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Salt Creek Mulloway running hot
  |  First Published: March 2013



We have had a sensational summer of fishing over in the south east region of South Australia with great fishing being had at all ports and beaches.

This summer the mulloway really turned it on with almost daily reports of big mulloway coming in from the Coorong beaches and some thumpers also came in from the back beaches at Robe. The off shore fishing for shark and snapper has been much better than previous seasons and now there is a good run of southern bluefin tuna going on, the Limestone coast really is the place to be this fishing season.

Robe

Most boaters have been out chasing snapper and gummy shark on the reef areas in about 10-20m of water and some great catches have been taken when fishing the tide changes and with the help of a little berley. There has also been a number of bronze whaler and thresher sharks about this season but many more are lost than are landed as they are often hooked on the snapper rods. It always pays to have a shark rod out when fishing off of Robe. The crayfishing has also been very good off of Robe this season with plenty being taken by divers, hoop netters and amateur cray pot licence holders.

With the tuna season now in full swing offshore of Port MacDonnell and Portland, the tuna will also be out off of Robe and good numbers of bluefin were caught here last season by anglers trolling divers and skirts starting at about the 50m line all the way to the shelf.

In a little closer drifting on the sand patches in the bay has seen good numbers of big King George whiting being caught along with some nice flathead as well.

There has been a lot of mulloway about on the beaches this summer with Long Beach and Domashenz Beach being very popular in the evenings and after dark. Most of the mulloway have been school size around 40-80cm but more than a few bigger fish to 15 kg have come in over the last month or so. Along with the mulloway there has been a number of snapper, flathead and gummy sharks taken as well.

Port Macdonnell

The big news around Port MacDonnell at the moment is the excellent run of mighty southern bluefin tuna which are now being taken in good numbers in as little as 30m of water. Most of these tuna have been 15-30kg so far but there will be much bigger fish about if the last few seasons here are anything to go by. Trolling skirted and diving lures has been the way to go while constantly keeping an eye on the sounder for the tuna schools or looking for working birds.

Bottom bouncing in the deeper water around 50-100m has been producing many gummy sharks, flathead and morwong here lately as well. A few sharks have also been about in the same area with some very large makos coming in over the last few weeks.

Coorong beaches

This has definitely been the best season I have ever seen along these beaches with large numbers of mulloway to 20kg, big snapper, numerous shark species as well as plenty of salmon and elephant fish now being caught. Most of the mulloway have been around 40-70cm but most crews are having no trouble connecting onto at least a few large mulloway on the trips where the weather and weed stay angler friendly.

Good bait is a must when chasing mulloway here and the more successful mulloway anglers here only use the freshest of squid, whole fish such as mullet or salmon and the fillets thereof. Large, firm WA pilchards are a good back up bait to bring over here but good quality pilchards are often hard to come across unfortunately and are a must when being used in the pounding surf.

Good catches are being taken from the Granites to well past Ti Tree Crossing but the area between the 42 and Ti Tree has been the most consistent for big mulloway. I fished Ti Tree recently with my son Curtis and on the falling tide in the afternoon we managed eight mulloway to 90cm in one of the easiest and best sessions we have had over here. We used fresh salmon fillet for bait but also got one on a surf popper as well. On this trip it was full moon, which seems to usually produce good fishing over here for us.

Nelson

The fishing has been very good in the Glenelg River with some thumping big bream to 1.7kg being taken near the bridge on bait. Crab, whitebait and yabby have been doing the trick. Soft plastics and vibes cast at the bankside structure is also producing a lot of bream and estuary perch right along the river all the way to Pritchards. The Sandy Waterholes area has been the most consistent area for the mulloway recently, especially on pilchard or squid fished on the bottom as well as live mullet if you can get them. Most of the mulloway have been up to 5kg.

Plenty of estuary perch are being taken on SX40’s and small poppers cast at the bankside structure around the Sapling Creek area. There has been some real thumpers amongst them up to 40cm making for some excellent sport here.

The surf fishing nearby at Discovery Bay at Swan Lake and Nobles is still going strong for a number of gummy shark, the occasional mulloway and some very big salmon. The best fishing here is on sunset and after dark, particularly on the full and new moons as the tides are better then.

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