In the opinion of many anglers (myself included), “sight-fishing” is the most exciting form of fishing ever devised. Seeing your prey before you make a cast and then watching its reactions to your bait, lure or fly lifts fishing to another level altogether, and really ratchets up the “hunting” aspects of our wonderful pastime… It’s also highly addictive! Whether you prefer to use natural baits, lures or artificial flies, I believe that there’s simply no bigger thrill in the whole wide world of fishing than sneakily stalking your visible prey, carefully placing your offering in front of it and watching what happens next. I defy anyone not to hold their breath and tense every muscle in their body with delicious anticipation as that target fish closes in on the trap you’ve just set. It matters little whether it’s a beautiful, wild brown trout tailing in the margin of a shallow lake, a fat, blue-nosed bream mooching under an estuary snag, a lumpy golden trevally hunting across a tropical sand flat… or even a stinky old carp mooching through the shallow margins of an outback dam! Time seems to slow and stretch as the seconds tick agonisingly by. Will the fish eat, or will it spook away in alarm at the last moment? For better or worse, once you’ve tasted the sheer delights of sight fishing, “blind casting”, “prospecting” or “flogging the water” will always be a distant second best. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS NOTE: To read the rest of this blog, you must be a member of “Starlo’s Inner Circle” of Fishotopia.com. To discover all the benefits of belonging and find out how to sign up, simply click...

In this fourth part of my ongoing blog series about our new Beastmaster Boats Snubby 500 rig, I reveal the “vital statistics” of the boat and share a few recent images of it in action. If you’d like to read Part 1, click here. For Part 2, click here. And for Part 3, click here. Also, don’t forget that you can watch a short video of the boat’s maiden voyage right here. Okay, down to business!   VITAL STATISTICS: BEASTMASTER SNUBBY 500* LENGTH: 5.0 metres (16′ 6″) BEAM: 1.98 metres (6′ 6″) HULL DEPTH: 0.76 metres (2′ 6″) HULL SIDES: 0.57 metres (1′ 11″) DRAFT: 0.26 metres (10″) DRY HULL WEIGHT: approx. 375 kilos (827 lb) * Explanatory Notes: Measurements quoted are generally to within a few millimetres and all conversions to imperial have been rounded up or down to nearest inch or pound. Hull Depth refers to the maximum depth from gunwale tops/coamings to the deepest part of hull. Hull Sides are flat sides from coamings to chines. Draft (vertical distance between the waterline and deepest part of keel) is an approximate figure (+/- 10%) for the unladen hull and will depend on weight added, load distribution, salinity of water, etc. For this reason, the draft shown should be regarded as a minimum under ideal conditions. Dry Hull Weight is an approximate figure (+/- 10%) and obviously does not include motor, batteries, fuel, electronics, safety gear and other equipment. Next time we’ll have a look at the Yamaha F70A four-stroke outboard fitted to the Snubby, along with the MotorGuide Xi5 bow-mounted electric trolling motor, Lowrance electronics and various other fittings. Until then, tight lines… and meanwhile, here are a few more images of the rig in action:   For more, follow me on...

My good mate Paul Kneller first began making lures professionally a quarter of a century ago, in the early 1990s, under the banner of Deception Lures. He quickly carved a loyal market niche for these beautiful, hand-crafted timber hard bodies. Deception Shrimps, in particular, became the “go-to” lure at places like Lake Windamere, in central western NSW, while his Nippers, Cherax, Yabbies, Palaemons and other models also developed a strong following amongst both fresh and saltwater anglers. The Deception brand was eventually sold to the Brisbane-based Tacspo company around 2004, when Paul and his wife Cheryl opened a tackle shop in Maclean, in far northern NSW. Following this change-over, Paul’s original Deceptions quickly became collector’s items, attracting high prices on the boutique secondhand market. I’m pleased to announce that after a long lay off from making and designing lures, Paul is back with renewed vigour and passion, keen to take his lures to the next level in terms of detail, action and quality. The models shown here are just an entree, with many more lures to be added to the line-up over the coming months and years. Best of all, every Kneller lure is crafted from wood, and Paul insists that this will never change! Here’s a very quick rundown of some of the gems in Kneller’s new range. You can find out more by visiting his page on Facebook here, going directly to his on-line shop here, or emailing Paul at: shake.bake@bigpond.com CHERNOBYL SHAD 55FD The Chernobyl Shad 55FD is a 55mm fat-bodied lure that could be best described as an all-rounder; suited to bass, bigger bream, flathead, estuary perch, trout, sooties and so on. The Chernobyl Shad will dive to around 3 metres on the troll or off a long cast, with...

In this third part of my ongoing blog series about our new Beastmaster Boats Snubby 500 rig, I take a look at some of the accessories we’ve added to the boat. If you’d like to read Part 1, click here, and for Part 2, click here. Batteries are something many people don’t think much about when it comes to setting up a new boat. However, they are vitally important components in a well-equipped rig. My fellow Offroad Adventure Show presenter, Jamie Hazelden from Jamie’s Touring Solutions (JTS) had been waxing lyrical about the new Lead Crystal Batteries, and after checking them out on-line, I could understand why he was so excited! Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up fitting two: a dirty big 120 amp hour unit up front to power the MotorGuide Xi5 bow-mounted electric and a smaller 80Ah battery down in the stern for cranking the Yammy and running the sounders, etc. It’s early days yet, to be sure, but so far I’m blown away by the performance of both batteries. The major claims to fame of these state-of-the-art batteries are an extremely long shelf life with a very low discharge rate when stored (you can store them for two years without any top up charging!). They also have the ability to cope with high discharge rates, a very fast re-charging time, and deep discharge capabilities. As a bonus, they’re made to deal with extremely harsh conditions in terms of temperature range, vibration and so on… All-in-all, exactly what the doctor ordered for tough marine use! (Go to the very bottom of this page for a listing of the major advantages of Lead Crystal batteries.) I’ll be sure to keep you up to speed with our observations about these...

In this second installment of the Snubby Boat Files, we finally get our new Beastmaster Snubby 500 boat wet. You can watch our short video of the event here, or by simply clicking the play button below: Even a grey, overcast and cool day couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm for giving “Mad Keen” (yes, she’s been officially named!) her first on-water run. Launching was a breeze and everything worked exactly as it should. We puttered slowly up through the 8-knot zone, then gradually increased the power… With the brand-spanking new F70A Yamaha still very much in run-in mode, we needed to frequently vary the revs and only touch full noise very briefly, but we were extremely impressed by the rig’s initial performance. It seems the motor height and prop choice (a Yamaha SS [stainless steel] Talon SDS 14K 13 1/8) were spot on… which is always a huge relief! (Find out more about those amazing Talon SDS props here.) Please note that the preliminary performance figures shown below are with a motor that’s still very new and therefore a tad tight. Also, there was very little additional gear in the boat, apart from basic safety equipment, 10 litres of fuel and two people. Here are the initial speeds we observed (via the GPS) at various revs: INITIAL PERFORMANCE FIGURES 3500 RPM = 15 knots (28 km/h) 4000 RPM = 20 knots (37 km/h) 5000 RPM = 25 knots (46 km/h) 6000RPM = 29 knots (54 km/h) 6100 RPM = 30 knots (55.5 km/h)* * Wide open throttle I’m particularly impressed by being able to sit on 20 knots or a whisker over (around 40 km/h) at 4000 to 4200 RPM, as this is an extremely economical mode of operation. I’d expect to be covering close...

In this first installment of my ongoing blog series about our Beastmaster Snubby 500, I look at the decision-making process that went into our selection of this bespoke, custom-built boat: Choosing a boat is always a massive decision. Like most keen anglers who’ve been pursuing their passion for a considerable period of time, I’ve owned a bunch of different vessels. I kicked off with a second-hand fibreglass canoe in my teens, went on to a car-topper aluminium punt, then a Webster Twinfisher alloy cat. That brings us through to an era when I first met shipwright and boat builder, Tyson Dethridge, and fell head over heels for his customised Full Boar fibreglass sportfishers, running first a 5 metre version, then a 5.5. Next, I spent a year or two in a fully imported Scout flats boat from the U.S. That was followed by a neat little 4.1 metre tiller-steer Cross Country (again built by Tyson) before I graduated into one of his larger, centre-console 4.75 metre Cross Country rigs. That 4.75 Cross Country (called “Evil Minnow” after one of the deadliest Squidgies soft plastic colours) was part of our family for well over six years, and we absolutely loved it. I’d have to say it was my favourite boat up until that point. With its light-but-strong foam-core sandwich fibreglass construction and powered by a class-leading F70A Yamaha 4-stroke motor, this was quite a radical craft, especially in Darwin, where we lived at the time. I reckon it opened a few alloy-blinkered Top End eyes to the validity and surprising durability of good glass. Our 4.75 Cross Country was the prototype of that hull and it had a few “rough edges” internally, but it served us exceptionally well. We dragged it over some bloody awful...

From the moment I first set eyes on the Native Watercraft FX Propel 13 pedal-powered kayak on the company’s American website (see here), I just knew I had to have one of these mean machines! Along with my wife Jo, I’ve been a Native Watercraft fan for quite a few years now, and this latest release from the company looked to be the perfect upgrade from my much-loved Mariner 12.5 (see my video about that now-discontinued boat here). So, I immediately placed an order with Native Watercraft Australia for an Ultimate FX from the first shipment destined to reach this country, which was due to arrive on our shores in October/November, 2016. My trip to Melbourne to pick up the shiny new Ultimate happily coincide with me also taking delivery of a fantastic, purpose-built, duo kayak trailer from Redide Trailers (something I’ll be blogging about in detail very soon!). Naturally, I was itching to get the new machine wet, but writing deadlines and poor weather conspired against this for a few days. Finally, a narrow window of opportunity opened and I managed to sneak out for a late afternoon bass fishing session on the freshwater reaches of a river not too far from home. From almost the moment I slid the Ultimate into the water and climbed aboard, I knew I’d made the right decision. A hybrid between a more traditional “sit-in” style kayak/canoe and the newer generation of “sit-on” yaks, the Ultimate has a noticeably higher seating position than either my old Mariner or the company’s more recent flagship: the Slayer. The new boat is also a tad lighter. That raised seating position translates to a significantly higher comfort level for my ageing bones and muscles, and also seems far more efficient when...

For at least a decade now, kayak fishing has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the angling scene here in Australia, as well as in many other parts of the world. Interestingly, this phenomenon shows little sign of slowing. Sales of kayaks and related paraphernalia continue to boom, marking this as one of the strongest niches in the marine and boating industry. I must admit that I’ve been a little slow to embrace the whole kayak “thing”. I spent lots of time sitting (usually with a wet bum) in various Canadian-style canoes throughout my early fishing career, and I was delighted when I could finally afford to graduate to a “real” boat. Don’t get me wrong: canoes have their place, and I’ve enjoyed some wonderful times in them. However, once you’ve fished from a craft that’s sufficiently large and stable to stand up in, especially one with a raised casting deck, it’s very hard to willingly go back to the low, cramped, unstable and often wet confines of a canoe. There were also other factors holding me back from kayak fishing. One was a perception that many ’yak fishers, as well as those who catered to their equipment needs, seemed to be missing the whole point of simple, minimalist boating. Some of the ’yak rigs I saw on the water and in magazines or videos had more “fruit” hanging off them in the way of electronics and accessories than my 4.8 metre trailer boat! Some actually required dedicated trailers of their own just to get them to the water’s edge, and half an hour or more of fiddling, tweaking and setting up before they were good to go. Wasn’t portability and ease of use supposed to be the whole point of ’yakking?...

PLEASE NOTE: This blog is accompanied by a video clip on my Starlo Gets Reel channel on YouTube, which you’ll find by clicking here, or going to https://youtu.be/YX6sMZf1cBU. As a full-time fishing writer and presenter, a big part of my job obviously involves capturing photographic images and video to accompany my work, so cameras are important tools for me. My main work camera is a big, heavy, full-frame DSLR (currently a Nikon D610) with a bunch of different lenses, but I also like to carry a compact point-and-shoot: both as a back-up, and for those times when I simply need something smaller and lighter. Over the 40 years or so that I’ve been writing for magazines, I’ve owned lots of cameras. I’ve eventually worn most out, broken them or drowned them… The fishing world’s a pretty harsh environment for sophisticated optical equipment! Through all of that time, I’ve always been on the lookout for the “ultimate” fisherman’s camera, and I reckon I might have finally found something close to that mark with Nikon’s AW1. While it’s certainly not the perfect solution, it ticks enough boxes on my list to come very, very close. The AW1 is a reasonably compact, mirror-less camera with interchangeable lenses that’s capable of capturing 14.2 megapixel images in both RAW and JPEG formats via a reasonable-sized sensor… Those are all good things. But the best thing about this camera in my book is the fact that it’s fully waterproof! Not just “splash-proof”, but actually waterproof! Without any form of housing or additional case, it’s rated to a depth of 15 metres, or almost 50 feet… That’s pretty impressive! It’s also rated as shock-proof if dropped onto a hard surface from a height of 2 metres… Ouch! The AW1 is sealed...

Here’s a fantastic new option for mainland anglers planning a Tasmanian fishing trip! The acronym “FIFO” stands for fly-in, fly-out and is most often used in relation to remote mining operations employing workers who fly to the site to commence their week or fortnight of shifts, then fly home afterwards for a break with their families. However, with the advent of fully-equipped “turn-key” hire packages of vehicles and boats, the FIFO concept now has genuine relevance in fishing circles as well! In late spring 2015, my wife Jo and I took advantage of exactly such a business that’s now operating on the island state of Tasmania. The brainchild of Ulverstone tackle shop proprietor, Clinton Howe, Tassie Boat Hire kicked off in mid-2015 offering a single boat rig and 4WD vehicle, but has already begun expanding with the addition of new hire packages. Jo and I were picked up from Launceston airport upon our arrival by Clinton in his first full rig: a 420 Quintrex Renegade towed by a 2011 model Mitsubishi Triton dual cab ute. Clinton drove to a nearby service centre to run us through the rig and complete the necessary paperwork, and then we were off under our own steam for a wonderful week in the Central Highlands chasing Tasmania’s famous wild trout on fly. From the outset, Jo and I were totally blown away by Clinton’s professionalism and the incredibly high standard of every component of the hire gear, from vehicle, boat and trailer to the smaller but equally important stuff like safety gear, battery charger, drift drogue (sea anchor), marine radio and on-board electronics. Everything worked exactly as it was meant to! Tassie Boat Hire’s 420 Quintrex Renegade is powered by a 40HP Evinrude 2-stroke motor on the stern, has...

Lots of anglers still struggle to crack the bream-on-lures code. Truth is, these fish are no pushover. But if you follow my simple, five-point plan below, and watch the accompanying video clip here, I’m confident you’ll be posing for a photo with your first bream on a soft plastic very soon! As I travel the country fishing, researching stories and gathering material for this blog and the many publications I contribute to, I come across increasing numbers of anglers who’ve embraced lure fishing and, in particular, the use of soft plastic lures. The uptake of soft plastics has definitely been one of the most significant trends in Australian recreational angling over the past 10 to 15 years, and its popularity shows no sign of diminishing any time soon. Softies are great lures and they’re not all that hard to use. Most new chums start catching at least the odd fish very early in their plastic-flicking careers. But some species are tougher nuts to crack than others, and the humble bream is perhaps the trickiest of the lot. It’s also the one I get asked about the most. The question typically begins with a statement along the lines of: “I can catch plenty of flathead on plastics, but I’m damned if I can work these bream out!” If you’re in that camp, I’m here to help! Below I’ve listed a simple, five-step strategy for cracking the bream-on-plastics code, and this is accompanied by this short, no-nonsense how-to video clip on my “Starlo Gets Reel” YouTube channel. You can go straight to that video by scanning the QR code at the bottom of this page, or by typing this URL into your browser: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wuLI5-M3UQ Okay… Are you ready to learn how to catch your very first...

Here’s my first video review (below) of some of the features I like best about the MotorGuide Xi5 (with PinPoint GPS): a sophisticated, bow-mounted electric motor , or “trolling motor”, as our American friends call them. I also have a thorough write-up and evaluation of this unit coming up in the July, 2015 editions of the three Fishing Monthly Magazines (QLD, NSW and VIC/TAS) and will blog that review here on StarloFishing after it has appeared in those publications. Don’t forget you can follow me on Facebook via my StarloFishing page, and subscribe to my YouTube channel: Starlo Gets Reel. Tight Lines!...

By now, quite a few anglers have become aware of a new player on the fishing line market called GLISS, or GLISS KG, manufactured by German company WFT (World Fishing Tackle). Some are touting this stuff as the potential replacement for existing braided and fused gel-spun polyethylene fishing lines, others as a cross-over between braided lines and monofilament… while still others are panning it as an abject fail… So, what’s the real story? I first became aware of GLISS after reading this article on the Angling International website during 2014. Since then, Angling International have run several more pieces/press releases about the line, including this one (followed shortly thereafter by this clarification), then this piece earlier in 2015, and most recently, this report about GLISS KG winning the award for best new braided line at the 2015 EFTTEX Show in Europe. (Click on the highlighted links in the previous sentence to read each of the write-ups, or find out more about EFTTEX.) According to these reports and other research I’ve done, GLISS is made from extruded and fused HMPE ( high modulus polyethylene) fibres. HMPE is widely used in high quality marine ropes, tow lines, etc. In a fishing context, it’s claimed to have very low stretch (like braid), to be ultra smooth (like mono), and to have ridiculously thin diametres for its strength… Reading those descriptions, I just had to get hold of some and try it, as it sounded perfect for a lot of the styles of “finesse” fishing I do… Tracking down some WFT GLISS wasn’t easy. Eventually, I ordered a spool of 6kg in the translucent finish on-line from a British mail order business (6 kg was the lightest they had in stock). After waiting several weeks for the line...

North American-based “The New Fly Fisher” on-line magazine has given my latest feature on fly fishing for Aussie bread and butter species in our southern estuaries a wonderful and unprecedented 20-page run in their latest issue! It’s a real honour to be able to introduce fish such as bream, flathead and luderick to a huge international audience of dedicated fly fishers… This is definitely one of the best on-line fly mags I’ve ever seen. You can subscribe for free or have a preview look here with just a few clicks:...

For those who missed it. I’ve attached my recent feature on catching big bream on flies from “Barra, Bass & Bream Digest” magazine. And in case the text from the magazine layouts is too small to read on your screen or in this format, I’ve also included the straight text at the bottom of this blog post. Also, if you’d like to find out how to purchase or subscribe to “Barra, Bass & Bream” on-line, go to: http://www.nafa.com.au/ Big Bream On Fly The Ultimate Challenge? What’s the ultimate prize in modern day barra, bass and bream fishing? Catching a metre-plus ’mundi on a surface lure and light tackle? Landing a 60 cm wild bass from a kayak? Pulling a 2 kg bream onto a wave-washed rock ledge in the middle of the night? Starlo rates all of those milestones, but reckons there’s another one that presents even more of a challenge. In his opinion, mastering big bream on fly is the toughest (and perhaps the most rewarding) game in town… Read on and see if you agree! The average, weekend angler no doubt struggles to understand why some of us might actually choose to make our fishing any harder than it needs to be. For many hopefuls, simply catching a feed of fish is a daunting enough prospect, without deliberately adding extra layers of difficulty to the process. Yet, as with any endeavour, those who are seriously engrossed in their passion and spend a lot of time pursuing it eventually look for extra layers of challenge: new peaks to scale and higher marks to attain. In preparing to write this feature, I spent considerable time pondering the bigger challenges fishing has presented me with over the years. In my late teens and early 20s,...

It’s not every day that you get to launch a comprehensive range of hard-bodied lures and semi-soft topwaters onto the Australian market, knowing that each lure will retail for $10 or less, yet still be an excellent fish catcher, with a classy finish and better-than-average hardware. However, that’s what I’m happy to say I’ve been able to do with my new STARLO PRO Lures range, designed and selected by me exclusively for the BCF chain of stores here in Australia. Now, I realise from past comments here and elsewhere that not every Aussie angler is necessarily a huge fan of BCF. There’s no doubt that the big chains (including BCF) have led to the demise of some small independent tackle stores, just as the competition from Coles and Woolworths has resulted in a reduction in numbers of local grocery outlets, butcher shops and so on. Nonetheless, for better or worse, I suspect there’s a certain inevitability to this sort of evolution in the world of retail. It’s also true that the better independents (in all fields, including fishing tackle) will not only survive but thrive in the face of such competition. They achieve this by providing the sort of expert advice, individualised customer service and “value adding” that most chains simply can’t or won’t offer. Meanwhile, BCF and their ilk do provide an excellent service to a great many customers, employ a heap of Aussie workers in the process, and don’t, in my experience, indulge in the sort of “crazy, crazy, crazy!” unsustainable discounting that could damage the industry. So, I’m more than happy to be involved with sourcing and designing exclusive lines of tackle for them, just as I have on occasion for other companies.         Anyway, if you’d like...

In the first part of this blog series on spooling up your reel, I looked at attaching the end of your line to the spool of your reel before beginning to crank all that line on… Now it’s time to work up a sweat as we finish the job! Hopefully, you’ll remember that in that first part I instructed you to fit the reel to a rod, run the end of the new line down through at least one runner, wrap it several times around the spool core, then secure it firmly in place with a five or six turn Uni Knot. I also stressed that if you’re filling a spinning (threadline) reel, you’ll need to open the bail arm first, before attaching the line, while if it was a baitcaster, the line would need to pass through the level wind carrier first. After tying that important Uni Knot, tightening it firmly and trimming the knot to leave a one or two centimetre tag, you can actually begin spooling up… This is the physically active part of the process! (Note that if you’re spooling with braided or fused gel-spun polyethylene line, lots of people suggest laying down a base of 15 or 20 metres of mono first and tying your braid to this. To be honest, I don’t usually do this, but it’s not a bad idea.) TO READ THIS REST OF THIS BLOG SERIES, GO TO “STARLO’S INNER CIRCLE”, BY CLICKING...

For those who missed it first time around in print, here’s a piece on open water bream luring that first ran in FishLife magazine earlier this year: The art of luring bream has been one of the major engines of change in Australian sport fishing over the past few decades. In less than a single generation, catching bream on lures has gone from being an accident or a novelty for most anglers to a regular pursuit for many. Even those who don’t “get it” and wonder what all the fuss is about must grudgingly admit that the pursuit of bream on artificial baits has completely transformed our sport. Before many of you reading these words were born, that doyen of Australian fishing writing, Vic McCristal, offered the opinion that anglers skilled enough to regularly take bream on lures would tend to find most other species easy. It was McSea’s quietly understated way of doffing his cap to the bream clan as perhaps our most challenging piscatorial targets. What Vic could hardly have guessed in those days was the passion with which this country’s sport fishing community would eventually embrace that particular challenge, and how doing so would completely revolutionise our tackle, our techniques and even our angling mindset. Make no mistake: bream luring has radically altered the shape of Australian fishing, and this significant evolutionary upheaval is far from having run its course. Discoveries remain to be made. For many, open water breaming is just one of them. Middle Of Nowhere For most of us, thoughts of catching bream on lures immediately conjure mental images of structure fishing: accurately casting our soft plastics and little hard bodies at shorelines, rocks, snags, pylons, oyster lease racks or moored boats. But what if I told you...

Saturday, 21st July, 2012 saw the staging of the second annual Barra, Bass and Bream Digest Harbourmasters’ Invitational on the waters of Darwin Harbour. In stark contrast to last year’s event, a cool, windy dawn greeted the 41 keen competitors who made up 21 teams taking part in this year’s BBBDHI, and the stiff sou’ easter continued to build throughout the morning, peaking at close to 30 knots before subsiding a little in the early afternoon. The aim of this unique one-day tournament is straightforward enough: go out and catch as many barra and bream as you possibly can on cast-and-retrieved lures or flies (trolling, bait fishing and berleying are not allowed). However, where it gets really interesting — and very different to any other Top End fishing competition — is in the final scoring process. Only the combined lengths of the longest barra and the longest bream taken by each team actually count towards their final points’ tally. And, critically, one species doesn’t rate without the other. In other words, you could theoretically land a metre-long barramundi (a monster by Darwin Harbour standards), yet still score zero points, simply because you’d failed to catch and record a bream! Unique concept My wife (and fellow writer/presenter) Jo and I devised this unusual event in an effort to effectively force Top End anglers into thinking a little more seriously about the vast schools of bream that frequent our waters, especially during the cooler months of the Dry Season. In the past, most Top End fishos have been quite dismissive about bream and bream fishing. Yet, with my southern background and years of competing on the bream tournament circuit, I know just how challenging these little buggers can be to catch! I wanted a way of sharing that challenge...

Over the course of a year, I get to talk to a lot of soft plastics fishers from around the country. Some I meet at seminars and shows. Others I chat with via the various pages on Facebook that I run or help to administer (especially the StarloFishing, Fishingscool and Squidgy Soft Plastics pages), or through my blogs here at www.starlofishing.me Still others send their letters or emails to me via the magazines I write for. However, no matter what the source of the enquiry, one question (or variations of it) dominates the calls for advice that I receive. Typically, that query begins with the words: “What’s the best soft plastic for…?” The rest of that sentence almost always contains a species of fish and a precise location: What’s the best soft plastic for bream in the Patterson Lakes? What’s the best soft plastic for trout in the Murrumbidgee River? What’s the best soft plastic for flathead on the Gold Coast? What’s the best soft plastic for yellowbelly in the Murray? What’s the best soft plastic for redfin in Lake Eildon? What’s the best for barra in the Daly? And so on… I can’t help but smile at the geographic specificity of these well-meaning questions. Anglers clearly have their favourite fishing spots and they seem to expect that the fish they chase in these beloved haunts will behave just a little differently to those living down the road, around the bend or across the border. Generally speaking, this is not the case. I’ve caught redfin perch in the New England rivers of north western NSW, and also in the very “old England” rivers around the historical university city of Cambridge, in Great Britain (where they’re simply known as perch). Rather unsurprisingly, these fish looked...