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Understanding fishing structure • Are you ready to fish a tournament? • Kayak: Rainy day activities • The cost to fish consumers • Boat Test: Whittley FF1650 •

Technique Spotlight

Sean Thompson shows us how to find more fish by understanding fishing structure N E W•

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June, 2022 ISSN 2652-5798

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Fishing Monthly Magazines

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CONTENTS

OUR COVER June 2022, Vol. 3 No.2 VIC

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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 38 41 42 43 44

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

50 52 53 54 56 58 59 60 60 61 62 63 64 64 66 68 69 70

VICTORIA Warrnambool Portland Cobden Geelong Port Phillip West Port Phillip East Marlo Gippsland Lakes Lakes Entrance Bemm River Mallacoota Robinvale Bendigo Ballarat Wangaratta Shepparton Gippsland Freshwater Crater Lakes Eildon Yarrawonga

78 78 79 80 82 81 81 84 85 84 85 86 89 88 90 91 91 93 92 93

JUNE 2022

From the Editor’s Desk...

Angus James with a nice Victorian golden perch caught on a TT’S Vortex spinnerbait. An Angus James image. Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.

TASMANIA Hobart WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance Augusta Bunbury Metro Mandurah Kalbarri Lancelin Exmouth Karratha Freshwater

It had to happen eventually, I’m writing this Editorial while isolating at home with COVID. I suppose I’m lucky that I hadn’t caught it sooner, my schedule this last 12 months has taken me to every state in Australia, including Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. It is only now that I appreciate, however, what a machine my business partner and FM’s Production Manager, Matthew Drinkall, is. He built the whole of February 2022 issue while ill with COVID. We have all been working from home since the lockdowns of 2020, and I don’t blame Matt for loving working from home. His unit overlooks the Brisbane River and he can indulge in one of his passions (photographing boats on the Brisbane River) only a few steps from his magazinemaking machine. You can check it out on his Facebook page ‘Brisbane River Boats’ if you’re interested. But ever since he made his first magazine for FM in 1994, he hasn’t missed an issue. Not one. Even with COVID. I get all of the cool jobs – in front of the camera, doing the junkets and going

74 107 108 109 110 111 114 112 114 115 116

COMPS AND OFFERS Find the logo

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Advertising: Copy and materials should be sent direct to: ads@fishingmonthly.com.au Advertising Enquiries: Nicole Kelly: nkelly@fishingmonthly.com.au Phone: 0407 369 333 Peter Jung: pjung@fishingmonthly.com.au Phone: 0410 662 927 FREECALL: 1800 228 244

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fishing. Matt’s usually the one behind the scenes making it all happen. Taking the spills when the boat tests get a little rough and ensuring the magazine is as perfect as can be every issue. Personally, I find it hard to write this Editorial with the brain fog. So well done Matt and the rest of the team. As much as the readers do, I appreciate the effort put in through all of the adversity we’ve suffered over the years. It’s a tough job I feel we do well.

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REGULAR FEATURES Understanding structure Starlo’s back to basics Sheik of the Creek Kayak: Rainy day activities Cost of Victorian angling gift What’s New Fishing Fun page WIRF Tournament Calendar Tournaments Recfishwest Trades and Services/Tide page Boat Test: Whittley FF1650

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Understanding structure and cover to find fish including beaches, estuaries, freshwater, bays and offshore. THE BEACH The beach holds so many options and so much potential if you know how to make the most of it. Constant waves, swell, changing tides and wind results in constantly shifting

BRISBANE

Sean Thompson

So much is written about the best times, tides, tackle, baits, lures and more to find fish consistently. All of these factors are important. But probably the number one reason for a fish to be in an area is the presence of a combination of structure and cover. In the absence of any underwater structure, fish may travel through an area but will generally keep moving in the search of food or cover or both. While many anglers may be familiar with the terms structure and cover, it is fair to say that they are often incorrectly used interchangeably. Furthermore, it is one thing for an angler to recognise the terms, but another to also understand why and when fish utilise these features. This ability is probably one of THE key ingredients in the make-up of the most successful anglers. STRUCTURE AND COVER So, what is meant by the terms structure and cover? In fishing terms, structure can best be described as the physical features of the bottom and outer limits (shoreline) of a body of water. This structure may have been formed naturally, e.g. currents scouring out a drain over soft sand on the estuary

weeks of strong onshore or sea breezes, heavier waves and swells develop, causing new deeper formations close to the shore as the swell pounds out and removes sand close to shore. On the other hand, calmer land breezes (or offshore winds) have the effect of flattening the swell

Flathead are perfect targets in estuary structure, such as muddy sand flats interspersed with weed. flats, or artificial e.g. a dredge digging out a deeper entrance to a river entrance after it has become silted up. Structure provides a couple of key uses for fish. This includes attracting baitfish (e.g. to hold position in a beach gutter close to shore); as a place to hold position out of the main current; or as an ambush point to attack their prey. Fish also use structure like an underwater roadmap to move around in, e.g.

to move along in a long beach channel. Cover on the other hand is anything that fish can use

Steeply shelving shore-based structure that drops into darker green water is a great spot to target fish like tailor, salmon (down south) and even mulloway.

Structure, such as this long beach gutter on Fraser Island, with two exit points (rips) to deeper water is a perfect location to target fish like tailor.

My sounder’s contour map showing a steep shelving bottom on the left (close contour lines) and two deep holes (close circles).

A close up of the close contour lines, indicating a ledge that has produced fish such as cod, sweetlip and parrotfish. 8

JUNE 2022

sands back towards the shore filling in the structure of those churned out sand formations. For beach anglers, the main formations caused by these shifting sands under the water are gutters, holes, channels and spits. These beach formations are best spotted from an elevated

to take refuge or hide under or around e.g. underwater snags. Cover can also be used by predators such as flathead, mangrove jack and barramundi to hide in or under to ambush their prey. Cover can be either natural features like seagrass, fallen timber, lily pads or rocks or man-made such as dam walls, bridge pylons, wharves and jetties, pontoons and marinas and breakwalls. Artificial cover often provides a dual benefit to the fish, i.e. a place to conserve energy and sit out of the current while also using it as a position to feed on the titbits swept past in the current. TYPES OF STUCTURE AND COVER With that distinction out of the way, let’s now consider some of these features in various waterways

level, either from viewing platforms or dunes above the beach. Basically, you are looking for changes in structure (in this case, the sand bottom) which is obvious by the colour of the water and wave behaviour. Darker water means deeper water scoured out of the sand. Steeply shelving sand into darker water is also a sure sign of deeper water close to the beach. Waves which break offshore before reforming and don’t break until they get closer to shore is a giveaway of the type of bottom structure. Firstly, the waves are breaking over a back shallower sandbank and then reforming and not

Cover in the form of a boat ramp pontoon. Note the rippled water on the windward side, which would be where fish are holding. sands which form the bottom structure of the formations closest to the shore. After several days or

and seas out. Longer periods of land breezes will bring bait in close to shore and will gradually start shifting

breaking over darker deeper water. They break again as the underwater sand shelves up to shallow water.

I go into much more detail on beach formations in my article, “Mastering the art of fishing the beach” in the July 2019 edition of what was Queensland Fishing Monthly, and is available online. But for the sakes of this article, very long stretches of deep water running parallel to the beach are channels, or natural highways for the fish to travel along in search of food or more isolated structure, which will hold bait. Better spots to target on the beach are smaller formations of deeper water either in the form of a gutter with an entry and exit point to deeper water or isolated deep holes close to shore. Smaller species like whiting prefer calmer shallow gutters close to shore at low tide, while bigger species like tailor, salmon and mulloway prefer to hunt the deeper water of gutters, but

steep slope or drop off), or a circular shape with increasingly smaller circles inside it to indicate an ocean trench or underwater rise. Raised-relief maps or terrain maps offer a further advantage as they show a 3-dimensional shaded view of the bottom structure using high resolution sonar. In general, offshore and bay anglers should be looking for areas where the flat bottom surface is punctuated with natural or

green or grey water can be the result of northerly surface winds pushing warmer surface waters out to sea and replacing them with colder, murkier (more sediment rich) water which has come from deep water upwellings. These changes can of course also be picked up by your sounder, noting however it is reading surface temperatures only. Not all fish like the warmer blue waters however, and many

on the last couple of hours of the rising tide can also be ok, but you need to be prepared to float your baits or throw your lures under the cover where the fish will be sheltering. This requires slightly heavier tackle and tighter drags! The use of burley can also be useful to bring the fish to you. Note too the direction of the wind when fishing such locations and fish the windward rather than the calm leeward side. This is

Hooked up on a freshwater bass after using the sounder to find bait near the old riverbed. if you really want to learn to find new or less fished ground yourself you need to learn to read and interpret a sounder fitted with good quality nautical charts/

These can be found by the use of either two-dimensional contour maps that use colours and shades to show different depths. You should examine

Shallow beach gutters are perfect structure to target whiting feeding right on the shore.

Shallow drains either side of a sand spit is great structure to target whiting on a rising tide on the estuary flats. don’t dismiss the offshore sandbank of such gutters covered at high tide even during the middle of the day. Finally, be aware also that isolated patches of cover such as rocky outcrops along the beach will also attract fish around them. Further, don’t dismiss natural cover such as floating dune seagrasses after heavy seas or even flotsam such as wood or material from a shipwreck as a potential fish attracting item in inshore gutters. BAY AND OFFSHORE Bay and offshore fishos are faced with huge expanses of water in which to fish from. This can be both exciting but on also overwhelming to new anglers or unsuccessful anglers wondering where to fish next. This is where the importance of finding structure and cover is critical. A bit of research online, or a chat at the closest tackle shop to the ramp might help steer you in the right direction. But

maps. Such charts will help you discover structural changes to the bottom including ledges, drop offs, pinnacles and holes along with cover such as weed beds and rocks.

these maps for variations in the contours, which is a sign of changes to the bottom structure. Look at where the contour lines get closer together or touch (indicating an underwater

man-made reef, isolated pinnacles, trenches, weed beds or isolated rocks. These will attract bait and with them bigger fish. Offshore anglers are also often on the lookout for more intangible changes in “structure” in the threedimensional layers of the ocean such as changes in water temperature and its associated colour. Water colour and temperature changes can be picked up by a combination of natural observation and your sounder. For example, marlin anglers chase warmer blue waters as opposed to dark green or grey murky waters, which are colder. Colder, darker

Following your depth contours on your sounder is a good option to target the right depth water when trolling for fish like school mackerel in the bay.

bay and inshore reef anglers look forward to the arrival of colder more-nutrient rich waters to attract fish such as snapper. ESTAURIES, RIVERS, CREEKS AND LAKES Estuaries – including creeks, rivers, sandflats and lakes, truly contain a plethora of options for anglers either from the shore or a small boat. By understanding the underwater structure and cover throughout these environments will help you land more fish. Let’s start with some of the man-made cover in our estuaries. These include physical infrastructure in and on top of the water that provides cover for fish such as bridges, jetties, marinas, pontoons. Such locations offer great fish attracting potential as marine growth on their pillars and posts attracts baitfish which in turn attracts bigger predators. These locations also provide a break in the current or flow which provides a place for fish to conserve energy out of the current while at the same time, feed on food floating past with the current. Above water cover from these facilities also provides shade and protection from predators. The peak time to fish these locations are change of light periods of dawn and dusk and as a general rule with a rising tide covering more of the marine growth on the posts and pylons. Daytime fishing, particularly

due to the fact ripples on the water on the windward side provide protection, while it is also the area where food carried with the wind will be pushed to. Many of these features also have permanent light sources that shine on the water. This attracts bait fish and squid and as a result big predators will lurk around the demarcation line of this light to attack prey that strays too far from the underwater protection of the poles, posts and other man-made snags. Another area of structure/cover to target is rockwalls. These provide access to deeper water and also act as a handy location to target fish entering and exiting the estuary with the tides. The underwater boulders provide a perfect environment for the growth of oysters and other marine growth. Likewise, the demarcation line between the sand and the rocks can also be a popular spot for bigger fish as a break in the current as well as an area to either eat the marine growth or target the baitfish it attracts. A good way to fish rockwalls when they are not busy is walking the wall with floats and baits or just baits like ganged pilchards just weighted enough to hold bottom but move with the tide. If it is too busy to do so, you can use lures to either target an area of the rocks – a great option after floods have pushed big predators To page 10

JUNE 2022

Southern

OLD

Chilly conditions produce killer catches BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

We are right in the thick of the cold weather now. June is a month that promises plenty of quality fishing yet also dishes out some very cold conditions. Those fishing early mornings or into the evening had better layer the clothes to avoid suffering the elements. However, the quality of the snapper, mulloway, luderick, squid, bream that can be caught will soften the discomfort of the elements. In addition, many other species are also on offer for those venturing out during June.

you see baitifish such as gar and hardiheads on the surface then there is a great chance that snapper will be lurking. Your lure will often get smashed as it sinks or your bait engulfed as soon as it settles on the bottom if snapper are on patrol. Snapper will freely roam the bay island margins in search of prey and you don’t need to be on a particular spot to catch fish. However, the edges of drop-offs and small gutters can often be productive spots. The secret element is baitfish, which form a large portion of their diet. If you find spots where baitfish, crustaceans and cephalopods are common, you will likely find

Those who specifically target them are most likely to score quality mulloway, however, plenty are caught as by-catch by those targeting snapper and threadfin. SNAPPER Definitely one of the most desirable species for Moreton Bay anglers during June is snapper. These crimson fish area great sport and awesome table fare. They will respond to a wide array of lures and baits and are available in a broad array of locations throughout Moreton Bay and into the Brisbane River. The shallows of the bay islands can produce some quality fish when the water is somewhat discoloured but as the waters clear due to westerly winds, anglers will often need to fish deeper water or wider out for results. If 26

JUNE 2022

the snapper. The artificial reefs also fish well for snapper. The structures placed here offer homes and sanctuary for many baitfish species and create an entire aquatic ecosystem. The Harry Atkinson, Bill Turner, Curtin, East Coochie and West Peel are some of the better known and more commonly fished ones within Moreton Bay and can all produce species such as snapper, mulloway, cod, sweetlip, tuskfish, flathead and others. Both baits and lures will work well in capable hands. Some of the better bait offerings are fillets (mullet, pike, gar, slimey

mackerel, bonito and tuna), large fresh banana prawns, live squid and numerous live baitfish such as slimey mackerel, yakkas, mullet, herring and pike. However, the easily accessible frozen pilchards and squid still account for a lot of decent fish. When the water clarity is high, finesse rigging with fluorocarbon leaders, minimal sinker weight and hooks well buried into the bait with just the points proud, will increase the bite rate. Allowing the snapper to mouth and move away with the bait before setting the hook will greatly increase results. In the artificial offerings arena, a lot of different styles will work. Soft vibes, paddle tail plastics, jerk shads, crustacean profiles, micro jigs and blades can all produce the goods. Some even like to target snapper on fly, with clousers (and their clones), weighted bend backs, deceivers and game changers all producing the goods. A fast-sinking fly line will be required in a lot of areas to get these flies down into the lower third of the water column. Artificial offerings are usually cast up current and retrieved back with in the same direction as the water flow. This will help to increase the sink rate of the offering as well as the realism of presentation. Often whilst drifting and casting ahead, you can also have a soft plastic shad or crustacean profile dragging aft with the rod in the holder. This dead sticking technique will often produce the fish of the day due to the subtleness of the retrieve. LUDERICK Although not a species that is heavily targeted, the luderick (aka blackfish) is a great sportfish and excellent table fish when handled correctly. Luderick are primarily vegetarians yet will occasionally eat a worm, yabby or baitfish. I have even had them hit a lure and fly on occasion yet fishing with weed baits will increase your chances considerably. These baits are usually presented beneath a float so you can drift them along rock walls, the fronts of jetties, wharves and other structures where aquatic weeds grow and luderick will linger. These floats are weighted so that they are near neutral buoyancy and easy for the luderick to pull beneath the surface without feeling any resistance. Many serious luderick anglers will make their own floats but there are some decent quality floats

available at any decent tackle store. Long rods between 2.7m and 3.6m sporting soft tips and powerful butts are desirable. Centrepin reels allow an easy, uninterrupted flow of line as the floats drift away with the current. Once the float is deployed, with baits at a set depth below the surface, a slight dipping of the float (commonly referred to as ‘a down’) or even a rising of the float (‘a rise’) will indicate that a luderick has mouthed the bait and swam down or up. This is the time to lift the rod tip and set the hooks. The softness of the rod tip will absorb the lunges of the powerful luderick and help to keep the light 6-12lb fluorocarbon leaders intact. Luderick are best kept alive until just before processing. Their black gut lining will taint the flesh somewhat if they are left whole for a considerable time after death. Anglers will often keep luderick in a mesh bag left in the water until just before filleting. Dispatch, bleed, fillet, skin and remove the black gut lining and you are left with some very tasty white fillets. I often soak these fillets in seawater for up to an hour, which helps to leach any blood out of the fillets. Many consider ‘luds’ almost as good as many reef fish species. The coming months should be prime for luderick due

to healthy weed growth spurned from a recent nutrient level increase resulting from flooding, will entice greater numbers into the estuaries. MULLOWAY Often referred to as ‘ghosts of the estuary’ due to their elusiveness, mulloway numbers will be awesome over the coming months. Even at the time of writing this report, many anglers were beginning to score on mulloway in the lower reaches of the Brisbane River. These were taken on both baits and lures, often by anglers targeting threadfin salmon. Mulloway will continue to roam this precinct and will also be caught well out into the bay and up towards the Jumpinpin area in the coming months. The artificial reefs and wrecks throughout Moreton Bay are ideal places to target mulloway. They will often roam these areas in sizeable schools and are easily located using you sounder. They will respond to a broad array of lures and baits. Live baits are ideal if fishing from anchor and trying to attract the mulloway to the area. A strongly kicking bait such as a mullet, pike or slimey mackerel is ideal however herring, banana prawns, yakkas and several others will work. Even dead offerings will produce a few mulloway with big fillets, whole squid and even the humble pillie working well. Most lures put in

front of a mulloway will solicit a strike. However, I prefer soft vibes and large paddle tail plastics to tempting them. Some of my best mulloway have been tempted on Samaki thumpertails, many whilst targeting snapper and other species. These are only a 100mm long lure and seem miniscule in the mouth of a 15kg mulloway but they get the bites. Mulloway sounded in deeper water can be targeted with a micro jig that can be freespooled down right in front of them. This is often the case in areas such as the Tiwi Pearl, Ammo Barge and Captajn Nelson wrecks. Mulloway are a great sport fish and I consider them exceptional eating with a good yield of flesh. I am expecting this season to be one of the best for many years. SQUID Westerly winds quickly produce clean water conditions around the foreshores and islands of Moreton Bay. This produces ideal conditions for many cephalopod species including squid. Anglers pounding the pavement and jetties at Manly, Victoria Point, Wellington Point, Scarborough and Wynnum regularly score on large tiger squid and the occasional arrow during the darkened hours. Many of these are firstly sighted with high-powered head torches and then an egi (squid jig) is cast in the general direction. Some

Any angler would be happy with a winter bag of quality snapper and cod from Moreton Bay.

Southern

OLD

squid will quickly pounce on the egi and others are exceptionally cautious, often requiring several jig changes to get a result, if at all. Commonly egi in the 1.2 to 2.5 sizes are used for these inshore squid. Further out in the bay, squid can be caught anywhere there is clear water running over reef, rock, rubble of weed. This includes the shallows of the bay islands, weed beds south of Dunwich and along the western side of Moreton Island and the weed beds and discoloured channel edges in the eastern end of the Rous Channel. Here anglers will often use egi in the 2.5 to 4.0 range. These can be cast out and then retrieved with a hop and pause (to allow the jig to again sink) or even a slow wind with occasional pauses. Anglers drifting in the channels will often deploy an egi or baited skewer aft to tempt both tiger and arrow squid as well as the occasional cuttlefish. Whiting fishers will do the same except the offering is often suspended beneath a float due to the shallower water. This will regularly provide a calamari entree to add to the tasty fillets. Cuttlefish will occasionally be taken in

the same areas as squid yet are more common in the deeper channels. Many will add some weight to their egi or fish it on a paternoster style rig to get it close to the bottom in the deeper channels such as where the Small Ships Channel joins the Rous, out the front of Wellington

Point and Green Island and out from Ormiston. These jigs are generally drifted until the rod tip slowly loads up. When retrieving cephalopods, just wind them in slowly with the rod tip held high to absorb the head shakes. Do not pump and wind as you would with a fish otherwise they will be

able to dislodge the jig and escape. There are bag limits and boat limits for squid and cuttlefish (yet no size limits) so ensure to check these before venturing out. BREAM Bream numbers will increase steadily over the coming months with some of the best action in July

With increased nutrient levels in the estuaries, the colder months promise to produce numbers of quality luderick for those who learn the techniques of targeting them.

and August. Bream are a species that can be caught in many different ways on both baits and lures. They can be somewhat of a scavenger eating most offerings they come across yet can also be rather predatory. Therefore, they will respond to may different baits and lures. Many anglers have made a fine art out of catching them on lures with topwater offerings, crab lures, shrimp imitations, numerous minnow lures, blades and more recently even mussel imitating lures getting the bites. Many anglers first fish caught has been a bream. They will respond to even the crappiest of servo bought baits, chicken fillets and livers, dough baits and numerous others. Those keener anglers will usually go to the effort to source some worms, saltwater yabbies or fresh fillet baits from mullet, pike, gar, herring and like. Bream can be located almost anywhere there is a suitable food source and anglers fishing the residential canals, beaches, bay island shallows, creeks, rivers and estuaries are all in with a great chance of catching a few bream. Casting lures such as diving minnows,

blades and Cranka Crabs along rock walls, adjacent pontoons, near bridge pylons and underneath jetties is likely to get you bitten. Bream are a great species to target if you are new to lure fishing and will really allow you to hone your skills. As they are plentiful you will get a lot more bites and your learning curve will be quicker than it is for many other species. CONCLUSION Although the cold weather will make many a little less enthusiastic to venture outside, the rewards of some of the more abundant species to be caught should be inspiration enough. Whether you are into lure, bait or fly fishing, there is a great array of suitable targets. Put on some warm clothes and headwear, grab a flask of hot coffee or milo and get on out there. I am expecting the winter fishery to be one of the best for many years courtesy of the early year floods and subsequent nutrient flush in Moreton Bay and the rivers and estuaries. Baitfish presence will be higher, there will be more predators to be caught and the bites should be more aggressive. What are you waiting for?

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Soft vibes and blades THE HASTINGS

Mark Saxon castawayestuarycharters@bigpond.com

If you’re a lure angler and you haven’t used a vibration lure yet, you are doing things the hard way! Winter angling in our rivers can be exceptional, and fishing deep with one of the many soft or hard vibes will get you most species,

as well as get you too the fish quickly. Let’s start with soft vibration lures. The 70mm size is ideal for bream and flathead, and you may also encounter school mulloway (jewfish), whiting, trevally and even luderick at times. When fishing the Hastings along the walls, bridges and deep holes with soft vibes you can catch a lot of fish. The techniques to use depend

on the tide and bottom structure. I like to cast up or slightly across the tide, and make a small double hop off the bottom with pauses. It’s good to have a long pause before repeating lifts, because a lot of hits come when the lure is paused. Jewfish and bream will both tap at a paused lure before taking off, so be aware. The smaller vibes are great on bream but can be problematic on flathead, especially if you want to release your fish. Flathead can take small vibes right down into their gills, and care needs to be taken to retrieve your lure so that the

Steve with a solid mulloway taken on a small metal blade.

John vibing the bridge structure. Martin with a healthy vibe-caught bream.

Flathead love vibes.

fish has a chance of survival. The 100mm and 120mm lure sizes are more a mainstay for your river mulloway but again, they look reasonably small in a big jewie or flatty. June should be good for mulloway, and I’m tipping there may be a fair few smaller fish about after all this rain, which will be good for coming seasons. I like to run my bigger vibes on rods around 3-6kg and 3000-sized reels loaded with 5-7kg braid and 7-8kg leader. For blades and smaller soft vibes I use 1-3kg gear and a 1000-size reel. I prefer a fast-action rod

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JUNE 2022

– one that allows your vibe to start working with minimal tip movement. I personally don’t like soft rods for vibing. Metal blades can also be the go-to lure this month. Any angler who is proficient in using metal vibes knows they have a completely different vibration from soft vibes. The vibration of a good quality metal vibe is much more intense. On the days you find fish schooling – whether it’s bream, jewies or bass – they’re sometimes not interested in soft vibes, but will go crazy when you change to metal or polycarbonate blades. The fish’s preference changes from day to day, so it’s good to bring a variety of vibes/ blades with you. If you want to chase fish in the deep this month, your sounder will be important. Many times you can find decent-size schools of bream in holes away from normal structure. Sometimes I’ll turn up to a location on the river where they were yesterday only to find they have moved further down – and the hole that had zip yesterday now holds the fish. If you keep your eyes on the sounder you also can move from school to school, making for a good day’s fishing.

THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY Now let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to fishing with vibes. First up, the good thing about vibes is that they are relatively heavy, cast a

mile, get down quickly and eliminate bow in the line, and you can feel them vibrating so you know they are working. And of course, they catch a lot of fish! The bad thing about vibes is that sometimes they tumble on the cast, tangling up, and forcing you to start again. Or a fish will hit the vibe and the hook will go over the line, and you have to start again. Same thing happens next cast. Start again. And on a fast-flowing tide, these lures like to tangle themselves. Start again. The ‘ugly’, as much as we don’t want to see it happen, is that a big female flathead can engulf a big vibe in its gills. Fighting the fish when it’s hooked like this is generally fatal, but fortunately it doesn’t happen too often. One you have mastered using vibes you’ll find them to be very effective. You can catch big quantities of fish, so be reasonable in what you keep, and release a few to fight another day. Grab a handful of vibes this winter from your local tackle store and get into it.

Mandy with one of many bream caught in an afternoon session.

NSW

Winter bliss on the water FORSTER

Luke Austin

For many anglers June represents a bit of a golden period on the fishing calendar. Yes, the air is chilly and the weather can get a bit rough at times, but the

(and many more lost) lately. The rock walls are also fishing well for bream, particularly for those anglers fishing the rising/ full tide, which is often a major factor in finding success when it comes to bream. For the ultimate rush in light tackle fishing, hit the rock walls on a high tide and flick lightly-

good throughout much of the system, with some very good reports filtering through from up the Wallamba River and up around Regatta Island. While there are no really big fish being caught up there, most fish are between 35-65cm and are loving hardbodied diving lures as well as soft and metal vibes. If you would prefer to target some larger fish, throwing large hardbodied lures about the shallows down toward the mouth of the system is definitely still an option. The number of big fish that we see caught over the cooler months down around the mouth just goes to show that not all of the

this month. Most beaches are still fishing relatively well for bream, and the northern end of 9 Mile and southern end of Blueys Beach have probably been the standout beaches of late. Tailor and salmon seem to be spread all over the place for now, but the one thing that seems to be holding true is that the bigger tailor have all been caught on bait after dark. If you prefer to chase them on lures you will find the bite window may be quite short, and right on dusk or dawn. Reports from the stones lately have been all about the drummer, which is fairly typical for June! While there

Shane Crockett with a tasty bar cod from out wider.

Doug with a cracking June bream. winter angling options really start to peak this month and we can expect to see some cracking fish getting about over the next 6-8 weeks. In our estuaries, most of the action has been in the lower reaches of the system, with the rock walls, bridge and oyster leases holding huge amounts of bream and luderick. The Paddock area of oyster leases is producing some really good bream. Floating unweighted baits into the racks is a very simple but effective technique which has seen quite a few fish up to 40cm+ landed

weighted plastics into the eddies and backwaters, then hold on and wind hard! Luderick have finally started to thicken up along the walls now and are taking both cabbage and string weed as well as imitation weed flies. With the fish about in such high numbers, it’s not all that hard to fish until you hit your bag limit. Please keep only what you need. Keeping more than you need doesn’t make sense when you can easily go back the next day and get more if you need to. Flathead remain very

Big flathead are a year-round target these days. fish travel upriver in winter, and that those fish that hang about down the bottom do still have to feed at some point. While cool temperatures and rough seas aren’t always nice for beach fishing, those anglers that rug up and tough it out will be rewarded with some nice tailor, salmon and bream

have been some great fish caught they are still a little patchy, with a lot of reports coming through of only one or two drummer in the first few casts. Instead, anglers have been met by schools of big,

hungry bream and luderick. There have been a select few anglers who have been heading out to the ledges before dawn in search of winter snapper, and reports have been good so far with most trips resulting in a few fish. The better fish have all come from down around Pacific Palms and Seal Rocks. It’s very hard to beat offshore fishing in winter, particularly if you like your snapper, crossing the bar and heading out all rugged up with teeth chattering and a thermos full of hot tea or coffee. It’s absolute bliss for almost any angler! By far the best results lately have come from those reefs to the north, with some great fish coming from all sorts of depths. The shallow grounds between Blackhead and Old Bar will nearly always produce plenty of action this month. You can easily lose count of how many fish you’ve

caught, and releasing 5-6 fish over 70cm is always on the cards! Snapper are super hungry at this time of the year and will happily smash floated baits, soft plastics and kaburastyle jigs. Anglers heading out a little wider have also been faring quite well lately, and have been bringing home lovely mixed bags consisting of some very nice snapper, trag, pearl perch, morwong, flathead and even the odd bar cod! • Luke is the owner of Great Lakes Tackle – your ‘local’ bait and tackle store. They sell only the best brands and offer sound, friendly advice on where you can go to land your next trophy fish while visiting the wonderful Great Lakes region! They are open 7 days in the main street of Tuncurry, and you can phone them on 02 6554 9541 or find them on Facebook to see what they have been up to!

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Rob Voorby with a nice tailor that hammered his Bent Minnow.

13 VICTORIA ST TAREE NSW admin@manningrivermarine.com.au

www.manningrivermarine.com.au JUNE 2022

PRODUCT GUIDE

VERSUS TAI JIG CASE

When you invest so much in your Tai Rubber jigs you need to make sure they are well looked after and easily accessible when on the water. To that end, Versus has developed the ultimate case for this purpose, with individually cut out areas that hold your lures and hooks in a perfect position. The Versus Tai Jig Case is available in two sizes. The VW-2010NS is the smaller version, holding eight jigs, while the larger VW-2020NS model holds 12 jigs. Each case has a crystal-clear lid and superior locking clasp with stainless steel pins. Being part of the Versus Wave series, it also allows you to wash your jigs at the end of the day. There are drainage ducts positioned throughout the case, so you can feed freshwater in and let the case do the work for you. Visit the Versus Meiho Australia on Instagram and Facebook (@versusmeiho) for more information and stockists.

STRIKE PRO CRASH-SP

The Strike Pro Crash-SP is a new super deep diving minnow of the highest quality. The Crash-SP crash dives to approximately 4m and is ideal for fishing deep drop-offs, over the top of deep weed beds, and when fishing cockle beds and pole bases in deep water where you may use a metal vibe lure. It suspends in saltwater so you can keep it in the strike zone and maximise your chances of success. This new lure has proven to be very effective on bream, estuary perch, flathead, bass and trout. It weighs 5.2g and has a Weight Transfer System for increased casting distance. It’s available in eight proven colours and measures 4.8cm long. To find out more about the Crash-SP and other new lures from Strike Pro, visit the Juro Fishing website. www.jurofishing.com

DAIWA 22 TD ZERO

The new 22 TD Zero rod range provides anglers with a feature-packed and diverse rod series. A HVF Nanoplus blank provides optimum sensitivity and weightlessness, while the X45X Full shield construction used in the lower section of the blank increases torsional stiffness, providing resistance to twisting, eliminating blank distortion, and enhancing blank strength and durability. The mid-join 2-piece models feature V-Joint Alpha technology – the bias wrap construction in the ferrule eliminates weak and flat spots, and keeps the weight down to create a one-piece feel. These rods feature a combination guide train of Fuji Stainless Steel and Titanium SiC anti-tangle guides. The use of lightweight titanium framed guides on the tip section removes weight and increases responsiveness and heightens angler feel. Daiwa’s new Air Sensor reel seats deliver in looks, strength and efficiency. There are nine spin models and seven baitcasters in the range. Whether it’s a finesse rod for your next bream or bass trip, or a heavy-duty baitcaster or spin rod for muscling cod in the rivers and barra in the lakes, the TD Zero series has you covered. www.daiwafishing.com.au

JUNE 2022

WHAT’S NEW FISHING

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

HELIX 10 CHIRP MEGA SI+

The Helix 10 CHIRP MSI+ GPS G4N features a 10.1” display, Mega Side Imaging+, Mega Down Imaging+, Dual Spectrum CHIRP Sonar and internal GPS with Humminbird Basemap. Standard features include AutoChart Live, Wi-Fi and NMEA 2000, plus Bluetooth and ethernet networking for compatibility with the One-Boat Network family of products from Humminbird, Minn Kota and Cannon. This unit includes a Navionics+ map card. Mega Side Imaging+ provides crystalclear Side Imaging viewing out to 60m on either side of your boat, while Mega Down Imaging+ provides coverage down to 60m below. Side Imaging+ and Down Imaging+ provide 20% more detail and 60% more depth capability than their predecessors. The enhanced basemap provides a clear view of underwater terrain and surrounding points of interest, and AutoChart Live lets you create real-time maps of depth contours, bottom hardness and vegetation as you drive. The Helix 10 includes control head, transom mount transducer and mounting hardware, power cable and gimbal mounting bracket, and it’s backed by a 2-year limited warranty. humminbird.com.au

RAPALA NAUVO

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The Rapala Nauvo is a restored classic, bringing a modern update to a triedand-trusted traditional metal spoon. Originally appearing in the 1990s, the Nauvo swims with a life-like wide tail wagging action on a steady retrieve, while a faster retrieve adds irregular kicks into the action, breaking the rhythm and adding flash. The fluttering and rolling action on the drop adds additional attraction. These lures feature modern finishes, updated traditional spoon colours and realistic HD baitfish patterns. The colour scheme, in combination with the innovative way in which the clear coat has been used to emphasise details such as scales and fins, has proven to be very effective. The Nauvo comes in two sizes – 6.6cm (19g) and 9.5cm (37g) – and eight colours. For more information, check out the Rapala Australia Facebook page, or hop on YouTube and search for Rapala Nauvo. www.facebook.com/rapala.australia

ZMAN HERCULEZ SWIMBAIT

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The ZMan HerculeZ pre-rigged soft swimbait is built for barra, Murray cod, jacks, flathead, mulloway, and other larger predators. A collaboration between ZMan USA and Tackle Tactics Australia, the HerculeZ has a detailed natural shad body that draws aggressive strikes. The unique boot tail design puts out plenty of thump and vibe, while upturned 3D eyes provide an additional strike trigger. Of course, this swimbait is made from ZMan’s 10X Tough ElaZtech material – soft, life-like and supple, buoyant for a natural presentation, and virtually indestructible. Built on a tough, extra heavy-duty Mustad hook, the HerculeZ has an additional through wire, stainless steel belly attachment point for adding a treble, stinger or blade. Available in 4” and 5” sizes, HerculeZ comes in eight proven colours, to cover a wide variety of species and conditions. The 4” model is built on a 3/8oz zinc weight (overall weight approx. 3/4 oz) and the 5” model has a 5/8oz zinc weight (overall weight approx. 1.3oz). Zinc is a harder metal than lead, ensuring your internal weight maintains its shape hit after hit, and the lure retains its balanced swimming action, even at dead slow speeds. Price: SRP $12.95 www.z-man.com.au

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VIC

Keeping on the move GEELONG

Neil Slater slaterfish@gmail.com

June should see a shift in angler tactics as the waterways cool down. Kingfish have left the building and snapper are a little harder to target successfully. Salmon will invade the surf beaches whilst lure casters set their sights on bream in the salt and trout in the fresh. Freshwater fishos keen on a trout should try Wurdiboluc Reservoir near Moriac, or Stony Creek Reservoir near Anakie. Both reservoirs are nice and full, and I have seen a few nice trout caught at Wurdi and large redfin at Stony Creek on the social pages. A little over a year ago, VFA built three recreational fishing reefs in Corio Bay. These basalt and limestone reefs were seeded with mussels and native oysters. So far, the reefs have thrived, and VFA have footage of pinkie snapper and other fish cruising around them. You can check it out at www.vfa.vic.gov.au/ rockyreefs. The King George whiting have been biting very well

Recently 8yo Chelsea Young went fishing with her dad Rob down to Limeburners rock wall for an after-dark session. Using a Black Magic bleeding pilchard 3/0 Snapper Snatcher rig baited with squid, Chelsea hauled in a whiting that measured in at 42cm. Not bad for a first fish! Rob says Chelsea was so stoked to

Jo landed this solid gummy out off Portarlington recently.

Catherine and Jo had a good day out on the bay bagging a few flatties.

Plenty of salmon have been smashing baitfish inside Corio Bay. around Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. Point Henry to Queenscliff has seen consistent captures of whiting up to 43cm on pipis and squid. The stretch of water between Point Henry and Portarlington has seen a lot of boat pressure, so be prepared to keep moving to new spots as the fish do move around a bit. At some places we’ve found whiting one day, and struggled for a bite the next. After a tough day, you get back to the ramp and hear, “We struggled at Leopold so moved to Point Henry and found them.” Dammit! So don’t feel like you have to hang around a pack of boats if you’re not catching anything. They’re always biting somewhere! Dad came down from Queensland to get out on Corio Bay and enjoy the whiting fishing. I got him out twice with myself and my 14yo son to catch a few up to 39cm, using mainly squid for bait. 80

JUNE 2022

Corio Bay. Most fish have been either side of 40cm but super fat and real tough on the end of a 2-3kg whiting set-up. Dave Reynolds and I shot out from Limeburners on a whiting trip recently and noticed a few baitfish flicking out near the mouth of the boat ramp. We tied on a metal slice each and got stuck

catch her first fish that she was still smiling the next morning and bugging him to take her out again! Australian salmon have also been marauding the local baitfish population inside

into a few salmon around the 40cm mark. They were fairly fussy, only grabbing small 5cm slices, but round as a footy and put on a great show. The same day, similar-sized salmon were busting up over near Point Henry, and they have been putting on a bit of a show along the Geelong waterfront. I invited one back for the smoker and then we shot around Point Henry for some whiting and calamari. The Curlewis bank has also seen solid captures of calamari for those drifting in 4m of water. It hasn’t been very clear here, so to get a few is encouraging. The ones I’ve caught have been around 22cm hood length. Other anglers have been bagging out on squid drifting around the whiting fishers, so if you luck out on one, switch to the other

and always have a squid jig dangling over the side when whiting fishing. One thing I did notice when we were coming back into the Clifton Springs boat harbour from a whiting session was garfish. They were everywhere in less than a metre of water, and in schools of five to 30+ fish, well within casting distance of both the rock wall and pier. They were solid fish too, easily up around 40cm. Flathead have also been quite thick inside Corio Bay, with a few fish being caught over 50cm on bait and plastics. Jo Borgia fished with 91yo Catherine Wallace out off Portarlington recently, where Catherine caught five nice flathead and Jo managed a solid pair of gummy sharks. Gummies have also been busy out off St Leonards in the deeper water, while in shallow, the whiting have been turning it on with fish to 40cm caught throughout the day. They have been patchy, so if you’re not having any luck, make sure you move a few times until you find them. The mouth of Swan Bay and nearby Coles Channel has seen good captures of whiting and calamari when the tide runs. Bass Strait still has a few school tuna from 10-15kg biting either side of the Rip. Larger barrel-sized tuna were being caught further down the west coast so keep an eye out

for the big ones offshore. Flake lovers have enjoyed quality gummy sharks to 15kg and bronze whaler sharks to around 30kg drifting out off Torquay at the time of writing. Lorne has seen good numbers of pinkie snapper for anglers drifting in close, plus some solid King George whiting over 45cm. Anglers fishing the Lorne pier have enjoyed catching salmon, whiting and trevally.

The beaches and rock platforms along the Great Ocean Road can see good numbers of Australian salmon patrolling over winter. They love a metal lure or a pilchard or whitebait cast out on a paternoster rig, and can get up around 3kg at this time of year. Don’t forget that since 1 March, we are required to wear lifejackets when fishing from those rock locations identified as ‘high risk’. The Surf Coast

Chelsea with a 42cm whiting she caught from Limeburners rock wall.

Two very different photos of the sea floor. The first (left) was taken before Wilson Reef was deployed, and the second was taken one year later. Images courtesy of VFA.

has two of these locations: Artillery Rocks and the rock platform opposite Sheoke Falls, both southwest of Lorne along the Great Ocean Road. For more info visit www.vfa. vic.gov.au/rockfishing. Fish HARD – Die Happy! • Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@ gmail.com with ‘FMG’ in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997 348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1MB (file size).

VIC

East Coast

Good signs for salmon PORT PHILLIP NE

Jared Standish

Favourable weather has continued, and so has the fishing. The snapper have been biting through April and into May, as the

about working through multiple schools on the sounder to find those hungry patches of fish. By the time you read this report we will be well and truly into our Australian salmon season. There have been some great numbers

Australian salmon fishing are great to experiment with if you’re looking to try something different. Just bear in mind that, like other species of fish, salmon can have their fair share of lockjaw. On one crisp day with sunshine and mild breeze with some very clean and clear water off Mt Eliza, a friend and I came across a school of fish in 6m of water. We could see them below the surface and reasonably hard up against the bottom, and they appeared to be rather good sized fish and in reasonable numbers. We thought we were definitely in with a chance as the school surrounded the boat while remaining hard up against the bottom.

Mark Whitford with a PPB salmon from the shallows. I hovered the soft plastic straight under the boat thinking one had to pick it up, however not one fish took my friend’s or my soft plastic. We had changed

Now is a good time to chase salmon. weather conditions have allowed fishos to spend the time getting out and giving them a go. The fish have been somewhat easy to find in the deeper waters between Frankston to Dromana, however the bite windows have been short, which has made people frustrated. Still, persistence has paid off for those dedicated anglers. The bite time hasn’t been consistently morning, daytime or night; it’s more

and quality sizes being landed between Patterson River and Dromana. I know this is a quite large area, and if I was to narrow this down to some areas that work better than others I would be focussing my efforts on boats and kayaks around Davey Bay, Canadian Bay, out the front of Mornington Pier in approximately 8m, and the same depth out from Martha Cove Marina working my way towards Dromana. The techniques used for

Andrew Bromley with a nice Mornington snapper.

Getting back to normal MARLO

Jim McClymont mcclymont@net-tech.com.au

With the rivers running at a steady pace and not breaking their banks

and causing flooding of dirty water, the estuary is getting plenty of ocean water pumping through its arteries, curating a pristine river system again. And with the estuary back to normal,

so is the fishing. With no dirty water flowing out to the ocean, the big bronze whalers have reappeared in sizeable numbers, giving land-based game fishers plenty of action with their catch, tag,

and release fishing. Along with the big bronze whaler sharks there are plenty of other big sharks to capture and release, including hammerheads and small great whites. The big ones just keep going, and there’s no stopping them light gear. We mustn’t forget the surf fishing fraternity who have been fishing the beaches for years landing salmon, tailor, flathead, snapper, gummy shark, and many other species. They are still there plying their trade,

colours and patterns of plastics for an hour or more as the salmon hung around, teasing us. We got super annoyed and decided to put the rods in holders and leave the lures out the back, and drive off them. Luckily, it took no more than 30 seconds driving off them with the lures out before one fish was hooked, and then another. You would think that a motor would spook them in such shallow waters, but apparently not. Trolling soft plastics requires a 1/4oz jighead weight and size 1 hook, and the methods are endless. Hardbodied bibbed lures around 70-100mm diving to depths of around 4m are great for working depths of up to 10m, and the lures that are thicker in profile are more beneficial. Another method for trolling and attempting to raise fish holding lower is rather similar to game catching fish for the table and taking only the size species allowed. Offshore the fishing has been particularly good with plenty of flathead, gurnard, pinkie snapper, morwong, salmon, squid, barracoota, and gummy shark on the chew. With the estuary back in pristine condition, the fishing has been great. Anglers have reported getting plenty of bream throughout the whole estuary system on a variety of baits and lures. Luderick have remerged and are schooling in their

fishing, however much smaller – barrel sinkers size 3 pushed into occy skirts with some beads as spacers to your hook in basic colours such as white and pink. Running four rods with this setup is a great way to spark the interest of salmon, and raising them to surface. Changing up to casting gear is essential and you can have fun throwing stickbaits and poppers, again, in sizes no bigger than 100mm. On the garfish front it hasn’t been as productive this year as it was at the same time last year (when we were allowed out from lockdown). However, there are plenty of fish around Frankston, Mt Eliza, Mornington and Safety Beach. These can be caught in slightly choppy conditions or the much calmer days, so if you have time to go then take the chance because you never know until you go. usual spots – the rock groynes that surround the islands and riverbanks, and along the mud banks along both rivers. Estuary perch are holding on snags and other structures in both rivers. Big dusky flathead are being caught along the sandflats in the lower estuary, with the best results coming on lures. Salmon and tailor are entering on the incoming tides, and are in their biggest numbers down towards the entrance. Most fish have been caught on metal lures.

MARLO

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There have been good catches of bronze whalers in recent weeks.

www.marlocamping.com.au JUNE 2022

BREAM SERIES presented by

Crompton cruises to St Helens with Day 1 bag Mark Crompton missed the first two rounds of the Daiwa BREAM Series this year because his new boat wasn’t ready. Instead of rushing it, he focussed on getting it right for the Tasmanian leg of the tour and hit paydirt in both of the events. After winning a paycheque in the Derwent, he finished first at St Helens in Georges Bay and christened the new Mercury-powered rig in style. In the process, he won $3,000 plus an extra $250 for being the highest placed Mercury owner. Here’s how he did it.

Mark Crompton and his son, Alvey, check one of dad’s winning fish. This is what all breamers want: cash, novelty cheques and a cool Joseph Urquhart trophy for the mantelpiece.

Jesse Rotin bagged out in all Tassie boat events as a non-boater. COMPTON’S BIG BAG Day 1: 5/5, 5.38kg Day 2: 5/5, 4.09kg Day one saw the lake fish as well as we have ever seen it fish in the history on ABT visiting, with a majority of the field registering a limit over 3.5kg. There was only one 5kg+ bag, though, and that belonged to Crompton, with a mix of flats and rack fish giving him a 1.1kg average and a half-kilo lead over the rest of the field. “I made my Day 2 plan on the morning, where I chatted to some kayakers about to launch and I bribed them with a couple of packets of BaitJunkie plastics not to fish the bridge. I was the first boat out and knew I could get a decent fish or two there,” Mark said. The plan worked to

perfection, with his first stop yielding a kilo-class fish from the pylons. “After that I fished around the boats near the bridge and ended up with four fish. There was a real session under the fish and chip shop, with a boil of trevally being fed, but there

that his 4kg class bag wasn’t enough to get the job done, but in the end he easily outdistanced a consistent Alan Lister by over 500g to take the trophy. Crompton’s main pattern involved flicking soft plastic stick baits on the flats, in particular the Hurricane Sprat, which he fished on a TT 1/24 and 1/32oz jighead with a prototype Daiwa rod, Daiwa Revelry reel and Saltiga braid. Crompton’s a particular fan of the Daiwa J-Thread fluorocarbon (main line) in 4lb as leader for the setup. He uses 2.5 rod lengths. “It’s a complicated, simple technique, that’s more than letting the lure sink to the weed and then flicking it up,” Crommo continued, “I have boxes of the same bait graded in different hues of the same colour and I work out exactly what the

JUNE 2022

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

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winner Interview

were a couple of decent bream in there as well,” Crompton continued. Leaving the start zone with 4 fish, it took him a couple of stops to fill his bag with the 5th. After a few small upgrades, he thought

David Shanahan transitions well between kayak and boat events and is currently leading the Non Boater Angler of the Year race.

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

Brendan Ayres landed the Buck-n-Big Bream of the event. A 1.62kg monster that made him $500 richer.

Angler Mark Crompton Alan Lister Mario Vukic Adam Crick Steve Pryke Peter Nord Byron Hill Shane Ling Josh Williams Peter Breukel

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

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 9.470 8.910 8.580 8.070 7.840 7.160 7.160 7.150 7.110 7.090

fish want on the day.” Nobody can argue with the results. LISTER’S CONSISTENCY BAGS SECOND Day 1: 5/5, 4.65kg Day 2: 5/5, 4.26kg ACT’s Alan Lister is an arborist by day, but a real contender on the Daiwa BREAM Tour on the weekends. Indeed, his four events that he fished on the Tassie Tour (two boat and two Hobie kayak events) results in four top 10 finishes – a remarkable feat. Two of those finishes were second places, the most recent of them the final event of the tour at St Helens. Each day, Lister started just metres after crossing the start line and bagged several quality fish in 3-16ft of water using a jighead rigged ZMan motor-oil grub and a

Payout $3,000 + $250 Mercury bonus $1,500 + $125 Mercury bonus $1,000 + $75 Mercury bonus $750 $600 $500

BREAM SERIES presented by Hurricane Sprat on a 1/8oz TT 1/0L jighead. After the tide rose more, he ventured to the flats to fill his bag and upgrade. His bags each day were over 4kg. My main spot was a flat in the back of Molting Bay where I threw a LuckyCraft Flash Minnow, but my non-boater, Tani Konsul, was crushing me on a Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

Zipbait Rigge 66. At the end of each day, I’d finish on a flat near the mouth close to deep water that was too shallow to get a boat on. I’d make long casts with the wind and hold the rod high to find the balance between keeping the lure in the water and getting it snagged. The bream here were big and mean, with several burying Alan in the weed. On Day 2 it took until this last spot to bag his 5th fish. Alan’s outfits consist of a mix of Daiwa Aird, AirdX and Excelers matched with various rods, including a 7” G2 Loomis. He fishes 10lb Castaway braid and Sunline

Shanahan was another angler who fished all four Tasmanian rounds, kayaks and boat. After a strong finish at the Derwent, David stepped up to win his first non-boater trophy at St Helens, refining a flats pattern in the process and leading the non-boater AOY in the process. Fishing with Zane Wyatt and Shane Ling, Shanahan explained that part of the motivation for fishing as a non-boater was the opportunity to learn from his boaters, and he drew two locals who knew what to do. Fishing a Murasame

Shane Ling and Jordan Armstrong enjoyed their time catching Tassie’s big black bream. fish each at 3pm (end of session was 5pm), but a drift across the edge of the racks and into open water gave him several important upgrades. After four events, David now leads the non-boater Angler of the Year race with 387/400

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

points, with a gap of 15 points over the everconsistent Stuart Walker.

Canberra arborist, Alan Lister scored a couple of second places on the Apple Isle – one in a kayak and one as a boater at St Helens. back up,” he said. And the bream liked the method. David and Zane fished the front of the system on Day 1 and David landed just 4 fish. On Day 2, he and Shane had just one

Lister’s pair of 4kg+ bags reflected his consistency across the entire Tasmanian tour.

BUCK-N-BASS BIG BREAM

In 2022, non-boaters are fishing for a three-fish limit. FC 4lb leaders. “I’ve loved Tassie since I started coming here in 2016,” Al concluded, “Where I got a second place in the Derwent comp. It’s been good to me.” SHANAHAN WINS AND TAKES AOY LEAD Day 1: 3/3, 2.89kg Day 2: 3/3, 2.83kg Victorian David

6’3” rod with a 2016 Certate spooled with 6lb Silver Thread braid and 4lb FC Rock leader, Dave used the popular Hurricane Sprat 75 in machete colour, rigging it on a light HWS jighead to slow down the sink. “I was afraid of getting snagged in the weed all of the time, so as soon as it hit the bottom I’d pop the bait

Brendan Ayres landed the event’s Buck-n-Big Bream on Day one of the events at 1.62kg. It ate a Squidgy bio-tough bait on a clear flat to the south of town. He won $500 and some Buck-n-Bass gear for his efforts.

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

Angler David Shanahan Jesse Rotin Stuart Walker William Thorpe Michael Sammut Neil Kelly Xabi Kumar Allan Lavell John Parkinson Jarrad Stevens

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

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 5.720 5.210 5.110 4.950 4.680 3.990 3.970 3.940 3.940 3.550

Payout Daiwa pack Daiwa pack Daiwa pack Samaki pack Samaki pack Atomic pack ProLure pack Rapala pack Ecogear pack Keitech pack JUNE 2022

BREAM SERIES presented by

Crick wins with day 2 Derwent bomb Try talking to Adam Crick about Ralph’s Bay in the Derwent ABT Daiwa BREAM Series arena and he goes all quiet. Mention a camera and it’s like he doesn’t speak English anymore. It’s a big, open bay to the south of Hobart that’s been fished by plenty of ABT BREAM competitors over the years but has been mastered by only a few. Adam Crick, however, has been known to drop a massive bag on the scales on the second day of a Derwent BREAM event. He’s done it before and he did it again in 2022, adding a near 6kg bag to his Day 1 total to win the Daiwa sponsored event by nearly a kilogram over his closest rival. We have extracted as

Adam just loves the ABT novelty cheques.” They’re better than a trophy,” he said. He’s got a few now.

Ralphs Bay specimen. Locals call it “Issac colour”. And the one tied to his winning rod had copped a fair hiding. “It’s a pretty standard twitch-and-pause technique. The slower the better,” Adam explained. It’s Crick’s second ABT win on the Derwent and we’re sure he will be a force in future visits to the island. WYATTS FIRST LIMITS PAY OFF Launceston’s Zane Wyattdidn’t catch a limit on any of the four tournament days the last time ABT visited Tassie in 2020 - just before the great COVID toilet paper rush. The Mercury dealer from CJ Marine upgraded his boat for this version and had done his practice. His remarkably consistent sub-5kg limits

Nobody could argue as he dropped 5.99kg - including the 1.50kg Buck-n-Big bream onto the scales and registered another 7th to first place effort. Crick’s tackle included a BX Custom 7’, 2-4kg rod (a little heavier than most), Daiwa Steez reel, Sunline 10lb braided line and 4lb V Hard fluorocarbon leader. And the bait was a Smith Panish DD in a colour replicated from a Scan the QR code to watch the Non- Boater Winner Interview

Rhys Harris reckons that the Derwent is the best river in the world.

Liam Carruthers makes the Tassie Tour a family affair. much information as we could for this report. Day 1: 5/5, 4.68kg Day 2: 5/5, 5.99kg The Derwent event was an event of two, different days. A little breezy and cloudy on Day 1 and sunny and calm on Day two. The conditions on the first day didn’t pay massive rewards for Crick. Weighing a little over 4.5kg, he sat in 7th place. When the river calmed off on Day 2, Ralphs still had a little breeze and the sunny conditions suited Adam’s sight fishing style.

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winner Interview

It was game-on with big bream biting jerkbaits in the clear water. “I probably saw 90% of my fish eat the bait in the clear water,” Crick said, “and Ralphs always gets a little bit of wind, even if it’s calm in the Derwent, so the conditions suited me on the second day.”

Launceston Mercury dealer, Zane Wyatt didn’t catch a limit the last time ABT visited in 2020. In 2022, his opening event yielded 10/10 and second place!

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

JUNE 2022

Angler Adam Crick Zane Wyatt Steve Morgan Declan Betts Dylan Loh Mark Crompton Steve Pryke Josh Williams Peter Nord Alan Lister

Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 10.670kg 9.790kg 9.710kg 9.13kg 9.090kg 8.980kg 8.840kg 8.760kg 8.650kg 8.520kg

Payout $3,000 + $500 Big Bream $1,300 + $250 Mercury bonus $900 + $125 Mercury Bonus $800 + $75 Mercury bonus $700 $600 $500

BREAM SERIES presented by topped the field of anglers who stayed in the Derwent river itself. Day 1: 5/5, 4.90kg Day 2: 5/5, 4.89kg Apart from being theMrFix-It for the boat side of the tour, Wyatt milked fish fish from a run of spots up the Derwent river proper between the Tasman Bridge and Otago. Most of his bag fish Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

came on jerkbaits - including the ZipBait Rigge 70mm in a purple/orange belly colour. He fished with non-boater Champion, Jarrad Stevens on Day 1 and ended up finding a ‘magic pontoon’ that afternoon. “We pulled up to this spot and Jarrad said that it looked ideal for an EcogearAqua,” Zane said, “trouble was, he didn’t have one. I did, though and he showed me how to use them. Jarrad pulled a great fish off it on Day 1 and I caught two, key upgrades off it on Day 2.” Who Shares Wins. Zane’s gear consisted of a Black Hold NS1 Micro (7’, light) with a Daiwa Luvias 2500S LT reel loaded with 8lb Siglon braid and a 4lm Siglon FC Rock leader. “I concentrated on banksearly that were in the shade. With the tide high I found that the fish would stay up and biting longer in these conditions,” Zane continued. At the end of the day, though, he was stoked with his

first, two ABT limits, a $1,300 paycheque and an extra $250 for being the highest placing Mercury owner in the field. STEVENS BACK TO WIN Western Australia’s Jarrad Stevens had takes a break from ABT events, with nearly a decade on the sidelines, but the keen breamer couldn’t resist the temptation of Tasmania, which has always been on his bucket list. Comfortable with black bream from the south-west of the country, Jarrad’s skills transferred seamlessly to win on his very first trip to the Derwent. With the new 3-fish

Stevens concluded that the event was all about having fun fishing, rather than treating it as a serious tournament. Have fun, share the knowledge and the fish will come. Amen!

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

All the way from WA to Hobart - Jarrad Stevens’ WA breaming skills held him in good stead on the Derwent. This was his first win from the back-of-the-boat. non-boater bag, kicker fish are as important as ever. Jarrad averaged over a kiloper-fish on the way to his 6/6, 6.22kg bag. Being a non-boater

Isaac Harris’ big Day 2 bag wasn’t enough to catch WA’s Jarras Stevens.

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

Declan Betts (left), Zane Wyatt (middle) and Steve Morgan (right) enjoyed the Mercury Bonus money.

Angler Jarrad Stevens Isaac Harris Jesse Rotin Simon Morley Jack Morris Ruth Beeby Stuart Walker Andrew Breward David Shanahan Leighton Beer

Fish 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6

means that you have to adjust for different locations and conditions each day and Stevens fished upstream on Day 1 and downstream on Day 2. His kicker fish on the first day came off the same shagfilled pontoon that helped Wyatt to a 2nd place in the boater division, but most of fis other fish came on a jerkbait - in particular the shallow 70mm ZipBait Rigge in a silver/olive colour. He made long casts with his Duffrods Crank-n-Bones Jr rod, Daiwa Freams 2000 reel and 6lb braid and two rod lengths of 4lb leader. “It was important to make long casts - especially on day 2 in the clear water,” Stevens said, “and that bigger bait probably didn’t get bit as much, but it did get me the distance to get the bigger bites.” And the results speak for themselves.

It was fitting for the Mercury dealer to win the Mercury bonus. The top three Merc owners win extra cash.

BUCK-N-BASS BIG BREAM

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 6.220kg 6.130kg 5.680kg 5.580kg 5.330kg 5.320kg 5.220kg 5.010kg 5.000kg 4.800kg

Payout Daiwa Pack Daiwa Pack Daiwa Pack Samaki pack Samaki pack Atomic pack ProLure pack Rapala pack Ecogear pack Keitech pack

Part of Adam Crick’s monster final-day bag included the $500 Buck-n-Big Bream. The 1.5kg, sandy coloured fish ate a jerkbait in Ralphs Bay and looked like a “solid kilo fish” as it slid into the net. It ended up measuring just over 40cm and anchored Adam’s bag. JUNE 2022

101

BASS SERIES presented by

Clarence River a post-flood success The 2022 13 Fishing BASS pro AOY race is beginning to heat up with NSW angler Mitchell Cone winning his second event for the season, the Maui Jim round five qualifier on the Clarence River. In a year that hasn’t seen him finish outside the top Scan the QR code to watch the Boater winner interview

five so far, he’s managed to snatch back the AOY lead by a few points over good mate Matthew Langford – the pair alone have won every BASS qualifier this year with Langford winning three and Cone winning two, to make for one of the most competitive years we have seen in a while.

however this year due to recent flooding the fish have pushed further downstream chasing an abundance of bait in the form of prawns. This made the decision to head downstream on practice day an easy one for Cone. “There’s two ferries downstream and everyone knows if only one ferry is running, the bass school up under the stationary one so that’s where I chose to focus my practice. There, and the reef at Maclean throwing blades,” he explained. Sticking to the old adage ‘no run, no fun’, the current became a key factor for the weekend for when he chose to fish his spots. With the reef being located on a point, it had a lot more current than the banks did, especially in the mornings when the tide wasn’t running as hard. As such, he chose to spend the first few hours

His second win for the year puts boater Mitchell Cone on top of the AOY leaderboard after some other consistently high placings. Can he fend off good mate Matt Langford and stop the AOY three-peat? the bass can hold tight and wait for food to come to them,” he explained. The technique required some casting accuracy tight to the structure with his Millerods Blade Freak and Daiwa Tatula 150 combo being is go-to. All the bait needed was a slow roll back to the boat with

the occasional pause when it bumped the structure and when they needed extracting, 15lb Daiwa J braid and 12lb Daiwa J thread leader made sure they got to the boat. Tournaments can be won and lost on a decision and Cone made plenty of the right ones. “I nearly didn’t make the move back

The gentleman’s sport – first place non boater Adam Mears (right) shakes hands with second place Tommy Wood who briefly held the lead on day 2 but fell just short of chasing down Mears’ lead after his monster 5kg day one bag. SECOND WIN OF THE YEAR FOR CONE Although he won’t admit it, Mitch cone can now consider himself a river rat through and through as he tore away from the field by almost 2kg in his second win for the season. Typically the Clarence qualifier rounds have been won either in the far reaches of the main river or the Coldstream River,

Scan the QR code to watch the Non-boater winner interview

of each session on the reef throwing a Damiki Vault 42 Blade in pink gill colour and filling his bag until the tide began to run hard and he could fish his good bank that

he’d been saving for the right time in the tide. In the last few hours of each session, Cone moved to the bank that he’d been saving and switching to an OSP Blitz MR crankbait in chartreuse colour, and was able to consistently upgrade as the tide began to run hard. “I was targeting shallow pockets of laydown timber, or what I like to call a ‘current break’, somewhere

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 102

JUNE 2022

Angler Mitchell Cone Steve Morgan Nick Andersen Bill Latimer Simon Wilson Braden Schuch Anthony Duff Mick Johnson Brian Everingham Mark Lennox

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

Second place boater, Steve Morgan came close to being able to call himself a BREAM, BASS and BARRA guy. Morgan actually used patterns found in the bream grand final on the Clarence River last year to fool the bass this year.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 14.415 12.864 10.953 10.876 10.770 10.548 10.277 10.255 9.865 9.740

Payout $3500 + $250 1st Merc bonus $1600 + $125 2nd Merc bonus $1200 $1000 + $75 3rd Merc bonus $800 $600 $500 Buck n’ Big bass

BASS SERIES presented by to my good bank after I caught a 42 and 43 forker off the reef but I did go and ended up catching 6 or so more fish including the 45 fork length kicker,” he explained about the decision to fish his good bank late in the session. MORGAN JERKBAITS TO SECOND PLACE Steve Morgan’s already won a BREAM and BARRA event in the last 12 months and was keen to add a BASS Pro trophy to the list. Ultimately, though, he fell over a kilogram short of Cone. “I saw on the leaderboard that Mitch hadn’t submitted a fish all day, so he was likely out of range, so I didn’t get too excited when I started driving back to the finish Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

on top of the leaderboard,” Morgan said. The live scoreboard allows competitors to know exactly who is catching what in real-time. Steve’s plan was pretty simple – refine a pattern on the reef at Maclean that he’d sampled at the BREAM Grand Final in

December 2021. “In the BREAM event, I’d catch lots of bream on the shallow areas of reef if I could get a crankbait or jerkbait deep enough to Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

impact the rock. This was in 6ft of water or less. Cast into the deeper water off the edges and we were catching solid bass. Those fish were suspending in 10-20ft of water off the edges of the reef,” he explained. He avoided the bass in the BREAM event, but reversed the pattern to catch them in the BASS version. Spot-locking off the edge of the reef, he could see fish actively feeding – both off the surface and on the Garmin LiveScope. The freshwater and strong currents from recent flooding helped the prawns get stirred up as they got caught in the structure upwelling and both the birds and fish were taking advantage. “I rotated through a few baits on practice day, but settled on a Daiwa Spike 53SP jerkbait in a couple of colours, suji prawn and brown suji UV. Cast them

up current and either roll or twitch them down across it,” he said. Morgan caught around 15 legal fish on day one and a dozen on the final day. He delivered the presentation on a Daiwa Infeet bream rods (7’8” and 6’8”) and a combinations of Freams, Exceler and Exist reels spooled with 6lb Sufix and J-Braid with a 7lb Yamatoyo Chinu Harris leader. “The LiveScope in Perspective view was pretty important for me,” Morgan said, “I could see the fish out to the sides of the boat and target them with confidence. Several times I could see the fish charge and eat the bait and that’s fun fishing,” he concluded. MEARS MAYHEM ON THE CLARENCE BASS Bouncing straight off the Corcoran Park dock and straight into first place, Tamworthian Adam Mears claimed his first ABT Victory from the back of the boat after a cracking day one bag to the tune of 5.003kg for just three fish. This put him leaps and bounds ahead of the competition for day two where he was able to fight off second place Tommy wood to win by over half a kilogram. Mears’ day one boater Simon Wilson chose to fish the shallow reef at Maclean

Mitchell Cone found a lot of his upgrades on a bank loaded with laydown timber, he just had to wait for the tide to pick up later in the day for the bite to heat up.

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

Angler Adam Mears Tommy Wood Brett Castle Tony Neal Anthony Melchior Benjamin Crispin Sean White Nigel White Troy Parsons Jake Hardie

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

Weight(kg) 7.753 7.182 6.774 6.671 6.473 6.132 5.991 5.927 5.759 5.757

A Clarence River pony, all it needs is a saddle! Boater Mick Johnson landed this 2.344kg fish on an OSP Dunk on day two to claim an extra $500 cash. This fish hit Mick’s personal scales at just a tad over 3kg. (the same reef as mentioned by Morgon) in the first session, a roughly 2m deep rocky section of river that the bass were hunting prawns up onto and feeding on with the strong current and dirty water. To fish the shallow water, Mears chose a crankbait in the form of a deep-diving Jackall Chubby in brown suji shrimp colour. “The fish were facing into the current so I’d make a long cast up and across the current about 45º and begin a slow roll back in, bumping the lure into the bottom,” Mears said, adding that the fish were so actively feeding close to the surface sometimes they would eat the lure as it hit the water. Tuning into this technique accounted for his whopping day one bag, which saw him break his personal best twice, the second time being a 1.910kg beast. “I’d never even seen bass that thick before in my life, I was over the moon,” said Mears of his Saturday bag. He found the best rod and reel combo for the task

to be a Millerods XFLC at 7’3” and 2-4kg paired with the smooth drag of a Shimano Stradic FL, which could cast a light crankbait a long way yet still have the power to turn those almost 2kg bass and get them into deeper water. 8lb Berkley braid and 8lb Ocea leader was the braid and leader combination for the whole weekend. In line with what Steve Morgan had to say regarding LiveScope, Mears – fishing for the first time with it this weekend – found it a definite advantage when he could see the fish following his lures on his boater’s sounder. Thanks to the hospitality of his boater on day two (local Anthony Duff), Mears was able to fill his bag in the last 20 minutes of day two to put himself back in front and take the lead gaining an automatic entry into the Grand Final back on the Clarence River in October. BUCK N’ BIG BASS PRIZE The event’s $500 Big Bass prize went to Mick Johnson for his 49cm, 2.344kg giant that ate an OSP Dunk.

Full results at abt.org.au

Payout RAPALA prize pack + 13 Fishing Concept reel RAPALA prize pack + $250 1st place RAPALA Bonus Bassman prize pack $125 2nd place RAPALA bonus Maui Jim prize pack + $75 3rd place RAPALA bonus Molix prize pack Prolure prize pack Keitech prize pack Maui Jim vip card Toadfish prize pack JUNE 2022

103

West Coast

Cooler wet weather will bring sea change METRO

Jacob Crispe

For a number of months, it has felt like I have been writing about the same thing in different ways. The Perth metro area has fished consistently for what feels like a very long time. June,

from the Narrows Bridge to East Fremantle. The other change will be that fishing during the low light periods will be more effective. Baitfish will feel more comfortable (more active) during these times and the predators will never be too far away. Your main target species

beach angler’s lips at the moment is mulloway. It seems most beaches are producing good mulloway captures at the moment both North and South of Perth. If anything, this will only improve in June. The key is to find a good gutter to fish and this may mean getting to your location early (daylight hours) and taking the time to watch the surf and see where they are. From there fresh baits fished in these areas will produce the best results with gummy shark and tailor often caught as by-catch.

may be a little uncomfortable but the results can be amazing. The calm after the storm can also result in some good mulloway fishing in the same areas. North Mole has been a hotspot in the past. INSHORE GROUNDS The focus in our inshore grounds will continue to be around the local reefs, around areas of broken ground and the shipping channel. The reefs will hold plenty of skippy, and where there are skippy the samson fish won’t be too far away. King George whiting will still be present

A trophy dhufish caught by Chad Knox in 26m of water on a strip bait. Like the rock walls, squid are a constant in our inshore grounds. Broken ground with weed patches in 3-6m of water will more than likely hold squid. In the Sound, pink snapper

A lovely land based catch of southern calamari by Ian Moyle caught from the south mole Fremantle. however, should see things change up quite a bit. SWAN RIVER Rain will create the biggest changes to our fishing opportunities. The Swan River fish have been widespread throughout the system; however, the influx of freshwater will push their food source towards the mouth of

will be bream, mulloway and tailor, with the odd flathead still being caught. The keys being, fish dawn and dusk, focus on the lower part of the system, look for concentrations of baitfish and fish deeper water than you would have during the warmer months. The fresh sits on top of the salt water so deeper water ensures more

and gummy shark will be popular targets. OFFSHORE In between the poor weather at this time of the year can produce some of the best fishing we have in the

Jarrad Prieto is no stranger when it comes to boating these horse Cockburn Sound pink snapper. He says berley is the key!

Emilio Orifici, aka ‘The Little Kahuna,’ following in his dad’s footsteps with a whopper sand whiting, he says his big one makes up for his dad’s three. the river and the predators will follow. Meaning the focus of your fishing should be based in the lower reaches of the river. For many this means 110

JUNE 2022

water for those fish you are trying to catch. BEACHES AND ROCK WALLS The one species on ever

For those anglers looking to fish during the day, herring and sand whiting are the key target species. Set up a burley bag in front of a likely gutters to entice the fish in close and fish with small hooks and fresh baits. It can be a fun and addictive way to go beach fishing. Our rock walls will continue to fish well, with many anglers focusing on silver bream, tailor and sand whiting. Cottesloe is a very popular location to target these species. Squid are a year round target and the Fremantle rock walls will be best at this time of the year. The weed patches that the squid love to hide in are within easy casting distance from these walls, hence the better fishing. Rock wall snapper anglers will be praying for big swells and unsettled weather as the turmoil this creates brings the snapper in close, feeding on the debris dislodged by the breaking waves. The fishing

in the broken ground areas, you may just need to move around a bit more to find concentrations of them and the focus for sand whiting anglers will be to drift the edges of the shipping channels to find schools of them.

The legend Deano Dibra with a wild capture on 8lb line in Cockburn Sound while targeting whiting.

James Close with a ripper yellowfin tuna caught trolling between spots behind Rottnest Island.

offshore grounds. Dhufish, baldchin groper and Breaksea cod are just a few of the species available in 25-50m of water. Another constant is the snapper. Their numbers increase during this period and they can be caught in quite shallow water to very deep water. The Northern side of Rottnest has been a hotspot, with snapper widespread in this area. Some big dhufish have been caught with them as well in 40-50m of water. I like to fish for them with big paddle tail plastics. It tends to ensure smaller fish leave you lure for the big fish to eat. Yellowtail kingfish will continue to be present around the South West end To page111

West Coast

They’ll be dam good fishing MANDURAH

Jesse Choy

June is a great time to check out the dams for a spot of freshwater fishing. Regardless of the spot you choose to fish, all of our local dams hold both some good sized redfin and trout. When heading up to the

around rocks and then fish habits are able to be honed by their habits on the day. Opting for lures is a great option when fishing fresh as they offer plenty of versatility, with regards to retrieves and the applications, which they are useful. Making use of spinners, shallow diving bibbed minnows, deeper diving minnows and even

rivers, you are also likely to come across some river mulloway and some good sized ones at that. If you are fishing up the rivers with bait, lightly weighted river prawns are hard to look past, with mullet and pilchard cubes also being great options if you are hoping to get stuck into some fish in the rivers. If using lures, prawn or bait

from 10-30m of depth and either work soft plastics on the drift or anchor up. If anchoring up in attempt to bring on a pink snapper bite, a good berley trail is always great assistance and will complement lightly weighted baits drifted down the trail. Anglers are also reporting that there is some good mixed bags showing up, with a large variety including bald-chin, break sea and some great sized schools of tuna working bait on the top water column. If you are fishing from the rocks at Dawesville or Mandurah, there is a good mix of species available. Reports indicate that there is some stray tailor getting around, plenty of herring, the odd pink snapper and sporadic schools of salmon making their way around. What bait or presentation to use will be dependent on

Tailor off the rocks are a fun fish to catch, which are both willing to smash baits and lures of all sizes.

Wayne landed this pink snapper casting off our local beaches. Although a drone will help, it is absolutely not needed to land some quality fish. dams it is preferable that you cover a bit of ground, whether that is by walking the banks or launching your kayak and exploring different sections of your chosen body of water. When covering ground you are able to become a lot more successful by gauging whether or not the fish are holding on structure, like vertically submerged trees, deeper sections of water,

fly can be quite effective. River fishing is also a great option if you want to get out and have some fun in the calmer waters. Legal sized bream are quite prolific throughout the river systems, though there are some bigger specimens around if you spend the time covering ground and trying different presentations. As the water starts to dirty with an increase of flow in the

imitations are ideal as they replicate what is in the river well and fish can be more partial to the presentation as a result. Fishing from the boats, there are plenty of dhufish from 20-80m, pink snapper are also beginning to really show their presence as we feel the winter conditions start to pick up. Fishing for pinks, it is a great idea to sound around in waters

what sort of fish to catch, but a mix of moderately weighted soft plastics and good quality fish bait will work well. If you are able to find a weed free section of beach around Mandurah, the possibilities of what you may catch are endless.

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of Rottnest island. The size of the fish can vary from smaller fish around 60cm to 1.2m monsters that will try and rip you out of the boat. So much fun. Both southern bluefin and yellowfin tuna are likely to be about in June. Keep an eye out for birds to tell you where these speedsters may be. As I mention in every report, should the weather allow our deep drop grounds hold some amazing table fish just waiting to be caught. You need the right gear (good tackle stores will definitely be able to help), but the reward is well worth it. June should see a transition happen in our fishing in the metro area. It doesn’t mean that the fishing is no good, it just means that the routine you have got into over recent months will need to change a little. For me, that is one of the great things about fishing, figuring out what the fish are doing. I will catch you next month.

Rainbows are a gorgeous fish that grow to a size that can provide a lot of fun for anglers.

Joe Orifici showing us how the ‘Big Kahuna’ gets it done with a triple header of 5-star sandies.

Soaking larger baits, there is still a good chance at catching mulloway, some larger stray tailor and even some land based pink snapper. If you are droning, options as usual are quite endless, though it can be difficult to contend with lumps of seaweed that lie

further out and though it can quite often result in lost line; it will definitely be worth trying. Using smaller baits there is a lot of fun to be had with the family, with a good chance you will encounter plenty of great sized herring, whiting and silver bream too.

Black bream are often overlooked as a target fish, but an increasing amount of anglers are chasing them on lures and enjoying the thrills that go with it. JUNE 2022

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Whittley FF 1650 powered by Mercury 75hp - SC

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Main: You’ll see previous boat tests with this hull as a CW series boat. It’s been rebadged to a Fish Finder (FF) series. The test model was fitted with a 2.1L Mercury 75hp 4-stroke. Above: Mercury’s 75hp 2.1L four-stroke outboard is a great match for this boat, even though it is 25hp under the maximum limit.

The 1650 hull is the smallest boat that Whittley make. It is popular with young families that need somewhere to get the kids out of the sun. because he gets to sell the boats that he loves so much. “We had to change the series from CW to FF because there was a little bit of confusion between the small aluminium boats that we used to make and the smaller fibreglass boats. “FF stands for Fish Finder and that is the new model name for this hull,” he explained. It’s a runabout style boat with a small cuddy cabin. 120

JUNE 2022

And although the cabin isn’t big enough to sleep a couple of adults in overnight, it is certainly big enough to get the kids out of the sun and into a more comfortable setting for their day on the water. The maximum horsepower on this hull is 100, although the 75 Mercury is the same size and weight engine as the 100. It’s just a governed back version of the same 2.1L powerhead.

“This is such a popular, small boat because of the entry price, the fact that it comes on a single axle trailer, that the bimini top can fold down to fit into most standard garages,” said Laurie. “And if you want to upgrade any of the features, most can be tweaked. For instance you can add a live bait tank, deck wash or a 9” flush mounted sounder in the dash. These all add to the base price of under $60,000,” Laurie said. Performance wise, we found that running with or against the wind made a

massive difference to speed and economy figures. The combination of bimini top, clears and windscreen made up to 1km/L difference to economy figures. We have published an average of a withand against-the-wind run. Best economy was at 4000rpm, travelling 38km/h at 2.4km/L. Drop the hammer to

DE FOR EX

We have tested plenty of iterations of Whittley’s 16 and a half foot runabout over the years, and with a variety of motors. In fact, this model represents the entry level model to the Whittley range. You don’t need a massive car to tow it, it runs on small horsepower engines and it has the shade and room a family needs to get out on the water in a level of comfort higher than most tinnies. For this test, we caught up with Whittley Queensland Sales Manager Laurie Evans. We reckon that Laurie has the best job in the world

s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

5000rpm and you get 53km an hour at 1.7km per litre. With a 70L fuel tank, theoretical range is around 150km. Lots of the larger Whittley boats have clever storage solution under custom seat bases. The 1650 uses basic pedestal seats, which means that some of these storage options are limited. It also means that if you want to take a large esky out on the water, you need to store it up in the cabin, or in the back corner of the boat. Also, we found that the driving position had the throttle maybe a little high for long runs. There is somewhere to rest your arm, though, and we are sure that this isn’t a deal breaker for anyone interested in this hull. Packaged on an Australian

Steve Morgan

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made, single axle trailer, this rig will fit in most standard garages with the superstructure and clears folded down. It is also towable by most family cars. One of the things we really like about modern Whittley boats is the fact that they have their own routed rubber deck. This is easy to wash down, and feels great underfoot. Gone are the days of waiting a week for the carpet to dry in your boat. For more information on this rig, contact Laurie or the team at Whittley Queensland Boat Sales, or visit www.whittley.com.au for information on their entire range. There are an increasing number of Whittley factory dealerships popping up around the country, and these guys can do you the best deal.

PERFORMANCE RPM ............Speed (km/h) ... Economy (km/L) 1000 ................................ 8 ......................... 0.2 2000.............................. 12 ......................... 0.6 3000.............................. 20 ......................... 0.9 3500 .............................. 27 ......................... 1.9 4000.............................. 38 ......................... 2.2 4500 .............................. 42 ......................... 1.7 5000.............................. 53 ......................... 1.7

SPECIFICATIONS Length .................. 5.40m Length on trailer ..6.10m Height on trailer ...2.10m Beam .....................2.14m Deadrise........13 degrees Fuel ............................70L Max hp ......................100 Capacity......... 5 persons

With the windscreen, bimini top and rocket launchers, performance statistics vary a lot when going with and against the wind. You get nearly 1km more per litre when travelling with the wind! We have averaged the figures for this test.

Top: There is a passenger seat on each side of the transom. In between, a removable bait station let you rig up and fish without the mess going everywhere. Above: Carpeted side pockets have native storage for a couple of fishing rods. You can also keep your readily accessible gear here for ease of use.

Access to the anchor is not complicated. Open the cabin lid to be the sucker who pulls up the pick.

The pedestal seat allows good access to the helm, even though the throttle seems to be a little high. Nearly everything there is upgradable. We are sure your sounder will be bigger than the Garmin Striker supplied.

There is a small cabin area at the front, but this is not a place that is designed for overnighters. It gives you shade but not the length to stretch right out.

Whittley’s custom rubber decks are a great addition to their entire range. Easy to clean and good looking, it saves you from the perennial problem of wet carpets.

Left: You can access the anchor through the front cabin. Top Right: As standard, the upper deck is not lined inside the cabin. Bottom Right: With a 70L fuel tank, theoretical range of up to 150km is possible.

Left: By juggling the helm set up, sounders up to 9” can be flush mounted into the dash. Top Right: Although not built for massive seas, this 16-footer eats anything up to half a metre, no problems. Bottom Right: You can store the balance of your fishing rods up here, above the canvas top. JUNE 2022

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