Tabla de contenidos para April 2021 en Fishing World

SO far, 2021 has been a horror year for rock fishing fatalities in NSW. At the time of writing (mid February), five rock fishos lost their lives just south of Sydney in two well-publicised incidents. Sadly, it’s nothing new, and unless it’s a major incident like the one above, it rarely makes headlines. Rock fishing has been a popular part of our sport for many years. Fishing World was at the forefront of the land based game movement in the ‘70s and has covered all aspects of rock fishing, including the topic of safety, in the years since. The question of how to save lives on the rocks is a tough one with no real answers. NSW, being the state with most rock fishing deaths, has made many attempts to…

THE Challenge is a major fundraising initiative assisting to raise funds and awareness for Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA). More than 19,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in Australia every year and PIRTEK has been partners with PCFA since 2009 to help raise vitalfunds for prostate cancer research, awareness initiatives and support programs by hosting Australia’s biggest single day fishing competition. The challenge is also a major fundraising partner for the Peter Duncan Neurosciences Research Unit, which has recently been lauded as the number one Neuroscience Research facility in Australia. Proceeds from the Pirtek Fishing Challenge will be split between these two leading medical research organisations. The challenge is an online national fishing competition open to all ages and experience levels. All competitors receive a limitededition cap, brag…

IF you’re into the outdoors, chances are you’ve heard of YETI. Beginning with coolers built for the serious outdoor enthusiast, YETI has slowly expanded its range of functional products to include bags, buckets, stubby holders and even dog bowls. I’ve been using a YETI Panga Backpack 28 for a while now and I’m still impressed with its design and durability. The Panga Backpack 28 merges the durability and construction of YETI’s proven Panga dry duffel bags with a conventional backpack design. At first glance, this backpack doesn’t look like it’s built for comfort. But after countless long days wading and fishing the flats, kayaking up and down rivers and trekking out to headlands with heavy loads, I’m convinced otherwise. The DryHaul Straps have proven to be as durable as they…

“It was a moment in time that will never leave me. It was a trip that I’d ruminated on all week prior.” CROSSING coastal bars in order to get out to sea is something that requires care and a good understanding of the forces involved in breaking waves and how to approach a bar crossing. The reason I am writing this now is related to an incident involving my boat, Gemma 3, on the entrance to the Gold Coast Seaway on Sunday the seventh of February that resulted in quite severe injury to my crew. It is a cautionary tale. I’d been keen to get out to sea as there were plenty of black marlin to be caught and local boat “Oceaneer” caught 13 on the day prior. However, the…

Anticipation is always high before the start of a trout season, but ahead of the 2020-21 opening it was at fever pitch. Brought to their knees by prolonged drought, scorching heat and fires, the creeks, streams and rivers of the south-east had finally bounced back to be in the best shape they’d been in years. A wet 2020 winter, followed by an even damper start to spring, was just what the doctor ordered. Every keen trout chaser in NSW knew that this season would be the fishiest in at least a decade – and they were dead right. From the outset, anglers were finding browns and rainbows on lure and fly. October was great, November was even better and, by December, I couldn’t help myself – I had to get…

Q HOW DO FISH GET DEFORMITIES? Greg E-mail A Deformities can be caused for many reasons and can be in many forms such as lesions, wounds, bone structure, colour, scale patterns and more. Some can be genetic deformities were fish in the population already have the deformity and then pass it onto there young. Natural caused deformities from spawning, injuries caused by other fish, birds or marine mammals, infections from bacteria, parasites and viruses, lastly chemicals introduced or already in the water can cause some forms of deformities and abnormalities. Fish are quite resilient and I have some quite amazing deformities yet the fish is healthy and feeding. Q  I WANT TO CAST UNDER TREES, WHAT IS THE BEST WAY? Jase E-mail A Practice, practice and then more practice. This…

We have all played the hypothetical game of “If you could only have one lure to catch bass, what would it be?” As a hypothetical the answer is easily offered or recall from a previous game you played with another mate. The practicalities of a single lure would rob you of the best chance and techniques to target your chosen species over a variety of light conditions and seasonal events. Over years of lure fishing anglers tend to sieve their experiences, memorable captures and highlights and condense them into lures that have either long term or current favour. Lures that have been discontinued from manufacture make favourites more valuable as a keepsake than a usable product and the only tangible evidence of the fishing done with them are memories you…

FISH FACTS: BUSHFIRE’S IMPACT ON AUSSIE FISH WHILE the annus horribilis that was 2020 is now behind us, looking back on the havoc wrought by the COVID 19 pandemic it’s easy to forget that Australia also suffered its most catastrophic fire season on record in the summer of 2019-20. In south-eastern Australia the fires were unprecedented in terms of the land area burnt (7.2 million hectares) and damage inflicted on property and bushland ecosystems. ENVIRONMENT: THE “QUIET AUSTRALIAN” FISHER MANY parts of our lives these days seem to be controlled by pollsters and samplers. We get rung up asked for our decision intentions on who we’re going to vote for or what we like to buy, we get invited to participate in focus groups and we become involved in consultative…

ATOMIC SEMI HARDZ POP THE Atomic Semi Hardz range is expanding with the addition of a soft touch, life-like popper. The new lure will come in at 50mm and 75mm modelled off the extremely popular Pop 50 in the Hardz range. The new construction is a soft, hollow rubber with a hard face. The lure will spit water forward like a normal popper, but it will be the construction of the body, in a soft, real feel design that will see fish coming back again and again. The new lure will sit alongside the existing rubber Vib and Minnow lures and will be the start of an expansive range in this new construction. It will be available in ten of the Atomic colours you have come to love. Semi Hardz…

LONGTAIL tuna are a tropical species and are widely regarded amongst fishos as one of, if not, the toughest of all tunas on matched fishing tackle. In Australia, longtail are generally distributed throughout our northern waters, from Cockburn Sound in Western Australia to NSW’s Central Coast – occasionally being caught as far south as Eden. Interestingly, all of the line class IGFA world records for longtail tuna have been taken at the southernmost edge of the species’ range, off southeastern Australia. Longtail have a cult following in places like Hervey Bay and Moreton Bay in Queensland. They are also popular seasonal sportfish for boaties further south in places like South West Rocks and Port Stephens, NSW. Surprisingly, despite being such revered medium tackle and fly casting sportfish, longtail are one…

Most Fisho readers wil l know the name Scott Mitchell. Scott has been a leading angler and social media influencer for quite a few years now. I first met Scotto when he was working at Compleat Angler in Villawood back in the late ‘80s. At the time we were both land based game fishermen chasing marlin and tuna from the Currarong and Jervis Bay platforms south of Sydney. Our paths later crossed when Scott and his wife Katrina started up The Alpine Angler in Cooma NSW. More recently we bumped into Scotto when we moved to Hervey Bay where he and wife Katrina run Mitchell’s Realty. Apart from being an astute real estate agent, Scott is a very switched on sport and fly fisho. He’s travelled the globe with fly…

I reckon that crustaceans are the most popular of all seafood and if not for the prohibitive cost, we’d be chomping down on crabs, prawns and lobsters quite regularly. Crabs are a favourite summer treat with their sweet white flesh, beautifully marked shells and the hint of danger to keep you on your toes. They are easily purchased but I prefer to catch my own and eat them fresh. There’s no seafood that my Mum loved more than Blue Swimmer Crab (BSC), and whenever I bought a few back, I was the most popular kid in the street…which, during summer was more often than not. Given that I was a fishing-tragic from the get-go, and with our tinnie moored on the flats about 30 m from our front door, I’d…

Whether you are fishing the open ocean chasing marlin or far up a remote river chasing barramundi trolling is a fishing method that you should be competent in. As a form of lure delivery it has a large number of advantages, the main one being that it lets you cover a lot of water in your search for fish. In the current Facebook and Instagram social media environment it is common to see a lot of the new breed of anglers become quite dismissive of trolling, sometimes proudly stating “I don’t troll”. This combination of arrogance and ignorance stems from a casting dominated approach to fishing that is dismissive of all the complexity, nuances and tactics required to be a good troller. But each to his own! The following is…

SEND YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS AND A DESCRIPTION OF YOUR CATCH TO PICTURES@ FISHO.COM.AU FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN. Each month we will select five lucky winners for our Grin & Win section. Grin & Win winners will each receive a cool Shimano cap and Squidgy DVD! E-mail your entry and contact details to: pictures@fisho.com.au Please include your name and age and details of your catch. Also provide a postal address so winners can receive their prize. Good luck! Visit the Shimano Junior Anglers’ website at www.shimanofish.com.au…

Peak Chemicals is an Australian manufacturer of cleaning and restoration products. The company has a broad range of products suitable for marine, automotive, trucks, leather and household. Peak Chemicals has been manufacturing in Melbourne for 15 years and sells direct off its website at peakchemicals.com.au. Last year during the Covid lockdown NSW I purchased an old second hand fibreglass composite boat to restore. The boat is an old Australian made 3.7m Tarpon. It was in reasonably good condition and the plan is to restore it cosmetically, ensure it’s strong and safe and add a floor to make it a purpose-built skinny water rig. On the back is a 9.9 four stroke Yamaha. Having an old faded fibreglass boat was useful for testing out Peak Chemical’s 2HF Fibreglass Boat Restorer Kit.…

ROMEN Dicovski of Roaming Productions Australia has built himself quite a reputation down Canberra way for catching native fish, notably, football-sized golden perch and monster Murray cod. Romen or “Ro”, is a well known figure on waterways such as Googong Dam just over the ACT/NSW border, an impoundment that has been well stocked with both natives and trout since the late ‘70s. Romen came to prominence via his Green & Gold series of DVDs which depict much of his successful native fishing missions on the golden waters of Googong, a waterway he has become very familiar with in the past decade and a half. While he’s a regular at Googong, Romen has spent countless hours learning the secrets of other lakes in the Canberra region including Burley Griffin - where…