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Golden times at Bermi
  |  First Published: December 2010



There is one thing I have never tired of seeing – those first golden rays of sunlight in the morning as you anticipate what fishing lies ahead for the day.

Game anglers leaving Bermagui Harbour often experience this and with the game season now upon us, expectations again are high.

Warm currents have pushed down the coast, bringing a host of game species. Tuna are most prolific with striped, yellowfin and albacore out wide from the Twelve Mile Reef, along the continental shelf through to The Kink and out wide over 1000 fathoms in the canyons. They are mainly taking trolled bibbed, bibless and skirted lures.

Wherever you find tuna you are bound to find sharks and those who have laid down berley trails have captured some very large blues and makos, mainly out wide over the shelf.

The introduction of electric reels has made fishing the deep for tasty bottom fish is well within the reach of anglers as they wait for the sharks to appear in the berley trail.

From the coast out to Montague Island there is plenty of movement and it looks like one of the best seasons for kingfish in many years.

Mixed in are bonito, salmon, striped tuna and frigate mackerel, all successfully caught by casting, trolling, jigging or on bait.

Bottom fishing is also excellent with tiger flathead chewing their heads off from 30m out. A lot of sand flatties are in the same depths or shallower with excellent gummy sharks as well.

On the Four-, Six- and Twelve-Mile reefs morwong are prolific with ocean perch, snapper, nannygai and pigfish bulking up the catch.

Plenty of salmon are along the beaches and rocks with bait best from the beaches and lures from the rocks.

Other species likely include tailor, the odd jewfish, plenty of bream, trevally and whiting.

ESTUARY PRAWNS

In the estuaries the prawn season is in full swing and the fishing is great.

Most of the lakes and rivers are holding prawns and it is relatively easy to scoop up a feed and fresh bait.

When those first rays touch the water the fishing will be quite frantic, with a host of species queuing up to attack a live prawn bait, including beautiful black and yellowfin bream, flathead, whiting, trevally and luderick.

There are plenty of places to fish. Wallaga Lake, just north of Bermi, is still open to the ocean following the floods earlier in the year and looks fantastic. To the south, Wapengo Lake never closes to the ocean.

The Bermagui River, especially at night around the bridge, is dynamite as predatory fish in the shadows of the bridge lights intercept the prawns coming out of the system.

But I say there is no better place to experience those first golden rays, or their last glimmers, than Brogo Dam, especially when you are tied tight to a good bass. The dam is at 100% capacity, giving countless bass options on lure, fly or bait there is plenty of them and the fishing is just great.

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