australia

[pikeman7000]

im planning on going to australia for 6 months in febuary, has any one here been before and know what the fishing is like over there? i seen rex hunt a few times and been told its good over ther.

[codeye joe]

the fishing aint as good as s wales but im sure ull av a good time,and say g,day to rex for us mate

[Marcus]

you might want to consider posting this question in the international forums...or the general seafishing forum..

Im sure someone is bound to know...

Regards

Marcus

[pikeman7000]

the fishing aint as good as south wales?? you ever been fishing in south wales????

[spike666]

went there several years ago and travelled from sydney to the barrier reef and back again, went to surf but fished a bit here and there, caught loads of small mangrove jacks at night on shrimps and float fished during the day for mackeral (they are nothing like the ones here, even more tasty) seen lots of small sharks scouting the shallows and some rays not sure what type but looked similar to manta's if you go in the next few months be aware it will be their winter, not cold but will get dark around 5pm! peeps there very freindly and the girls! good luck tell us how you got on!!!!

cheers
Spike

[leecardiff77]

im planning on going to australia for 6 months in febuary, has any one here been before and know what the fishing is like over there? i seen rex hunt a few times and been told its good over ther.

Is pikeman having a laugh?!?!

"i seen rex hunt" and "been told its good"!?!?!

Best fishing in the world me thinks................

I seen Delia Smith on tv the other day and she bakes a good cake.......:g:

[Jonboy]

maybe new South Wales

[PanamaJack]

Hi Pikeman7000
It's a huge country spanning 33 degrees of latitude - the equivalent of the distance from Panama to Montreal. How far have you got with your planning? Is visiting relations going to influence where you go, or are you pretty much a 'free agent' in terms of the fishing? And are there any particular species you want to catch?

You'll see on past threads some reports of members trips but another good source of information, providing you know roughly where you want to go or what specifically you want to catch is one of the Australian forums. You might find this one useful - http://www.fishnet.com.au/ - but there are several others.
Dave

[pikeman7000]

so far my planning, is lets go to australia in febuary! but im definatley up for it! i dont mind what fish i catch as long as there not dogfish. going to have a look at the visa's stuff now. we proably going to go to sydney first, and see what happens from there.

[nohookpete]

fished there last year ,loads of fish ,from boats ,piers ,beach ,barrier reef great place worth the trip to cairns ,surfers paradise is full of women ,not as many as bondi but lots of them ,sydney has great night life ,cairns go to the sheeo shed for a great night out ,also hostels are the best place for totty ,as for fishing ,half decent pier rod ,egg beater ,lite gear for gettys ,boats supply gear ,port douglas for mangrove fishing ,mind the crocs ,how i know this wiffy aussie ,have fun

[Kingfish81]

Pikeman, you can get some absolutely awesome fishing over there! Depends what you want really! I travelled up the East coast from July-September in 2003 and had some pretty good fishing. I can give you some of the top spots if you'd like and can recommend a couple of titles to buy when you get out there. I got pretty in to Land Based Gamefishing (chasing things like tuna, kingfish, spanish mackeral, sharks etc) off the shore with admittedly very limited success because I was there over the winter, which is totally the wrong season.

When you're there would be ideal though. Lots of sharks around off the rocky headlands, plus longtail tuna, cobia, kingies etc. One spot to check out (definitely!) would be the headland in Port Stephens around mid to late March. Plus the pier at Hervey Bay and breakwater at a little town called Iluka. The longtail tuna should be around and they get them pretty big off the shore - up to 60lb or so. If you're really interested, have a think about buying 'Land Based Addiction' and 'Marlin off the rocks' from the page below:

http://www.ausfish.com.au/books/salwaterdvd.shtml

Don't know what kind of fishing you do normally, but for this stuff, you'll generally need solid 30-50lb class tackle (a TLD25 is ideal) and maybe a carp rod and small spinning rod for catching the livebaits. It's heart-racing stuff though mate! :blink:

[Kingfish81]

P.S. Is your best catch of a 20lb porgie from the shore serious?!?!? :g: :)

[pikeman7000]

thanks for the info. i like fishing the more interesting marks, such as rock marks and places where you dont see other people for the whole time your fishing, apart from my mates. i dont like fishing for little fish like whiting or scratching, i've always got a massive bait out there, usually too big! big bait=big fish!

i did catch the porbie from the shore, it was in west ireland at a place called Valencia island. the fishing over there was amazing i had a 9lb pollock of the rocks, and loads of other great fishing. i dont know how i managed to get the shark in but i did i was only 14!

[sharpshooter]

I travelled around australia for 12 months backpacking about 4 years ago. I did not take any rods with me, as i assumed i would be able to get some thing decent over there. I just took a box of my fav. lures.
Looked in many tackle shops and found nothing like what i was used to using here. A bass rod would have been ideal for fishing float, lures or light legering, but nothing of that nature exists. All the decent rods i could find were either too short, or long and floppy. I tried to get my bass rod sent over buti got lost in the post, travelled around more of the world than i did, and ended up back home a month be fore i got home!!

I fished mainly up the east coast. From rockhampton (tropic of capricorn) to capetown and darwin. The further north i went, the better the fishing, for me at least. Went out to great keppel island where the fishing was amaizing!! Had a monster flathead on my J13!

The best fishing for me tho was cooktown and darwin. Fishing the jetty in cooktown in the mornings for mackerel was great. Over there the makkies are big, and have teeth!! Under the pier there are loads of small herring whaich are easily caught on bait feathers (made my own from small hooks and feathers) and then freelined (live). Some of the best fishing i have ever experianced.

Darwin was the cherry on top. Fished cullen bay, caught threadfin salmon, jewfish barramundi, skinny (local name - common name is on the tip of my tonge but cant think of it!!) and hammerhead sharks - all on the 8ft penn spinning and diawa baitrunner, with 20lb braid i bought over there.

If i were to return (WHEN!!!) i would defo take my own rods. All the tackle can be bought there, but rods, well i struggled and only partiaqlly succeded in fining a decent one.

SS

[PanamaJack]

In terms of Oz I know it's way off topic. But as to Pikeman's Shark it was only a tad further north from Valencia Island - from Green Island (Galway) - that Jack Shine caught a number of Porbeagles from the shore back in the 60s. The best he landed was one of 145lbs.

Here's a link to an article about his exploits - http://www.irish-trophy-fish.com/articles/kevinl.htm.
Dave

[samfish]

Copy the locals! They all fish livebaits off rocks or jetties. You can't lose!

[Kingfish81]

Yeah, Jack Shine's catches were phenomenal. Especially when you consider it was back in the 60s and he was using big Alvey sidecast reels! I must admit that after getting back from Oz I contemplated trying for a porgie from the shore. Still might if anyone else is interested in joining me...

I'm with Samfish - it's all about livebaiting from the rocks and/or jetties. Either a live mackeral down in NSW/south Queensland, or as Sharpshooter said, little herrings up in Queensland under a pike float. Great fun and the macks taste great as well! Spanish Mackeral is probably my favourite eating fish.

Pikeman, you're going to love it if you like big fish from the rocks. If you're really gun-ho and have got the balls, you could try for sharks off the rocks. In one of the videos I've got, some guys fishing off the rocks at Port Stephens chop up some fish and chuck them over the side on a rope. In a couple of minutes three seriously big tiger sharks (400-500lb) come storming in and have a go at the baits. Awesome! I hooked into a couple of sharks I reckon, but got snapped up and even spooled once! Plus got a couple of longtail tuna off the shore.

If you want a real battle, try and get yourself into some yellowtail kingfish. Hard as nails and great looking fish. Although they're mainly used as baits, kawahai (Aussie salmon) are prolific and are great fun on light 8-10lb gear. I am very jealous! :schmoll: :)

[aquabell]

Have been out there 3 times in the last four years, daughter 3, lives in Sydney, year one, January/April campervan from Cairns four months drive to Sydney lots of places in between, shore fishing as stated, patchey, the locals kill everything, Also found it difficult to get on a boat being a loner, a must is a mobile phone as the Oz skippers work from home address in the main and they arrive with boat on trailer in a lot of cases, but the cost is a bit muck for one angler and getting into a booking is very hit and miss. Year two Sydey/ Eden same travel arrangements same time of year, same results in the main, but got to Narooma and things definately improved, if you get there look up Nitro, and get on with them for Game fishing, pure magic, we did the lot in one day, Kingfish 20/30 lbs off Montague Island, then Bluefin Tuna 40 lbs (babies) and to cap it off a Marlin (striped) 450 lbs guestimated tagged and released, the icing on the cake, or as we put it, the dogs. Year three Adelaide/Sydney February/May, shore fishing I had my own gear out there as you have heard the gear out there is a bit "strange" I was holding teach ins on the jetties, they could not get their heads around my 12 lb Bass outfit, with the ABU 6500, and on the boats when I could find one the 12/20 Suveran with a Shimano 1000 charter special had them talking as well. In the main it takes a while to get in with the Aussies who like us are mongrel breed(in the nicest possible sense), but of course when you are travelling time is of the essence, so the best way to get boat fishing is to hang about a ramp and grab an owner and offer to pay for the fuel and ask outright if you can join him/them. It worked for me. I also had an instance of a Skipper in Westport Victoria who had a 33 foot boat refuse to take 6 of us phone bookings because the other 8 had not turned up, so be warned. Whatever there is one thing for sure if you do not have a great holiday you are dead. Have Fun.

[PanamaJack]

so far my planning, is lets go to australia in febuary! but im definatley up for it! i dont mind what fish i catch as long as there not dogfish. going to have a look at the visa's stuff now. we proably going to go to sydney first, and see what happens from there.

I don't know whether you've left for Oz yet Pikeman. If not this might whet your appetite, a Black Marlin from the rocks - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmYNS-nsV4g. Seriously it is a fairly specialist form of fishing and they have to put in time to get a crack at these fish. Then further up in Hervey Bay they even catch them on fly gear from the beach - http://www.scotto.com.au/index.cfm?Section=&PageId=8ACEA032-90B7-E45B-7C4DAE5CD99958AA&refresh=FD84B85D-B42D-0B55-7EC0319469E09656. Beats fishing for Dogfish?

The articles section of that site is also worth viewing - http://www.scotto.com.au/index.cfm?Section=&PageId=8ACF27E0-FD37-BB44-F258D868A52D2568&refresh=FD96986A-9AF4-617A-CDBCC71A050F4552.
Dave

[jaidam]

Mandorah wharf at Darwin is a great spot. Take the ferry from Cullen bay marina. Giant trevally, queenfish, cobia, threadfin salmon, anything you want. Live bait is easy to catch on small feather rigs or sabikis.

Long tail tuna and and mackerel come in sometimes in the dry season. We slept out there a lot. The fishing was great at dawn and dusk and there was a shelter from the ferry company at the end of the pier with benches to rest on. Also a bottle shop only 300 meters away didn't harm.

We mainly caught small tiger sharks at night which didnt give much fight but one local there caught this jewfish/mulloway that was just huge. Had to be 70lb and he took it on a handline. After, he tried stuffing it into the huge cooler box(with all his familys camping food) in his pickup. It looked funny in the box with its head and half of its body sticking out of either end. Lid wasn't anything like shut!!

The deep water pier at Broome was just as good. Massive groupers living underneath it would sometimes chase hooked golden trevally to the surface. We found the bottom fishing off the end of the pier to be better than freelining but it was in the wet season and the water was quite cloudy. Queenfish mainly, but also some sort of sea catfish and different trevallies,sharks and rays.

Good luck out there in Oz, there aren'y many better places to go fishing!

[prestonmadhouse]

Here's me and my lads catch from a days boat fishing from Hillary's harbour in October 06.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/3825/dsc03691ur6.jpg

The silvery ones were (i was told) skipjack trevally. The pink ones tasted superb on the BBQ, but the orange one was yuk.

Note: we were going to a big house party that same day, so non of the fish were wasted.