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Ninety Mile Beach is gummy shark central
  |  First Published: November 2012



Ninety Mile Beach is warming up now and so is the fishing, especially if you are talking about those Victorian favourites, the gummy shark!

The surf is now in full swing and this is primarily due to the warmer water temperatures. The main issue there has been is that horrible slimy weed that plagues us all over spring and summer. Now last year, we got let off easy and there wasn’t much weed, but this year it looks like we are in for it as it has been pretty bad.

It's hard to give any tips on the weed as I thought this month I had it worked out. It seemed for the most part, during high tide, the weed was disappearing and you would get about 3 hours of weedless fishing, but then I would get a report from someone a few days later, saying the exact opposite, so I think you just have to go and hope for the nest as its too unpredictable.

Gummy Shark

The gummies have gone extremely well so far. Most of the gummy sharks have been caught at the eastern end of Ninety Mile Beach, so this includes Seaspray and Golden Beach. I have seen some pretty good fish measuring up to about 1.5m in length but most of the gummies and between 80-120cm in length. Still nice fish!

A wide variety of baits are working, however the old favourites squid and bluebait are working as well as anything, but some anglers are having good success on salmon fillets as well. Speaking of salmon, there have been some massive salmon cruising in close to the beach, some anglers have even been lucky enough to see birds working on schools of baitfish with salmon busting up on the surface in very close, but you have to be there at the right time.

This kind of action has mainly been happening at McGaurans Beach and Woodside. Woodside in particular has been producing some thumping big salmon up to 3kg but it is a matter of getting the right day when there is no weed. There have been some awesome gutters forming here with big salmon entering them at high tide.

This has been the same for Jack Smiths and McGaurans as well. The by-catch at night has mainly been seven-gill sharks which some anglers don’t mind and say they aren’t too bad eating if you freeze them, but I’m not one of those anglers. There are still some draughtboard sharks as well, but not many, they are thinning out more and more every night and should be gone entirely by November.

Snapper should turn up any day now on the beach, so with any luck there will be some good photos floating around off surf-caught snapper. It’s also nearly time to start paddling those baits out, as the big toothy critters will be here terrorizing the swimmers very shortly as well.

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and some great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Don’t forget to tune in to Will’s Gippsland report on Rex Hunt and Lee Rayners’ “Off The Hook” on 1242.

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