Toilor

Took advantage of a small window of opportunity on Tuesday, loaded the trout gear and 4 year old into the car and headed to a nearby stream. I had taken the young fella out the week before fishing for Yellowbelly and Carp and never got a bite in 4 hours but still enjoyed the great outdoors so keen to get him onto something with fins. Plenty of human sign around, just the usual beer bottles and empty worm tubs (collected for disposal) that had me a bit worried the area had been fished recently. Second cast gets followed by a 40cm rainbow and my confidence levels rise. He comes back a few times but seems non committal at best. Whipped a long cast into tiger country and spy a decent trout following close behind. I gave the lure an erratic twitch and bang, I'm on! Couple of decent runs and he is slugging it out deep lunging for underwater structure. I played him out quite gently hoping to tire him out for landing and all goes well and a slightly out of condition rainbow of 54cm is mine. My PB is 57cm that I walked hours for so I'm pretty stoked to get such a quality fish a couple of hundred metres from the car. Young fella gets 2 trout at 10cm each and claims to be the winner of the day. We sit down to eat an apple and while I'm not watching he jumps in the icy water fully clothed for a quick swim Thrown in a pic of the 57cm for no apparent reason.

Beautiful fish - well done sir.

I've spoken to the local rangers and they are definitely aware of the population. They told me the stream has not been stocked with trout for over a decade but given the population and the range of sizes of trout I wouldn't be surprised if there was some vigilante stocking going on. I do worry that fishing could be prohibited or access made harder, although I believe it would be counter productive as trout numbers would increase. It is 45 mins on mountain bike to the water and 2 hours upstream to where I caught this fish so only enthusiastic and hopefully thoughtful fisherman may encounter them.

Also spotted 2 x 15cm maccas so at least some breeding I hope. Must be hard work for them with large numbers of Rainbows to at least 57cm and a few Browns to 62cm plus. I guess their eating habits are quite different but I have occasionally found Blackfish inside larger trout.

Ozzybass Wow! That's a pretty big Macq. What did you catch it on? Caught on Rapala F5 Brook Trout, the fish followed the lure right to the bank and hit just as the lure was about to float to the surface.

Oops pls post in Freshwater Section

Gday Raiders Set out on a mission of somewhat epic proportions into the wilderness near the Snowy Mountains today planning to cover as much water as possible. Slow start for myself with my mate carrying the candle early landing 4 good fish to my 1 in the first hour. Lots of what we call "pilchards" including some really small ones around 10cm. Finally got my mojo back and we each ended up catching around 25 rainbow trout for the day. Fortunate enough to catch 2 Macquarie Perch around 33cm each which is really unusual in this stream both released in immaculate condition. I am happy to keep a feed of trout as I believe the Perch and Blackfish appreciate and deserve a bit of breathing space with ravenous rainbows eating everything that moves. Tight lines Toilor

Caught from the rocks at Blackmans Bay Tasmania in 8 metres of water on fish bait using trusty No.8 long shank. I have spent too much time on Internet trying to ID to no avail. We call the platform we were fishing "Kenny Rogers" and have named the fish after him but desperate to find out more info. Thank you in for advance.

Do you catch many Cod in the 'Bidgee ACT? It took me 3 years fishing reasonably regularly to catch my first Cod having come from Yeppoon QLD. Quite a few Yellowbelly and heaps of carp kept me interested. I have only caught 5 in total and kept hoping to catch a one meter fish but no joy. 85 cm Carp fought for 15 mins in current had me convinced. Always worms or shrimp for bait. Car got broken into while I was fishing and has put me off over the last 4 years. Lures are more productive I have heard and seen the evidence of but I have never really given it a go. I don't set out to catch and release fish and would never again keep a Murray Cod having tried it already once only. Beautiful spot all the same. The occasional deer, white bellied sea eagle and platypus spotted within 5 klm (as the crow flies) of Suburbia along the river.

Kingies off the rocks on lures has it all. Preparation, anticipation, success followed by heart in mouth adrenaline pumping hand to hand combat and ultimate victory or crushing defeat, The 5kg fish are more manageable but I am 0 - 3 on the 15 kg bruisers that once or twice a year seem to mistake my 65 gram knight for prey, even on 40lb mono!

Similar thing has happened to me 2 or 3 times, with fish taking rods from the riverbank. Should never happen really with commonsense and concern for the fish left with an issue. Last time it happened I jumped in after it and just missed. As i lay dejected in the shallows of the mighty Murrumbidgee I put my head under water only to hear the drag still running out. I proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes trawling my feet through the sand, rocks, weed and glass attempting to pick up the line I could hear coming off the reel. Failure ensued so back to fishing, next fish fights like a demon and ends up coming in as 2 fish (carpus horribilus ) 1 with my rod and reel attached. I have sworn to myself never to be careless enough to do it again for Cod's sake.

Hi Raiders, Turned up to the rocks on Saturday 20th just south of BB armed with old school 12 foot spin rod and TSS4 spooled with 20lb and 40grm Knight in blue around 1pm with low tide around 2.40pm. Overcast conditions almost drizzling at times around 22 degrees with occasional big sets and eyes to the sea at all times as always. Daughter declares second cast success and is right with Tailor in the bag. Nothing for another 20 casts then on again with a decent Tailor of around 50cm. Same pattern continued and I ended up with 4 Tailor and 2 Salmon. New rock pool inhabitant identified as Sea Lizard, very blue and apparently eats bluebottles according to 2 marine biologists who pointed them out to us. Off to the nipper flats for a bit of fun and bagged 2 Blackfish about 32cm and 2 flathead around 45cm before the tide chased us in. Large Brown snake around 1.3m curled up on first step down to the water scares the living daylights out of the young one before a quick 1 hour session around 2.30pm on Sunday with occasional small bust-ups resulting in my first bonnie of the season around 55cm. Lost one lure after letting it sink too deep and hitting a rock and heaps of eel grass weed floating around and fouling the lure but providing shelter for bait and attracting predators.

Fished a local creek with minnow and 4lb mono on Sat with exciting results. No footprints anywhere gave me confidence as did the small trout that jumped on at the first place i cast after missing the easy way in and taking the hard way instead. Fished upstream casting up to ten times in very likely deep water and once or twice in the smaller runs. Had 4 keepers, 2 brown (30 & 40) 2 rainbow (28) after about 400mtr and was walking away from a good corner having fairly flogged it when I threw a cast back towards the tail of the pool and worked it back and bang a 60cm brown swallowed the lure. Dogged fight with lots of short runs and no jumps. Kept him due to the lure down throat scenario and cleaned him straight away finding a Two Spined Blackfish in his stomach, Another brown regurgitated a TSB that came out of his mouth with my lure but I had my limit anyway. Makes me feel a bit better about taking these beautiful and worthy fish to think the natives will benefit from less predators in the system. I Filleted and smoked the big one and mixed it with brown rice, mayo and dill wrapped in seaweed sheet it was delicious.

Those bass have sharp gill rakers, sharp turn and headshake and its all over