About Coarse Fishing In Australia

The term ‘Coarse Angling‘ is an historic term that refers to fishing for freshwater fish which are traditionally considered as being undesirable as a food (not Trout or Salmon).

Australia offers a wide range of Coarse Angling opportunities across Australia.  In general coarse angling is conducted in the Southern States of Australia where the climate is more temperate. Australia is a very large country with many different climatic conditions. Large areas of Australia are uninhabited, arid and very hot. These areas do not support Coarse Angling as the water temperatures are to warm to support Coarse Fish. However in these hot and tropical areas of Australia coarse fishing techniques may be used to catch the local freshwater fish. These tropical warm areas include the states of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

In Australia the coarse fish that you can catch include:

  • Carp ( both Common Carp and Mirror Carp)
  • Koi Carp
  • Goldfish
  • Catfish
  • Roach
  • Tench
  • Perch (Redfin)
  • Eels

All these species are “introduced species” to Australia and in some circles within the Australian angling fraternity these fish are frowned upon.  The AFCAA continues to work with these groups to educate and help people understand the benefits and potential of Coarse Angling within Australia.

The Australian state with the greatest range of Coarse Fish is Victoria, this is due to the cooler climatic conditions. All the coarse fish listed above can be caught in Victoria.   In the states of New South Wales, South Australia and Perth the primary coarse fish available to be caught are Carp.

The nature of coarse angling comes in a number of different forms. These are :

  • Pleasure angling : describes anglers who go out to enjoy a relaxing day’s fishing, and are content to catch whatever fish they can.
  • Match angling : anglers, in teams or as individual entrants, gather together at a venue to catch either as many fish as possible in an allotted period of time, or the greatest total weight of fish. Contests within Australia are held at local, regional, national and international levels.
  • Specimen angling : the aim is to catch a large fish of a specific species. Some specimen hunters will fish only for one particular species, with large carp being popular targets in Australia.

There are various methods of coarse angling available and within each method there are variations of each method. In order provide an overview we have provide a brief description of the three base methods of :

Please feel free to browse and discover what these methods involve and the fishing tackle involved. If you would like any advice or more information please feel to contact us, we are only a couple of clicks away.

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