from the bark, which shows an unhealthy tree.

However, neither of these statements are backed by scientific evidence.

The only real fact I know is in Australia we have about 894 species of gum tree such as blackbutt, grey, ghost and river red to name just a few.

Bear in mind it is not only eucalyptus trees that pose a threat to our outdoors lifestyles.

A number of other natives are not so deep rooted, creating problems with stability in high wind.

Thready she-oaks spring to mind because I have seen sizeable trees succumb to average storm conditions.

Many times at Queensland campsites I’ve witnessed campers discussing a large gum’s branch limbs and saying “if it was to fall, this is exactly where it would land”.

Never assume where a branch will fall because large limbs will often partially give way and swing while still attached to the tree trunk.

When this occurs, it provides the added chance of the falling limb ricocheting off other branches and dropping well away from the predicted landing spot.

Notice the picture where my dog was posing behind the product of one of our recent storms.

This size branch is capable of inflicting serious damage to a freestanding tent and its occupants.

Note the internal damage to this tree limb caused by termites.

This damage is another factor unpredictable to the naked eye, especially when the suspect limb was originally 4-5m up the tree trunk.

On this particular afternoon, the storm brought down five large tree branches within a small 200m radius.

Living on a property that resembles many of our southeast Queensland camping grounds has created an awareness and you could say a healthy questioning for any of my future selections of campsites.

When you first drive into a park and wonder why no one has taken that perfect campsite, take a good look above.

I hope this information sits in your mind for your next outdoor adventure and prompts a few questions before you roll out your swag.

Cheers, Chief.

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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 59

HUNTING & archery The underground menaces I F you were asked: “What is the most common mammal in Australia?” what would be your reply?

One of the author’s most-used rifles for bunnies is a .25 calibre PCP air rifle. This haul shows the magnitude of the rabbit problem in western Queensland and was taken within a couple of hours on a mixed grazing station near Cunnamulla.

Where noise is an issue, such as in close proximity to dwellings or when ewes have lambs on the ground, the bow comes into its own.

The humble .22 LR rimfire has harvested more rabbits than any other calibre. This pair were destined for the oven (and were delicious).

Page 60 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Humans?

Not even close; our population is hovering around 24 million.

Cattle?

Although we do have the most expansive cattle grazing stations in the world (yes, even bigger than those in Texas), due to the desiccated land on which they sit, they only carry a total of about 28 million head.

Kangaroos?

No, an estimated 55 million of them are hopping about this wide brown land, including all large members of the macropod family.

Sheep?

Known as the nation that rode to prosperity on the sheep’s back, we currently have 74 million sheep on grazing properties from coast to coast.

So what is the answer?

The most recent estimate of the feral rabbit population in Australia is a staggering 200 million!

If you think that number is high, before the release of the myxoma virus in the 1950s, an astonishing 600 million of the little environmental vandals were running around the countryside.

The reason for sharing those statistics isn’t to help you score points at the next trivia night you attend (though it may help).

Rabbits are significantly detrimental to the environment in a few ways.

Their ability to quickly breed in numbers that, left uncontrolled, can reach plague proportions sees them competing with native herbivores such as potoroos, bettongs, pademelons and so on.

Their burrowing, along with their habit of grazing vegetation down to bare earth in semi-arid country, is a major cause of soil erosion.

Wind and water carry away the thin layer of topsoil, which can take a lifetime to be regenerated, and that only happens if conditions are favourable.

There is still a commonly held belief among city dwellers that no rabbits exist in Queensland.

Unfortunately, that is far from true, with rabbits present in large numbers and very widespread throughout the state.

If you look at the government’s Feral Scan website you’ll notice clusters of recorded sightings in close proximity to major population centres.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that is where the highest numbers of rabbits exist.

Statistics can appear that way, simply because more

Hunting

by NEIL SCHULTZ

people naturally equates to more sightings.

Rabbits are very adaptable, much to the detriment of our fragile natural environments.

Significant populations of bunnies live in habitats far removed from the green temperate meadows you might imagine they require.

During my travels in Queensland I’ve seen them in the tropics in dry country around Townsville and as far north as Atherton in semi-rainforest locations.

I’ve spotted them right across inland areas including the Sturt National Park at Cameron Corner, Quilpie and Currawinya National Park, just to name a few.

Central Queensland has not escaped the problem, with rabbits passing through my headlight beams on roads around Mount Morgan, Emerald, Augathella and Blackall.

It isn’t only rural and remote areas that have become infested with feral rabbits.

I’ve seen them in the suburbs of Ipswich, Esk, Brisbane, Mackay, Rockhampton and Toowoomba (where they often go unnoticed because people just assume they are hares).

Biological controls have been used nationwide and have proven very effective in significantly reducing the population.

As impressive as the impact of various viral controls has been, the mop-up needs to be done using traditional methods to prevent the remaining, resistant animals rebuilding the population.

Because the majority of the country involved is freehold farming land, the financial and manpower

burden largely falls upon the shoulders of our already time-poor families on the land.

Helping to bear that burden is where recreational hunters can play an important role.

The anti-hunting brigade derides hunters as sadists who hunt purely for the joy of killing ‘harmless’ animals for trophies.

Like thousands of other Australian hunters, my sole motivator is to protect our natural ecosystems by helping contain the numbers of introduced pest animals.

None of the firearms or bows in my gun safe have been used to take any animals native to Australia, including those considered pests by many.

Of course, it makes sense not to waste those pest animals culled, so the greater majority of suitable animals also provide meat for the table in my house.

Rabbit is a common dish on my plate and is always a welcome protein source for someone who rarely eats beef or lamb.

Those same misguided protest addicts will eat meat from a supermarket while pointing the finger at hunters for cruelty.

They’ve obviously never visited the knocking blocks of an abattoir where their supermarket beef is slaughtered.

A bullet to the brain is completely painless and preceded by no stress, unlike the commercial alternative; but I digress.

Knowing the extent of the rabbit problem in Queensland means many hunters actively seek out opportunities to reduce the pest’s numbers.

While you may argue that a few bunnies taken by recreational hunters

won’t control the problem, every animal removed from the wild equals generations of offspring also removed, and every bit helps.

Hunting rabbits requires only the most basic equipment, usually starting with a humble .22 LR rimfire rifle.

Of course, a quality knife is a must for field dressing any carcasses for the table, as is a decent light if you plan to hunt at night.

Access to properties can be difficult to obtain for those new to the pastime, but joining a reputable association such as the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia can help.

Tactics don’t need to be too fancy, as simply walking through paddocks at times of low light and keeping a keen eye out will produce the goods.

I regularly hunt rabbits with a .25 calibre precharged pneumatic air rifle that is capable of head shots out to 90m with far more consistency than any .22 LR I’ve ever owned.

That said, I use it for short to medium range situations, enjoying the safety advantage of not needing to worry about ricochets or overshooting in the event of a miss (it happens to everyone).

Some property owners that are reluctant to allow rifle hunters on their land will be open to having bowhunters visit.

The bow is limited in its range and adds an even greater safety factor.

Using a bow also increases the challenge of the hunt, requiring the hunter to stalk to within fairly close range before taking a shot.

One last point regarding the usefulness of hunting with rifle or bow: these are often the only guaranteed species-selective means of control available to the landowner, unlike baiting or trapping.

The villain up close. Rabbits cause significant environmental damage in Australia, particularly in fragile inland bioregions.

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Hot weather triggers barra to go on the hunt T

HE hot weather has properly arrived, so get your barra gear sorted and head to Lake Monduran to land one of these hard-fighting and iconic sportfish.

Barra have come out to play and awesome catches can be had, with plenty of fish over the metre mark hitting the decks of very lucky anglers.

The best conditions have occurred when a warm northerly breeze is blowing.

In these conditions the fish have been much easier to locate and the bigger fish are out on the hunt.

Areas including the back of Bird Bay, the Rainforest and the bay behind White Rock have seen hot action.

But as more boats target the area, the fish become harder to tempt and they will disappear

Monduran Dam

by DONNA GANE

Like it does most years, Monduran Anglers and Stocking Association released 78,000 barramundi fingerlings into Monduran Dam in December. fast with so much traffic.

In this case you have to adapt and look for similar areas close by because I have found barra donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t tend to move too far.

Concentrate your searches on wind-blown points and bays in about a

2km radius of the original bite location.

The best bite times have been either late afternoon into night or of an early morning.

The fish also seem eager to bite when the wind backs off and conditions

Casey and a healthy juvenile barra.

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This cracker 103cm barra was boated by Casey.

become hot and still.

When the wind shifts to the south or east and things cool down, the barra have been much harder to locate in any numbers and therefore trickier to catch.

In these conditions, the hot spots are the ever-reliable Insane Bay, Heart Bay and North Arm of B, however the fish in these areas have been smaller at 40-60cm.

Even at that size they will give you a good fight in the timber.

As for lure selection, mix it up with a variety of soft plastics and hard baits.

There has been no real standout lure, though white has been a good colour lately.

I also like the new Kamikaze lure by Jason Ehrlich.

This lure has a great action and can be fished at different depths, though I recommend upgrading the hooks.

Like it does most years, Monduran Anglers and Stocking Association released 78,000 barramundi fingerlings into Monduran Dam in December.

And in January, MASA released a batch of Australian bass fingerlings.

A big thankyou to all MASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Family Fishing Classic sponsors and donors, all the participants of the Classic, all the volunteers and the contribution thanks to Stocked Impoundment Permit sales.

Fish stocking wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be possible without everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s generosity.

And remember to mark this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lake Monduran Family Fishing

Classic into your calendar for October 14 and 15.

Australian bass survive in wild populations in the rivers and estuaries of southeast Queensland all the way to tributaries of the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria.

They live primarily in clear, flowing streams and hang in and around snags, waiting to ambush prey.

Australian bass have been recorded as large as 60cm and 3.8kg but are more commonly seen at 30-40cm and weighing 1.2kg.

These fish migrate downstream into estuaries to breed from May to August before returning upstream to fresh water.

The closed season for Australian bass in Queensland is June 1 to August 31 each year, meaning you can only fish for bass in stocked impoundments between these dates.

Bass have been a great fish stocking success and provide excellent returns to anglers.

However, they cannot breed in dams, hence the need to be consistently restocked.

Australian bass feed mainly on shrimp, insects, frogs and small fish.

Like barramundi, bass are seen as one of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier freshwater sportfish.

Angling techniques generally involve luring with deep-diving minnows, frogs, surface poppers and spinnerbaits.

Bait fishing is also productive for anglers using shrimp, crayfish, worms and grasshoppers.

Fly fishing for this species has become extremely popular in recent times, with the best catches at dawn and dusk.

A great sporting fish and good eating, bass are more often tagged and released than kept in Lake Monduran due to their inability to reproduce.

The minimum size limit for Australian bass is 30cm, with a bag limit of two fish per person.

Barramundi and bass can be caught all year round in Lake Monduran.

If you are heading out to enjoy what Lake Monduran has to offer, I hope you hook that fish of a lifetime.

At Barra Havoc, we have all the information and lures you will need to fish Lake Monduran.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to pop in and check out our new shop.

We are still on the highway but now weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re next to the Gin Gin fire station and boat trailer parking is easier.

Happy fishing.

Bass fingerlings were recently released into Lake Monduran.

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Lachie, Kai and Cooper loved their fishing experience at Moogerah Dam over the holiday period.

Moogerah Dam’s fish of the month was Shane Whell’s 54cm yellowbelly.

Monsters at Moogerah I

T’S been a quiet time over the Christmas/new year break for Sports Tuition but quality fish have been landed over these prime summer months.

Moogerah Dam holds plenty of big bass. Johnno Hunt lifted a beauty.

Sometimes you just need a

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During the holiday period, a couple of families took the opportunity to put their kids on a freshwater fishing charter at Moogerah Dam but the holiday break was also an opportunity for me to spend time on the water with family and friends.

The fishing at Moogerah Dam has remained consistent through summer.

Early mornings and late afternoons on the water have been the most productive.

Good numbers of yellowbelly have been taken in the far upper reaches around the timber and silver perch have popped up in this region too.

The silvers have taken white paddle tail soft plastics and the Whell boys and Johnno Hunt have absolutely smashed them.

Shane Whell also picked up an impressive yellowbelly that measured 54cm but the whole crew has been catching monster bass, silvers and yellows.

These guys have formed a Facebook page called FishNutz and it’s

Freshwater Fishing

by STEVE WILKES

worth checking out.

The FishNutz boys certainly enjoyed great success at Moogerah but several juniors also got into the action over the break.

It’s always good to be involved with young anglers and a group of very young boys also found

success around the timber in the upper reaches at Moogerah.

Catches included bass and yellowbelly as well as about a dozen massive eel-tailed catfish.

The heat has really brought on the catfish.

I’ve never seen so many

caught in such quick succession.

The youngsters absolutely loved catching them because their rods were literally bending in half and they had to work hard to get them in the boat.

On this occasion, the boys decided to release all their catch to fight another day.

They just enjoyed being out there fishing and playing around in the electricpowered boats.

Jai Whell from FishNutz picked up this solid yellowbelly at Moogerah Dam.

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www.fishingfix.com.au Page 62 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Australian bass fight hard, which is great fun for youngsters like Archer wetting a line at Moogerah.

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Prehistoric jewels ■ The mighty saratoga

S

ARATOGA, or toga for short, are one of Australia’s most beautiful, unique and fun fish to target on lures.

Able to be caught throughout Queensland, they provide great sport for many anglers looking to put in the hours to hook these impressive but sometimes very frustrating fish.

February would have to be right up there as my favourite time of year to get out on the water chasing saratoga.

The weather is hot, the fish are hungry and most of all, the toga are very aggressive.

These incredible fish are in my top five favourite fish to target over summer.

Their angry surface strikes, big jumps and prehistoric nature put butterflies in my belly whenever I think about chasing them.

This season has been one of my most successful targeting wild saratoga throughout southeast Queensland.

Coming off the back of a few very successful breeding seasons, loads of smaller fish from 3050cm are around and eager to take any offerings placed near them.

But keep in mind the big girls are always out on the prowl, and you never know when one will decide your lure looks like the next easy meal.

For me, toga fishing used to be all about stocked im-

Fresh Water

by ZAC CHARLTON

poundments, working the small bays and lily beds with large surface walkers in anticipation of that big 70cm-plus fish coming out from under cover to smack my offering.

But with the added pressure on dams, especially over the school holidays, the fishing has become a little harder, with the larger fish more switched on to anglers and harder to entice into eating a lure.

So I’ve resorted to moving away from the mainstream dams and into the wild rivers.

This creates a new set of challenges while also allowing me to capture multiple species.

These wild rivers provide an awesome new fishing environment, with five or more species being caught in certain sessions while still allowing me to chase these prehistoric jewels.

Recently, the larger river toga haven’t been hitting surface lures as readily as in previous years but have happily taken spinnerbaits and jig spins fished deep in wooden structure, similar to targeting bass and yellowbelly.

I have missed many fish while the lure has been sinking and I’ve felt that all-too-common thump but been unable to get the hooks set deep enough in the saratoga’s hard and bony mouths.

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A

big congratulations to the Lions Mary Valley Family Fishing Classic organisers.

The Borumba Dam competition had a record number of entries and was the biggest success in the event’s history.

With great weather and

good numbers of fish, all anglers enjoyed themselves.

And it looks like 2017’s event will be even bigger and better.

Check out the winners table to see who won what.

Well done to all.

Paul Graveson

One jump and it’s all over, which is a very excruciating way to lose a fish.

Just when you think you have sunk the hooks, the fish leaps from the water, shaking itself to freedom.

One afternoon after work I had hooked four very solid fish but due to fishing lightly I was not able to sink the weedless hooks deep enough, meaning I dropped every single fish close to the net.

As always, persistence reaps rewards, and after many more days and hours on the water, patterns started emerging with how the fish were behaving and feeding.

During the middle of the day, they sat deep, striking lures such as Jackall TNs and other vibes, spinners and plastics wafted down towards them.

Hot, humid days have created a very warm layer of water on the surface, which has slowed the fishing down, but right on dusk the action has really fired up.

This is when I switch to shallow divers and surface lures.

It is a battle to find the larger toga with so many little rats feeding at the moment.

But I’m hanging in there, sure that some bigger models will finally end up in the net.

My top tips for chasing

toga this summer are: • Fish deeper during the hot periods of the day and move to shallower lures as the day comes to an end.

Fish will avoid the hotter water and hunt during low-light periods.

• Colours haven’t really mattered to me because if it’s in their face, they will eat it. I have captured numerous fish on everything from green and brown to chartreuse and orange.

• Get your hooks set early. Your afternoon could end in disaster if a large fish is hooked and manages to shake the lure out.

• Keep your rod tip low when fighting a good fish because this helps keep the toga from jumping you off and greatly improves your success rate when landing fish.

• Explore new areas, be creative and crack your local pattern. Fish act differently in different systems.

• Bigger lures don’t always mean bigger fish.

My largest toga this season took a 2” plastic.

• Most of all, please handle these beautiful fish with care and release them to fight another day. They don’t taste very good and look much better in the water.

With summer winding up, I will be out there every chance I get to chase these amazing fish.

I strongly encourage everyone to give the mighty saratoga a crack.

Until next time, tight lines!

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The boys from the Mary Valley Family Fishing Classic measured a bass.

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These fish always look so much better swimming away than on a dinner plate.

This decent saratoga fell to an Imakatsu Alive Chatter fished among fallen timber.

The author’s best saratoga for the season was taken on a very small soft plastic fished deep in cover.

Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 63

Impoundment bass fire up O

VER the past month my good mate Pete and I ventured to Borumba Dam to see if we could capture some quality bass and saratoga.

A saratoga Pete enticed by casting at a weed edge.

This yellowbelly was hooked while trolling a jig spin through broken weed.

The author and a 38cm bass captured on a Keitech paddle tail soft plastic.

Pete had never been to Borumba before and had never landed a saratoga, so we were hoping to get into a few fish.

We arrived late on a Friday night and set up camp.

It’s such a beautiful spot, with lush green grass, tall trees providing plenty of shade in the heat of the day and hot showers that are great after a long day’s fishing.

We were up at 4am the next day to ensure we got plenty of fishing in before the ski boats started buzzing around because I find they often shut the fish down in the basin and surrounding bays.

We began trolling small jig spins along a weed edge just off the main basin.

Our setups comprised small Keitech paddle tails rigged on 1/6oz jig heads with jig spins attached.

Within minutes, Pete had his first bass and it was a cracker measuring 40cm.

After half an hour we had landed five bass, all between 30cm and 40cm.

Pete was hit once again and this time the hooked fish came flying out of the water.

Pete was ecstatic after reeling it in and holding his first saratoga.

It wasn’t huge but a 50cm saratoga is a cracking fish nonetheless.

The fight is like no other as they jump out of the air and try to shake the hook.

Their hard mouths make it all the more difficult to set a hook and land them, so it was a great effort for Pete to get his first so early in the session.

The morning continued along at a reasonably steady pace, with plenty of smaller bass landed.

We headed up the back of an arm, only to find a number of boats drifting through the middle throwing wet flies.

I had never seen so many fly fishers and after chatting to them we found out they were getting good saratoga feeding in the deeper water.

We tried throwing our jig spinners in a similar area without luck, so we motored to the adjacent

Fresh Water

by MITCHELL TOWNSEND

bank and caught five bass in as many minutes.

We had now landed 15 bass and one saratoga and decided to head back in because it was beginning to get extremely warm on the water.

After a refuel and rest, we headed back out to see what the afternoon had in store.

We again fished the jig spins, throwing them at weed and lily edges with the wind blowing onto them, which pushes the bait in.

We struggled, with only a couple of small bass landed in two hours but as the sun began to drop, the fish came on the bite once again.

Fishing up the back of the Yabba Creek arm, we hooked a number of decent-sized bass.

It was almost dark when we began motoring back towards the boat ramp but I saw a good-looking bay as we neared the ramp and decided to pull in.

Pete was very keen on catching a saratoga on surface, so he rigged a Berkley walk the dog style lure and on the second cast he had a big hit but unfortunately the hooks didn’t stick.

He was disheartened that he lost the fish but within minutes he had another hit and made sure he hooked the fish well.

After a tense fight in

Pete with a lovely bass caught while fishing tight structure.

shallow water, Pete had his prized saratoga on a surface lure.

We were filled with hope and anticipation for the next day.

We trolled the same weed bed as the previous morning and landed two saratoga, one yellowbelly and six bass within an hour.

For some reason we could not get a fish to bite when casting to the edge of the weed bed, however we extracted plenty of fish by trolling along it.

We then headed across the basin to another of the creeks and found a few small bass holding on the weed beds there.

At one stage, Pete landed three in three casts!

Though they weren’t huge fish, it was great fun on light gear and shows Borumba is a very

healthy impoundment.

The wind began to pick up, so we raced up one of the arms and found a big weed bank that looked very promising.

Within 30 minutes we had boated upwards of 20 fish.

I had never experienced impoundment fishing like that.

Almost every cast at the same spot was a hit and I was up to eight fish in eight casts at one point.

We found plenty of fish over the two days but unfortunately we couldn’t entice any really big bass.

Thankfully, we captured beautiful saratoga and a lovely yellowbelly too, which was another species ticked off the list for Pete.

I hope you found some hot fishing action and enjoyed your time on the water over the break.

Pete’s first surface-caught saratoga.

Seqwater warns fishing off-limits in restricted areas

A

NGLERS are putting their safety on the line by fishing in restricted areas within Seqwater’s dam catchments.

Seqwater senior field ranger Craig Hine, who works at Somerset Dam, said fishers were regularly ignoring restricted access signs and fences in pursuit of a good catch.

Mr Hine said there were good reasons why some areas were restricted to public access and that those trespassing could find themselves in danger as well as facing fines.

As an example, Mr Hine said he’d seen people carelessly kayaking next to dam walls and fishing underneath cone valves, where water from the dam may be released.

“Fishing in an area like that is not only unsafe but illegal,” he said.

“Under fisheries legislation, people are not allowed to fish that close to the wall.

“In heavy rainfall events, large amounts of water can be suddenly released via the cone valves – all the more reason to stay clear of them.”

Mr Hine said Seqwater rangers conducted regular patrols and were catching more and more people fishing in restricted areas, especially during the summer holidays.

“At Seqwater, we take safety at our dams and weirs seriously and are urging people to play it safe and not enter these closed-off areas for their own good,” he said.

We’ve also seen instances where people have jumped fences to fish while balancing atop water pipes suspended above the Brisbane River.

Seqwater spokesman Mike Foster said fish-

ing was popular across southeast Queensland’s lakes and dams and there were plenty of spots that provided safe fishing opportunities.

“We provide a range of great outdoor recreation facilities for the community to enjoy, drawing more than 2.6 million visitors to our lakes and recreation sites each year,” Mr Foster said.

“However, we strongly urge people not to enter any restricted sites to make sure they have a safe and enjoyable visit, on and off the water.”

Mr Foster said 18 of Seqwater’s lakes permit-

ted fishing, 13 of which required a Stocked Impoundment Permit that could easily be bought from qld.gov.au/recrea tion/activities/boating f i s h i n g / r e c -f i s h i n g / dams Mr Foster said Seqwater was one of the few bulk water providers in Australia that managed open catchments, allowing the community to enjoy recreational activities on the dams and lakes that supply our drinking water.

For information about which Seqwater lakes permit shoreline and boat fishing, visit seq water.com.au/recreation

Pete hooked up to a saratoga in the early morning mist.

Page 64 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Some lures are worth retrieving.

Jaime Lea Price with a yellowbelly coaxed from its narrow snag-infested domain on a Stingerbait lure.

Come in spinner W ITH summer beating down upon us, the hot and humid days have been more abundant than any previous year I can remember on the Darling Downs.

The increase in humidity has been marked and is something I normally associate with coastal plains.

The upside is the humidity seems to positively stir the native fish, so when sweat beads down the body without physical exertion, I know it is a good time to grab a rod.

Spinnerbaits have been around for over a century and the revolving blades have basically retained the same mechanics of use, however the countless features on the wire arms have altered over time.

In smaller waterways, lighter weights may be used, though I tend to stick to the heavier models because they keep the entire unit below the surface for most of the retrieve.

Snaggy areas require caution, though when winding through a mash of sticks, snagging is

Fresh Water

by NOAL KUHL

actually relatively rare.

Local spinnerbait maker Rod Schull from Chinchilla designs his own ‘Stingerbaits’, and being a local he knows what features are required to improve catches in our local waters.

I have no shortage of mates delving their hands into my Stingerbait bag when the fish are calling.

The sometimes daily fishing ritual of fishing mate Scotty Vlietstra using my Stingerbaits after work hours has only seen him land Murray cod in one and a half years of fishing the local Downs waters.

He is still waiting for his first yellowbelly to latch on.

On one recent outing I landed three cod in a matter of minutes.

The last fish proved patience pays off.

After several unsuccessful hook-ups, I noticed the stinger hook was missing thanks

Local cod master Scott Vlietstra with a cod taken on a Stingerbait.

to one of the previous lunges made by an aggressive little blighter.

An entire Stingerbait swap yielded no response.

Cod don’t always bite out of hunger, as territorial aggression plays a key role in their day-to-day existence.

I cast a surface lure to where the fish had taken the swipe and stayed shy thereafter.

I believe I stirred up the cod enough that it wanted no more intrusions into its domain, so I guessed it would have shifted a short distance away.

After throwing several Stingerbait casts downstream, I still returned no response.

I then cast upstream from the original hit and the cod slammed the Stingerbait hard, this time locking on.

I threw a good two-dozen casts between the initial hit and landing the fish.

When choosing Stingerbaits for most of the tannin-stained waterways on the Downs, I use Colorado blades in gold.

Hook-ups seem more frequent with these blades and I can more easily see the blades flashing.

I also believe oval-shaped blades give off a more rhythmic pulse that is clearly felt through the fishing line.

I’ve swapped from mono to Dyneema braid because it’s lighter, UV resistant and effortless to cast.

Longer rods over 6’6” give a higher degree of accuracy in lure placement and are great for lifting the lures over thick bankside vegetation without getting snagged.

Green skirts are my favourite, followed closely by purple with a dash of white or yellow.

When chasing big Murray

Sarah Wolski advanced her angling credentials by casting into the deeper, snaggy ghettos of smaller pools that should not be overlooked.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

cod in the snags, always remember to use a heavy leader of at least 60lb.

I’m sure if the fish are really on the bite it won’t matter what lands near their noses.

Shallow pools cluttered with structure should never be overlooked, even if only half a metre deep.

Scotty and I are often surprised by the quality of native fish residing in these backwater ghettos.

Now that Jaime Lea is frequently joining us and we are making the occasional sortie from work in our kayaks, the native fish have nowhere to hide.

A Murray cod the author patiently extracted from its territory.

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DAM LEVELS CURRENT AS OF 16/01/2017

DAMS

PERCENTAGE

AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN Atkinson 5 5 5 5 5 5 Awoonga 90 88 87 87 85 84 Bjelke-Petersen * 41 40 39 36 32 28 Boondooma * 49 47 45 43 41 38 90 Borumba * 90 88 82 77 72 Burdekin Falls * 101 98 93 88 83 95 Callide * 85 84 82 80 72 69 Cania * 87 86 84 82 79 77 Coolmunda * 30 53 100 97 92 81 Dyer/Bill Gunn * 8 7 9 7 7 7 Eungella * 99 100 100 98 97 100 51 Fairbairn * 49 50 47 43 46 Glenlyon * 26 42 70 70 70 70 Hinze * 99 99 98 97 96 95 89 Julius 88 87 85 100 104 Kinchant * 99 98 93 87 77 93 Leslie * 14 20 32 31 29 18 Macdonald * 92 87 82 77 71 62 Maroon * 98 100 100 99 99 99 Monduran/Fred Haigh * 95 94 93 92 90 89 Moogerah * 90 93 95 93 91 90 66 North Pine/Samsonvale * 65 63 60 58 56 Peter Faust/Proserpine * 63 62 62 60 57 60 Somerset * 80 80 79 78 77 76 96 Teemburra * 97 93 91 92 99 Tinaroo * 52 48 44 39 34 39 Toonumbar 99 100 98 93 93 88 Wivenhoe * 81 80 78 76 74 72 Wuruma * 92 91 91 87 85 81 Wyaralong * 100 101 100 99 99 99 For updates on dams, visit sunwater.com.au or seqwater.com.au *This symbol indicates that a Stocked Impoundment Permit is required to fish these dams.

www.livelyluresonline.com.au Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 65

The author and Ken Mills with a mixed bag from Boondooma.

The author, Dave and Kiel scored a mixed bag during a recent session on Lake Barambah.

Fun festive season fishing in fresh water T

HE silly season has been and gone and the crowds converged on our two great South Burnett dams.

Corey Goldie with a 50cm-plus bass hooked on the troll.

A decent bass captured by slow rolling a green 1/2oz Bassman Spinnerbait.

Page 66 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Summer is the best time of year to be on the water because the temperatures are hot, beers are cold and the fishing accessible to every angler of any ability.

If you haven’t been out yet, make sure you start planning your trip because this time of year presents the best chance to get onto trophy-sized native fish from Lake Barambah and Boondooma Dam. Boondooma Over the past couple of months, the fish have moved into the thermocline and are the perfect target for avid trollers.

The 5.5-7m zone is where you will find them when you’re out in search of fish.

The most productive areas are the deeper sections around the dam wall and the buoy line.

I’ve found the most productive bite time is from lunch through to dark.

The key to finding a good school is using your electronics to slowly sound over likely areas.

If you don’t have a sounder, tie on a couple of deep divers or a 5/8oz spinnerbait and start trolling.

If you get a bite or fish, continue to troll around the area where you had the action.

Remember to be patient when looking for fish because it may take a while to locate them if you’re not familiar with the dam.

Lately I’ve been catching the better-quality fish suspended in deep water.

They have been sitting in the thermocline at 6m.

I target these fish using a variety of baits, initially starting with a soft bait such as a 1/2oz-rigged soft plastic.

I cast this out and count to seven to let the lure sink into the strike zone.

Once the plastic reaches the desired depth, I start a slow roll and add a few twitches every now and then to change the swimming pattern as the plastic glides through the water.

Continue this until you get bites and then keep rolling the plastic until you achieve a solid hook-up.

If this method doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to change your lure until you are happy with the results.

Bass can be fussy when it comes to feeding while suspended in the water column.

I like to try plastics first and then move to a reaction bait.

Freshwater Impoundments

by MATTHEW LANGFORD

My preferred reaction baits for summer suspended fish are 5/8oz Bassman Spinnerbaits and 3/8oz Bassman Mumblers/ Chatterbaits.

With these lures, make a long cast and let the lure sink for five to 10 seconds.

Once the lure is in the zone, start a fairly rapid retrieve with a few twitches thrown in every now and then.

Chatterbaits and spinnerbaits are great for getting a reaction bite, which occurs when the fish are forced to either ignore the lure or react out of instinct and bite as the bait zooms past.

It’s a very effective method, with bass well over 50cm regularly hitting the deck.

Trollers are catching really nice fish by using deepdiving hard-bodies and 5/8oz Bassman Spinnerbaits around the same areas mentioned earlier.

The key is to be patient.

Bait fishers are picking up good numbers of bass and yellowbelly with live shrimp caught from the dam.

Try to anchor over prominent points in 4.5-6m of water and also try the timbered sections.

Red claw have picked up in numbers.

Drop your pots around the rocky banks and just wide of the weed beds.

Lake Barambah Lake Barambah (BjelkePetersen Dam) has been very consistent over the past two months, producing good numbers of fish of varying species.

The fish are in great quantity and it just takes a bit of moving around to put yourself onto some quality.

Areas to target are the deeper

water out the front of the dam wall, wide of Bass Point and off any main dam points that hold deeper water of about 6m.

The fish have been sitting in the 4.5-6m range and I’ve been catching plenty using a 1/2oz-rigged plastic and the same method as explained for Boondooma.

Heavier spinnerbaits and chatterbaits have worked well on the bigger fish when focusing on the reaction bite.

Big yellowbelly are occasionally being caught but for the most part they have been a bit quiet.

The key to catching a few goldens when it’s quiet is to focus on fishing the bottom of the many weed banks that encompass the dam.

In this case, tie on a blade and hop it gently off the bottom or out of the weed.

Yellowbelly are real suckers for a hopped blade and it won’t take long to catch a few fish using this technique.

The smaller bass also don’t mind this technique but it won’t be long before you come in contact with a fat golden perch.

Trollers are getting good bags of fish with 5/8oz Bassman Spinnerbaits and deep-diving hard-bodies.

Areas to target include the deep water in front of the dam wall, Bass Point, Lightning Ridge and any prominent points.

Bait fishers are catching plenty of fish by tying off to the trees in the back of the dam and using live shrimp.

Red claw are about and coming from the steeper banks with scattered timber. ☛ continued P67

Solid red claw have been coming from Boondooma of late.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Seqwater promotes safe behaviour through popular #safey competition

S

EQWATER is giving southeast Queenslanders the chance of snapping up great prizes in an exciting contest that combines selfies and safety.

Selfie enthusiasts and smartphone photographers can once again showcase their talents with the return of the bulk water authority’s popular #safey competition.

For the uninitiated, a safey – a word now defined by Urban Dictionary – involves taking a photo of yourself ‘playing it safe’ while enjoying an outdoor activity.

Past entries have included photos of people demonstrating safe behaviour while jet skiing, horse riding, boating and fishing.

The contest will culminate with one lucky entrant crowned ‘the ultimate safey star’, winning a $5000 BCF gift card and becoming the face of Seqwater’s Easter safety campaign.

Over the eight weeks of the competition, entrants who upload their photos to the safey. com.au website will have the chance to win weekly prizes.

Seqwater spokesman Mike Foster said during the summer holidays, southeast Queensland’s lakes and parks became a hive of activity among visitors and locals.

“Summer provides a great opportunity for people to take advantage of recreational opportunities and show us how they stay safe

while having a great time,” Mr Foster said.

“Seqwater rangers regularly patrol our recreation sites but they can’t be everywhere, so we rely on visitors to play it safe by being prepared and being mindful of others enjoying the great outdoors.

“We hope that by having people share their safe behaviours when taking part in outdoor activities, it will encourage others to do the same.”

The #safey photo can be of yourself, family, friends, a sporting team or community group.

The most important criteria is that you are demonstrating safe behaviour while enjoying an outdoor recreation activity.

Mr Foster said the safey website contained more information about the competition, as well as examples of last year’s winning entries.

For a bit of #safey inspiration, here are some tips for playing it safe: • Always wear a lifejacket when on the water.

• Watch children near the water – remember there are no lifeguards on duty.

• Plan ahead and ensure you have sunscreen and plenty of water.

• Carry a first-aid kit and be aware of local fauna such as snakes.

• Find out what you can do where via the interactive map at seq water.com.au/recrea tion

Georgia and Christina Harman landed a Somerset bass while out with the family.

Consistent catches coming from Somerset

T

HE holidays have passed and we’re into the swing of

2017.

I hope you had an enjoyable break.

Somerset Dam saw a lot of visitors over the holidays and we received plenty of reports from happy fishos.

Anglers weren’t catching large numbers but almost everyone who tried caught a fish.

‘Consistent’ is the best

Somerset Dam

by ANDREW MITCHELL

way to describe how Somerset fished over the holidays.

Bass were the most common catch, with yellowbelly staying a little quiet.

The size of bass being caught was impressive, with loads of fish over 50cm landed.

The most productive

technique was throwing metal lures such as the Halco Twisty and Smak Knife and slow rolling them along the bottom, however on some days a variation was required.

Trolling hard-body lures was also productive.

Deep-diving lures able to touch the bottom pro-

Fun festive season fishing in fresh water ☛ from P66

Other news Make sure you book your campsite for the 2017 Boondooma Dam Yellowbelly Fishing Competition being held on February 11 and 12.

Entry is $20 for adults and $5 for juniors (16 years and under).

Live and dead weight divisions will include prizes for bass, yellowbelly and silver and spangled perch.

Thousands of dollars’ worth of prizes are up for grabs, and food and drinks will be available. www.bnbfishing.com. au

It’s one competition you don’t want to miss.

Call the Lake Boondooma kiosk to make a campsite booking on 07 4168 9694 and visit lakeboondooma.com. au/fishing-tournament for more information on the event.

If you’d like to keep in regular contact with what’s happening on the dams, don’t forget to like the Yallakool Caravan Park and Lake Boondooma Caravan and Recreation Park Facebook pages.

Until next month, tight lines and bent rods.

Max McDonald scored a couple of red claw on his recent Somerset camping trip.

vided the best results.

Most colours continue to work well, with no real favourites chosen by the fish.

Bait fishers had a tougher time over the holiday period.

We heard a few reports of decent numbers of small fish from 30-40cm coming from the timber, however they were a bit hit-and-miss depending on the day.

Often they would bite for a couple of hours and then disappear.

Most of the yellowbelly came from around the start of the timber at the beginning of the six-knot zone.

Live shrimp proved the most reliable bait for the yellowbelly but trolling hard-body lures worked as well.

For those chasing a feed, tilapia have been thick.

We had one customer catch over 300 during the few days he camped at the park.

Fishing the shallow water in the timber with worms and saltwater yabbies has worked really well.

Remember not to return tilapia to the water as they are noxious fish.

They are biting most days and it is possible to catch very large numbers once they start to chew.

If landed, they need to be disposed of responsibly away from the dam.

Red claw numbers improved just in time for the holidays as well.

They continue to be caught in good numbers and should only improve all the way up to Easter.

Checking your pots early is crucial because share farmers are around.

The average numbers coming in are about half a dozen per pot, per night, however one of my pots was so full I don’t think even one more red claw would have squeezed in.

These larger numbers are definitely possible if you get onto a good patch.

Rockmelon outperformed all other baits for us and many other anglers had similar results.

Don’t forget to stop in and see us at the day use boat ramp if you’re hitting the water at Somerset.

We can give you upto-date information on what’s working and where and you can also stock up on the lures and tackle needed to get the job done.

See you there.

Kathy with a 54cm Somerset beast.

Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 67

Mick laid into a decent bass.

A great bass hooked on an Asakura lure.

Wild bass fishing with lures

W

ELCOME, I hope you had a safe holiday

season.

The author fought a hard-pulling bass on an Asakura Bulldog.

Deano landed a bass on an S-Hornet.

OVER 30 STYLES AVAILABLE INCLUDING BI-FOCALS FOR $49.95

Page 68 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

For this year of BNB Fishing magazine we have many exciting things planned but now it’s time to get into chasing wild bass in skinny creeks and remote areas using Asakura Lures.

These Japanese lures are imported by Mick Roberts of The Lure Men in Penrith NSW and have been getting rave reviews by those who have used them to target bass and bream.

I have been throwing Asakura Lures for a bit over four years, with many PB fish caught.

And now it’s time to share the secret with you.

These lures are more affordable than many others but without a compromise in quality or performance, fitted with excellent Owner hooks.

These lures lack nothing when compared to their more expensive counterparts.

Asakura’s S-Hornet is renowned as an exceptional lure but a favourite of mine is the Asakura Bullhead.

Both lures have a really wide kick that makes the retrieve a lot slower, giving you more time in the strike zone.

All have great detailing and are almost works of art.

So there you have my secret weapons.

Now let’s talk fishing and one of my favourite styles: walking remote creeks for wild Australian bass.

When it comes to walking creeks in the hunt for big wild bass, I like to use a shorter rod, mainly because of the terrain and obstructions while casting.

You’re not casting a million miles, in fact most casts are just 5-10m, so accuracy is the key.

That’s why I’m using the Lox Ambassador Hybrid 6’3” rod in 1-3kg with a 1500 Quantum Smoke reel spooled with 4lb Timber Wolf PE braid and 6-8lb fluorocarbon leader.

We started our journey in small, barely accessible

2 Mates Fishin – Fresh Water

by CAINE ‘CAINO’ GOWARD

creeks in Paterson, NSW. This place is great for searching for big wild bass because you can’t access the creeks unless you’re willing to walk in the water to find them.

It’s too shallow in places for boats and kayaks but the shallow stretches can be followed by deeper pools of chest-deep water.

In these pools it’s not uncommon to land 20 bass in quick succession, which can make things extremely fun, especially with surface lures.

The usual game plan for hitting these areas is to pack light, be prepared to get wet and wear good footwear for walking long distances in the water.

We usually only take one tackle tray full of Asakura Lures ranging from shallow to deep divers and assorted surface lures.

We see no real need for plastics.

I prefer to fish the afternoon for bass in these creeks, mainly because you have a larger fishing window.

In the mornings, as soon as the sun gets high in the sky it’s game over.

When fishing the afternoons, as long as you have a head torch you can fish right into the night, which

is a prime time for surface lures, especially because cicadas are currently out in full force and firing up the bass to eat off the surface.

The key point when chasing bass in these creeks is to cast right into structure.

Often a well-placed cast right into the shaded snags will produce the goods.

Having a quality lure and a sensitive-tipped rod helps a great deal.

Mostly I only employ a slow roll technique, using my rod tip as a guide and keeping it low while I slowly wind the reel.

If I’m hitting structure such as branches, I pause, let the lure float back up and then keep retrieving.

You don’t have to do anything fancy when using Asakuras, just let the lure work its magic and make sure you keep a reasonably tight drag because when the wild bass hit, they fight hard to snap you off in the snags.

In my opinion, wild bass fight a hell of a lot harder than impoundment bass ☛ continued P69

Jozef showed off his three-year-old damaged Asakura that still pulls fish.

Jozef took a spill into the water off a steep bank.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

Fingerlings released into Glenlyon Dam T

HE first cab off the rank for the new year was the release of 65,000 golden perch into Glenlyon Dam by anglers and the general public.

With the storage sitting at about 70 percent capacity, the fish have a strong chance of making it to legal size by March 2018.

Max Chuff arrived at Glenlyon at 10am on New Year’s Eve to find children standing by with buckets, waiting to release the fish he’d brought with him from Murgon.

With boats and buckets on board, it would have been a nightmare for fisheries officers because undersize fish by the thousands were on board and the drivers were not stopping for anyone on the way to their release areas.

We had to fill the buckets with water from the tank the fish were transported in on Max’s ute because the water on the surface of Glenlyon was too warm for fish releasing and would have caused major concerns for the fingerlings.

More fish will be released into the dam over the next four months.

If you are out this way, you might be asked to help release more fish into Glenlyon, with 95,000 more yellowbelly, some silver perch and of course Murray cod lined up.

We didn’t receive as much funding as we nor-

Glenlyon Dam

by BRIAN DARE

mally would from the Stocked Impoundment Permit funds in the past 12 months and we’ll get even less next season because weirs are now included in the end funding results, meaning the pie has to be cut into smaller pieces.

A weekly permit for an individual to fish Queensland fresh waters costs $10, while an annual permit will set the individual back $50.

We had major problems with the iPads supplied for permit sales during the Christmas period.

A few phone calls were made and the answer from the big house on the hill was “if you’re not happy, send them back and let everyone purchase the permits online.”

Some people don’t have mobile phones or credit cards, so they can’t buy the permit for the week.

I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that 75 percent of permit sales during the past two months were only weekly.

Why? Because $50 is a lot of money for one angler, let alone $100 for a couple to go fishing, and what do they get in return?

Not one sign at the weirs throughout the state let-

ting anglers know they need a permit to fish a section of the river.

Local fish stocking groups have been shut down due to the inability of Fisheries Queensland to hold workshops, who then turn around and say it is the fault of our peak representative body the Freshwater Fishing and Stocking Association of Queensland.

This is simply not true.

Because we don’t have a commercial fishery within fresh water, the excuse is that no method can be used to value fresh water as a revenue source that adds income to the state.

Wrong.

A study was done by James Cook University and guess what?

Freshwater fishing generates genuine dollar value returns for local townships within the state.

Overall, recreational fishing as a whole generates over $2.4 billion to Queensland’s economy.

With an all-waters licence trust fund, both salt and fresh water could well fund major projects for both fishing sectors.

This of course has to involve recreational and commercial anglers working together for positive end results.

Wild bass fishing with lures ☛ from P68

and I find it more fun chasing the wild fish because it’s almost like hunting as you sneak up to the pools, making sure not to spook them.

When you make that awesome cast, the lure disappears and your reel starts screaming, your heart will be racing.

Don’t be scared to cast more than once in the pools because often the more you annoy the fish, the more likely they are to hit your lure.

If the bass are tail whacking the lure or hitting it to say “get

out of my area”, keep putting the lure in their faces and eventually they will get sick of it and eat the lure.

You also have the potential to land plenty more bass from a small pool after releasing the first fish.

My record so far is 32 bass ranging from 15cm to 37cm in just one pool.

The best way to find creeks like this is to jump onto Google Maps, see what’s around and then go and explore.

It can take a lot of trial and error and it might be a while before

Bass love the Asakura S-Hornet.

www.bnbfishing.com. au

you find good areas.

Most people won’t just hand you honey holes either.

If you want to find productive areas, you’ve got to put in the painstaking hours.

But let me tell you, it can be well worth it.

My PB bass from these small creeks measured 49cm to the fork.

I hope this gets you excited to go exploring the creeks.

If you are after great rods like the ones we use, jump onto loxfish ing.com or find Lox Fishing Rods on Facebook.

To try Asakura Lures and see the full range, search for The Lure Men on Facebook or call 0401 432 466.

And don’t forget to like 2 Mates Fishin on Facebook to see all our videos, tips and tricks or have a chat.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time, happy and safe fishing.

This won’t happen until the government stops playing one section against the other.

Get the all-waters licence up and running and let’s see the report from the Queensland Government’s Green Paper!

On a sadder note, one of our regular visitors to Glenlyon John Pratt passed away early in January.

Many years ago when good friend Tony Gregg and I were putting up the kids’ playground area at the dam, both he and I thought we did a good job.

John arrived with his coach and boat in tow, pulled up, walked over and said: “Is it on the level?”

He wasn’t even set up and his wife was tapping her foot and giving him a look that would melt butter saying: “Come on, let’s check in.”

The next morning, he was sitting at the kiosk at 7.35am looking at our posts all set up and cemented in place.

“Did you use a level?” he asked.

Tony gave me a look as if to say ‘here we go’.

So we sat down with a cup of coffee and John talked about fencing.

Forty minutes later he said one pole was out by 2.5mm and walked off saying you have to put the level dead straight up and down the pole.

You can still see the 2.5mm mistake, I’ll show you the next time you’re out this way.

If by chance you felt a slight movement in the earth’s axis during the past month it’s because John is up there, has walked around and told the boss it’s all out by 2.5mm.

We will miss him.

Karen Monk caught and released a healthy little river Murray cod.

The Andrews girls with a yellowbelly.

Shane Pillar of Stanthorpe enjoyed cod fishing over the holidays.

GLENLYON DAM TOURIST PARK A great place to fish! s 0OWERED AND 5NPOWERED 3ITES s .O $OMESTIC 0ETS OR 'ENERATORS s +IOSK s )CE s 'AS s 0ETROL s !MENITIES "LOCKS AND ,AUNDRY s ""1S s (IRE "OATS s %&40/3 s &ISHING 0ERMITS

14 CABINS bookings necessary

GLENLYON DAM TOURIST PARK via STANTHORPE 4380 Contact Debbie or Brian Dare for more information or for bookings

Ph: 02 6737 5266 E: glenlyondamtouristp@bigpond.com Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017 – Page 69

Gearing up for a new year on the B.A.S.S. Australia Nation circuit F EBRUARY is an exciting month for Australia’s bass tournament anglers.

Dean Silvester with the winning bag to start season four.

Dylan Fryer started last season with a win at Lake Somerset.

Garry Harmen with a Lake Conroe largemouth.

Dean Silvester reigns supreme.

They have had since November to prepare for the coming season of tournaments, with calendars filled, practice days planned and trips scheduled.

The competitors are ready to take on the new series and start afresh in the Angler of the Year race.

The majority have a real understanding of what it takes to be the best in the sport.

Long hours pre-fishing and working on tackle is just the beginning.

You need to make sure all the elements of your boat are 100 percent up to scratch.

Any small detail, breakdown, electrical issue or low battery voltage can not only lose you a tournament, it can also devastate your entire season.

Every point is critical to being successful in the AOY titles and also making the Championship.

Last year we had nearly 200 anglers compete in the Atomic Series and only 32 pros and 32 coanglers made the cut to fish the Championship.

That’s about 140 anglers who missed out on a shot at glory, the chance to represent Australia or to take out an elusive Australian title.

Out of the 64 anglers officially invited, only a very small number declined to compete.

Throughout the season, every fish caught, every cast made and every turn of the handle is critical to securing valuable points and maximising opportunities.

Four anglers did it better than everyone else last year.

Dean Silvester is un-

B.A.S.S. Australia Nation

by DREW McGRATH

doubtedly the number-one angler in the country.

His dedication and work ethic saw him outperform everyone else competing in the Australian tournament fishing scene.

He now has the runs on the board to feel confident in going back to back in the Samurai Angler of the Year race.

Winning the first round of the season on Lake Glenbawn in late November, and with a lot of friendly water in front of him for the rest of the season, it is going to take an incredible effort for anyone to catch him.

Mitchell Cone is another angler who definitely did it right in 2016, enjoying a stellar season by winning the TT Wilsons River Rumble and then taking out the Atomic B.A.S.S. Australia Nation Championship.

His subsequent trip to compete in the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship at Lake Conroe, Texas, US didn’t quite go to plan but I can tell you what I witnessed opened my eyes to how special an angler Mitchell is.

Fishing on the other side of the planet for an entirely different species, Mitchell had managed to plan out a couple of techniques before we even arrived.

After fishing his heart out over a couple of days leading into the tournament, he found a comfortable pattern.

Unfortunately, during the tournament the fishing gods didn’t shine on too many anglers and Mitchell was one of them.

The fishing was so tough that even the local odds-on favourites didn’t

manage to catch fish in the first session and effort was not rewarded with results on the board.

Mitchell was doing the same thing as the majority of the field including the winner, so he was certainly on the right track.

He had travelled over 14,000km to a foreign country and worked out the winning pattern in a matter of days.

I think that was one of the most incredible efforts of 2016.

Another angler who travelled and competed on Lake Conroe was Garry Harmen, who took out the 2015 Co-Angler Championship.

Garry was quite new to tournament fishing but he has a unique knack of sitting on the back of the boat and learning at an accelerated rate.

Working hard with Mitchell through the week, Garry had really built up the tournament beforehand and said he felt quite a lot of pressure leading into the tournament.

Like Mitchell and the entire field fishing the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, Garry struggled to put keepers in the boat during tournament hours but he walked away from an experience that only three other Australian anglers have enjoyed.

This experience will

definitely help Garry’s performance in his first season as a pro.

Fishing as a rookie with two Australian Co-Angler Championship titles under his belt, Garry’s transition to Pro status in season four may be one of the stories of the year.

Dylan Fryer is another angler who will have the wind at his back for his second season as a coangler.

Last year he came out and basically dominated from the first event, with top finishes up and down the east coast of Australia.

He will be the benchmark for co-anglers in 2017.

Dylan comes across as a quiet angler who just enjoys fishing and loves

travelling with good friends and family to the tournaments locally and interstate.

After the first round, Dylan is sitting in fourth and only a few points behind Patrick Bailey, James Buchner and Craig Schneider.

No doubt he would love to go back to back this year with another Co-Angler of the Year title.

Keep an eye on his progress through the year and watch out for him as he travels with the Australian team later in the year to compete on the global stage in the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship.

For more information on the tournaments or to register for an event, head to bassaustralia.com.au

Patrick Bailey and his winning co-angler bag in the first round of season four.

B.A.S.S. AUSTRALIA NATION The Ultimate Fishing Tournaments In Australia Garry Harman showed a solid largemouth bass from his US trip.

B.A.S.S. AUSTRALIA NATION SERIES B.A.S.S. AUSTRALIA NATION TEAM SERIES B.A.S.S. ASS A AUSTRALIA USTR NATION BARRA SERIES

w w w. b a s s a u s t r a l i a . c o m . a u Page 70 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

Mitchell Cone had a pattern worked out within days of being on the water in the US.

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QUALITY FIBERGLASS, AUSTRALIAN MADE HALF CABINS - CASH OR CONSIGN at John Crawford Marine - Queensland’s Used Boat Specialists and trusted for over 50 years – make selling your boat simple and hassle free. Have your boat put in front of buyers’ eyes via our industry leading reputation and online marketing along with our strategic and easy to “pull into” location. - call today (07) 3890 2322. www.johncrawfordmarine.com.au QUINTREX 430 FISHABOUT (2014). Powered by Yamaha 40hp oil-injected two-stroke with 38 hours on the clock. Transported on a Telwater galvanised trailer with 13” wheels, bimini, nav lights, anchor light, battery and box with isolation switch and

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STACER 539 BAYMASTER RUNABOUT, Mercury Optimax 90Hp DFI low 158 hours, Stacer alloy trailer, Lowrance Elite colour combo GPS/Sounder, Lowrance VHF radio, Fusion AM/FM stereo, Storm cover, 2 deluxe pedestal seats, Rear lounge, Custom boat wrap and heaps more. Amazing buying @ $34,995 - call today (07) 3890 2322. www. johncrawfordmarine.com.au

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WANTED – QUALITY USED BOATS. Cash paid or consign. We have been in business 50 years and have clients chasing boats now. So call us today to see how we can assist you. Northside Marine – Ph 07 3265 8044.

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Page 72 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2017

New Yamaha model announced – lightweight F90 Y AMAHA Motor Australia is excited to announce the release of the all-new four-stroke 90hp outboard engine, the new lightweight F90.

This remarkable new engine bolsters Yamaha’s line-up of class-leading midrange outboards from the award-winning F70 through to the top-selling F130.

The new F90 fills an important place within the Australian line-up, delivering the perfect power option for the huge number of Aussie-built boats rated to a maximum of 90hp.

Not only does this engine sit in a popular part of the market, it also delivers many new advantages that make it quite exceptional.

The F90 is equipped with a four-cylinder, 16-valve in-line single overhead camshaft 1.8-litre engine, with a bigger displacement than the previous-generation 1.5-litre engine it replaces.

Most impressively, the bigger F90 weighs in close to 10kg lighter than the old engine.

This remarkable achievement means improved performance and better balance when fitted on hulls in this category.

The F90 is based on the F115B’s four-cylinder power unit.

The F90’s reduction in weight and improved compactness is achieved by adopting a SOHC design actuating four valves per cylinder.

This unique valvetrain design was first seen in Yamaha’s award-winning F70A, one of the most popular engines in Australia.

This design allows the F90 to achieve the weight savings of a single camshaft while still achieving the smooth and efficient performance only seen in 16 valve, four-cylinder engines of this size.

With a lightweight powerhead configuration, refined shaping of the combustion chamber and lean fuel burn technology utilised at midrange speeds, the F90 delivers exceptional fuel efficiency.

The new F90 brings a 10 percent improvement in fuel economy compared with the previous-generation engine.

The F90 is not only extremely fuel efficient, it’s also exceptionally smooth and quiet.

Noise has been reduced through improved engine unit rigidity, a muffler redesign as well as the addition of an intake silencer.

The F90 is compatible with Yamaha’s comprehensive range of Command Link digital gauges, with options of both basic back-lit LCD and premium full-colour displays.

This new engine is also NMEA2000 compatible, allowing it to share information with thirdparty multi-function displays, GPS units and fishfinders.

The amount of engine development and innovation that can be found in Yamaha’s midrange outboards is truly unique, and the new F90 strengthens Yamaha’s product offering across this range.

Yamaha has not resorted to a ‘one size fits all’ engine platform to minimise production costs.

Not only does Yamaha have a class-leading outboard motor in each horsepower category, Yamaha also produces the most diverse range of engine platforms within these horsepower categories.

This reflects Yamaha’s focus on delivering customer-driven innovation to the marine marketplace.

Each engine platform has been tailor-made to satisfy the individual requirements of customers and their boats.

Within Yamaha’s range, there is no need for Australian skippers to compromise when it comes to selecting a power option.

The all-new F90 neatly shares the same installation mounting holes as other outboards of similar sizes, making for an easy switch from a two-stroke or other brands to the latest-generation Yamaha four-stroke engine.

Visit yamaha-motor. com.au for more information.

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