Fishing with Tony Lincoln | Fishing Light

IT’S THE golden rule of fishing; the lighter you fish, the more fish you'll catch.

This applies to all aspects of our tackle - line, leader and terminal tackle all combine to our presentation, and the more natural a presentation, the more bites we'll receive. As long as the weight of our line and terminal tackle are within reason for our target species, fishing lighter will almost always yield better results. We may lose a bit more gear, and the occasional fish as well, but overall, we'll nearly always be in front. The heavier our rig, especially line and leader weight, the more fish we spook.

We still want to tailor our rigs to suit the environment we're fishing in to minimise losses. For instance, fishing a clean sandy bottom or channel edge, a lightly rigged bait that moves with the current provides a natural presentation as well as covering more ground. However this same rig fished in rocky or reefy ground will be prone to snagging up and result in the inevitable bust off. The latter scenario may be more efficiently fished by anchoring our bait with heavier sinkers or presented under a float or balloon to stay above the snags.

Leader weight should be just enough to protect against either scuffing over structure or weakening from chafing against a fishes jaw or teeth during the fight. I regularly hear anglers talking about using wire trace for fish such as Flathead. This is overkill. I personally use between eight and fourteen pound monofilament or fluorocarbon leader, depending on my rig and the size of the fish I'm targeting at the time.

The same focus applies to our main line. The lighter the better, although we do need to take into account the structure or challenges that a particular location may present.

Think about where you can reduce the weight of your rig, experiment with and learn to use your drags and give fishing light a go. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised by the result.

Thanks for reading again, and remember;

Talk to old people, they know stuff you don't.

Talk to young people, they know stuff you don't.

FISHING REPORT

• Tailor off the jetties, rocky points, on the inshore reefs and in Bramble Bay.
• Squire, snapper and grassy sweetlip on the rocky points, inshore reefs and the odd one off the jetties.
• Bream on the beaches, jetties, rocky points and on the inshore reefs.
• Bream, flathead and some whiting in Hays Inlet, the Pine River, Scarborough Spit and foreshore, and the mouth of the canals.
• A few GTs caught around Scarborough.
• Diver whiting off Scarborough into Deception Bay, and across to the Cockle Banks.
• Squid becoming more consistent off the jetties, points and inshore reefs.
• Snapper and tuskies on the artificial reefs inside Moreton.