At the start of September, I came up with a plan to try getting my son Luke onto his first barramundi or mangrove jack. His tenth birthday was in the middle of September, so I organised a plane flight for the two of us to fly to Townsville. My father lives in this coastal city and my brother Chris was …
Read More »Bread and butter species at TCB
G’day crew, as always, I hope you’ve been well and keeping busy enjoying our beautiful slice of heaven. I know my family and I have been, and we made the most of the good weather throughout the school holidays. Fishing and boating with the kids, going for adventures in the bay, picnics and swimming until they were all wrinkly and …
Read More »Tackling Moreton Bay
What a cracker month it has been, with so many different species caught in Moreton Bay! Snapper were readily caught in the bay area, with a few personal bests ticked off the bucket list. A cracker that Dan landed came in at slightly over 8kg. It’s one to be proud of, well done Dan – I think it was a …
Read More »The lure of a prawn
I am a big believer in many of the old fishing sayings, such as ‘find the bait, find the fish’, ‘match the hatch’ and ‘think like a fish’ and, when the bite has been tough, it’s reflecting on these sayings and what I can take from them that has turned my sessions around. In this article I wanted to reference …
Read More »Lure and bait tips for fishing around Ballina
Hello all, well I guess there’s nothing more exciting than starting the summer off with a flood… a little sarcasm there. This most recent event provided us with a downpour of slightly over 6m in Lismore. While not to the catastrophic levels of 2022, it was still enough to make plenty of people around the area more than …
Read More »Options during barra closure
It’s the saddest time of the year for saltwater barramundi enthusiasts. The start of a long three month wait begins on November 1 as the East Coast barra closure comes into effect. Many barra anglers turn to impoundments to get their fix. If you live locally near Yeppoon or Rockhampton, you only have a few options close by. You can …
Read More »Fishing yabby beds with soft plastics
Saltwater river and estuary systems are loaded with structure, bait and a wide variety of fish species, including bread and butter basics like whiting, bream and flathead, and more exotic species such as snapper, trevally and grunter. When exploring new systems or hitting my local waters, one key structure that I like to target is saltwater yabby beds. In this …
Read More »Dingo hobbled by gang hooks on K’gari
Rangers have captured and sedated another dingo on K’gari (formerly Fraser Island) to remove a large set of gang hooks from the animal’s mouth and foot. The gang hooks had become deeply embedded into the dingo’s jaw, and as she tried to use her right foot to remove them, the third hook snagged her leg. The adult female dingo’s right …
Read More »Weather windows for red emperor and marlin
Since last month, our prayers were somewhat answered. We had a few good weather windows and were able to head out wide, or at least to the islands and beyond. A few of those windows lasted a considerable amount of time, going for a week or more. I did receive some great feedback about the red emperor tips and techniques, …
Read More »Gearing up for reef fishing
Wade and Luke Smith, who go by the name of the ‘Bastard Smith Brothers’, set themselves up to hit the reef systems found on the east coast of Australia and learnt the hard way of the importance of quality fishing tackle when taking on the front rowers of the sea. Hailing from central Queensland, Wade and Luke share their insights …
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