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A sunny Cup day meant getting out for a fish rather than be stuck home watching the races. . The flats were very crowded on race day. There were hordes and hordes of legal but smaller sizes Yellow Fin Whiting in the 25 to 29cm mark. They were a fish a cast for much of the day. But … Not the kind of horses I wanted to back. With so many little mugs about it was inevitable that the sly and the opportunistic would be out there ready to prey on them. . A sunny day on the sandflats is such a delight. The clear visibility and water clarity makes watching the passing parade

I had a disastrous day last week and could only manage one Yellow Fin Whiting all day. I got the tide and the weather conditions all wrong. I was fortunate to realise the error and managed to back it up the following day by relocating my fishing to a spot better suited to the tide and weather and finished with a bag of 20 large YFW on surface lures. . The sandflats of the upper SA Gulfs are a dynamic environment and ecosystem with many a variable factor that affects fishing. It keeps you thinking. Keeps you on your toes! And we don’t always get it right! One of the most dyn

Here's a couple of photos of what has become a common catch here in Tasmania nowadays, not only that, they are big fish as well.. They now have a bag limit of 5 fish per person & a 10 fish possession (house) limit placed on them which is good, minimum legal size 35 cm.

CLOUDY BUT FINE !!! I felt tentative on the second day of my recent 2 day fishing trip when it was overcast and heavy with cloud. We have just come out of the Yellow Fin Whiting Lure season where we enjoy the best fishing on sunny days. Yellow Fin Whiting Lure fishing is always better in sunshine. I can’t nail any precise reason for it, but I assume it is about the YFW seeing their prey easily and then chasing it down in those conditions. Interesting that we never hear of successful Lure caught YFW at night. However plenty of good YFW are regularly caught at night on bait. On t

For the Yellow Fin Whiting Lure fanatics it is time for the withdrawal symptoms to start setting in, as the water temperatures start dropping. Fortunately there is some pain relief, in chasing a few Flathead on lures. Autumn brings a transition for the sandflats lure fisherman. YFW surface lure fishing drops off. Flathead lure fishing picks up. The “Southern Blue Spotted Flathead” becomes more prolific on the sandflats of the Northern SA Gulfs. . And it is the large accumulation of SEAGRASS WRACKS at this time of the year, along with the change in temperature, that starts i

This was my only trip to the Leven River so far this season, it hasn't fished all that well over the past couple of seasons but i thought it was time to give it a go before the season closes. cheers Adrian..

I don't get a lot of spare time to fish, so I'm always eager to find anything that makes it quicker and easier to to head off for a flick. Last year I bought a Castek Rod Caddy and I've found it an excellent bit of kit. It's a portable rod rack that holds 4 rods. It allows me to have a handful of rods, pre-rigged and ready to go. I know I can walk into my shed, grab the rod caddy and load it into the boot of the station wagon and just head off. When I get to where I'm fishing I sling my tackle bag over my shoulder, grab the esky in one hand and rod caddy in the other and walk to my fishing spo

I've started chucking 1/28th's in 9m of water, when conditions allow me to get them down to where the sounder says the fish are. The same plastic will remain untouched (Almost) on 1/4er's or 1/8th's - but a plastic that doesnt plummet, will get smashed on the drop by the unstoppables that make this technique a bit ridiculous on my current tiny jigheads. Sure you can grub heavy heads along the bottom and get hits and land the smaller dumber fish. But on the 1/28th's you barely need any skill at all. Just spot the fish on the sounder and count to 40 as the 1/28th sinks - then hang on

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This was one of my best trips fishing the fast waters of the Meander River during the 2023/24 trout season. Fastwater fishing is never easy and every trout that's caught is very well earned, it's tough but it can also be very rewarding as well. cheers Adrian

With the trout season now closed for three months I went ahead and did my yearly photo books of the rivers/stream & trout that I caught & released throughout the season. Seeing as I took over 2,500 photos during the trout season I had to keep it to two medium size books as well as keeping the cost to a reasonable one. The good thing is that I held of until Snapfish had a 70% off which included extra pages. Here's a few photos from both books, there's also a short 6 minute video musical photo slideshow on my YouTube channel as well, details at the bottom of the photos.. chee

This spin session was a tough one, conditions were pretty good, but the trout were hard to find, I still managed to get onto a few wild brown trout thanks to the Mepps March Brown Bug spinner. Thanks for watching, enjoy the musical photo slideshow at the end of the video and stay safe on/in the water.. cheers Adrian (meppstas) A few pics from the spin session.. as always, all the trout were released..

This trip was back in January before the Cormorants hit the rivers here in big numbers, as the title states 5 from 9, trout few and far between was spot on.. There's also a few photos from the spin session below the YouTube video as well.. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

Only one month to go before the 2024/25 trout season opens so here's another of my 2023/24 trout season spin sessions, this trip was mid January not long after the influx of Cormorants hit the rivers & streams here in Tasmania. Thankfully. I did manage to catch and release a few wild brown trout before this little stream was cleaned out... cheers Adrian (meppstas)

This trip was early on in the season, a spin session when the trout went from one lure to another. It turned out to be quite a good spin session as well with some beautifully coloured wild brown trout being caught & released. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

The sandflats north of Adelaide, at the top of both the SA gulfs, hold some unique terrain and ecosystems. At low tide, these sandflats can drain out for over 2 kilometres. The tidal movements are, over 3 meters in St Vincents Gulf and upto 4 metres in the upper Spencers Gulf. The water temperature ranges from 11C to 25C. Typical of shallow, protected water bodies, it is a highly productive ecosystem holding a lot of fish and marine life. It is home, for two of my favourite fishing targets, the “Southern Blue Spotted Flathead” -Platycephalus speculator and the “Yellow Fin Whiting” -Sil

I finally caught my 12,000th Tasmanian trout here in Tassie, it's something I had never planned on doing either thankfully by keeping stats & records of each trip and every trout season paid off. I also won the Angling Club Championship again for the 2022/23 trout season for most trout caught in rivers & streams making it 17 years in a row. cheers Adrian

You can get anything printed on a reel in China These are the same as almost all the other silver sub $50 reels and likely from the same OEM factories with just minor cosmetic changes. One of the clues is the Daiwa air rotor style design. BEARKING Brand LT series Stainless steel bearing 5.5:1 Fishing Reel Drag System 15Kg Max Power Spinning Wheel Fishing Coil - AliExpress Johncoo Anti Corrosion Treatment Spinning Fishing Reel Carbon Washer Drag 10Bb Saltwater Spinning Reel Metal Body - AliExpress MEREDITH VANPES Series Rust Free And Smooth Bearing 5.0:1 Fishing Reel

Hi Rob. As long as you don't drop your pipe and your lighter still works, you should be fine

This trip was to a small river just five minutes from home, this stretch of river was one I used to fish quite often until the record floods back in 2016. That flood really knocked the guts out of this little stream as did another one back in 2022, this trip I wanted to see if the trout had returned in this stretch of river. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

Regular post readers will know I like to fish the dodge tides for Yellow Fin Whiting . I cover a variety of reasons in detail, in this previous post: . One very good reason, is that you will regularly find better quality fish on the dodge tide. YFW movements and feeding are highly influenced by the tide. Revolving around the largest tide of the day, they tend to have a 24 hour digestive and feeding cycles. So even when the tides do not move much on the dodge, they will still have a need to feed within their cycles. The larger YFW have greater food needs and will gener

This trip was short & sharp, very cold water & weather didn't make it easy at all. Just a couple of wild browns caught & released before all hell let loose with the wind. Thanks for watching & enjoy the musical photo slideshow after the short rundown.. Cheers Adrian (meppstas) #mepps #meppsaglia #tackletactics #okuma #platypuslines

Weather is really crappy again here in Tassie so no fishing done, did get to see the spine specialist on Wednesday, not a thing they can do for my spine. Getting closer to 78 years of age had a lot to do with it not that I minded as I wouldn't have gone for the operation anyway. They've put me on a trial run of anti-inflammatory tablets that I can take each day without having any effect on the kidneys. Hopefully this weather will settle down soon so I can get back in a river.... cheers Adrian

Bit over 3kg from Victoria PPB

Another (mid January) of my 23/24 trout season spin sessions, this one was a good one when I caught & released my 300th trout of the season. This spin session was just before the Cormorants arrived in big numbers, there were already a few here but when the rest arrived this little stream was hit hard and hardly a trout was seen from then on. Thanks for watching & stay safe on/in the water..Our trout season opens again on the 3rd August so it will be quite interesting to see how the rivers & streams fish, they weren't all that good from mid January right up to the end of the season

Snapped my testing rig and punched myself in the face - but it got to about 18kg before the wire testing rig snapped - The fishing hook glued into the jighead did not budge

You can buy gadgets like this from Aliexpress for under $50. Fill reel/spool with braid, then add required backing line to get perfect depth of line on your reel Reverse the process winding the line back onto the plastic spool (the backing line will be on the bottom) Use a second plastic spool to wind the line onto (the backing line will now be on top) Place this second spool onto the gadegt Wind onto the reel/spool Worth it when you have multiple reels.

Bought these 2 lures to try out bad weather and my health issues ( don’t ask not nice) hopefully I’ll be trying the shallow Berkeley pro tech Saturday anyone trued either of these

Nice work putting Bob in his place, clearly needed to have a lesson in manners, the upper gulf can be full of them this time of year, I've had up to half a dozen of the buggers between 3 to 7 foot visible circling in the burley (in the boat thankfully) at this same time of off Price. Bronzies around the 5-6 foot mark are 4 out of 5 times exceptional eating in my experience with a head and tail removed trunk of around a metre being ideal for turning into steaks and "fillets", Bob looked a little on the small side (tasty but soft v excellent texture but too much ammonia taste) and let's fa

Caught this brown on fly Monday. Not the longest trout but one of the thickest I've caught. Put up a great fight too. 4lb leader, stonefly nymph.

For all of the Vegemite lovers like me and have been since I was a kid, here's a photo that I took this morning of a jar of Vegemite out of the kitchen cupboard and did a bit of photo shop work on it. I can remember as a kid having Vegemite on toast for breakfast, Vegemite broth with bread in it, then when I was older and a little hungover in the mornings, a Vegemite & tomato sandwich did the trick. I still have a Vegemite broth from time to time too... cheers Adrian

Great idea,as i usually carry 3/4 rods on the day yes it can get messy.If the carrier works then the price doesn't matter..

114cm. Photo doesn't do it justice tho. Caught off foul bay on whitting rig. Grose...

I am jealous of the amount of time you get to go fishing.. and envious of your prowess. Long may you continue! .... and keep rubbing it in to us mere mortals...

Go you Dockers!

I meant to put this short six minute musical photo slideshow with the photo books a couple of days ago.. I kept it short as not to send the viewers to sleep, the original video runs for 20 minutes.. It was hard working out what photos to use as I had so many, there's probably (& there is) a lot more good photos that I could have added, but one has to stop somewhere don't they. I will have 101 videos "My Rivers & Fish" (when I put 98, 99, 100 & 101 together) that go back a long time, and boy has the rivers/streams changed over those years with the many floods that we've had in that

Thanks Bjorn & Des, it's something I like to do at the end of each trout season, always to look back on when I can't fish the rivers/streams in the near future.. I have 15 seasons of photo books now.. cheers Adrian

Fantastic post mate! This will be great reference and repeat reference for years to come.

A great write up again...You certainly do your homework...and the results show that...Very nice indeed.

If you want to add a tow point to a jighead. Just cut a hook - drill a hole and super glue it in gives a surprisingly strong hold. I couldn’t pull it out with 2 sets of pliers

This summer I have regularly been fishing a common metro spot for yellowfin with my best session being 6 fish 26-30cm over about 8 hours fishing. After seeing recent discussions regarding a reduction in catch numbers I agreed that maybe there are fewer numbers. My last 2 trips I have seen plentiful numbers of good size fish swimming through the shallows. I have pumped the nippers, fished the incoming tide, cast near the school for them to rush over have a look and leave the bait sitting there. And have observed the fisherman near me experiencing the same. I don’t know what I seem to be d

STOCK DEPLETION of Yellow Fin Whiting ~ A Summary of Conversations. . I have engaged in a few recent conversations with many longtime Yellow Fin Whiting fishermen since my previous post: “A Threatened Species” … https://www.facebook.com/groups/1383810555282311/posts/3589648064698538/ They are experienced, talented fishers, with well established records, detailed in their many fishing reports in past fishing forums. Stretching back well before the days of Facebook fishing groups. They have all been unanimous in their observations of a steep decline in YFW catches.

Thanks all for the help. Have decided that it is something we really cannot part with now and will keep as part of history. Will print off the writeup about Seamartin for the kids and grandkids. Hopefully they will appreciate it one day. As you say - part of history

That's a nice piece of fishing history there. Very cool

What Wert said. It's not hard and is a useful skill. After a couple of seasons, you can reverse the line again to so you get "new" braid on your reel. If you have a few reels (I currently have 6) it's worth learning. There are loads of videos showing ways to make it an easy process.

Load up the braid first, tie on the backing and fill to the spool's capacity then reverse it, can't go wrong this way. It shouldn't take too long either and this way you get it perfect first go.

I'd eat the small brobzies, Dust in fish seasoning and dry bake in a webber kettle. If to dry a flesh to cook nicely, spraylightly with canola oil... I'm salivating... just typing about it...

Thanks Booma, it was good to see the trout were back in this little river, 2016 we had a record flood that wiped out 5 road bridges on the Mersey River as well as flooding the whole Merseylea area where over 300 dairy cattle were washed away. The Mersey River rose 7.5 metres in 2016. When things finally settled down I managed to get a few photos of the damage on the Mersey River, it wasn't good either. Thankfully we've only had one other flood since then.. cheers Adrian

Cracking fish and scenery! I always enjoy returning to rivers and creeks and after flood events, its often like fishing an entirely new stretch of water with the pool and run structures changing dramatically.

TERRAIN: HIGHWAYS TO THE FEEDING ZONES … You can sign along to this post ! Yellow Fin Whiting have been showing up in good numbers in both gulfs recently. But you still need to find them, and fish the right spots … at the right stage in the tide. YFW are always on the move. Actively feeding on a moving tide. Both in and out going tides. But there are dead transit zones, over which they will pass through without providing you much of a chance to catch them. These are merely the … Highways to the Feeding zones. The feeding zones is where you want to be fishing. I