It’s summer holiday season and this great part of South Australia is always very popular this time of year due to it’s close proximity to the Victorian border and the great fishing, beaches and attractions.

I have been fishing the Coorong beach at Salt Creek as much as I can so far this summer and it has been fishing the best I have seen it since I first started going there some ten or so years ago.

This time of year the fishing and weather is at its best over here which is why it is such a popular summer destination with anglers and family holiday makers alike. Boat anglers have been getting good catches of big whiting and flathead in the bay mostly drifting with cockles over the sand patches. The reefs just out from Robe have also been producing good-size snapper along with some solid gummy and school sharks. A few thresher sharks and numerous small seven-gill sharks have also been about to spice things up a bit.

Land-based anglers fishing the town jetty and harbour have been catching a number of salmon and small mulloway along with a few bream and flathead.

The cray fishing has been excellent at Robe this summer with most pots coming up with a cray or four in them. Some of these crays have been quite large at times too, up to 3.5kg. Divers have also been doing very well on the crays at Robe as well.

The surf beaches have been fishing well with good numbers of school mulloway to 80cm about along with the odd bigger one. A number of gummy shark and the odd snapper have also been taken off the Robe beaches lately. Long Beach has been fishing well in the evenings and after dark as has Back Beach and numerous great beaches in the little Dip Park.

The Glenelg has been fishing well for bream from the mouth all the way up to Pritchards, it is just a matter of moving around until you find a good patch of fish on any given day. This time of year there is heaps of boating traffic about here so the better fishing tends to be in the early mornings, evenings and after dark. The higher up the river you go there is less boating traffic and the bream less shy as well.

The better bream and estuary perch seem to be around the Sapling Creek area though where plastics, vibes and small hardbodied lures worked along the snaggy banks have been working well. The mulloway seem to have slowed down a bit over the last few weeks here but a few nice fish around the 5kg mark have been getting caught at the caves area, mostly on pilchard, squid or live mullet fished after dark.

The surf beaches at Nobles Rocks and Swan Lake to the left of Nelson have been fishing very well so far this summer with a number of big salmon, a few school mulloway along with some very nice gummy sharks getting taken after dark. A few very large school sharks have also been caught along here lately and they really put up a good fight with several good runs and will often have you running up and down the beach for some time.

To the right of Nelson, Browns and Piccaninie beach have also been fishing well for gummy shark and a few mulloway after dark. Fresh fish fillet baits and fishing the high tide has been best along here.

The crays have been a bit hit and miss at Cape Jaffa this summer so far but the fishing sure has made up for the finicky lobsters. Excellent catches of big whiting many topping the kilo mark have been coming in from boaties fishing Wrights bay and the pinnacles area using cockles either on the anchor or drifting. Some good-sized flathead have also been caught along here.

Good numbers of snapper and a few gummy sharks are getting caught on the reefs such as King Rock and north reef by simply anchoring up and berleying a few hours either side of a tide change. Pilchards and fish fillet baits have been working well. A few thresher and bronze whaler sharks have also been getting hooked by the snapper anglers as well.

In the marina anglers fishing soft plastics and vibes have been having a ball catching salmon, flathead, trevally and a few bream.

There has been no shortage of great fishing reports coming in from this popular beach from the granites to well past Ti tree crossing. The stretch to the right of Ti tree seems to be producing the better catches though.

A variety of great fish are getting caught here including mulloway, snapper, gummy, bronze whaler and school shark along with a few big salmon and some nice flathead. This summer I have had the best fishing I have ever had over this way, it has really been terrific which I believe is a result of all the Murray river flows out to sea the last few years rejuvenating the Coorong system.

So far this summer mulloway catches in particular have been excellent with a number of fish around the 80-90cm mark being caught. A number of larger models up to around the 20kg mark have also been taken by a few lucky anglers. The best fishing has been on any tide change, particularly at night on a new or full moon. Fresh baits have been best particularly fresh mullet or salmon fillets and fresh squid has been very good if you can get it. Pilchards have also been taking a number of mulloway along here lately as well and are a good back up bait to have if you can’t catch your own fresh bait.

At times the weed has been bad on the low tide making fishing all but impossible but once the high tide comes the weed often tends to clear out. Often when the weed is bad along one area a quick move a kilometre or so down the beach is all that is needed to get away from it.