Booma

Quality Fish, well played!

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.

I would suggest contacting SAFFA (SA Fly Fishers) to see if they offer those kind of opportunities (I'm not a member myself)

https://www.saflyfishers.asn.au/SAFFA_Contact.html

Can I ask what sort of weed it is? Or if anybody has a photo of it I'd be keen to see it!

56 minutes ago, smokeykebab said:

Having a perv ey stu

Only on those sweet sweet named trout spots

The ones "she" has are also stolen from someone else haha

Just a heads up guys. Came across an instagram account tonight masqurading as a young lady who fishes adelaide hills creeks and streams for trout.

None of her photos are Legit, and a reverse image search revealed at least one of the photos she is claiming as her own is actually one of Meppsta's (I presume)

The account is https://www.instagram.com/ruzzomelissa/ if anyone wants to check it out for any of there own pictures.

Meppstas stolen photo is from this article https://www.tasfish.com/135-rivers/mersey-river/2454-good-spin-session-in-tannin-waters-22-9-2017

If you aren't fussed, thats cool, but this sort of thing really grinds my gears

I've made them myself (still yet to try them out though). 1.3mm Stainless wire works well, and a 1m length should be enough to put together 2 slides and two stoppers.

I think the issue with Redfin populations in pressured fisheries is that the bigger fish get taken out of the system.

Redfin can breed by the time they are 12cm, and I wouldnt mind guessing that they get from egg size to 12cm faster than they get from 12cm to say, 30cm (a size I would consider a Redfin would need to be to regularly prey on smaller Redfin).

I have nothing against guys who are catching and killing, as long as they apply it to every size fish they catch. Catch and release (yes it is illegal) has no overall impact on size and population, would probably work better if small to mid size fish were killed and bigger fish release.

The biggest cause of problem with Redfin populations (in my uneducated opinion), is the removal of the bigger fish completely. This removes basically the only predators in the system that will actively prey on the smaller Redfin, but also lowers the bar for the maximum size fish will attain. Without the big fish culling the numbers of fry, more survive, and the population explodes, leading to a huge number of fishing stunting at around 20cm due to over competition for food.

People who are fishing for a feed of redfin (not all, but it only takes a few), are probably more likely to throw those small fish back while keeping the bigger edible ones, and this starts the chain reaction going. As I said, I've seen it happen before in bushland Park.

Sorry for the novel, but that all ties back to my advice for Nick, if he is chasing bigger Redfin, less well known, and less pressured spots are the way to go. Or get in early at a new spot (like St clair), before the population crashes into stunted sizes.

Like I said, not judging anyone on their choice of what to do with a Redfin they catch, but a moments pause as to what effect it will have on the established ecosystem can't be a bad thing right?

No I have no idea how they got there, it's nowhere near my local stomping grounds and I've never fished there myself. Either in the water (eggs or young fish) they used to fill it, or translocated would be my guess.

That's what I'm saying though, there will always be reddies in St clair, but the more pressure it receives, the smaller the fish get. Thought it was worth pointing out since Nick specifically asked for a location to get good size fish.

Bushland Park is a great example of this. Being a local lake for me, I've watched the fishing pressure ramp up on it over the last 20years. It went through a huge change about 3-4years ago where the population of bigger fish went from being 50\50 with smaller fish, to almost none in the period of one summer. Still heaps of redfin there for sure, just that almost all of them are around the 15-20cm mark

I started with street directories, but modern technology is amazing

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/South+Australia/@-31.746348,125.9926401,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x6aa7589e5be8c7f3:0xdb7e79993dfad0d8!8m2!3d-30.0002315!4d136.2091547

I wrote a post a long time ago on here about doing your own legwork to find freshwater spots. I don't have the patience right now to sit down and search through pages of my own posts, but that search button up in the top right hand corner of the page will net you plenty of spots with the most basic of searches.

The other bonus to going out and exploring is that you get to know the look of areas and you can pick spots up just by looking at posts other people make, if they are kind enough to include photos in reports.

Also any spot that has Redfin will have "Good" fish. Spots that are not heavily fished will have a better ratio of good fish to small fish. Heavily pressured spots (read Easy and well known spots) will have huge numbers of small fish (<20cm) to every good fish (>35cm). As you can imagine, spots that hold high numbers of "Good" fish are not the spots that are generally shared openly and regularly on public forums. Spots like St. Clair, for example, now the word is out, will see diminishing returns of Good fish, and increasing captures of smaller fish and I wouldn't mind betting within the next two years it will be a wasteland of palm sized redfin with very few bigger fish.

I'm not having a go at anyone or anything, Just some points to keep in mind when it comes to asking for spots, and freshwater fishing in general.

All those whip baits will demolish salmon trout, and snook if they feel like that colour on the day.

The prawns fish really well when fished slow on the bottom on a weedless style jig head (TT Chinlockz or TT Snagless Weight system). They still work great on a regular jig head, but they look and glide super realistically with the weight set back from the front. The added benefit is you can fish rocky and weedy ground for flatties alot easier with the weedless heads.

Never had much luck with fish/shad style squidgy plastics myself. Have found they don't store very well (tails get bent just from being in a flat packet and won't swim straight) and have come across whole batches where they just don't swim at all (tail wrist too thick or something)

I've been back at work after a long time unemployed, hopefully get stuck back into some fish with some new gear in the next few weeks

I use a loop knot myself and don't go near snaps unless I'm squidding.

Shouldn't be too much of an issue unless you are using finely balanced hard bodies. I've found in the past using a snap or clip can turn a suspending lure into a sinking one, or cause it to sit at an odd angle in the water, impacting the presentation when not retrieving.

Thanks Plankton! Targeting sharks (mainly during the cooler months) off the beach and rocks is the main intention of me trying this method out!

I suspect my 4oz sinkers will be a little on the light side (I wanted 6oz but they didn't have them where I went)

Thanks SaltyFlyer!

Hopefully give the gear a crack later this week at some point. 

For anyone that isn't familiar with Slide Fishing, its basically a technique you would employ to get large/fragile baits out to surf casting distances. Basically you attach the grapnel via a slightly lighter line to your mainline via the slide stopper (the smaller wire bits in the above photo) and cast that out to your desired location. Once it grips the bottom firmly, you clip your bait onto the mainline using the sliding clip (the bits with the coil of wire in the above pic) and slide it out to the stopper.

It sounds a fiddly method (and looks it too), but it means you can get bigger baits (big fillets/whole fish baits etc) or fragile baits (live squid/mullet etc) out a lot further than casting them. The shape and design of the slider means it will only travel one way along your line, so once it gets to the stopper, thats where it stays.

First up, if anyone on here uses the slide baiting technique, I'd love to see or know what setups you use and what sort of success you've had. I am a complete newbie to this technique after watching a lot of South African beach and rock fishing on youtube and it really appeals to me for whatever reason!

After a recent change in employment, I had to unload a bunch of my fishing gear, and together with a somewhat lessened money flow, I have had to re assess how I'm going to approach catching certain species for a little while.

Basically the only heavy gear I have left is a big surf setup, and I have decided I would like to give slide baiting ago.

Being on a tight budget, but having free access to certain materials (namely stainless steel wire), I figured I'd have a crack at making the majority of the required terminal gear myself.

From watching plenty of videos, and doing a bit of research on the topic, the technique seems to require three main bits of terminal gear:

-Grapnel/Surf/Breakaway type sinker

-The Bait Slide

-The slide stopper

I had a look at my local tackle stores and didn't come across anything in the way of the Slider/Stopper setup, So I was set on making those myself, and after having a look at the price of surf sinkers, I decided that paying $4-$8 per sinker was not feasible with my current budget. As a result I picked up a packet of 4 Snapper leads (4oz) from KMart for the thrifty price of $5 total, with a view to modifying them into a breakaway type setup myself.

I won't go into too much detail about the process, but the wire is all 1.6mm stainless welding wire, which seems to be a happy medium between strength and flexibilty. I tried 3mm and it was way too heavy and bulky and hard to work with. In the future I'd like to try 2mm wire (I think this will be perfect) as I suspect the 1.6 will prove a little flimsy for the slides.

The snapper leads were turned into a breakway type thing by simply drilling holes through the bottom, making a few divots, and insterting then bending the wire to shape.

Tools used were two pairs of pliers and a screwdriver for forming the bends around.

As mentioned, If anyone else fishes slide baits, I'd love to hear about the setups (rod, reels, baits) and target species etc. Its something I'm very keen to learn more about.

You get big schools of them mixing with schools of Tommies around the metro jetties at certain times of the year (4-5" fish). Not the sort of thing you could really target reliably though I don't think.

I've always been skeptical about a fishing licence.

to be honest i've been waiting to see when it'll come in.

 

Heres a few questions i'll raise and my opinion.

 

The ratio between fisheries officers to fishers is pathetic.

How would spending money on a fishing licence, help the officers monitor check on people who have one?

 

how many fisheries offices are there in SA right now?

if there are 300,000 fishers and say 100 fisheries officers thats 1:3000. They are ridiculous odds.

Its 3 times what Leicester city were paying to win the EPL last year.......

 

In order to have a presence in the field, they'd have to employ atleast another 500 officers. and STILL you will never cover the entire state.

 

In all my years at the boat ramp, i've never seen a fishing charter checked.

Who says they haven't been doing the right thing just because they have a licence?

 

In 15 years of driving, I've been pulled over a few times because i was being an idiot. Sure they check your licence then.

But i'm sure there are people who have never been pulled over because they are doing the right thing. Who checks their licence?

 

In 10 years of owning a boat, 3 times i've had my boat / catch checked and once have had my boat approached by fisheries on the water.

NOT ONCE did any of them ask for my boat licence.

 

I've been saying for years its not ONLY the rec's that are to blame.

Just because you own a boat, it doesn't mean you catch bag limits of fish every time you go out.

the pro's RAPE everything.

it's happened to the blueys a few years ago, it's happened to the garfish, it's happened to the snapper and it'll keep happening as that is their job. they are like the miners of the ocean. if there is no more gold in this spot, they'll dig somewhere else...

 

3 years ago a mate of mine caught a decent amount or snapper off the shipping channel.

since then, i have caught maybe 3 snapper, the largest being 42cm and not in the area we were in.

the difference between a rec and a pro is we TRY to catch snapper, the pros WILL catch snapper, its just a matter of how many.

 

In the Gulf of SV, it's all pretty flat, the only way to house more fish is to build it.

 

There are 2 tyre reefs, the Stanvac blocks, Norma, a few other barges and old ships. These are all 'man made reefs'.

With out these, we wouldnt have any structure locally.

I think its time for the government to pull there finger out and make some more artificial reefs rather than pick on the rec's and coincide with the pro's all the time.

 

There are too many people putting themselves at risk trying to build they're own to try get away from the 'crowd'.

Build multiple reefs and people can choose where to go and ultimately give the fish a 'home'.

 

The saying goes BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME.

 

Same goes for the fish.

 

Thats my thoughts anyway 

 

Savage

The ratio between fisheries officers to fishers is pathetic.

How would spending money on a fishing licence, help the officers monitor check on people who have one?

I would guess that a proportion of fees from said rec fishing licence would go towards paying for more Fisheries Officers to be on duty at a time, which goes a long way to improve the ration officers to fishers.

In 10 years of owning a boat, 3 times i've had my boat / catch checked and once have had my boat approached by fisheries on the water.

NOT ONCE did any of them ask for my boat licence.

Do fisheries officers have the authority to check boat licences (honest question, I don't know the answer)? I thought it would have been up to Marine Police or Marine Safety or whatever to enforce vehicle licencing and registration. Fisheries just check on fishery compliances?

In the Gulf of SV, it's all pretty flat, the only way to house more fish is to build it.

There are 2 tyre reefs, the Stanvac blocks, Norma, a few other barges and old ships. These are all 'man made reefs'.

With out these, we wouldnt have any structure locally.

I think its time for the government to pull there finger out and make some more artificial reefs rather than pick on the rec's and coincide with the pro's all the time.

There are too many people putting themselves at risk trying to build they're own to try get away from the 'crowd'.

Build multiple reefs and people can choose where to go and ultimately give the fish a 'home'.

The saying goes BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME.

I guess one proportion of the money raised from RFLs going towards more officers means other portions of that revenue can go to other areas concerning fishing......Things like stocking, Habitat construction (be it re snagging rivers, or building artificial reefs etc etc). These things all cost a great deal of money and thats ideally what an RFL provides (in my eyes anyways). You can look at it from the point of view that its just another piece paper and people to enforce that you have it on you, or you can look at it as everybody chipping in a little bit to achieve a greater good for the fishing community as a whole. 

I just don't get why people are afraid of what could potentially happen (big brother and misuse of information and all that), when it clearly doesn't happen in other states.

Getting a fishing licence in Vic or nsw is basically no different to filling out the online form to get into Innes national park here.

Regardless of what pressure comes from whatever group is making suggestions, pretty sure any rfl we do end up getting is gonna be a bog standard, pay your money, get your card, get a warning/fine if you can't present your card when asked while fishing type affair. If dealing with that inconvenience means we get more fisheries officers, better facilities, stocking programs etc (as it does in other states) then I'm all for it

Bahahaha, thats the dumbest thing I've watched all day.

RFL is a great idea in my books, and having purchased and seen the benefits of RFL's in NSW and VIC it still defeats me how people think it is a bad thing.

The pics are the locations of the 4 carparks that will serve you best

My personal experience is that Sunline PE + Vanish Fluro + Albright knots is just a mess waiting to happen. I intentionally switched to using sunline fluro with sunline braid because I was having issues with the sunline/vanish combo.

May not be everyones experience, but I had issues with that pairing, and zero issues once I switched leader. 

Not hating on vanish either, haven't had issues using it with fins or power pro, just with sunline

Has anyone noticed a change in the water quality (for the better) since they dredged out the inlet there a while back. Half the reason people fish the "No Fishing" side is because half the inlet was blocked up with a big sand/gravel bar, meaning water only flowed along that eastern side when the inlet was open. The difference in water/habitat quality was quite pronounced last time I fished there.....Crystal clear, flowing water on one side full of bream, mullet, salmon, bait schools and some big mulloway, on the No Fishing side, compared to shallow, silty, murky water on the fishing side.

Can't see a huge improvement in the quality of fishing on the western side unless that issue has been sorted

Wouldn't even bother with a sinker for bream, and they'll eat anything, but I've found pilly cubes, small crabs or cubes of chicken to be the best. If you just wanna catch a good one initially, bait is the way to go, they are basically Saltwater carp.

If you are fishing the 3 northern jetties I wouldn't bother with trying to catch squid unless you actually see one. You get a few hanging around the pylons, but not enough to throw a jag all arvo.....better off drifting half pillies on a pair of hooks in the hope of picking up a big flatty, lingering salmon or small bronzie. A squid will still have a crack at the bait if it drifts by and then you can switch to the jag