I always knew I’d split my year between two countries, but I never thought Australia would be one of them. Every November I leave Canada’s harsh winter to look for sunshine and fish on the flats. In 2013, I’d been in the process of pricing out places in Roatan when I stumbled upon my (now) husband during a fishing trip in Norway.
As quick as the local boys lost my attention, so too did the sketchy property deals in Honduras. Romance aside, it was important that I explore Australia’s fishing. As a professional angler, proximity to good fishing is important and I was worried it wouldn’t quite make the cut.
I knew Australia was surrounded by water, but I’d heard few raving reviews about its fishing.
Upon arriving in Sydney, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into… Pretty people in coffee shops, hurried people in cars, wet people with surf boards, and vacant looks on every single one of their faces when I asked them about Australia’s fishing. Surely if fishing here were half decent everybody would know about it? I chalked it up as a common big-city ailment and took to the waters to see what I might find.
I began my exploration by fly fishing in Sydney harbour, where sunsets warmed the skies and racing sailboats warmed my blood.
“Catching anything?”, sailors hollered smugly as they whizzed by.
It seemed fishing, fly fishing in particular, was a sport with little familiarity amongst the majority of the NSW population. At my weekly casting sessions in the park, people were genuinely confused about what I was doing. To add to my bewilderment at their bewilderment, those who did know a thing or two about fly fishing merely assumed that I was a trout angler.
It only added to my suspicion that fishing in Australia is underrated with the potential to grow into one of the most sought out fishing destinations in the world.
New Zealand was on everyone’s bucket list, why wasn’t Australia?
The more I probed the topic, the more grey it seemed. As I traveled the country, I realized that certain states have more participation than others—regardless of the quality of the fishery. How did some regions have such pride in the sport, whereas others (who often have even better fishing) seem so disinterested?
What’s more, when I spoke with avid anglers I met in NSW, VIC and TAS, many of them had never ventured outside of their own state!
From world famous kingfish and marlin, bass to Murray cod, rainbow trout to permit… There is almost always something in season to fish for!
I won’t pretend to know anything about Australian fisheries and the politics around them. Population, economy, government, history… all of these things make up what has been, and what will be, the future of Australia’s recreational sport-fishing.
What I am hoping for, however, is to meet as many of you as possible during my stay in Oz. My hope is that there are more anglers out here than I think there are, but they’re all on some secret hot spot somewhere and I simply haven’t found them yet.
