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Words and photography by Gil Schott
Many travelling anglers have their favourite fishing spots, and their favourite fish, but for most catching a fish is a rare bonus. Going fishing during your travels is one of the great Aussie pastimes, and it can add significantly to enjoyment of the trip. And, it can provide you with some good, cheap meals along the way.
To help you in your piscatorial pursuits, here are my favourite five fish for the travelling ‘vanner. They are not the most glamorous, nor the biggest fish around, but they are fairly easy to catch, cover a wide geographical area and are accessible from shore or small boat. Ahh, yes, and they are also great on the plate!
Bream
One of the all-time favourites of Aussie anglers, bream can be found in all our estuaries. There are a number of species, but the most common along the east coast is the yellowfin bream. They don’t grow all that large (A 2kg fish is a beauty!), but they are pretty easy to catch and make a sweet meal.
Dawn and dusk are usually the best times for the travelling fisho to find bream. They’ll eat most baits, from frozen prawns to fresh live nippers. They’ll even eat chook! You can also catch them on lures and flies, so they suit both beginner and expert.
Look for bream around rock walls, snags and channels in estuaries, sudsy gutters off the rocks and in the deeper holes on the beaches.
Bream fillets, skinned and boned, are delightful, with a delicate, not-too-fishy flavour that kids love. Dust the fillets in flour and cook them on a hotplate in a bit of butter. Make sure you don’t overcook them.
Flathead
Often the first ‘keeper’ fish of many a beginner angler, flathead are easy to catch and make a genuinely good meal.
Flathead of one species or another haunt the estuaries and sandy shorelines right around the country, from Tassie to the Top End. The Dusky flathead, common to the east coast, grows to in excess of 10kg, which is a serious fish. Mostly you’ll catch them around 750gm and these are the best eating size.
Flatties eat most baits, including strips of fish, prawns and nippers. They are most fun on lures though and being a shallow water species you can often see them chasing your lure.
You’ll find flatties on sand and mud bottoms in estuaries, with shallow flats alongside channels the pick of the spots. Beach anglers can find them lurking in the deeper holes, particularly around the edges.
Flathead are pretty easy to fillet (but watch out for the spines behind the gill plate) and pound-for-pound produce more meat than a bream. The flesh is a touch coarser than bream, but it’s still yummy. Coat in crumbs and shallow-fry in some oil.
Trout
Both rainbow and brown trout are introduced species, but they have a big following among Aussie anglers. Contrary to fishing lore, they are easy to catch, too. Trout live in the higher freshwaters of NSW and Vic, both in rivers and dams. Browns in particular grow to respectable sizes, especially in some Tassie lakes, but the usual size is around the 500 to 750gm mark.
Trout love worms and mudeyes (dragonfly larvae) and are great fun on small lures, both cast and trolled. Fly anglers have made trout legendary and there’s a whole industry centred on trout flyfishing.
Walking the banks of a river or dam, casting lures as you go, is a fun way of catching trout. Alternatively, you can cast a bunch of worms off the bank and sit back in the sun. You’re not likely to catch a huge number of trout, but a couple of average fish will make a good feed for the family.
Trout fillets are fleshy but a little soft, and they have quite a few fine bones, so they might not suit little kids. They have a distinctive flavour and are well suited to smoking. A hot smoker with a little hickory sawdust will produce a top feed.
Tailor
One of our classic coastal species, tailor are easy to catch and really play up on the line. They can be caught along the east and west coasts (with the West Aussie anglers having the larger fish) from beaches, rocks, breakwalls and inside the larger coastal bays and estuaries.
The classic tailor rig is a bait of pilchard or sea garfish mounted on a ‘gang’ of hooks (that’s three or four hooks linked together – you can buy ‘em at tackle shops). Tailor also love lures, particularly the metal casting lures with lots of flash and shine.
Tailor love white water, so that’s the best place to look. Check out the stirred-up, foamy water along the rocks, along breakwalls and on the beaches, especially where the surf breaks over a deeper hole. They’ll be in there chasing small baitfish, so that’s where you cast your bait or lure.
When landing and handling a tailor, keep your fingers well away from its mouth. If you need to get a hook out, use pliers. They have razor-sharp teeth and love chomping down on unsuspecting fingers.
Tailor may not be everyone’s favourite fish feed, but I reckon they make for a breakfast of champions. Tailor don’t keep all that well, so only keep a couple for an immediate feed. They are simple to fillet and provide lots of meat. I like ‘em floured and cooked on a hotplate in some oil.
Silver Trevally
Southern van fishos love the silver trevally or ‘skippy’. They are feisty little fish that frequent coastal waters around the southern half of our continent and in Tassie. They grow to in excess of 4kg, but that would be a monster. The usual run of silvers is around the 400 to 600gm mark, but even at this size these little fish really play up.
Silver trevally are primarily a bait fishing proposition. They’ll eat fish flesh, strips of squid and they don’t mind a peeled prawn. They also don’t mind a hook sandwich off the rocks (berley with some bread, then add a hook to a doughed-up dollop – white bread is best).
Breakwalls, rocks and piers seem to be the pick, along the coast and inside bays and estuaries. Fish your baits close to these areas. Trevally can be very light biters at times, so a gentle lift of the rod rather than a slashing strike is the way to go. These fish also have a rather fragile mouth that kind of extends when they bite, so it pays to ‘gentle’ them in, rather than skulldrag them.
Silvers have something of a poor reputation as a food fish, but when eaten fresh they are really nice. Fillets, skinned and boned, then floured and cooked quickly in some butter, make a tasty meal. One thing you might notice when catching a silver is a crustacean living in its mouth at the base of the gills. This parasite is known as a ‘doctor’ for some odd reason, but it doesn’t hurt the fish. They still taste good.
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