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Roll out the barrels
  |  First Published: July 2014



What a big tuna season we are having here in Portland? Fish from 10kg up to 135kg keep everyone coming back for more. If you’re after big numbers of tuna and albacore, then most guys are still heading to the shelf.

The albacore have been great this year, with sizes up to 30kg. The school tuna have been up around the same. The X-Rap lures and skirts, such as Lumos have done a great job.

Now for the big boys! The barrels are keeping everyone on their toes this year with some great fish landed and some that have got away to live another day. These fish have ranged around the 80-135kg so far, with a good chance of bigger. It seems that 6-9” skirts are very inviting to these big fish.

We have also seen some very big thresher sharks come in that have also taken the tuna lures. One monster went 126kg off Sharkmen Charters.

The guys that have been mixing it up a bit with a bottom bounce after catching tuna, have had a mixed bag of blue eye, sharks, snapper and the odd trumpeter.

Bridge Water Bay has been fishing well for flathead of good sizes and gummy and school sharks. Squid and pilchards are great for these fish, plus bloodlines out of the tuna are also doing a great job. There has been some nice flathead behind the corkscrew to the smelter drifting in the 10-20m water range and found they love pipis and white baits and pilchards.

The breakwater has been a bit slow with small pinkies and the odd salmon, but a few nice sharks have been caught in the night. The north shore is also fishing well for pike, pinkies, sharks and the odd big whiting. Again pilchards, squid, pipis and white baits are great around this area.

July should hopefully still see some great tuna coming into the cleaning tables and will be interesting to see how many barrels come in.

This time last year also saw some good deep-sea fish, such as blue eye and trumpeter and there were some great snapper up to 6kg and good size school sharks mixed in. Let's hope the weather gives us the chance to keep fishing these great fish. We should see some good salmon coming off the breakwater and the beaches and generally start seeing good sizes up to 4kg. The breakwater also produces some big seven gillers at night coming in for a feed.

We should see some good winter bream out of the rivers. Baits, such as prawns, worms and pipis, as well as hardbody lures and soft plastics are working a treat.

The Glenelg River has been producing good perch and we should see some good size mulloway come on the chew. Let's hope the fishing keeps up in good numbers this July.

• For all your bait and tackle needs call into Portland compleat angler and say g'day to the team or contact us on 03 55211844. We can also give you weather and fishing updates anytime and fishing licences also available in store.

1

A cracking barrel! This tuna was caught by Jason and his mate mark and it put up an impressive fight that took the boys nearly 8 hours to land.

2

The barrels are keeping everyone on their toes this year with some great fish landed.

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