EmmaLou Fishing

Small fish. Big attitude. 🎣

This little archerfish gave me a hurry-up while I was flicking the pandanus.

Definitely not the fish I was chasing, but these little things go hard and put up a cracking fight for their size.

An unintended catch, but loads of fun nonetheless.

And how good are archerfish? The little snipers of the waterways, famous for shooting jets of water at insects above the surface to knock them in.

Never underestimate the little ones.

I fished with a team for years. We were good enough to win tournaments. We were not good enough to put ourselves on social media.

Nobody said it outright. It came sideways, in jokes and offhand comments, until it stopped being something other people said and started being something I said to myself.

New write up on what that actually does to you.

https://open.substack.com/pub/emmaloufishing/p/i-thought-i-had-to-earn-the-right-to-have-a-voice?r=6d66mq&utm_medium=ios

I am not against good gear. I use it and I understand why people love it.

What I am against is the idea that expensive gear is the ticket into fishing, the thing you need before you are allowed to call yourself a fisher. I see that idea put women and beginners off more than almost anything else.

I would rather see someone out fishing with what they can afford than waiting for the outfit they think they need. The fish do not check labels.

Couldn’t sleep, so no point wasting that time. Headed out for a fish in the wee hours of the morning with Shane, there’s no better way to spend it. Some nice Barra out and about.

I get asked a lot what lure I am using, and I just hand it over. Some people find that strange. In a lot of fishing circles, what is working stays close to your chest.

I have never seen the appeal of that. Keeping fishing secrets has never interested me as much as watching someone catch their first Saratoga. If a lure I hand across the boat does that, I have not lost anything. I have gained the best part of the day.

I have volunteered at a few Junior Angler Education Clinic's over the years, and this year's group of kids stood out. Younger than the cohorts I am used to, and genuinely well mannered with each other.

No one had to remind them to help a mate rig a line, or make sure everyone in the group actually caught a barra before the day ended. They just did it, over and over, without being asked.

If that is the generation coming up behind us, I like our chances.

Most conversations in Top End fishing circle back to barramundi. I get it, they are the headline fish here.

But Saratoga are the ones I keep coming back to. Shane and I run a tagging program built around them, not as a side project to barra fishing, but because I think they deserve more than the label most people give them.

I don't see Saratoga as bycatch. I think they deserve to be the destination.

Went fishing with Shane a few days ago, testing the waters so to speak. 🎣☀️ Sunrise glowing, found a few fish, but I was really there for the water temp and how it stacks up against my records.

The b**g looks different this year, the flush out's changed it, though it still feels the same underneath. Lilies might be late bloomers this season.