Any keen kennelers out there who love to fish?
What are your favourite species to target?
I love a beach fish for Mulloway and hitting the squids off the stones!
There's a pretty big fishing thread on here somewhere.
But for me
1. Yes- I love fishing.
2. Locally we have cod, trout, catfish, redfin perch (pest species here), yellow belly and some monster Eels.
Easiest to catch is the Eels. Just get a yabby. Hook it onto a heavy duty hook with 25-50kg line at about 9pm in the summer, maybe 8pm in winter. About an hour after sundown basically. They hit the bait and run. But they put up a decent fight. I haven't caught one locally that's under a metre long yet, though I don't fish for the smelly things that often.
Cod are great for lure fishing. They aren't the most energetic fighters, but they're generally pretty heavy. So I don't rush bringing them in. But they smash lures hard and the initial take, especially with a surface lure comes out of the blue. They're a bit Barra like with their strikes, but too heavy for jumping. Good eating too.
Trout. They're the toughest species to catch for me. I know you can catch them on bait, with flies or lures. I spent three weekends out trying to catch one after I bought a fly rod. Had a fly fisherman I worked with give enough pointers that I could hit roughly where I wanted. But fly selection is key and I had zero fucking idea on it. With lures, I use small Rapalas with orange dots generally black topped, green on the sides and a white belly. Close to breeding season, the orange dots will cause aggression strikes rather than them waiting until they're hungry, they'll hit the lure to eliminate competition to breed.
The catfish I find pretty boring, just drop in bait.
I only know one place for the yellows and it's generally fished out there as it's a well known spot. Hard to even get a nibble, but they are there and a real challenge to catch.
Lastly the redfin. The dam that supplies my town water is infested with them. Had days there when I've caught 30 fish in about an hour. They're generally small, but I have caught one that was right on 40cm that felt like a monster when they're mostly about 1/4 of the size. Can't throw them back either, so I've worked out they're delicious crumbed even if you only get a small fillet per side.
I'd like to do more saltwater fishing. Just knowing that there's the potential to catch hundreds of species is nice. It's fun pulling something up and thinking WTF is this when I catch something I've never seen before.
