AFTER last week’s heavy rain, offshore waters have turned a light brown in colour.
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However, this hasn’t put the fish off, with great catches reported of snapper and flathead.
The reefs east of Tuross Head continue to produce excellent fishing opportunities, some are even claiming the best snapper season in 10 years, with quite a few pigfish taken as a bonus.
There are also plenty of nice nannygai, mowies and flathead for those making the trip north.
There has been a ‘slug’ of warm water which has moved steadily from the north, this has been accompanied by schools of small yellowfin tuna, albacore and stripes.
Some optimistic fishers have ventured out over ‘The Shelf’ on the weekend hoping for a marlin, but had to settle for the smaller pelagics. Most of these fish are being caught over the 2500 metre mark
Flathead continue to be on the menu in plenty of local homes in the last few weeks, with the weekend producing great bags of tigers and sandies.
The best spots were just east of the ‘Bullengella Lake - Corunna Lake’ Sanctuary Zone (from Glasshouse Rocks to Corunna Lake) and also south of Montague Island.
On Sunday it seemed that whatever bait you were using you were catching good sized flatties.
Remember that the bag limit for flathead goes down to 10 per person from November 3.
Small snapper have started to make an appearance around Montague Island, these small snapper will shortly be followed by bigger reddies, and it only gets better fishing from now on.
Another small kingfish was caught at Montague Island last week while a Narooma charter boat was targeting snapper.
The king was caught under a flock of mutton birds as they travelled south.
The crew from Bermi Bait & Tackle are currently conducting a catch and release flathead competition on their Facebook page, with quite a few mid-80cm flathead being photographed, measured and released. Well done to all those who have been landing some great fish.
Fishing Joke of the Week: Good things come to those who bait
Fishing Tip of the Week: There is plenty of bird/dolphin/seal activity on bait schools at the moment, some good catches of snapper and morwong have been taken under this activity as these fish feed on the scraps from the main predators.
Fishing Soap Box: NSW commercial fisheries are currently in the process of a Structural Review, hopefully this will lead to a fair buy-out for commercial fishers and better management for fish stocks in general. Fisheries management has been a joke in NSW in the past, hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and not repeat them.
- John Moore
NSGFC members head up after carp
SEVERAL members of Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club escaped the rain event of last week and visited Wee Jasper for some freshwater fishing.
Carp and redfin were caught in the two days of fishing using both corn as bait and fly fishing.
Head down to the NSGFC club rooms on Riverside Drive next to The Inlet restaurant every Friday evening for some good company, cheap drinks and maybe some fishing stories!
NSW South Coast Report by Anthony Stockman
Most rain ever, most sun ever, back to more rain. As long as it’s the most fish ever! And at this stage it is looking pretty good.
It only feels like yesterday we were talking about bluefin tuna, probably because such a good run is still etched into our memories. Now offshore we are eagerly awaiting for the marlin. And with the way the warm water is moving in it could be sooner than later.
Already some captures off Sydney and some have been spotted off the Illawarra. So not long now!
School yellowfin tuna could still make an appearance over November as they did the last couple of years, with some small ones and up to 40kg being caught off Jervis Bay.
Boats that do venture to the shelf from Batemans Bay are still excited about getting out and putting their electric reels way down deep for Gemfish, Harpuka and the like as the currents are still favorable at this stage.
There have been plenty of mako’s out there also for those shark fisherman. So if the conditions are favourable the shelf and beyond isn’t a bad place to be.
Moving in closer to the inshore reefs the snapper are doing what is expected of them at this time of the year. That shallow water snapper bite has slowed right off and now you are finding bigger schools out in the 50m to 90m depths.
So far there has been a good run of snapper and along with them there have been plenty of mowies, nannygai, pigfish and plenty of big blue spot and tiger flathead.
Spring has seen an abundance of inshore reef fish at this stage. There seems to be a lot of bait and chasing the bait are schools of kingfish. Through the spring you get the whales, dolphins, seals, stripey tuna and kingfish chasing the bait all over the place.
And chasing the stripies and kingies are the fisherman in their boats. This can be a bit of a cat and mouse game. You see the birds working and you rush over there only to push the fish down. And then you see the fish have popped up right where you have come from.
You can find yourself darting all over the place trying to get onto the surface action.
It’s probably best to take your time and slowly cruise up towards them and shut down your motors just within casting distance of a 60g to 80g metal, obviously a 7’6ft to 8ft rod will get you extra distance. Sometimes the lure landing on them will spook them, so if you can get the lure to land passed them that would be ideal.
I let it sink for a few seconds and then I bring it up through the water column at a fast speed.
Sometimes the fish are very flighty and easily spooked no matter what you do, so bottom fishing in the area with some livies out and waiting for them to come to you can be the best option.
And when trolling the area sometimes they might come up close to the boat and take a lure, but I have caught plenty of stripies by running the lures right back.
The few buoys in the area will be holding kingfish at times from now on as well.
Beaches have been fishing ok with salmon, tailor present and some whiting being caught on live worms. A possible chance of a Mulloway as well as we are still seeing them being caught around our small oceanic bays. Our man Ray Smith cracked his PB record of 9 jews in one session on lures the other day by catching a remarkable 13 jewies!
Pretty good effort for daytime fishing off the stones on lures.
John Hilyear landed a 30kg Jewfish and a 25kg Jewfish in one night on his livies as he does this time of the year in one of his river locations. A few have been getting caught up the river also. There would’ve been a fair bit of mulloway movement through the estuary system as you read this and November should continue to be a great month to target them.
The flatties are on the chew, the bream are moving back in, the perch are moving further up and are on the snags, rock walls and holes. We are seeing more and more people using soft plastics now and I would say it’s as common as bait now.
So naturally now we are seeing an even bigger number of fisherman trying new things, now they have surprised themselves by catching a fish on a lure!
One completely new thing that has come out for fisho’s this summer is the Gomoku Bottom by Storm, part of their tiny little finesse hard body range.
The Gomoku Bottom is also know as a Stiletto due to its shape and the way it sit’s perfectly on the bottom like a hiding prawn or fleeing baitfish (something we’ve been trying to achieve with soft plasstics for years). But telling your mates you’ve been fishing with Stilettos can be tricky!
The Gomoku Bottom is also a great little hard body for those fisho’s who have tried plastics and is now interested in hard body lures. This lure is a great transition. It is very user friendly as fishes all depths and when it settles on the bottom it’s design keeps the hook up and away from snagging and in the fishes face.
They are small and are perfect for bream, whiting and flathead. But because of its size I would be using a 8lb leader on the flathead. If you want to start using hard bodies then this little guy is a winner.
Storm also have the SX Soft Vibe in two sizes and sizes weights 7cm/16.5g and if a little current or casting into the holes 9cm/26.2g, these have been dynamite on big flatties and estuary mulloway. Plus you get two per pack!
The lake systems are kicking into gear now and a lot up and down the coast seem to be open. Some good schools of whiting have been seen in Tuross and the flatties are there in Durras. And it’s about that time you come in and get your prawn light and nets. Last year Lake Tabourie was popular and the year before Corruna was the spot. Must be Coila’s turn this year. It doesn’t matter what your into it’s the time of the year with many options. Enjoy!"
- Anthony Stokman, Complete Angler Batemans Bay