Our ever-evolving reality in these ‘interesting’ times has changed our perception of many aspects of life. Many of us had fishing trips to venues far afield routinely scheduled for our angling year before ‘travel restrictions’ and ‘border closures’ became part of our vocabulary. Living so close to Queensland’s southern border meant that NSW waters were regular haunts for thousands of …

AROUND this time of year a few of my regular fishing and hunting companions have their birthdays, which always calls for a day in the pursuit of our regular outdoor activities. First on the calendar is Kevin Clark, with whom I’ve shared many of my most memorable moments on the water over the past thirty or so years. birthday fishing …

SINCE their first-hand carved 80mm timber Boomerang lures were revealed to the angling world 37 years ago, the team at Predatek (formerly Downunder) Lures has earned an enviable reputation for developing outstandingly effective lure designs. During the industry-wide sales slump of the initial Covid lockdowns in early 2020, the design team used this downtime wisely and turned their skills to …

TWO decades have passed since I penned my first piece on catching bass in winter for a national glossy magazine. Recent trips to several lakes in southern Queensland from Monto south to the border led me to review current tactics to see how much cool water bass fishing has changed in subsequent years. The verdict is that not much has …

IF you were designing an ideal freshwater sportfish, what qualities would be prerequisite? It would obviously have to be a tenacious fighter capable of dogged resistance and long hard runs. It would need to be responsive to a range of angling methods including lure and fly, but not be so easy to catch that it becomes boring. silver perch It …

BEING from the sunshine state means our main freshwater targets are warm-water native species, with bass, barramundi, sooty grunter and golden perch topping the list. A novel change can be had by heading south to flick a lure or fly for a few of the acclimatised salmonids from the northern hemisphere that can be found through much of Victoria and …

IN the spring, a young man’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of surface fishing… I may not have quoted Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem word for word exactly. In the realm of sportfishing anglers, almost inevitably they will find a few scenarios to which they are drawn repeatedly. Surface strikes For several it’s a preferred species, for others it may be …

IF there has been a positive to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps it is the realisation that we as a nation rely too heavily on imported goods. Personally, I’ve been buying Australian made as first preference for more than a quarter of a century. Taken almost to the point of obsession, I’ve been fishing exclusively with Australian-made lures …

LAST month we stepped through the manufacture of a drop-in kayak rack for my box trailer to allow my kayaks to be transported upright, and launched and loaded without lifting. In the final state as pictured last month, the rig worked perfectly allowing even my heaviest tandem Hobie to be slipped onto the skids without heavy manual handling, as planned. …

WHILE penning this piece relating to fishing the western watershed streams during the grip of one of the most prolonged droughts in living memory, just for contrast, rain is falling across the region concerned. Here too in the southeastern corner of the sunshine state we’ve been blessed with liquid sunshine, albeit in lesser amounts than those of us in rural …