Fishing Tips Tips
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Bays and Estuaries
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Bays and Estuaries| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Bream/Trevally | General running rig Beach rig Bottom rig |
Prawns Worms Nippers Fish pieces Chicken gut |
| Tips Bream respond extremely well to berley although they are very shy so it pays to use light line and as little lead on your rig as you possibly can |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Whiting | General running rig Beach rig |
Worms Nippers Prawns Pippies |
| Tips Whiting can be found on the edge of sand drop-offs where they feed. Anglers find that the addition of a red bead or piece of tubing above the hook will help to attract whiting to your bait. |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Flathead | General running rig Paternoster rig Gang hook rig |
Prawns Squid Live Mullet Pilchards Fish pieces |
| Tips Flathead can be found regularly throughout bays and estuaries as they lie in wait along drop-offs, weed beds and gutters. Anglers can improve their results on flathead by keeping the bait slowly moving across the bottom |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Mullet/Garfish | Beach rig Quill or pencil flat rig |
Prawn pieces Bread Worms |
| Tips Mullet and garfish are commonly found throughout bays and estuaries, they are most commonly found around weed beds. Berley such as breadcrumbs soaked in tuna oil will improve results, as it will bring fish from a wide area. |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Mulloway | General running rig Floater rig |
Live mullet Fresh Squid Live yellowtail |
| Tips Mulloway are a large shy fish mainly caught at night where they feed around reefs and gutters. To catch one of these creatures you will need to have the freshest bait possible and be very patient. When one does grab your bait allow it time to move off with it as mulloway will often mouth the bait before swallowing it. |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Tailor | Ganged hook rig Bobby cork gang rig |
Pilchards Whitebait Garfish |
| Tips Tailor fish are veracious feeders that travel in schools and can often be seen feeding as they splash through the surface of the water especially around dawn and dusk. Another way of finding tailor is to troll or spin along deep drop-offs with small metal lures. |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Snapper | Floater rig General running rig Bottom rig |
Pilchards Squid Prawns Fish fillets |
| Tips Snapper are shy feeders often caught around the dawn and dusk periods. Best methods include lightly berleying and fishing with lightly weighted baits. As with mulloway allow snapper time to eat the bait. |
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Beach Fishing
Australia has great beaches offering anglers a huge range of species to catch. Beach fishing can be a daunting affair when deciding where to fish, as a lot of areas donÕt hold or attract fish. What you need to look for is commonly known as a gutter. These run along various parts of the beach and are best distinguished by darker deep looking water, where the waves break on the ocean side of the gutter and usually don't break again until they are across the gutter and closer to shore.
Gutters vary in size, shape and the distance that they are offshore, the best possible way of finding one is from a high vantage point such as a sand dune, from here the gutters will stand out clearly. These gutters are where the fish will move into to feed and seek shelter. The best times to fish these areas is around dawn and dusk and or a run in tide, once again berley will improve your results.
| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Bream, Whiting, Flathead, Dart |
General running rig Beach rig Casting rig |
Pippies Worms Whitebait |
| Tailor/Salmon | Ganged hook rig Casting rig |
Pilchards Whitebait Pippies |
Rock Fishing
Rock fishing offers the shore based angler the chance to catch many species of fish that would normally only be accessible to boat fishermen. This is especially so on headlands where migratory fish species travel up and down the coast.
- When rock fishing take extreme care and observe the location that you wish to fish for half an hour from a safe vantage point.
- Never fish the rocks alone.
- Never turn your back to the sea.
- Always be aware that on a run up tide the swells will increase in size.
- Always wear suitable footwear.
When finding a suitable spot to fish look for areas where there is a section of wash or whitewater, this is a great area to find fish as they will gather in these areas waiting for food that has been washed off the rocks. It also provides cover to small baitfish in turn attracting larger pelagic predators.
| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Bream, Blackfish, Drummer | Bobby cork rig Bottom rig |
Prawns Cungevoi Bread Abalone |
| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Tailor, Salmon, Kingfish, Tuna, Mackeral | Ganged hook rig Bobby cork-gang rig Bobby cork-live bait Metal and minnow lures |
Pilchards Whitebait Live fish |
Offshore
All along the Australian coastline we have great reef systems that offer offshore boat anglers the opportunity to chase a whole variety of fish such as snapper, flathead and kingfish in the south through to coral trout, sweetlip and emperor in the north, to name just a few.
There are several methods used for fishing these deep offshore reefs with probably the most common being the traditional paternoster rig which is highly effective for drifting over the reef and sand patches. Another method that can be effective is to locate a patch of reef or a gravel bed and anchor up, them a berley trail can be established with the use of small pieces of fish and chook pellets. This is a great way to attract large wary species such as snapper and mulloway to your baits. For this style of fishing a floater or general running rig is best, although the size of sinker you need will depend on the tide and current, as you want your bait to sink to the bottom in a slow and natural manner.
Another great method is to put out a bobby cork rig with either a pilchard or live fish as bait, it is a great way of catching tuna, mackeral, kingfish and a host of other species.
Freshwater
Australian abounds with many lakes impoundments and rivers offering many fish species for anglers to catch with the most common being as follows.
| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Trout | General running rig Bubble float rig Quill or pencil float rig |
Worms Yabbies Mudeyes Grasshoppers Woodgrubs |
| Tips Trout are a very shy fish that feed mainly on small crustaceans and insects. When fishing for trout it pays to let the trout run with the bait before striking, it also pays to use small baitholder and suicide pattern hooks to present your bait. Another great way of catching trout is spinning with small minnow or bladed type lures. |
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| Species | Rigs | Baits |
| Cod and Yellowbelly | General running rig Bottom rig |
Yabbies Bardi Grubs Worms |
| Tips Cod and yellowbelly are native species of Australia inhabiting many lakes and rivers where they live very close to structure such as sunken timber and rockwalls. When fishing for cod and yellowbelly it is important to get your bait as close to the timber as possible as they wonÕt move far from their homes to eat a bait. Lure fishing is another extremely successful method for catching cod and yellowbelly. The lures used are ones that dive very deep and have a strong swimming action, as with bait fishing it is important to get your lure as close to the snag as possible. |
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Lure Fishing/Spinning
Lure fishing is a great way of catching a whole range of fish species from trout to tuna and bream to barramundi, although there are any different styles of lures available they are all designed for a different use.
Minnow Style Lures
These are the lures that look like a small fish with a metal or plastic bib that protrudes from the bottom jaw of the lure, this is what gives the lure its action. Minnow lures come in a huge range of shapes and sizes aimed at catching a wide range of fish, they are ideal for nearly all trolling and casting purposes. eg; Barramundi, tuna, mackeral, flathead, bream, cod, trout, tailor and salmon.
Soft Plastic Lures
These lures catch a wide range of fish in fact almost every fish that will eat a hard lure will eat a soft plastic, this is especially so with species such as flathead. Soft plastic lures have several great features that make them stand out from other lures. The main ones being that with the lures being soft when a fish grabs the lure it feel natural so if it misses the hook on the first attempt it is more likely to try and eat the lure again.
Other great features of soft plastic lures include that when they are fished slowly the rubber tail/s will still have an enticing swimming action. The main advantage of being able to fish these lures slowly is that it means that you keep your lure in the strike zone for longer Fishing with these lures requires the angler to work the lure slowly back towards them with short sharp twitches of the rod tip allowing the lure to settle each time before another twitch of the rod tip is made. Soft plastics are also great for fishing around snags as their single hook doesnÕt become snagged in the timber as often as lures with trebles.
Metal Lures
Designed to imitate baitfish these lures are ideal for fishing off the rocks and beaches as they are usually quite aerodynamic and heavy for their size which makes them ideal for casting long distances.
Swimming actions on metal lures vary from strong swaying actions through to little or no action at all. They are ideal for many species especially fast moving pelagic fish such as tailor, salmon, queenfish, mackeral and all tuna species just to name a few.
When using metal lures different retrieve speeds will appeal to different fish for example a slow to medium retrieve speed is very effective on tailor, trevally and salmon while a very fast retrieve is better for catching tuna, mackeral and queenfish.