"

Get out for kingies and gummies
  |  First Published: April 2015



What a month of fishing. I know it was a slow summer, but the past month has more than made up for it.

OFFSHORE

I’m going to start from Port Albert today as we have had some major schools for kingfish turn up offshore, which I’ve had the pleasure of chasing over the past few months now.

We have found really big numbers of school sized fish of 65-75cm and even hooked the odd monster that’s broken off 50lb Line. We have been using knife jigs for the most part, however trolling small skirted lures between 4-6” in size has been a great method to find the fish. If you find a school, drop in some 150-250g knife jigs, as they have been working a treat.

Don’t think you have to go offshore, this year is the first year in about 4 years that the kingfish have come inside the inlets and we have heard of kingfish coming in as close as the jetties at Port Albert, down towards McLoughlins Beach and also Port Welshpool.

Anglers snapper fishing offshore on the reefs of McLoughlins for snapper have also reported on schools of kingies around the 18m line.

Speaking of snapper, they have been really good over the past month, with anglers fishing off McLoughlins landing plenty of snapper between 35-60cm and the odd big fish of 6kg. The reefs around the islands have been producing stacks of 30-45cm pinkies with plenty of anglers bagging out on pinkies when the weather is good enough.

Pilchards have been by far the best bait, however there has been big schools of salmon and tailor in the entrances so anglers have been catching a few for fresh bait as well.

GUMMY SHARKS

This season has panned out to be as good as last season; anglers are bagging out on gummy sharks easily offshore anywhere from right out front of the entrances in 6mof water and out as far as 30m of water.

Some anglers are opting to anchor and berley for a big gummy and there have been some crackers caught up to the 6ft mark recently, however most of the gummies have been around the 1-1.2m mark.

Fresh baits such as salmon and slimy mackerel have been the best baits but angles are also catching their fair share on squid and pilchards as well.

As a by-catch to the offshore gummies, anglers are bagging out on some of the biggest flathead we get offshore with plenty of 50cm specimens being caught on the drift.

Reads: 2283

Matched Content ... powered by Google




Latest Articles




Fishing Monthly Magazines On Instagram

Digital Editions

Read Digital Editions

Current Magazine - Editorial Content

Western Australia Fishing Monthly
Victoria Fishing Monthly
Queensland Fishing Monthly