Steve Suitor, of Fishing Gear, discusses his favourite fishing spots. Picture: WILL SWAN
IF YOU are thinking of going fishing this summer, make sure you have the correct tools to catch the fish you dream about for dinner, according to Launceston fishing guru Steve Suitor.
"We get a lot of people come in here and they want to buy bait and I say `what do you want to catch?' and they say `oh, fish'," Mr Suitor said.
"People who go fishing for fish catch nothing. If you want to catch flathead, you fish for them with the right gear and at the right place."
So target a species and have good bait and the correct rig.
"People who don't catch fish tie their hooks on wrong and they put their bait on wrong," he said. "It is much better if you cut your bait rather than it being in a big ball."
SALTWATER TIPS
1 -The Pilot Station
The best place for all-round fishing is the breakwater at the Pilot Station at Low Head.
You get a lot of pelagic fish like salmon, barracuda, snotty trevally, there is a lot of squid there and if you fish straight down beside the rocks it is a good place to catch leatherjackets.
They are a fish a lot of people don't go for and I can't understand why, because leatherjackets are bloody good eating and easy to clean.
2 - West Head
There is a big flat rock out on the end of West Head - you go down the track past Nudist Beach (West Head).
The track goes out and comes back around itself and about halfway around there is a big flat rock that faces straight out into the ocean.
You have either got to have a southerly wind or a northerly anyway, otherwise you get washed off it. There's about 30 feet (9 metres) of water in front of it and it's a really good spot for all sorts of fishing.
Kingfish, salmon, barracuda, pike, and there is a lot of rock fish like parrot fish. I've caught even a zebra fish there.
3 - Kelso flats
The flats north of Kelso - it's very different fishing there.
We go there and get flounder, gars and spider crabs.
It is the best place for flounder and gars. We go down there at low tide and walk out to the edge of the sand. You can fly-fish off there and catch mullet, salmon and stuff like that, so it's a good spot for saltwater fly-fishing.
4 - Dirty Bay
Dirty Bay, the bay where the old thermal power station was working. They used to suck water, put it through the heat exchanger and then into Dirty Bay, and where the warm water came out, - I've seen thrasher sharks there 12 to 14 feet long, snapper, bream.
There are some amazing bream there.
5 - Lulworth
If I wanted to catch gummy sharks I would go to the beach at Lulworth, because that is the only good beach along the North coast where it is deep enough - Low Head and Weymouth are quite shallow.
It is good for gummy sharks, big flathead, especially this time of year because the big flathead come in to spawn from about mid-December to the end of January.
FRESHWATER TIPS
1 - Lake St Clair
My favourite fishing spot for catching trout is Lake St Clair, because the water is clear and the fish are a really good colour, fight like billy-o and because I'm a fly-fisherman, you can see them.
You can't bait-fish there - that's the only downside. You can use plastics and artificial bait but not natural baits. It is the deepest natural lake in the southern hemisphere - 174 metres.
2 - Meander River
The best river is the Meander River now. It has those access points and the dam has meant there is a regular flow, and there are some really good-conditioned fish. We had a customer in here before Christmas and he caught a 5-kilogram trout out of a creek running into Meander.
3 - Double Lagoon
Double Lagoon is a good place for polaroiding.
4 - Lake Balmoral
Lake Balmoral - not a lot of people know it's there.
It's where people go down the track to (Lake) Nameless and (Lake) Explorer, and it's only a 4-kilometre walk and when the lake is down, the fishing is fantastic.
There is not a footprint, not a bit of rubbish - beautiful place for fishing.
5 - Upper South Esk River
The top of the South Esk from Mathinna up. The water is really clear and the bottom is either rock or sandy and you can use flies, grasshoppers or a red tag.