Marine Queensland has announced the second Mackay Marine Festival incorporating the Mackay Tinnie and Tackle Show and Mackay leg of the Australian Offshore Superboat Championships, on June 23rd and 24th 2012.

Adding to this year’s Marine Festival will be heaps of family fun in Mulherin Park proudly being presented by North Queensland Bulk Ports. There will be rides for the kids, food and entertainment – something for everyone.

With more exhibitors that last year, the 2012 event will feature product ranging from offshore fishing boats, tinnies, fibreglass boats, engines, PWC’s, marine electronics and accessories.

Marine Queensland Events’ Manager Jason Plant said forget the mining boom – Mackay was bursting with boats – the region boasting one of the state’s highest per capita boat ownership ratios with one boat registered for every 8 residents. Boat registration figures reveal last year’s event resulted in a 300% increase in new boat sales in the region.

For more information please visit: www.marineqld.com.au

ARI Fish Ecologists Matthew Jones and John McKenzie were electro-fishing around snags at Lock 11 on the Murray River near Mildura last week when they pulled out a 1.2 metre long threatened Murray Cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii).

“It was a big cod but it’s not unusual for us to find fish that big, but when we got this one on board it coughed up a 400mm long Golden Perch (Macquaria ambigua) that was still alive,” Dr Jones said.

“Occasionally we see a large Murray cod coughing up a small dead fish, but this perch was more than a foot long and alive.”

“It was definitely a first for both of us and we just looked at each other in disbelief. It must have been breakfast for the big Murray Cod.”

“We put the perch into the boat’s ‘live-well’ and it recovered quickly. It was upright and swimming alongside other fish, so we tagged and released it along with the other fish we caught.”

“Despite the ordeal of being eaten by a cod, shocked by the electrofisher and tagged, the lucky perch still swam away.”

For the full story check out: http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/about-dse/media-releases/next-time-chew-your-food!-almighty-cod-coughs-up-rare-fish-dish

Flinders was the chosen launching pad we were greeted by calm seas. In the drink by 7am, we headed to the mark with a couple of other boats in tow. Brimming with confidence, Joey suggested we might be able to snare a couple of gummies before venturing closer to the shore for some calamari and whiting action. I would have just been happy with the prime target but I wasn’t about to complain.

We set anchor and the tide wasn’t ripping like the previous time we ventured there. As such, the 20 oz sinkers were left in the boat as 12 and 14 oz were enough to anchor the baits to the bottom. Three baits were deployed and the swell came running through – oh man, please don’t let me be sea sick! There’s something about the rolling swells from Bass Strait and being stuck on a tinnie that gets me going –I just can’t put my finger on it… Joey decided that he wanted to take some photos of himself whilst adorning his new buff (fishing scarf) when I noticed a little action in the background. “Joey, turn around mate, your rods about to scream”. With the rod buckled in the holder Joey was on and he called it for a gummy straight away. I love when anglers can tell what fish is sitting on the end of the line as soon as it’s hooked – the beauty of experience with particular species! Whilst negotiating the rolling swells, Joey led the fish beautifully to the boat.

We sighted colour beneath the surface before the gummy shark proceeded to roll up in the main line and leader – typical of sharks when in the last stages of a fight. Catching a glimpse of the boat saw the fish screaming back to life and attempting to head back down to the depths. At this point it’s advised to keep calm and let the rod and reel do its thing. There is no point in trying to force the fish up to the surface and into the boat as it’s best to tire the fish out before bringing it in. I mean let’s face it, who really wants an angry, energetic shark in the boat. With the fish clearly spent and at the surface, Joey grabbed it by the tail and gently brought it in – success. Not even 10 minutes into the session, how good is that! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the fish exhausted itself during the death roll thus we decided to keep it for a feed.

After the traditional photo shoot we reset the rods and Joey was confident of a second. Fresh salmon heads were the pick of the bait and no sooner had we settled in again, another rod received an enquiry – flat fish. As I proceeded to bring it in, all I could feel was dead weight but this time it was for a reason. The rod next to me begun to scream off “shark” Joey yelled, before switching rods with me. As Joey wound in the final few metres of the first rod a banjo shark breached the surface… without a tail! Whatever was now on the end of my line probably just ate the tail of the poor banjo. Joey immediately called it for a big seven-gilled shark and no doubt he was right. The fish fought doggedly in the current and with an increasing swell it became harder to fight… about 10 minutes later ‘POP’ the shark was gone. The line must have caught his teeth as it came up frayed and without a hook – he did us a favour. Angry seven gillers, tinnies and big swells don’t mix too well.

We decided to pull the pick and head back in as it was becoming too uncomfortable but as luck would have it a big school of salmon decided to bust up – game on! If you haven’t experienced it before, Australian salmon bust ups can provide hours of fun as they hit almost anything, they fight hard and provide aerial acrobatics to boot!

This trip seemed like a case of déjà vu, the water was still rising (the lake looks bloody fantastic) and rainbows in the hundreds were feeding above and below the surface to countless numbers of midge. That’s not surprising I suppose considering all the rotting vegetation that is present along the shorelines from the newly inundated grass areas.

I always try and fit in one last end of season trip to the Snowies each year because it can be great fishing around end of April into May. The boys chasing the big spawning browns are usually getting amongst them at this time and this was the case this year also, but due to the rising water levels, the amount of available Eucumbene River to fish with glo-bugs etc has been reduced considerably. The lake edge is way up past Providence and the lake shoreline is clearly visible and reachable for the Denison camp. The fishing in the flooded edges at Denison was pretty good but the best fishing I had was in selected areas around the lake.

Anyway, stacks of fish at Frying Pan (I love that area) and also at Yens Bay in the shallow flooded areas. Had a couple of good sessions at Seven Gates as well. I found the best fish I caught were taken by ignoring the smaller pounders rising around the edges and fishing an olive or black woolly bugger slow and deep where the water transitioned from shallow weedy area into slightly deeper gutters. Some bigger rainbows were still around the lake edges and haven’t followed the brownies up into the rivers.

For more information on the 610 Legend or any of the other boats in the Quintrex range please visit the website on www.quintrex.com.au

NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI), Director Fisheries Compliance, Glenn Tritton, said there are a number of rules in place to protect the species that are mainly found in the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Edward Rivers.

“The annual Murray crayfish season is limited to four months of the year, May to August, to avoid the over-fishing of this valued native species,” Mr Tritton said.

“Murray crayfish are very slow growing and are subject to environmental stresses such as black water events and land use practices.

“It is important that anglers follow the rules to ensure the sustainability of Murray crayfish into the future.

“A current NSW recreational fishing licence is required for all types of fishing in NSW, including Murray crayfish, and there are bag and size limits in place.

“Crayfish measuring devices and advisory material are freely available from NSW DPI fisheries offices and most tackle outlets to assist fishers to understand and adhere to the rules.

The main Murray crayfish rules are:

• A daily bag limit of five applies with a total possession limit of 10, if fishing over numerous days.
• Must have a carapace (head) length of at least nine centimetres (measured from the rear of eye socket to centre rear of carapace), but only one crayfish greater than 12 centimetres may be kept.
• They can only be taken during the months of May, June, July and August.
• A ban applies to taking Murray crayfish in trout waters and Blowering Dam.
• Any female crayfish taken that are carrying eggs must be returned to the water immediately.
• Removing claws/head/tail in, on or adjacent to water is illegal.
• Five hoop nets per person permitted with letters ‘HN’ and user’s name and address on the float.

NSW Recreational fishing licences are available at many bait and tackle shops, some Kmart stores or by calling 1300 369 365 or online at www.licence.nsw.gov.au.

Media releases available at: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/recent-news

We used two boats in a searching pattern – my BlueWave and Kelvin Bertacchini’s EdenCraft. For about 4 weeks, Kelvin had been achievinggood results ‘close in’ in 8-12 metres from Chelsea down to Mt Martha. After about two hours of searching I found a huge school in 8 metres in Canadian Bay. We set the Minn Kota on anchor lock and went on with the business while Kelvin continued to search further south. Our school turned out to be a massive school of pinkies – most undersized – but with an odd fish of about 3/4 of a kilo mixed in. They did a great job of stripping the big baits and we needed to scale down to soft plastics to get fish on the end of the line. Lately I’ve been experimenting with rattling bibless minnows on snapper and using a 65 mm Juggernaught nailed quite a few. The best technique was to drop to the bottom – two cranks – then back right off on the action. Let them hook themselves! I did manage one reasonable snapper of 3 kg which I was very happy with! The L.E.D light on these lures enhanced the lure on what was a pretty dull day.

After an hour we established that there were really no big fish in this mix – so we continued high speed searching and sounding in a 500 metre sweep with Kelvin straight out from Mt Eliza to the shipping channel in 22 metres. This took a fair bit of time – maybe an hour and with no reward at all. Plenty of bait but no snapper marks. Pushing on to the western side of the channel we decided to concentrate on a slow search pattern and did mark some odd fish over another hour until Kelvin hit a good patch of very promising marks.

We both anchored up on the mark and hit it solidly with berley and baits including WA pilchards, sand whiting and squid. So, after about 3 hours sounding we were conbfident of a result – so different to how we used to hit and miss whilst snapper fishing 15 – 20 years ago. The confidence in Kelvin’s sounding came with a screaming run and a 5 kgs napper about 5 minutes later! Kelvin has developed a new rigging technique for these late season reds and we were also filming for Sport Fish DVD – so you’ll be able to see the results in the future! Over the next hour Kelvin and Lenny hooked and landed 6 snapper from 4 to 6.5 kg in what was a magic late season snapper run! I managed a couple to 4 kgbut really had to work – moving around Kelvin’s anchored boat to get a line on them!

Kelvin’s rig for these is pretty ground breaking so look out for it on DVD soon! Also keep an eye out for AFN TV being launched in JULY – afntv.com.au –

Remember you’ve still got all of May to get into these late season snapper! Fish the rising barometer – search and mark fish before fishing – even if it takes 2-3 hours.

A recent filming excursion with Sport Fish DVD showed there was plenty of action on the Moreton Bay playing field. A solid game plan to chase something completely different was thrown out the window when we encountered plenty of sizeable longtail tuna charging baitfish in the southern bay. As it is with longtails, they played very hard to catch! Small schools of fish came to the surface in brief periods, but sounded the moment they detected boat noise. Holding a position and waiting for fish to show up proved a better strategy, as we were allowed one or two shots at casting a lure into feeding fish. Alas, we couldn’t tempt more than a couple of follows. Fish pursued surface lures but wouldn’t be tempted into opening their mouths. Fortunately a few spotted mackerel came to the party and gave us some well earned fun.

Taking surface lures, these fish made for some impressive surface strikes. Mike Connolly can be seen holding up one of these speedsters. It is surprising to see them in the bay at this time of year, but being that they started late; it has been nice of them to stay longer than planned. These fish will hopefully stay around for a while so Brisbane anglers should take advantage of the good fishing these pelagics offer. The water north of Peel Island is holding plenty of fish at present. Presenting small lures to feeding fish seems to be the way most anglers are snaring a few currently. In the event that you get out there to find the pelagic scene quiet, there are plenty of squire sized snapper and a few squid about at present.

The Sport Fish DVD heads to Bundaberg in a few weeks to work with the Polycraft team, until then: Happy Fishing!

Products that featured well at the recent Queensland show were books such as Queensland Dams, The Kayak Fishing Manual, AFN Maps and coastal guide books. New anglers cleaned us out of The Australian Fishing Manual and books such as Knots and Rigs. Some DVD’s were particularly popular this year. Flathead Tactics, the new Qld Surf Fishing and the brand new Sport Fish DVD Vol 7 were definite hits. Sport Fish DVD is gaining momentum with many anglers now holding the entire range. The new volume is hard to miss with celebrity heads “Dipper” and “Merv” Hughes holding the front cover! Our bright Changing the Ratio Sport Fish DVD shirts were a big hit! We were virtually cleaned out by Saturday afternoon. There are a good number of ‘blinged-up’ anglers now sporting the AFN fish when out on the water! As always the camping and outdoor books and sticka fish were popular.

Many customers were looking for map based fishing guides in the local area, and they were happy to know the South East Queensland Fishing Atlas is now only a couple of months away. This book contains fishing maps and guides from Double Island to the New South Wales border and no other book will rival its detail in this area.

The show was held during the Queensland elections and Campbell Newman visited on Friday. Anglers were happy to hear him speak of 100 million odd dollars going towards improving local fishing. Some of his initiatives sound good, so let’s all support him get them done: as reduced netting, improved facilities and fish habitat have to be good for all of us in the long run.

The fishing shows are often a family affair for us. We get to meet you and your families; and ours are often in tow. Some of our “AFN kids” helped us on the stand and also enjoyed the festivities of the show. The Berkley Kids Fishing Show with Jason Medcalf and Paul Worsteling was a definite hit!

We now look forward to getting back to producing some great new product for you based on your generous feedback. Until the next show – happy fishing!

Nige Webster

Last winter I managed to drag a few mates along to Dromana pier to get stuck into these skinny mini’s and we left ‘em biting every time. Once we attracted them to the immediate area, they were in no hurry to leave.

Berley, berley, berley

Garfish seem to have an unbelievable sense of smell; throw some scent in the water and BAM! We roll with weet-bix and tuna oil mashed together in a berley bucket before being lowered into the water column. When the mix hits the drink, a fine mist is dispersed and the gars hone in on it. As the mix turns into a powder type form, the gars can’t fill up on it. Many people make the mistake of using bread to berley. Bread bloats fish quickly, thus making bait a less attractive proposition.

Before you get a bait into the water, drop your berley bucket in and give it a few shakes. If they aren’t on the case immediately, throw some of the mix in by hand. If the water is calm without ripples, you will see them quite easily. They usually sit pretty high in the water column so they’re highly visible when standing above them on a pier. Keep them in the area by shaking the bucket or throwing some mix in by hand-every 20 mins or so.

Rigs and Baits

Setting up a gar rig can be painful the first time you try, but once you get the hang of it it’s pretty easy. A light rod matched to a 1000-2000 size reel will do the job nicely. Four to six pound line will do. Thread on a pencil float and squeeze some split shots onto the line below the float. These help to keep your float upright, whilst allowing your bait to sit in the strikezone. Ensure that only the tip of your float sits above the water. This way the gars will feel the least resistance when they take the bait. You can use a small rubber stopper above the float to help adjust the depth that your bait sits. As mentioned earlier, gars usually sit high up in the water column but on some occasions sit deeper. Adjust your float stopper until you get consistent bites and hook-ups.

Baiting up is easy. Buy a bag or box of chinese silverfish (not the type that live in your closet) and thread one onto a size 12 long shank hook. Alternative baits include pipi, prawn, pilchard and maggots. They have tiny mouths though so keep your baits very small!

Wait for your float tip to disappear then proceed to reel ‘em in. Strike a little to set the hook but gentle enough not to rip their heads off. There’s a bag limit of 40 in Victoria with no size limit. They taste great and make awesome snapper baits… they’ll be back in September you know!