The Iluka region has experienced excellent weather over the last month and fantastic fishing – especially offshore, and on the beaches and headlands. A busy tourist influx, and very kind weather conditions led to many very happy anglers.

Catches have included spotty and Spanish mackerel north and south of Iluka that have taken pink trolling squid skirts, live bait and lures. Longtail have also been taken outside and off the main wall, often preferring live bait, especially garfish under floats. There have been some incredible stories of sharks getting in on fish hook-ups and depriving fishers of some awesome fish. Good numbers of marlin were caught and released recently only a few kilometres offshore. Black Rock has seen excellent cobia, snapper and teraglin, as have the fishing grounds of Angourie and the FAD.

The main wall and headlands have recorded trevally, awesome-sized tailor, snapper, bream and tarwhine. There has also been some very nice dart and whiting caught in gutters at Shark Bay on worms and nippers. There were weigh-ins for Kurt Murphy’s 5.1kg trevally caught at the Bluff, Ralf Karsten’s 7.5kg snapper taken at Black Rock, and Gordon Collins took a 15kg longtail tuna at Black Rock.

The river has experienced nice catches of school mulloway, bream, flathead and whiting. Better-sized fish and numbers are a bit further up the Clarence around the Harwood Bridge and Maclean. This is also the case for mud crabs, but there are still some nice-sized specimens down the river.

Epic catches of the month go to Bob Gutteridge for his 4.82kg flathead caught at Browns Rocks (catch and release), Brian Sullivan’s 400g whiting caught up past Harwood, and Ralf Cutter’s 1.34kg blackfish.

Please remember to take care if fishing the headlands and walls in Iluka and to please take your rubbish home with you. Unfortunately there has been a lot of rubbish left out on Iluka Wall, which just isn’t on. Iluka is beautiful, so let’s keep it that way. Happy fishing everyone.

• For all your fishing needs and up-to-date information and tips for spots and fish drop into the shop for a chat. Iluka Bait and Tackle is located at 3 Owen Street, Iluka NSW 2466. Give us a call on (02) 6646 5217 or 0402 997 572. We are available online at www.ilukabait.com.au or visit our Facebook page.