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Level up using live bait • Flyfishing for flathead • Kayaking Baffle Creek • Boat test: Remora Boats 490 • Local area reports

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Luke Truant shows us how to level up with livies

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Fishing Monthly Magazines

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CONTENTS

OUR COVER July 2022, Vol. 3 No.3 QLD NSW

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QUEENSLAND The Tweed Gold Coast Jumpinpin Southern Bay Brisbane Northern Bay Noosa Bundaberg Mackay Townsville Hinchinbrook Cairns Port Douglas Cooktown Cape York Freshwater

16 18 20 24 26 28 30 34 36 37 38 42 42 43 44 46

NEW SOUTH WALES Pittwater Sydney North Sydney Rock Sydney South Coffs Coast Hastings Forster Port Stephens Swansea Central Coast Illawarra Batemans Bay Bermagui Tathra Albany/Wodonga Hunter Valley Batlow New England Rivers Canberra

50 53 52 54 56 58 59 60 63 62 64 65 66 66 68 68 69 70 71

VICTORIA Warrnambool Portland Cobden Apollo Bay Geelong Port Phillip West Port Phillip East Port Phillip Bay Phillip Island Marlo Gippsland Lakes Lakes Entrance Mallacoota Robinvale Bendigo Ballarat Wangaratta Shepparton Gippsland Freshwater Crater Lakes Eildon Yarrawonga 6

JULY 2022

From the Editor’s Desk...

76 76 77 77 78 80 82 84 85 86 86 87 87 88 88 89 90 91 91 94 92 94

Luke Gercovich with a 95kg southern bluefin tuna taken on spin gear. A Mark Gercovich image. Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.

TASMANIA Hobart Offshore

75 74

It’s great to be boat testing again. For a while it was COVID … and after that it was lack of stock. The Sanctuary Cove Boat Show presented an opportunity to get on the water again locally and take some new rigs for a ride. For the last 18 months, they’ve been heading out the dealers’ doors before we could get hold of them. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some serious supply chain issues in the industry, both boating and fishing, but dealers now have stock on the floor to test and sell. If you haven’t seen our video boat tests, you can catch up with them on the Fishing Monthly YouTube channel - search Fishing Monthly on that platform. We’ve covered dozens of rigs over the years and sometimes it’s nice to see what they look like on the water if you can’t score a test drive. Matthew, who you heard about last editorial, is usually the man behind the camera and I do the easy job in front of it. All of the boat images you see in the tests in the magazine are his work. We look forward to doing plenty more down the track.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance

103

Augusta

104

Bunbury

105

Metro

106

Mandurah

107

Kalbarri

110

Lancelin

108

Exmouth

110

Karratha

111

Freshwater

112

PRINT STILL POWERFUL You only realise the power of print when you make a mistake. We made one last month by publishing Ross Winstanley’s article. I won’t use having COVID as an excuse, but Ross’ angle, which would have been more suited to a commercial fisher magazine, certainly ruffled some feathers. Although it pointed to a massive win to Rec anglers in Port Phillip Bay, it threw a few punches at VFA and VRFish that are not appropriate for this publication. I apologise for that. The magazine is about helping you catch more and bigger fish. There’ll be more of that in the future. REC FISHING QUEENSLAND WOMEN Queensland Fisheries has launched their group for women in recreational fishing. Connecting fishing-mad women all over the state. Search for the “Women in Recreational Fishing Network Qld” Group on Facebook and request to join if you’re interested. Hopefully this will be as successful as the Victorian network moving forward. PRINT COSTS RISING Like everything nowadays, our print bill went up by nearly 20% this month. Currently, we are absorbing the costs, but this may change at some stage in the future. The best way to lock in the current price is to subscribe – you get the magazine cheaper-per-issue and it’s delivered to your postal address. You can call Kym on 1800 228 244 to get it organised over the phone and, an early hint, it’s a great Fathers’ Day gift!

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REGULAR FEATURES

FREECALL: 1800 228 244 Managing Editor: Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

Level up with livies

Starlo’s back to basics

Sheik of the Creek

Kayak: Baffle Creek

Publishers: Steve Morgan, Matthew Drinkall

What’s New Fishing

Fun page

Tournament Calendar

103

Advertising: Copy and materials should be sent direct to: ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

Tournaments

Trades and Services/Tide page

114

Boat Test: Remora 490

116

COMPS AND OFFERS Find the logo

Editorial Manager: Jacqui Thomas Editorial: Nicole Penfold Field Editors: Jason Ehrlich

Advertising Enquiries: Peter Jung: pjung@fishingmonthly.com.au Phone: 0410 662 927 Nicole Kelly: nkelly@fishingmonthly.com.au Phone: 0407 369 333 FREECALL: 1800 228 244

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Level up with livies BUNDABERG

Luke Truant

Fishing with live bait takes a bit more effort than fishing with dead bait. So why go to the trouble of catching livies? The answer is twofold: you’re going to catch more fish, and bigger fish. Not 100% of the time, of course – there are some days when dead bait works better – but

line with a series of small, chemically-sharpened hooks along it. You put a sinker on one end of the rig, tie the other end to your main line, and send it down to where the baitfish are holding. Hook sizes generally range from around 12-4, and each hook has a bit of sparkle flash and often a glow bead as well, to maximise attraction. They’re irresistible to small fish like yellowtail scad, slimy mackerel, garfish, small

rig up inside the rod at the end of the session. This allows you to potentially get several trips out of one rig (each rig costs around $4-$6). When the sabiki rig is fully inside the tube of the rod, the hooks are all covered so there’s only the sinker exposed at one end, ready to drop, and no hooks that can catch on anything. I have a handy tip with sabiki rods. I’ve found that the swivels on your jigs get caught in the lower ceramic guide near the reel, so I get a screw driver and snap the rectangular ceramic eyelet off. This makes the opening wider which allows the jig to go all the way into the rod without the swivel catching. It doesn’t seem to affect the braid touching the rod, as the braid actually touches the edge of the tubular blank with or without the guide. The alternative to a sabiki rod is, as you may

A honker tuskfish caught on a live bait. finger a few times and then re-tie it – if you haven’t got it caught in the carpet or side pocket. As you might guess, I’m not a fan! When it comes to the

about getting the baitfish to bite – you want to prevent them from swimming around each other in circles. When they swim in circles, they tangle the jig.

Cod are suckers for a well-presented livie. in the long run your catch rates will improve. That’s why the most mad-keen anglers often fish with live baits for both pelagics and bottom fish. It’s well worth spending that bit of extra time and effort. SABIKI RIGS AND RODS Catching baitfish typically involves a sabiki rig, which is a length of

trevally and more. While you don’t need a proper hollow sabiki rod, it will save you money in the long run because you won’t go through as many jigs. Sabiki rods aren’t too expensive; all the ones I’ve seen have been under $100. These rods have a trumpetshaped opening at the top, and you can wind your entire

With two people working as a team – one on the rod, one unhooking fish – you’ll soon fill your livewell. know, a short length of pool noodle. To use it, you wrap the rig around the pool noodle, stab yourself in the

Top: running sinker down to a snelled 8/0 live bait hook and stinger, for targeting trout. Bottom: wire trace and treble stinger, for targeting mackerel. 8

JULY 2022

jigs themselves, I don’t have a favourite brand but I do buy jigs with heavier mono and really small hooks. In my experience, using small hooks seems to give you more hook-ups. If you’re using the larger size jigs and the baitfish are pilchardsized, it will take you a lot longer to get your live baits in the morning. And the reason I like heavier mono is because every now and then you’ll hook up to a bonito or other larger fish and you can land them without losing hooks. Lastly, if you spool your reel with mono rather than braid, you may find you’ll land more livies. This is because mono line stretches, acting as a shock-absorber, so the hooks are less likely to tear out of the baitfish’s soft mouth. Now let’s look at how to work your sabiki rigs. LINE AND LEADER When it comes to jigging for live bait, it’s not just

to the bottom you should start winding with a slow to medium retrieve. If you feel one fish on, you might feel the temptation to pause your retrieve in hopes of hooking a second. Don’t do it – they’ll swim around and tangle the rig, and you’ve just thrown $5 in the bin. Once you feel a fish on, always keep winding. Other fish will get on there as the jig rises to the surface. When you get the fish up to the boat, it’s best to have someone ready to help you. The goal is to minimise the amount of time the livies spend dangling out of the water, struggling to breathe and sometimes falling on the deck. The person using the jig rod can lift the jig up and hold onto the sinker, while the other person takes the fish off. Then the baitfish can go into the livewell as quickly as possible. LIVEWELL Your livewell needs as much flow as possible, so

If you’re tired of tangled rigs and stabbed fingers, get a sabiki rod. It will soon pay for itself. To address this issue I use a heavier sinker on the bottom, at least 4oz. If you’re getting really large yellowtail scad or other big livies, you’ll want an 8oz at the bottom to help stop the fish swimming around each other and tying up the jig. Once you’ve dropped down, as soon as you get

you may want increase your pump capacity. You’d be surprised at how many fish you can pack in when you have a lot of flow. Many tanks that have a multi-point system where the water comes in through a series of small holes. I’ve never noticed a difference between that and a single

pipe. As long as you get adequate flow, it doesn’t matter how many holes it comes in from. In my tank the water is jetted in almost

Keeping your fish alive isn’t just about keeping oxygen levels up, it’s about keeping the temperature down. The water in the bucket can heat

they can make great baits when presented the right way. More on that later. RIGGING For most bottom species and cobia, I like to rig the my live baits on a paternoster (dropper) rig. A paternoster rig consists of one or two loops spaced some distance apart, which will hold your hooks, with another loop

below that holds a snapper lead. I use only one hook on my paternoster because there are big fish in our area; you definitely don’t want two 20kg+ fish on at the same time! When you tie your paternoster, make sure you tie a dropper loop and not a figure 8. This is very important. I can’t count the

If your livie dies, don’t send it back down as-is. You’ll get better results if you butterfly it. vertically, to push that clean water right down to the bottom. You want every square inch of your tank to have clean, oxygenated water. If not, some of the fish may die. If you are using an aerator in a bucket, that’s OK as long as you change the water really often.

up quickly, and that will kill your fish. Each time you pull out a fresh livie, have a feel around the bottom of the tank for any that are stiff. Dead fish can cause a domino effect, where more start dying, so you want to get them out promptly. Definitely don’t throw them away, because

Big coral trout love chomping on livies.

If you’re using big hooks for big fish, you need to strike hard for a solid hook-up.

number of fish I’ve seen lost due to people tying figure 8s instead of loop knots. Tying a loop is no harder than a figure 8, it takes an extra three seconds. If you’re not sure how, have a look on YouTube and you’ll see how easy it is. When I tie the dropper loop for my hook, I always make the loop least 1.5 times

the length of the live bait that I’m using. For example, if the bait is 10cm, I’ll tie a loop that juts out 15-20cm from the main line. The reason is that when a large fish inhales the livie, the livie needs to go all the way into the predator’s mouth before it hits the main line. You don’t want the predator To page 10

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Central

OLD

Winter species regulars crave the clean water find the warmest waters and good side imaging sounders will pinpoint the areas where the fish are holding. While dam barra can be particularly tricky to catch during winter, live imaging shows that barra are always mooching around will almost always take a good look at a nearby

MACKAY

Cameron Christian

Last month saw plenty of rain and the conditions are really starting to cool down. Fishing during July should depend on more rain and clean water for the inshore winter regulars, like mackerel, queenfish and snapper. On nice calm days Spanish mackerel, along with greys, should be accessible from decent tinnies around spots like Reichlemans Reef, Round Top Island and the outer edge of Slade Island or Danger Reef. Other popular spots are the harbour walls but activity will heavily depend on N/NE wind, clean water and if schools of bait have been pushed into the area. Spanish mackerel are commonly caught trolling gar/squid head combos or wolf herring down deep, advice from local tackle stores should be sought for how to rig these baits properly. If Spanish mackerel are found on the

Big fat barra will brave the cold for a tasty morsel. help to find the fish but locating where the schools of bait are holding is most important. Baits for snapper include squid, pilchards, cut baits and large prawn while

after release. Whiting and flathead should continue their prominence while the cool weather hangs around, common tactics include focusing on sand flats, mud flats, rubble patches and yabby beds. These areas can be found teeming with flathead and whiting right through the Pioneer River and can be best targeted by working up with the tide from the mouth all the way up to the hospital bridge. The Bassett Basin can also be worked in this fashion again focusing on the sand and mud flats. Best baits include worms and yabbies but in a hot bite, strips of squid provide a more durable option. Lures include small soft plastics hopped along the bottom, shallow divers worked along a flat or very small poppers finessed erratically.

Squid are another great feed available during the cooler weather. Popular spots include around the lights at the harbour jetties at night or around Round Top and Flat Top Island. Squid are commonly caught as by-catch on a variety of lures like divers and metal slugs however hooking them properly can be a challenge, hence squid jigs should be kept nearby and deployed when good numbers are found. The dose of rain during May has injected plenty of water in Teemburra and Eungulla and, with cold weather around, barra will be docile but still available for the persistent angler. Focusing on known bite times particularly around late afternoon to early evening (the warmest part of day) should increase odds. Following the wind should

Tim Swann with a nice Spanish mackerel caught on live bait floated out on a stinger rig. lure, getting them to bite can seem impossible. Sooty action remains all year round and the Mackay Tournament Anglers sooty comps are in full swing. Recent comps have seen plenty of quality sooty caught from both the weeds and timber. While fishing the timber, anglers typically focus on treetops, big stumps and around

There are plenty of smaller sooty mixed in with the monsters at Eungulla. surface, live baits may be floated using balloons or similar, again proper rigging for correct presentation is essential. If schools of grey mackerel are found, old busted up barra lures like Halcos, Reidy’s and Tilsans can be an affordable trolling option. Snapper are around on their annual spawning run and some can be caught from close inshore spots like Flat Top and Round Top islands and the harbour rock walls. On calm days however the boat ramps will be full of anglers looking to head out to spots like Danger Reef, Reichlemans Reef and the islands out from Sarina. Looking for structure will 36

JULY 2022

shag roosts. Accurate casts tight into the structure often result in immediate hook-ups but working the lure all the way to the boat is important, as many will follow a lure right out of the structure and into the open water. Live imaging also often shows sooties moving between trees so even a bad

large soft plastics and soft vibes are proving reliable lure options. Regardless of lure or bait choice it is important to adjust lead weights depending on the run, with large tidal movements easily pushing offerings away from the bait schools as they fall through the water column. Finding the bait, drifting over and jigging through the schools typically find plenty of queenfish and golden trevally which like to mix in with the snapper. Both are great fighting by-catch and are good eating when prepared properly, which is important to consider when fishing deeper water due to the poor survival rates

Keegan Hayden with a great sooty caught from the treetops at Eungulla during MTA’s May sooty comp.

cast should be worked with a good retrieve. The rain during May has currently placed the weed edge below the water and has left most of the weed banks with a shallow flat followed by a steep or tapered edge to the open water. When the weeds are like this, finding the edge using side imaging and sitting right on top allows casts to be fanned in all directions. Over the flats, shallow divers or surface lures can be easily used, but vibes are still a great option and can be worked by holding the rod tip high, using monofilament leader and slightly increasing retrieve rate. Fishing over the shallow flats will often require ripping through a lot of weed but persistence will result in many hook-ups as soon as the lure hits the water. Vibes, divers and soft plastics can also be worked deeper down and parallel to the edge. These lures may also be cast perpendicular to the edge and slowly rolled up the weed face. Whether fishing the weeds or timber, looking for bait should help to find where the fish are holding, with the amount of feeding activity often increasing in the weeks around the full moon.

OLD

A special tribute to Roy TOWNSVILLE

Dave Hodge

First of all I’d like to pay my respects to someone who was recently killed in a horrific accident not far from Townsville: my mate Andrew ‘Roy’ Symonds. It was a strange set of circumstances that led to him becoming a mate. We were both attending the Boyne Tannum Hookup 16 years ago, and there was a buzz out the back of the stage area, and people were being so super respectful of this guy sitting all alone on a seat overlooking the River at Bray park. Everyone was whispering, “That’s

the side of his neck and said “Here mate, get one of these up ya,” and he swung around with that big smile of his and said, “You’ll do me mate, pull up a seat”. That was the beginning of a mateship that saw us fish, camp and live together at various times over the coming years. Once when I left my partner at the time and didn’t know where to go or what to do, he threw me the house keys and said, “Here mate, live here as long as you want”. That’s the type of bloke he was. Many’s the time we’d pull up at a servo for fuel on the way fishing and end up spending 40 minutes while he signed things for people, and

got in the way of our trips, but every time we’d see each other it was just like normal, the way mates should be. He was one of the most loyal and generous individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Never once did I see him flustered or frustrated by an inconvenience, such as a breakdown, one of our failed cooking attempts, or bad weather. When we both found ourselves living in Townsville about 10 years ago, the first thing we organised was a fishing trip over at Cape Cleveland, and it absolutely poured on us for hours. We stood looking at each other laughing and shaking our heads at our ridiculous commitment to fishing, and never-say-die Cold weather doesn’t mean fish stop feeding, it just means you have to try other things to get a bite. Tannhym cut the nose of this Paddle Prawn down to imitate a popper on an unweighted hook to nail this jack. event often got raised down the track. Memories like these never seem to fade. Anyway, after the years of media looking for dirt on Roy, now they can reveal what an incredible bloke he really was, instead of looking for negatives. I will never forget our fishing and camping trips, or the incredible things he did for me and so many others he met throughout his life. RIP Roy.

I’ve found that 3” soft plastic prawn imitations (e.g. Atomic Prong) are a pretty consistent size for the barras as they feast on jelly prawns. Lighter line is needed to fish them effectively. Surface lures, too, need to be downsized a little for the colder months. FLATS It’s common to find schools of barra in open waters as the flats flood and the warmer mud banks

emperor are one of my favourite table fish. Smaller than you may think, the 4” Atomic Prongs and the 5” Halco Paddle Prawns are our go-to lures, but fishing them on relatively light line ends in a limp leader sometimes. 30lb spin or baitcasters are a great fun way to fish the shallow 4-10m bommies and reef, and leaders about 40lb will see more bites than the traditional heavy leaders of

An all-rounder on the field and on the water, Roy didn’t care what he was catching as long as it pulled line. Andrew Symonds,” and there was almost a reverence in their body language, and no one wanted to interrupt or ‘annoy’ this guy out of sheer respect. I remember thinking that this poor guy looked like he needed a rum, so I went to the freezer and grabbed out two icy cold rums, walked over and put one of the cans up to

had selfies taken with them. Much as he enjoyed living out of the public eye, he never shunned anyone who wanted to meet him, and he never complained. Roy was truly the all-Aussie bloke, and the more remote and rough our camps were, the more he loved it. During the last couple of years, life

attitudes, agreeing that we must be mad to be out there in that sort of weather. It seemed something exceptional happened whenever we hit the water, and I remember once out the Cape chasing barra and jacks I hooked a baby black marlin on a hardbody. For hours we laughed at my fluke, and that

Andrew ‘Roy’ Symonds was an amazing angler and great bloke. He will be sadly missed.

Red-throat are one of the toughest fish you can meet while flicking lures at the reef. They are also excellent on the plate.

CREEKS The creeks are fishing well at the moment but they should have a bit of a quiet spell as the weather becomes a bit cooler. The salmon are thick in some systems and are a great sportfish on light line. Smaller soft lures and surface lures will bring them undone. I don’t really rate them as an eating fish, but they’re hard to beat on the end of a line. They are pretty cool sportfish. The usual suspects like tarpon, GTs and so on will help you fill in time between species like barra, which should start to take tiny lures by the time you read this.

get inundated with bait and prawns seeking refuge in the mangroves. However, the timing can be a bit difficult if your boat draws a fair sort of water. When the tide is about a foot deep and rising is the time to be there. Be ready to cast at moving fish and bow waves. REEFS AND OFFSHORE The weather has been glorious and many boats have been able to get out wide and to the inshore reefs with good captures of trout, nannygai and red-throat emperor, just to name a few. I love throwing softies at these things when I get the chance, and red-throat

60lb+. The same rules apply though, and when you get a hit you should go hard at it straight away. Contrary to what you may have heard, Spanish mackerel are going extremely well for those trolling the faithful old Laser Pros and also wolfies. Some smaller billfish have been reported, and this season should be a cracker if all the indicators are anything to go by. Small gar and mullet are ideal for them, and there will be many plenty of incidental captures along the way. Until next time, good luck and stay safe. JULY 2022

NSW

Strap in for winter cod ALBURY/WODONGA

Connor Heir

The cold is well and truly set in, and those freezing mornings on the water are the new normal for keen anglers who are crazy about chasing large Murray cod. It’s the time of year when the bites are tough, and few and far between, but

we are spoiled for choice of where to catching Murray cod. From small water creeks to impoundments, we have a lot at our doorstep within a few hours from home. Over these past few months, Lake Mulwala has been an increasingly popular destination for anglers. This is because the lake is being drawn down in an effort to kill the weed that thrives on the

fishing opportunities with the water not flowing as hard, snags becoming more exposed and the water clarity improving, provided there isn’t heavy rainfall. Navigating the shallow areas and rapids while the river is low can be challenging, but via a kayak or smaller boat it’s very achievable. During this time of year, it can be very tough going, so taking the time to do the small things definitely do add up to increasing your chances of making one of these very special fish eat. While most of your chances of catching these fish do come from just being

A happy snap from the Central Vic Pro Series.

Kuttafurra ‘Joe the Rat’ surface lure was the snack of choice for Phil’s metre-plus cod. those bites we do entice are generally from bigger-sized fish. So if you’re prepared to be committed, strap in for winter because it takes only one bite to make the effort very worth it. The past few months in our general area have seen some great fishing opportunities for anglers. Living in this region

flats. Due to this draw down, water releases from Lake Hume have been significantly decreased, making the Murray River between Lake Hume to Lake Mulwala much lower than summertime flow. That’s already common for this time of year, even without Lake Mulwala being drained. It opens some great

A selection of Kuttafurra lures, which are made in Bundalong. These three lures range from 100220mm, which is a good size for winter.

on the water, there are extras we can go to that will better our chances. First up, it’s vital to be comfortable while fishing. Rug up with thermals, trackies, gloves, a beanie – you name it, do it. Being comfortable will very much change your approach and attitude to making it happen! When it comes to gear, you want to go bigger at this time of year. With the water being colder, fishes’ metabolisms slow right down, so presenting a bigger lure may be the key to getting a sluggish fish to bite. In my opinion, a good-sized cod lure for winter is anything over 100mm. I primarily fish surface and hardbody lures over winter, but that’s just my personal preference. After lure choice, it’s important to remember that with everything being slower, you should also slow your casting down and how quickly you work. While much of the time Murray cod will react quickly to a lure, during winter it can really take a fair few casts for a fish

to come out. To properly fish a likely snag, aim for roughly 15-20 casts with different angle approaches to really put the lure on the nose of the fish, and fish right in against the timber. While you may not cover as much ground in a trip as you would during the warmer months, often it can be the best strategy to make a fish eat. Mixing these elements into your approach, and being persistent, will help you better your chances! Before the draw down begun in Lake Mulwala, myself and my dad Phil entered the Central Vic Lure Casters Pro Series as Team Kuttafurra Lures, and we were lucky to take out 1st place on days 2 and 3. What made this experience even more exciting was watching dad land his first ever metreplus Murray cod, measuring in at 115cm. An amazing father-son moment to share! A huge good luck to all hitting the water this month. Remember to rug up, and keep casting. Tight lines!

Tempting big bass HUNTER VALLEY

Nick Price

This month I will continue looking at winter fishing with the second instalment of fishing plastics, particularly fishing them shallow using weedless and dropshot techniques. The winter bite is currently insane with big, angry bass. Anglers aren’t catching big numbers but they are quality fish, with 3lb fish a regular occurrence. My favourite time to fish is winter, fishing jerkbaits and plastics. The Hunter Valley traditionally has crisp, foggy mornings followed by sunny days – perfect fishing weather. Many people avoid the winter fishing, which means often you will have Glenbawn or St Clair 68

JULY 2022

Fishing comps allow you to learn new techniques and make new mates.

A nice little winter bass.

to yourself. It truly is a special time. As both impoundments have risen significantly over the last 12 months, the banks have lots of underwater structure in the form of grasses, small shrubs and saplings. The fish are in this

cover. I find the best way to fish these edges is fishing weedless. When fishing weedless there are a few different ways to rig your plastic. Using a worm hook, a bead and a tungsten weight is my favourite. Sometimes

I peg the weight and at other times I don’t, it depends on how I want the plastic to fall during the retrieve when working the plastic back. There are also jigheads that come with a worm To page 69

NSW

The winter freshwater scene BATLOW

Wayne Dubois waynedubois@westnet.com.au

On the freshwater scene, especially down south the middle of winter is normally associated with trout and redfin fishing and to a small extent Murray cod fishing. With that in mind, it might be surprising to hear that golden perch can also be on the cards at this time of the year. If Blowering Dam is at a constant level or is slowly rising then the golden

perch will often push right up into the shallows. This fish are often very hard to tempt as they are mostly sunning themselves, but they sometimes come on the bite for a very short period during the middle to late part of the day. Timing it is very hard but if you want to catch the odd big golden perch you will have to persist. My best advice would be to hit the redfin early until about lunch time, then target the golden perch for a few hours. Then, once the golden perch shut back down, go back and harass the redfin again. If you’re really keen, as soon as

that sun dips over the Snubba Range I’d start to target the resident Murray cod. Redfin fishing doesn’t get much easier than it does at this time of the year, when the redfin form massive schools, sometimes with hundreds of fish in a single school. They are best targeted vertically with jigs or bait. Using a paternoster rig with two hooks, one with fresh bait (either worms or small yabbies) and the other with a small 1-2” soft plastic will see you catching fish all day long, and will see you often bringing two fish in at

a time. The added bonus of this rig is that if the bait gets pinched by a small fish or gets fouled up, you still have a chance of hooking a fish on the plastic. You can add a plastic above your jig of choice as well to increase your chances of double hook-ups whilst jigging with lures. The best vertical jigging lures are ice jigs by far, but blades and heavily-weighted soft plastics will also get the job done. I personally use the blades and plastics as a searching tool. I cast them well away from the boat and hop them back to below the boat, searching for schools in the process, making sure I stay in contact with the bottom of the lake threw out the retrieve. Once I have hooked up this way, I then go over to the spot I hooked up and drop ice jigs straight down into the school. This is a very effective way of seeking out active schools. Rubber vibes are also great searching lures.

Golden perch are still a possibility this month. Target them during the warmest part of the day to maximise your chances.

There are some giant trout in Jounama Dam that are well worth having a crack at. From page 68

hook. These come in various weights and sizes, and definitely have their place. If you are unsure of how to rig plastics weedless, drop into the shop and I can show you. Fishing weedless allows you to throw your plastic right up into the snags where the fish are located. The plastic will bounce through the submerged vegetation, often bouncing off it, and the little puff of dirt that follows incites a strike. When fishing submerged vegetation, try different banks. Sometimes the fish are holding in gently sloping grassy banks, and at other times they can be found on steeper banks that contain submerged shrubs and saplings. It’s a matter of trying different banks until you find the fish, and then repeating the pattern. Dropshot fishing is another great winter technique that many people don’t do. Fishing dropshots can be done deep or shallow. The main advantage of dropshots is that you can fish very small plastics, and unusual plastics that will not fit in a normal jighead. I nosehook most plastics when drop-shotting. When working a plastic drop-shotting, work it as if you are using a jighead,

either fast or slow. From my experience, a dropshot isn’t about shaking a plastic stationary, it’s about working the plastics through a certain depth or near the bottom, as you would a jighead. Its advantage is the types of plastics you can use. Smaller plastics or those with a

the local bass competitions that continue throughout the winter months. If you want to learn new techniques and make new mates, have a go and join in. They are very friendly with a great group of people who love their fishing and are good at it! Next month I will

A big Glenbawn bass. slimmer profile. Even small insect-style plastics! When fishing plastics to the edge I will always have someone in the boat fishing a jerkbait such as a Squirrel or Double Clutch. I also keep a rod on the deck with a topwater lure such as a cicada. If I see a swirl, I will throw this out. This is an all year lure on Glenbawn and St Clair. Don’t forget about all

continue looking at winter fishing, particularly ice jig tricks. The winter bite is currently insane with big angry bass. Remember, if you’re heading to Glenbawn or St Clair, drop into the shop at the turn-off to Glenbawn in Aberdeen and ask about the different techniques and what the fish are biting on. We stock all the quality tackle that you need.

Redfin are one of the few fish that taste as good as they look, and they can be caught in their hundreds. It’s easy to see why they are a main target for many anglers during winter. JOUNAMA DAM Although there are much more notable trout dams just up the road like Tantangara, Talbingo, Eucumbene and Jindabyne, you will be hard pressed driving past this sensational land-based ‘trout only’ fishery. Officially Jounama Dam is now a mixed fishery, with some thumping golden perch and the odd Murray cod now in amongst the enormous trout population. Trout in this lake often exceed the magical 10lb mark, and surprisingly it’s often the average Joe soaking a worm who ends up catching these monsters. In saying that, there is a massive population of fish in the 2-4kg bracket as well, which keep anglers coming back again and again. One of the best techniques at this time of the year is to bait fish with big, juicy wood grubs, as the resident trout find them very hard to resist. PowerBait also

works well at this time of the year, and is a great alternative if you can’t get your hands on some fresh bait.

Trout can be pretty aggressive at this time of the year, and taking advantage of that by casting fish imitation lures works a treat. Proven lures are sinking hardbodies in the 5-7cm range, as well as blades, vibes, lipless crankbaits and soft plastics. All of these lures have their days and have certain spots where they work best. For example, the blades and vibes are too heavy for working the shallows, but they work well when hopped back to the bank in the deeper water. The sinking hardbodies generally sink very slowly so they aren’t much good out in the really deep water, but they work extremely well when slowly retrieved around the shallow margins of the lake. Use the right lures in the right locations and you will increase your catch rate dramatically.

Winter is regarded by many cod gurus as the best time of year for catching big Murray cod. Days are often super slow, but when you finally come up tight on one of those giant green fish, those long, fruitless hours are soon forgotten. JULY 2022

PRODUCT GUIDE

FISHCRAFT DR GLIDE

Thinking about jumping in on the glidebait action but not sure where to start? Dr Glide has got you covered, with two models available: 76mm and 7.5g, and 127mm and 23g. These two glidebait sizes are slow sinking and smoothly glide into the sight of your target species. These lures come in a tasty range of fish-satisfying colours, including the likes of white widow, matte black, pearl shrimp plus some fresh new concepts of green yabbie, spotted prawn, silver shad and more. FishCraft lures are built tough, with super-sharp trebles and ultra-hard external coatings for longevity against those nasty teeth. Jump onto the new FishCraft website at for all the details on what’s to come, and follow @fishcraftfishing on Instagram and Facebook. www.fishcraft.com.au

DAIWA TATULA SV 70TW

The Tatula baitcaster family welcomes its newest and smallest member with the release of the new Tatula SV 70 TW. A new frame size for the famous reel line-up, the new finesse-inspired 70size reel is the smallest, lightest, and most palmable Tatula reel Daiwa has ever produced. The excellent design and performance of the new 70 size Tatula begins with Daiwa’s Hyperdrive Design Concept, a 4-pillar concept featuring Hyper Armed Housing, Hyper Tough Clutch, Hyper Double Support and most importantly Hyperdrive Digigear. The result is a finesse-sized baitcaster with unmatched smoothness, strength and durability. Reel performance is further enhanced with Daiwa’s SV spool and T-Wing System (TWS) delivered supreme casting performance and consistency. From feather light soft plastics to heavy topwaters and spinnerbaits, the new Tatula SV 70 TW delivers ultimate casting versatility. The Tatula’s list of features and technologies is long and detailed with Magforce Z, UTD Drag, aluminium body, infinite anti-reverse, CRBB, alloy handle, and Zero Adjuster combining to make the new 70-sized Tatula one of the standout baitcaster releases of 2022. www.daiwafishing.com.au

NEW JACK DEEP 07

The Shadow Rap Jack Deep now comes in a new 7cm size, complementing the popular 5cm model. The long-casting Shadow Rap Jack Deep dives down fast when cranked. With a very slow rise on the pause, you can twitch it to imitate the flicker and fade of a dying baitfish almost on the spot, or crank it in with a steady retrieve. Features include: through-wire construction, fast diving, slow rising on the pause, runs true at high speeds, sharp left to right turns, suitable for casting or trolling, and black nickel VMC hooks. The Shadow Rap Jack Deep 07 has a running depth of 4m, weighs 10g, and comes in 21 fish-catching colours. You can see a video of it in action by searching for ‘Shadow Rap Jack Deep’ on YouTube. For more information and photos of the latest releases from Rapala, check out the Rapala Australia Facebook page. facebook.com/rapala.australia

JULY 2022

RHINO-RACK STOW IT

WHAT’S NEW FISHING

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

The Rhino-Rack Stow iT Starter Kit allows you to quickly mount your favourite 4WD accessories. The kit includes the Stow iT Base Bracket and Universal Adaptor, ideal for mounting a Sunseeker awning or Stow iT Utility Holder to secure your shovels, spades, paddles, axes, and fishing rods with ease . Additionally, for the first time, the new Zwifloc nut is included, offering a truly flexible experience. The new Zwifloc fastening system drops into the channel, so there is no need to slide an accessory into position via a traditional channel aperture. Additional adaptors, including a Light Bar or a Pioneer Roller are also available. An adaptor for the Batwing Awning is coming soon. To extend the versatility of the Stow iT starter kit base bracket, Rhino-Rack has also launched specific adaptors to mount light bars and rollers. Both adaptors slide in and out of the Stow iT Base Bracket and boast a durable and aesthetic finish. www.rhinorack.com/stow-it

TOKURYO LINE LAB PRO-NY

Tokuryo Line Lab has been established in Taiwan since 1983 and weaving their history for over 30 years, and they’re committed to producing high end fishing lines. Tokuryo Line Lab PRO-NY is an excellent fluorocarbon-coated monofilament hybrid Fluoronylon line suited for estuary and freshwater fishing. PRO-NY is made from Japanese raw materials and has outstanding softness and suppleness. Tokuryo PRO-NY also offers excellent abrasion resistance and features a low stretch core for better bite detection. PRO-NY is available in 300m spools in a brown colour in 4.2lb to 27.3lb. To find out more visit the Juro Fishing website or look them up on Facebook. www.jurofishing.com

ZMAN 4” GOAT TOADZ

The ultimate topwater presentation has arrived, designed in conjunction with ZMan customers and fans over a period of about a year. These anglers offered feedback on shape, size, design features, colour and more, throughout the digital design, 3D printing, single shot moulding, and testing process. The 10X Tough ElaZtech construction provides extreme durability and buoyancy, while a bulky, yet streamlined body allows for long casts on a 5/0 or 6/0 TT ChinlockZ hook. This plastic skips extremely well. Once it’s on the water the thin legs and cupped kicker feet create that fishattracting, bubbling and gurgling that drives fish crazy on a slow, medium, or fast retrieve. The GOAT ToadZ is 4” in length, initially available in eight colours and other key features include a V-shaped keeled belly that assists with stability and rapid lift out of the water, a belly hook slot to assist with weedless rigging, and ridges on the back to help protect both single and double weedless hooks from snagging or fouling. With the feedback of customers and fans, ZMan has effectively designed the ultimate topwater toad that will appeal to medium to large predators such as barramundi, mangrove jack, Murray cod and more. Price: SRP $14.95 (pack of 3) www.z-man.com.au

visit www.tacklejunkie.fish for the latest tackle news - AS IT HAPPENS!

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2022 SANCTUARY COVE INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW DELIVERS A BOATING BLOCKBUSTER EVENT The 33rd annual Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show (SCIBS) has upped the ante again, cruising into another successful year with outstanding attendance contributing to climatic sales and an exuberant atmosphere. Across four action-packed days, SCIBS welcomed 43,852 boating enthusiasts to the sold-out show to view more than 1,000 products and 600 vessels from over 337 exhibitors with an impressive 251 boats on water, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase. SCIBS rolled out the red carpet with a showstopping lineup of global and Australian premieres, including launches from local manufacturers Maritimo and Riviera, alongside other luxury superyachts, trailer boats, personal watercraft and the latest marine technology. “SCIBS 2022 was the hottest ticket on the Gold Coast this weekend, attracting a high-calibre audience that translated into resounding commercial success in terms of sales,” Mr Hasser said. Victoria-based Whittley Boats Sales and Marketing Director Alan Whittley said this year’s SCIBS generated the brand’s strongest sales ever. “We were surprised with the number of people we had through, weather permitting, with particularly high sales across the larger CR sports cruiser series and SL performance fishing series models,” Mr Whittley said. With the Australian-first showing of the Sea Fox 328 Commander, the 2022 Sea-Doo Fish Pro range and 12 new colourways of the SEABOB lineup, JSW Powersports General Manager Tom Niederer reported an elevated level of enquiry across the four-day event. “We were thrilled to show off our massive range with a record show of Sea Fox, Malibu, Axis and SEABOB products,” Mr Niederer said. SCIBS sponsor Volvo Penta attracted interest in its innovative marine leisure engine and propulsion systems on The Promenade. Head of Volvo Penta Martin Skoglund said: “We were so excited to be back for another year at SCIBS as our stand presence continues to increase year on year.” “Overall, we’ve had a great turnout and have loved the opportunity to meet with customers, show support to our OEMs and further grow the Volvo Penta brand,” Mr Skoglund said. Within The Pavilions, BLA, the boating, lifestyle and adventure experts, brought industry-leading brands Minn Kota, Humminbird, Dometic Outdoor, CZone, Cannon, Mastervolt, Lewmar, BEP, Blue Sea Systems, JBL, OceanLED, Scanstrut and RAM Mounts as well as its BLA Marine Performance Series of products. BLA also showcased two new training boats, the Hummingbird Formosa and Dometic Outdoor Powercat, on The Marina at this year’s show. BLA Marketing Manager James King said: “We haven’t been to SCIBS since 2019 and it’s so exciting

to find our way back on the boat show circuit.” “We have not only had interest and enquiries across our range of stocked brands, but the event has also been an opportunity to reenergise our staff as their hard work from the past two years starts to pay off.” In an Australian event first, marine technology leaders Garmin displayed the new Garmin Livescope Plus System, Garmin Boat Switch and Garmin Surround View Camera System, which OEM Government and Commercial Manager for Australia and New Zealand Gordon Triplett said were received with enthusiasm. “There is such an industry buzz with consumer demand for products and it’s great to see marine lifestyle lovers all gathered in one place at SCIBS – the atmosphere at this year’s event has been amazing,” Mr Triplett said. Queensland Marine Centre (QMC) had a strong presence in the Sports, Fishing & Leisure Precinct, hosting global brands Boston Whaler, Sea Ray, Mastercraft, Protector and Crest. QMC’s Managing Director Andrew Bennett said: “SCIBS always gives us a great opportunity to not only

“ SCIBS returns for its 34th annual Boat Show from Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 May 2023. ” engage with consumers, but also forge partnerships with other exhibitors.” Premium motor yacht manufacturer Riviera showcased its largest fleet ever with 12 vessels on display, including three Australian premieres: the 4600 Sport Yacht Platinum Edition, 78 Motor Yacht and the exclusive reveal of the new 465 SUV model. “Riviera welcomed many returning and new owners to our family with yachts purchased across the exceptional 24-model collection of sport yachts, SUV, sport motor yachts and motor yachts as part of the exclusive Riviera Festival of Boating held at our SCIBS display, ” Riviera Owner Rodney Longhurst said. Leading Australian luxury cruiser manufacturer Maritimo had an exceptional reception for its three global exclusives, the M60 Flybridge Motor Yacht, M600 Offshore Flybridge and S600 Offshore Sedan, with a number of sales on the board. SCIBS returns for its 34th annual Boat Show from Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 May 2023. Running from 19 to 22 May 2022, the 33rd Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show (SCIBS) attracted more than 43,000 visitors and 337 exhibitors to showcase over 600 boats and 1,000 marine products across four days.

JULY 2022

East Coast

VIC

Gippsland Lakes mulloway! GIPPSLAND LAKES

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

Over the last month or so we have experienced some of the best bream sport I’ve seen in a very long time. Lure anglers have been rewarded when putting in time to find fish, and bait anglers are really cleaning up. And a real surprise by-catch has got me very fired up to further chase a fish that is rarely caught in these parts. BREAM BONANZA This might be hard to believe, but the bream captures are going up and up! I thought my last report was when we reached the peak of the bream season, but I was wrong. From Lake Victoria to Lake Wellington seems to be the real hotspots. I’m talking Paynesville, Newlands Arm, Wattle Point, Seacombe and Marlay Point. Local bait gurus in Rob and Arthur who live at Hollands Landing have shown me how deadly live shrimp is on the bream. They anchor the boat up on the edge of the lake and I saw them land at least 30 bream to 42cm. The shrimp are surprisingly big and look like small prawns, and the bream can’t resist them. The boys were kept very busy catching fish and re-baiting hooks. I threw my soft plastic and blade lures into the same area they were fishing, but I gave up when it took me an hour to get one small bream! I was shocked at how

deadly the shrimp bait was, and yet those same bream ignored my lures. Rob also told me of a bream caught recently that he saw a visiting angler measure, and it went a whopping 53cm. I can only remember hearing of two or three bream that big in all my years of fishing the Gippy Lakes, so it’s nice to see some real monsters still alive and well. BREAM ON LURES Other hotspots are in the rivers like the upper Nicholson, the entrances of the Mitchell and Tambo. The lure fishing army are now having some of the best sport in years. It’s been a lot of fun for all of us, with dozens of bream around 42-45cm and a score of 46cm trucks – and even a few 47.5cm

b-doubles! These are all mixed in with cricket score catches of much smaller bream from 26-32cm. There are a lot of nice perch being caught too, up to 43cm. Most of my fish have been caught on Hurricane lures like the soft plastic Sprat 65 and 85 or the Twitch hardbodies in 40 or 50mm. Most of it with my good buddy Havo but also catching up with Jason Deenan, Justin Dingwall, Mitch Chapman, Tony Pettie, Ben Hotchkins, Graeme Beams, Owen Pierce and Bryan Lazzaro. The reason I mention all those gun bream anglers is because they all try different methods and various wide-ranging lures. I learn so much from seeing these guys in action. For instance, Mitch and Owen use large hardbodies

It’s been a busy early winter with big bream on the chew.

to nail big bream in the shallows while Justin gets a lot of thumping bream on hardbody vibes in both open water and gnarly structure. Havo and Tony are soft plastic kings and work the snags and shallow edges with deadly results. Bryan and Ben will try all sorts of lures and methods and come up with some real surprises, like throwing heavy blades deep into timber and extracting truck bream and EP. Graeme is more a bait angler but teaches me heaps when he finds big scores of bream on shrimp baits in areas where anglers rarely venture into. Jason is a bream whisperer, fishing deep and finessing blades and soft plastics. So by teaming up with all these mad keen anglers it’s no wonder my very last trip saw me catch bream on 11 different lures! The real joy of course, is to see that my local waters are all full of big and little fish. The future looks bright indeed. And now for a real surprise for me with an unbelievable by-catch recently… GIPPY LAKES MULLOWAY There are some fish that tend to evade even the best anglers, who can spend a lifetime trying to work them out. One such species here in the Gippy Lakes is the mighty mulloway. They are like a unicorn in these parts, an elusive ghost. Not unheard of, but very rarely caught by anyone. Truth be known, there may only be just 50 mulloway in the entire Gippy Lakes.

That’s one happy angler! After so many years, an elusive Gippy Lakes mulloway finally greets the author’s net. To complicate things further, nobody really targets mulloway here so how can they be caught without the effort? Even when the lakes were commercially netted, mulloway rarely if ever showed up as a bycatch. So with all that in mind, you can see why I was in utter disbelief when I landed my first ever mulloway! I caught it on a Cracked Black Sting 47 Hurricane blade. It wasn’t a monster model at 54cm, but it pulled like a runaway truck. It’s ‘only’ taken me 22 years to finally land one of the greatest estuary challenges

in my local waters, and it’s hopefully not my last. From now on I’ll be aiming for some slightly bigger ones. Sadly, at my current rate of hooking mulloway, I’ll be 80 years old for my next hook up! LOOKING AHEAD As winter peaks the bream will continue to school up in the deeper and upper reaches of all the rivers. So quite simply you need to rug up with a warm coat and beanie and put most of your efforts into these areas. The jetties around Paynesville and Newlands Arm should also continue to fire.

Unpredictable fishing weather MARLO

Jim McClymont mcclymont@net-tech.com.au

The fishing has slowed down a tad, with anglers reporting getting smaller bags of bream, luderick, mullet, estuary perch, trevally, and flathead. However, there are still plenty of salmon and tailor coming into the

estuary on the incoming tide, with anglers catching good bags using metal lures. With the fishing being hit-and-miss, it’s difficult to know just when to go out to try your luck. As an example, one morning a local angler rang and reported to me he had been fishing for four hours in the morning on a run-out tide and didn’t lose a bait, while another mate of mine, Bradley McDougall,

came into the shop and told me big bream are on the bite in the afternoon on a run-in tide. He had been capturing big bream, with some over 2kg, using sandworm. Fishing is a unique sport, with every outing being a complete unknown. The surf beaches are still fishing well with plenty of big salmon, tailor, flathead, pinkie snapper and gummy shark.

MARLO

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Fishing offshore, although not as good as it gets, is fishing well with anglers reporting decent-size flathead, salmon, gurnard, barracoota, pinkie snapper, morwong, squid, and gummy shark. NZ KINGFISH This is the time of year that I really look forward to: it’s when I and my teammates – Terry Lynch, Colin Austin, and Jenkin Steed – prepare for our annual NZ trip to fish the International Yellowtail Tournament in Russell in the Bay of Islands. We fish from game boat Target, owned and skippered by Ross and his very capable deckhand. While our prime objective is to catch and weigh kings over 6kg to accumulate competition points, we also get plenty of by-catch including big snapper, john dory, salmon, mako shark, tuna, and barracoota. And best of all, we get to meet up with all the good people we’ve met over the years fishing the comp.

A kingfish caught during the International Yellowtail Tournament.

VIC

East Coast

Cold is creeping in MALLACOOTA/EDEN

Kevin Gleed captainkev@wildernessfishingtours.com

The past month has really let us know that winter is upon us with clear nights allowing the cold to creep in, and the rainfall of the past months has slowed up. The town is a lot quieter now as the visitors have moved on chasing the warmer weather, with things picking up once again as we head towards Christmas. Fishing wise there is still plenty on offer, winter months see the fishing on the beaches fire up with salmon in numbers on all the local beaches. All the beaches and rocky headlands from Bastion Point Beach down to Quarry Beach are worth a fish with the best gutters along the beaches holding fish. The colder water temperatures see less variety of fish that can be caught but numbers of salmon, along with some good tailor, are reliable over the coming months. Offshore the fishing has started to really slow down. Sand and tiger flathead really slowed up, but a few fish are still being caught. Fewer people are heading offshore with the cold winter water temperatures. Things will only pick up as the water

warms. Luckily the lake, rivers and creeks are where the real action is over the coming months. The Bottom Lake, particularly around Harrisons Channel and the whole front section, will see numbers of salmon and some bigger tailor consistently being caught. These fish

will turn up anywhere in the system even as far upstream as Gypsy Point. Numbers of silver trevally can also increase over the cooler winter months and, with the weed returning in the front section of the lake, this is a top area to fish small soft plastics with the channel edges near the

The winter months see the bigger tailor put in an appearance in the lake and along the beaches.

Silver trevally are being caught and in the coming months you will see more fish about as the water cools.

current a top place to catch good numbers of fish. Flathead are still about over the coming months. Once you have found a fish or two you need to work these areas thoroughly as there will be more fish there. The key is to work the lure very slow as the fish are reluctant to move too far with the cold water temperatures. The bream fishing really comes into its own over the cold winter months with the Top and Bottom lake providing plenty of action.

This is the time of year where fishing with the fish finder will really get you amongst the fish. Bait schools are in around 12ft of water and bream, both yellowfin and black, won’t be far behind. As winter moves on, black bream will start making their way upstream and, once again, the fish will not be far from the baitfish schools. Yellowfin bream don’t move too much at this time of year with fish consistently found in the deeper water at the

back of Goodwin Sands. Once again, not far from the baitfish schools, fish can be caught along the edges. In general, the water is clear and the fishing tough, so it’s not the area to catch fish in numbers. The winter months can see good perch been caught with fish making their way towards the salt looking for the right area to spawn. If you can be lucky enough to catch a fish, work the area as there will definitely be more fish about.

Blue-green algae plague LAKES ENTRANCE

Steven Pryke

The blue-green algae grasp over the Gippsland Lakes has continued to grow in strength, with algea warnings along the 90 Mile Beach.

Throughout the Gippsland Lakes, everyone has been encourage to reduce contact with the local waterways, unfortunately this has had a major impact to the town. Hopefully it won’t be long and the algae will clear up and everyone can return to fishing and enjoying the

Gippsland Lakes. LAKES ENTRANCE With the current algae situation, the local fishing scene has been pretty quiet but some anglers have ventured out. Metung Yacht Club has been a popular spot for bream lately with anglers having

Bobby Sproule with a solid Lake Tyers bream taken on a hardbody.

great results fishing metal blades around the bases of the jetty. A good sounder has been handy as the bream have been moving up and down the wharves, so locating them can be one of the hardest tasks. Once these schools are located, dropping a metal blade close to the structure or school and slowly working it back to the boat has been a deadly approach. Silver trevally have been a common by-catch lately and find it very hard to say no to a well worked blade. LAKE TYERS The lake seems to be getting better lately. At the time of writing, the lake has dropped down to 13ºC water temp yet masses of bream remain on the flats and have been destroying minnow style hardbodies and soft plastics. It’s the most consistent I reckon I’ve seen the bottom lake fish, with most days seeing me land 20+ bream and the majority ranging from 35-40cm. After a few red hot sessions lately I’ve found myself going back to the same couple of lures each time. The Atomic Shiner 45 and Atomic Jerk minnows have been highly productive, along with the old Squidgy

The little Atomic Shiner is consistently getting crunched lately. Flick baits or Ecogear Aqua fished extremely lightly weighted and cast up into the super shallows or cast towards any active fish you can see. With the water temps getting colder, it’s hard to say how long this brilliant edge and flats bite will remain. I haven’t been fishing anything deeper than 1.5m lately, and some fish have come out of

20cm of water on clear sand flats or sight fished and fed off the bottom. HAVE YOU BEEN FISHING? If you have been out for fish lately and have a great pic please send to stevenprykefishing@ gmail.com with short description and you could be featured in the edition of Fishing Monthly. JULY 2022

BREAM SERIES presented by

Big bream beatdown on the Hawkesbury The mighty Hawkesbury River and its many tributaries make up one of, if not the, biggest arena the ABT Daiwa BREAM series travels to, and the scale of bream tends to match the grandeur of the venue. The weather made sure to throw a few curveballs for anglers at the 7th qualifying round sponsored by Maui Jim bringing a deluge of rain on the second day, just to make things more fun for the competitors! The Sydney-based anglers had a field day with Michael Colotouros taking first place with a 10/10 fish for 9.66kg, and not even a 200g late penalty on day one could hold him back. In second place was South Coast angler and

Colotouros is now reaping the rewards of his time on the water, building himself quite the resume on the ABT circuit. Admittedly, Michael isn’t a fan of pre-fishing and as such he hasn’t pre-fished any tournament for about six years or so. “I’m a big fan of not pre-fishing, I think it’s more skilful if you can go onto a venue on tournament day with no pre-fish and adapt to the conditions to catch fish. It also stops me stinging all my fish on pre-fish that I wouldn’t be able to catch in the tournament,” he explained as his reasoning for foregoing a pre-fish. Being a Sydney local, Michael spends most of his recreational time fishing the Hawkesbury, so he decided to rely on his usual milk run of

Liam Carruthers continues his quest to win an ABT qualifying event. His second place on the Hawkesbury produced a string of big bream like this. they have to be fished on a low,” Michael said about his decision to start at the oyster leases each morning. He did so with a 2.5” bloodworm coloured Daiwa Bait Junkie grub on a 1/16oz jighead and a stout 13 Fishing rod paired with a high gear ratio 3000 Daiwa Certate with heavy braid and 12lb leader. As the tide got higher towards lunchtime, the racks became unfishable, so he progressed downriver to fish edges, casting into the incoming tide. As the tide made its way up, Michael fished the same bloodworm Daiwa

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Bait Junkie grub but on a 1/28oz TT hidden weight jighead, pitching it hard into the exposed rocks and often watching fish swim over and eat the lure. And that’s exactly what happened with his 1.4kg kicker fish on day one. This was done with Daiwa TD zero rod paired with a Daiwa Revlry spooled with 4lb straight through fluorocarbon line.

Once the tide really got up onto the rocks he put the grubs down and picked up his Crab rod, a Duffrods Shell n’ Bones 1-5kg. Pitching the Crab up on top of the rocks and crawling it around and down the face of the big boulders. If you fished the event, fair chance you were probably overtaken in a 70mph blur of black and blue 225 Mercury ProXS/Phoenix 819 and, on a system as big as the Hawkesbury, Michael Colotouros uses every bit of that 4.6L V8. It also helped him secure an extra $250 as our 1st place Mercury Owner’s bonus and I dare say

We are pretty sure that John Glover’s 1.785kg bream is the biggest bream weighed in a NSW BREAM qualifier, eclipsing Jack Olmos’ 1.74kg from the Clarence. all-round legend Liam ‘Emu’ Carruthers, who was hot on his heels with a 10/10 fish limit for 9.295kg. In the non-boater division, a 1.785kg brute on day two helped John Glover secure victory with a 6/6 limit for 5.3kg and put him nearly a kilo clear of the rest of the field. COLOTOUROS CLAIMS THE WIN He has been coming through the ABT ranks since his teenage years and Michael

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winner Interview

spots upriver to get his limit each day. “The dead low tide in the morning was perfect for fishing the oyster racks up-river near Berowra because the rails aren’t actually visible on a high tide,

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 96

JULY 2022

Angler Michael Colotouros Liam Carruthers Mario Vukic Grant Oliver Jason Mayberry Tom Slater Mark Crompton Rodney O’Sullivan Brett Crowe Bernard Kong

Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 8/10 8/10 9/10

This year, Michael Colotouros is putting in 150% instead of his standard 100% and it’s paying off. Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 9.660 9.295 7.935 7.770 7.680 7.465 7.345 6.810 6.790 6.460

Payout $3500 + $250 1st Merc bonus $1600 + $125 2nd Merc bonus $1000 + $75 3rd Merc bonus $800 $750 $700 $600 $500 no payout no payout

BREAM SERIES presented by if it wasn’t for that motor, he might have copped a bit more than a 200g late penalty! BANG’N EM ON THE BRIDGE 2015 BREAM Grand Final Champion, Liam ‘Emu’ Carruthers, reminded us all just how deadly he can be with a Cranka Crab in hand at the Hawkesbury, with almost a kilo average for his secondScan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

place finish. In pre-fish, Liam checked out a lot of usual haunts in the Pittwater, Cowan Creek, the road bridges and various banks upriver with almost too much success, catching a number of fish around the magic 40cm fork length. “I had a huge bag in pre-fish, so I was sweating that I’d stung all my fish for the weekend too early. Luckily, I didn’t, and I was able to catch good fish all weekend” he said. Liam did most of his damage for the weekend on

Michael knows which events to win around Sydney. Big fields and close to home are his speciality. headed for the bridge pylons. For the first day, he found the fish were quite active on the pylons and honing in on a crankbait in the form of a Daiwa Spike 44 MR in matte prawn colour. The spikes are a deeper running crankbait that would get down to about 10ft deep where he could see the fish sitting on his Lowrance units.

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

lemonade out of lemons however, he had no choice but to adapt and fish the deeper pylons in the middle of the river. He explained his crab technique by saying, “The trick is to ‘lead’ the crab to get it to the right depth. What I mean by lead is you have to cast 3-4m past the bridge pylon up-current so that the lure is hitting the right depth the fish are in as the current brings it back under the pylon.” Carruthers puts his trust in 3 identical Millerods Brawlers with 2500 sized Daiwa TD

Sol reels spooled with 8lb J braid Grand and 6lb Sunline V-hard leader. “The Brawlers are my absolute favourite all-round rod. They have a light tip but plenty of backbone to put the hurt on those fish if I need to. That’s why I’ve got three of them all set up identically,” he said of his rod selection. GLOVER RUNS AWAY WITH IT John Glover of the non-boater division got to work from the back of the boat in a big way. On top of winning the non-boater division, he also weighed one of the heaviest yellowfin bream the ABT has seen for a long time to take out the $500 big bream prize from Buck N’ Bass. As a non-boater you have

to be versatile and John did that perfectly, changing how he fished each day to suit the locations and structure he was fishing. To cover all his bases from crankbaits to crabs and plastics, he has a couple of identical Daiwa Infeet 702LRS outfits paired with 2000 sized Daiwa TD Sol’s, 6lb braided line and 6lb leader. “I just find this combination works really well together so I just stick with them for my four rods, they’re all exactly the same” he said. On day one he got most of his bites on a Prolure Clone Prawn, however with a new day comes a new boater and on Sunday it was all about the good ol’ heavy olive Cranka Crabs. Fishing with Christian Wardini on Sunday, they were targeting the fish sitting deep out of the edges in about 30ft of water by casting in tight to the structure and working it out off the bank. The trick was to ‘jig’ the crab, giving it a few lifts or hops off the bottom before letting it sink again with most fish eating it on the drop. Any day you hook a bream that you initially call as a mulloway is a good day, but when that fish turns out to be a 1.785kg monster netting you $500 cash, it’s an even better day. The dinosaur came when he was jigging his crab on day two and it knocked off a few trophy class fish from big bream specialist Rodney O’Sullivan and Michael Colotouros by a substantial margin to take home the Buck N’ Big bream prize.

Grayson Fong knows how to win from the back of the boat but fell short by one place on the Hawkesbury. the pylons of the Hawkesbury River Bridge at Moonee Moonee, as well as a bank up past the bridge on the low tide each morning. At the start of each session, his upriver bank produced the makings of a decent bag with a Cranka Crab, however needing those kicker fish he

Proudly a member of the Cranka lures team, Liam opted for the natural presentation of a brown Cranka Crab on day two as the cold front pushed in and shut the fish down. Liam was pushed off his pylons from day one by other boats as he went upriver to fish his bank first off. Making

Like all ABT winners, John gets instant qualification to the Daiwa BREAM Series Grand Final in Mallacoota later this year.

NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Angler John Glover Grayson Fong James Croese Alllan Lavell Glenn Allen John Parkinson Taka Kawasaki David Shanahan Jesse Rotin Joel McKenzie

Fish 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 4/6 4/6 6/6 5/6 4/6

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 5.300 4.385 4.255 4.175 3.835 3.315 3.210 3.160 3.110 3.095

Payout Daiwa prize pack + $500 Buck n’ Big bream Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack Maui Jim voucher ProLure prize pack Atomic prize pack Keitech prize pack Toadfish prize pack Toadfish prize pack JULY 2022

BREAM SERIES presented by

Vibin’ out on the Swan River in Perth The site of our second and final WA round, and the 6th qualifying round for 2022, took us to the Swan River in the states capital, Perth. The Sunline sponsored round got off to a good start and it was looking like Mitch Vane was going to take out back-to-back victories in WA if it wasn’t for a fastfinishing Pete Degroot on Sunday. In a similar turn of events in the non-boater division, we nearly saw Stuey Walker (6/6 for 2.69kg) make back-to-back wins as well after a good Sunday bag, however it wasn’t enough to knock off two solid bags brought each day by David Bennett for a total of 6/6 fish for 2.72kg.

weekend. Hitting his go-to snags, Degroot went to his confidence lure in the form of a River-2-Sea baby vibe in black and gold. To fish a vibe with treble hooks around heavy structure requires some skill, along with some modification to make it more snag resistant. For this, Pete removes the front hook and changes the back treble to a very small size 16 owner treble. Slow rolling his baby vibe through the snag, he was able to deflect it off the timber without having the front treble getting hung up, and if the rear treble did get snagged it was typically easy to get the lure back. To get his lure in amongst the snags, Peter

Peter Degroot is no stranger to the top spot in an ABT qualifier. His last win was on the Blackwood River in 2019. Scan the QR code to watch the Non- Boater Winner Interview

$250 1st place owners bonus as well. MITCH VANE MAKES IT ANOTHER PODIUM FINISH Backing up from his

win in Mandurah, Mitch Vane had a good crack at taking out back-toback wins when he was leading after day one and he came so close to being a two-time ABT champion in two events. A bit of that local knowledge came in handy again for Mitch as he knew that his best shot was to head upriver to get his fish. This saw him focus his time

Here is half of the Buck n’ Big Bream Prize. Christopher Allen tied with Joseph Gardner. THE BABY VIBE ASSASSIN STRIKES AGAIN Local angler, Peter Degroot, has seen some good results in years gone past when the ABT has come to town, and this year he got it done on the Swan River fishing his favourite baby vibe technique around the snags upriver. He knew the lower reaches of the river were quite clear and this solidified his decision to fish upriver in the dirtier water for the whole

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winner Interview

uses an Atomic Arrowz rod paired with a 2500 size Shimano Stradic Ci4 spooled up with 14lb Sunline braid and 6lb Sunline leader. “A couple of fish really had me stitched up in the timber but fortunately I was able to trust my gear and ease them out,” he said.

On day two, Pete ventured slightly further upriver in search of where he thought the fish were that he didn’t find on day one, and that’s where his solid 5/5 fish for 2.730kg day two bag came from! This launched him from second place into first over day one leader Mitch Vane. Pete’s reliable little 30hp Mercury outboard earned him enough money in Mercury owners’ bonus to probably fill it up for the next 12 months as he walked away with the

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 98

JULY 2022

Angler Pete Degroot Mitch Vane Jarrad Stevens Alex Greisdorf Greg Coooper Joseph Gardiner Kim Mcintyre Paul Siemaszko Graeme Kovacevich Kris Hickson

Fish 8/10 8/10 7/10 8/10 8/10 4/10 4/10 4/10 2/10 2/10

David Bennett fell one fish short of a limit but still managed to relegate Stuart Walker to second place. Not bad for his first ABT event.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 4.87 4.16 3.66 3.46 2.97 2.07 1.94 1.63 1.21 0.64

Payout $1750 + $250 1st Merc bonus $700 + $125 2nd Merc bonus $75 3rd Merc bonus

Maui Jim Mystery weight prize

BREAM SERIES presented by fishing snags on edges past the bridge up around the Fish Market Reserve area of the Swan River. Unlike the deep drop offs he was fishing at Mandurah, this bite was quite a bit shallower with Mitch targeting snags in 1.2-2m of water. Boat positioning played a big role in how he fished these snags too. By Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

keeping the boat in shallow and casting parallel with the bank along the snags, he was able to get his soft plastic to track along bank and keep it in the strike zone without dragging it out to deep, noting that the lure had to be hard to the structure to get bites. The soft plastic in mention was a Fatboy Swim in green pumpkinseed

Mitch Vane nearly made it two from two with a solid second place. with Mitch taking home the $125 2nd place Mercury owners’ bonus for the event. Mitch would like to say a big thanks to ABT for putting the effort in to getting the WA anglers involved. His words

the pair travelled upriver where he fished the same green pumpkin coloured Fatboy Swim as his boater, rigged on a 1/16oz Razor Edge jighead. The technique was to keep the lure moving, not letting it hit the bottom and stir up a reaction bite on the isolated structure they were fishing in about 2m of water. “I actually had my bag by 9am and Mitch had none, so he was chasing me,” he said in his winner’s interview, ribbing his day one boater! Day two with Peter Degroot, and David was pleased to know they were fishing upriver again. He had to make some small adjustments to the way

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

Joseph Gardner was the other half of the Buck n’ Big Bream duo. This fish earned him $250. with the chocolates at Perth after a 3rd place finish in the Mandurah round. Not a bad average to start the ABT career off! Dave was fishing with Mitch Vane on day one and

Win a division in the Daiwa BREAM Series and you’ll be taking home lots of quality Daiwa product. colour from local lure manufacturer Razor Edge lures, rigged on a 1/16oz TT Jighead rolled tight around the structure. This was also accompanied by a ZMan Slim SwimZ in motor oil to account for a few fish each day. Again, Mitch used his 6’6” Strudwick and 2500 Certate SW combo to get a nice accurate cast and still be sensitive enough to feel even the subtle bites. Running a Mercury outboard also got him paid,

of encouragement to any West Coast anglers thinking about taking the leap: “I know it may seem pretty daunting, especially because a lot of guys over here are used to the team format, but trust me it’s a lot of fun and there is every chance of taking home a good pay cheque. Just give it a go!” SECOND TIMES A CHARM FOR BENNETT Fishing in his second ever event as a non-boater, Dave Bennett came away

Christopher and Joseph didn’t want to ‘rock, paper, scissors’ for the $500 so they split it 50/50.

NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Angler David Bennett Stuart Walker Christopher allen Brendan Knowles Andrew Lovell Ben Hough Jenny Gardner Shardi Biahgi Andy Mitchell Craig Doherty

Fish 5/6 6/6 3/6 4/6 3/6 2/6 2/6 2/6 1/6 0/6

he fished as he was fishing deeper structure than day one. After trying to go heavier with his jighead and getting snagged, he stuck with his original lure and jighead combo and slowed his fishing down to suit the depth. For the entirety of the event David relied on one outfit, which was a 7’1” Yamaga Blanks from Japan, paired with a 1000 size Daiwa Luvias Airity, Varivas Seabass maxpower braid and 4lb J thread FC leader. “It’s a very light combo but it matches my fishing style, I was deep in the sticks with Pete today and I kept pulling them out on 4lb no worries,” he said after day two.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 2.72 2.69 2.19 2.09 1.36 0.95 0.81 0.74 0.30 0.00

Payout Bait Junkie prize pack Bait Junkie prize pack Bait Junkie prize pack + $500 Big bream Samaki prize pack Prolure prize pack Atomic prize pack RAPALA prize pack Keitech prize pack Toadfish prize pack JULY 2022

BREAM SERIES presented by

Crabs, snags and black bream bags The fifth stop of the 2022 Daiwa BREAM series also saw the start of the Western Australia double header with the first event at Mandurah, sponsored by ZMan. A neat field of 14 anglers took the water in what was a tough event for some, however local chippie Mitch Vane had the fish dialled in on Cranka Crabs and claimed victory with a 10/10 limit for 6.16kg. He’s about as far from home and his usual East Coast stomping grounds as he can get, however legend of ABT Kris Hickson was back to his usual tricks, even if he is technically on holidays! He took second place on the podium with a 10/10 limit for 5.38kg.

Who is Mitch Vane? The national breamin’ community now knows. He dominated at Mandurah and backed it up on the Swan River a few days later during ABT’s WA Tour. on. It’s certainly a mental advantage when you know full well just how tough the fishing has been over the past few months. Heading about a kilometre from the ramp, Vane targeted a series of submerged snags on a deep drop off with some special characteristics. “There was a drop off down to about 4m and I was looking for laydowns that had fallen over far enough from the bank to extend into the drop off, and that’s where the fish were sitting,” said

Scan the QR code to watch the Non- Boater Winner Interview

Vane about the type of cover he was targeting. Once he identified the snags that were holding fish, he would throw a light Cranka Crab in olive colour down the face of it without working it with the rod tip, just letting it sink down to where the fish were for a

natural presentation. Due to the lack of current he was able to fish a light crab over the more popular heavy model and still effectively fish this water depth, but with a bit more Finesse. To present his lure, Mitch went old school and used a 6’6” 2-4 kg Strudwick rod he bought off a mate for $80 – an investment that just paid for itself a few times over! He paired it with a 2500 Daiwa Certate SW, 8lb Pandora braid and a generous length of 6lb Sunline FC rock leader. With only five bites on day one and six bites on day two, he had to make sure everything stuck, and this incredibly light combo kept the hooks in those fish, even if it did cost him a few Crabs to the snags. Remember, you’ve got to risk it to get the biscuit! Thanks to Mercury, Mitch also took home the first place Mercury owners’ bonus of $250 to bring his total winnings for the weekend to almost $2,000 in cash. DIFFERENT STATE, SAME RISKY The man needs no introduction and, even though he is three states away from home, Kris ‘Captain Risky’ Hickson is still as deadly as ever. In pre-fishing up the

Didier Blanquart caught the Buck n’ Big Bream for the event – the only fish that surpassed the 1kg mark. Meanwhile in the non-boater division, the unstoppable Stuey Walker racked up his 11th win from the back of the boat with 5/6 fish for 2.79kg, further cementing his status as ‘the GOAT from the back of the boat’. VICTORY FOR VANE Taree ex-pat turned WA local Mitch Vane made the most of the trailering option to head upriver and launch at Murray Bend where he

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had found fish during his pre-fish in the weeks prior. Being a local, Mitch has the luxury of being able to fish here often and has a good understanding of how frequently the fish in this system can turn off and

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 100

JULY 2022

Angler Mitch Vane Kris Hickson Ben Pountney Peter Degroot Joseph Gardner Alex Greisdorf Patrick Gill Jarrad Stevens Didier Blanquart Rene Van Door

Fish 10/10 10/10 6/10 6/10 6/10 4/10 2/10 2/10 1/10 2/10

The G.O.A.T from the back of the boat added another trophy to his collection at Mandurah. Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 6.16 5.38 4.19 3.00 2.66 1.73 1.46 1.29 1.04 0.92

Payout $1700 + $250 1st Merc bonus $700 $125 2nd Merc bonus $75 3rd Merc bonus

$500 Buck n’ Big Bream

BREAM SERIES presented by Murray, he was unable to find anything worth noting so was resigned to fishing the canals on the south side of the river that he’d hit a few weeks earlier, at least for the first day. A slow start on day one saw him with one fish on an Ecogear Aqua Bream Prawn by about 9:30am before he and non-boater Stuey Walker Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

hit a patch of three docks that gave each of them a few fish and a few missed opportunities. After a lull in the bites, Hickson moved to another part of the canals where they saw two giant fish that they were unable to tempt, however they were able to produce four more fish from just one dock and fill their bags.

Mitch concentrated his efforts on the top part of the Murray River to assemble his bags. Apart from the first fish each session, all Kris’ fish for the weekend fell on a 2.5” Daiwa Bait Junkie Grub in motor oil as well as a new prototype Bait Junkie, all rigged on a 1/28 jighead

Buck n’ Bass proudly sponsor the Big Fish award at every ABT qualifier across the Country. With nothing else to fall back on for day two, Risky headed back to the canals and hit a dock he’d seen a pack of fish on the day before, and again he was able to get the ball rolling with an Aqua. With no company in the area, he decided to replicate the run from the day before but a lot slower and more methodical, hitting areas he’d left alone the day before. Only four more fish came from the docks that he’d fished on day one before the bite went dead, aside from sighting a few more schools of really big fish that again, he couldn’t tempt.

and fished super slow. The key to him catching fish was his pinpoint accuracy, and Daiwa have produced the perfect rods in their Infeet range. The first of which is a rod Kris had a big hand in designing, the 6’4” 1-4kg Infeet Z, which is perfect for short, accurate casting around tight structure. Meanwhile, its bigger brother the 6’8” 1-4kg Infeet Z is essentially the same rod just with more length for a bit more leverage on those big fish and better casting distance. Both set ups were paired with Daiwa Caldia LT reels,

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

6lb J Braid Grand and 6lb J Thread leader. UNSTOPPABLE STUEY WALKER Stuey Walker has been anointed the title of ‘The GOAT From The Back Of The Boat’ by his peers and boy, hasn’t he earned it! In what is becoming an extensive resume, Stuey Walker makes this his second win in WA, his 11th win from the back of the boat and he is also well on his way to win his 7th consecutive BREAM Non-Boater AOY trophy as well. Likely a record that will stand unbeaten for many years to come! Fishing with Kris

Angler Stuey Walker Jenny Gardner David Bennett Michael Sammut Craig Doherty Jason McGuinness Andrew Lovell Brandon Knowles Andy Mitchell

Fish 5/6 4/6 3/6 2/6 2/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 0/6

Kris Hickson took a break from his West Aussie touring to participate in the WA Tour and was rewarded with a second place at Mandurah.

We are not sure how Stuart Walker got this ABT trophy home. They weigh several kilos and would definitely attract excess baggage charges!

NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Hickson on day one might have sounded like a dream pairing, however as Walker pointed out it can be very hard to fish behind someone that isn’t leaving many fish behind however with a little thinking outside the box, he was able to get his three bites on day one. From the Gold Coast to Gippsland Lakes, the Derwent to Mandurah and every venue in between, he’s notorious for his ability with a ZMan Grub. However, after only receiving short strikes on the grubs and other minnow style soft plastics in pre-fish he decided to downsize to a 2” Keitech Easy shiner rigged on a 1/20 TT Headlocks jighead. “I got a lot of short strikes on pre-fish so I went

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 2.79 2.55 1.78 1.07 0.89 0.62 0.53 0.41 0.00

for a smaller profile in the Keitech,” Walker said of his bait choice in his winner’s interview with Steve Morgan. Twitching and slow rolling his lure around the pontoons in the canal systems with Kris, he was able to fill a limit on day one before shifting upriver for day two with Paul Siemaszko where the fishing became a lot more structure-based around laydown timber. His now famous Daiwa Silver wolf rods were given a workout once more, paired with a Daiwa Luvias Airity and 6lb Daiwa EVO 8 braid – a combination of Daiwa Gear that Stuey trusts in every corner of the country for all his breaming.

Payout Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack Samaki prize pack Atomic prize pack

Keitech prize pack

JULY 2022

101

Remora Boats 490 powered by Suzuki 115hp - SC

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Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

We met Jason Olivey for the first time in his shed on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It looked like any fibreglass boat builder’s shed – smelling of resin and covered in fibreglass dust. There were several boats in various stages of construction: one in the mould, one mid-build, and one on the trailer nearly ready for delivery. And like all boat manufacturers he assured us that his shed was too small and he was on the lookout for a new one. It looked like an honest call.

Main: Remora built this 490 as a stock and demonstration boat for Mak Marine. The guys have fitted it with a 115hp Suzuki and a Minn Kota electric motor among other things. Above: 115 is plenty of horsepower for this rig, and it’s fun to drive two-up.

Although there was no fuel metering available for this boat, the 100L underfloor fuel tank is definitely good for several hundred kilometres, based on previous tests with this engine. Remora Boats isn’t Jason’s first manufacturing venture. You may have heard of his brand of Remora Oceanic trolling lures that originated in his lounge room while he lived in Sydney. You can watch the full interview with Jason by scanning the QR code hereby, but he is a lifelong boat builder and always wanted to make his own brand of niche boats. We met him right at the start of his journey. At the time of this boat 116

JULY 2022

test he has finished several boats, but had many more on order. Over the years this hull size and shape has been popular with boat renovators, and the ability to buy a new one off the shelf with no wood in the construction is very tempting for many anglers. “You won’t need to replace floors and transoms in these rigs in a decade or two. Your kids will be re-powering them, not re-building them,” he said. That’s because he uses Therma-lite in the floors

and transoms where plywood used to be the material of choice. It’s a full composite build that has nothing to rot. After checking out the factory, we headed to the closest Remora dealer – Mak Marine just south of Newcastle. They had just finished fitting out a black 490 with a 115hp Suzuki outboard. Brendan Macdonald and his team from Mak Marine were excited to get the rig on the water, so we tagged along to do some filming. You can watch the video boat test by scanning the QR code on this page. It was a late afternoon on Lake Macquarie with only a small amount of chop. We took turns taking the rig for a ride. You need to remember that this is just a 4.55m hull with a

pod. Its light weight gives it responsive performance and versatility when it comes to beach launching or accessing difficult areas, but it’s not going to have everything a 6-7m boat has in it. Storage is basic, with side pockets and some area underneath the console. The test boat was fitted with a framed lean seat that can keep a cooler under it, but there is

also the option of a fibreglass storage and live well combo in the helm seat position. Some will see this as a negative. The floor is kept at the same level throughout. Some people may want a raised casting deck (and the storage that comes with it), however this trades-off gunwale height, which you’ll likely need when fishing in the ocean. The console seems proportionally the right size and there’s a handrail around the top of it that’ll be handy when it’s rough. It fits fish finders up to 16”, bracket mounted on the dash. Small touches, like the customised Remora switch pad are neat. We also liked the mounting for the electric motor on the front - some clever stainless steel tubework presents a good looking and practical solution. I assume not many of these built for fishing will go out of the dealership without one. Judging by the smile on Brendan’s face, we reckon that he was happy with his first Remora. There was no fuel metering installed at the time of testing, but we achieved

a top speed of high 60km/h with the standard Suzuki 19” three blade aluminium propeller and it cruised nicely at 3,500-4,000rpm. Performance data is listed in the table. As tested, this rig will set you back $57,000, however Remora packages start in the late-forties with a smaller outboard. Remora don’t sell direct to the public, so if you’re keen on a quote or a ride, see the guys at Mak Marine or on www.makmarine.com.au. You may also be keen on Remora’s Instagram page – it’s quite active. PERFORMANCE RPM .... Speed (km/h) Idle ......................... 2 1000 ........................ 6 2000.......................11 3000...................... 21 3500 ...................... 36 4000...................... 43 5000...................... 55 6000...................... 64 • Running a 19” 3 blade Suzuki aluminium propeller.

Scan the QR code to watch the Jason Olivey Interview

SPECIFICATIONS Length .....................4.9m Beam .................... 2.04m Fuel ..........................100L Max hp ..................115hp Capacity......... 5 persons Length on trailer .... 7.1m

There are some serious reverse chines underneath this hull, keeping the small chop spray down.

Top: Mak Marine is a Suzuki dealer and fitted this demo boat with the 115hp platform. Above: Towrex Trailers supply the trailers to Remora, which packages them for the dealers.

There is no wood used in the construction of these hulls – Fibreglass and Thermolite mean there’s nothing to rot.

Relatively high gunwales all round and with no casting deck, the Remora is a well suited to ocean fishing work.

The complete package fits and tows easily on a single axle trailer, which means that it’s quite manoeuvrable when fitting this boat into a standard garage.

We loved the stainless rail solution for the bow mounted electric motor mounting.

Above:The inclusion of the pod into the hull extends the original 4.55m hull length to 4.90m. Bottom Left: The console will take a bracket-mount MFD to 16” behind the windscreen. Bottom Right: This is one of two iterations for helm seating. The other is a moulded box that fits a livewell and some gear storage.

Left: The Remora hulls are currently being made on the NSW Central Coast by Jason Olivey and his team. Top Right: Jason prefers trailers with carpeted skids, although you can order a roller trailer if your launching situation requires it. Bottom Right: The Towrex trailers have the alloy wheels as standard. JULY 2022

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