The snapper run this season was a great one and the whiting season so far is the best for many years. It seems like we’ve all been blessed with great fishing this year.
It reminds me of years gone by where you could go out and catch your bag of fish in a few hours and go home. It just seems an odd coincidence that the same year netting is banned, the whiting show up in such good numbers. Whatever it is, I’m not complaining, it’s just great to see the fish back!
Woolamai Beach has seen some good salmon and flathead to 1.5kg. Williamsons Beach has also been fishing well for salmon, mullet and a few good flathead. Some salmon have been in the 2kg class. Some of the locals have been bagging some nice gummies of around 1.5m fishing this beach after dark.
At the moment it’s a bit of a mixed bag below the bridge, with whiting, pinkies, salmon, trevally and flathead making up the numbers in the take home bucket.
Outside the Eastern Entrance, the sharks are back big time. They are mainly makos and blues, and there are ‘big mumma’ makos out there in excess of 200kg. A good friend of mine, Clinton, decided to have a go for a shark last week. He was only on the water half an hour when he hooked up to a mako of 106kg. After subduing the fish, he decided to bring it on board where, much to his surprise, it came back to life and proceeded to wreck his boat. Even the dog he had on board tried to jump ship. The moral of the story is don’t mess with makos. Make sure that they have ‘gone to sleep’ before you even think of bringing them on board.
Meanwhile, above the bridge, there are good numbers of whiting and garfish in Dickies Bay, and the area around Reef Island is fishing well. The Corals are producing good numbers of pinkie snapper of 1-1.5kg. The elephants should be starting to make a show here soon too.
The Tortoise Head Bank is going great guns, with good bags whiting being reported. All along the Middle Spit is also firing. Around the entrance to the Western Channel there are some nice gummies of 10-15kg being caught.
Some thumper whiting to 50cm are being caught all along the edges of the reefy areas from Flinders to Somers. You have to work to find the fish and make a lot of moves. Around 2 or 3 fish per move is the norm.
Clinton with a 106kg boat-wrecking mako that he caught off Flinders.
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