Fish Species Guide

Chasing Murray cod with paddlers

UNFORTUNATELY, or fortunately, Murray cod can be the fish of a thousand casts. Cracking a pattern without experience can be a tough thing to work out. This is where I hope to impart a bit of knowledge to make it a little easier, but I am by no means an expert. Like most anglers that chase these elusive fish, I …

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Winter breaming in the Bay

WINTER in the bay means three things, snapper stocks increase, tailor turn up in reasonable numbers, and the humble bream are easier to find due to it being their spawning season, and they school up around most creek or river mouths. Some of the better areas to target bream are the river and creeks on the northside, and areas like …

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GOAT fishing with ZMan

AFTER catching my first fish on a soft plastic about 35 years ago, I have been hooked and have fished many styles, types and colours of plastics, learning to rig and fish them a stack of different ways over the years. Soft plastics are relatively inexpensive, look real, feel real and with a squirt of scent they even smell and …

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Mid-winter action in CQ

THE tracky dacks and ugg boots have well and truly come out of retirement. We have had a few patches of proper cold weather but apart from that winter has been quite reasonable. But some mornings it is hard to get out of bed to go for a fish. So I think getting a few mates on board helps to …

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Fishing for your mental health

THERE are days when things just don’t seem to go to plan, and I’m not talking about losing a big fish. Sometimes you’re simply feeling a bit down and out. Sometimes there are periods when things just seem too much, and you want to spend a bit of time out to let your worries slip away.  We all experience times …

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Grinning about grunter in July

WINTER will be in full swing this month. All cold water species should be in good numbers throughout the rivers and creeks in Southeast Queensland. June started off very well, with constant cold temperatures getting the fish very active. The Brisbane River has still been fishing very well. July grunter I had a recent session with my mate Bretto on the river. …

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Nab a snapper before the closure

WINTER on the Gold Coast can only mean one thing – snapper! As the water temperature has slowly slid into the low 20s and the hard southern current ebbs, snapper move back onto the local reefs to fatten up and spawn. With them will come yellowtail kingfish, jewfish, pearl perch and cobia, which makes every drop a lucky dip where …

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North coast action post-mackerel

IT WAS Omri’s birthday and his parents let him chuck a sickie and come fishing as a present. The bar was flat and we were met with glassed out conditions as we proceeded to the local grounds, and hopefully some mackerel. After half an hour we deduced there were no mackerel home, so we headed north. action post-mackerel I had …

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Deep water jigging secrets

In this month’s article I would like to give you a few tips on one of my favourite techniques, which involves using small lures in deep water. The lures needed for this technique are standard soft plastics and my favourites are small metal and plastic vibes. When discussing what areas this form of fishing would work the best, I find …

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Queensland outback magic

WITH a big, long wet season continuing into April over most of the Cape, and the Peninsula Development Road stilled closed, my wife Shelley and I decided to head out west for a couple of months to explore some more of Queensland’s magical Channel Country. If you’re not familiar with this region, it’s characterised by vast ‘downs’ plains, with few …

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