OK, let's say you've decided that fishing is your thing. Assuming you have the basics, what are your 10 top picks for what will help you get the best out of your 'chosen thing'?

Here are mine:

1. You must have a bait freezer, if you don't fish baits you need somewhere to store your ice. An Ice maker is just OTT. I have one
2. Take lots of ice. 
3. Get yourself a couple of 90 litre chilly bins if you're a meat hunter like myself. We take one full of ice and another just for fish
4. Build yourself a decent filleting bench
5. Get 3 or 4 or more filleting knives. for years I used a 5" boning knife but a 23cm jobbie saves you lots of spine spikes. I have heaps of knives now
6. Learn to sharpen your knives, they are never too sharp
7. Go to Mitre 10 and get a pair of Fuller pro long nose pliers with the red handles. They will go rusty but won't seize up if you give them a little CRC once in a while. They are great for unhooking fish
8. Buy circle hooks and learn how to use them
9. Get a beer fridge, the biggest you can get. Great for storing your catch and most wives are likely to be happier if you buy a 'beer fridge' than somewhere to keep your dead creatures

!0. Get an iki stick and learn how to use it

You know I don't buy the whole need for fish filleting station, especially outside or in some garage or shed. For a couple of reasons. One being you spend all that time and money on icing down a fresh fish in perfect nick that really is now going to be filleted on some dirty bench. It should be done in a nice clean kitchen as a chef would do as you are dealing with high value produce. Seen some shocking filleting "benches" in my time I wouldn't put my dog meat on. 

Do plenty of recon at your chosen fishing grounds. If you didn't catch anything the first time, doesn't mean you won't catch fish on a different tide/conditions/lure/bait/time of day etc.

Muppet wrote: You know I don't buy the whole need for fish filleting station, especially outside or in some garage or shed. For a couple of reasons. One being you spend all that time and money on icing down a fresh fish in perfect nick that really is now going to be filleted on some dirty bench. It should be done in a nice clean kitchen as a chef would do as you are dealing with high value produce. Seen some shocking filleting "benches" in my time I wouldn't put my dog meat on.  Do us a photo Smudge lets see how bad ass your one is. No cleaning it down before hand just go do it!

Spudnik wrote: Do plenty of recon at your chosen fishing grounds. If you didn't catch anything the first time, doesn't mean you won't catch fish on a different tide/conditions/lure/bait/time of day etc.

I don't keep bait with my catch, I use a smaller bin for the bait