Victoria and Tasmania Fishing Monthly September 2013

MASSIVE TROUT SEASON FEATURE: TROLL, SPIN, FLY

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Features Spring time surface pelagics • The very large trout feature • Lighten up on the beach •

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Victorian and Tasmanian Fisheries News

Reports

September, 2013

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Spring time surface pelagics HAWKSBURY

Dan Selby dan@sydneysportfishing.com.au

Surface feeding pelagics bring an unequalled level of excitement to anglers all across our country.

Much of the appeal comes with the visual aspect and challenges associated with trying to fool fish you can physically see feeding: nothing really compares in the angling world.

This time of year sees bays, lower estuaries and coastal fringes come to life with small bait species that NSW anglers refer to as ‘eyes’. Victorian and

Tasmanian anglers simply refer to them as ‘bait’. They turn up in huge schools and enter the inshore waters to feed and seek shelter, unfortunately most don’t get an opportunity to do either as they are herded up on the surface and decimated by ravenous schools of Australian salmon and tailor. In summer add yellowtail kingfish. Quite often under these schools will be some decent silver trevally as well.

The easiest method to locate surface feeding activity is to watch for seagulls and terns. They should be either hovering very close to the surface or diving repeatedly to indicate feeding activity from

MUSTAD.NO

Matching the hatch with this 7g metal slice proved productive on this particular day. Note the single nonoffset j-hook in place of the standard treble hook.

pelagics below. Early and late in the day is the best time to spot these flocks from greater distances as the low angle of the sun reflects off their wings similar to someone reflecting the sun off a wrist watch.

Seagulls do tend to sit in large flocks on the surface and can be a sign of prior surface activity and a few prospective casts in their general direction is never unwarranted; all bird activity should be investigated and ruled out before moving on.

It’s easy to get all excited and rush up on these active schools of fish but the end result will most likely lead to the school being spooked and going deep, ruining the fun for everyone. Take the time to observe the behaviour and direction of the school; this is highly advantageous for your crew and the other anglers that will invariably be cashing in on the same action.

The trick is to pick which way the school is working; they will generally push into the wind and/or current. With this in mind you should position your boat well upwind/current and kill the engine. Let the fish come to you and pass by before starting the engine and taking a wide berth around them and back to the upwind/

current side. At times you can have fish busting up all around the boat and at other times the bait may use your vessel for cover and you turn into a mobile FAD (fish aggregating devise).

Trollers be warned, it is not appropriate to tow your lures through the middle of any bust up. Pick your line and work the edge of the school so as to not spook and send the schools down deep.

At times it is hard to see what the fish are feeding on.

It may look as if they are gulping air. If you find it hard to observe the bait spraying from the surface, it would be fair to assume that the bait is of the microscopic form and lure selection should be made accordingly. At the Rip in Port Phillip and coastal regions of north and eastern Tasmania this can be krill.

Small baitfish, or ‘eyes’ can range in size from 10-75mm so it pays to a have a few lures in your kit that can ‘match the hatch’ when these situations occur. A selection of metal slices from 3-25g in a range of profiles and colours

Fly fishing for surface pelagics like this Aussie salmon is very rewarding when they are feeding on ‘eyes’ and refusing standard lure presentations. and is less damaging to the fish and humans for that matter, than a treble hook.

Metal slices work best when retrieved flat out most of the time but they can also be worked slowly and down deeper. Fast rips with pauses and slow constant retrieves while twitching the rod tip are effective at times too. Deep holding schools of salmon tend to prefer their metals

WELL AHEAD ON POINTS

Tailor are great sport and not bad on the plate when eaten fresh. Metal slices and surface lures are the best options when these guys are in attendance

Mustad’s unique Ultra Point is now available on treble hooks.

Ultra Point gives unparalleled durability and sharpness to chemically sharpened needle points. That’s reflected in tournament successes – like Kord Luckus’s 117cm barramundi (pictured above). It was hooked on a Mustad 36329NP-BN Ultra Point treble and was ‘Most Meritorious Capture’ in the 2011 Barra Classic.

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are the most commonly used for this style of fishing.

In recent years I have been removing the standard treble hook that is rigged on most metal slices and replacing it with a single, non-offset J-hook. This serves two purposes, firstly the hook up to landing ratio is far better when you have species like salmon and tailor that like to get airborne during the fight.

The single hook tends to find its mark in the corner of the jaw and is hard to throw even with the weight of the metal slice working back and forth.

Secondly is the practice of catch and release when we are encountering large volumes of fish such as this. Salmon aren’t the most highly desired table fish so the majority are set free after capture, having a single hook is far safer for removal

after it has been let sink and then retrieved back towards the surface at a rate of knots.

Vertically jigging small metals under the school or when they have gone deep and marking on your sounder is another method that can keep a bite going.

SOFT PLASTICS Soft plastics are another great option for targeting surface feeding schools.

The versatility to swap and change lure profiles, sizes and colours is endless with soft plastics but there are drawbacks too. They can fall down the on the shank of the jig hook when retrieved briskly, they get damaged easily by toothy critters like tailor and they are fiddly to rig dead straight when you have adrenalin running through your veins while fish are busting up all around you.

That aside, the benefits of soft plastics far outweigh the above mentioned drawbacks.

On particular days they will not eat anything other than lightly rigged plastic slowly twitch on the surface, at other times they want it moving as fast as you can wind. It’s just a matter of seeing which will work best on the day.

One of the main benefits of plastics is the ability to modify them to suit the prevalent bait.

Top water stick baits give anglers great visual strikes when the correct retrieve is employed.

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Cold water snapper action PHILLIP ISLAND

John Dalla-Rosa

While spring is steadily marching forward, cold weather and water fishing is still the mainstay for a few weeks at least.

I’d heard about the late winter snapper so together with a mate we headed out from the Hastings ramp, caught some squid for bait and then headed

past Crawfish Rock. After about two hours and right on the top of the tide one reel screamed off and after a good tussle we had a nice 4kg red in the boat. As the tide started to run off, we had another good run and another 4kg red in the boat.

We sat there for another 2 hours but had no more action.

The following week we decided to try the same spot again and repeated what we

Tony Dalla Rossa with a cracking 7kg snapper taken on the bottom of the tide.

did on the first trip only this time the tide was the other way round. We had no action for three hours when right on the turn of the tide, a reel screamed off and turned out to be a red of 7kg.

We sat there for another 2 hours with no more touches but it did prove one thing to me and that is that there are some good snapper there if you are willing to put the time and effort in for them, even in the cold water.

You will need at least 6oz of lead to hold bottom as the current is pretty strong. Hold your sinker and bait just under the surface before you cast it out. If the bait lies flat, that’s perfect, cast it out. If it spins, re-tie your bait and make sure it lies flat before casting it out otherwise it will twist right up your line and make one big mess.

SURF BEACHES All surf beaches are fishing reasonably well when the weather permits with fish ranging from 300g-3kg. One day the big ones are on a particular

Tony Dalla-Rosa with two 4kg snapper from a session around the top of the tide. beach in good numbers and the next day you have to be content to catch the smaller fish. You are more likely to catch the bigger fish right on daybreak which is what I have found on my last couple of trips.

SAN REMO AREA Below the bridge there have been some good catches of calamari in the Cleelands

Bight area and a few schools of salmon working up and down the channel.

Above the bridge the whiting have all but disappeared, with just the odd one or two coming from the Dickies Bay area. I tried Tortoise Head, Tankerton and Cat Bay a couple of times and got zilch but did okay on the snapper up the

top end of the bay.

There seems to be a good amount of squid about in most areas of the bay.

Apart from that it’s the quiet time of year for everything else.

FLINDERS Big calamari are showing up in good numbers so it’s a good time of the year to target them.

Say goodbye to cold, hello spring snapper PORT PHILLIP

Chris Vasilevski

Now we can finally put the cold months behind us and start putting the hard yards in to finding our prime target species.

Firstly, we shall see the squid coming through and then the snapper. Ah the elusive snapper, nothing quite like the feeling of a tight line with the knowledge that you have a decent snapper on the other end.

SNAPPER Snapper, what a great

introduction to the new season!

The snapper alone is reason enough to get any angler that has remained dormant during winter to dust off their rods and hit the water.

Weather plays a large part as to when the snapper season really starts. If it starts to warm up earlier, then we can expect to see the snapper coming through sooner. The best place to start your search for the snapper is in the offshore reefs at about 20-50m of water.

Snapper love fresh flesh bait, so you can’t go past bait such as squid, couta and salmon and you may even come

across some gummy sharks while you are waiting for your prized snapper to arrive, and in saying that patience is the key to snapper fishing.

They are already coming in good size and numbers, so it is looking to be a good season ahead.

SQUID The squid have had a slower start to the season, as we have grown accustom to seeing them coming through slowly during winter. They have now started to show up in numbers in the usual areas around Queenscliff such as Swan Bay, the Bight and also

Point Lonsdale pier. On the other side of the bay there has also been some good squid caught off Sorrento and Portsea piers, so that is definitely worth giving a go.

WHITING Whiting in Queenscliff has been the mainstay during winter, giving the hardcore fishos something to catch during the cold season. As usual the whiting enjoy their squid for bait and they have been in good size near The Rip area, but when moving up the bay they have been dropping in size, though they are still good in numbers. Whiting

can be expected to be around during September though they may start slowing down at this stage.

With spring here and the fishing dynamics changing with more species of fish on offer, many anglers change their focus to the squid and snapper.

SALMON Australian salmon are predicted to be along soon as we start to troll the beach and pick up the odd one here and there. To be out specifically targeting the salmon can be difficult, for at times as soon as they bust up right in front

of you they can be gone, however sometimes they can be on a feed for a while and you have plenty of opportunity to fish them.

Make sure you always have some white Ockies on hand in case you find yourself in the middle of a bust up of salmon.

As many anglers take the opportunity in winter to rest or go to warmer climates to get there fishing fix, spring is in the air and the fishing down in Port Phillip and Bass Strait will start to see a resurgence of fish species in the area.

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Garfish on the menu MCLOUGHLINS

Will Thompson allwaysangling@bigpond.com

Winter has finally set in and the water temperature has dropped so one of victorias favourite bread and butter fish, the garfish are on the menu.

Garfish have been around in great numbers further west in Port Albert and Welshpool.

The west side of Sunday Island towards Port Welshpool has been producing the best quantities of garfish but most of the gars are between 30-35cm, so they are enough for a feed but not huge.

Around McLoughlins and Manns beaches the numbers aren’t as good but the sizes are much better and there have been some garfish around 45cm caught.

The key to finding the gars has been berley! You need lots of berley and a good tidal flow to get the gars up close to the boat. The run-out tide has been the best, but at Port Albert, the gars are being caught on the run-in tide as well. They are just more patchy and spread out and you need your berley to consolidate the schools.

A standard float rig has been very good, but if you can get the fish close to the back of the boat, you can use a slack line rig and catch plenty, if not more as well. Fresh pieces of fish flesh, pipis and squid have been the best baits to use and make sure you feed some little pieces of the berley you are using out.

The good thing about chasing garfish over the shallows is you get to catch a wide range of species and it gives you the chance to catch

southern blue spot flathead and rock flathead. In summer this is nothing different, however in the winter, this becomes a much more impressive task, these species are traditionally not known for a winter appearance, even though they are in the system all year.

Garfish, mullet, whiting and flathead all hang out in the same area, so when you berley up one fish, you inevitably berley up all of them. It’s great fishing, good to get a winter feed and excellent fishing to teach the kids how to hook fish as they can be tough sometimes.

SALMON We had a cracker few weeks on the salmon recently, all they way till we started getting rain. The rains dirtied up McLoughlins Beach quite badly and the salmon never really came back in those

A feed of garfish and blue spot flathead in winter is definitely on the menu. The garfish aren’t huge at the moment, but they are still big enough for a great feed. numbers till now. We had some very big salmon caught to 3kg recently and plenty around 1.5-2kg. Now there are good numbers of 35-40cm turning up as the water has cleared, but hopefully those big black back salmon come back into the estuary over the next

month or two. McLoughlins and Manns entrances have still been the two stand out locations for salmon, but Port Albert entrance has produced big numbers, so all spots are worth a shot having a troll until you find the fish.

• For more information,

contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 5174 8544.

You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Tune into Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s “Off the Hook” on 1242 to hear Will’s report on what’s going on in Gippsland!

Puzzling times ahead but persistence will reward GIPPSLAND LAKES

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

We now approach that time of year when the Gippsland Lakes become a real puzzle.

The problem becomes a bit of a mind game as we all try to get inside the head of those fickle bream. Their brains now start to focus on all things sexy and sadly for a lot of bream, food is of little importance. The good news is that not all fish stop eating and it just means harder work to find those hungry ones. Good results will rely on perseverance. One thing I know for sure, with the recent rains and the rivers topped up with life giving water, it is going to be yet another bumper spawning season for the whole area.

BIG BREAM First of all many thanks

to those readers sending me reports and fantastic pictures, sorry I can’t mention you all.

One of the stand out efforts belongs to Scott Stevenson who landed big bream to 42cm in the lower Mitchell River and he may have seen the anglers lined up in this area because it is a real hive of activity at the moment. This area has always proven to be a late winter or early autumn hotspot and lure anglers in particular have been hooking big numbers of impressive bream.

But the real star of the show is Darcie Lia who wrestled in a 47cm bream on a cold, bleak, blustery day.

She is one champion angler because rugged up under threatening storm clouds Darcie also took out first prize by a huge margin, to win the “Smilies Angling Club” comp.

A reward full of merit when most people are back home rubbing their hands in front of a fire.

RIVERS START TO FIRE At this time of year bream start to gather at the mouth of all the rivers. This is when a sounder proves so deadly. It’s a safe bet to start at the Tambo and search downstream from the boat ramp and strangely lures seem to catch a lot more bream than bait. Further to that, blades will score you ten times more than all other lures combined as well.

Often the schools are spread far and wide along the length of the river, but with a sounder you can find the schooling bream and see them packed in tight together. Often they look to be many hundreds of fish strong and not always sitting close to the bottom, with some bream hanging mid-way through the water column. On any given day the bream will let you know how to catch them. Some days require a long pause, other sessions will need you to work a blade fast and vigorous and

yet other days the bream will only attack blades jigged or hopped right on their nose.

Sometimes the lower Nicholson can hold the most fish and other seasons will see the Mitchell on fire. It pays to search around and stay mobile until you find them.

METUNG TO NUNGURNER I’ve spent a lot of time at Metung recently and this place still amazes me. Huge schools of bream are still milling around but most of them have been modest fish of 26-32cm. Tailor have also called the area home with most of those toothy critters about 30-35cm long. The numbers of luderick I’m getting is another highlight and they are very fat chunky fish to 32cm that fight like little demons. The best surprise however comes in the way of yellowfin bream and although most of them are around 25cm, quite a number have pulled the rod down hard and sat on the ruler to 38cm.

With every passing year

the yellowfin are growing in numbers and are more than welcome because they pull a fair bit harder than their cousin the black bream. To add even more mystery and surprise to the Metung waters, I even managed to land two estuary perch from its waters recently and another guy pulled out a nice sized yellowtail kingfish from nearby Bancroft Bay. GUIDING LIGHT Craig Seignior is a name many keen bream anglers know. He has been very successful in tournaments and is a very accomplished lure angler. In fact he caught snapper on soft plastics way back in the early 90s. Craig ran fishing charters down in Melbourne but now resides on the Gippsland Lakes.

He is currently booking clients who wish to discover all about the Gippsland Lakes and catching perch, flathead and bream on lures. I’ve spent a bit of time with Craig recently and I’m a little shocked at his impressive knowledge about

lure fishing so look him up at www.vsfa.com.au. He put me onto a big mob of bream recently again down at Metung out in deep open water, but the first fish Craig watched me pull out of the school was an estuary perch!

The odds of landing a snag loving EP in that area way out in open, deep water are quite amazing.

PAINESVILLE Finally the biggest mother lode of bream is still hanging out either side of the Raymond Island ferry. Just about every fish is 26cm but at that size they still provide a little fun. During one five hour session there a mate joined me as we returned masses of bream with the biggest three going 35cm.

They are out in about 5m of water and tend to sit about 1m off the bottom. The trick is to drop your blade down to the bottom, and then wind up your reel a few turns. Give your lure a few sharp jigs and wait for your rod to load up.

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Fishing picks up as days become warmer LAKES ENTRANCE

Lucas Smith squidgy_man1@hotmail.com

The end of winter has been a real eye opener.

Recent fishing has really picked up as the water cleared.

The town jetties have been fishing extremely well as the luderick have schooled up mainly around the post office jetty. Live shrimp is dynamite and will catch a range of species. Some nice bream have been taken on vibes and soft

plastics fished slowly around the pylons and boat hulls. Dark colours such as pumpkinseed, bloodworm and camo styles have been best. Some nice estuary perch have been caught at the Nautilus Jetty on suspending hardbodies and soft plastics.

Bullock Island has been faring well with salmon and trevally on the sandblasting jetty. Bluebait and squid strips are good options and spinning with metal lures has been productive. Small whiting have been caught on peeled

Flicking plastics into the snags is always a reliable way to trick a few bream.

prawn and plenty of mullet are taking sandworm fished under a float in the north arm near the boat ramp. In the creek there have been plenty of bream, trevally and luderick taken on sandworm and shrimp.

In the upper reaches of the north arm good bags of garfish have been caught on sandworm mainly upstream of the winery. Gars are great fun on ultra-light gear and taste fantastic! Anglers throwing hardbodied lures in the snags have caught some beautiful bream up to 1.2kg but they can be hard to find at times.

Cranka Cranks and minnows have been standout especially in the olive prawn colour fished super slow.

Lake Tyers has been exceptional of late with bream in the deeper holes around the glasshouse taking a range of baits and lures. Larger smelly baits like striped tuna and salmon cubes are often overlooked as bream baits but can be dynamite especially when the water is discoloured.

Spider crab and peeled prawn are great baits too and you will often pick up a feed of flathead at the same time. Lure anglers are mainly throwing metal vibes and are cleaning up with some ripper fish up to 1.5kg with most between 600-900g. Once you find the fish work the area thoroughly.

The powerlines at the glasshouse is a great place to start looking as well as deeper

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Flathead are a prime target in the shallow water and patches of sand. drop offs and rocky areas.

A few big tailor have been caught trolling metal lures in the Nowa Nowa Arm. Around Burnt Bridge a few flatties have been caught, but things are still fairly slow. Some nice bream and luderick have been caught in the snags in the Nowa Nowa Arm on unweighted sandworm and small hardbodied lures.

Behind the caravan park a few perch have been caught on shrimp and prawn.

The surf beaches have been hit and miss with schools of huge salmon cruising the breakers. The weed has been between Lake Bunga and Lake Tyers but either side has

been fine. As usual spinning is the preferred method but bait fishing with bluebait on a paternoster should see you score a few too. Plenty of mullet are in the breakers too and by using sandworm on a light rod these are great fun!

Mullet caught in the surf are exceptional eating and also make great bait. For those bothering with bigger baits there have been hoards of Port Jackson sharks present but there’s always a chance of a big winter gummy cruising in the wash.

Offshore fishing has been brilliant on the local reefs for snapper, morwong, nannygai and leatherjacket. Squid and

pilchard are perfect baits but fresh ‘couta is hard to beat if you can get it. Snapper snatchers are handy if the pickers are destroying baits too quickly. Jigging with soft plastics and Octa style lures have been good but the ‘couta tend to make short work of them if you happen to run into a school of them.

In about 30m there have been some huge gummies caught especially down to the west near the pipeline.

Anchoring up and berleying are the keys and expect to sit through the rubbish sharks while waiting for the gummies to turn up. Persistence is the key

Longer days makes anglers more confident MARLO

the other species, and with lots of salt water coming in with the run-in tide there are plenty of salmon and tailor for anglers to try out their lures.

The surf beaches are still fishing well; anglers

Jim McClymont mcclymont@net-tech.com.au

The winter has been wet and cold, with short days and long nights, but at last we are moving forward getting a little warmer and a bit more daylight every day.

Along with the winter flush through all our rivers the estuary is in a very healthy condition. With all the fresh water that has flushed through, the entrance is deep and allowing plenty of water to move in and out with the tides, and should remain so for some months to come.

With the conditions perfect it is little wonder the estuary is fishing very well.

Schools of bream have moved in already and giving anglers plenty of opportunities to land their bag or bag a few for the table. Anglers have reported catching bream from the entrance all the way up to Lake Corringle and up the Brodribb River to Lake Curlip.

Best results have been using sandworm, shell, prawn and lures. Schools of luderick can be found along

have reported getting plenty of salmon, tailor, flathead and mullet. Best results are had by using bluebait, whitebait, squid, pilchards, pipis and glassies, and always accompanied with a popper.

Anglers have also reported

getting plenty of salmon and tailor using lures.

Off shore when weather permits is fishing well several anglers have reported getting plenty of flathead, gurnard, barracouta, squid and gummy shark.

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Big flathead are a prime target for soft plastic anglers, especially in the shallow backwaters at Marlo. the rock groynes that surround the islands and along the riverbanks with best results using sandworm.

With the winter frosts, mullet begin entering the system to spawn and re-populate the waterways. In our area mullet are regarded as an excellent table fish and with their arrival, many anglers are out trying to get some fresh mullet for their table; mullet bite best on sandworm.

But the most prized and sought after fish in our system

is the estuary perch, a great fighting fish and an excellent table fish, and with the estuary in pristine condition they are here in good numbers.

Estuary perch school around snags and structures such as jetties and bridge pylons as well as natural obstacles.

Anglers who target EP fish the structures either using live prawn or lures and anglers must be prepared to lose plenty of tackle and lures.

Anglers are also getting plenty of trevally mixed in with

DAVID KRAMER

JARROD DAY

LEE RAYNER

REGULAR REPORTS Paul Worsteling.................................. WESTERN PORT Colin Wilkinson .............................. PORT PHILLIP BAY Trevor Hogan ...............................PORT PHILLIP EAST Charlie Micallef.........................PORT PHILLIP SOUTH

Bruce Smith ....................... INLAND FISHING SCENE Brett Geddes ........................... GIPPSLAND REPORT Wayne Sharrock ... PORTLAND & PORT PHILLIP LIVE Gawaine Blake ....................... WESTERN PORT LIVE

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SEPTEMBER 2013

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Tossing lures for trout FMG

Neil Grose vfmeditor@fishingmonthly.com.au

Even though I am a very passionate fly fisher, I do dearly love casting lures for trout in lakes.

The windier and dirtier the weather, the better I like it. Flyfishing can be very successful in these conditions, but it can be a lot of hard work too. Casting lures isn’t just a throw and hope exercise though, there are many subtleties to making the most of your opportunities.

While soft plastics are my preferred option when chasing a trout, I do like casting hardbodied lures, especially into those rocky nooks and crannies on Great Lake.

SOFT PLASTICS When soft plastics hit the scene in a big way back in the mid to late 90’s the suitability for trout fishing was immediately apparent. I remember when Bushy and Starlo did some seminars in Tasmania to explain their new range of Squidgy soft plastics and the massive numbers of anglers who turned out – there were

about 300 people at the Launceston Football Club to hear what they had to say.

Many anglers found the transition from the ‘traditional’ Tassie Devils and Ashley Spinners to plastics quite hard, as soft plastic lures required a subtle approach, with plenty of pauses and flicks. Tassie Devils were always a cast and retrieve proposition, and work very well like this, but plastic lures aren’t so hot fished like this.

These days we are all quite comfortable with myriad colours and shapes, different jig head weights

and hook sizes, scents, fluoro colours and just about anything else you can think about.

All of this is no substitute for getting the lure in the right spot at the right time – the old saying that the “wrong lure in the right place is better than the right lure in the wrong place” is very apt indeed.

DEEP AND SLOW Early in the season in weedy lakes like Arthurs Lake and Bronte Lagoon, most anglers do very well by fishing their plastics deep over weedy areas. In Arthurs Lake these places can be Black and gold is a very reliable colour for soft plastics – note how close this photo is to the shore. Photo courtesy Strike Tiger Lures

Benny Hill with a solid fish from the Morass area of Arthurs Lake. Photo courtesy Brendan Turriff.

up to 6m deep, especially around noted big fish areas like Phantom Bay. Mostly though the best areas are 3-4m deep. Trout in these areas are feeding on scud, stick caddis and shrimp with some galaxia thrown in. On the eastern side of the lake along Paradise Plains there are huge amounts of native yabbies, and it is here that some very large fish live.

As these fish are accustomed to feeding on slow moving items, it pays to make the best part of your retrieve slow as well.

It probably goes without saying that you also need to be on the bottom too!

Jigheads need to be matched to the rate of drift, fast drifts require a heavier jighead to get you to the bottom quicker, while calmer conditions will need a lighter jighead to aid presentation. On windy days I use an 1/8oz jighead, calm days I’ll use a 1/16toz.

When it gets really rough and nothing slows the boat then a 3/16oz or even a 1/4oz jighead is needed.

Match the hook size to the plastic. A 3” plastic like

Deep and slow always produces results over deep weed beds, such as the weed bed off Haddens Bay in Great Lake. Photo courtesy Strike Tiger Lures a Berkley Power Minnow or T Tail needs a size 1 or 1/0 hook, while plastics like the Strike Tiger 2” Hawg probably needs a size 4 or 2 hook.

I use braid matched with a longish 2-3m 6lb fluoro leader, and this helps immensely with take detection.

Cast the lure as far down wind as you can once you are over the weed. Let the lure sink to the bottom –

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SEPTEMBER 2013

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Brendan Turriff with a chunky Four Spring trout taken while fishing over the weed. Photo courtesy Brendan Turriff.

watch the braid slink down – as soon as it pauses you are on the bottom, (or a fish has taken it). Take up the slack and give it a few flicks, and then let it pause. Mostly these fish take gently, and the bonus of brown trout is that they will hang on to a plastic, so you can almost feel your way into a strike.

If you have a take and it drops the lure, open the bail and let the lure drop. Often the trout will come back again, and again, and again.

Always watch the lure right up to the boat; you will be amazed how many fish will take it at the boat given half the chance.

HARD AND FAST On very rough days on waters like Great Lake and Lake Echo, trout feed hard on the wind swept rocky shorelines. Echo and Great Lake are ringed by rocky shores, whereas Arthurs at its current high level really only has rocky shores on the southern shores from the Morass round to Pumphouse Bay. While rocky shores look barren and lifeless, nothing could be further from the truth. These shores have loads of stick caddis on them, masses of galaxia in spring and plenty of other bits. When the wind blows onto these shores for more

Welcome rain freshens the whole system HORSHAM

Alastair Vanstan bigalvanstan@yahoo.com.au

After a dry spell at the start of winter we have enjoyed some very handy rainfall that has freshened up our waters and sparked an increase in fish activity.

Trout and redfin fishing is always very good at this time of year, but what I particularly like about spring is that native species such as yellowbelly, catfish and silver perch will start to come out of their winter slumber and start feeding normally once again

as the water temperatures start to rise.

LAKE TOOLONDO If you like catching lots of good size and hard fighting brown and rainbow trout then this is the place to be. Local and visiting anglers alike continue to flock to this water and do very well on bait, lure or fly. Most of the trout are around 1-1.5kg but plenty of larger fish have been about and they are well up around 2.5kg now.

These bigger fish are a real challenge to get to the net as there is just something about the trout in Toolondo, they seem extra-angry and fight

Will Stevens with a great rainbow trout taken at Lake Toolondo.

Two great brown trout taken at Wartook on peeled yabby tail. a lot harder than those from other waters.

Most anglers have been simply trolling with Tassie Devils lures with best colours being white/blue, hot pink and fire tiger. Good numbers of redfin to 1kg are also hitting trolled lures. I like to use Rapala JSR4’s in perch or silver shad pattern and the ever-faithful Ballista Trigger in green. These divers also catch their fair share of big trout in here too.

Bait fishing with mudeyes under bubble floats or Powerbait on running sinkers has also been working very

well. The spring months tend to produce some of the best mudeye fishing here as they are the number one trout food on the menu.

Likewise, fly anglers working wets such as Woolly Buggers, Mrs Simpsons and Hammils killers are doing well all over the lake. The number one fly here for me lately has been a green bead head pattern called the Shrek, which seems to always do well here.

LAKE WARTOOK The fishing has been somewhat slower here but some good quality trout and redfin have still been caught.

Trolling lures has only been producing the odd fish but bait fishing has been a bit better.

The ever-faithful mudeye under a bubble float has been working well as has unweighted baits of scrub worms, yabby or prawn tail and half bardi grubs.

Good spots to try have been in front of the wall, the island and Langlands Bay. Most of the trout are browns and are around 1-1.5kg but there are much bigger fish present in this water.

WIMMERA RIVER Surprisingly, all through winter, some very nice catches of redfin have been taken in the river at Jeparit around the weir area. Most of these reddies have been around 1kg but some much bigger fish have been amongst them. The best fishing has been with some flow over the weir and soft plastics, vibes and trolled lures have been doing the trick. A few large yellowbelly have also been caught here along with a few silver perch. Interestingly, some very large eels and the occasional Australian bass have also been caught along the Jeparit stretch.

At this time of year yellowbelly become more active in the river. Areas such as Horsham Weir, Quantong

and Dimboola will be well worth a look. Bait fishing is best at this time of year and good baits here include small yabbies, scrubworms and yabby tail.

LAKE FYANS Trout fishing has been very good here lately with a lot of brown and rainbow trout about averaging 1kg. This lake usually carries some large trophy size trout but for the last few seasons these trophy trout have been very few and far between. Hopefully this is the year the lake will be back in form on the big trout side of things.

Trolling Tassie Devils lures is picking up a few nice fish but bait fishing has been best with mudeyes under a bubble float definitely the number one option. Good fish are being taken from the shore as well as from boats, particularly at the wall and inlet areas.

It’s not just about the trout though, many small to medium size redfin have been getting caught on small yabbies and soft plastics along with the occasional better fish around 1kg. This lake contains some very big redfin and the spring months are when the bigger than average reddies are often caught here.

Winter blues disappear as spring arrives BALLARAT

Shane Stevens

The normal Ballarat winter weather hasn’t that stopped the action in and around the region.

The fish are still biting for those keen enough to get out of the warmth of home and hit our waterways. Hopefully the rain continues to

fall as our western district waters certainly need plenty of water as fisheries action their annual trout stocking programs.

DEEP LAKE Deep Lake has been low and very discoloured. After talking to a couple of locals the water was just starting to clear up they had had an algal bloom there for nearly 3 months. A recent week of frosts had killed off the algae

so now it’s just a matter of time before the water clears up to its normal clarity level.

There has been the odd fish getting caught but the algae had put most anglers off.

LAKE TOOLIOROOK Only 10 minutes from Deep Lake, Tooliorook is a different story. The water level is down but the water is crystal clear. I recently launched the boat and headed off down the eastern

DAM LEVELS Lake/Dam

LAKE/DAM Cairn Curran Dartmouth Eildon Eppalock Fyans Greens Hepburn Hume Lauriston Malmsbury Mulwala (Yarrawonga) 48

% Full

Dam

June 66 93 69 77 66 32 40 51 78 30

July 62 70 70 76 67 32 40 62 75 34

Aug 68 97 75 77 74 32 45 80 75 43

86

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Newlyn Nillahcootie Rocklands Taylors Tullaroop Upper Coliban Waranga Wartook William Hovell

Zach Stevens outdid his brother with this whopping Tooliorook brown trout of nearly 3kg on an orange Tassie Devil.

% Full

48 61 31 37 61 71 35 51 103

46 62 31 37 60 73 38 52 100

50 78 32 39 61 87 56 63 103

All levels correct at time of going to press.

Damlevels can change at any time, so please check with local authorities to ensure safe boating and fishing.

shoreline trolling winged and hardbodied lures around areas where we caught plenty of trout and redfin the previous year. The water is a lot shallower and very weedy; every 20-30m we had to wind our lures in to clear the weed. This is excellent for the aquatic insects and baitfish but no good for lures.

We moved out into about 3m and the weed seemed to be less. Trolling along some rocky shorelines and points brought excellent results with two brown trout of around 2kg and just under 3kg on pink and orange lures.

Tooliorook is well worth a look and going on last year the water has excellent population of trout. The lake

is a sleeping giant; the water clarity is amazing. I have fished this water for over 25 years and never seen it so clear I would recommend that boat angling along the southern shoreline is a must but the northern end of the lake is still fishable from the shore. Flyfishing, bait fishing, casting lures and trolling will all produce some excellent trout in the coming months.

LAKE WENDOUREE This has quietened down due to the weather. Trout and redfin have still been caught flyfishing and trolling lures while shore based anglers have been catching them on fly, Powerbait and lures, with trout to 2.2kg being caught.

DEAN, COSGROVES, NEWLYN AND HEPBURN These are all in close proximity. Each has seen some lovely trout caught and released. The best methods have been flyfishing with smelt patterns. If you don’t get a fish at one water then try another, as they are all within ten minutes of each other. These waters are all experiencing low water levels at the moment but if we continue to receive good rainfalls they will fill up quickly and the trout will be mooching around in the shallows eating all the flooded out grubs and so on.

TULLAROOP RESERVOIR Tullaroop continues to fish well. Keith Riddsdale and Ian Penberthy both fished Tullaroop recently with Ian fly fishing and Keith bait fishing.

Both anglers landed a couple of fish around 1kg. Tullaroop is an excellent winter and spring fishery and I believe over the coming months as the waters rises over new ground the fishing will be sensational up there.

MOORABOOL RESERVOIR This is another very under rated fishery around the district. This has started to produce the odd fish to 2kg, with fly fishers doing well with the ever-reliable Woolly Buggers.

Spring lifts trout and redfin prospects in the lakes CRATER LAKES

Rod Shepherd

With the worst of winter behind us and spring all but here, for once the fishing in our south western lakes is finally approaching its peak.

More heavy rains in July gave yet another welcome top up to our waterways and the trout and the anglers are thoroughly enjoying this positive fishy scenario.

Lake Tooliorook is fishing reasonably well for trout with browns approaching 2kg and rainbows over 1kg with some left from the previous stocking around 2.5kg. Prior to the July rains the lakes level petered out at 3.5m (normally 5.5m when full) and the

subsequent weed growth is posing a problem for many fishing methods.

I recently wet a line there and to overcome the thick bottom weed growth I trolled ultra-shallow diving minnow lures such as Cra-Pea flat shallow runners and Damiki Baits in natural baitfish colours.

It didn’t take long to attract the attention of a brown that put up a magnificent fight which dragged on for quite some. The fish preferred to consistently roll rather than leap and it was only a matter of time before the front treble pulled. Oh well, that’s why they call it fishing, not catching! However a couple of solid redfin caught shortly after helped heal the wound!

Lake Elingamite near

A Tooliorook redfin taken on a weed-avoiding shallow diver.

Cobden is still off limits to boaters but kayakers can access the deeper water from

the boat ramp and some solid browns and rainbows pushing 2.5kg have been taken on the

under a float.

The Hopkins River upstream from Tooram Stones to the tiny township of Wangoom has seen some beautifully coloured brown trout to 2kg taking a wide variety of minnow lures cast and retrieved all along the river bank.

The Merri River from Dennington upstream to the Woolaston Bridge has some solid redfin to 800g as well as brown trout to 1kg taking cast and retrieved lures as well as mudeye, earthworm and small yabby presented under a float.

Thanks to ‘better late than never’ rains, our freshwater scene has finally kicked into top gear.

Long may it stay that way.

troll or by casting minnow lures in the gaps and channels among the weed growth on the southern edge of the lake.

A few redfin to 1.4kg have also been caught using the same methods. Hopefully by September, shallow draught tinnies will once again be able to get out on this trophy lake.

Lake Purrumbete has rainbow trout to 1.3kg readily taking lures and wellpresented baits suspended under a float. New release chinook salmon approaching 250g are currently posing a nuisance to anglers, but thankfully most fish are being released with care.

Brown trout seem to be presently scarce with only the capture of fish averaging 2.2kg taking mainly mudeye

Check all your gear before the trout season starts YARRA VALLEY

Ian Loft ringwood@compleatangler.com.au

The late winter rains, although quite light for Yarra Valley standards, have given much needed flow to the river.

Over the last few years the water has been high and flushing well but this year the short, sharp amounts of water has not been treating the fish very well at all! Having said that, you can expect to see some Macquarie perch well on the move from now on and its not long now till the trout season gets back into full swing.

I always find this time of the year to be a good time to check that all your gear is good to go for the months ahead.

Things like refreshing your line and checking that

your drag is smooth are two of the most over looked things an angler can do. If you use mono fishing line for your bait fishing (as most people do) then you should change it every season. It costs peanuts and can save you loosing that big cod in the Yarra this summer that snaffles a bunch of scrubworms intended for a perch!

It’s one thing to have good line on your reel but it’s another to have it put on correctly. A tackle store is by far the best place to get this done! The people that work there do it on a daily basis and know exactly what tension to put it under whilst spinning it on.

The drag system of your reel is another massive consideration and if it’s not smooth, you might as well pop it into the bin! The drag on your reel is paramount for landing a good size fish.

READER’S PICTURE

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Any 2kg+ carp in the Yarra will give you a run around the place so your can imagine what a 6kg Murray cod could do! To self-check your drag, start by doing the drag knob up to a medium to firm tension and then while holding the body of the reel, turn the spool with your other hand. It should ‘tick’ off slowly and smoothly.

If it shudders or jerks when you try to turn it slowly, then you need to get it looked at.

That’s where having a local tackle store comes in handy!

Get your reel serviced and drag adjusted by someone who knows what they are doing.

There’s nothing worse than hearing that spring bounce off 3 walls and then the dog and ending up lost, leaving your reel useless and all for the sake of a 5c part.

Once your gear is back in the good books and your ready to hit the water, try a bunch of worms fished close into the

7A

FMG SB

bank and near a snag. This time of the year in the Yarra, the fish have been eating worms for months and really do know what they smell like and how to find them...and fast!

Keep a close eye on your rod and try to use a ‘real’ bank stick (push in bank rod holder) instead of a branch of a tree, or your outfit could end up swimming with the fishes!!

AN EYE ON THE PRIZE September will see anglers do best by continuing to fish with worms as bait but as the water clears, the fish will start to hit lures. Look to catch trout in the upper reaches and redfin, golden perch in the middle Yarra.

Berley will be a staple for all bait fishing activities and be sure to put in your berley what you have on your hooks! September also coincides with carp breeding in the river so don’t forget to fertilise the bush with a few of these critters!

Be mindful of where you put the dead carp, as one left on the bank will only end up

Redfin perch will start to hit lures with more regularity once the water warms. dispatched or take them home and fertilise your garden.

feeding another Pommy pest, the common fox!

So make sure you dig a hole to put them in once

SPIEL

Fishing Shirts

Buy online ...or see website for entire range and nearest retailer!

Matt Sherriff of Launceston cracked this beauty at Four Springs Lake in northern Tasmania on opening day on a Hawk hardbodied lure.

www.bigfishgraphics.com.au V&TFM

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Spring relish the warmer water MELB METRO

Ian Debar ian@fishingcamping.com.au

The footy finals are nearly over, trout season opens up on the 7th and it’s officially the start of spring.

September normally signals the switch from anglers who’ve spent a bit of time indoors during winter to now wanting to get out and focus on fishing. While the waters are still cool, trout will remain active for a while longer and the start of milder weather normally brings other species on the bite as well.

KARKAROOK PARK Karkarook Park has been fairly consistent over the winter months with school holiday stocking keeping anglers of all ages busy catching feisty rainbow trout. Due for another stocking later this month, Karkarook will fire up again for anglers chasing trout. The start of spring is a good time of year for the redfin as well, because as the water temperature warms slightly, the redfin come out of their winter slumber in active pursuit of food.

Bug activity around the lake also starts to increase, so if you’re a lure angler, reach into your soft plastic collection and start throwing around a few ‘nymph’ style plastics. Fished deep out from the drop offs in the lake or around the shallower margins these types of lures will produce both trout and redfin.

DEVILBEND RESERVOIR Devilbend will start producing a few more quality trout for anglers working their way around the shoreline. Extensive weed beds run around most of the lake edge, and while they can be tricky to fish around, most of the time there are some very good quality trout moving around them.

All of the food items that the trout need are around these weed beds and include small shrimp, aquatic insects and forage fish. By using lures that imitate these food items you will tempt a few hungry trout. Early and late during the day are the most productive times to catch these trout as they cruise around higher in the water looking for food.

THE YARRA RIVER The Yarra River will be back in business for trout anglers towards the end of the month, and after a good amount of rainfall this winter the fishing should be good. The river will still have reasonable flow to it, so trout can be caught in deeper pools and also in most of the runs.

Spring means big brown trout like this start to get fired up.

Drifting a lightly weighted bunch of scrubworms down a slower run is normally a red hot technique for catching trout at this time of year, as water clarity is still murky for premium lure fishing. A tip if you’re going to soak a few worms is to trim off the ends of a few so that they pulse a bit in the current and also let a bit of scent out so that nearby fish can find them.

SUGARLOAF RESERVOIR Sugarloaf Reservoir has started to slowly creep into gear for both redfin and golden perch; depending on how mild this month is will dictate how active the golden perch will be.

The first main ‘spike’ in water temperature normally brings the goldens into a feeding mode, so if we have plenty of mild, sunny days they’ll be worth a shot.

If you’re planning on checking out sugarloaf, just make sure to visit during park hours and use artificial baits and lures only.

For up to date fishing information, contact the guys at Compleat Angler in Dandenong on 9794 9397 or drop in and see us at 241 – 243 Princes Hwy, Dandenong, we are open 7 days a week.

FISHING FILL-ITS

Fines and fishing ban Two Cranbourne men were convicted and fined $3000 and $4000 respectively and prohibited from fishing for two years in the Frankston Magistrates Court for hindering Fisheries Officers and committing several fishing offences.

The Court heard that the two men had been diving and fishing at London Bridge when they were approached

by Fisheries Officers on February 16 this year.

Senior Fisheries Officer Rod Barber, said the officers were subjected to intimidating and uncooperative behaviour by the men, who attempted to avoid giving information about their identities.

One of the men wrestled a bag of seized abalone from one of the Officers and acted in an aggressive manner that required the Officer to produce capsicum spray and warn him off to prevent an assault.

This man then fled the area in a van and Fisheries Officers attempted to intercept him while he was travelling to Cranbourne, but he refused to pull over and stop. The other man had fled the area on foot into adjacent scrub.

Later that afternoon the

men presented themselves to authorities, were arrested and interviewed, and both admitted to offences they committed earlier that day.

One was found guilty of exceeding the catch limit for abalone, hindering and intimidating an authorised officer, and failing to retain abalone in its shell.

He was fined $4000 with a conviction recorded and ordered to pay $283.56.

The other was found guilty of taking undersize rock lobster, spearing rock lobster, hindering an authorized officer and taking undersized wrasse and sweep. He was fined $3000.

Both men were placed on orders prohibiting them from fishing for two years and all their equipment and the borrowed van were forfeited.

“Bag limits are in place to help safeguard Victoria’s valuable resources and ignoring the rules can potentially jeopardise Victoria’s valuable marine fisheries.”

Anyone who sees or suspects illegal fishing is urged to call the 24-hour fisheries offence reporting line 13 FISH (13 3474).

- DEPI Fisheries

Rivers open for trout after a tough winter EILDON

Andy McCarthy

Thank goodness the rivers are open again because this has been one of the toughest winters on the lake in the last ten years.

This is from a personal point of view and is shared by most punters that I have chatted to over the last couple of months.

Throughout the remaining part of winter, the lake remained fickle at best with very small windows when the fish

would come on the chew.

Thankfully the odd cod or two kept a few of the lads happy before cod season closed but when Eildon fishes the same for natives as trout you know something weird is going on.

The longer winter went on the more apparent it is that the major change in projected weather cycles has seriously affected the fishing. After we had that good lot of rain recently the lake went up by a full metre and seemed to unsettle the fish again. It just seems to be every time you think

This is the quality of redfin from Eildon at the moment.

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things are ready to fire another major change in the conditions comes along.

With a bit of luck September will bring some favourable springlike conditions. I will mainly be concentrating on finding bays with water flowing into them, pushing food down into the lake with it. Trout should come up in numbers after spawning and start to feed hard again and you might also pick up a few of the cracking redfin that have been chewing sporadically in the colder months. I’ve heard of up to 50cm models being reported.

One very interesting thing is the schools of little reddies have disappeared almost completely; it’s very odd.

Recently I caught a nice trout on a Beardys lure which is a hand crafted timber made by Daniel Beard. At first glimpse, they are a robust, different looking lure but once you swim one you will love them.

They have a great action and they catch well. On

This is a great brown trout in any lake – Eildon has millions. a recent trolling mission when things were really tough this was the only lure to get any interest at all. It’s good to see a bloke having a crack.

RIVERS I’m stoked to be back on the banks in my waders again and it should be a great season on the rivers right up until the irrigation

starts. Hopefully we get some good rain in September as well to hold off the release into the Goulburn. Enjoy the fishing, but please take all your rubbish home with you a lot of places looked like tips after the Queens Birthday weekend in June.

October 19-20 will

see the Eildon Big Fish Challenge being held with cash prizes and a boat and motor package to be won. There will be countless other activities over the weekend at the Pondage. For more information go to www. eildonbigfishchallenge. com.au get on it one and all, it will be a blast.

Trout streams open for business WST/STH GIPPS

Steve Haughton steve.haughton@hotmail.com

September 7 sees the stream trout season re-open in the West and South Gippsland regions.

Despite below average rainfall, all rivers are flowing well so the season ahead is looking promising. This is the perfect time to mention the importance of catch-andrelease with stream trout in this region. Blue Rock Lake is the only waterway locally that receives good stockings of rainbow and brown trout

and bass. The Tanjil River that feeds Blue Rock holds a great population of trout thanks to the stocking programs in the lake. Other rivers however like the Latrobe, Toorongo, Tarago, Bunyip and Loch aren’t so lucky in receiving any stocking. While stream trout populations are good; unfortunately stream trout fishing is far from what it used to be. It is important that all anglers fishing these streams practice catch-and-release to ensure wild populations of trout continue spawning into the future.

At this time of the year the rivers are always flowing quite

hard due to winter rainfalls and snow melt from Mt Baw Baw. Fishing fast flowing water is always a bit of a challenge, especially when using lures and fly. Retrieving lures, particularly bladed lures and hardbodied lures with a bib is difficult against the flow or with the flow.

Flicking a beaded nymph will also be difficult at this time of the year as it rises up to the surface with the strong flows and out of the strike zone.

Lure and fly anglers will have their work cut out for them as they search and concentrate on slower flowing stretches of stream.

The opening of the season is a great opportunity tp find some very fat fish.

Working the river bends where the flow slows down will be the best option for the start of the open season.

Soft plastics cast close to the bank on straight sections of river will work well as you generally have a bit of backwater right up along the bank. You may have to increase the weight of the jig heads to combat the flow of the water. It’s also a challenge when a fish is on and you’re fighting it against stream flow and structure so make sure you consider tactics before every cast so that you’ll have more luck getting the fish into a net.

The opening of the season is a great time to get back to basics using live and artificial baits for stream trout. Artificial baits with hormone and scent added attractants are very productive on stream trout this time of the year straight after spawning.

Live baits like garden or scrub worms also work a treat and great fun for the kids. Once a bait line is cast and the rod put into a rod holder, it is important to stand well back and keep activity well away from the water edge so that you don’t spook any interested fish. This also goes for

Stream trout like this brown make for exciting day out exploring the rivers and streams of West/South Gippsland. land-based fishing at Blue Rock. Keep bank noise to a minimum and avoid bright coloured clothing and lots of movement.

This is a great time of the year to teach the family the basics of stream trout fishing as there will be plenty of fish about.

The Tarago River around Drouin West and the Latrobe River in Noojee are the best family fishing spots offering picnic, toilet and BBQ facilities with fantastic access to the river. The Loch and Toorongo rivers are flowing well and like every year, you should expect another great opening to the

season from these consistent performing rivers.

The Tanjil River will be difficult to fish early on in the season but should be on your list of places to visit over summer when the flows slow down and the river becomes a lot more fishable.

The blackfish season is closed as of September 1 and re-opens on January 1 2014 so make sure if you accidently catch one of these great native fish that you release it immediately.

• Feel free to send me a report or photo particularly if you have any success stories from the opening of the trout season. Happy fishing!

CHAPMAN’S HOTSPOT

Patterson River CRANBOURNE

Mitch Chapman

The Patterson River system or Carrum as it is better known as by every snapper angler in Melbourne, is not only is the gateway to Port Phillip snapper fishing, but its estuary system and lakes system out the back is one of the most reliable but very challenging bream fishery the state has to offer.

PRIME TIME Chasing bream on lures in the lakes system is what really gets lure casters going.

Fishing the warmer months when the fish are active and can be seen flashing and mooching on the abundant boat hulls and pylons is when the fishing is at its best, but also at its most challenging.

The fish you can normally see are the ones that are the hardest to catch, but knowing there are fish active and feeding, will keep you casting into the

Tight casting into structure is the key for these type of results.

Paul Malov with a 40cm plus bream taken on a sinking hardbodied lure.

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shadows hoping to hook the big one.

THE GEAR Standard bream fishing gear or estuary tackle is more than suitable while bream fishing the structure.

A light graphite rod matched with a 2000 sized reel will do the job. Just remember to tighten up the drag and don’t go easy on the fish around structure or you will lose the fish and lure if you give them an inch.

THE RIG Long light leaders for spooky finicky bream is the

key when lure fishing for bream in the lakes system.

Bait fishing the main river with a light running sinker rig and a size 4 baitholder hook is as good as any rig when targeting them on bait.

BAIT AND LURES. Bait anglers love to use sandworms, freshwater yabbies and fresh mussel.

A few go-to lures are the Ecogear SX40’s when fishing rock walls and flats. Smith Crystal Alives when targeting bream in deeper water on pylons

and boat hulls as well as Strike Pro micro vibes. For an all-rounder, the OSP Bent minnows are deadly and when the fishing is tough; generally turning a slow session into a good session.

BEST METHOD Casting parallel to rock walls and working hardbodied lures along the bank is a very effective way to catch bream. For fish that you can see actively feeding on pylons and boats hulls, cast a small light sinking hardbodied

lure or vibe. Cast the lure to the feeding fish, watch your lure sink down into the depths and normally the fish will follow the lure down out of sight. Then wait for the line to take off and come tight, then strike. If only it was as easy as that.

MOTHER NATURE As you are fishing in people’s backyards, just remember to have a bit of respect for their property and don’t go damaging any boats or pontoons. The more damage that is caused by anglers means cranky home owners who will try to put a stop to fishing this wonderful system. So make sure your casting is up to scratch before venturing in and casting lures at peoples’ belongings.

HOT TIP This system is better fished on a weekday than a weekend due to the fact that there are plenty of boats that patrol up and down the river and in through the system just for a casual cruise. Plenty of boat traffic means spooky shutdown fish a lot of the time and can make things really tough.

But when fished on a quiet midweek morning, it isn’t uncommon to catch 20 fish in a session and have a really hot bite for most of the day.

Spring bounces the trout addicts into action WANGARATTA

Robbie Alexander

Spring is finally here, thank God, and now we can look forward to improving fishing conditions and opportunities right across the region.

The final weeks of last season were not great by anyone’s standards with few reports filtering in. Winter has been very wet, the rivers are very high and dirty and hopefully the trout will be on a feeding frenzy so that by the time the season opens there should be some reasonable sized fish around again.

I am not sure how the Ovens River will fish upstream of Bright once the season opens. Towards the end of last season it fished very poorly after bushfires and floods caused some poor water quality in the river. The trout will bounce back though, but how long it will take is anybody’s guess. The good news is that the Ovens River is not the only river in the Ovens catchment, but it is the only river that was affected by the natural disasters early this year. The Buckland River should fish quite well as it has been ticking over nicely in recent years. The Buffalo River upstream of Lake Buffalo will also be worth a try, so too with the Catherine, Rose and Dandongadale rivers. All of these rivers are tributaries of the Ovens River and all offer great trout fishing.

Trout numbers right across the board did drop off last season in comparison to previous seasons, probably due to hot weather and minimal rainfall. But as I have said a million times in the past, in any river, less trout equals bigger trout.

Given the amount of rain we have already had, and the fact that the rivers are all in minor or moderate flooding, it will be pretty safe to say that drifting worms will be a dynamite technique in all streams once the season opens.

There will be scrub worms

A lovely coloured wild brown trout from the upper King River last season.

Adam Bosley works a great stretch of the Buffalo River early in the season. everywhere in the rivers that would have washed in with the floods at the moment.

As they are occurring naturally in the system, they will be the best bait on offer.

Many people have the belief that worms only work in dirty water, this is not the case.

Worms will work in very clear water as well, as long as the water is high. If the streams are high and clear, and the catchment is saturated, worms will work a treat. Try using a very small hook with 1 or 2 worms on it, and as light a split shot sinker as you can get

A Buffalo River double hook-up.

Adam Bosley with a typical sized brown trout from the Buffalo River. away with and just drift it into the back waters off the edge of the current and you can’t go wrong!

The King River upstream of Lake William Hovell will also be worth a fish. The river up there always seems to fish best early in the season, but be very careful of the river crossings as the current in the King River will be very strong and powerful in September.

Lake William Hovell itself will certainly be worth fishing for trout, with trolling winged lures like Tassie Devils giving the best results.

Fishing a lightly weighted scrub worm in the submerged King River at the top end of the lake may also produce a few trout. Redfin will be very quiet in there at this time of year though as the water will be icy cold.

The region’s family friendly waterways will be well worth fishing in September. Lake Sambell and Stanley Dam will both be stocked with yearling rainbow trout again in time for the September school holidays. A few redfin may start to show up in Lake Sambell towards the end of September as the water starts to warm up, but do not expect too much.

The lower Ovens River will fish very quietly, and will most likely be very high if not flooded. Downstream around Bundalong a few yellowbelly might start to show up close to Lake Mulwala towards the second half of September, but it is still very early and the water will still be very cold so do not expect too much.

Remember the Murray cod season is closed right through spring and if you get caught fishing for Murray cod during the closed season you face some pretty steep fines. They are off limits for a reason, and that is so that they can spawn uninterrupted.

Even practicing catch and release has detrimental impacts on Murray cod during spawning season so they are best left alone.

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SPEARFISHING

Rob Torelli

The start of spring is always an exciting time for spearfishers from across the state.

Water temperatures have started to rise and the southern calamari season has generally well and truly fired up in Port Phillip. It is also the start of the large schools of snapper entering Port Phillip, which are all fair and challenging game.

The dedicated spearfisher who targets squid can expect results if they have patience and are prepared to scout the weed beds in search of their eggs. Set up some drift dives to scout for these eggs and you will be surprised at the amount of area you can cover and the results you will get. A bonus catch of quality flathead are common and you may even find the odd flounder and King George whiting on these drifts.

Once you find the eggs be sure to enter these marks into your GPS. Squid will return year after year to the same areas to lay their eggs.

Do not write the area off if you do not see the squid in numbers on your first drift.

Many of these squid hot spots are influenced by tide and a simple tide change can turn a quiet spot into squid city. Many locations seem to produce squid at different tides but when it all comes together with good visibility, slack water and good concentrations of squid it is very exciting and quite easy to catch your generous bag limit of 10 per person. If the squid eggs are not coloured very white and fresh looking they generally do not hold squid.

Prime Port Phillip flathead are a welcome by-catch.

You will tend to find the commotion of squid spearfishing can attract welcome by-catch such as trevally, whiting and at times large snapper. I will often discard a few tentacles and discard the odd squid head in hope of some of these prized scale fish. Of course you will get some unwanted scavengers as well such as stingrays, skates and the odd sevengill shark.

Late September sees some good snapper numbers in and around Port Phillip. It is amazing just how few quality snapper

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Fresh squid eggs, a good indicator squid are nearby.

are landed by spearfishers in Victoria considering the number of snapper out there. Several competent spearfisher I know have berleyed the sand beds in 15-20m of water on the eastern side of Port Phillip with fair results. This takes good skill and patience as the water tends to dirty up on the bottom where the snapper are feeding.

Others have dived the artificial reefs and structures with mixed results. Needless to say with patience and determination a prized snapper over 5kg is well and truly within reach.

At times we know these same snapper frequent the inshore shallows and the odd hump head has been spooked over the years.

Hopefully, this spring some dedicated spearfisher will land a prized snapper. I plan to give it a go and will be saving my fresh squid heads as bait.

Be sure to approach your spearfishing for squid and snapper this spring in Port Phillip safely. It is very common for large concentrations of boats to be line fishing in one area for these two prized species. Show courtesy and respect and give each boat plenty of room. Be sure to fly a large and clearly visible boat flag and carry a diver below flag on your personal float. Stay nearby your float and be sensible with your choice of locations. It is a big bay and all of those boat concentrations do not mean guaranteed catches.

Explore and you will find!

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Lighten up on the beach EVANS HEAD

Tony Zann t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

If your ideal beach fishing session entails hurling a heavily weighted pilchard or slab bait at the horizon with a 10kg-15kg rod around 4m long, and then dropping it in the PVC pipe within arm’s reach of the stubby holder on your deckchair – it might be better if you skipped a couple of pages.

There’s also plenty of great beach fishing that doesn’t involve heavy tackle, thick mono line and anchoring yourself on one patch of sand.

And it’s fun, very productive and even likely to be good for your health.

were almost brutal and I was sold. I mainly cast metals but I also had good success on a bunch of poppers of hardwood dowel with stainless split pins hammered into undersize holes for the hooks and tow points.

The Blacktip got heavily used off the beach and the rocks, although it eventually failed noisily when I tried to lift about 3.5kg of school jew up a vertical face. Not surprising, given the thickness of the blank and the work it had done.

I then bought one of the last G.Loomis SU1324 11’ two-piece surf blanks in the country and built a great rod on this sweet GL2 graphite fasttaper pole. I went to the local rugby league field with my 4500 threadline, 10kg braid, a

jigs and plenty of worms, pipis and strip baits can be cast convincing distances.

Compact spinning reels loaded with fine, low-drag braid and fluorocarbon leaders complete the outfits.

As with much cuttingedge fishing, we can thank the Japanese for all this, of course.

While the Japanese are swinging perfectly balanced graphite rods to cast highly tuned plastic and metal lures for coastal sea bass, the Yanks are still mostly hurling rough pieces of timber with quite heavy poles, clunky reels and mono line for their stripers, drum and bluefish.

Australians are developing our own methods of attacking surf species and doing a pretty good job of it.

A bunch of hard-core NSW Northern Rivers locals started flicking small soft plastics into the surf about six years ago, using bream spinning rods extended to about 8’-8’6”.

They cast 8g-30g lures, mostly plastics, and caught some awesome bream, flatties and school mulloway, but they were wading up to their necks at times to get to the good water on the gently sloping local beaches.

I drooled when Daiwa introduced their popular Sea Jigger series of 2.5m-3m rods

Prime time to flick a plastic, metal or a hardbodied lure for a whole variety of beach species. sticking or hefting fish from the water.

Apart from the awesome Daiwa Branzino rods, which were just too expensive to survive on the Aussie market, there wasn’t a lot apart from the Sea Jiggers until Marty from Pacific Composites in New Zealand displayed a fantastic 10’6” super-light surf rod at the 2010 AFTA Trade Show. It briefly became part of the EJ Todd product line but Todds now have the NS range of light rods of 8’-10’6” that should do the job.

Things always go better if you can use a lure that mimics the bait in size, colour and, if possible, scent and action.

A super-light outfit like this can be cast all day and carried miles without fatigue.

And it needn’t cost a fortune.

Around 12-15 years ago I gave myself a severe and painful bout of tennis elbow by indulging too enthusiastically in a tailor session throwing 80g metal slugs. It crippled me all winter, at work and at play.

In between making me whimper in pain, my physiotherapist hit the nail on the head when she suggested I find a lighter fishing rod.

There really wasn’t much around but I’d heard about Rob Dunn up at Brunswick Heads in NSW sliding 7’ graphite spinning blanks up through the butts of shortened fibreglass beach rods. It wasn’t long before I’d built my first ‘Blacktip’ on a 7’ Samurai blank epoxied in place up through the bottom 2.3m of a four-wrap surf rod that a mate had snapped.

I could cast lures around 60g a goodly distance and once I started using 20lb braid, a whole lot further. The first strikes of a decent greenback tailor I experienced on braid 62

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60g slug, a bunch of different guides and a roll of masking tape. I played around all day with guide sizes and spacings until I was consistently flinging from the dead-ball line well into the opposition quarter – 70m-80m.

It remains one of my treasured rods and although it’s now one of my ‘heavier’ outfits, it still feels way more like a big bream spinning combo than an old-style beach rod. But it casts a mile and once you hook up, there’s tremendous fighting power in such a lightweight package.

EVER LIGHTER But in the past five years there’s been a tremendous growth in super-light beach tackle, especially rods that you can carry long distances and cast all day without apparent effort – and with no aching muscles at the end of the day.

Light soft plastic rigs, micro slugs and jigs, conventional hardbodied lures of all types, poppers, squid

Most lures for these super-light beach outfits range from 8g-40g. Left, from top, Duo Press Bait HD, Twisty Lazer 30 with soft plastic on assist hook, 30g Toby and Twisty Lazer; right, Duo Beach Walker, Ima Gyodo Heavy Surf. and they soon became the weapons of choice for superlight beach fishos, and for a hardy bunch of rockhoppers who didn’t mind losing plenty of fish because they couldn’t quite persuade them within reach of the long gaffs necessary.

CAREFUL! They snapped some rods, too. These are definitely not knockabout sticks for the average rockhopper and anyone who is even slightly hard on their tackle should stick to the Ugly Stiks and fibreglass poles. And don’t even think about lifting a fish on these delicate weapons; they’re not for high-

The perennial Toby spoon attracts a variety of surf fish and can be retrieved fast or slow. Headshaking acrobats like Australian salmon and tailor can throw the treble hook so a single hook on two split rings or an assist hook are extra insurance.

In 2011 Nitro brought out the Sniper, a great 3kg-6kg super-light around 10’6” and Jarvis Walker released their Rovex Squid Wrangler range of Japanese-designed egi rods.

I soon got my hands on the 10’ model.

I spent a lot of money in 2010 on a Branzino 109ML that is still the only piece of fishing tackle I own that brings a smile to my face just by using it. The lures just seem to go farther on this rod. I adore casting hard and soft lures up to 40g with it and it’s whipped some decent tailor and school mulloway with power deceptive in such a skinny blank.

But the Squid Wrangler, which still retails for around $100, is probably 80% as good and casts 85% of the distance for a mere fraction of the cost.

The 2012 AFTA trade show finally bristled with a fine selection of these light beach rods from a number of companies. Daiwa expanded their selection with the Lateo Pirates and Seabass series, among others. The Lox Iridium series featured some great super-light models along with some more rugged rock spinning rods.

Jarvis Walker supplemented the Squid Wranglers with the Rovex Air Surf range, although most of these are a bit beefed up for the 4kg-6kg line, 8g-40g brief that fits this light surf category.

And no doubt the 2013 trade show will turn up plenty

Season kicks off in fine trout style LAUNCESTON

Brendan Turriff

The season has kicked off in true style, with anglers all over experiencing a wide variety of results. You could say, as diverse as the weather at this time of year.

NYMPH OR MANIAC? Often when rivers are too high or dirty, anglers run for the hills to find cleaner water and easier conditions to fish in. This is a great option, but there can be some fantastic fishing when the river is not a raging torrent. With careful consideration and keeping an eye on flood warnings, you can be in for a great surprise with multiple nymph rigs.

Such can be the case early in the season with rainbows and brown trout coming to hand on upper sections of the Meander River, around the Meander region. The way to success, I am told, is to fish two heavily weighted nymphs, Czech-style.

Essentially fishing at close quarters, roll casting and covering as much water as possible. Without going into too much detail, takes can be detected using various indicator materials or an indicator fly line (usually has the last 30cm or so in a fluorescent colour to detect takes), or you could just bring your eagle eyes combined with fish sensing skill!

This can be adapted to many waters, with North Esk, St Patricks, Mersey and

Leven rivers all coming to mind for having ideal runs to fish in such a way. Typical rains can and do occur at this time of year and it pays to have some tricks up your sleeve. Careful though, it can be very productive and you may even lose a handful of nymphs!

drains. These are a place I really like to explore and find out what hides around the next corner or pool, and what may lie beyond stretches where any normal human wishes to venture.

Blackberries and gorse can prove to be a literal pain in the arse for my early

More than a fist full – early season stream fish can be fat little fellers.

FOUR SPRINGS Hoards of people flock to Four Springs for the chance of a really good fish to kick the season off. You always hear of a few monsters lost or sighted, but usually it’s a couple of fish that nudge 2kg. Reports always reveal that many struggle early on, possibly due to constant traffic. If you can get there, weekdays early and late in the day will give you a chance before the real daytime action gets underway next month and beyond.

LITTLE DRAINS Regular readers may have sensed my devious penchant for delicious little

season stint but no barrier to fish. I usually find just a few tiny little fish and they are just as hungry as me! It’s amazing where these robust fish can get to and remain as a healthy population, let alone anyone trying to find them. Which reminds me, I must remember to fish another local drain when the sea runners turn up down the track – last time I went there it was loaded with baitfish!

It’s not just a simple desire to fish this type of water that keeps me coming back, sometimes when local rivers are too inundated you have little option but to search for alternatives.

Smaller catchments and higher altitudes can provide a greater chance of clear, fishable water. Did I mention they are fun?

FROGGER If you remember the popular 80’s computer game ‘Frogger’ you will recall the basic idea of the game was to get the frog over logs and predators to the other side and away from danger. This is a basic simulation of the exact plight of this special little amphibian! They start to become quite vocal and on the move when the rains set in and don’t the trout know it.

In waters like Four Springs, Huntsman Lake and Brushy Lagoon, look for dense strap-weed or tussocks.

Pay particular attention to the shallows if lake or river levels are rising and you may even witness the odd fin break the surface. Brumbys Creek can also be a great location,

Skinny streams hold great delights.

Faster water demands different techniques and locations. Don’t be scared to fish higher in the system.

particularly just above Weir 3, and some perfect water above Weir 1. This scenario requires a real hunter approach.

Stealth and accuracy can see you getting a lure or fly in front of these fish, that 80’s melody starts bangin’ and it’s game on!

This month is a bit like the calm before the storm, as there are lots of critter events that are on the verge of breaking point. It’s a perfect time to get out and explore if the weather suits and get that casting arm into practice for when feature fishing starts breaking down the door. Peace.

September is the month for tailing trout STH HIGHLANDS

Shane Broadby

The first half of the month is still very much winterlike in the highlands, but as we get into the last couple of weeks of the month there is a definite sense of spring in the air.

By this time many of the lakes and lagoons are starting to back up onto the ground that has been dry through late autumn and winter, aquatic and amphibious life is starting to move and the trout are getting very interested in spending more time in the shallows hunting down a feed.

BRONTE LAGOON Bronte and September seem to go together like strawberries and cream, the two words even seem to roll off the tongue well when spoken together and rightly so. There is just something special about being rugged up against the spring chill, standing just out of the shallows of Bronte Lagoon 64

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with a fly rod in hand and quietly waiting and looking for a subtle swirl or the tip of a tail to appear within casting range in the early morning or evening.

Good shores are the famous Long Shore, Fly Corner, Tailers Bay or Hut Bay but really any gentle sloping grassy shore or marshy corner will have fish patrolling looking for a feed. At times the fish can be in an aggressive mood and will rush at and eat a larger wet with gusto such as a MK2 Woolly Bugger, Sloane’s Fur Fly, Black Woolly Worm or the ever reliable Mrs Simpson and the smaller variant the Mrs Simmo. More often than not in September the fish are a bit cautious until the frogs really start to get active in October, so they are more likely to gently eat a Stick Caddis pattern, small Woolly Worm, Fiery Brown Beetle or a 007 nymph.

Out wide the lure casters are really hitting their straps, with the early months of the season being by far the better for trolling and casting.

WOODWARDS BROAD WATER This is a separate water to Bronte Lagoon but the same conditions apply. The fish here can be even more adventuress though, and it always amazes me when the water is backed up here on either side of the canal how often you’ll see a tail appear in water you’d swear isn’t deep enough to cover a trout, especially in the late afternoons. It really pays to fish with your eyes here and move very slowly; your casting must be up to scratch too, as some of the clear patches you have to cast to intercept a foraging fish are only coffee table size, often smaller when the water is way up.

THE BRADYS CHAIN Bradys, Binney and Tungatinah traditionally fish well through September and don’t forget about the 5,000 Great Lake adult browns that were released during winter.

The areas around the White Water and the Dee tunnel at Bradys are hot spots as are the interconnecting canals that

make this whole system the one water.

Many anglers cast soft plastics in and around the canals with a lot of success.

The shallow tussocky corner of Tungatinah beside the Lyell Highway is a great spot and being sheltered in rough, northerly and westerly weather it can be a good fall back when the weather turns for the worst. When the water levels are right up there is some great flood water fishing here, especially when the rising water has washed corby grubs out of their homes. If nothing is showing, casting Woolly Buggers around the deeper water will produce.

This time last year, this corner of Tungatinah saved the day for us, with 4 nice brownies being taken here on a terrible day on the reliable MK 2 Woolly Bugger .

PINE TIER LAGOON Pine Tier is excellent for shore and boat angling.

Last season some big bags were taken from the shallow northern basin by some Pine Tier regulars, mainly

Prime water for finding worming trout, but you must cast accurately drift spinning and trolling.

For the fly fisher the ideal shallows of the northern bay and its gutters are the main attraction. This is prime worming country, especially if the cattle have been grazing and have deposited the results of their grazing in the freshly flooded shallows: worm central!

Early and late in the day the fish will move in looking for their fill, again it pays to

be patient, move too fast and you are likely to scare many unseen fish. I’ve always found a small size 10 Brown Woolly Bugger with a little bit of yellow underneath the brown marabou tail to be excellent in these conditions. If the fish are in a hesitant mood the ever reliable 007 or a nice thin Stick Caddis pattern under a dry fly indicator will usually trip them up.

September lure fishing action is brilliant FMG

Neil Grose vfmeditor@fishingmonthly.com.au

If there is one month on the trout fishing calendar that I look forward to, it is September.

This is the best month to fish lures around the shores of Great lake, Lake Echo and Arthurs Lake, the start of some very reliable sight fishing in shallow water and more often than not, some warm weather.

The one constant in September though is the wind. September is probably the windiest month on the calendar, (and that is saying something), but this brings opportunities as well as some problems.

ARTHURS LAKE Arthurs Lake presents a

The brown trout in Great Lake are in better condition than they have been for years.Even post-spawn fish are in great nick. wide range of opportunities in September. Flat line trollers start to increase their catch rates, especially if they set their lures back a long way.

Lure casters really build up consistent numbers of fat little fish, especially by fishing soft plastics over deep weed beds

around the trees in Creely Bay, the drop offs around Hydro Bay and the rocky shores around the islands in the Morass.

The best bet for soft plastics is the ever-reliable Berkley T Tail and the new Strike Tiger Hawk, both in

black and gold. Adjust your jig head weight according to the wind – light wind, light weight, heavy wind, heavy weight. This allows you to still get to the fish zone on windy days.

It is worth noting that Arthurs is full of smaller fish

at the moment. This isn’t that unusual, as Arthurs always goes through cycles of small fish in line with wet winters.

Don’t get too wound up by the smaller fish, just eat them.

They are as good an eating trout as you will find, so if you catch your limit of 12 don’t feel bad, just eat them.

GREAT LAKE Great Lake is the lure casters Mecca in September.

As with all the winter months, any shore that has had the wind blowing onto it for two days or more will be loaded with fish, right on the shore.

Drift with the wind and cast your lures right onto the brick work. Work the lure out of the shallows briskly, but let it sink as soon as the lure gets into 1m of water – there will be plenty of fish sitting there waiting for a feast.

The best lures are the same as Arthurs, but for the shore fishers add in a mix of Tassie Devils and Ashley Spinners.

As the lake continues to get lower, it does become challenging to get reasonable sized boats onto the water.

Ramps at Brandums and Tods do get a bit shallow, and Cramps Bay has been quite muddy at low levels.

The most reliable spots are Swan Bay (which is also quite shallow) and the gravel ramp at Boundary Bay. If in doubt use Boundary Bay, but it is a bit of an exposed run across to the prime areas such as the bays between the dam wall and Tods Corner.

The trout in Great Lake are as good as I’ve seen them in a long time, fat and two pounds, which is a prime sportsfish and good on the table as well.

Action a’plenty in spring as season opens IFS

Tim Farrell

The Inland Fisheries Service has been very busy in the lead up to spring.

LITTLE SWANPORT RIVER ANGLER ACCESS With the co-operation of the local landowner, angler access along the Little Swanport River between the Tasman Highway Bridge and upstream has been improved

with the construction of a new stile and sign.

The stretch of river upstream from the bridge has been a popular spot for shore based anglers targeting black bream during the open trout season.

LAKE LEAKE STOCKED WITH ADULT RAINBOW TROUT IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEW SEASON Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) has stocked 900 rainbow trout from

Springfield Hatcheries into Lake Leake; these were released at Kalangadoo Bay. The fish were between 900-1200g and in fantastic condition.

Lake Leake is a popular fishing location, particularly

for northern-based anglers.

The lake is popular with boating anglers and has two boat launching areas.

This season trolling is permitted using petrol outboard motors, Continued page 66

How big will your weekend be when you win a new boat and trailer package?

This trout season, the only thing bigger than the fish will be your own memories. Get a 2013-14 full ull season or five season adult, senior or pensioner fresh th registration, boat licence and water safety equipment. water angling licence before November and you could win a boat and trailer package, complete with Renew or purchase your angling licence online at www.ifs.tas.gov.au or visit your nearest tackle store tore or Service Tasmania shop.

Competition closes 30 November 2013. Eligble to person 18+. terms and conditions apply, For full details go to www.ifs.tas.gov.au

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More big hits than misses as spring arrives D’ENTRECASTEAUX

Phil Ellerton

September can be hit and miss in Tasmania’s south and although spring is in the air there is still plenty of wind, rain and snow on the cards!

With generally unsettled weather and a good chance of snow melt run off, the fishing can be difficult at times with the saltwater fishing the slowest to recover from the cooler months.

That said, keen anglers will still get amongst the odd bream in the estuaries plus an array of other species including yellow eye mullet, mackerel, Atlantic salmon, sand flathead, cod and the occasional garfish.

Although the traditional saltwater fishing can be tough it is quite the opposite with the freshwater scene where the 2013/14 trout season is now in full swing.

September offers some superb sea run trout and resident fishing with fisheries such as the upper Huon and Derwent rivers popular locations.

SOUTHERN RIVERS Depending on flows, the Huon River can be an exceptional early season trout

fishery with both resident and sea run trout on offer.

Anglers will be closely monitoring the annual whitebait run with the tail end of September and October being the peak of the fishery.

Anglers will do best to concentrate on the Huon, Esperance, Lune and Catamaran rivers.

Fly anglers will do best if the often fickle whitebait turn up in large numbers.

It is recommended anglers use either a floating line or an intermediate. The BMS remains the local ‘go to’ fly pattern.

Soft plastics are very effective on sea trout, especially when fished on light weight jig heads.

Hardbodied lures like bibbed minnows are also effective, especially in deeper pools or fast running sections.

Bait anglers can do well although the fishing is often a little slower; the rewards are there for persistent anglers with some larger than average specimens about.

Locals prefer to use prettyfish (hardyheads) or sandies. In flood conditions the humble worm can also be effective.

D’ENTRECASTEAUX CHANNEL Comparable to the above, anglers will catch Atlantic salmon throughout the channel using similar techniques. Besides trout and salmon, other sportfish still remain relatively

Striped trumpeter have been going well, but remember that September is a closed season for them.

Sea runners are the prime target for September in the Huon.

inactive during September, hence bait anglers have the most success.

With a berley trail consisting of mussels, fish pieces, tuna oil and bread anglers will attract flathead, juvenile Australian salmon, cod, mullet, mackerel and the occasional warehou (snotty trevally).

Land-based anglers will do best when fishing from local jetties scattered throughout the channel including Margate, Gordon, Kettering and Woodbridge.

Boat anglers do best trolling the channel with winged lures or silver slices where they will catch the occasional juvenile salmon or

barracouta. If after a feed of table fish it is recommended that anglers anchor their boat on the edge of a drop off and use a berley combination to attract flathead, warehou and garfish.

Fishing an unweighted bait as well as a running sinker rig fished on the bottom is the best bet.

Spring starts slowly but still plenty to catch ST HELENS

Jamie Henderson

This month is never the greatest month for chasing a feed of fish, winds are usually cool and water temperatures

are slowly rising however there has still been some reasonable activity for those brave enough to venture out into the cold.

Waters off the coastline from Eddystone Point down towards the Gardens have yielded very good catches

Striped trumpeter were on the agenda during calm weather in winter, as Michael Hayley shows.

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of quality flathead with bag limits of solid fish being caught. These quality flathead have also been caught off Binalong Bay and Tailors Beach in about 20m of water and down off Scamander River mouth as well.

Further out wide the small breaks in the weather have allowed a few anglers to head to the shelf where some good hauls of blue eye trevalla, hapuka, gemfish and ling have been caught as well as some quality striped trumpeter in on some of the closer reefs.

For those unable to venture far offshore the waters of Georges Bay have seen the salmon schools continue to move about the bay feeding hard on small bait and chasing garfish.

Some of these fish are the big bruisers we have become accustomed to over the last few seasons and this year has not disappointed with fish pushing 3kg.

Lures such as 20g Halco and Raider and soft plastics such as Yep Tassie Tackle 3” Minnow and Squidgy Flick Baits have been ideal. The jetty anglers have also fared well on the salmon using similar lures and casting to fish moving past.

The birds don’t seem

Local guide Michael Hayley with some large calamari from Georges Bay. to work these fish so don’t expect them to give the location of the fish away.

As the water throughout the channel is not relatively deep (2-5m) the fish seem to hug the bottom pretty closely so heavier weights

on soft plastics and weighted flies need to be used or let your lure drop to the bottom before starting the retrieve.

A tasty edition to the bay during the last month has been the snotty trevally or blue warehou; these are

a hard fighting fish, great fun to catch and are very nice to eat. Most fish have been taken by jetty anglers both on the Beauty Bay jetty and the Kerwins jetty and a common technique is to use berley to attract the fish and then small Sabiki rigs with multiple flies, such as the Wasabi Bait Catchers, and a small piece of chicken breast on each hook.

Large garfish are still being caught in good numbers and can be found mostly around the sea grass beds down along the red channel markers. A small float with a small #10-12 hook and a tiny piece of white squid bait is the perfect rig for the garfish.

Whenever fishing for garfish, berley is as important as the bait and some Ground Berley mixed with a small amount of fish oil and sent in a trail down current will attract a school of gars very quickly.

Large southern calamari are still quite prevalent in the Georges Bay also, some of these fish are reaching monumental proportions with hood lengths of up to 500mm and are proving to be excellent sport as well as fine eating.

Camperdown Fishing Classic The Camperdown Fishing Classic is on again.

Last year the event attracted over 150 entries including juniors and sub juniors in the categories of senior, junior below 16 and sub junior below 12 years of age.

Judging incorporates the ‘KAT’ system where each species of fish is awarded points according to length of fish.

The winner is the angler with most points accrued over the whole weekend, with prizes awarded according to the total points.

The champion angler’s smile – could this be you in 2013?

into the competition, entry into the major draw of $1000.00, a roast dinner on Saturday night and camping at Lake Bullen Merri.

With the junior and sub junior categories, entry includes the competition, the Saturday night roast meal and camping at Bullen Merri. All juniors and sub juniors receive a prize In 2013 and to celebrate our 10th Camperdown Classic we will have three extra draws for $100.00 gift vouchers which will be open to all entries.

There will be a BBQ lunch and breakfast available

The 2012 Classic Fish winner with a stunning prize and trophy.

The 2012 Junior champion, this competition actively encourages participation by junior anglers.

All juniors receive a prize even if they do not catch a fish, which is great for fostering junior anglers into fishing.

The Classic Fish is the

only award that does not depend on size, as this fish is awarded to the best fish caught taking into consideration colour, condition appearance

Sub juniors below 12 are encouraged to – every junior angler wins a prize. and markings. Given some of the wonderful trout in the Camperdown region, this should be a spectacular award.

Senior entry includes entry

10TH ANNUAL LAKE BULLEN MERRI FISHING CLASSIC SATURDAY 5 OCTOBER AND SUNDAY 6 OCTOBER 2013

Fishing at Lake Bullen Merri or Lake Purrumbete Camperdown

Major Draw Prize $1000 CASH minor draws of 3 x $100 gift vouchers ENTRY FEES Senior $55 Junior $35 (must be 16 years old on day of event) Junior wishing to enter Major Draw $55 Sub Junior $15 (Sub Junior is not eligible for either major draw or catagories) Family $150 (2 adults + 2 children under 16) EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION Senior $50 // Junior $30 (full paying Junior $50)

Brought to you by Camperdown Angling Club Inc. For further information and registration forms go to www.camperdownanglingclub.com.au or ring 0417 207 400 70

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for competitors to purchase over weekend.

This year looks like being a fantastic one for great fish and fishing conditions in the Camperdown area, and

with some huge fish already coming out of Bullen Merri, competitors are surely in for a great weekends fishing.

- Camperdown Fishing Classic

Quintrex’s No 1: JV Marine For the 7th year in a row Melbourne’s JV Marine World has once again achieved the mantle of Australia’s top selling Quintrex boat dealer.

JV Marine sold and warranty registered over 245 new boat packages for the past financial year alone! JV Marine has not only put the numbers on the board for sales but did it with one of the highest Customer satisfaction ratings from Quintrex.

John Stav stated that JV Marine World did it in a difficult and at times depressed market, with many negative obstacles that had to be overcome.

Federal political squabbles, increasing unemployment and negative retail figures that are continually reported in our newspapers are all things which affected our business and at times our thinking.

Our management team and sales staff decided

to take time out and stop reading the newspapers and start thinking positively on how we could increase our sales with Quintrex and all our other brands.

The answer was found by improving our internet site, and then to improve our internal and external Quintrex large boat and dinghy presentation. JV Marine manufactured two dingy racks that allowed customers to easily view our complete range of small boats, and also by offering a number of different colour combinations and new models to our stocks.

We are also offering vinyl wraps as an option on most of our boat packages which gave the customer a larger variety and choice. All of JV Marine’s sales staff and management have recently flown to Telwater on the Gold Coast to not only see how the boats are built but also spent time on the water testing the new models.

The ideas from staff that had been implemented have created a new interest in the Quintrex product.

Customers are definitely loving the larger selection and choice. These changes we made at JV Marine along with a new positive outlook from our sales staff have directly resulted in an increase in our overall sales. JV Marine had a very reasonable Melbourne Boat Show where we saw large numbers of old and new customers looking at the Quintrex product.

We now look forward to some good spring weather, an increase in our fish numbers in our bays and offshore and to a good and prosperous season.

John Stav, also takes this opportunity to thank the Telwater Staff for allowing us to sell the number one product in Australia, if not the world.

Tails of tailing brown trout DEVONPORT

Brett Smith brokenwater@bigpond.com

September always excites me as an angler and a fly fisher.

Winter is dying its slow death for the year and as the lake temperatures slowly warm up for the spring, we start to see some more trout enter the shallow margins of lakes, and this gives us the pleasure of sight fishing to tailing trout.

and a major flood happens, there can simply be too much water between the fish and fishing will be unappealing, and in some instances dangerous.

To find these tailers it pays to sit on a ditch or backwater and wait and watch, blind casting will often scare any prospective trout away, so tread carefully and be patient, let the fish come out to you and into your vision.

The M e a n d e r,

all rivers with backwaters or pastured banks are worth a look when they are rising over new ground.

Fast waters are not to be ignored either!

HYDRO LAKES In September, the once icy lake shallows should start to warm up, more and more tails should appear.

Many of these lakes have muddy, weedy or silty shallow marshes and bays rich in aquatic life, which encourage trout to come in close.

Brendan Turriff sizes up a tailong trout on Little Pine Lagoon. Photo courtesy Brendan Turriff.

Tailing is a term used by most to describe brown trout that choose to feed in shallow water that is shallow enough to expose tails and backs of the fish through the water’s surface, but always remember, they aren’t all the same, they aren’t all feeding on the same thing, and different situations spark trout to tail in each different water.

LOWLAND RIVERS The rivers on the lowlands of Tasmania are often subjected to minor winter/spring floods. To find consistent tailing trout sport really relies on these rivers flooding new ground to encourage the resident trout to throw all caution to the wind and enter shallow ditches and flood-created bays. Here they mooch around for flooded terrestrial insects and creatures and start showing their tails.

It can involve fishing in inclement weather, as you want to be there as the river is rising, not arrive a long period after it has already risen, as trout will soon have their fill and retreat back to the main channel. If it keeps raining 72

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Macquarie, South Esk and other mid-northern slow rivers are Tasmania’s premier broadwaters, but

They can behave in different ways. Tailing trout in rising water will often be on the move, and

HOT HIGHLANDS TIPS FOR SEPTEMBER

Flyfishing • Look for small stone flies on Little Pine Lagoon, especially around the small island if the level is high.

• If Little Pine Lagoon spills, head to the flooded shores on the Untouchables shore, the Road Shore and the shores leading up to the river in front of the shacks.

• On Arthurs Lake look for the clean water coming in at Jones Bay and Tumbledown Bay. Here you should be able to polaroid cruising trout.

• Great Lake will start to see some midge action in the early morning – look in the slicks if it isn’t too cold.

• Fish wet flies around the drowned trees in the Morass, Creely and Paradise Plains area on Arthurs Lake if the action is slow elsewhere.

• Wet flies fished deep and slow in 3-4m of water in Arthurs is a reliable bet, especially in Phantom Bay, Jonah Bay and around the islands in the Morass.

• As the water warms, fish smaller loch style wet flies in the shallow water along Brazendale island, especially the eastern side.

• The windswept rocky shores on Great Lake are at their best in September – fish in close and use a quick stop start retrieve.

• Galaxia will start to build in numbers on the rocky shores in Arthurs Lake and some of the bigger trout will really start to hammer them. Green and Gold and Black and Gold are reliable Woolly Bugger colours, as is the ever reliable Bill Beck Cat Fly.

cruising along with their backs and fins out of the water, searching for food and moving prey like frogs, snails, stick caddis, tadpoles and damsel nymphs. As levels subside as the season goes on, trout in thick weeds in waters such as Little Pine Lagoon will quite often be nose down and tail up feeding on a very specific amphipods (shrimp) or water snails and be very difficult, or as the traditional name suggests, they can be untouchable!

Other hydro waters great for tailing trout are any on the northern highlands of Tasmania which have shallow bays, marshes, weedy substrate, and good aquatic insect populations. Penstock, Arthurs and Little Pine are my favourites.

If you want to see tailing trout, set your alarm, as the best tailing action occurs before and just after sunrise, or in the late evening, but on rough or overcast days, trout will tail during the day provided it stays dull.

WESTERN LAKES The western lakes would have to be my favourite waters to search for tails; as much as I love summer polarising on blue sky days out there, fishing to trout tailing in inches of water on misty spring mornings or evenings can be equal, if not better sight fishing with a fly that you will ever come across.

I was always taught as a young angler by my mentors that spring and summer sight fishers will not always find all the fish, in recent years I’ve focussed on trying to find big fish in remote lagoons

This is what we all like to see.

Photo courtesy Brendan Turriff

and headwater lakes. One thing I’ve found is that these fish will often hide during the day in ditches or under big rocks and are not always easily seen in the day, so it is great tactic to find shallow weedy or silty bays where they may tail, bide your time, and be there at dawn waiting for tails!

Trout in the many shallow western lakes will usually tail right through the spring and into autumn, but as the weather heats up the only time you will consistently find them tailing is pre dawn or evenings.

FLIES Many anglers will tell you that as far as flies go, in the early season it’s wet, wet and wet. Flies such as unweighted Woolly Buggers, Woolly Worms,

Green Nymphs, Scud, Black Beetles, Black and Peacock and Montana Nymphs are great flies for tailers, but detecting takes is not easy: a greased tippet can help detect takes, but not always.

Truth be told, if you present a dry fly gently in front of a tailing trout from September onwards, I find it is just as effective, and it is much easier to see the take, and time the strike, especially for beginners.

Takes of the dry greatly outnumber the refusals for me, so I am very comfortable throwing dries such as Black Spinners, dun patterns, emergers and even the good old Red Tag at tailing fish, as there is nothing better than seeing that tail go down, nose come up, and a big fish clop that dry fly down!

Low light success in the shallow water. Photo courtesy Brendan Turriff

The snail TRARALGON

Rod Booker harcourt@datafast.net.au

One of the simplest and most effective flies you will ever tie is the snail. Its effectiveness early season especially on tailing trout in the flooded lagoons and tarns in Tasmania’s high country is second to none.

Form a dubbing loop in the thread and then weave the herl in and out of the loop, then twist the loop up tight to form a peacock herl chenille.

waving at you as they are head down arse up with tails out of the water as they grub along like finned pigs. They will be picking the snails off the submerged grass and stones.

Often when the edges have been roughed up or the snails are migrating, the snails will be drifting along just under the surface film, which makes them even easier targets for the cruising trout.

2

1

Place the hook in the vice and wind to the bend of the hook and tie in 3 long peacock herls.

TYING INSTRUCTIONS AND MATERIALS

HOOK:......... Daiichi 1550 #14 THREAD: .... Black 8/0 BODY: ......... Peacock herl chenille HACKLE:..... Grizzle

It is a real adrenalin rush to walk out of the early morning gloom and mist to the edge of a lagoon or tarn and see fins and tails slowly mooching between the tussocks seeking out all the goodies that the rising water has released.

Snails are one of those food items that offer the trout a substantial feed when there are a few about, and there usually are early season in the Tasmanian high country.

These snails range in size from match head to something as big as you little finger nail.

You will find the tailers

Tie in a grizzle hackle and take 2 turns wet fly style, brush the fibres back after each turn.

4

The most effective method when fishing a snail pattern is to basically do nothing.

You have to find your victim then lay the trap. Trout that are showing you their tails are quite hard to nail as they are preoccupied with looking at the bottom, so best option here is to creep in as close as you can then just keep plinking the fly as close as possible and hopefully the fish will find the fly, trying not to spook the fish is always good for the success rate as well.

The other method that is effective for the edge cruisers

3

Wind the chenille on to form a plump conical shaped body. is to get well back from the edge and cast your fly well ahead of the fish just laying the leader on the water, often most of your fly line will be on the

bank. Watch your leader when you think the fish is close and when you see it move strike.

Often the edges will be quite shallow and sometimes

your fly will have sunk into the grass or rocky bottom and may not be immediately visible to the trout, the best option here is to add some floatant to your

leader up to about 6� from the fly, this will keep your fly out of the weeds and grass and off the rocks and hopefully right on the trouts nose.

489 & 539 NOMAD FISHER

With 4mm bottomsides and 3mm topsides the 489 and 539 Nomad Fisher features a fully welded sub-frame rib structure and a self-draining checkerplate floor. Combine this with the EVO Advance Hull and a new transom, these are tough boats.

Contact your local dealer for more information.

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info@blmarine.com.au www.blmarine.com.au

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bordermarine@westnet.com.au www.bordermarinecentre.com.au

sales@maynesmarine.com.au www.maynesmarine.com.au V&TFM

SEPTEMBER 2013

73

Cooking with Jamo

Steamed flathead wontons COOKING

Jamison Godfrey

Flathead is probably the main staple fish in Tasmania when it comes to catching a feed.

Everyone who does eat them always has their preference on how to prepare them: dusted in seasoned flour and barbequed or crumbed and shallow fried are all popular with locals here, but what about something different like wontons?

As long as the bones and skin are all removed the rest is so simple, you just need to find your nearest Asian grocer and grab some wonton wrappers and some rice wine, have a successful flattie session and the rest of the ingredients

should be in your pantry.

Try them next time you have a few mates over, they won’t disappoint them!

METHOD Place all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl except for the wonton wrappers and combine well.

Lay out 4 wrappers at a time and brush each side with a little water.

Spoon some mixture into the centre of each wrapper then

begin to close the wonton up with your fingers to represent a small money bag, squeeze the top tightly. Repeat this process until all the mixture is used.

Place the wontons into a steamer and cook for about 10 minutes in batches of 8-10, cook until all are done. Serve with your favourite dipping sauce or simply serve on their own, these also can be fried if preferred.

INGREDIENTS

300g boneless skinless flathead fillets sliced finely 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon fresh ginger peeled and finely diced 2 stems of spring onion sliced finely 3/4 teaspoon sesame oil 30-40 wonton wrappers (I made 32 from this recipe)

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl, apart from the wrappers.

3.

2.

Brush the edges of the wonton wrappers with water.

4.

Pop the filling in the middle.

5.

Close up the wonton wrapper ready for the steamer.

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Pretty little wontons, all in a row – how yum is this!

A new boat in the making FMG

Stephen Booth sbooth@fishingmonthly.com.au

Everyone who owns a boat understands that they have a life expectancy and when that point is reached with your current boat, it’s time to start looking for a new one. Commonly that point is size related and most people upgrade to a bigger rig.

And so after 8 years in my old boat, the time had come to get a new one. The trouble was I wanted a specific layout inside and a performance outside that was going to be hard to get ‘off the shelf’. This of course led to a customised internal to the boat, a more expensive but ultimately more Boothy-friendly option.

The best part was that I could put my rudimentary design skills to work and design an interior that a ‘real’ boat designer could assess and tell me how wrong I was.

I talked to a lot of people (probably too many!) and got some great ideas and some not so great ideas and it all culminated in the rough internal design you can see in the diagram hereabouts.

I’ll take you through my thought process on why I wanted what I wanted, then next issue I will talk about who and what I went with, the build and bringing everything together before talking about the end result in the following issue. After that I will get one of our boat testers to hit the water with the new rig and undertake a standard boat test.

From all this I hope you will get an appreciation of the complexity that goes into designing and building a boat, even an off the shelf rig, and that you will get a few good ideas to help you solve a problem or two with your boat.

And let’s face it, there is not one boat that the owner does not want to change something on, or is that just me?

THE HULL I chuck lures at fish and often in country that leads to all

WATER PROOF

sorts of mishaps like running into snags, bumping over rock bars and generally not treating the hull wonderfully well. For these reasons alone I wanted to get into something with a bit of toughness about it that would withstand the occasional confrontation with a snag or 10.

I have to admit that my experience has been pretty much with aluminium tinnies and I am swayed by this, however it does tick a lot of boxes. But would aluminium be the answer?

I’ve ridden in enough ‘go-fast’ boats to know that a tinnie will never ride as well as a glass boat in open water, but I don’t want to go that fast and if it’s that rough, chances are I won’t be out there anyway as seasickness and I are very close friends. Plus I wanted a boat between 4.4 and 4.8m that was tiller steered and there are not too many glass boats that can deliver that on the market. There are some locally made ones available

asked for was higher sides.

That should be relatively easy to accommodate.

So I was having some serious discussions with a lot of people about hull material and all that ended up happening was that I got very confused! That’s pretty easy to do to me, so it was no surprise.

DECK SPACE This is the big issue with boats for me, there is simply not enough deck space with the design features I want. For starters I wanted a big front casting deck that could easily fit two anglers and three at a pinch.

I don’t like the idea of back boating a mate I am fishing with as I really enjoy seeing their success and enjoyment as much as I do when I catch some good fish. The deck needed to have a few inclusions like an esky/livewell, a front storage area with a dedicated area for the electric battery, a smaller storage area for tackle trays and a separated anchor well.

To the port side I wanted to have an 8’ rod locker capable of

though and they presented very compelling arguments for a small glass boat.

And lastly I wanted slightly higher sides than a standard v-nosed punt. With a young daughter giving me advice on the hull I knew I was in trouble, but all she

SPOT LIGHT

handling 6 rigged rods and the rear deck would hopefully be able to be used by a third angler (like when we are fishing the Flathead Classic) at a pinch, although the rear deck space would be mandated by the length of the tiller arm on the outboard.

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• SEPTEMBER 2013

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Inside a 4.6m-ish boat that’s a lot to ask.

I may have complicated the wish list a little by really wanting hatches that are waterproof, much like the American bass boat style. This

livewell system that allowed me to do this would be a must too. Think about how easy it is to create an ice slurry within a livewell. Simply pour in some ice and turn on the livewell and it’s done. Alternatively you can

This is the first rough diagram of the deck layout. The designers here cleaned up my scrawlings so it was understandable, but the little tub has everything I could want.

• LED Power: 18W/1800 lumens • Material: High grade aluminium housing • Current draw: 1.5amps@12V,0.67A@24V • Operating Voltage: 10-30V DC • Waterproof rate: IP 68 • 6pcs x 3w high intensity CREE LED • Color Temperature: 6000K • Lens material: Polycarbonate lens • Mounting Bracket: Stainless Steel • Beam: combo 90 deg • 50000 hours above life time.

• Certificates: CE RoHs IP68 •KIT• • 2 Year warranty

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A smaller boat will still get me into some of the smaller jack waters I love to fish.

These angry red fish still attract my undivided attention.

is a big miss in Australia as waterproof hatches are brilliant and should be an option on all boats.

The cockpit area had to take my overly large landing net. I have unreal expectations with my landing net and many newcomers on my boat laugh at the size of the net until an 80cm flathead or 1.1m barra is sliding into it.

I also wanted a small console on the starboard side to hold my sounder, which originally I wanted to be able to twist around so I could see it from the front deck. I have since been coerced into mounting another sounder bracket up front and I can then simply click off the sounder from the main display and click it up front when we are actually fishing. It saves the expense of two sounders and also allows me to easily see what’s going on underwater.

The boat also needed a pretty big livewell. I wanted something that could double up as a kill bin and be used to create an ice slurry so a

have the water in there and then pour in some ice – either way a livewell system was a must.

So what ended up as being a tough ask, after some

drawings and consultation ended up being a fairly simple design. That’s great for me as simple is easy to use and this design had everything I wanted.

TILLER My last two boats have been side consoles and I really like the console idea.

The trouble was that even the smallest console took up valuable space inside a small boat. I also had a desire to get back to even more simplicity with a tiller steer. In truth I was a little tired of the steering getting claggy and hard in the console boat, and after 8 years you can probably say that’s to be expected, but it was a hassle I could do without and an extra expense at servicing time I could definitely do without.

A tiller was the obvious choice for all of those reasons and the modern tiller steer outboards are fantastic. But, as I do, I wanted to have an electric start, electric trim and tilt and also a rev control option of some kind or a lower rev limit so that I could more finitely control my trolling speed for flathead and Murray cod. The boat is primarily a lure casting machine, but when

Fishing big lures in big snags along the Murray will be a job this boat has to do well.

Haines 560 Offshore with Suzuki 140hp 4-stroke FMG

Stephen Booth sbooth@fishingmonthly.com.au

Haines and Suzuki have had a long-standing and very successful relationship for many years in Australia and the combination of the 560 Offshore with the brand new 140hp 4-stroke put together

by Boats and More enhances that reputation.

The 560 Offshore caters for those advanced fishing requirements with a few of the little luxuries you have come to expect from Haines Hunter.

But the heart of this package is some clever thinking by the team at Boats and More. They wanted to present a fishing package at a great price that had the ability to be added to.

The base rig will retail under $70,000, however the level of customisation available is staggering. There are more than enough options already on the rig to simply head out and catch a fish, but the options available can make this one hell of a fishing weapon!

Let’s look at the base model as tested and talk about the customisation later.

conditions. The boat felt perfect for offshore fishing or for use on a family day on the water.

But it’s not all about the looks. The standard package includes a fully rollered, selfcentering Dunbier trailer that even a novice boater will find easy to use. The team has packaged this rig with twin batteries, deck wash, bait station, rear boarding ladder and some basic electronics, giving you enough to get you on the water without the need for additions, but also leaving you enough space to really kit this out as a fishing machine.

On the plane on an inky Lake Eildon, the Haines 560 Offshore was an impressive craft.

The bait board was simple elegance with enough room for the deckie to work up some cubes or the anglers to prepare their rigs.

The batteries were stored inside their own hatches and Boats and More had fitted this rig out with isolators and VSR charging systems to keep all your batteries ready to go.

On the trailer this rig is an eye catcher. The sleek lines of the boat are enhanced by the new look 140hp Suzuki with its swept back cowl and striking black appearance.

Every part of this boat, in particular the cockpit, has been carefully designed to maximise space while Haines Hunter’s patented Performance Deadrise Vee (PDV) hull guarantees a smooth ride, precision handling and great performance in bluewater

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presented no problem for the rig and with a bit of sensible trim work there was no cavitation at all. I had a blast swinging this boat around the main basin of Eildon, creating wakes and crashing through them. It was really good fun.

But more seriously we ran the boat parallel to wakes, across wakes and angles to the wakes and every one of these tests were taken well in their stride by the Haines 560 Offshore.

And you’d expect that given that this boat has some serious offshore pedigree.

Internally this boat had plenty of room for a three

an ideal number as it would leave plenty of work room for all crew members and enough wiggle room to cross over each other and walk around the boat when necessary.

Other features that make this such an angler friendly rig include the large kill tank, the deck wash, simple bait board and live well. These features add a functionality to your rig that allows you to drift with live baits for kingies, cobia, tuna and more and have the

a Garmin GPSmap 750s, a large sounder unit that revels in finding structure and fish for you. It’s a stand alone, touchscreen chartplotter that comes standard with a 600w transducer for effective work in most situations. For serious anglers who dig deep for their fish, an optional 1kW transducer can be added to give you the capability to see down to over 2,000ft! Lake Eildon didn’t present this problem and it showed up trees, drop-

offs, mistings of redfin (bait) and always had a very clear bottom signal. The almost 18cm (diagonal) display was a bonus too, being easy to read at all times while we were on the water.

The helm had loads more space for customisation with marine radios, larger sounders, more gauges, whatever you think you need in fact. The skipper’s area could literally be an electronics hub that would enable you to be on the right spot wherever you are.

The half windscreen can be made fully enclosed by the additions of clears but I loved the feel of the wind in the hair when you stood up to drive this rig. Clears would be great in foul weather though and would be something I’d seriously consider as an option. The bimini was strong, strong enough for me to hang onto it while we ran through some tight corner testing. It

INCLUSIONS

FUEL USAGE

Colour two tone hull, Fibreglass bait board 27 Meg radio with base and aerial Stainless steel rocket launcher, folding Live bait tank aerator Bimini Gamin 750S DF 140ATX Suzuki Dunbier Tandem Glider Trailer Inshore safety gear Boat and trailer Registrations Price as tested $61,990

Revs L/h 700 (Idle) .............1.0 4000 (Cruising) ....14.7 6400 (WOT) .........41.6

Any boat intended to be used offshore where blood and muck will be part of the fishing, should have a deck wash. Boats and More didn’t disappoint here.

82

We tested the Haines on an oily calm Lake Eildon, certainly not the best test bed for a boat like this, but the rig made this massive waterway seem a little bit smaller.

Sporting the brand new 140hp Suzuki 4-stroke, the Haines leapt onto the plane in dramatic fashion leaving me with the feeling that bar crossings would be a breeze as power was plentiful as required. A boat that is headed offshore certainly needs to have enough grunt to get the boat and the crew out of danger quickly and this rig has it in spades.

Hard over turns, either to the port or starboard side,

angler crew. Yes it is rated to six persons, however a three person crew means you have a skipper, an angler and a deckie – the perfect combination for things like tuna fishing when you need to work as a team on every fish. If I was to take this boat out snapper fishing, you could take four people easily so long as you had a couple of sets of spreader rod holders to fish the required number of rods. For the bottom bashers, three anglers again would be

The simple included electronics will give you all the information you need with plenty of space left to add your own flavour to the cockpit. facilities on deck to process your catch and keep it in a fit state for later consumption.

After the battle and processing, the deck wash allows you to quickly clean down the working area to ensure it’s not such a massive job when you get back home. And let’s face it, there are few things worse than trying to clean off old and dried blood from your boat when you’ve had a big day on the water!

The helm was set up simply with a multi-function Garmin GMI unit. This allows all of the vital information a skipper needs to access, made available in short order. You can customise the display or cycle through the pre-programmed dispalys to get the information you want. Below the GMI was

Access through the front hatch to the anchor was easy. This hatch was designed to accommodate a reasonable human, not some microscopic impersonation of one. Great work Haines.

Sea Jay 455 Avenger BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

Bundaberg-based Sea Jay Boats have been in the alloy boat business long enough to know what works well, what can turn a good boat into a great boat and how to pack features and performance into a compact package.

All these factors make their new 455 Avenger a simply brilliant boat for fishing, prawning or crabbing and equally good for family boating.

The Avenger series – 4.2m, 4.4m and 4.55m – are very good-looking boats as well, with pleasing lines from stem to stern.

An open tiller-steer craft 4.55m long and 2.05m wide, the 455 Avenger is almost all fishing room.

A 30cm high casting deck up front offers ample work area for two anglers and the four seat pedestal bases in the main cockpit, and the one on the casting deck, allow seating options to suit any conditions.

The Avenger’s open anchor will store a sand or reef pick with plenty of rope and the gap in the bow rails

there are three rod holders along each side in the 25cm wide gunwale caps. There is also storage for tackle and other items in the 1m long side pockets.

Parents of small children should like the security of the cockpit, with its 585mm floor-to-gunwale height.

The filler for the 60L sub-floor fuel tank is in the floor. While it might not be terribly high-tech, measuring the fuel with a dipstick certainly works.

Aft of the skipper’s seat, a full-width raised casting

Versatile, roomy, well-performing and good-looking; that’s Sea Jay’s 4.55 Avenger.

Top performance came from the F60C Yamaha four-stroke.

Running at speed the Avenger displays a very clean wash, with pressed hull strakes clearly doing their job. facilitates anchoring up.

There was an electric motor pad to port and a sturdy bollard aft of the anchor well.

The casting deck has two hatches, the forward one housing a rack for a battery for the electric motor, while the much larger aft hatch accesses a deep storage for tackle, clothing, lifejackets and more.

The deck carpet joins the hull sides so precisely that that there is little possibility of a sinker, swivel or even a hook sneaking down below to cause electrolysis troubles over time.

WORK AREA The Avenger’s main work area comes with two folding swivel seats, and 86

• SEPTEMBER 2013

V&TFM

deck houses the engine battery to starboard and a floodable bait well to port.

Grab rails and transom handles are in each aft corner and the transducer bracket on the transom is standard.

Any water finding its way aboard exits via strained scuppers in each aft quarter and drains into a sump with an automatic bilge pump.

BUILT TO LAST With 3mm bottom and 3mm sides, the 4.55 Avenger is one solid and very rigid craft.

I came away from a tour of Sea Jay’s factory with the thought that it’s what owners cannot see in their boats that should reassure them most.

The 4.55 Avenger has an under-floor system of ribs, bulkheads and bracing and the plywood was totally rigid and impressively straight.

There were no warps, no misalignment or anything other than full welds throughout – even those totally out of sight.

External full welds were quite neat and the gunwale trim added a touch of class, as did the overall matte finish. I find overly shiny alloy craft a bit hard on the eye.

The Avenger’s platelook sides feature a welded spray rail which progressed down along the hull to form a reversed chine.

The 12° deadrise bottom features three pressed strakes per side and a prominent 9cm keel which doubtlessly contributed to the rig’s true tracking and kart-style turns under power.

PUNCHY POWER The Sea Jay 455 Avenger is rated for 50hp-60hp and the smooth 60hp Yamaha provided some real punch for the 350kg hull. The engine, with its multifunction tiller arm with trim and tilt, was whisper-quiet at idle and contributing not many more decibels when it spooled up.

With two aboard, the Avenger planed at 7.5 knots (14kmh), cruised very sweetly at 17 knots (32kmh) and showed 24.6 knots (45.5kmh) in a quick burst to near wide open throttle on this engine fresh out of the crate.

Performance was brilliant; ride and handling were, too. Powering over wash from passing boats did not upset the Avenger’s equilibrium and even when pushed hard over washes, the bumps and vibration were minimal.

The open anchor well maximises space up for ground tackle.

Ample beam and stability, handy side pockets, three rod holders per side and an aft livewell make fishing a pleasure.

The 250mm wide gunwale caps add hull rigidity and a place for rod holders.

Retrieve and launch is a one-person effort.

The big hatch up front can consume quite an amount of gear.

VICTORIAN TIDE TIMES

2146 2*+..+2 *'#&5 26 .105&#.'

.#6 u Ĺ? .10) u Ĺ?

6+/' <10' Ĺ&#x152; 6+/'5 #0& *'+)*65 1( *+)* #0& .19 9#6'45

5'26'/$'4 Ĺ&#x152; 6KOG O 6KOG O 6KOG O 6KOG O

57 /1 67 9'

/1 67 9' 6*

67 9' 6* (4

9' 6* (4 5#

6* (4 5# 57

(4 5# 57 /1

5# 57 /1

57 /1 67

l %QOOQPYGCNVJ QH #WUVTCNKC Ĺ&#x152; $WTGCW QH /GVGQTQNQI[ 0CVKQPCN 6KFCN %GPVTG &CVWO KU .#6

Tide predictions for Port Phillip Heads have been formatted by the National Tidal Centre, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Copyright reserved. All material is supplied in good faith and is believed to be correct. It is supplied on the condition that no warranty is given in relation thereto, that no responsibility or liability for errors or omissions is, or will be, accepted and that the recipient will hold MHL and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Australia free from all such responsibility or liability and from all loss or damage incurred as a consequence of any error or omission. Predictions should not be used for navigational purposes. Use of these tide predictions will be deemed to include acceptance of the above conditions.

South Gippsland

Echuca

Melbourne

Alberton Marine 39 Johnson Street, Alberton Phone: (03) 5183 2344 | Fax: (03) 5183 2219 Email: albertonmarine@wideband.net.au

Eades Xtreme Marine 24 Sturt Street, Echuca Phone: (03) 5482 2333 | Fax: (03) 5482 2133 Email: info@xtrememarine.net.au Website: www.xtrememarine.net.au

The Marine Shop 6 Holland Drive, Melton Phone: (03) 9747 0588 | Fax: (03) 9747 3999 Email: admin@themarineshop.com.au

Avante Marine 345 Dorset Road, Boronia Phone: (03) 9760 2222 | Fax: (03) 9762 8565 Email: info@avantemarine.com.au Website: www.avantemarine.com.au

East Gippsland Mallacoota Outboards 3 Commercial Road, Mallacoota Phone: (03) 5158 0459 | Fax: (03) 5158 0719 Email: smo02688@bigpond.net.au

Triple M Marine 117 Northgate Drive, Thomastown Phone: (03) 9465 8787 | Fax: (03) 9466 1418 Email: triplemmarine@dodo.com.au Website: www.triplemmarine.com.au

Cheltenham

Corowa

West Gippsland

Bell Marine Services 120 Talinga Road, Cheltenham Phone: (03) 9583 3881 | Fax: (03)9583 0117 Email: admin.sales@bellmarineservices.com

Maverick Boats Hamermersley & Theiss Roads, Corowa Phone: (02) 6033 3222 | Fax: (03) 6033 4488 Email: maverickboats@bigpond.com.au Website: www.boats-alburywebstyle.com.au

Warragul Marine South Road, Warragul Phone: (03) 5623 6250 | Fax: (03) 5622 0623 Email: info@warragulmarine.com.au Website: www.warragulmarine.com.au

Geelong

Mornington

Moolap Marine 250 Portarlington Road, Moolap Phone: (03) 5248 3772 | Fax: (03)5248 4633 Email: info@moolapmarine.com.au Website: www.moolapmarine.com.au

Wes Frost Marine 3 Satu Way, Mornington Phone: (03) 5976 4622 | Fax: (03) 5976 4633 Email: sales@wesfrostmarine.com Webste: www.wesfrostmarine.com

Melbourne

Bendigo Bendigo Marine World 49 Midland Highway, Epsom Phone: (03) 5448 3988 | Fax: (03) 5448 3940 Email: sales@bendigomarine.com.au Website: www.bendigomarine.com.au

Melbourne BL Marine 612- 614 Plenty Road, Preston Phone: (03) 9478 1420 | Fax: (03)9470 4638 Email: info@blmarine.com.au Website: www.blmarine.com.au

Shepparton Boats and More 207 Numurkah Road, Shepparton Phone: (03) 5822 2108 | Fax: (03) 5821 2908 Email: sales@boatsandmore.com.au Website: www.boatsandmore.com.au

Gippsland Crawford Marine 71-77 Chickerell Street, Morwell Phone: (03) 5134 6522 | Fax: (03) 5134 6455 Email: info@crawfordmarine.com.au Website: www.crawfordmarine.com.au

Sorrento Nautical Marine 139 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 141 Hotham Road, Sorrento Phone: (03) 5984 1666 | Fax: (03) 5984 1680 Email: nautical@surf.net.au Website: www.nauticalmarine.com.au

Melbourne Regal Marine 514 Canterbury Road, Vermont Phone: (03) 9874 4624 | Fax: (03) 9874 6586 Email: sales@regalmarine.com.au Website: www.regalmarine.com.au

West Gippsland Tooradin P & J Marine Service Centre P/L 101 Tooradin Station Road, Tooradin Phone: (03) 5998 3107 | Fax: (03) 5998 3108 Email: pjmarine_services@bigpond.com

Melbourne

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