Fish Species Guide

G’day everyone, Seventeen Seventy would have to be my favourite destination to go fishing. The variety of fish there is insane, including the iconic red emperor, coral trout, redthroat emperor and many more. Roughly, it’s a seven-hour drive from the Gold Coast, which includes refuelling and toilet breaks. On arriving, you can almost sense how busy the boat ramp will …

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 …

The long-range weather forecast has not looked promising for me recently, which is just a bit stressful when you have multiple tours lined up, with some clients coming from abroad and no flexibility in their schedule. But for once Mother Nature smiled on me. I sit here now marvelling at the weather, but also grateful to take a rest. The …

Barramundi will be on just about every estuary angler’s mind as we move into October and closer to the closed season for this iconic fish. These chrome-sided fish are a majestic sight when they jump. Even people who have caught plenty still get that hit of adrenaline when a good sized barra surfaces. Central Queensland houses a great population of …

Fishing along the Clarence Coast of northern NSW has been above average in recent times, unless you’re a beach tailor fisher as these toothy critters have continued to play silly buggers by biting their heads off one day then disappearing for a week. One of the main reasons for the erratic tailor fishing is that stinking salmon have appeared in …

Paradise Stocking Association held its annual Catch a Catty Family Fishing Competition at Mingo Crossing on the weekend of August 17-18 on the Burnett River. It was a magic weekend weather wise given the fresh in the river system after 5-6 inches of beautiful rain just days before.   We had 168 senior anglers register and 94 juniors, which was …

New research is using genetic techniques to assess populations of the protected narrow sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidate) in northern Australia. Commercial fishers in the Northern Prawn Fishery are working with CSIRO researchers to better estimate the narrow sawfish population and understand the stock structure of this protected species. They are considered one of the most threatened families of marine fish in …

With summer around the corner, popular fishing locations get busy with keen fishers and in some cases, unfortunately, that means more litter and lost fishing gear. Fishing related litter and debris can have a big impact on wildlife that interact with it. Birds, turtles, seals, platypus and other aquatic animals can be accidentally injured by discarded tackle, including fishing line, …

After our enjoyable stay at Karijini National Park the plan was to head north. Once again, following the coastline as we made our way to Broome, which was going to be our base while we explored the area. Enroute to Broome there were a couple of places that we wanted to check out, the first being Cape Keraudren Nature Reserve. …

Round 2 of the fishing competition between the Power Boat Anglers Club and the Bribie and Rainbow Beach fishing clubs was held in late August. Initially there were to be two boats from the PBA taking part but with a forecast that was very hard to lock down it was decided to take just one, settling on Willpower, a 1992 268 …