Since purchasing our property I have made many trips during the weekends and holiday breaks to carry out works on our cottage. some where in between i have also snuck in a few fishing expeditions in the surrounding estuary systems. As my goal is to live completely self-sufficient for at least one year we will be relying on a percentage of our food to come from the ocean and estuary systems well at least that was my line when explaining why i needed to upgrade my boat. In all seriousness i plan to increase our consumption of sea food in order to help us achieve this goal and the local eastuary systems are a great place to do this in Australia as they boast a large array of good table fish and crustaceans.
Above image ☝A brackish river that runs within a kilometer or so from our property (fishes unexpectedly well).
It was early saturday morning when i left for Smithtown boat ramp and on arrival i noted that their was 2 vehicles at the boat ramp instantly a grin appeared across my face as where i generally fish you can struggle to get a park at 3.00am in the morning. Things were looking promising an empty boat ramp could mean either the fishing is crap and no one bothers or the system has allot less pressure from anglers.
When putting my boat in i noticed the minimal amounts of rubbish on the bank not to say their was no rubbish but allot less than my usual haunts which is always nice to see. The water was warm and the bait plentiful from prawns (shrimp) and a varying species of small fish i have no doubt that the fish here are well fed.
Picture above ☝My new boat the G3 1756 SC (pre trolling motor)
With the tide on the run out the fish where in a frenzy on this particular morning while tying on a fly i heard countless surface hits as the fish schooled the prawns and bait fish into the bank leaving them nowhere else to go but up. A short time later i had tied on a surface fly (bass bug) and thrown a few quick loops into the path of the fish with a few strikes but failing to set hook a short time later the bite cooled off and i moved on.
I set out to see if i could find bass in the upper reaches of the creek that runs close to our property and with the help of google maps and a bit of guess-work i found the inlet for the river and crept my way upstream. While slowly lurking up the river i couldn’t help but notice how peaceful it was no boats, jet skis, loud cars or water skiers all i ran into was a few sleepy cattle sifting through the water’s edge for a morning dip. Did i mention the structure? the river was full of overhanging trees, concrete pipes, rock walls, submerged logs, thick weed beds and bridge pylons and that was just a visual observation im am still yet to spend time with the sounder up their.
After a while i decided on a spot to start a drift from switched the motor off and let the tide do the work. Note i had no trolling motor on this boat at the time which can make things a little tricky and somewhat frustrating but at this stage i was happy to be on the water. Before long i had sparked the interest of a few small fish and eventually landing one revealing that i had found what i was after and now i needed to upgrade the size.
With the tide still running out and the water like glass i couldn’t help but throw surface poppers around at that time of the year it was still quite cold and the cicadas are not really on scene yet but the action of these poppers i cant fault and i knew that sooner or later it had to produce.
A short drift later i spotted a freshly broken limb off a tree. It was held up in the current with an Etty pooling off the back of it. I though to myself these fish are lazy man there has to be one sitting here waiting for an easy meal. With a long cast i put my little black popper up under the tree in which the limb had fallen from. I slowly stripped pop….pop….pop out and away from the bank with a good pause of maybe 5-6 seconds the fly floated along the front of the limb and out off the edge of the etty right into the dragons lair. Just as i thought it was all over the bass had other ideas and with a solid smack the line went tight and the rod tip began to buckle and tremble with the fishes agro. (F%#k yeah im on)
With a few more fish caught species including bream & Flathead (Dinner) the morning was wrapped up. Heading back to the boat ramp feeling smug with hitting the target and scooping some fresh fish for my family was a great feeling and since then has been on a few other occasions to date.
Stingin for a cuppa and some breaky tho….
Above image ☝Australian yellow fin bream
Above image ☝Australian bass (small model)
Above image ☝ Australian Flathead (sadly these two were not released as they are pretty good eating)
Above images ☝ Bass and sunset from a late afternoon session
Tight lines for now <*))< ✌
commonlifer 
Luckily I understand fishanese. Good score. We get a lot of flathead in the Tamar (the river our property butts up against) and the odd escapee salmon from the farm around the corner. Apparently there are Kingies and big snapper “somewhere” in the river but some serious detective work would have to be done to pry it out of the locals. We have only been here 7 years now so we are not quite local yet. Glad to hear you have a decent fishing spot within cooey of home. Always good to source your food locally and have somewhere to head to where the stress is minimal and the enjoyment is high.
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Is the Tamar river close to the controversy over the salmon farming at the moment? Flathead are a favourite of ours as their not to hard to find and you get a good amount of meat on each fillet not to mention their taste. I am really looking forward to fishing with purpose other then the sporting challenge especially crabbing for some reason. I have not done allot but watching the local crabbers heading out over the glassy estuary to check there pots on a winters morning looks like pure bliss to me. If your lucky enough to live near a waterway i think it can be a huge component in regards to food source kind of like a farm with boats for tractors “laughing here”
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