North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I have been an angler and hunter for most of my life, grew up in Australia at a time when I could walk around with an air rifle shooting feral birds and rodents, no one was alarmed or complained.

One of my grandfathers was a bushman and drover, he showed me how to fish, hunt and butcher the animals and fish I killed.
Two of the golden rules he drilled into me was stealth and patience, all successful predators he said use stealth and patience to gain an advantage over the prey they hunt, it didn’t matter if it flew, walked or swam, if your prey was alerted to your presence and intentions your success as a predator diminished.

Early on, on many occasions it was obvious to me that my stealth & patience skills had failed, easy to see birds fly away or rabbits disappear into their burrows, but I didn’t connect the same reaction by fish for a long time.

I remember the moment when the penny dropped, we were camped on a tributary of the Murray River, the carp hadn’t invaded yet and the river was clean and full of Callop, Silver Perch, and Redfin and with the odd Murray Cod.
Pop had placed a berley drop, he had hung part of a roo over the water and the flies soon produced a steady stream of maggots falling into the water. The system was simple, catch the small fish that were feeding on the maggots then use those to target the bigger fish.
Stealth & Patience were paramount for success, casting shadows on the water, talking in anything but a whisper, doing anything that would cause a vibration through the ground would spook fish of all sizes and I could see that happen. It would take some time before the feeding fish would return, at first little ones and more often than not the bigger fish would stay away for hours.

My angling success improved over time as I used the those S & P skills I had honed as a hunter, slow movements, quiet approaches and situational awareness such as wind and light direction and of course knowledge of my prey.

A disturbing trend that is becoming common on our waterways is the apparent lack of understanding of the importance of stealth & patience, most often displayed by novice anglers.

These novice anglers do not consider that approaching a potential Barra fishing location at high speed like a feeder creek that may have other boats stationed around and rapidly come off the plane creating a fair disturbance of water and noise will have any ill effect due to the lack of stealth.

This novice angler often then makes a dozen casts before deciding that the fish aren’t biting at this spot, displaying a lack of patience, then leaves to try the next likely looking location.

There seems to be a substantial number of these novice anglers about these days, at its peak it is common to experience this disturbing trend many times in a day.

The unfortunate anglers who have the bite disturbed and the novice angler who creates the disturbance are all having the opportunity to catch fish diminished by the novice failing to use the golden rules of the successful predator, Stealth and Patience. If you want to be a successful predator practice the S & P and experience the improved results.

Well said. The Daly is the worst for this. People used to slow down and sneak in or leave quietly as to not disturb the area so much. Shuts down the fish for a good 10 minutes or more most times.

A good way to learn stealth is to practice fishing the harbour flats. You will soon see what a difference noise makes.

Stealth helps but some people come off the plane and push through slower but at 3000 revs pushing a hell of a lot more water around

Great post Wonderwobler.

Times have changed. Can't imagine what it will be like in 50 or 100 years. They are building more skyscrapers and bringing in more people, but they aren't making more rivers.

Boat horsepower has gone up and overall respect for other people has gone down.

Not in all cases of course, but it only takes a few lemons ...

Spot On , a very annoying trend indeed . Great write up Mate just hope those novice fishos realize what they are doing wrong after reading this .
Trouble these days if you offer or try to give some advise to a so called "Novice" he usually has plenty of advise for you .
And they aren't all "novice" fishos either , had many a Guide boat do this , shame really .

So I practise patience a lot,,, unfortunately .

cheers

Assuming by your air rifle comment you were a sixties kid – more or less. Also assuming your parents remember the war and your grandparents were around during the depression, both periods of hardship where there was more reliance of what the land could provide rather than a store, particularly the depression. Therefore you got first hand those life lessons taught to you ‘one on one’ and the classroom was the bush.
Fast forward a few decades and those skills within our society have been diluted by our current lifestyles. My mother used to shell peas, darn socks (hell even I could darn a woollen sock as a kid) and sort a chook for tea straight from the hen house. Now we get all that from Coles including the socks.
So how do you translate hunting into modern thinking where everything is on tap? The socks, the chook and the frozen peas. For hunting to fit into that scenario you’d drive no more than 10ks, ping a dozen pigs in 20 minutes, pick up maccas on the way home and not have to get out of your car for any of it. Some people’s vision of fishing would be much the same because that’s how everything works nowadays.
Stealth and patience are good things to have and you mention them because they line up with the boat issue but what else is missing from modern instincts is reacting to the environmental signposts that can put you in front of fish when they’re ready to bite. The reliance is now all focussed on tide charts and side scans, both really important things to have but used in conjunction with a board knowledge of what’s going on around you not on their own. A slowing of the tide or a breath of wind often go unnoticed and fishing and hunting for many becomes more like throwing a dart blindfolded.

People as young as their 40s/50s down here Dick have some great stories about living very basically when they were young, one family said they had no hot water, imagine the morning winter shower in Tassie ...

Plenty were eating wallaby not so long ago, and a lot of local fish.

The supermarket has taken over.

Nothing beats hard work, nothing.
Some people think that by throwing $$ at the situation (flash boats, new gear including the latest sounders) they deserve fish. An absurd sense of entitlement is alive and well.
As Dick points out, new tech is very helpful particularly in our time poor world but without a solid foundation of hard work it can actually be a hindrance.
General respect of both the environment and people would go a long way in the first instance.

Agree
But I have seen barra fire up after a boat flies past and creates a big wake that crashes on the bank. The little fish get displaced and the barra move in for the kill

Matt- they dont have a morning shower in the winter! lots of soap dodgers down that way. phew!

nomad wrote:Agree
But I have seen barra fire up after a boat flies past and creates a big wake that crashes on the bank. The little fish get displaced and the barra move in for the kill

Yep, I fully agree with the stealth approach on the flats and in small creeks but 20+ years ago I used to fish a bit with a mate who could catch a fish blindfolded, he used to run a pretty successful guiding operation in the day. His standard practice was to blast into an (unattended) creek mouth, put a big wake across the mouth, punch the boat into the bank and fire out a cast before I could even get my balance to stand up. Hooked up within the first cast or two more often than not. As you say, the bait that was schooled up hard and sitting tight against the bank would get washed around and the barra would be on to them in a flash. Hard part is finding an unattended creek mouth these days...........

What does p!ss me off but is punters who seem happy to come and fish a spot that is obviously already pretty much maxed out with boats. Took the young fella out into one of the harbour arms recently to fish a little shallow creek that usually produces a fish or two (in stealth mode). On the last half of run out tide there's really only about 200mt of fishable water. We'd got there early and had been fishing for about 1/2 an hour when the first boat turned up. No worries, plenty of room for 2, then a third boat turns up. OK but getting a bit cosy. Then the 4th and 5th boats turn up and instead of heading to any of a dozen other creeks/rockbars/points/gutters within 5 minutes run they decide to join in as well Then just to fcuk it up for everyone a couple of them saw fit to start chucking a throw net around

I try not to swear in front of my boys too much but I had bit to say as we threw it on the plane and weaved our way out through the armada to head to more peaceful waters. It's a mighty big harbour FFS....


Melv

But I have seen barra fire up after a boat flies past and creates a big wake that crashes on the bank. The little fish get displaced and the barra move in for the kill

New feeding behaviours that work with boat traffic ... evolution in progress?

Depends on circumstances, I've seen them do a runner on approach.

I have been involved in both cases. One nationals every wake that hit a bank from a boat flying past created an oportunity to hook a fish. This wake created its own colour change along the river bank and cover for the fish to feed. On the other hand in clear water with no depth it also has shut down bites. When barra are on properly you can crank the metalica or shania twain on the radio, bash the side of the boat with a hammer and it makes no difference. But when the fish have been hammered by boats day in and day out for the entire runoff they certainly do wise up and get smarter. They sit there and i swear they could tell you what every lure in the world was.......hey look bazza, another barra classic in guns and roses......yer bazzel, that ones a b52 in kryptonite!

Yes Dick, a close guess on my vintage, I clearly remember where I was when JFK was assassinated.

Grassy knoll?

Exactly the response I anticipated.

regards, WW