The 1990’s – Fishing during my High School Years.

Vietnam
In 1991, I had a family holiday to South-east Asia where I did some fishing in Vietnam. The only species I can be sure of that I caught was the Climbing Perch [#11] which I caught on a bamboo float and ant pupae, in a pond in Saigon. In the same pond, I also caught a species of Gourami which I have not been able to identify, being so long ago, I don’t even remember what colour it was, but it was only about 5cm. In another pond, I netted a larger species of Gourami and possibly two species of Snakehead. On the same trip, I spent several days in the Mekong Delta where I fished in the Mekong. Using worms, I caught a species Catfish and a Danio or Rasbora. All I remember was that it had a red ‘glowlight’ stripe across its body. In some rice paddies, I collected some Betta using bamboo nets and in a flooded river, I netted some Bumblebee Gobies and a species of Halfbeak.


Bumblebee Goby - Brachygobius spp.

Werribee River at Exford
Before I moved to Werribee, I recall several fishing trips to The Werribee River at Exford just below the Melton Reservoir where I caught a Redfin and Roach [#12]. Fishing for roach here was interesting because it was the first species of fish that I caught on sweetcorn.



Roach - Rutilus rutilus #12

Port Phillip Bay off Altona
I cant really remember which year it was, but I did a once off boat fishing trip drifting off Altona. On this trip, I caught my one and only ever Gummy Shark [#13], some Southern Sea Garfish [#14] and a lot of Flathead. Others on the boat also caught Goatfish and Snapper.


Gummy shark - Mustelus antarcticus #13

Geelong
Geelong became more accessible when my family moved to Werribee in 1994. I only ever fished the little Jetty off the end of Yarra Street. Here I caught King George Whiting [#15], Southern Cardinalfish [#16], Soldierfish [#17] and Blue Weed Whiting [#18] towards the shore and Snapper and Silver Trevally out into the bay.


King George Whiting - Sillaginodes punctatus #15


Southern Cardinalfish - Vincentia conspersa #16


Soldierfish - Gymnapistes marmoratus #17

Werribee River
Living in Werribee, I lived only a few hundred metres from the Werribee River. My favourite spot here is just below the Weir. There were large shoals of Redfin Perch here, a lot of them where stunted but there were a few occasional good specimens. At the right time of the year, there were Shortfin Eels [#19] at the base of the weir giving good sport. I caught several mini species here as well including Common Galaxias [#20], Spotted Galaxias [#21], Tupong [#22] and Mosquitofish [#23].


European Perch - Perca fluviatilis - This is the oldest fishing photo I can find, a Werribee River Perch


Shortfin Eel - Anguilla australis #19


Common Galaxias - Galaxias maculates #20


Tupong - Pseudaphritis urvillii #22


Eastern Mosquitofish - Gambusia holbrooki #23

Barwon River, Geelong
Later on, I started fishing in the Barwon River for Redfin Perch. The Redfin here seemed to have the reddest fins I have ever seen. They were really easy to catch here, just dip net in the margins for some freshwater shrimp. And float them into the river where they will get gobbled up by large Redfin in no time. I occassionally caught shortfin eels and roach here as well. Netting the margins, I sometimes caught Flathead Gudgeon, but have never hooked one.



Australian Freshwater Shrimp - Paratya australiensis



Flathead Gudgeon - Philypnodon grandiceps

The 1980’s - Early Childhood Fishing Memories

In this blog post, I am reminiscing about my early fishing marks when I lived in Melbourne. I don't have any photos this far back, but will try to find photos of the species I talk about.

Tambo River at Swan Reach

My earliest memories of fishing were from several trips to the Tambo River at Swan Reach to catch Southern Black Bream. We used bloodworms (a type of polychete worm) easily bought at any petrol station nearby.


Southern Black Bream - Acanthopagrus butcheri #1


The Yarra River at Fisherman’s Bend

This was another location that I have fond memories of during my childhood years. It’s now all built over with marinas and wharves, but there used to be several kilometres of beach here. Bait was easily collected onsite using a bait pump for bloodworms.

The main target here was the Southern Black Bream. We used a running ledger with a 50cm leader and bloodworms on a 6-4 sized hook. Occasionally we would get some Snapper but unfortunately also sometimes plagued with Bridled Goby, Smooth Toadfish and Juvenile Flathead. The always heard of reports of Mulloway caught from this area, but I have never seen one caught.


Snapper - Pagrus auratus #2


Bridled Goby - Arenigobius bifrenatus #3


Smooth toadfish - Tetractenos glaber #4


The bait collecting also brought in large shoals of Yellow-eyed Mullet and Bay Trout (juvenile Australian Salmon). These were caught on the float a few metres out. I also once had a juvenile Greenback Founder caught using the bait pump.


Western Australian salmon - Arripis truttacea #5


Yellow-eye Mullet - Aldrichetta forsteri #6


Yarra River at Newport

On the opposite bank from Fishermans Bend is the Newport Power Station. Back in the 80's I never fished the mark known as the 'Warmies' [I only discover this a decade later], which is the outlet of the power station. I fished the intake a little further upstream. From here I caught most of the species listed above, but also often had Zebrafish as well.


Zebra Fish - Girella zebra #7


Maribyrnong River at Footscray

Slightly upstream of Fisherman’s Bend, the river splits into two, forming the Yarra River which flows through Melbourne and its largest tributary, the Maribyrnong which flows through the Western Suburbs. Yarra and Maribyrnong roughly translate to Freshwater and Saltwater in the local Wurundjeri language. Here I caught Southern Black Bream, Yellow-eyed Mullet, and the unwanted Bridled Goby. On only one occasion, I caught I juvenile Estuary Perch of about 6”.


Estuary perch - Macquaria colonorum #8

School Camps

I caught two species of fish at school camps in primary school. Redfin (European Perch) from the Rubicon River and Silver Trevally from the Anglesea river.


European Perch - Perca fluviatilis #9


Silver Trevally - Pseudocaranx georgianus #10

These were my first 10 species