Fishing in Paradise

This article was first published in Hi Tidings in December 2023.

By Michael des David

The windy conditions are not ideal for fishing, so use the time to plan your fishing sessions so that you can make the most of the time you are fishing. Ask yourself, “Why do you fish?” If your answer is anything but “To catch fish”, then it is unlikely you will be successful.

My primary goal is to catch a couple of fish so that my wife and I can enjoy a meal of freshly caught fish, and I can give the other fish to someone else. Expect to catch fish, and you will.

Give yourself the best chance of hooking up to the fish by making sure you have the correct hook, sinker, main line, and leader for the target species. I only use chemically sharpened hooks. The use of burley is most important to attract the fish to your bait. Burley is not meant to feed the fish but to attract them by the scent in the water that they will follow upstream to your offering. A cost-effective burley is tuna oil mixed in with stale bread and any left-over bait from previous fishing trips. Place 50 ml of tuna oil, bread and seawater into a container and give it a stir until it is a fine porridge. Every five to ten minutes drop about 100ml of the burley into the ocean. Dip your bait into theburley, and you can expect to land a few quality fish.

This month, target sweetlip during the daylight hoursand snapper at dawn and dusk. Prawns and squid area great bait for sweetlip, and live bait and pilchards will entice the snapper. The summer whiting will also be about our shores, and last year was a particularly good year for whiting, and even the winter whiting hung around all year. Yabbies can be pumped from our beaches, and they are a prime bait for whiting, bream and flathead.

Catch up on the latest fishing action on the Coochiemudlo Squire Facebook page.

So tight lines until next time…