Surfing for fishing news

Anglers are turning to the internet to get the good oil on all things fishy. MICHAEL FOREMAN reports.

For Auckland angler Dave Rooney, logging on to the internet has become an essential prelude to every fishing trip - it's up there with checking out the tackle box.

"A lot of people think of fishing as just a manual activity," he says. "They don't realise how useful the net can be, but I think quite a few anglers are beginning to catch on."

Mr Rooney has been keen on fishing for almost as long as he can remember. As a boy growing up in Southland he began fishing the rivers and farm creeks around Gore. He was so keen to pursue trout that he would regularly bunk off school - until one day when he landed a fish large enough to catch the attention of the local newspaper.

When the article appeared, he had a hard job explaining to a teacher how he had managed to pose for the bankside photo when he should have been in the classroom.

But these days Mr Rooney, who runs his own catering business, no longer has to play truant in order to fish. On any given Wednesday or Friday, only the weather will prevent him from taking to the Hauraki Gulf in his 5m fishing boat in search of snapper and kahawai.

But when moving from river to sea fishing proved to be a culture shock, Mr Rooney became one of the increasing numbers of anglers who have turned to the web for help.

"I didn't know anything about sea fishing. That's probably the biggest reason I have been using the net."

One of the first ways he used the internet was to find a fishing boat. As it turned out, he bought his boat from a printed classified advertisement, but he says this was no reflection on the websites he visited.

"There are lots of sites out there with huge numbers of boats available, and by specifying search parameters you can get right down to a few or even individual vessels."

The net also proved useful after he had bought the boat.

"It came with a fish finder, which I had no idea how to operate. But by using the net I was able to download what amounted to a complete instruction manual."

Mr Rooney now consults the web before he makes any fishing-related purchase.

"When you see an ad for a second-hand reel, say, you can look up where it is in the pecking order and what you would have paid for it if it was new. With search engines you can use the net like a huge phonebook to look up almost anything and get all the background information you need."

The web has also taught Mr Rooney much about sea fishing tackle and techniques. For example, he has downloaded instructions on how to tie knots from the Australian website Marinews.com.

"When you look at these knots on the website, the illustrations are animated, so you can follow the steps.

"More often than not, the web is the best place to get an up-to-date forecast on the wind conditions for example.

"It's much more convenient than watching the television report as you don't have to make sure that you are in the lounge for 10 minutes at precisely the right time."

In the future, Mr Rooney plans to make more use of online fishing reports, which may be found at fishing websites such as Fishing.net.nz and New Zealand Fishing.

These reports, which reveal where the fish are being caught and with which bait, are compiled by a growing army of charter boat skippers, as well as individual anglers, and are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

For example, the Fish Atlas and the marinews site referred to earlier, include databases of the exact GPS (Global Positioning System) positions of fishing hotspots, such as reefs and wrecks, together with the likely species to be caught there.

It's part of angling lore that 20 per cent of anglers catch 80 per cent of the fish, but with the growing amount of helpful information that is becoming available on the net, perhaps the rest of us will stand a better chance.

Links

New Zealand Fishing

Fshing.net.nz

Fish Atlas