alluring

Hi all, I'm a final year Industrial Design student, about to apply for and take on a year long Honor's project next year. I'd love to do a research project related to fishing or outdoor design, and I'm really keen for some ideas for a potential product or even just to get an idea of the general problems or faults you have with your gear! At the moment I'm tossing up over a new form of kayak (I find mine to be quite uncomfortable spending more than three or four hours in), or perhaps even some kind of new reel or something. But I'd like to gather as many as ideas as possible on here. Not limited to any paticular style of fishing either! Cheers Alluring

Head 10 minutes further down to kioloa, and have a flick off the rocks on the southern end of merry beach. Haven't fished it in a few months to be fair, though usually seem to pick up a few off the headland down there

Gonna escape canberra's slew of sh&t weather and head down the coast for a couple of days and I'd like to try beach fishing for the first time Just going with friends and fishing isn't the focus of the trip, so travelling light - literally just a rod and a few slugs/maybe a few plastics. I'm used to spinning for salmon off the rocks, so I'm fine for lure selection/tackle etc - and done the basic research on reading the beach, so I'm not a complete amateur.. Mostly I'm wondering if anyone has any bonus advice on reading the surf and actually finding the fish. I've read a few good articles, so I think I have a rough idea, but also wondering what the fish are doing this time of year? South coast beaches by the way, most probably going to have a crack narawallee down past ulladulla/mollymook. On a side note - Jews would pick up a big plastic bounced along the bottom too right? All and any advice muchly appreciated, thanks

On Thursday I'm getting down to the Clyde river in my kayak, and hoping I might be able pick up a Jew. Never been after them before, but I was thinking about going down to the market and picking up some fresh squid for bait, and maybe also bouncing around some plastics? I know I can also pick up yakkas around bateman's bay, which may be worth a shot as well. That's what I've come up with from a dig around the web, but was also wondering if I could pick up a few tips, regarding rigs, lures or baits that may be worth a go any advice would be appreciated!

I haven't heard a thing about this. Maybe they were confusing it with the recent changes to mulloway..?

I'm headed down the merimbula way for a couple of nights this week. It's been on my mind for ages and I'm planning on heading down to green cape south of Eden for a day while I'm in the region. Hopefully to get a balloon out and see what's around. Not sure if the currents are right for tuna or anything, but I'd like to give it a go anyway.. I assume it'll be packed this close to xmas while everybody's got time off.. Just wondering if anybody had any advice or info they'd be happy to share. I don't want to get under the feet of the professionals haha.. Thinking of doing pulpit rock.

that's a solid landbased king! I'm still trying to crack my first one off the rocks too!!

Yep had a dawn session from the kayak this morning and picked up two more. Beautiful fish

Well.. If you've read pomey_git's report this morning you'll know we went down to our local lake this morning, and he got a nice cod on a surface walker, and I got a yellowbelly from the kayak! Seeing his cod made me jealous and this evening I couldn't resist heading back for another sneaky flick off the dam wall. I wasn't there long, and there were quite a few fishers out, but after 10 minutes or so my spinner got hit hard and I was finally onto my first cod!! (official capture anyway). After my mate took me a fair few photos I let him go and went for my next cast.. And literally the second my lure hit the water again I was onto another!! Two cod in two casts. Pretty thrilled. Sure, I know they're not really a big deal for the people that've targeted them for years but for me who's still new to this.. Well I had a pretty great day

Hahaha solid session!! Stoked for your cod. Good morning had by all :-)

far as I know (word of mouth) yerrabi (and also gunghlin pond) is the best for natives - though landbased I've found that it's difficult to fish in alot of areas because of the heavy weed.. In the hot weather too kambah pools really fire up if you're up for a hike. A mate of mine caught 56 Cod in the river there over last summer, and two trout cod too! Plenty of yellas there too I think.. Burley griffin and ginninderra almost gaurantee the pest species, but there are natives in there.. depends what you're after I guess! All that said I'm fairly new to the canberra freshwater scene.. still learning the ropes for a fair bit but in the last month I've nailed my first yellowbelly, trout and a heap of redfin! Another spot worth going perhaps.. if you want to drive out to the yass river or cotter dam you can't miss a carp - but theres plenty of overrun waterways closer to home.

That's a great fish!! Good to know they're starting to come on. Which lake was it might I ask??

After a great evening session on Redfin with pomey_git yesterday evening I was up at 5am to take another crack at yerribi pond in Canberra. As some of you might had read in my last report; I had a bit of a disaster boating my first Murray cod down there a few weeks ago.. Been obsessing over them since hahah, but the weather hasn't been good enough to get back out till today. Flicked around a spinnerbait for a few hours; trailing the edges of the weed beds and after a while, WHACK. After a great fight I'd netted a beautiful yellowbelly!! Thrilled haha. Finally christened the yak, and my new freshwater setup. Magic.

Mate just put me onto this video of a cracker yellowfin caught on a bamboo pole. Pretty amazing, worth a watch.

Hahah great report! Let us know when you're free and we'll go check out some local spots! Assessment free now >

No way, a 1m + flatty would have been awesome off a yak.. I reckon it's rough losing any decent fish but to lose a trophy sized one like that would be heartbreaking..

Thanks guys - Ahh yeah my friends dad said it counted as a catch, but to me it doesn't cause I didn't get it out of the water and into my hands!! Would have been a catch and release for sure anyway, too beautiful/endangered to keep. Wonder how it's going at the bottom of the lake with a lure and the grips sticking out of it's mouth though haha. Lost gear doesn't bother me, lose plenty down the coast, it's the actual fish that's the heartache would have been my first cod and fish on the kayak. Photo would have sealed the milestone. Will try and get another session in this weekend though. And when I finish uni in a few weeks I'm literally going to go every morning until I crack it!

This morning I headed down to yerribi pond (canberra) for a shot at some natives with my mate's dad. Bit groggy on three hours sleep, but I was buzzing keen cause today we were taking out the yaks. I've never had any real luck with freshwater fishing, not for lack of trying..I probably try and fish the freshwater in canberra once every couple of weeks (when I get a few hours off) but I've never actually caught anything and tend to stick to the salt. We were out on the water just after 6, and we trolled spinnerbaits around the edges of some the weedbeds for the first hour or so, but it was hard to do because the lures kept getting covered in algae. The lake is crystal clear, can see everything that's going on for the first couple of meters easily but the weed in there in crazy. it's not your usual reedy stuff though, it's mostly that thin green stuff that sticks to everything it touches. For a solid while every cast we had to clean the lure which got a bit frustrating. We stuck to it though, flicking around the dam wall and few of the spots that are known for cod, but we didn't have any luck and after a while decided to move to the opposite bank. Did a little more trolling and then a bit of spinning but it was slow going.. It was almost 8, a bit of a breeze was picking up and it pushed me further around the banks, and while I was spinning I felt a quick hit and straight away I was on. I was about 15 metres out from the weeds, and got hit pretty close to the boat so I think it must have followed my lure up. Prettying exciting, I was using a really light setup with a 6lb leader - so I got a really decent fight out of it. I played it for a while, he came to the surface quite a few times and kept going for runs down. But eventually it came up on its side and looked like it'd given up. I was ready to pull it into my yak but my mate's dad came round and got him with the lip gripper. My heart was pumping; I finally had my first cod! It would have been around the 40/50cm mark, it was a pretty decent size with some beautiful colours. The fish was still in water and as my mate's dad beckoned me to come round the fish spooked and went for another run. A bit of thrashing and that was the last I saw of it. Took the lip gripper with him, and broke off my new $20 spinner bait. Gutted.. Can't even count it as a catch, we had him at the boat, gripped and everything and he was gone before I could pull him up, let alone get a photo. I couldn't believe it, I was actually swallowing tears of disappointment. Guess the lesson learnt is get them out of the water as soon as possible. Or bring a net on the yak. Fished till the wind picked up at 10.30 without any more action. Another dude on a yak pulled some reddies but that was all we saw. But that's fishing hey. I'll be buying up some more light spinning gear and hammering the lake till I get that cod. Super addicting stuff

Hahahah that would be the worst thing that could happen to you at the end of a day. Spewing.

Yeah I reckon that'd be right comparing it to google images! Cheers. Are they any good eating?

Found an old photo today from a few years ago when my mates and I would throw bait in and see what we'd catch. Mate pulled this out off wasp head at Durras on the south coast, but looking at it I have no idea what it'd be. Cheers

Thought I'd pass on some info about an app. Really useful for keeping up to date with the fires, I got it in January when we thought the stuff going on out at Burrinjuck was heading our way. It's totally free, called 'Fires Near Me NSW'. Shows all the fires that are going on and you tap the markers for any information they might have. Most importantly whether it's under control or not. Hope it's useful to anybody in the fire zones..

those are amazing shots, would love to get a gopro. sad about the fish but at least you got a solid feed!!

Yeah I'm going to throw +1 to willyweather, it's excellent.

A neat spot is middle beach down in the mimosa rocks national park. It's about 20 minutes north of Tathra, maybe a little far down from Sydney but definitely worth the extra drive. I haven't been down that way in a couple of years but used to head down there with my mates when we were in year 11&12. Went down there for my 19th birthday too. Theres a dirt carpark next to a weird square dam thing, and about a 100m walk to a series of clearings where you can camp. A ranger comes round from memory and I think it's $20 per day. Theres a long drop toilet which is better than digging a hole, and it also a bin that gets stocked with firewood. It's a short walk down to the beach, and most of the time theres barely even another tent in the area. You don't get a phone signal on pretty much all providers and it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere. If you wanna take out the 4wd too theres a neat mountain drive up a dirt track just up from the town/few houses(?) of Tanja which is right between the camping ground and Tathra. After a bit it comes out at a really cool waterfall which is set up with bbqs and it doesn't look like people head there much. Can't remember the name of the place though. Had some good drives in the pulsar up that way trying to keep up with my mate's hilux hahaha. Not sure if it's exactly what you're after but it's definitely worth checking out, it's a beautiful stretch of coastline and not as touristy as the bateman's area.. Still feels pretty untouched. Just an edit - sussed it out again; copy/paste these coordinates into google maps: -36.644065,150.012436 And the mountain road I was talking about is a signposted turnoff somewhere along the 'Dr George Mountain Road'