Greg Vinall
ALF Podcast Host, Scientist And Fishing Tragic
Greg is the host of the Australian Lure Fishing Podcast, an Aquatic Scientist, lure maker, fishing educator, speaker and author. He loves to take a “Mythbusters” approach to fishing, using his scientific background to research and test common fishing theories.
Greg’s Unscripted Brain Dump
Every now and then I get a few spare minutes and rather than gather my thoughts….. I just brain dump. I offload whatever fish-related thoughts are going through my tiny, pea sized brain at the time.
This is one of those occasions.
Here’s a potted summary of some of today’s thoughts. Hopefully some of them are useful to at least some of you!
- Fish are not typically what we’d think of as intelligent animals. They can think, learn and remember stuff, for sure. But they don’t do so to anywhere near the extent that we humans do (no surprises there). Mostly, fish react to stimuli either instinctively, or as a learned response. So they never outsmart us….. but sometimes we just don’t understand enough about what’s driving them to know what will catch them on the day.
- Never try and think like a fish. Fish have a much smaller brain mass, as a proportion of total body mass, then humans. Catching fish is about understanding the factors that affect them and how they will respond.
- Fish don’t always take lures out of hunger. The default position for lure fishers (including myself) is often to try and match the hatch – in other words use a lure that is similar in size, shape and action as the predominant bait species that the target fish feeds on. This works well if fish are feeding. But a lure that doesn’t match the hatch can be more effective if fish are reacting through anger, defending territory or curiosity.
- I believe that lure scents and attractants potentially play a very big role in getting more strikes, but it is an area where we have very little real knowledge and data. Science tells us that fish probably can’t smell insect repellent, sunscreen, petrol and some other odours that most of us believe would deter a fish. But fish are very sensitive to some proteins, much more so than fish or shellfish oils.
- Fish have taste buds all over their skin, but particularly the cheeks and lateral line – and very few in the mouth or on the tongue, which is predominantly where human taste buds are found. So fish hooked in the side of the head may actually be trying to taste the lure or may be showing aggression rather than actively feeding. This is not always the case, but is probably true more often than we think.
[Trailer] Episode 603: Understanding Flathead With Greg Vinall
There are some things about flathead that make them very different to other fish species. Body shape, binocular vision and a few other things that anglers should understand!
Episode 594: Tournament Breaming With Grayson Fong
Grayson Fong is a long-time, keen tournament angler who has competed as a boater, non-boater and kayaker over the years. In today’s episode he shares tons of great tips for anyone wanting to catch more bream.
Episode 588: Spinnerbait Masterclass With Glen Casey And Caitlin Berecry-Brooks
Glen Casey is a Stalwart of the Australian tackle trade, co-owner of Bassman spinnerbaits, and as you might expect, a deft hand at catching fish on spinnerbaits.
Episode 580: Mangrove Jack Roundup With Greg Vinall
Mangrove jack are a popular North Australian specie, but how much do you know about their habits and behaviours?
Episode 578: Why Soft Plastic Prawns Trump Real Prawns
Why Do Soft Plastic Prawn Lures Outfish Real, Live Prawns? Can soft plastic prawns outfish live prawns (or other live baits)? I reckon they do, consistently, when anglers take the time to learn how to use them. Maybe other people are more skilled at collecting and...
[Trailer] Episode 603: Understanding Flathead With Greg Vinall
There are some things about flathead that make them very different to other fish species. Body shape, binocular vision and a few other things that anglers should understand!
Episode 594: Tournament Breaming With Grayson Fong
Grayson Fong is a long-time, keen tournament angler who has competed as a boater, non-boater and kayaker over the years. In today’s episode he shares tons of great tips for anyone wanting to catch more bream.
Episode 588: Spinnerbait Masterclass With Glen Casey And Caitlin Berecry-Brooks
Glen Casey is a Stalwart of the Australian tackle trade, co-owner of Bassman spinnerbaits, and as you might expect, a deft hand at catching fish on spinnerbaits.
Episode 580: Mangrove Jack Roundup With Greg Vinall
Mangrove jack are a popular North Australian specie, but how much do you know about their habits and behaviours?
Episode 578: Why Soft Plastic Prawns Trump Real Prawns
Why Do Soft Plastic Prawn Lures Outfish Real, Live Prawns? Can soft plastic prawns outfish live prawns (or other live baits)? I reckon they do, consistently, when anglers take the time to learn how to use them. Maybe other people are more skilled at collecting and...
Greg the human brain isnt 8-9kgs lol its probably 1.5kgs but otherwise a great podcast… learned a fair bit!
G’day Gavin, thanks for the correction on the brain mass mate! I’d like to say it’s because I hand with intellectuals, but……
also it would be good if you had a comments section below the video (or upload them to youtube?) that way at least there can be a bit of interaction with the audience
Thanks Gavin, I’ve deliberately disabled comments on the podcast pages for two reasons. The first is that my guests don’t have direct access to answer any questions that listeners ask and the second is that I have my hands full getting three podcasts per week out, so I’d hate for questions or comments to go unanswered when I’m, busy. That said, lately I’ve been considering opening up the comments, so stay tuned it may yet happen!
As for YouTube, I’ve been in two minds for quite a while about that one. YouTube is a video platform (obviously) and the podcast is audio. I can actually set the podcast up for the RSS to feed my YouTube channel automatically, which would take about 2 minutes and would make it happen automatically after that. The reason I haven’t done so is that many SEO experts say it’s a very bad move to put audio on YouTube. The theory goes that unless there is video to accompany the audio it’s normal to get a high proportion of thumbs down or people just closing after a few seconds. YouTube (owned by Google) decides this is an indication of a low quality video and ranks it low, along with the website it’s linked to. I’ll continue to research….. thanks for your feedback though.