"New Experiences"

I thought this month instead of writing about a recreational fishing issue I would mention some recreational fishing experiences new to me.

One of the bonuses of working with Recfishwest is that I get a number of great opportunities to go fishing through people I work with and meet. With Recfishwest being the peak recreational fishing body in Western Australia I believe one of the prerequisites to doing the job justice is that you must enjoy your fishing. That part of the job has been no worries for me, with fishing having always been a passion of mine (although finding free time to go fishing can be frustratingly hard in this hectic world we live). One thing I am certainly not, is a boffin that sits behind a desk, providing comment about recreational fishing issues without actually experiencing them first hand.

In the last 18 months that I have been in the position as Policy Officer with Recfishwest I been lucky enough to have a number of new fishing experiences that I would have otherwise never normally encountered.

There are many vastly different techniques for catching fish other that the simple hook and a piece of bait, which, for many of us would have been our first introduction to fishing. All you have to do is walk into a tackle store and see the plethora of lures, jigs and soft plastics available for both salt and freshwater fishing, shore based and boat based. Then there are pots and loops for crayfishing, drop nets and scops for crabs, spearguns and throw nets. These techniques are all characterised under the banner of recreational fishing and all dealt with in some capacity by Recfishwest. If we were to participate in all the different forms of recreational fishing we would quickly run out weekends in the year.

Before working with Recfishwest there were a few methods of recreational fishing that I had not experienced but, if the opportunity presented would love to try. I almost exclusively fished in the ocean, doing a bit of bottom bouncing for demersal species, trolling for pelagics, spearfishing and diving for crayfish, abalone and blue swimmer crabs. With access to an ocean going boat I never really considered fishing our estuaries, rivers and our freshwater systems.

With Recfishwest being the peak recreational fishing body in Western Australia the array of recreational fishing issues that we can deal with in any one week can vary substantially. Some of the first projects that I worked on at Recfishwest related to freshwater fishing access and the poor environmental condition of a number of our estuaries and rivers. Having no past experience in fishing these systems I found it difficult to provide comment as a recreational fisher without having experienced them first hand

Having a boss that has an obsession for lures, the popular craze of fishing for bream on hard body lures was something that was never going to be too long until I gave it a try. I was lucky enough to have my first exposure to this type of fishing on a trip with the Recfishwest staff to Bremer Bay. Fishing the Wellstead and Pallinup Rivers I managed the largest fish for the trip, a 45 cm black bream. Although I may have caught the largest fish I must admit to being comprehensively beaten in the total number of fish caught. This trip provided an opportunity to fish the Pallinup River which had previously been pursued by Recfishwest to be made a recreational only river. The quality of fishing in this system made me wonder what the bream fishing could possible be like if closed to commercial netting.

After developing the basic skills in fishing small hard bodies and soft plastics the opportunity presented to go fishing for trout and redfin perch with the Recfishwest staff at Pemberton. I viewed this again as an opportunity to gather a greater appreciation for freshwater fishing and an understanding of why our limited freshwater fishing resources are so treasured amongst the dedicated freshwater anglers.

My previous view on freshwater, much to the disgust of my boss was that it is what you drink. However, after fishing the Warren River last year I developed a new founded respect for this type of fishing. Fishing in a two man canoe, the tranquil surrounds of the karri forest were most relaxing and spectacular. The fishing was also red hot with a large number of redfin perch being caught over two days. All fish caught were kept and filleted as Redfin are an introduced species in Western Australia and are not to be returned back to the water. An added bonus being that these fish are also delectable to eat.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of experiencing the unique West Australian marron fishery. I can't believe what I have been missing out on. What a fantastic fishery we have right on our doorstep. Using a bushman's snare I managed my bag limit of 5 big marron from the "Trophy Waters"of Harvey Dam. The limited season has closed for another year but, I am certainly looking forward to giving it another crack next year.

Since going marron fishing I have worked on developing a Recfishwest funding proposal to the Commonwealth Recreational Fishing Community Grants Scheme for enhancing marron habitat in Drakesbrook Dam. A number of the freshwater dams are completely devoid of any habitat and the draining of Drakesbrook dam in early 2007 provides the perfect opportunity to introduce some artificial habitat and monitor its effect on marron productivity. This project is a co-operation between Recfishwest, Department of Fisheries and the Water Corporation and will be first of its kind in Western Australia

Other "firsts" since working with Recfishwest include catching my first Australian salmon in the fantastic season that occurred last year off the metropolitan coast, jigging for Samson Fish out at the aggregations off Rottnest and catching my first mangrove jack up at Karratha. The one big one left on the "to do list" is catch a barramundi.

What we must all remember is that even though one method of fishing may be completely different to what you prefer we are all recreational fishers that share the same common goal of catching a fishing and relaxing. I think this explains why I have enjoyed these new forms of fishing so much. They all contain the fundamental reasons why we go fishing, relaxation and the thrill of catching something. It is important that all recreational fishers are united on issues affecting our resources even though they might not be affecting your preferred method directly. Recfishwest represents the interests of all recreational fishers and I recommend checking out our website to see the breadth of issues we deal with.



This page last updated on March 2007.