My regular readers would have noticed that I haven't made a post for a couple of days and I have been on a fishing holiday with my old man and my wife. We rented a cabin on a local lake and fished right from our front door. I haven't had much luck in the freshwater before and really only expected a relaxing trip with a couple of fish. Relaxing wasn't quite the word I would use as the fishing went off with a bang. Over 5 days we caught about 20 great fish and over 7 species in total. I managed my very first tarpon (albeit the smaller pacific version) and I now understand why people pay tens of thousands of dollars to visit South America to catch these fish! We caught 12 big Saratoga, which are a prehistoric looking fish found in the northern parts of Australia and give a spectacular leaping fight. I didn't manage to capture any video this trip, but here are some pictures of the trip (I am having trouble uploading - check back soon):
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Fishing advice
This question comes up a lot in my conversations with fellow anglers - where is the best place to get fishing advice? There are many places where fishing advice abounds including fishing forums, local fishing media, tackle shops, fishing clubs, other anglers and even pubs. However, not all of this advice is useful and it always pays
Before asking for any local advice remember to respect the locals and they will respect you. Buying someone a beer and listening to them for a while is more likely to get results than talking up your angling prowess endlessly.
I personally use a combination of all methods for finding fishing advice. I read everything I can in the local media including current fishing reports. I always ask at my local tackle shop for a bit of current advice (spending a few dollars always helps too.) I am part of a grapevine of local anglers that share information, which makes it very easy to find out where the fish are biting currently.
Fishing advice from forums
I think this deserves its own section and I don't want to offend anyone here, but I don't find all of the advice from them very helpful. I find it too hard to weed out the really useful posts from the people who are simply talking themselves up without any real useful information. After saying all that though if you are prepared to take the time you will find plenty of useful information.
Wherever you go for fishing information and reports there really is no substitute for exploring your local area and working out the hot spots yourself.
