Fishing with Tony Lincoln | The Little Things

G'day all,

The little things.

With a couple of clear days and light winds finally arriving at the time of writing, a lot of us are keen to get out on the water and make the most of the opportunity, which can be quite rare, particularly during some summers. And with the past year of weather being less than kind, the last thing we want to do is lose fish when we do finally manage to get on the water.

Losing a good fish is a horrible feeling, compounded when we realise it was preventable if we'd only taken the time to double check our tackle. A few basics that regularly cause anglers to lose hooked fish can be;

• Poorly maintained rods and reels; clunky or seized drags cause massive surges in pressure on our line and these surges can and do regularly cause line breakages.
• Corrosion on or seized moving parts can also cause problems. Any surface that our line touches should turn freely where required, be shiny smooth and free of any abrasive texture which at best, scuffs and damages our line, and at worst, particularly when tight to a good fish, will cause it to break with very little pressure. The same applies to corroded rod guides. Cracked guides will also cut tight line like a scalpel if the line touches the sharp edge of a crack at the wrong angle.
• Check your rigs after each fish and periodically throughout your fishing session. Scuffed leaders and frayed knots should be replaced or retied at the first sign of any damage. And an often overlooked detail is the sharpness of our hooks. A small diamond hone fits easily in your pocket and takes a few seconds to touch up hook points. Poorer quality hooks have been known to lose their edge or even break tips off just by dragging across rocks or shell grit type seabed.

Murphy's Law dictates that the cast you don't check will be when your fish of a lifetime turns up.

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

• Prawns are still active in local rivers, creeks and bays.
• A lot of baitfish activity around the Peninsula which should see the pelagics harassing them once we get some clear water.
• School mackerel and the odd GT in Bramble Bay.
• The odd summer whiting on Margate Beach and in Hays Inlet.
• Flathead still consistent around the Redcliffe peninsula.
• Cod, squire and grassy sweetlip on the inshore reefs with the odd fish coming off the beaches and rocky points.
• Mangrove Jack in the canals and the rivers and creeks.
• Mud and Sand crabs in Bramble Bay, Deception Bay and in the rivers and creeks with some very nice muddies being caught once again.