How did you get into game fishing

[intensehotdog]

Hi all, i've started fishing about 3 years ago and have kept upping the fishing i've been doing. It started off in the Parra river chasing whatever I could catch, usually leather jackets and baby pinkies. Then it went to porthacking kingfish, then beachfishing, and most recently land based game fishing where I got a nice longtail and a couple mack tunas. 

Now i've got my eyes set on game fishing offshore. I've been on a couple charters chasing kings at the peak, longreef, 12 mile etc... and know I like boating. Have had my own tinny in the past and been on the missues parents boat a couple times. 

How did you get into game fishing offshore. Im 21 and have some doubts that I may be a tad too young for this...have been looking into it alot recently.

[noelm]

21 is certainly not too young.....gamefishing can be very expensive for little reward, you need to understand that right from the start! Most people just move up the fishing ladder over time, almost all step back a few steps after a few years gamefishing. A few start off "at the top" because they have money, most of these people really can't fish, because they missed the very basics, fishing from jetties and rivers and the like, some do OK, but the majority just get someone experienced to do the hard work for them!.....in my opinion.

[intensehotdog]

2 minutes ago, noelm said:

21 is certainly not too young.....gamefishing can be very expensive for little reward, you need to understand that right from the start! Most people just move up the fishing ladder over time, almost all step back a few steps after a few years gamefishing. A few start off "at the top" because they have money, most of these people really can't fish, because they missed the very basics, fishing from jetties and rivers and the like, some do OK, but the majority just get someone experienced to do the hard work for them!.....in my opinion.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah! exactly my thinking, might be best if I start chasing kings around the headlands and closer reefs, and as I gain more experience then get into game fishing. But the other side of me just wants to jump into it head first lol.

[frankS]

Hi I fished as a kid doing the usual stuff fishing local rivers and teaching myself as I went along, as I got a little older 14 or so I started hiring a boat from tom uglys and by the time I was 16 I bought my own boat ( I left school and worked full time from my 14th birthday )  a 12 ft tinnie and trailer with 4hp Johnson on the back. My brother in law would tow the boat to the ramp and me and a mate would take the boat out for the day, usually Georges river or Botany bay, sometimes the hacking and he would pick us up at a designated time .

By the time I got a drivers licence I bought a 17 ft half cab ( Pongrass ) and started poking my nose outside the heads of the bay followed shortly after going out to the peak and the shelf.

I caught my first Marlin ( black ) 244LBS off Jervis bay ( the Banks ) when I was 19 years old as I was travelling all up and down the coast by this time.

I have been lucky enough to have caught most game species that inhabit the east coast of Australia and have some very large fish under my belt.

None of this came by chance and I worked really hard to learn the basics as I had nobody to teach me anything, I read a few books and articles in magazines and this helped me a lot.

I have been fortunate enough to have fished with a few legends of the art including Bob Dyer Jack Erskine and  a few others.

It's not easy and I have always been a battler money wise so had to do everything on a really tight budget.

So it's not easy but anyone with the want can do it

Frank

[noelm]

Yep, that just about covers it! The best fishermen started young doing very basic stuff, and then just move up. Being a diver helps considerably too, as does being a surfer (teaches you about waves and swell) all in all, there is no right age, it's all just being there and doing it.

[frankS]

As noelm pointed out above anyone with money can hire a charter and let the skipper do the work and put you onto a good fish. With game charters you don't need to be a good fisher person as the skipper and crew do all the work steering the boat and the crew will tell you when to wind the handle on the reel all you have to do is PAY the dollars for the privilege of being on strike.

Doing it yourself is the greatest buzz you can have. There is no better feeling than to have a decent fish on the end of your line.

I have done it all BUT I still get a thrill catching bait and having a solid Whiting or Bream on the end of light line. It's all a matter of having the right gear for the job at hand.

Kingies are one of the best fighting fish you are likely to find inshore and a decent fish on appropiate gear will give you great vibes.

get out there and do it.

Frank

[BaitDropper]

My uncle had a charter boat in the bay of islands NZ when I was a kid, as soon as I got my first car, a small fibreglass boat followed, I may have been 15 or 16.  My other uncle had an outboard mechanical shop which I started working for as soon as I left school.....  Forward,  the uncle with the charter boat, got me up there and I spent every holiday there on for 4 or 5 years firstly tagging along as a kind of lacky, but then into a deck hand on his charters. That was my introduction to off shore stuff, while I was still really getting my sea legs in my 13ft 6 fibreglass first boat. It guttered me when he sold the big boat and holidays or long weekends going up ( about 200 mile trip) getting my off shore fix, but that in itself made me start going up the size ladder in boats myself. It was in my blood from there on I guess, but I certainly learnt my craft from my uncle on his charter boat for sure,, and it was in a mecca of an area or location to do so.  He sadly passed not that long after, maybe 5-6 years after he sold his boat, so I never ever got the chance to take him out as I went up in boat size, but the experience was one I will never forget, real old school practices, and he gave me a fair rollocking if I mucked up at any stage, but I realize now why he was so hard on me... Very memorable times, the bug was started in me and hasn't stopped since..

[intensehotdog]

1 hour ago, frankS said:

Hi I fished as a kid doing the usual stuff fishing local rivers and teaching myself as I went along, as I got a little older 14 or so I started hiring a boat from tom uglys and by the time I was 16 I bought my own boat ( I left school and worked full time from my 14th birthday )  a 12 ft tinnie and trailer with 4hp Johnson on the back. My brother in law would tow the boat to the ramp and me and a mate would take the boat out for the day, usually Georges river or Botany bay, sometimes the hacking and he would pick us up at a designated time .

By the time I got a drivers licence I bought a 17 ft half cab ( Pongrass ) and started poking my nose outside the heads of the bay followed shortly after going out to the peak and the shelf.

I caught my first Marlin ( black ) 244LBS off Jervis bay ( the Banks ) when I was 19 years old as I was travelling all up and down the coast by this time.

I have been lucky enough to have caught most game species that inhabit the east coast of Australia and have some very large fish under my belt.

None of this came by chance and I worked really hard to learn the basics as I had nobody to teach me anything, I read a few books and articles in magazines and this helped me a lot.

I have been fortunate enough to have fished with a few legends of the art including Bob Dyer Jack Erskine and  a few others.

It's not easy and I have always been a battler money wise so had to do everything on a really tight budget.

So it's not easy but anyone with the want can do it

Frank

Thats really reassuring mate, as myself and alot of others werent lucky enough to have a relative that was experienced in fishing. Thanks Frank - also just realised it says your from Berala. Im not far away mate ha! 

Edited June 15, 2023 by letsgofishin

[noelm]

This is a great topic in a lot of ways! Fishing kids tend to be good kids (not always of course) but I know some kids from riding BMX bikes with trailers attached that fished Port Kembla harbour until they were old enough to buy their own car and boat, some went up the ladder to be good game fishermen, and some did really well, and funnily enough, are back in a tinny in Port Harbour and close reefs, doing what they did decades ago......go figure.

[frankS]

43 minutes ago, letsgofishin said:

Thats really reassuring mate, as myself and alot of others werent lucky enough to have a relative that was experienced in fishing. Thanks Frank - also just realised it says your from Berala. Im not far away mate ha! 

Any time you feel the need for a chat just PM me and I will give you my address. I am home most days as I don't get out much these days.

Frank

[JonD]

I bought my first boat when I was 12yrs old from money earnt selling bait and rabbits while living in the UK. The boat was just over 12ft with a 1.5hp seagull outboard. I had worked on charter for several years, mostly weekends and all school hols, I was pretty obsessed with fishing back then, especially bigger target species. I really enjoyed targeting sharks, which in the UK consist mostly of threshers, porbeagles and blues. These were quite a challenge from such a small tiller steered boat but also small boats can often be easier targeting bigger species.

My fascination with game species soon saw me heading to Africa and Australia on extended holidays. Im now based on the south coast where I still enjoy the bigger game both from boat and beach. I did ok on marlin over summer and now concentrating on yellowfin and bluefin on light tackle, though I must admit Im finding that my body keeps saying no to the bigger stuff these days!!!!!...nothing quite like seeing a barrel tuna smash through the surface taking your stick-bait on spin gear. 

I've owned dozens of boats over the years but now back down to a little formula 15 which is basically a haines 445. This boat works fantastically on game species as its economical enough to tow here and there and uses very little fuel on longer trips offshore. I was going to replace this boat with a Remora 490 but decided to repower this one instead, fitting a Yam F115 tomorrow.

With a small centre console you can easily move around the entire boat during a fight as well as easily drive the boat when out solo.

I also get to head out on several other bigger boats a fair amount. I enjoy longer range trips these days where I can get away from people and mobile service!!!!! The little boat is great for heading 80k offshore with enough drums of fuel, food and water for a week of tropical island hopping. I also enjoy getting in the water to experience what's bellow the surface.

Its all on a tight budget for me, no stellas, tiagra's or big talica's, more a case of old sargoosa reels on secondhand rods. The continental shelf is just 10lt of fuel away for me, so an average day on game fish is around 30lt of fuel. Obviously the 80k long range trips cost more but once Im out there I stay around the islands, so end up using very little fuel and camp fee's are either free or $7.50 per night on some islands. 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by JonD

[intensehotdog]

16 hours ago, BaitDropper said:

My uncle had a charter boat in the bay of islands NZ when I was a kid, as soon as I got my first car, a small fibreglass boat followed, I may have been 15 or 16.  My other uncle had an outboard mechanical shop which I started working for as soon as I left school.....  Forward,  the uncle with the charter boat, got me up there and I spent every holiday there on for 4 or 5 years firstly tagging along as a kind of lacky, but then into a deck hand on his charters. That was my introduction to off shore stuff, while I was still really getting my sea legs in my 13ft 6 fibreglass first boat. It guttered me when he sold the big boat and holidays or long weekends going up ( about 200 mile trip) getting my off shore fix, but that in itself made me start going up the size ladder in boats myself. It was in my blood from there on I guess, but I certainly learnt my craft from my uncle on his charter boat for sure,, and it was in a mecca of an area or location to do so.  He sadly passed not that long after, maybe 5-6 years after he sold his boat, so I never ever got the chance to take him out as I went up in boat size, but the experience was one I will never forget, real old school practices, and he gave me a fair rollocking if I mucked up at any stage, but I realize now why he was so hard on me... Very memorable times, the bug was started in me and hasn't stopped since..

Wow bay of island kingies right at your fingertips, one could only dream. Thats a great story mate thanks for sharing

[intensehotdog]

9 hours ago, JonD said:

I bought my first boat when I was 12yrs old from money earnt selling bait and rabbits while living in the UK. The boat was just over 12ft with a 1.5hp seagull outboard. I had worked on charter for several years, mostly weekends and all school hols, I was pretty obsessed with fishing back then, especially bigger target species. I really enjoyed targeting sharks, which in the UK consist mostly of threshers, porbeagles and blues. These were quite a challenge from such a small tiller steered boat but also small boats can often be easier targeting bigger species.

My fascination with game species soon saw me heading to Africa and Australia on extended holidays. Im now based on the south coast where I still enjoy the bigger game both from boat and beach. I did ok on marlin over summer and now concentrating on yellowfin and bluefin on light tackle, though I must admit Im finding that my body keeps saying no to the bigger stuff these days!!!!!...nothing quite like seeing a barrel tuna smash through the surface taking your stick-bait on spin gear. 

I've owned dozens of boats over the years but now back down to a little formula 15 which is basically a haines 445. This boat works fantastically on game species as its economical enough to tow here and there and uses very little fuel on longer trips offshore. I was going to replace this boat with a Remora 490 but decided to repower this one instead, fitting a Yam F115 tomorrow.

With a small centre console you can easily move around the entire boat during a fight as well as easily drive the boat when out solo.

I also get to head out on several other bigger boats a fair amount. I enjoy longer range trips these days where I can get away from people and mobile service!!!!! The little boat is great for heading 80k offshore with enough drums of fuel, food and water for a week of tropical island hopping. I also enjoy getting in the water to experience what's bellow the surface.

Its all on a tight budget for me, no stellas, tiagra's or big talica's, more a case of old sargoosa reels on secondhand rods. The continental shelf is just 10lt of fuel away for me, so an average day on game fish is around 30lt of fuel. Obviously the 80k long range trips cost more but once Im out there I stay around the islands, so end up using very little fuel and camp fee's are either free or $7.50 per night on some islands. 

 

That is a bloody amazing story, fishing aside, tropical island hopping must be phenomenal. That is something I definately got to do in life. 

[noelm]

You need to remember what you see in movies is not always "real".......days of fishing edited to make it look like fish after fish hooked! Even fishing remote locations requires some thought and planning, no different to trying to catch fish in Sydney. Game fishing can be great, but it can also be dull and boring, hours and hours of burning fuel, towing lures around for zero results, and for those that actually put in some effort, catching live bait, sitting for hours in a burley trail for nothing!

[BaitDropper]

8 hours ago, noelm said:

You need to remember what you see in movies is not always "real".......days of fishing edited to make it look like fish after fish hooked! Even fishing remote locations requires some thought and planning, no different to trying to catch fish in Sydney. Game fishing can be great, but it can also be dull and boring, hours and hours of burning fuel, towing lures around for zero results, and for those that actually put in some effort, catching live bait, sitting for hours in a burley trail for nothing!

Absolutely correct there... 

 And that, for me, is half the enjoyment of it all. I've fished with many a people and the most annoying and frustrating are the ones that get bored after an hour due to lack of action, they generally don't get asked back.

The pleasure and even joy I get, even on the toughest day out, with out so much as a bite/take, is the share solitude and amazement of nature at it's best, No mobile phones switched on for me while I'm out, just the peace and removal from the normal chaotic happenings back on land.  But the days of no luck and a heavy fuel burns, make you change it up next time out and that keeps repeating itself till eventually you have a win and gain knowledge. The win is just the icing on the cake I guess, it puts a smile on your dial, great photo's, something to talk or boast about when chatting amongst mates, but really not the B all and end all to why I do it. This I guess applies to any type of fishing, not just heading out wide on the larger pelagic species, for me heading out wide is the ultimate, but I do get enjoyment chasing the table fish too.

Taking kids out is special and while in Melbourne, I got involved with a foundation, having a special day each year, taking out the disabled, giving them that fishing/boating experience, that was a truly leveling experience and one that I miss now not being a part of since moving up here. I had one young disabled kid that I took out for near 3 years, he was a Gem, from the moment we headed off, he was firmly entrenched in the cuddy cabin, just holding on, wouldn't come out, but when we re docked and pulled out all the fish, he would come to life, telling everybody how many he caught, reciting, word for word, fishing programs from the likes of Rex Hunt or Ifish, holding court with anyone that would listen ( he never ever actually dropped a line), but his mother said he lived for fishing, just watching re run's of all the old fishing programs and video's.  Insurance issues put a halt to it for a couple of years, bureaucracy at it finest, we weren't even allowed at one stage to fillet the catch and give it to them, or there carers from fear of poisoning them. That's what happens when the so called Bureaucratic police get involved, and effectively take away some of the pleasure that was trying to be given.

Anyways, I digress,  Fishing/boating, it's a pretty good game really......

 

 

[frankS]

38 minutes ago, BaitDropper said:

Absolutely correct there... 

 And that, for me, is half the enjoyment of it all. I've fished with many a people and the most annoying and frustrating are the ones that get bored after an hour due to lack of action, they generally don't get asked back.

The pleasure and even joy I get, even on the toughest day out, with out so much as a bite/take, is the share solitude and amazement of nature at it's best, No mobile phones switched on for me while I'm out, just the peace and removal from the normal chaotic happenings back on land.  But the days of no luck and a heavy fuel burns, make you change it up next time out and that keeps repeating itself till eventually you have a win and gain knowledge. The win is just the icing on the cake I guess, it puts a smile on your dial, great photo's, something to talk or boast about when chatting amongst mates, but really not the B all and end all to why I do it. This I guess applies to any type of fishing, not just heading out wide on the larger pelagic species, for me heading out wide is the ultimate, but I do get enjoyment chasing the table fish too.

Taking kids out is special and while in Melbourne, I got involved with a foundation, having a special day each year, taking out the disabled, giving them that fishing/boating experience, that was a truly leveling experience and one that I miss now not being a part of since moving up here. I had one young disabled kid that I took out for near 3 years, he was a Gem, from the moment we headed off, he was firmly entrenched in the cuddy cabin, just holding on, wouldn't come out, but when we re docked and pulled out all the fish, he would come to life, telling everybody how many he caught, reciting, word for word, fishing programs from the likes of Rex Hunt or Ifish, holding court with anyone that would listen ( he never ever actually dropped a line), but his mother said he lived for fishing, just watching re run's of all the old fishing programs and video's.  Insurance issues put a halt to it for a couple of years, bureaucracy at it finest, we weren't even allowed at one stage to fillet the catch and give it to them, or there carers from fear of poisoning them. That's what happens when the so called Bureaucratic police get involved, and effectively take away some of the pleasure that was trying to be given.

Anyways, I digress,  Fishing/boating, it's a pretty good game really......

 

 

BaitDropper Were you a Fishnet member whilst in Vic ? The stories of disabled fishing days rings a fond bell in my time on the old site.

Frank

[BaitDropper]

Hi Frank, no, I was never a member of Fishnet, I've heard about it, but wasn't a member there.. 

It was called Mates Day, organised by a guy that even bought a suitable boat to get wheel chair disabled onto, from memory... future fish foundation or something like that, but everyone new the day out, called mates day..  a great thing....

My boat went off the water, 2017 ish for a rebuild, so I finished up with it then, not even sure whether it is still even happening.

After everyone was finished for the day, we all had a huge barbecue, all the disabled and their carers or family, it was a huge turn out, selfless boaties giving back..

There was a huge range of disabled that attended, I had a guy and his girlfriend one year, he had an arm amputated, he had a wee holder which he could clip on to the rod itself and Almost land a fish un assisted, he had never caught a snapper, I remember that the coast guard were calling us, an hour after we were suppose to be back, we stayed there till we got him his snapper, he had a smile 10 foot wide, we got a rollocking from those on the radios when we got back ( rightly so I guess)  but he got his snapper..

As said, it was a great thing

[JonD]

13 hours ago, letsgofishin said:

That is a bloody amazing story, fishing aside, tropical island hopping must be phenomenal. That is something I definately got to do in life. 

This is a pretty easy place to get to and as you can see provides very good shelter in bad weather. I camp on the island here, where there a game species literally 50m from the tent or swag, also good swimming with mantas etc. 

Lady Musgrave is north of the tip of Fraser Island. Plenty if islands close to this as well as the shelf drop off very close where almost anything is possible. 

A friend was 60 miles offshore again today where there were acres of bluefin. She also fished there yesterday for a continuous 6hrs of bluefin action. I wouldn't recommend it but there was a 420 renegade 60 miles out there today.