FishingFables

That's a great report Mike. I visit Smiths Lake one a year and have had some great sessions chasing whiting and bream on surface lures. Having a kayak helps because you can reach more sandflats that way. It seems your kids are keen little anglers in the making - that's the true success of your trip because it will lead to many more fishing adventures for you in the future! Cheers Jason

My pleasure Mike - great to meet you and Derek and have a fish together. Really happy that you doubled your list of species caught on fly during the outing 🙂

That’s a great whiting on a surface lure well done! Interesting you saw no sign of the whiting before it took your lure. Sometimes I see the whiting following, particular if there’s a few of them competing, but other times as in your experience it is a subtle take off the surface. Congrats again and continue persisting with the surface lures - now is the time of year for it.

Well done Albert that’s an excellent whiting on a surface lure! From reading your report I can tell have enthusiastic and dedicated you are, lovely to see!

What a wonderful report summary Mike. Thanks so much for taking the effort to compile this - it provides a brilliant summary of all the fishing adventures across our fishing community.

Thank you Neil. When chasing whiting with surface lures, I use 6 pound braid, 6 pound leader and a 2500 size reel. For the rod, I saved up my pennies until I could afford a Loomis GLX spinning rod, which is an absolute dream for whiting and bream over the flats.

Like you I have also seen whiting in water so shallow I could see their tail. What I’ve noticed with surface lures, is when two or three whiting follow they become competitive and are far more likely to take the lure. In the video I shared, I spent a lot of time just drifting in my canoe, waiting to see signs of shrimps being chased, and then casting to the area, which worked well for me.

What a day you guys had out there Bob! Thankfully you were able to beat the tax man and land all of those fish. You are a master boat fisherman 👍

Thanks mate. The depth was quite interesting. We were fishing a rising tide so I reckoned the whiting would move up over the flats and started the session casting to newly flooded areas in about 30cm of water. That approach has worked well for me in the past. This time was different - most of the good fish we caught were hanging off the flats in 1-2 metres of water. They would come all the way up to smash our surface lures.

Thanks Pickles. My mate who is a little older had never fished there before, so I was really pleased to show him the spot and get him onto some decent whiting. The mates you make through fishing and the places you see make it the best sport in the world I reckon.

Hard to beat nippers as a whiting bait that's for sure. In my part of the world, from Oct-Dec I have found that big whiting can also be tempted on surface lures. Pencil popper style lures have worked well for me.

Hi Raiders, It was a back to basics fishing trip for me a few days ago, chasing whiting from my canoe using surface lures. It was lovely to be back out on the water in my canoe at first light on a tributary of the Hawkesbury, listening to all the bird life and soaking in the tranquillity. The mission for my mate and I was to take home a feed of whiting fillets and we were lucky enough to take half a dozen big whiting each home for the family. I recorded the highlights with my GoPro to show you the lure I used and the retrieval technique. I hope you enjoy watching. Cheers Jason

Well done on a successful outing and a great bag of fish for a feed 👍

Well done to both you and your son on a successful trip! Fishing involves a lifetime of learning new skills for different species - clearly you have what it takes to become a great angler and educate the next generation as well 👍

I'm glad you were inspired to chase some mullet 🙂 The advice our fellow Raiders have given you is spot on...I'm sure you'll start to catch mullet soon. And in the meantime, it looks like you had a wonderful session with your son on those bream, which is lovely to see. Cheers Jason

Thanks mate it is good to know I’m not the only angler to get robbed by the Taxman 😂

Thanks for your response Bn. So the seals work in another department of the tax office and are just as cunning, maybe more? I think I’ll return to the safety of fly fishing for trout and bass 😂

Thanks for your reply and insights Fil. From the sound of it the sharks that hassled you in Weipa by hanging under your boat must have some Fijian relatives 🎉

Thanks for your thoughts BF you’ve clearly had more experience than me with the dreaded ‘tax man’. The charter we went on fishes the same area so the sharks must have learned to hang around for a feed. Cheers Jason

Yes it was good to give the family an experience of some big fish pulling drag, that’s for sure. They were decent sized tuna which made it difficult to pull them in quick enough to avoid the sharks.

Hi Raiders, I took the family for a half day fishing charter in Fiji yesterday chasing yellowfin tuna. Being on a boat is foreign territory for me as I do all of my fishing in Sydney land based or from my canoe, so it was an interesting experience. We trolled a selection of lures with a few deep divers and others that skipped along the surface. No action for the first hour until we spotted birds diving into the water and headed over. A few minutes later one of the rods bent double and the drag sung a beautiful tune for thirty seconds as the tuna took off. I fought the fish for fifteen minutes, clawing back a couple hundred meters of line, until the fish was within sight of the boat. Then it took off at speed because of a shark. A minute later we saw a decent sized reef shark hit the surface with my tuna in its mouth. The line was severed shortly afterwards. The same scenario played out with my wife and daughters over the following hour. Great hook ups, great battles, disappointment when the sharks took the tuna. The skipper referred to the sharks as the ‘tax man’ because they turn up to claim part of your take home pay. I would have been happy for the taxman to claim 30% of our catch but 100% was excessive. Fair pull of the dunny roll tax man! 🤬 It was still a great experience and the skipper worked hard for us, so no complaints there. As we all know, some days the fishing gods shine down on you, and other days they don’t. That’s fishing. One of my fishing buddies back home who goes deep sea reckons the sharks are smart operators and would have been following our boat, perhaps even underneath it, waiting for us to reel their free lunch right to them. We effectively created our own Maccas Swim Through 😂 Just wondering whether any of you boaties have experienced this and what your theories are? Cheers Jason

Well done Mike, sounds like a good session. Enjoyed hearing you keep a telescoping rod in your boot ‘at all times’ made me think of an assassin who keeps snipers rifle and fake passport in their boot ‘just in case’ You are clearly a professional 😁

Well done Robbo! Catching a bream on the surface is an achievement you will remember for a long time. It will give you the confidence you need to go from strength to strength. Cheers, Jason

Wow! You’re a kayak fishing expert and brilliant chef rolled into one. I loved reading your report and looking at the pics of all the dishes you created, which showed great skill with a sashimi knife and respect for the fish. Cheers Jason

Sure. The pack I use is a fly fishing chest pack from Fishpond. It suits me well for days on the river wading for trout and long sessions on the sandflats. There's enough space in the front for a few fly boxes, leaders and tippets, as well as attachment points for your pliers and line snipper. Inside there's a zippered section I use for my wallet, car keys and phone. On the back, you can attach your landing net (I use a magnetic attachment) and there is a generous pouch which can fit a water bottle, sunscreen and a beer for those hot summer afternoons. The shoulder straps are padded and the weight is distributed well so I don't end the day with a sore neck. The chest pack isn't cheap but I rate it highly for my fishing needs. Hope that was useful for you. Cheers Jason