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Weedy conditions make fishing tough
  |  First Published: April 2013



The dreaded weed has been nearly the worst I have ever seen, making fishing conditions ultra tough.

So basically it’s all about this easterly wind. We have had back-to-back easterlies for nearly six weeks now, and the problem is that even when the wind isn’t that bad at home, the wind is terrible as soon as you get over the sand dunes. This persistent easterly has bought copious amounts of weed with it. Then couple that with the side wash that it brings as well, and you have a recipe for the world’s toughest fishing conditions.

Amazingly however, when you think there is no possible way you could catch a fish, there is the odd report floating around of anglers lucking out and catching the odd fish in these conditions. The way they have done this is either pot luck or wisely choosing the right beach for the conditions.

I have spoke to a couple of anglers that caught 1-2 gummy sharks in these conditions as the beach they had selected had a close in gutter with a large sandbar at the back that was catching all the weed, leaving the small gutter relatively fishable. After midnight the gummies came in to the gutter to feed and these anglers were lucky enough to be around to catch them.

Another way was to find a beach with open water. Basically a shear drop that allowed you to cast way out over the weed. This sounds easy, but it has been tough to find the right beach with this scenario but Seaspray has had this a couple of times now and at the right stage of the tide, the weed has been absent long enough to catch a few fish.

I have spoken to other anglers that just left their rods out in the weed for hours and then after winding in, they have had either a flathead or a gummy shark hidden amongst the hundred kilos of weed on the line. I’d be happy with a find like that!

So basically all the reports for this month have had a fair amount of luck involved and some anglers have just rocked up to the beach at the right stage of the tide for the weed to be not too bad. When that is, is anyone’s guess as sometimes, the high tide produced less weed, but then there are times when the complete opposite is true, so I guess you can only try your luck and hope the weather gods are kind for you.

Hopefully the weather settles in April and we get a few westerlies to get rid of the weed and we can resume some awesome fishing on the Ninety Mile again.

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