Tried fishing the GC canals off the Nerang but it was slow. Just a couple small bream. So as I often do, I headed to the freshwater lakes down the road in Robina. Target species: eel-tailed catfish; underappreciated table fish. Found a big lake near the Robina Parkway with a sandy beach. Nice relaxing spot, very few weeds, and the water looked clean. In 3 1/2 hours caught 4 eel-tailed catfish of which three were big, and two eels. I feed the eels to my dog, but a couple of residents told me that the eels they catch in there are actually good eating when smoked in a fish smoker. Might be worth trying once I get a smoker of my own.

Those Robina Lakes are really an excellent fishing spot that not too many people take advantage of. They hold many of the same fish as the popular dams. Heaps of gar and I've caught bass on prawns. I have a feeling that if you threw a lure around in those waters you'd have a good chance of hooking into a bass. And, unlike the dams, you can also catch a few saltwater species. The three biggest bream I've ever caught were from Robina Lakes. And residents have told me that they've seen bull sharks pulled from the lakes in summer.