In Episode 1 of Series 4, I was lucky enough to fish the beautiful Swampy Plain River (a headwater of the Murray) immediately below Khancoban Pondage, in the high country of south western NSW. My mate, guide and mentor for this trip was Cameron McGregor of River Escapes (www.riverescapes.com.au).

Cam’ and I drift-boated this gorgeous “tail water” fishery (a term used to describe the waters flowing out of a dam) aboard River Escapes’ big rubber raft, casting a variety of small hard-bodied lures and Squidgies soft plastics for the abundant wild (and wily) brown and rainbow trout that call these cool, clear waters home.

I used ultra-light, single-handed spinning gear based around a 1000-size Shimano reel and Shimano Zodias rod. The little reel was spooled with 3-pound PowerPro braided line, and I attached a rod length of 6-pound Ocea FC fluorocarbon leader material at the business end before tying on my lure.

I absolutely love this style of fishing-not to mention the breathtaking country it takes you to-and few people know these waters better than Cam’. I can’t recommend his guiding business highly enough. Give Cam’ a call… he’ll definitely put you onto the fish!

GONE FISHIN’ WITH STEVE ‘STARLO’ STARLING

In Episode 1 of Series 4, I was lucky enough to fish the beautiful Swampy Plain River (a headwater of the Murray) immediately below Khancoban Pondage, in the high country of south western NSW. My mate, guide and mentor for this trip was Cameron McGregor of River Escapes (www.riverescapes.com.au).

Cam’ and I drift-boated this gorgeous “tail water” fishery (a term used to describe the waters flowing out of a dam) aboard River Escapes’ big rubber raft, casting a variety of small hard-bodied lures and Squidgies soft plastics for the abundant wild (and wily) brown and rainbow trout that call these cool, clear waters home.

I used ultra-light, single-handed spinning gear based around a 1000-size Shimano reel and Shimano Zodias rod. The little reel was spooled with 3-pound PowerPro braided line, and I attached a rod length of 6-pound Ocea FC fluorocarbon leader material at the business end before tying on my lure.

I absolutely love this style of fishing-not to mention the breathtaking country it takes you to-and few people know these waters better than Cam’. I can’t recommend his guiding business highly enough. Give Cam’ a call… he’ll definitely put you onto the fish!

GONE FISHIN’ WITH STEVE ‘STARLO’ STARLING

In Episode 1 of Series 4, I was lucky enough to fish the beautiful Swampy Plain River (a headwater of the Murray) immediately below Khancoban Pondage, in the high country of south western NSW. My mate, guide and mentor for this trip was Cameron McGregor of River Escapes (www.riverescapes.com.au).

Cam’ and I drift-boated this gorgeous “tail water” fishery (a term used to describe the waters flowing out of a dam) aboard River Escapes’ big rubber raft, casting a variety of small hard-bodied lures and Squidgies soft plastics for the abundant wild (and wily) brown and rainbow trout that call these cool, clear waters home.

I used ultra-light, single-handed spinning gear based around a 1000-size Shimano reel and Shimano Zodias rod. The little reel was spooled with 3-pound PowerPro braided line, and I attached a rod length of 6-pound Ocea FC fluorocarbon leader material at the business end before tying on my lure.

I absolutely love this style of fishing-not to mention the breathtaking country it takes you to-and few people know these waters better than Cam’. I can’t recommend his guiding business highly enough. Give Cam’ a call… he’ll definitely put you onto the fish!

GONE FISHIN’ WITH STEVE ‘STARLO’ STARLING

In Episode 1 of Series 4, I was lucky enough to fish the beautiful Swampy Plain River (a headwater of the Murray) immediately below Khancoban Pondage, in the high country of south western NSW. My mate, guide and mentor for this trip was Cameron McGregor of River Escapes (www.riverescapes.com.au).

Cam’ and I drift-boated this gorgeous “tail water” fishery (a term used to describe the waters flowing out of a dam) aboard River Escapes’ big rubber raft, casting a variety of small hard-bodied lures and Squidgies soft plastics for the abundant wild (and wily) brown and rainbow trout that call these cool, clear waters home.

I used ultra-light, single-handed spinning gear based around a 1000-size Shimano reel and Shimano Zodias rod. The little reel was spooled with 3-pound PowerPro braided line, and I attached a rod length of 6-pound Ocea FC fluorocarbon leader material at the business end before tying on my lure.

I absolutely love this style of fishing-not to mention the breathtaking country it takes you to-and few people know these waters better than Cam’. I can’t recommend his guiding business highly enough. Give Cam’ a call… he’ll definitely put you onto the fish!

GONE FISHIN’ WITH STEVE ‘STARLO’ STARLING

In Episode 6 of Series 4, my wife Jo picked up the fishing reins from me while I was away on the Murray and in Victoria’s beautiful Sunset Country, 4WDing and camping with the boys.

In this segment, Jo explains how her passion for painting and other forms of art is fed by her love for fishing. Then she takes us out onto a southern NSW estuary in her Native Watercraft pedal kayak to hunt a few wily black bream on lures and light tackle.

Like me, Jo choose Shimano tackle, and on this particular day, she used a 1000-size Shimano spinning reel spooled with 3-pound PowerPro braid on a light Zodias rod to flick her soft plastics and hard-bodied Cranka Crab lures, which were attached to 3 m long leaders of 2 and 3 kg Ocea Fluorocarbon leader material.

I Jo absolutely loves her kayak fishing and the stealthy approach it allows when sneaking up on extra cautious targets like these black bream, but she also knows it’s extremely important to be well organized in a ‘yak, and to have everything you need within easy reach… And of course, she always wears her PFD or inflatable life vest when out on the water!

GONE FISHIN’ WITH STEVE ‘STARLO’ STARLING

In Episode 3, Jo and I headed offshore from Dalmeny, just north of Narooma on the far south coast of NSW, to chase a fresh meal or two of seafood from our 5-metre Beastmaster Snubby sportfishing runabout.

We kicked off by catching a couple of tasty southern calamari (squid) using various jigs, before moving into slightly deeper water to drift and target morwong, snapper and other delicious reef fish on our paternoster (dropper) rigs, baited with prawns, pilchard pieces and fresh squid chunks.

Jo and I always choose Shimano tackle, and on this particular day, we used a variety of 3000 and 4000-size Shimano spinning reels, a Talica 10 overhead reel, and various spin and jig rods. All our reels were spooled with PowerPro braid of different strengths, from 10 to 30-pound, and we attach leaders of 20 and 30-pound Shimano Ocea fluorocarbon to the end of our braid before tying on our jigs and bottom fishing rigs.

Offshore fishing from a trailer boat can be incredibly productive along our extensive coastline, but make sure you observe all safety precautions, carry the mandatory safety and communication gear, and always tell someone where you’re going and roughly when you expect to come home.

GONE FISHIN’ WITH STEVE ‘STARLO’ STARLING

In Episode 2, I spent a very comfortable night aboard one of Luxury Afloat’s well-appointed houseboats, exploring the magnificent Hawkesbury River estuary near Brooklyn, just north of Sydney (visit www.luxuryafloat.com for more information).

I caught a bunch of small bream and under-sized mulloway (jewfish), right off the back deck of the houseboat that evening, and next morning I was picked up by Peter Le Blang (better known to many as “Pittwater Pete”) of Harbour & Estuary Fishing Charters (www.estuaryfishingcharters.com.au) for a more serious fishing session, successfully chasing flathead and some slightly larger mulloway.

I mostly used 3000-size Shimano spinning reels spooled with 10-pound PowerPro braid and matched up with light to medium Shimano spin rods. We used baits of pilchard and prawns.

The Hawkesbury is a magnificent system, located right on the doorstep of our biggest city, and there are few better ways to explore and enjoy it than aboard a houseboat. If you haven’t tried this, you’ve got to give it a go!