Product Reviews

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Local Boat Ramps

Information on the quality and location of local Boat Ramp facilities. Includes photographs, maps and some video content.

Family orientated

Promoting family fishing.

Fish for the future

FishingTownsville.net promotes catch and release fishing.

Great Fishing Locations

Popular fishing spots including GPS locations, sounder shots and maps.

Regular fishing reports

Regular fishing reports from our fishing trips.

Product Reviews

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Fly Fishing

Chasing Golden Trevalley on the Magnetic Island flats.

Relaxing!

Enjoying one of the many beautiful beaches of Magnetic Island.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Pro Tackle MONSTER SHIMANO REEL SALE

SALE HAS NOW ENDED

The savings continue this week at Pro Tackle with huge savings to be had on a large range of Shimano reels. Shimano make the best reels available today, and Pro Tackle has just made them more affordable for everyone. If you are interested in some of the light line Prong fishing that Dave and I have been doing lately, grab yourself a Stratic Ci4 1000 for only $270. Spooled up with 8lb Power Pro you will have an absolute ball. Or if you are preparing for the re-opening of Barramundi season next year then grab yourself a new Curado E7 for just $289. This beautiful little bait-caster is probably the best value for money reel for lure casting in the creeks. Check out the full range of discounted reels by clicking the images below or head into Pro Tackle and have a chat to the guys. 



Monday 15 November 2010

Pro Tackle MONSTER SALE

SALE HAS NOW ENDED

Pro Tackle are having a massive sale on floor stock! The sale includes Shimano T-curve rods, G-Loomis Rods and Daiwa Rods and Reels. Click on the images below to check out huge savings. 


Saturday 13 November 2010

Mangrove Jack on Plastics

With Barramundi off limits, Dave Little and I decided today to fish plastics on light 1000 size spin gear among the snags for some Mangrove Jack. You might call it 'finesse' fishing for Jacks! A bit of a scary thought at first, but despite the odd fish burying you in the blink of eye, its a whole lot of fun. 

We started the morning meeting up at my place around 4.30am and after a quick re-fuel and some ice, we were off to one of the nearby creeks. At the moment there is likely to be a fair bit of fresh coming down the bigger rivers, so we decided on one of the creeks that doesn't have a catchment area. The water where we put in was spectacularly clear and a beautiful rich colour. We initially headed up stream looking for some 'quiet' water, but it proved to be the wrong move.

Up stream the water did have a little fresh in it and, despite being quite clear, had a bit of a cloudy look to it. It still looked good, so we worked the area for a while. I was fishing a Stella 1000fe with 8lb power pro. My first fish came reasonably quickly hitting hard and running for cover. The reel raced and it was all over! 'More drag, more drag' I was saying repeatedly to Dave! Despite only fishing 8lb braid, I could have had the drag screwed up considerably more. Dave was next to get a fish, and the way it hit and ducked for cover had us convinced it was a Jack. The fish made it to the snags, but was still attached to the end of the line. We took the boat in and freed the fish, only to find it was a nice Cod. He was happily sent on his way again. 

We continued to work the upper reaches of the creek, but could only manage the odd strike. We were almost at a loss as to where the Jacks were when suddenly my prong was smacked. This time I was firm on the spool and fish was 'firmly' led from the snags. A nice netting from Dave and we had our first Mangrove Jack. Unfortunately it only went 34cm. So a quick pick and release. 

After working this area for a couple of hours with very little reward, we decided to head back to the mouth and the better looking water. As we raced past the ramp my car was still the only one parked there, so at least we would have the area to ourselves. Indeed the water was much better looking, and after spotting some big bream cruising the shallows, and seeing a couple of fish smack the surface of the water, we were keen as mustard. And it didn't take long to see some interest in our plastics.

The main fish working the area appeared to be Bream, but there were some stonkers among them! One nice big black fish we spotted sitting high in the water among the mangrove roots. I put my 3in prong that was rigged weedless on a worm hook in behind the fish. As it dropped off the roots and into the water the big bream spun around and grabbed the lure instantly. It failed to hook up, but was an awesome sight to see. Dave had some interest from a Bream that was over 40cm. It had a go at his plastic and followed it out from the snags, but again this fish never found the hooks. 

I managed a couple more Mangrove Jack, one that went 36.5cm. It was a good fish, and a real challenge on light gear. We also managed a few small GT, a Barracouda and couple of flathead. I also caught 2 small Barramundi that were unavoidable among the sticks. The biggest was approximately 55/56cm and put up a brilliant fight on the Stella. Probably the fish of the morning.


We didn't pull the boat out of the water until about 1pm, and despite only putting one fish in the eski we had had a blast catching and releasing plenty of quality specimens. The pick of the lures for the morning was an Atomic 3in Prong in a pure white colour. It was rigged on a 1/0 worm hook with a '00' size ball sinker tied into the bottom half of a small loop knot. This is a deadly combination offering a relatively snag-proof plastic to fish among the mangrove roots. I used a Shimano Stella 1000fe and T-cureve 661 2-5kg rod, 8lb power pro and 20lb mono leader. This is proving a spectacular combination. 

Monday 8 November 2010

Kayaking the Burdekin

Last weekend forum regular and All Aussie Shock Leader manufacturer Phil Lawlor arranged for a bunch of us to get together and kayak the Burdekin. Phil has just put together a trailer of 6 extreme kayaks. 4 of which are the bandits and 2 the longer outlaw. Phil announced the idea on the forum a couple of weeks ago, and from there all arrangements were made online. At one stage we had 9 members planning to attend the trip, but at the last moment we were down to 6. The members who attended included Phil Lawlor, Goddy, andrewgleeson84, Li'lDave, Snake and myself (sailfish). Most of us had only ever chatted online in the forum, so this was also a great chance to get together in person. 4 of us headed off in my car about 5.30 Friday afternoon, Andrew was already there with his family and Dave was not far behind finishing work a little later. Plan was to camp the night at the Bivouac Junction holiday park and head out Saturday morning. 

We were all up early Saturday, very keen to get on the water start fishing. We took two cars along with a couple of the guys from the holiday park and drove into a section of the river approximately 6km upstream. One of the guys stayed with us in his kayak as a 'guide' for the paddle home, and the other two dove the cars back to base camp for us. This allowed us to work downstream with the flow of the river and finish back at the park. The track in is a little rough, but it was nice to engage 4wd in the Pajero and use the car for what its designed to do! After about a 30min drive we reached a section of beach where we launched the kayaks and headed off

We had been told about some very spectacular Sooty fishing along this stretch of river, but I was sceptical. I have never been overly successful with Sooties, often only catching 2 or 3 in a morning session. And with 7 kayaks following each other down the river, I personally wasn't expecting much more than a leisurely paddle and beautiful views. But I couldn't have been more wrong! First fish came from the bank on the opposite side to where we launched, most of us hadn't even got a line wet! Even my fish came within the first half dozen casts.

From here we slowly worked out way down through some very spectacular country (and a few scary rapids!). According to the locals we had experienced one of the quieter days, but I had seen some of the best Sootie fishing ever. And we did find some bigger fish too. I think my tally was about 10 fish for the morning, and a couple of the guys did better than that. We had to have seen over 50 between the 7 of us fishing. The biggest of the fish were around the 35cm mark, but on the light gear all the fish put up a great fight. If you haven't fishing for Sooty Grunter before, they are a bit like a fresh water version of a Mangrove Jack. They hit hard and dive for cover quick.

It didn't seem to matter what lure was used, they all caught fish. I used mainly 70mm Squidgie fish rigged on a 1/0 worm hook and '00' ball sinker. But small hard bodies and spinner baits also accounted for plenty of fish. Dave got the 4wt fly rod out for a while, but unfortunatly didn't manage one on it. But he nailed a few on a small squidgie wriggler. I got all my fish casting around structure. The best structure was the rocks and timber sitting in the faster flowing sections of the river. The fish would sit in the back of the structure out of the flow waiting for food to come past. Some places like this we pulled up to 4 or 5 fish from the one spot. But a couple of the guys got their best fish simply 'trolling' a small diving hard body behind the kayak as they paddled along!

On this trip I had the opportunity to test out a new Shimano Stella 1000fe and T-cureve 661 2-5kg for the first time. The 'fe' is new for 2011. I had it spooled with 8lb Power Pro and it handled this type of fishing with ease. This is by far the best reel I have ever used, and if money is no problem its clearly one to own. I will be using this setup a lot in the coming weeks, and will eventually write a review on my thoughts. But to keep costs down, a Shimano Stratic 1000 Ci4 on a light Jewel rod would also be a pleasure to use. 

We finished up back at camp about 1pm. Packed up and a quick shower and we were on our way home again. This was a great trip and some pretty good fishing. Phil plans to repeat the trip again in the near future, so if you are keen keep an eye out for the announcement in the forum.



Monday 1 November 2010

Barramundi off Limits

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that as of midday today Barramundi are off limits. The closure remains in place until midday February 1st 2011. Not only is it illegal to keep a Barramundi during this time, it is also prohibited to deliberately target fish for catch and release purposes. This is because the stress of capture may prevent a fish from spawning. If a fish is accidentally caught it should be handled carefully and release as soon as possible, preferably without even removing the fish from the water. Different regulations apply throughout the Gulf of Carpentaria, check out the DPI&F website for specific details.

Fishing Townsville - November Competition

For the month of November Fishing Townsville will once again run a 'longest fish of the month' competition. This month we a looking for the longest total length for a Mangrove Jack.

Competition Rules
  • The fish MUST be a creek or inshore caught fish, reef Jacks are excluded. 
  • Fish can be caught on ANY line class and via any normal legal line fishing method. 
  • The fish must be of a minimum legal size, measured accurately and photographed in a way to prove its total length (ie on a brag mat). 
  • Photo entries can only be submitted online in the appropriate thread of the forum
  • Fish must be caught between Lucinda (excluding Hinchinbrook channel) and Ayr or west to Charters Towers.
  • Competition runs between 1st November 2010 and 30th November 2010 (inclusive of those days). 
  • The angler must be a member of the forum prior to the capture, or be an immediate family member (ie child/wife/husband) of an already registered forum user.
  • To beat an already submitted entry a fish must be a minimum of 1cm longer than the current leader.
The prize is a selection of lures to the value of $50 donated by our good friends at ProTackle Townsville. 

Fishing Townsville promotes catch and release fishing. Fish to don't need to be kept for entry to the competition.

If you are not already a member of the forum and would like to take part in this fun and innovative competition then head over and sign up. Its totally free to join and participate. Good Luck!

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