Watch as the Jarvis Walker Brands staff undertake some reel testing on Fin-Nor Santiago and Marquesa reels off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, landing a nice striped marlin and mahi mahi.

Trolling lures is an easy and fun way to catch flathead and this short video shows how you can do it.

Watch how fishing personality Micah Adams locates and targets bream, thanks to some clever work with his depth sounder and Watersnake electric motor.

Here are some handy tips on tackle and technique for catching estuary squid.

Watch kingfish and big snapper being caught during a recent Fin-Nor field-testing day, putting Marquesas and Offshore spin reels through their paces.

The sailfish action was red hot on a recent Jarvis Walker Brands tackle test day off Broome, WA. Watch Ryobi and Fin-Nor reels, Gary Howard Rods and Rovex lines put to the test against arguably the most entertaining of all sportfish. Or, if you're short on time, check out the short video version of the action, which shows a sailfish triple-hook-up being landed, one by one:

King George whiting are caught from southern New South Wales to Western Australia. This species is not the biggest, meanest or hardest fighting fish in southern waters but, when it comes to popularity, this humble epicurean delight is near the top of most anglers' lists.

Big King George whiting are sometimes called kidney slappers because of the de-hooking action. Whiting are slippery and some anglers hold them close while retrieving the hook, which means the tail of a 40cm-plus fish may be slapping against your kidneys. It's fair to say that many southern saltwater anglers are gluttons for punishment, looking forward to the kidney slaps because when that happens they are catching big whiting.

Victorian whiting anglers look across the border at South Australia with envy. A big whiting in Victoria is in the 44cm to 48cm range and weighs 650 to 800g. Bigger specimens to 55cm are caught, albeit only occasionally, and I did hear of a pair of fish caught off Torquay that weighed 1.36kg.

In SA, whiting can grow to more than double this size. Places like Foul Bay on the Yorke Peninsula are famous for their 50cm-plus whiting.

In Port Phillip Bay and Western Port, the biggest whiting are taken at the southern ends of the bays. Sadly, the fish are on their way out. To understand why you have to look at the whiting’s life cycle: King George whiting have drifted into these bays from South Australia as zoo plankton, and stayed here as juveniles. When they reach sexual maturity, about 40cm long, the whiting move to the bottom of the bays in preparation for journeying westwards to the spawning grounds where their life began. It is while they are migrating through Bass Strait and along the southwest coast past Warrnambool and Portland that some of the biggest Victorian specimens are caught.

The best big whiting fishing I have experienced in Victoria was pre-dawn in the Lonsdale Bight, below the Cottage by the Sea. I fished with former charter skipper Mark Rushton and our bag of fish went from about 35cm to 47cm.

We were anchored close to shore and our first fish came almost as soon as the first bait went in. Sitting at the back of breakers on a beach at night was an eerie experience: waves were barely discernible in the darkness; a white fringe sometimes glimpsed was followed by the crash, boom of the wave collapsing on to the beach.

Never mind. The fishing was constant as the whiting went on about their business of feeding. Every fish that came aboard was full of sandworms. There was no great secret in hooking these whiting. Feel a bite, move the bait slightly and the chances were the take would be hard with the hook coming up fast into the jaw of the fish. Big whiting take baits with more certainty than smaller fish, which can be finicky and more inclined to suck than swallow.

The rig used was basic. The sinker was running from a leader of about 15cm long with sinker size varying with tide. Braid line has reduced the need for super heavy sinkers in the strong current, but we used six ounces in the strongest current, down to four ounces when we moved inshore and the current wasn’t as severe. Leader length was about a rod length (about two metres) and we worked solid tip rods.

Hooks were size 4, as snapper are always a chance at this time of year and smaller, lighter gauge hooks often pull on a decent red. Since then I have preferred the No. 4 stainless hooks for much of my whiting fishing and sometimes go as big as 1/0 when using octopus (suicide) pattern hooks.

Fresh squid takes a lot of beating as whiting bait. Pipi, mussel, bass yabbie, and sandworm also attract bites. To get the best out of squid take a large strip and pound it with a meat tenderiser so that the sticky juices are seeping out from the flesh. Tipping the bait with a piece of fresh mussel can be worthwhile. If you hook a whiting and it gets off, change the bait as whiting often ignore bait that has been chewed.

When it comes to finding whiting, look for seagrass beds interspersed with sand holes. Alternatively, look for a fleet of boats gathered over this sort of terrain. School sized whiting, that is fish in the 27-35cm sizes, are typically most numerous in 4-8m of water and bigger whiting are more common in deeper waters up to 12m. This is not a fixed rule, but a generalisation. Moreover, whiting feed best when there is current so if you are fishing an area and the whiting bite stops, check the tidal flows as they often go off the bite when the current stops, and come back on again when the tidal streams starts.

Rod and reel choice for whiting isn’t a high tech issue. Whiting are a simple fish and the simplest of threadline outfits will suffice. However, it is nice to work a balanced outfit and you always seem to catch more when you do. My preference is a quiver tip rod, in the 3-4kg line class coupled with a size 2500 Rovex Aureus threadline reel.

Typically, most quiver tip rods are about 2-2.7 metres long and the action is light due to the sensitive tip, but you can load them up and fight a good fish through the tubular glass section once a fish is hooked. These rods are superb when the fish are finicky or you are using small sinkers, as the ultra-sensitive tip is an extreme bite indicator. Another advantage in using these rods is when fishing in the wind. You can cast your bait, and then tighten the line. As you do so, the tip will bend under the load. Unlike other rods, the line stays tight in the wind and you can easily spot a bite—either by the rod straightening as the line goes slack, or else by the small twitches on the rod tip.

In deeper water with strong currents, you may want to add more lead. This can unbalance a light outfit. An alternative is to spool your reel with braid, which is thinner than monofilament, and this allows you to keep the sinker size down. An advantage of braid is that you will more easily feel a bite when holding the rod with a finger on the line. In my experience hook-up rates increase due to the lack of stretch in this line material. An important point when employing braid is set the reel drag to suit the rod and not the line. A heavier outfit is a good idea for fishing such strong currents, something like a Rovex Aureus 3500/4500 matched with a Rovex Air Strike rod.

A golden rule of whiting fishing is to ensure the bait is below the sinker. It doesn’t matter whether you use a running sinker or a fixed sinker rig, ensure the leader length takes the bait past the sinker. Most whiting rigs are variations of the paternoster style, and the best whiting anglers I know prefer single leader rigs, and use No. 4 to No. 6 octopus or baitholder pattern hooks. Many anglers place small red beads or thin red plastic tubing on their leaders near the hook claiming this increases their catch.

Sand whiting are the sporty little speedsters of South East Queensland’s shallow surf gutters and beaches. They are great fun to catch on light line and there is no arguing the lovely sweet taste of fresh whiting fillets.

For those real big whiting, or ‘elbow slappers’, you need to turn your attention from the surf back to the estuaries, as this is where most of those big whiting are caught. The slang term ‘elbow slapper’ comes about from when you catch one of these bigger whiting: as you grab the fish around the head to remove the hook, the tail slaps against your elbow. For most of us this span is about 30-35cm, so any whiting around that size and bigger most certainly fits the nickname. Catch a sand whiting around 40cm and you’ve a fish worth boasting about for many years!

There are four reasonably accessible spots in the South East I recommend you try for these fish:on the Sunshine Coast, the Maroochy and Noosa Rivers; and on the Gold Coast, the Nerang and Coomera Rivers.

All four of these rivers have good sandy bottoms throughout most of the lowers reaches, plus deep holes, channels and sand banks. For most of the time they also have clean clear water, particularly on the top half of the tide.

You will also find good whiting in areas such as Curramudi Lakes, Caloundra, Jumpinpin and the Broadwater.

What you need to look for is a good size sand bank next to deeper water that ends up with a good flow of water over it on the top half of the tide. The bank doesn’t need to be exposed at low tide and it is preferable if it has yabby banks and plenty of melon holes or undulations over it from the fast flowing water.This stirs up plenty of food for fish and provides those little holes to sit in. The fish need a reason to come up onto the bank and the main reason is food. That doesn’t mean you won’t catch them in the deeper channels—theywill be there too—but I achieve better catches over the shallows.

These days, all of these waters have a lot of daytime boat traffic—especially during weekends—so low light periods of dawn, dusk and during the night are the best times to fish. Big whiting do not like moving onto the clear shallows if there is a lot of noise and activity.

As the tide makes, whiting move from the deeper water up over the shallows with the tide. On the run out tide, you will still catch them over the bank but the best bite is when they are coming up to feed. Where the sand bank drops off into the deeper water is the place to try as the tide drops further; this is where they wait for food to come to them.

For bait, digging your own live worms is best, whether they be blood worms, rock worms or wrigglers. The effort required reaps rewards and is why some anglers always seem to do well.You can also opt for buying a few, if the idea of time and effort digging isn’t for you.

I prefer worms over baits such as yabbies and soldier crabs because they stay on the hook better and longer.Small bream and whiting are often over the same banks and they can easily have a quick pick at a yabby or soldier crab and the whole bait is gone. The longer your bait lasts, the better the chance of a bigger fish finding it.

Once you’ve found your chosen bank, anchor up on it. You may end up in less a metre of water but that is plenty deep for whiting.If the bank is too shallow or the boat is too bigto get up there, anchor in the deeper water where you can at least cast up onto the shallows. It becomes a patience game: the idea being to throw a couple of long whippy rods out and let them sit there, waiting for the fish to come along.

Try one line close to the channel and the other up on the shallows. You will soon work out where the fish are moving and then concentrate your efforts in that area. It is vital you make as little noise as possible, or you risk spooking the fish. And keep an eye on that rod tip!

A soft whippy rod is best, so the whiting can just grab the bait and mouth it before swallowing it. The less resistance the fish feels, the better your chance of hooking it. It’s hard to resist grabbing the rod immediately but hold back and let the rod load up with the weight of the fish before you try and set the hook. Too eager and you will miss a lot of fish—you will see what I mean as we all do it some time.

The big whiting go hard, so let them go on that first run and then expect them to go at it again as you get them close to the boat. You will find the fish come in waves and you’ll catch a couple in a short period of time, then none for a while. This is why it’s always good to have a few rods out.

The bigger fish will be around right through spring, summer and into autumn so you will have plenty of time to practice. Those warm summer nights are certainly a nice time to be sitting quietly out on the water, just waiting for that ‘elbow slapper’ to come along.

Whiting owe their popularity to a national distribution, relative accessibility and sweet table qualities. They are a great species for beginners soaking baits and have caused a stir recently with more experienced anglers enjoying success on small poppers.

There are a couple of tricks to catching on whiting on either bait or lure: Your line set-up should be as light as possible. Whiting are not big fish and they are mostly caught in sandy, snag-free areas so you can comfortably use one or two-kilo mainline and leaders. If you need a sinker for a bait rig, make it as small as is practical for the prevailing water movement and depth.

Bait fishers should employ small long-shank hooks and use several rods for each angler, cast out in a fan pattern, to increase your water coverage. Rig each rod with different bait until you see what is most popular on the day. Use fresh yabbies or bloodworms—it’s fun to catch them and more effective than frozen bait.

Focus on sand flats close to where you find your bait and keep changing your location if you don’t get a bite within 20 minutes. Once you find a school, try casting small poppers around for bigger whiting—you might even find a flathead by accident.

Tailor are accessible and relatively easy to catch from the shore or boat. They are tenacious adversaries and very entertaining when in the mood for displaying their aerial gymnastics skills.

The best times to target tailor are around dawn and dusk. They feed actively during these low light periods but can be caught throughout the day your best bet being near schools of baitfish.

Pilchards rigged on gang hooks are popular with bait anglers. Lure chuckers enjoy success on metal spinning lures worked with a high-speed retrieve. Poppers are a fun lure option when worked with a mix of fast and slow retrieves.

Tailor have sharp teeth and many anglers employ wire traces to avoid being bitten off. If luring, this should be kept very short (5cm). If bait fishing with ganged hooks, don't use wire—you might lose the odd fish, but you'll attract a lot more bites with a monofilament leader and the ganged hooks will offer some protection against the teeth.

Bleeding your catch immediately, keeping the fish cool and handling with care to avoid bruising the soft flesh will result in a better taste on the table.

Try this tackle combination for catching squid on squid jigs. It’s high performance—and affordable!

Rod: RovexEGi Squid Wrangler 7’6” RRP $99
Reel: RovexCrosa Spinning 2000 RRP $99
Line: RovexAureus Mono Green 6lb RRP $10
Squid jig: Jarvis Walker Razorback Lumo 2.0 Pink RRP $5

Squid are great live bait for many species. Fresh squid also makes great strip baits. Catching squid is relatively simple if you’re fishing the right areas. All you need is a light spin rod and a squid jig, which can be purchased at any tackle store. The size of the squid jig required will be determined by the depth of water you will be fishing and the average size of squid in your area. If you’re unsure, ask your local tackle store staff for advice. Squid jigs are available in many colours; pink and orange are popular and work well.

The most productive areas for squid are kelp beds, preferably a large area with the odd sandy patch. An effective method is to fan your casts from one end of the kelp bed to other, covering all the ground. Cast your squid jig as far as you can, let it sink until it’s a half metre above the kelp, and then twitch the rod sharply to make the jig rise and fall. Repeat this twitch throughout the retrieve and then cast again.

If you hook a squid, maintain a steady pressure during the retrieve—and make sure it expels all its ink before you bring it to the boat or shore!

Try these tackle suggestions for catching snapper on soft plastic lures. Or, if you live too far north for snapper, try the same casting outfits for catching coral trout on soft plastics, upgrading your leader to Rovex 30lb 10X Mono Leader.

Rod: Quantum Energy 701SPXX 8kg (Fuji Alconite guides, AAA cork grips, high modulus carbon blank, Performance Tuned—it’s a real gem!)
Reel: Quantum Energy SP EI30PTs
Line: RovexViros Braid 20lb
Leader: Rovex Fluorocarbon Leader 20lb
Lure: Tsunami Super Softie Scented Split Tail 5”—Pearl colour
Jig head: Weighted to suit the current and depth. If you’re unsure, start with a 1/4oz and adjust as necessary to ensure your lure is reaching the bottom.

GREAT VALUE PERFORMANCE CASTING OUTFIT Rod: Rovex Air Strike 701 SPXX 7’0” 8kg (Quality blank, crisp casting action and awesome value at under 80 bucks!) Reel: RovexAureus AU1 3500/4500 (it comes with two different size spools, so you can fill the 3500 spool with Air Strike braid for soft plastic fishing and the 4500 spool with 15lb Rovex Silk Touch mono for your snapper bait fishing.) Line: Rovex Air Strike Braid 20lb Leader: Rovex Fluorocarbon Leader 20lb Lure:Tsunami Super Softie Scented Split Tail 5”—Pearl colour Jig head: Weighted to suit the current and depth. If you’re unsure, start with a 1/4oz and adjust as necessary to ensure your lure is reaching the bottom.

4 QUICK SNAPPER TIPS: 1—Don’t motor over the snapper grounds before you start fishing. 2—Turn the motor off and drift while casting the area. 3—Wait until you’re past the hot zone before you start the motor and reposition, driving wide of the grounds, for the next drift. 4—You can check your drift direction away from the grounds so you know where to position the boat in relation to the mark before you start.

Catching snapper on soft plastic lures is proving to be more effective than popular bait techniques. This phenomenon is so effective that if you adhere to the basics, you're almost guaranteed to catch a snapper.

As with most fishing, success revolves around attention to detail. With snapper on plastics, this means taking the time to ensure your soft plastics are rigged perfectly on jig heads. You also need to make sure your casts are as far forward of the boat's drift as possible, to avoid spooking the fish. And never drive over a spot you are about to fish. It also means utilising your GPS and depth sounder to make sure you're fishing the best areas. This last point is crucial.

Every survey of angling preferences undertaken in Victoria comes up with a single common denominator in saltwater. Asked what is their favourite fish, the majority of anglers who fish with bait say snapper. The bulk of the 330,000 anglers who fish Port Phillip Bay want to catch a big snapper. Make no mistake: Big Red is big business. When the annual migration into Port Phillip Bay fails, boating and tackle retailers suffer. In good seasons sales boom, and you only need a whiff of pink to get the dollars moving and boats rolling down boat ramps.

About the best you can say about the annual snapper migration is that it will begin sometime spring, late September to mid-October. Rough conditions, overcast days and water discoloured and turgid from heavy rain runoff offer ideal conditions for snapper to enter the bay.

Once in the bay, the bulk of the snapper run up the east side past Mt Martha, Mornington and Carrum. During the day, snapper will feed in deeper water, 15-20m and at night, you can hook them in 8-15m. Good numbers are often caught off Williamstown and Altona, particularly smaller fish that tend to congregate over the inshore reefs in about 10-12m of water. Fewer numbers of snapper run along the western shoreline, past St Leonards. Some turn west and move into Corio Bay while others tend to stay around Pt Wilson and the grounds from here to Werribee.

After a strong onshore blow has stirred up the bottom and reduced water clarity, land based anglers can do well. This is especially true for piers and rock walls. Pt Lonsdale pier is an early and late season snapper venue that produces best when the water is murky. St Leonards pier is often best after or during a northerly blow, especially around Melbourne Cup weekend. Mornington pier often comes on well after a strong blow from the west has stirred up the water.

Most anglers fish snapper with 7-10kg threadline outfits. The criteria for the reel are a smooth clutch system and a spool capacity of about 250m. Some anglers prefer to use overhead reels, which offer better fish fighting control and cranking power. Anglers fishing areas of strong currents should use braid lines about 15kg, which are finer than 7kg monofilament and allow the angler to reduce sinker weights by more than half. In this case, set your drag to suit the rod and not the line.

Soft plastic aficionados will take delight in using the Fin-Nor MegaLite 4000 coupled with a Quantum Response, 4-6kg 7201 rod. This 2.2m long rod offers ample lifting power to handle the biggest red.

Quantum Cabo 50 PTs reel coupled with a 20lb, Rovex Carbon Tec XRC 48 rod is a great combination. The same rod is well suited to the Quantum Energy 40 PTs reel, although my preference in this case is to spool the reel with 15kg braid and set the drag to suit the rod rather than the line breaking strain.

The Fin-Nor Ahab 12 is one of the most durable threadline reels available and coupled with a Fin-Nor Ahab rod has all the stopping and lifting power required.

In recent years my favourite snapper outfit in deeper water areas has been the Rovex Aureus 8500 threadline reel combined with the Rovex Aureus 7601 rod. This outfit can be used in strong current where heavy sinkers are the norm. Despite its power, it is not a heavy outfit to use.

Fresh bait is always first choice and fresh squid, whiting, barracouta, garfish and salmon are favourites. If you want to target big snapper then use the fish heads. The humble pilchard still ranks as the most popular store-bought snapper bait. Cocktail baits have proven effective on pinkies and to that end many anglers will put a piece of squid on the hook and top the hook with a small pilchard piece.

The 4/0 chemically sharpened Tsunami Octopus is the favourite hook for most snapper anglers, one size hook doesn't suit all as bait size and not the target fish determines hook size. Some days it may be preferable to go up to a 6/0 hook, or if working cubes of pilchards for pinkies, drop back to a 2/0. When the fish are a reasonable size and you are working big baits, use two hooks on the same leader with the second hook either sliding or snelled.

The standard rig in most areas is a running sinker. This may involve a sinker the size of a pea, or something a little more substantial such as a bean or ball. At the southern end of Port Phillip Bay, there are strong currents. Light lines and pea sinkers give way to heavier rods and reels spooled with braid, and snapper leads that start at about 250g and are changed to suit the tempo of the tidal stream during the course of the fishing. A 330g sinker is common in such environments. In this scenario, a running paternoster rig, with longer leaders is used.

Leader material in the 15-24kg breaking strain is used on bait, but for soft plastics 8kg leader does well enough as most fish will be hooked in the mouth.

For maximum hook-ups, fish with your reel in gear on a set drag of about 1kg to 1.5kg. Providing your hooks are sharp and the points exposed, snapper will hook up when they take the bait.

Murray cod is our most sought after native freshwater fish, the freshwater heavyweight of Australian waters. A fish with iconic status that is capable of growing to 1.8 metres long and weighing more than 113 kilograms.

Like many fish, cod change their colours to suit an environment. In the tannin-stained waters of New England's granite belt, Murray cod are mottled dark olive and black with black fins. In the NSW-Victoria stretches of the Murray-Darling basin, cod colours vary from dark to light pastel green with lighter fin colourations. Move downstream along the Murray River into South Australia and the green turns to shades of grey. Tannin water, soiled water and second hand waters; three water variants produce the same fish in different colourations.

Murray cod go by a number of different names. Some anglers call them by the old English name, codfish, while greenfish and goodoo are in common usage.

Whichever vernacular you choose, there is no denying the prestige that the Murray cod holds, both in angling and Australian bush folklore. More tall stories do the rounds on cod than for any other Australian fish, freshwater or saltwater. There are tales of cod so big they had gravel rash on their bellies and sunburnt backs; of cod so ravenous that sheep and large dogs trod warily when sipping along the banks of cod waters.

Devoted cod anglers can be the piscatorial equivalent of fire and brimstone preachers who regard yellowbelly as by-catch and trout as cod lollies; fish may be slimy, sub-reptilian creatures but cod are by-God smart.

The good news is that Murray cod season opened in Victoria and New South Wales on December 1 and, after a two-year moratorium, South Australian anglers will once again be able to target the iconic species from January 1—albeit with limitations.

In Victoria and NSW, Murray cod have a bag/possession limit of two, a minimum legal length of 60cm and a maximum legal length of 100cm. However, in SA cod will be available to anglers as a catch and release fishery only. A complete closure to Murray cod fishing would still be in place in the Chowilla region. Although you can fish for cod in SA anglers are not allowed to remove them from the water.

Bardi and wood grubs, scrubworms, shrimp and yabbies have been standard cod baits for more than a century. Of these, the bardi is probably the best offering.

A bardi grub is the larval stage of the ghost moth. These fat white grubs mature in the ground. Adult bardies are about 75-100mm long, as thick as a man’s finger. The problem with the bardi is cost, about $2.50 each with price dependent on availability. The alternative is to invest in a bardi puller and gather your own grubs.

The most recent innovation for cod baits has been cheese, which produces good numbers of smaller cod. There is even a bardi grub shaped mould designed for cheese.

A 6kg outfit will cover bait fishing for smaller cod up to about 10kg, but it can pay to work heavier 8-10kg tackle for the bigger cod. If using braid lines then you can up the ante to 15kg.

Hook size for baits are generally a 4/0 to 6/0, straight shank or octopus (suicide) pattern. If you are solely after big cod then employ a 15kg leader. The simplest rig is to use a small ball sinker and allow it to run down to the hook. Some anglers prefer to use running sinker rigs with a leader, a better option when fishing from shore as you try to keep the bait up off the bottom. In a boat, drop the bait to the bottom and then wind it up a metre or so.

Lure fishing is the most consistent method for catching big cod. Deep-diving lures that kick over when they hit a log took cod fishing by the throat, and then a whole range of different hard-bodied cod lures appeared on the market.

Next came the spinnerbait phase. The advantage of spinnerbaits over conventional bibbed minnow lures is that they can be cast into heavy timber and slowly worked through the structure without snagging, albeit most of the time. Moreover, spinnerbaits are ideal for shallow water timber, although on evenings surface lures do well in these areas.

The best places to seek out big cod are in deep water near submerged timber. When trolling, work the lure as deep as it will go, and hang in close to snags and rock bars. If you aren’t fouled every now and again you are not deep enough. You will catch more fish trolling downstream than you will upstream.

Lure trollers normally work heavier tackle than bait fishers and generally put braid lines—say Rovex 30-50lb Viros—over 8-10kg baitcaster outfits—say a Quantum Accurist 8-10kg BC 5’8” rod matched with a Quantum Energy E100SPTs baitcast reel. Leader material is important and should be about 15-24kg breaking strain (30-50lb Rovex 10X Mono Leader). Set the drag on the reel to suit the rod, not the line class.

Fisheries Victoria has produced a rule that allows anglers to estimate the weight of their Murray cod based on fish length. By lying Murray cod down on the rule, anglers can quickly get a weight estimate of the fish without suspending it on scales. The rule is free and available by emailing go.fishing@dpi.vic.gov.au with your name and postal address.

Recommended cod tackle:

Top shelf
Rod: Quantum Accurist 8-10kg BC 5’8”
Reel: Quantum Energy E100SPTs baitcaster
Line: Rovex Viros Braid 30lb
Leader: Rovex 10X Mono Leader 40lb

Great value budget beater
Rod: Rovex Air Strike 56BCH 8kg 5’6”
Reel: QuantumBC Surge SU670CX Burner baitcaster
Line: Rovex Air Strike Braid 30lb
Leader: Rovex 10X Mono Leader 40lb

strong>Where: Wentworth, at the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers, 34km west of Mildura, 590km north-west of Melbourne.

Fish: The Murray cod is Australia’s largest freshwater fish species. If you’re going to chase the legend, you must do it on the once-mighty river that gave the fish its name. Casting spinnerbaits, trolling deep diving lures or soaking bardi grubs are popular tricks used by local anglers to catch big cod.

When: The biggest fish are found in winter—and any caught are earned in the bitter cold. Facilities: Mildura offers a wider range of accommodation than Wentworth and is still close to the fishing.

Other things to do: For a taste of convict life, visit the Old Wentworth Gaol, the first prison designed in Australia. Take the missus to see the desert in bloom at the Australian Inland Botanic Gardens.

Also try: Cod larger than 20kg are known to frequent the waters near Robinvale, Vic. Torrumbarry Weir, Vic, can also produce some monster Murray cod during winter. We’re talking about fish bigger than 100 old-fashioned pounds! Such behemoths will forever swim their way through grey-bearded folklore, whispered in the Murray Valley pubs. Handle and release these big green monsters with the respect they deserve.

Murray cod tackle: Quantum Smoke SL100SPT Baitcast reel; Quantum Energy 601BCM rod; RovexViros Braid 30lb; Rovex 10X Mono Leader 60lb.

Three days had passed without a sniff of a kingie and we began questioning our sanity. These giant pelagic fish are an angling milestone, one sent to test the very fibre of your being. Our live baits were suspended a few metres under balloons. Two Fin-Nor Santiago 16 reels loaded with 80lb Rovex Depth Finder braid and 100lb Rovex Wind On Mono Leader should stop most fish in their tracks. But big kings are not most fish, as we were about to find out.

The water erupted as both the salmon and squid baits—bridled on 9/0 circle hooks—disappeared down the throats of two monster kings, the fish tearing off for the horizon. It was the beginning of a dogged fight. All we could do was hold on, pursue the fish by boat and hope the heavy drag setting would take its toll. It was hard to contain our excitement—and just as hard to avoid wondering about the rocks just several hundred metres either side of the battle. Luck was on our side and each powerful run became shorter and shorter as the strong drag weighed heavy on the fish’s fighting spirit.

Two kingfish emerged—the biggest we had ever seen. Each monster fish was scooped and tail-grabbed in a giant landing net, held aloft for a snap shot or two, then returned to the water.

Kingfish are a viable target along the coastline as the weather warms over the coming months. They can be frustrating but the chance to catch one of these fish is worth any torment and anguish. Good gear is essential for catching any big fish and even more so with giant kingfish. The Fin-Nor Santiago matched with 80lb Depth Finder braid and Rovex 100lb Wind On Mono Leader was more than a match for these and several other giant kingies that scoffed our baits and damaged our bodies. I can’t wait to do it all again!

Try these tackle combinations for catching kingfish on metal jigs!

SPIN
Rod: Fin-Nor Offshore Jig 80lb Spin RRP $269
Reel: Ryobi Carnelian 12000 RRP $299
Line: Rovex Depth Finder Braid 80lb RRP $99 (300m)
Leader: Rovex 10X Mono Leader 80lb RRP $20

OVERHEAD
Rod: Fin-Nor Offshore Jig 100lb OH RRP $289
Reel: Fin-Nor Marquesa MA16RRP $349
Line: Rovex Depth Finder Braid 80lb RRP $99 (300m)
Leader: Rovex 10X Mono Leader 80lb RRP $20

The thought of changing to lures can be daunting for those who have always fished for flathead with bait. The range of lures is immense, so where do you start?

Read any article in fishing magazines and everyone is dropping names of various brands, styles, colours and weights, adding more confusion.So let’s keep it simple and try and get you your first flathead on a soft plastic lure. You’ll need a couple of things to get going:

I use a 7’0” graphite rod suited for lines of 8-12lb, matched with a 2500 size reel. These rods and reels are available at several different price points. Fill the reel with 10lb braid, ensuring you load the line on the reel tightly, so it doesn’t slip on the spool. Ten or 20 metres of monofilament line wound on as backing under the braid is a good idea that prevents the braid slipping.

Why braided line? Well, it’s much thinner so it has less resistance when casting and sinking through the water. Its low-stretch properties offer you a greater feel, too. You might think 10lb is a bit light but most braids usually break higher than the rating and 10lb-plus is more than enough to handle flathead.

Attach to the end of the braid a couple of metres of 15lb or 20lb fluorocarbon leader material. This protects against rough seafloor, the flathead’s abrasive teeth and so the coloured braid is not attached directly to your lure.

It’s worth making mention here of why some of what we talk about is in metric terms and the other imperial. That’s because most of the tackle we are talking about is made primarily for the USA market and arrives into Australia marked that way, so it’s easier for me to tell you what you will read on the products in tackle stores, rather than convert it and starting confusion.

You attach a soft plastic lure to what’s called a jig head, which is a weighted hook made for this purpose. For South-East Queensland, jig head weights of ¼ and 3/8 ounce heads will cover most scenarios and can also be used on the shallow bay reefs.

The jig head hook size should be from 3/0 to 5/0, depending on what size lure you are using. Flathead have big mouths and even small fish will take a big lure. Ioften fish with a four-inch‘shad’ pattern and catch plenty of undersize fish on these, as well as big fish.

A shad pattern is a fish shape with a flat paddle tail, somewhat like a herring in shape. The paddle tail starts a nice wriggling action that resembles tail movement of a bait fish.Of late we have been doing well on the 4” Tsunami Shad in the Clear Orange Belly pattern.

To catch flathead you need to cast and retrieve with a slow lift-drop-and-wind method. I use this technique because flathead, while they are hunters, will often lie in ambush on the bottom, waiting for prey to pass by. Flathead will more often than not hit the lure on the drop, as it sinks down, so you need to keep concentratingso you don’t miss the strike or tap of a fish hitting the lure.

After a few trials you will soon work out the correct retrieve technique so you no longer drop too quickly—resulting in a heap of slack line—nor retrieve the lure too quick.

The hardest part,if you have always bait fished, isoften the change in tactics to becoming the hunter and actively seeking out where the fish maybe.The obvious places—such as weed banks, gutters, drop-offs and sand banks—are all likely to hold flathead. Working out where and when flathead will be at these locations is the challenging part.

Fish move out into deeper areaswhen the water is clear, so you may have to occasionally change where and how you fish. If many baitfish are up in the shallows, that’s a good spot to cast towards. On several occasions I’ve spotted the flick of a few bait fish in ankle-deep water, cast to that spot and immediately hooked up on flathead.

You tend to get more fish when you are actively hunting your quarry. You also gain a better understanding of the areas you fish and where and when fish will come. You might have to start by fishing the whole tide a few times before you work out the best part of the tide to fish.A whole day’s fishing—a small problem, you’d agree!

A general rule: the last half of the run out is the best as the baitfish are moving off the shallow flats and into the slightly deeper water. I’ve found on the high tide that fish are more spread out and you need to cover a larger area to find good fishing.It’s not just in estuaries that you can fish this way. Surf gutters can also be productive.

Keep quiet when working the shallows from a boat and if wading, keep back from the water’s edge when you cast. Be persistent and it will all click into place. They you’ll see why so many anglers enjoy the soft approach to chasing flathead.

Flathead species are found all around Australia and are accessible to anglers of all experience levels. They are an excellent fish to target this summer.

Try fishing open weedy areas in shallow bays and flats for smaller eating-size fish. Bigger fish can be found in areas subject to more tidal movement. Remember that large breeding fish are the future of the species, so handle and release them carefully. A large landing net* will make that task much easier and protect your hands from the many spikes on flathead.

Flathead soft plastic lure set-up

Rod: Rovex Air Strike* 601SPX, 1.8m, 2-4kg
Reel: RovexAureus* AU1 1500/2500
Line: Rovex Air Strike Braid* 8lb
Leader: Rovex Fluorocarbon Leader* 20lb or 30lb, depending on average size of fish in the area
Lure: 3-inch Tsunami Soft Plastic Shad – Rigged* (it’s ready to fish, right out of the packet!)

Estuary flathead bait fishing set-up
Rod: Jarvis Walker Tuff Tip* CT 6602 TLM, 2m, 3-6kg
Reel: Jarvis Walker Powereel* 2000
Line: RovexAureus Monofilament* Lo-Viz Green 9.7lb
Leader: Rovex Fluorocarbon Leader* 20lb or 30lb, depending on average size of fish in the area
Hook: Tsunami Baitkeeper* Red Size 1
Sinker: Jarvis Walker Bean Sinker*, size choice determined by depth and prevailing current/tidal movement

Flathead are an easy fish to catch and lend themselves well to many fish recipes, but you have to find them first.

Bait fishing is effective, but bearing in mind flathead are an ambush predator, lures will cover more ground and often attract bigger fish. Soft plastic lures rigged on jig heads appropriately weighted for the depth of water and prevailing current are your best bet.

A light rod with a line rating around 2kg and length of about 2m matched with a small threadline reel is ample power for the task-and fun to use.

Target open weedy areas in shallow bays and flats for smaller eating-size fish. Bigger fish can be found in areas subject to more tidal movement. Remember that large breeding fish are the future of the species, so handle and release them carefully. A large landing net will make that task much easier and protect your hands from the many spikes on flathead.

Try these great value, high-performance products for luring bream in your local estuaries:

Rod: *Rovex Air Strike 661SPX 6’6” 3-5kg (RRP $50)

http://www.jarviswalker.com.au/catalogue/rods/rovex-rods/air-strike.html

Reel: *Ryobi Arctica 2000 spin reel (RRP $90)

http://www.jarviswalker.com.au/catalogue/reels/ryobi-reels/arctica-spin.html

Line: *Rovex Air Strike Braid 8lb (150yd RRP $40)

http://www.jarviswalker.com.au/catalogue/line/rovex-line/air-strike-braid.html

Leader: *Rovex Fluorocarbon Leader 8lb (RRP $9)

http://www.jarviswalker.com.au/catalogue/line/rovex-line/rovex-fluorocarbon-leader.html

Lure: *Tsunami Super Bream 55mm; Black, Green & Orange (RRP $10)

http://www.jarviswalker.com.au/catalogue/fishing-lures/tsunami-lures/super-bream-lure.html