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Finding fish is the real challenge facing travelling fishos

Words and photography by Gil Schott

The toughest part of being a travelling fisho is finding the fish. We pull up at a beaut van park, set up camp and start thinking about the fish we’re gunna catch. But wherever you plan to wet a line you can be sure of one thing – there’ll be a lot of water mixed in with the fish. You’re usually in unfamiliar territory and while you may have your home patch of water wired in, new water brings with it a whole new set of challenges. But the bottom line is, how do you find the fish?

You could simply toddle on down to the water with your gear, toss in a bait or lure and hook up on a lunker straight away, but that’s unlikely. Chances are you’ll faff about for a while with little or no result and get back to the van park more than a touch frustrated, especially if you see a fellow vanner with scales in his hair and a few fat fillets ready for tea. Rather than grumble through your happy hour about him being arsey, recognise that he obviously knows where the fish are – so go pick his brain.

Gaining Local Knowledge
Local knowledge is a term often bandied around among anglers and it is one of the keys to successful fishing. For the travelling angler there are a couple of ways to acquire a little of this knowledge. Firstly, and obviously, ask your fellow vanners (particularly the scaley-haired ones). Some may be regular visitors to the area and have a few hot spots picked out. A polite enquiry, backed with a frosty cold beer, will usually lubricate their tongues.

Tackle shops are also a good source of info. If there’s a shop nearby have a chat to the staff there. They’ll usually give you enough clues to get you started (well, they should if they’re any good). You might also gain a bit of info from the local garage or roadhouse.

One hands-on way of getting some tips is to go out with a local guide service. This will involve spending money, of course, but if you are new to an area, going out with a fishing guide is a prime option. You are paying the guide to put you onto fish, so you should at least have some success first up (if he’s any sort of guide), but if you keep your eyes peeled you’ll suss out the type of areas the guide is fishing, the water conditions and so on. You can then use that knowledge as a basis for exploring the area on your own.

You can also pick up some clues by simply watching where the locals are fishing. Since it is reasonable to assume that local fishos have their own waters sorted out, the areas they are fishing should be prime spots. Make a note of the areas, but don’t barge in on them. They might not take too kindly to a ‘blow-in’ fishing on top of them. Instead, check out the conditions, water, current flow and so on, and particularly what they are catching. Look for similar features in other areas and fish there.

But make sure you identify them as locals. A gathering of boats or fishos in one spot doesn’t automatically mean those anglers know where the fish are. In areas frequented by travelling fishos it’s common for one boat to pull up at a spot on spec. Another travelling fisho sees that boat, figures he knows where the fish are, and pulls up there too. Another crew sees the two boats, figures they must know where the fish are, and joins in – and so on, and so on. You’ll find that the gathering of ‘locals’ you see are really all fishos gathered together ‘on spec’, and have no idea where the fish really are.

Basic Fish Finding
There’ll come a time when you find yourself in a magic campsite with nobody around and a beach, bay, river or estuary just begging to be fished. You have the water all to yourself. Where do you start? Here are some basic indicators that should put you onto fish.

Beach Corners
Beaches can be bloody long or little tiddlypom things, but they all have one thing in common – a rocky corner near a headland or breakwall. Finding fish on beaches has been broadly covered in #71, but one of the prime spots on any beach is the corner near rock. These areas hold food, provide shelter and usually have a bit of deeper water in them. It’s an area where fish tend to congregate, so if you find yourself on an unfamiliar patch of sand, go play in the corner.

River Entrances
Ahh, the change between the estuary and the sea. This is always a good area to prospect. Fish, particularly baitfish, will move in and out in these areas and larger fish will feed on them. If there’s a breakwall at the entrance, fish off that.

Creek Junctions
Estuaries and bays usually have smaller watercourses running into them. The entrances of these are similar to river mouths in that bait tends to congregate at these points and there is often a patch of deeper water downstream of the entrance. You can work these areas from a boat, or from the shore if you can get at them.

Rock Bars
Rocky bars, outcrops and ledges are genuine fish attractors, particularly if they occur in the midst of more barren, sandy substrate. As with beach corners, they provide food, shelter and often deeper water that will attract and hold better fish.

Snags
Old logs, fallen trees and such are also natural fish attractors. If you have a long, relatively featureless shoreline with a bunch of old logs falling away into deeper water, that’s the place to fish.

By now you’ll have probably gathered that fish hang around these features. They pretty much have the same things in common – they provide shelter and a food supply. Fish are lazy. They would rather sit and wait for food to come to them rather than swim around hunting for it. These areas give them that opportunity. If you find yourself on unfamiliar water and with nobody to tell you where the fish are, remember that.

Finally, feed the fish when they want to be fed. That’s usually at the light changes – dawn and dusk. Mucking around in the middle of the day is generally non-productive. That’s the time when humans feed, not fish.

With a bit of local knowledge or, failing that, some basic fish finding skills, you should be able to put your rods to good use rather than having them take p space in your van.