FOLLOWING several weeks of the air at home being thick with smoke from local fires around the compass, a day with clear air provided an unusual opportunity for a little R&R without stinging eyes and an asthma puffer. By the light of the first sunrise in weeks not tinted red, I slipped the boat into my local stomping grounds of …

AS a freshwater angler, much of my fishing calendar revolves around the warmer months of the year, with hiking trips for cod, surface fishing for saratoga and sojourns into the tropics chasing sooties all being more enjoyable with higher water temperatures. One freshwater fishery that remains productive during the coldest months of the year is our local impoundment bass scene. …

HAVING grown up on a farm, I am acutely aware of how time poor (and cash poor) our families are who earn their living on the land. Various feral animals have a significant impact upon the annual earnings of our inland primary producers through direct predation on stock, consumption of crops and competition for grazing (and water). This is why …

FISHING in much of tropical Queensland is far from the first thing that comes to mind at the moment. Some areas escaped damaging floods and these will bounce back quickly, as they do after each significant wet season. Several years ago we had a trip to the tropics planned many months in advance of cyclone Yasi striking, yet went ahead …

BECAUSE my recent annual winter road trips have coincided with the Brisbane Boat Show, it’s been several years since I’ve been able to attend. There was no clashing of calendars this year though, so I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to visit the show. A lap around the show’s four halls in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre revealed, …

As you can see, we Aussies tend to be a creative bunch, coming up with ingenious, often simple solutions to problems as they occur. On a less grand scale, often in a suburban backyard shed, anglers too devise imaginative solutions to challenges. Take a look at some of the rigs, cliff gaffs, lure retrievers, surf rods and so on that …

Tony chooses to err on the side of caution and always sticks with shorts when we hit the coast, reasoning that the discomfort will be short lived. Fortunately, the weather patterns that give us our coldest mornings are calm and clear, which means the day will quickly warm within a few hours of sunrise. If you ever want to experience …

It isn’t only rural and remote areas that have become infested with feral rabbits. I’ve seen them in the suburbs of Ipswich, Esk, Brisbane, Mackay, Rockhampton and Toowoomba (where they often go unnoticed because people just assume they are hares). Biological controls have been used nationwide and have proven very effective in significantly reducing the population. As impressive as the …

Practise your whistling technique in areas with plenty of foxes because obviously more opportunities means a faster learning curve. Certain times of year will yield better results than others. Springtime is when mature foxes hunt to feed pups, meaning they look for every morsel they can find. Here in southern Queensland, when those pups are out on their own in …