Bob9863

This was from the lake, in the winter they come into the shallows especially the grass banks. 

Today I'm going to try the river, only downside is I can't keep any fish until October. 

But next month the trout open season starts just across the border so I'm going to fish some streams then and catch a feed. 

You loose a heap of gear there, I've lost 6-7 lures there in a single afternoon. 

But as they say if your not getting snagged then your not fishing in the right area. But you tend to loose less lead fish, the main problem with other lures is they get carried away in the current and into bad areas. 

But I'm going out again today with a medium and heavy rod to see how they go. 

This is pretty much the style folks are using. 

They say sharing is caring, but at lest when someone raided your mad cab pot in the NT, they were decent enough to leave you a 6 pack in it. 

Nice bass too, seems to be the week for them. 

Nice size bass that one.

Always the way, like the old cod fishing saying goes, if your not getting snagged then your fishing in the wrong spot. 

Tried behind the weir today, the waters, running that fast all I got was lots of snags. 

Lost 6 lures today so I'm trying soft plastics with some heavy heads tomorrow. 

Just bloody annoying when you think it will be the only one. 

I might have to set up my extra long rod, it gets great distance and should put me out deeper where they are holding. 

Otherwise it's out in the boat. 

Nice bass, one thing I do miss about living in qld. 

One thing I found out that made it harder for me was that I used too long a tippet. 

With conventional fly fishing you might have 10ft of leader and 3-4ft of tippet. But with tenkara there's no leader so I was using 6ft of tippet, but I should only use 3-4ft, even 2ft can be fine at times. 

I'm really looking forward to trout season, ultralight finesse lure and plastics on the spin and this new weapon. 

That's a, deadly combo I hope. 

Both, until I figured out what casting technique works with a fly rod leader. 

It's a bit different and likes a long drop where as traditionally the cast stops  at 45°

Landing is the tricky bit, I lost a couple until I got the hang of it. 

I also started casting better when I switched to left hand. I learnt to cast left handed when I started finesse fishing, and it seems to carry over. But it's, also very accurate casting, very direct. I just cast and sort of point where i want it to go with the rod. 

I finally got a chance to try it out today, it took a bit to get the casting right as you have to be fairly gentle about it. 

Spent over 2 hours working things out without any bites and then found a school in a deep rocky corner near a bridge and pulled out a dozen in about 15-20min.

So I'm feeling a bit more optimistic for trout season. 

12 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

2nd September is only 30 days away.

Bugger your right, this year is getting away from me, but brilliant news. 

The NSW season starts a month later and that's usually what I go off, that's the good thing about living on the border I guess. 

The season opens up on the 2nd of September, so still a few months off. 

It should be perfect for my area as down the bottom where I am near where it joins the lake there aren't too many big fish. 

There's a 5 fish limit, no minimum size and you can only keep 2 of 35cm.

That protects the breeding stock and most fish are only this sort of size anyway. 

It's a fly rod, but you don't use a reel. 

You attach fly line to a rope tip section and then your leader. 

This rod is 12ft so I use a 12ft fly line and 6ft of tippet. You cast one handed and when you get a fish you high stick it and either lift it by the line or net it. 

It's great for creeks, or rivers that aren't to wide, it's a very direct form of fishing. 

Here's a very rough video on it. The Americans don't do it nearly as good as the Japanese, in Japan it's almost a religion. 

Man when I lived in Darwin I had some brilliant mud crab spots. 

Used to bring in a haul of em and eat 2-3 each for a meal. Big big buggers too, take a finger or toe off if your not careful tying the claws. 

22 hours ago, GregN70 said:

- The family get cranky when we do a full day on the water and still have to buy frozen fish (Basa) for dinner from Coles

 

 

 

 

A funny thing about Basa, that's, another name for Mekong giant catfish. 

In their home countries they are treated as a sport fish and nobody really eats them any more. 

As to depression, it's a hard thing to deal with, I've started to get that lure fishing. When every time you go out and every cast there's no expectation of a bight and your just going through the motions, it can get really disheartening. 

After the fires and the resulting fish kills in the rivers and lake I didn't fish for two years waiting to hear they bounced back. 

That's one reason I try different techniques and styles of fishing. 

Atm there are no fish biting around my local spots, too cold and the fish are too deep. 

So I'm swapping over gear for my long cast stuff and targeting different areas where I can hit the deep water but it's a struggle. 

Hopefully you find something that works for you as fishing is, suppose to recharge your batteries, not deplete them. 

Good luck. 

That's one thing that has made me buy and sell about 7 or 8 boats over the last 6 or so years. 

I've had everything from modified kayaks to 5m cabin cruisers. 

The big boats are big effort to take out and expensive to run and the little ones are still effort and more specialised in how you use them. 

Now I prefer shore based fishing again just for the simplicity of being able to throw the rods in the car and go. 

As I enjoy the act of fishing I have moved away from bait, especially as I don't eat them. Lures are a more enjoyable way for me to fish, soft plastics especially. 

I used to just power fish hard bodies trying to maximise my water coverage but have learnt that fishing slower and maximising how I work the water then the amount of water I cover has produced more fish and more enjoyment from my fishing. 

Seeing how other people fish in other parts of the world has opened my eyes to a lot of new ways to fish both with bait and with lures. 

Funny thing is I don't eat fish, so fishing for me is a catch and release way to enjoy being out for the day or an afternoon. 

I like the challenge of catching them using different techniques and styles and I like mastering a new skill or technique. 

Most of this year and last has been trying out different finesse fishing techniques. 

But now I think I might give tenkara fishing a try in preparation for the next trout season. 

It's a very interesting method that to me is a natural extension from finesse fishing techniques. 

And that's why I do it, I like the challenge, I like to mix it up and like activity of actually getting out and mastering a new skill. 

Nice boat there, good for around the bay or freshwater impoundments and rivers. 

Good size deck too, plenty of room for storage or casting.