Show Us Your Fish
Show Us Your Fish is our Coastwatch Fishing “show and tell” competition, collating great photos and stories from our audience’s greatest fishing adventures.
Below is a gallery of our competition finalists.
Ellis Buswell
Submitted by Dad, Will : Ellis’ passion for fishing led him to the Brighton foreshore last Saturday, where the building tide promised a good catch of whiting. With his fishing gear in tow and live worms from the fantastic team at Tackle Land Sandgate, he was ready for the day.
Between practicing with his toy car and boat at the makeshift ‘boat ramp’ in the sand, Ellis felt the thrilling pull on his line. He reeled in a cracking whiting, his favourite catch and an anticipated lunch. After a quick preparation, Ellis savoured fresh fish for lunch. As the day waned, he left the beach content, the memory of the day’s catch a satisfying close to his weekend adventure.
Ebs Jade
My biggest catch yet! 23kg Tuna, on the western side of K’gari! It was as tall at me! We were in a boat but only like 200 offshore, the water so clear you could see them swimming past. Had to go into shore to bring it in. Such a great day!
Sam Llewellyn
A morning with mates, we crossed the Noosa bar and started looking for long tails as we cruised north along the Noosa North Shore. While we waited for them to frolic, we decided to throw a couple of dead baits out and troll them on the out sides and then for a bit of a flasher, we threw a deep diving halco up the guts only about 7-10m off the boat. 25 mins in, the halco rod started singing! We weren’t sure what it was, it had hints of a Tuna or a small potential of a Spanish… we got it to the boat and we all wahoo’d
Laura Georgina
A beauty of a catch on a beauty of a day. Mr trout man caught off the waters in Broome the Kimberley. Missing fishing already! (And not wearing pants as SOME of you may know).
David McDonald
Sometimes a plan comes together. The father-in-law and I decided to fish the beach looking for a tailor. With high hopes and a good forecast, we walked across south straddie in search of a gutter to fish. High hopes turned to disappointment when we saw not one gutter and the surf was still up. There was a tiny hole with shallow water completely around it, maybe good for a whiting but it would have to do. We fished into the night with only a couple of bream nibbling our baits so it was time to have a sleep and get up early for the run in tide, things were not looking good. I woke up about 3 am put on a bonito strip and threw out not expecting anything. Tap tap bang! I’m on and it was a decent fish, it gave me a great fight on the alvey and soon I dragged up a tailor about 2.5kg. Well I was over the moon, ran up to the father in law and woke him up. What followed for the next 2 hours was something I’ve never experienced, the tailor kept biting and they kept getting bigger! By sunrise they had stopped biting and we were exhausted we had 16 fish all over the 2.5kg mark with half of them over 4kg. This one in the picture was over 6kg measuring 93cm. There’s something about beach fishing that always surprises me, the water can look perfect and not hold any fish but on the other hand it can look terrible and the fish of a lifetime can be just sitting there within casting distance.
Rhonda Aitken
Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself and share a photo that I took last week of my first Barra hooked in The Buccaneer Archipelago. I am from Lake Macquarie NSW currently travelling through WA with my partner. We have spent three weeks fishing the Kimberley and slowly making our way to The Montebello’s.
Tahlia White
What an epic catch! This beast was a true challenge on the last day of our 7-day Swains trip. It was the final deep drop, and after losing my bait the first time, I almost called it quits. But one last drop, and BAM – I was the only one to reel in a deep-sea treasure! The hype and excitement were something ill never forget!
Lucas Haines
Huge pb and dream fish for me today getting a 90cm mulloway on 8lb line in Noosa. This fish just took off. Had to follow it around for a bit to get it up using the whiting setup going for the smaller mulloway and surprised by losing one earlier on by pulling the hook. Then hours later, coming back to the spot and hooking into this river monster. Scanned the school and lost 7 of them this size in 2 days — but landed one and an 80cm queen.
Diana Sutherland
Submitted by husband, Billy: Diana’s first threadfin and she caught it on a soft plastic using a 2-4kg rod and 8lb braid and 15lb leader. The fight lasted a long time and the fish was kept and eaten What a cracking way to get your first threadfin!! The runs this fish took were blistering fast and massive changes of direction. Was so proud of Diana.
Ewan Bulger
These were my marlin I caught in Cairns. I’m 14 years old and they are 450 and 500 pounds each. We think we caught the same fish twice! Very similar size and colour and fighting pattern. On the same baits at the same times (on different days) they were caught near Opal reef in Cairns. Being my first time on the reef it was not one to forget!
Sasha Bristow
Don’t be afraid of “Stepping outside of your COMFORT ZONE! Some days I can’t get out of bed and some days I’m (((FISHING))) but I NEVER give up!!! Nothing like the dopamine rush you feel when you catch a fish, no matter how Great or Small. My first LONGTAIL TUNA !
Taidgh Flint
Was fishing at the Gardiner Banks off Fraser a few years ago and hooked this green jobie. It went crazy and every time I got it close to the boat it would reel line. My two mates called it for a shark and decided next time it came close they’d cut it off. Managed to get it close enough to see it before another run. 10 minutes later we boated this fish. Went 17.8kg and 137 cos long. Even the pros at Orchid hadn’t seen one so big and at least 15 blokes got photos taken with it, so there may be a few stories out there ha ha!
Brooke Beech
Have been meaning to post this… Caught this one on a tiny yabby head, there were so many times where I thought I was just snagged but nope! I slowly but surely pulled it in and omg was the excitement well worth it. Oyster cracker at 57cm.
Mike Henney
“THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM” – PB 110cm
The night started off strange. Heavy fog blanketed the river, and you could barely see the lights on the opposite bank. I had a mix of baits, prawns, herring, and two nice pike in the live bait bucket. Things started well! There was only one other angler on the pontoon, and as the tide turned, the bite began with a screaming run! I unstrapped the rod and started winding, but all I felt was the weight of my sinker. I redeployed a good-sized pike, loosened the drag, and strapped the rod back down. About 15 minutes later, another solid run! I raced to the rod, tightened the drag, and set the hook… nothing there! I redeployed and began the waiting game. About 1.5 to 2 hours passed, during which the other angler on the pontoon caught a snapper, a pike eel, and a 70cm threadfin. My rod remained untouched. I was convinced I had my chances and I had missed them. I redeployed my last live herring and started packing up…bang!…the rod screamed again! I raced over, set the hook, and this time, it was on! Line peeled off at a crazy pace, heading for the pylons next to the pontoon. Once it slowed, I found myself on the wrong side of not one but two pylons! I felt my braid rubbing on the pylon, so I held my rod out as far as possible to prevent snagging or getting rubbed off. Eventually, it headed back to a more favorable angle, so I applied pressure. As I bullied it past the first pylon, my line rubbed against it…then nothing! I wound fast…it was still on! Now I was between the first and second pylon with only one direction it could go in to succeed in getting it out. I waited until it swam back towards the middle of the river and applied pressure again. We were clear! I thought it was a big ray from the weight, powerful runs, and dirty tactics. A few more powerful runs as I brought it closer to the pontoon, and we saw it just under the surface. The other angler shouted, “It’s a monster thready!” It gave one last headshake as it surfaced, and the fight was done. The other guy netted it in one! At 11 pm, surrounded by thick fog, with no traffic noise, two strangers cheered on the pontoon like we’d won a grand final. A great fight, a great fish, and a memorable night securing a new personal best for this species!
Lynn Donnelly
Best fight ever, she swims on, “Let em go & let em grow”.
Craig Evans
Offshore Mooloolaba in my mate’s boat. We launched really early and had a mediocre dawn bite on snapper. After the sun got a bit higher we decided to troll for marlin. After about 30mins I was feeling a bit seasick and tired so I lay down for a bit. Nodded off and woke up thinking I’d been asleep for about 10mins but apparently it was almost an hour. As I was rubbing my eyes and apologizing to my mate for being poor company, two rods went off with a couple of marlin jumping out the back of the boat. Asleep to chaos in 2mins. We ended up landing them both, more good luck than skill. First billfish landed in my mate’s boat….christened!
Minnie Morrison
Not the biggest cod I’ve caught but a heavy healthy one. Gwydir River.
Zack Griff
Jenice Barry
Caught this one on such a small rod I thought I was bringing up a lump of rock.
