Gone Fishin!

[DreamingNagual]

Greetings People,

I was curious to know how many of you are into Fishing?

I prefer fishing in Fresh Waters for Trout, Fly Fishing mostly

altho I do enjoy using Lures & Bait as well.

I went for a trip today & landed myself a Dirty ole Eel I hate those Slimey Fuckers

Had a few strikes and follow ins Using a 1 & half inch Tillins Devon #5,

Gold, Red centre stripe, w Black tiger stripes! This is a deadly Lure for trout around here!

TassieDj, Dug, Any of you guys into fishing?

[PD.]

you dudes have it easy in taz lol, i remember goin there as a kid, tying fishin line to a stick with a hook and worms on the end, throwin it in a dam and comin back later for a feed of trout, too easy. That was a few years bak now tho.

I prefer bait fishing round these parts, nice and relaxin with an esky full of cold beverages. Plenty of good fish to catch these days, the carp seem to have slowed a lil with their breeding and so there aint that many of them stinky bastids around anymore. Carp are still good fun to catch tho as they put up a good fight and are usually fairly large. Mainly target murray cod now, which there seems to be an abundance of these days.

I wish we could get eels here, id eat em for sure.

[reshroomED]

Been fishing as long as I can remember. My old man was a mad fisherman and a shift-worker which usually meant him coming home to take me to school so fresh-out-of-the-water King George Whiting was breaky most days.

As I got older I became more interested in fresh-water as it fit in with hunting. So pigs, roos, bunnies and cod, yellowbelly, and reddies, or deer and trout. Predominately fly/lures for the trout, whilst more drowning bait for the natives/reddies. Lived on the West Coast of tassie for a few years (had a shack on the water near the heads at McQuarrie Harbour) so got back into some salt-water fishing then.

Health stops me doing much fishing at all these days or I'd be on for the coming Murray trip. Just knocked back a duck-shooting/fishing trip to Deniliquin last week.

I'm definitely with you re the river and an esky PD (although I'm a bit of a show-off, I've got a fridge in my car). Sitting in the sun with a few cold beers watching a rod or two, as long as the fish aren't *too* active, would be one of my favourite methods of relaxation. Pretty well the whole Murray-Darling system seems near-designed for this. I find the furthr up I go the more beer and less sun I like though.

ed

[PD.]

Yeh i only wish the redfin were in abundance now like they were when i was a kid, they seemed to have dropped off even moreso than the carp. IMO, redfin are the best freshwater table fish hands down, i prefer them even to trout. Murray cod are very nice to eat also but it seems almost every cod you catch is JUST under legal size and this year the limit has gone up another 5cms in the murray (to 60cms now)so the ones that were just under size last season will be just under size again this season :S

Whiting for breaky most days, you lucky bastid ED! hehe, shhhh, you arent allowed to say duck and shooting in the same sentence these days

I read a story once of a world record 23lb redfin being caught in Tassie!

[reshroomED]

Every year our annual holidays would be on the Edwards R out of Mathoura NSW. I can still remember walking down to the bridge with a rod and baltic bobber and catching heaps of reddies. Was only 3 or 4 at the time so obviously had no idea, just the proclivity of the perch in those days. Then the carp hit the scene a few years later 'til it got to the point once on the Lachlan out of Booligal that you could not fish with more than one rod for the bloody things.

Yet things seem to have done a bit of a back-flip in the last ten years or so, and great to see the natives making a comeback. Pretty hard for them to compete with carp given their (carp) hardiness and I'd be nice to know exactly what caused this.

And catching the bastards on cheese, who'd a thunk it? I can remember arvo's spent digging for bardies too and that seemed harder than opening a pack of craft. In this regard, have you seen any sign of stomach disorders in cod relating to cheese? I've read of people gutting them to find large impactions of rotting cheese, yet none verifiable, or from a trustworthy source

We seem to be in accord today, 'cause I'd go a redfin over any other freshwater fish too (as long as someone else scales them ). Anything above a few pound cod or yella and it's released or kept as a gift. They get to fatty/oily for me, though hot-smoking gets rid of a lot of this.

Never been big on the (legal) duck-shooting. Mostly too inhumane, I'd prefer to drop a sitting one with a rifle and make sure of the kill, as long as no-one's looking.

ed

[incognito]

this is bringing back memorys. i know some redfin spots around parkes (old town water supplys) that are CHOKKAS with redfin, u can catch 30 in an hr easy with spinners-so much fun as a tacker, though they were never really that big, i think they where stunted due to the sheer number of them, used to fillet them as they where chokkas with bones.used to come home with freezer bags of redfin fillets. so sweet and tasty on toast man mmmmmmm.

but feral bastids that take their tole on native fish stocks.

our farm dams where stocked with silver and golden perch. a young yellow belly is delish baked in the oven. never eaten a cod. but i know fat old yellowbellys taste shit, they are the breeders the big old ones, so that it is the larger fish u should return, they should have the bag limit the other way round (within reason for the littlens of course. Man they produce some eggs.

silvers i find whernt as sweet,and where really bony and their fins so spiky was hard to handle them. but in the dams they where definately more resiliant, they really addapt to dam life well,and bred like hell as opposed to the yellowbelly dams which we where continually restocking.

eeltail catfish would hafto be my fav tasting freshwater fish, at wyangala dam we used to skin them and throw them strait on the barbie (dead of course for the horrified sushi eating/ dolphin devouring 'vegos' out there) sometimes just lightly crumbed.

got some special spots there as well for cattys.

the fish i DETEST is the trout. id rather eat a carp and i put them in the same category.

rediculous that they have protected seasons in inland australia. i dont get it.they are such fast predatory fish who make minced meat out of juvenile native fish. they even eat their own young.

so many better and cooler australian natives to stock with.

carp are awesome fun on fly gear if u ever get the chance. they call em the 'mud marlin' in other cultures, namely european, carp are a prized sports fish, and culinary fish.

[PD.]

IMO ED, the decline in numbers of carp and redfin has been due to the amount of flooding we have had in the past years, which has been fuck all to nil. Carp breed in shallow warm water and spring floods are perfect for this, something we havent had around these parts for well over ten years now and im sure the lil reddies loved to eat the carp fry. Hehe my dad still raves on about the days where a wheat sack full of 2lb reddies was the norm, even when i was a kid a 5 or 6 lb reddie was nothing unusual in the right conditions and if you couldnt catch a feed there was something wrong with you. He also tells me stories of when he first started noticing "euros", "they appeared out of nowhere in the thousands, you could see schools of them swimming up the river", thank god them days have gone tho because for a while there carp were all you could catch in the murray and many thought cod and the like would never make a come back. Here here to restocking and re-snagging.

There is a big debate over the cheese as bait issue but i know of ppl that have been using it for years and really, there is more cod now than ever so i dont think it is detremental to the fish, after all cod will eat whatever fits in their mouth wether it be a bit of rotting flesh from a dead cow or a stray golf ball. Ppl would be suprised at some of the things found in a cod stomach, half a sausage and a Tbone steak for example:P. Bardi grubs are my bait of choice but only if my dear old dad digs them for me haha, is alot of work for a days fishing.

Now, with the reddies, ya leave the scales on, the whole lot, skin and all peels off once ya cook it and as for fatty yellas and cod, well i used to be in the same school of thought (they no good), that is until i got the old dude across the road from me to fillet the 20pound cod i brought home last season. He seemed to know where ever line of fat run thru the flesh and cut it all out and yeh, any native over a few pound should be filleted and fat cut off or that shitty fat goes rite thru it giving it a muddy flavour especially if you cook it in the oven foil wrapped style. Im still a redfin man tho thru and thru haha

If you eat duck, try this.... a lil salt and onion inside then wrap in white bread dough (2 or 3 inches thick), bake in the oven until the crust is brown. mmmmmmmmm my god i could go some rite now

[PD.]

the fish i DETEST is the trout. id rather eat a carp and i put them in the same category.

rediculous that they have protected seasons in inland australia. i dont get it.they are such fast predatory fish who make minced meat out of juvenile native fish. they even eat their own young.

so many better and cooler australian natives to stock with.

I agree 100% incognito, there is no bigger pest to native fish, big and small, than a streamlined predator like the trout. Im sure Australia would have had a few more species of galaxis(native trout) before the introduction of these feral bastids

I have only caught catties a few times but that was far inland NSW in land locked muddy dams, skinning a bag full of them oily buggers is a chore let me tell you.

[incognito]

thats interesting what u say of carp needeing flooding to breed, i have also read the sma ething about natives, particularly yellowbelly and cod.

howver the lachlan is int he same state as u describe the murray, native fish are on the up and carp numbers are on the decline.

im wondering if this has anything to do with dams releasing less water. ive read that dams kill native eggs with the release of water into the rivers as the water is generally from the bottom of the dam which is quite cold, which kills native eggs.

carp eggs however are unaffected by the cold flush and in fact are more adapted to the cooler water.

[Undergrounder]

really carp are on the decrease? are the native fish returning because of this?

I'm into saltwater fishing, i fish maybe half a dozen times a year, normally in Syd. harbour or off the Northern Beaches. Late January/February is the best time to fish up here for the sand whiting that spawn off the beaches. Can also catch bream, mulloway, tailor, trevalley, kingfish, flathead..

I sometimes go freshwater fishing if im up in the Snowy Mountains during summer, but only tried a few times and didn't catch anything.

[baphomet]

I am a fishing maniac, I used to do a lot of land based fishing for gummies, snapper, etc but now I am mainly after mulloway, I'm sick of catching everything else really and mulloway offer a new challenge. I have hooked onto a nice one in the Barwon but it busted me off, I only want big ones, (over 20kg) and I'm hoping to make it up to Yalata next year to catch them off the beaches up there cause there are fk all mulloway in Victoria.

Other than that I occasionally fish for whiting and other stuff here from time to time and I have recently discovered freshwater fishing, I have been going up towards Marysville and cleaning up on trout, the best lures I have used are the little ecogear SX-40's (don't buy the imitation ones!). There is a Daiwa 'brown trout' lure that looks a little bit like them and is equally as effective but only costs half the price, they are hard to find though. These lures are lightweight and you will need a nice little flickstick to use them, preferably with some light braid, can't get them out very far but if you are walking along the bank of a narrow river casting into holes they are perfect.

[incognito]

I am a fishing maniac, I used to do a lot of land based fishing for gummies, snapper, etc but now I am mainly after mulloway, I'm sick of catching everything else really and mulloway offer a new challenge. I have hooked onto a nice one in the Barwon but it busted me off, I only want big ones, (over 20kg) and I'm hoping to make it up to Yalata next year to catch them off the beaches up there cause there are fk all mulloway in Victoria.

Other than that I occasionally fish for whiting and other stuff here from time to time and I have recently discovered freshwater fishing, I have been going up towards Marysville and cleaning up on trout, the best lures I have used are the little ecogear SX-40's (don't buy the imitation ones!). There is a Daiwa 'brown trout' lure that looks a little bit like them and is equally as effective but only costs half the price, they are hard to find though. These lures are lightweight and you will need a nice little flickstick to use them, preferably with some light braid, can't get them out very far but if you are walking along the bank of a narrow river casting into holes they are perfect.

pink tassie devils are the lure of choice for trout at wyangala dam. i have caught trout ,silver perch and golden perch on tassie devils. wonder if they still make them???

im very interested in lure fishing for murray cod, hopefully i will be able to go down and visit passive more often.

id be very interested in participating in catch tag and release efforts with the cod.

such a beautiful fish.

i used to live for fishing as a kid/teenager, read everything there was on the topic.

[baphomet]

Ya the pink tassie devils are good in the way that you can cast them a mile, better for dams & lakes but the lures I mentioned earlier are killers for small rivers, much more effective.

Edited November 14, 2008 by baphomet

[PD.]

(don't buy the imitation ones!).

LOL, love a good sized fish for every time ive heard that

IME salt water is too easy, you are always going to catch something even if it is a lil toadie.

seriously tho, id love to hookup a huge mulloway, its the salt water fish murray cod fisherman dream of haha. Jesus they are some big fish. Any fight in them at all or is it just like draggin a big log into shore?

[PD.]

+1 for pink taz devil :D

[baphomet]

They are not known for their fighting ability the way tuna, kingfish and other palagics are but still fun from what I've heard, something that big is definitely going to give you a run for your money. The main attraction I guess is that they are so smart and hard to catch, in most places you need live bait or at least very fresh bait, caught no more than a few hours earlier.

[woof woof woof]

yah.... people that speak another one of my languages "fishing!"

same here ....my old man is a mad fisherman/seaman...... took me fishing allot.... still go everynow and then. most of my buddies liek to fish...

offshore on the pelagics in the caribbean. mahi - wahoo - tuna - is what i like most. but everynow and then.... the inshore spp..... cuda's, snappers, jacks, snook.... etc..

also take a plunge everynow and then..... lobsters,... spearing.....

saltwater runs in the veins!

[~shameless~]

Check out this cool flatie , speared by friend , speared by hand in about a 'foot of water', i love walking beaches with the prawn light!!!!! just after sunset or after midnight, i find it too be such a selective way of getting a meal,

Believe it or not this was jabbed about a week ago right near elwood, port phillip bay,

We sometimes get too see marks in the sand where maybe 80cm flathead have been lying in even shallower depths!!

The thought of taking a really big one is kind of wrong, but anything up to 55cm , i'm fine with

How cool are flathead

Edited November 14, 2008 by GREEN HOUSE AKA spice1

[~shameless~]

Hey just a question too any victorian urban fishos, anyone done patterson river/ marina for mulloway??

Stories i'v heard make it sound like its worth giving a go.

I'd imagine live baiting with a big mullet under some walkway over passes or a quit corner, i'v been thinking of giving this ago lately,

[PD.]

How cool are flathead

Hehe, till ya get jabbed by that freakn spine behind their head, man that hurts!

[baphomet]

I used to walk the beaches right near there and fill a container with flounder, at least 20 at a time (that's the legal limit ), then I would move on down to Mordiallioc and walk towards Aspendale where I would literally fill a 60 Litre container with sand crabs, baby octopus (although most escaped), flathead, garfish, etc. There's a good spot in Beaumaris too but it's illegal to fish there now, that was sooo much fun, brings back memories.

The biggest flathead in Aus used to be in Mallacoota inlet, 80cm was the norm but they were all killed off after the rediscovery of soft plastics, before that people had to use live poddy mullet, these are the breeding fish so it's best to let them go but it's tempting to spear one when you see it lying on the bottom, not many people would be able to resist the temptation to fkn nail it. Problem is the big ones get off when you try to lift them out of the water, the only way is to press them into the sand and and push them along the bottom up onto the beach.

[baphomet]

Hey just a question too any victorian urban fishos, anyone done patterson river/ marina for mulloway??

Stories i'v heard make it sound like its worth giving a go.

I'd imagine live baiting with a big mullet under some walkway over passes or a quit corner, i'v been thinking of giving this ago lately,

Friends of mine have caught them there but they are mostly just schoolies, biggest one I've heard of being caught there was 15k which is still not that big when you talking mulloway, the average fish is more like 3kg. There's a sunken barge just out from the mouth of the river where bigger ones hang around but you need a boat to get to it. Now's not the right time of the year though, I think about easter is the right time if I remember rightly.

[Chiral]

"rock fishin" now that's where its at..have been a rock hopper since i was a lil rat about 10 yrs old..Drummer, blackfish, bream, snapper, and pelagics..My real passion is chasing Northern blues off the headland at Shelley point up at Forster during the summer months, when the warm currents swirl down the coast and bring in the speedsters. My best Tuna was 18kilo on 10kg line and gaffed him on my own..had too I was the only one out there that day..I let out one of the biggest hoots you heard when I landed him. I've seen others out there catch marlin and huge Cobia ..its a real hotspot from Dec to may for huge pelagics..ya have to get there early to get the primos spots..we used to spend 2-3 days out there with lil baby pools for bait and lots a tucker and smoke to keep us happy. have a reem of pics in old school format..ie paper I'll scan them in and show you some monsters. watching your balloon bob around in super blue deep water 50 yds out and then seeing it disapear and seeing your reel scream like a bitch is one of the most exhilarating and wickedest feelings ever. Pick up the game rod and reel, click over the drag and swing back, and nearly loose yourself in the drink is sooooooo much fun. Fighting Blues for an hr on a hot summers day is no cakewalk..it really takes it out of you as everyone else has to wind in and clear a path so you can run up and down the cliff face to make sure the tuna don't go around the headland and cut you off. Fuckin the best I telz ya the best.

H.

[incognito]

Bardi grubs are my bait of choice but only if my dear old dad digs them for me haha, is alot of work for a days fishing.

my pop taught me how to make a bardi grub 'screw' . fashioned out of a clothes hanger, 40 cm long with one end fashioned into a like a cork screw, that when screwed down the hole, the 'screw' end would screw around the bardi grub, then u would pull him out.

there where THOUSANDS of bardi grubs under the gums where i grew up,early spring being the time when the grubs where at their juiciest. i remember summer night tennis comps under the lights when the courts would be chokkas with the huge moths that emerge from the grubs.(attracted to the court lights)

many a tennis player was taken out from a moth to the eye or mouth. serious. was great to watch.

never had a problem using the mentioned method catching the bardies, used to have a small market selling em to local fishermen for 50c each!! once u did it for a while u would know exactly how wide to make ur screw, and would know which hole was inhabited by a grub.

we used to shovel of the top 50 ml of soil around the base of the gums to spot the holes and shine a torch down them to find the grub, then down with the screw.

ah memorys.

pity all i ever caught on them where carp.

i used to use these huge worms the locals called 'milkys' that u would find in the rich moist soils close to the river banks. they could grow to well over a metre.

this is rather morbid, but their blood would glow in the dark, i am not kidding, like a glow stick, really translucent. u would always catch something on them.

[baphomet]

My best Tuna was 18kilo on 10kg line and gaffed him on my own..had too I was the only one out there that day..I let out one of the biggest hoots you heard when I landed him. I've seen others out there catch marlin and huge Cobia ..its a real hotspot from Dec to may for huge pelagics..ya have to get there early to get the primos spots..we used to spend 2-3 days out there with lil baby pools for bait and lots a tucker and smoke to keep us happy. have a reem of pics in old school format..ie paper I'll scan them in and show you some monsters. watching your balloon bob around in super blue deep water 50 yds out and then seeing it disapear and seeing your reel scream like a bitch is one of the most exhilarating and wickedest feelings ever. Pick up the game rod and reel, click over the drag and swing back, and nearly loose yourself in the drink is sooooooo much fun. Fighting Blues for an hr on a hot summers day is no cakewalk..it really takes it out of you as everyone else has to wind in and clear a path so you can run up and down the cliff face to make sure the tuna don't go around the headland and cut you off. Fuckin the best I telz ya the best.

H.

Lucky bastids, Vic fishing is shit, we got ripped off when god was distributing fish species. Makes me want to move when I read that