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Here are a few little tips that might make your fishing travels a bit more enjoyable and productive

Words and photography by Gil Schott

Fishing light
Plenty of anglers tend to err on the heavy side when choosing their line, probably because they don’t want to chance a big ‘un getting away. In estuaries and off beaches the vast majority of the fish you’ll come across will be well under five kilos, or around 10 pounds in the old scale. Three to four kilo line will handle this weight range pretty well.

The advantages of light line are numerous. You’ll feel bites better (and even better still if you use fine braided line as your main line). Fish will be less wary, as finer line will be harder to see. You’ll also be able to cast lighter baits further.

While fishing light, keep in mind that light applies to the rig as well as the line. Keep sinkers as small as you can get away with. It doesn’t matter if the bait washes around a little.

Sandflats
Fishing the estuary sandflats south of the tropics is lots of fun and can be very productive. I say south of the tropics, because the flats in northern Australia also attract those big lizards with teeth.

Sandflats may look barren, and you might think they are only good for soldier crabs, tiddlers and other little creatures. But that’s exactly why they attract some decent fish. Al those little creatures constitute a roving dinner for larger fish and they will cruise on in as the tide rises and covers the flats, looking to pick them off. Even as the tide falls, the fish will position themselves where the water is running off the flats, waiting for dinner to be brought to them.

One of the fun things about fishing the flats is that it’s great lure fishing country. It’s not too deep, which means your lure will generally swim close to the bottom, where the fish will be. It’s also not usually snaggy, so you can fish on confident that you’ll not lose any $15 lures on a snag. And even if you do hang up on a half-buried log, you can generally wade out and give yourself a better chance of freeing the lure.

Flats are flathead country and these fish love eating lures, just as anglers love eating flathead! These fish will swim right up into the shallows on the tide. Their body shape is such that they can hunt happily in water that just covers their backs, so no water on the flats should ever be dismissed as ‘too shallow’.

If you’re casting lures on the flats (or baits for that matter) cover all the water in front of you before wading on. You never know just where the flatties will be lurking.

Working the flats on a warm sunny day must be one of the best fishing experiences there is.

Working soft plastics
While we are on the subject of lures, sandflats and flathead, the soft plastic lures that are so popular with anglers today are highly effective in this situation, but there are a few subtle tricks to using them that will help you get the best out of them.

Firstly, the plastics need to be rigged on light jig heads to give you enough casting range on the flats. Buy a selection of jigs in different weights and mach them to the plastics hat the plastic sits on the hook in the most natural manner (if there is anything ‘natural’ about a wee plastic fishy or grub).

The next and most important thing is to fish them SLOWLY. Unlike your usual hard lures that need a retrieve for them to wiggle enticingly, soft plastics are very flexible and a light twitch of the rod tip is all that’s needed. Just flick and twitch the rod subtly, with a very slow jerky retrieve, and you’ll get the best from them. Another advantage of this slow retrieve is that the lure is in the danger zone much longer, giving fish more time to see it, decide they want to eat it, and strike.

Poppers
Using surface poppers is not as popular as it should be. Poppers are floating lures that are designed to be retrieved across the surface, kicking up a fuss of water as they do so. While poppers are not generally as consistently effective as ordinary lures in most situations, they do have one major advantage. The fish strikes are up on the surface, making for lots of action and excitement.

The larger poppers are effective of fish such as tailor off the rocks and breakwalls, but there is a place for the little ‘uns in the estuaries and fresh water. The freshwater species, particularly bass and Murray cod, all keep an eye on the surface, waiting for food to fall in from an overhanging tree. Cast your poppers in under trees and alongside high banks, and hang on!

It’s not a popular pursuit, but catching bream in the estuary on poppers can be lots of fun. In the summer, when the cicadas are out and about, cast your little popper in under the trees and along the shorelines. Bream often take a couple of swipes at a popper before they smash it, which makes for some fun fishing.

Bobbycorks
For the bait fisho working the rocks and breakwalls for bream, don’t overlook e little bobbycork. These are basically shaped, foam floats with a hollow stem through the centre for the line. They usually have the top painted bright red or yellow for visibility.

When you’re fishing over a rough and snaggy bottom, a bobbycork keeps your bait up above the rubbish and in sight of the fish.

You can fix your bobbycork to your line by jamming it against the side of the stem wit a match or similar, or by passing the line through the stem twice (though hat ends to slip a bit).

Bite detection is very simple with this system – the bobbycork zooms under water, and you have a bite!

Pilchard fillets
This one’s for the pilchard flickers. Pilchard chunks or halves are fine for bream off the rocks and breakwalls, but the bulky nature of these chunks (and the difficulty in securing them on a hook) means that fish can rattle them off quite easily.

Instead, try filleting the pilchard. Rig a fillet, doubled over and wound on the hook, and secured with a half-hitch around the bent end. The fillet is soft and may seem like it will fall off, but because it doesn’t have the round bulk of the half pilly, it’s easier for the fish to scoff it down in one go. The fillet is also exuding lots of lovely juice into the water around it, making it a sort of self-berleying bait. Try it. It works.