Winter is here once again and with winter has come rain – good rain! The rivers were all in flood and at the time of writing the water was still a dirty brown colour, along with massive drops in water temperature in the lake and the temperature on the beach holding around 13°C.
With the wild and woolly weather there have been no boats outside fishing and it could be a while before the water temperature rises enough to fire things up. Another east coast low is dumping a lot of rain and whipping up big seas while I write this report. This bad weather has scared off visitors to the area and the caravan park emptied as the conditions grew. If you are heading to Mallacoota to go offshore fishing, make some enquires about the condition of the boat ramp as the area is often closed for maintenance and this will upset your plans.
It’s no secret now that some big broadbill have been caught out wide off Mallacoota. Before all this bad weather there were a few more caught but with winter here it could be a while before any boats get out.
The big rain really flushed out the lake entrance and along with the big seas there are some great gutters on all the local beaches. Over the months ahead the salmon will build in numbers and move in and out of the estuary, at times getting as far upstream as Gypsy Point.
Presently the beaches are still covered in soapy foam with plenty of fresh about and not so many anglers about! Winter is black bream time with plenty of fish caught in both the top and bottom lake.
One thing that is clearly noticeable is the size of these fish in years past with big fish of over a kilo a common capture. Now many hours of fishing is needed to tangle with a big fish. With the dirty water the fish have had a great feed and catching them can be tricky, it often pays to use your lure painfully slowly to get results.
Decent yellowfin bream have been caught in both the top and bottom lake, however the cold water has slowed down the sand whiting and they won’t fire up again until the water warms up.
Some good flathead have been caught but you need to keep moving until you find the fish, then work the lure slowly.
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