Fishing Tinaroo

[suzygs1000]

Hi,

A few of us are booked in at the Tinaroo Caravan park for the last few days of the Easter school holidays.

I am not sure whether to take the old 3.9 Quinnie Sportsfisher, or the 5.8 centre console.

There may end up being four of us fishing, so if I take the bigger boat, will I encounter any problems that I would not with the smaller boat?

Also, I am a reef fisher, and have never fished an impoundment before.

What is the best way to fish Tinaroo? Trolling? flicking lures? bottom bashing?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

thanks Dave.

[TinarooTriumph]

G'day Dave,

You do indeed have a bit of a dilemma in regards to what boat you take up! Four people in a Sportsfisher won't work lure casting, trolling or even bottom bashin. You will also encounter a few problem's fishing four anglers out of a centre console at that size doing all styles of fishing so thats a tough question to answer - one your going to have to figure out yourself I'm afraid. Tinaroo is a big lake, a 5.8m boat can just about go anywhere you want it to. I've seen much larger boats then that up here.

Easter is a pretty good time to fish though the Lake is often loaded with boat traffic. The water can be pretty clear too which makes fishing for barra just a little bit harder. Lure flickin and live baiting is done a lot by the locals that time of year... both get results. Before your trip, try and do your research on the dam by going through reports here on this forum and others to get up to date info which will be the key to having success on the water.

Theo

[suzygs1000]

Thanks for the info Theo,

What sort of live bait do you use, and how do you catch it?

Dave.

[TinarooTriumph]

The most ideal bait is Mouth Almighty, but you can certainly use Barred Grunter, Sleepy Cod & even Bony Bream, however Bonies don't tend to last too long no matter how well you take care of em' (live bait tanks with well oxygynated water are a must!). Even know of guys using small Sooties (20/25cm) that land big fish reguarly. Take note that your not allowed to use Tilapia - a lot of locals do and arn't well respected, though they are proving a valuable point to those that say Barra don't eat Tilapia (utter bullshit).

Few ways to catch them... best way in my opinion is to use small bait jigs (Sabiki's etc) and attach very small peices of prawn meat to the glittery hooks & jig up and down near weedbeds where Mouth Almighty are present. Another way is to use Redclaw pots and fill them with really foul left-overs like scrap meat etc. and put them again near weedbeds - chances are you'll get a few redclaw too (not a gun livebait in Dam's) but you will end up with some Moutho's stuck in the pot. Last one... ultra small soft plastics... jig em up and down slowly like the Sabiki method. Make sure you use hooks/jigheads that are just the right size or you'll be there allday... trust me on that one! But, Sabiki's (live bait jigs) and prawn meat is the number 1.

Hope this helps.

Theo

[Moffy]

Theo,

You might want to clarify for Suzygs that you are talking about using a single hook sabiki rig..... (rather than the standard 6 hook pattern)

Quote from DPI Fresh water regs web page - "Only one hook or an artificial fly or lure can be attached to a fishing line".

Cheers,

Moffy

[TinarooTriumph]

So are you trying to say that stinger hook rigs, used by many an angler alongside soft plastics etc. are illegal too?

And that Freshwater Reg bullshit is from the same mob that introduced Cane Toads, Lantana, Tilapia & invasive exotic grasses into our country? Dare I also say Myna Birds?

Never have bait jigs been seen as quote 'illegal' in our Freshwater. If they were, then I'm sure they would never be sold over the counter to anyone holding a SIP, nor would they be sold within cooee of a freshwater Dam or stream.

Chuck a castnet out for all I give a shit. I'm not watching! Everybody else seems to do it on the 'hush hush'.

Cheers
Theo