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Profiles: Tassie fishers

Yvette Barry, 18 Sep 2013.

These Tassie fishers tell some great stories about fishing around our island (and the sightings they uploaded on Redmap!).

  • Creative Commons, Wikimedia.

ABC news editor Andrew Fisher (pictured on the left with his son Jacob) reeled in this bluefin tuna near the Iron Pot at the mouth of the Derwent River. This is an unusual catch in this area, so Andrew logged his sighting on Redmap.  Andrew's best fishing anecdote? "I’ve got a lifetime of good fishing stories and not enough friends to bore with them!" Andrew has noticed quite a few changes during half a century of fishing in Tasmania. It's now harder to catch flathead. And he's seeing a huge boost in the size and number of boats on the water, seven days a week. 

 

Nathan Phillips spotted this sergeant baker (pictured left) on Tasmania's east coast and uploaded the photo on Redmap. He has also logged an eastern rock lobster. The crew leader at Pacific Aluminium loves fishing for flathead. Nathan's biggest catch was a 30kg bluefin tuna and a 90kg mako shark. With 20 years of fishing in his tacklebox, Nathan has noticed that electric reels and boat electronics now allow more people to venture into deeper waters and unfished grounds. Best fishing anecdote? "Any day is a good day for fishing!"
 

Police officer and Redmap member Christopher Lovell, pictured left with his kids, especially loves to fish Macquarie Harbour in Strahan. His favourite fishes to snag and eat are flounder and blue grenadier. After 24 years of angling, he's noticed that flathead is harder to catch in the Dentrecasteux Channel. He remembers one of his largest catches: a 50kg sevengill shark. He logged an angel shark on the Redmap website.

 

Jonah Yick caught this 6.5kg snapper in the River Derwent and logged it on Redmap (his girlfriend is proudly displaying their prize, left). This sighting is noteworthy as it's not common to catch a snapper this big and this far south. Jonah's best anecdote after 19 years of fishing? "Game fishing can be summed up by hours of boredom and minutes of madness! Usually it's 4 to 5 hours without a bite, then in a split second multiple rods go off and before you know it a boring day has turned into a successful trip!"


Teacher and Redmap member Charles Kemp only recently started seeing “strange” fish in Tasmanian waters.  He got quite a surprise when, for the first time in 30 years of fishing, he saw a school of flying fish skimming beside his boat (he didn't get a photo so we just imagined one, left!). Charles has logged a pike & luderick on Redmap. His favorite saying is "the only thing better than fresh fish is the peace and quiet waiting to catch them".

 

This 45kg butterfly mackeral was caught by Graeme Brownbridge off the coast of Devonport (his son is pictured in the trophy shot). This is the largest fish Graeme has ever reeled in! The bank officer has noticed a change in fishing techniques during his 30 years on the water: it's now more popular to fish with artificials (plastics etc) than bait.

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