dirvin21

savage gear "top prey" far cheaper and work

submitting a jungle perch 22cm,

Just returned from a week in Far North Queensland, based at Lucinda at the southern end of Hinchinbrook channel. The saltwater fishing was tough we spent a day fishing the reef and the creeks for barra with very little to show for it. The other 2 fishing days I had planned involved hitting some freshwater systems in the area, all the spots we fished I found using goolge. Our first proper freshwater session was freshwater creek in Cairns. Only a small system but full of jungle perch, near the top of my bucket list. A beautiful system, full of JP's but as I had read very wary, these fish are the flightiest fish I've ever casted at and after 2 hours of fruitless strikes and a couple of dropped fish it finally happened it's been nearly 30 years since I first saw JP's in a book and have dreamed of catching one ever since, they're a truly stunning fish. Only managed 1 JP for the session but still absolutely pumped. On the way bac from Cairns we hit the Tully river, starting at the upper section in the Tully Gorge natonal park. The hits came thic and fast and after awhile finally came up tight on a fish. A khaki grunter similar to a sooty but endemic to the Tullythese things fight like demons. Continued casting for a couple more fish not a lot of size but a lot of fun. Heading away from Tully gorge we decided to fish an easily accessible piece of river for a last ditch effort to get a few fish for the arvo. The next half hour was insane with both me and Amy cracking some solid sooty and khaki grunter These things pull like trains I'd heard they were tough but I had no idea. With fading light the one last call was made and whilst running a zman grub and jigspinner down a rapid run the rod was nearly pulled from my hands, the fight was nothing short of brutal had to run downstream to bring the fish into a small beach all the while watching for crocs. in the end out came a 42cm sooty build like a tank. With that the day was ended on a fist pumping high. Our final day of fishing I planned a trip out to Herbert gorge accessing it from the bottom end in the Yamani section of Girrigun NP. This place is well known for big crocs and a chat with a local at the gate confirmed the rumours. A nice smoking hot half km walk in and we hit water This place was huge rugged and isolated and amazing there was also some very sinister looking croc water there were some very big slides on the bank in this section Amy didn't waste anytime getting some casts in we caught quite a few sooties fishing the deeper pools with most fish coming from the base of rapids similar to trout the Herbert fish weren't as big but beautifully coloured and just as hard fighting if not more. I did manage to hook a barra of about 65cm he took a couple of awesome jumps before my leader slipped through a gap in the jighead (a squidgy pro range very disapointed in the quality). We tried hard with bigger plastics for a barra but only eneded up with more sooties although Amy got smashed by what I assume was a big freshwater Jack. The heat ended up getting the better of us even after having a dip in a couple of safe sections. I intend to got back to FNQ and just focus on the freshwater options it was awesome we worked hard but cracked plenty of fish. Couple of suggestions if anyone gets inspired by this report pack light when trekking a couple of packets of plastics is all you need don't underestimate how much water you'll need we almost did luckily we had just enough to reach the car crocs are there we saw lots of croc evidence a long long way from the salt it's easy to forget they're there because if they're doing it right you won't see them (we did see a small one) cheers for reading Dave

There's always something that's "ruining the fishing" at the moment it's facebook, I'm sure in a few years it'll be something else I don't have much of an issue with putting up locations, most of the areas I fish are 100% public and visible to passersby and to be honest the fish are hard to fool in said locations, a lot of my other spots are seriously difficult to access and thus not many people are willing to make the effort, anyone who knows me on FR will tell you I'm always happy to share locations the only time I completely withhold location info is out of respect to landowners when it's private land I've been granted access too. I think social media can actually help boost rec fishing by helping anglers find spots and then they get seen as areas of rec value, look at the loads of TSR that's under review for sale because of apparent limited recreational usage which a lot of the time is a select few know of it's existence and wouldn't share it even if being interrogated via torture and thus hardly anyone uses them then the Government see's no value to keeping them

It's all about confidence if the lighter leader makes you think you'll catch more fish then you probably will although leader needs to be matched not only to the target species but also the surrounding terrain

Becoming a real issue up here...... I work night shift in a hospital and evey other night someone has a window smashed and car robbed in the hospital carpark

Cast them up against pylons and let them sink down

Strikepro pygmy

how big are the sharks you intend chasing? You generally don't need a particularly heavy mainline for sharks just a long heavier leader to prevent bustoffs from rubbing on the sharks body

female "Crimsonband Wrasse", Notolabrus gymnogenis

The strong male role model seems to be an endangered species

Hi Miniken welcome to fishraider..... you should try the "indroduce yourself thread" also the search function is useful for finding information

Not in the murray-darling as Blackfish said..... it's easy to forget they exist I've seen 6 including this one....... have looked after many sting victims in my profession....... just posted up the pic to remind people these guys are out there especially in weed it's easy to get complacent in freshwater

Out with the kids yesterday fishing (no fish), swimming and trapping shrimps for the fishtank, in a bit of weed not 6 feet from where the kids were playing got this guy only small but a bullrout this size will bring a grown man to his knees, this fish came from green weed in 30cm of water in crystal clear gravel bottomed creek it's easy to forget they're there. He now resides in the fishtank because the property owner wanted to dispatch him fishtank was the alternative wear shoes when walking/swimming in freshwater

I remember that..... we had a school camp at the time all us boys had a pilchard fight on the beach

Does anyone know if white spot can affect crabs , my mate caught a muddie last week with white spots all over it I told him to send pics to fisheries

Saturday being the opening of the trout season decided to take the better half up to chase soem trout. Since meeting me at the start of the year she has gone from someone who never fished before to a seriosly competative angler. This season we managed to gain access to some very private water apparently full of trophy sized fish. The creek looked good a bit low but otherwise we were feeling confidant. The first Km produced a couple of follows by small fish, when we came to a bigger pool Amy had the first cast and pulled the hooks on a fish after casting the pool for a bit a big rainbow appeared a put a cast past him as soon as the lure came into view he was on it I'm pretty sure I carried on like a school girl when fighting the fish I was so excited eventually out came a cracker of a rainbow measuring up at 47cm but in solid condition worked our way up a bit to the next pool and Amy cracked a nice brownie about 30cm further up in the next big pool we spotted some bigger fish I landed another quality fish then it was Amy's cast when the hit came followed by the run we knew this was a beast after the fight from hell and me getting ready to swim in icey water to free the fish from a log (thankfully it came back out) an absolute tank came ashore the picture doesn't do this thing justice it would have weighed around 5kg it was an absolute tank I got another quality fish but after Amy's beast nothing seemed big anymore, didn't catch a lot of fish but the quality was undeniable The next arvo I got out on the kayak for a bass session, it was a tough bite ended up with 2 fish the bigger 1 a mid 30's model then to finish off the long weekend took the kids up for a trout fish this morning, found an easy access point with a massive deep pool of water. Put a couple of baits out for the kids then Declan had a crack with my lure rod and sure enough it was nailed poor kid didn't know what hit him the fish gave him quite a runaround but eventually we landed a really thick mid 40's rainbow he wouldn't pick it up, the fish was released then the worm rod went off and he ended up with another rainbow of similar size unfortunetly this fish was hooked in the gill so we decided to take home for a feed as it was almost certain to die. I started having a cast and before long onto a solid fish it ran really deep thinking a brownie (after I spotted a monster) out came another rainbow quickly released to ensure survival kept casting and after awhile and onto another this fish spent moe time in the air than in the water tried to get a quick pic but the fish had other plans atleast it swam off healthy Rosalie got in the action right at the end with a nice little rainbow that concluded a cracker of a long weekend with not loads of fish landed but some quality size amongst them cheers for reading Dave

Go a lighter setup something in the 2-4kg rating with a 2500 sized reel match with some 6-8lb braid and 8lb leader Shimano have catana/sienna combos which are good for starting out I personally use zman grubz for plastics fishing but it's personal choice scents like sfactor definitely make a difference Start with flathead find some areas where you know flathead frequent and get your techniques fine tuned... flathead are generally forgiving Porbably the main thing i see is hopping techniques with lures.... be limber try and hop or twitch your lure with your wrist and elbow aiming to not move your torso Most importantly keep persisting once you crack the code you'll never look back Hope this helps Dave

It's a blade with wire clips to your jighead basically turns a plastic into a small spinnerbait made by tackle tactics similar to the old beetlespins

A nice looking day this morning and the power going off, the only option go fishing with the wind getting up early decided to head up rover for a bass. Headed up the North arm of the Nambucca river. River looked good, incredibly clear as the north arm usually is. Started working some slightly deeper edges on quite shallow water, noticed a fish sitting on the edge landed a cast right on his head lure was instantly nailed and buried ended up grabbing the spool and pulling him out A 42cm fish to start the season, happy would be an understatement even worth a selfie he came from the edge in the middle turned 90 degrees and cast a pool with some weed on the bottom after a couple of casts on again a nice mid 30's fish sight casted a couple of fish but ran out of water to retrieve in then watching the tadpoles decided to test a theory, when casting clear skinny water the fish come from miles away and often run out of water to strike so mimicking the behavior of the thousands of tadpoles I let the plastic sink to the bottom on one of the pursuing fish and sure enough he merely crunched it off the bottom A really thick 37cm model Heading back down ouched a cast in a very snaggy little corner and out of nowhere out comes another beast again run up in the timber but managed to get him back a 43cm fish a cracker for this piece of river working my way down managed a couple more mid 30's fish in a deep pool woring down a long sectio of really skinny water basically snagless but still casted it and from some undercut grass comes another solid fish he went 39cm a really dark fish Finished the session with an ant sized bass that came from one of the bugger pools and another mid 30's fish from a pool the size of a bathtub ended up with 9 fish for the session, the bigger fish came from the smallest water, all of them were in prime condition lure was a zman 2.5" grubz with a 1/20th jighead an a jigspinner cheers for reading Dave

Cheers mate..... it's not as difficult as most people think... it's the subtle things that make the difference to success

Going off previous years probably mid October then the smaller fish seem to disappear the bigger fish still hang around just become a bit of a random catch

had plenty of short sessions over the week, started out with some trevs in the gale force southerly winds following day a long canoe paddle in the upper tidal reaches only ended up with one fish but always good to avoid the doughnut next day back to chasing trevs started on the kayak getting a few ant sized big-eyes, switched to a landbased spot with some bigger lures resulting in an immediate size upgrade A change in retrieve style to a big rip pause made the GT's fire up as well some nice high 30's models next session was chasing flatties trialing the sebile magic swimmer only small fish landed but think I've wored out a successful retrieve to finish the week hit the marina at Coffs for nothing, heading home stopped at one of my reliable spots again terrible weather, first cast smoked by a trev on the light gear pulled out some heavier gear again casting Jackall's and again more fish the Moses perch have appeared early this season this one was really red thought it was a jack at first last fish of the session was an equal pb mosie a solid fish that's it for the week hopefully more fish to come Dave

The fishing on the Nambucca is pretty good at present about 1/2 north SWR.... plenty of landbased options can certainly put you onto a few spots

Thanks mate..... I love this area get the best of both worlds with northern and southern species