I MUST admit, my yard is full of boats and kayaks, canoes, a Scanoe, motorbikes, pushbikes and quadbikes… much to my wife’s chagrin.
The shed has a car and a 4WD so when going fishing it’s really a matter of where, what and how I will get there.
I am really lucky, if I want to go fishing, I can strap on my boots and in 30 minutes walk from my front door I can be fishing in the Macquarie River with a chance of catching a Murray cod, golden perch, some trout, a few redfin or some carp,
I have a mate who lives in Sydney, and he doesn’t drive, doesn’t own a car but fishes extensively throughout the Sydney region using the rail and bus networks, then if they can’t deliver him close enough to his chosen spot, an Uber or Taxi will finish the trip for him.
He will quite often go with mates. He’s an expert luderick angler as well and handy on so many other species, both salt and freshwater, so getting mates to go with him to learn from him is never a hard task.
I also have a little fishing shack that sits on the river front amongst the mountains of the Great Dividing Range on the Western side.
I have fished this river from the start to finish and it never ceases to amaze me that all the big deep-water holes that are extremely tough to get into, every one of them, has a bridle track built across and around the toughest sections to allow horses to access these big water holes.
Many of the bridle tracks may have been built for access to the river during the gold rush but I feel that many are just to access these fishing honey holes.
It’s not long ago a work horse was just that, a horse, and the work horse was also used for recreation such as hunting, fishing or just the thrill of horse riding.
Nowadays your work horse is mostly your 4WD. It’s set up with good clearance, high and low 4WD capabilities, electric winch on the front, Maxtrax on the roof along with a shovel, good all terrain tyres or even big grippy mud tyres.
It’s well serviced and in good condition. This work horse can take you to so many places to fish and camp. The icy mountains in winter or the parched inland in summer.
It can also be used to deliver yourself and a canoe or kayak to a river where you can set off for a day’s fishing or a multi-day journey of fishing, camping and paddling.
A push bike or mountain bike is another fantastic piece of gear to get you fishing. Your work horse can deliver you and your bike to that trail to the river that is now blocked by the locked gate installed by NPWS.
A push bike can be ridden along these tracks to help you cover the distance to the river or creek you have chosen to fish.
I think of the track through the Pretty Plains down in the Snowy Mountains of NSW for this exact purpose.
A motor bike, while an excellent vehicle for fishing adventures, cannot be used to access the gated off trails within the National Parks legally. The trail bike or nowadays referred to as an adventure bike can help you access some very hard to reach destinations, an excellent mode of transport.
I have a friend that just loves to walk, a walk of close to 40 kms in a day is not out of the question for them. A walk deep into the mountains to fish is about as easy as it gets.
My quad bike is a fantastic bit of gear with 4WD, driving lights and the capability to traverse some really tough country. It has the advantage over a motorcycle with its gear carrying capabilities.
I have often thought of the movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” for some of my fishing trips. A trip to the train station by automobile, a train trip to Sydney, a taxi ride to the airport, a plane flight to Broome, another trip by car to a boat where you may then spend the next few weeks travelling 1000s of kms through such spectacular destinations as the Kimberley and the Buccaneer Archipelago.
It’s easy to get out there fishing, it’s only just a matter of how you choose to do it.
