OPINION: Pleasantly surprised by childhood fishing spots

IT RECENTLY occurred to me that, many places I used to fish as a child, I haven’t been to for some time.

Andy Thomsen catches a 48cm Mangrove Jack. Picture: Contributed

IT recently occurred to me that, many places I used to fish as a child, I haven't been to for some time.

So in one of my latest fishing videos I return to a childhood creek to see if the fishing is still worth while.

Despite this creek being within close proximity to people it still holds some good fish and a few surprises as well.

I do believe I fish a little differently now and approach fishing with a different mind set and different fish goggles on, becoming more intuitive having learnt the way of the fish.

One of the interesting things I saw was not one or two, but three Lion Fish.

These fish are very beautiful, but poisonous and covered in extremely long spiny fins that will give you a nasty sting.

The Lion fishes seemed blasé about me filming them at close quarters, but rather than fleeing, their defence mechanism is to stay put and direct their arsenal of poisonous spines right at me, making for some interesting footage.

I also caught 45-48cm Flatheads, good sized Black Spot Cods and some very nice Mangrove Jack as well.

I have a theory on why this area still fishes really well, despite being so close to civilisation.

I think most people believe 'the further you go' the better the fishing will be and in lots of situations that's true, but! If everyone has the same theory, then it makes sense that the 'odd person out' will eventually catch more fish by fishing closer and closer to home.

I have used this theory before in my 'Urban Trout Fishing video' where in a small town in Tasmania I fished amongst sunken shopping trolleys and rusty pieces of farm machinery.

I had big Brown Trout leap out of the water at dusk and I caught some very decent trout right in the middle of town!

So my tip is this, think outside the box, and perhaps revisit some of your childhood spots.

WHAT'S BITING?

• With the last lot of good weather came some manigi and red emperor
• In the creeks some good whiting on worm and yabbies
• Visit Andy's Fishing's YouTube channel for his videos.

Originally published as OPINION: Pleasantly surprised by childhood fishing spots