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Singing the tuna blues
  |  First Published: August 2016



Another month has passed and the fishing seems to be at its best, weather permitting. As many are aware, Portland hosted the first annual Portland Tuna Competition, which was extremely successful. Heaps of people got behind the idea, and the local council provided some amazing prize money to stir the anglers into gear.

The competition was held over four weekends in May and June, but the weather made it hard and some days were cancelled due to safety concerns. Thus running the tournament over a period of time proved to be a great idea.

At the end of the competition, the biggest fish was caught by Brodie Carter and weighed in at 20.5kg. He scored an epic first prize of $5,500. Second place went to Grant Callion for a catch of 19.2kg that won him an awesome $3,500 and Richard Knight took third place at 16.4kg, a fish that scored him $2,000.

Other prizes were awarded throughout the competition. Some bigger fish were caught over this period including barrel tuna over 100kg, but unfortunately those anglers weren’t registered for the competition. You’ve got to be in it to win it! Big congratulations to all those that helped and donated to this great competition. Let’s hope to see it improve and grow over the next few years.

Tuna tunes

The weather has been up and down through winter, but when it’s been good the guys have smashed the school tuna from 8-20kg. Out of the blue we have been seeing amazing tuna over 100kg mixed in with the smaller fish.

When the weather has been bad we’ve seen big winds and swells up to 7m, which is quite amazing to see especially off Bridgewater Bay in that open water.

When it settles the breakwater has produced the odd snapper plus some sharks into the evening and late night. Plenty of couta off the wall for bait and the mighty winter salmon are out and about. The north shore area from Dutton Way to Fitzroy River has also fished well lately, mainly for school sharks and seven gillers, but it won’t be long again until we see other good-eating fish about, including snapper and whiting in numbers around that area. The bay has been a bit quiet, but anglers are finding tuna and other deep-water fish. Generally we see some good flathead around the bay as well at this time of year.

All the rivers have now broken open and the fishing should fire up in these areas. The Glenelg River has a lot of bream but the bigger mulloway should fire up soon. The Fitzroy and Surrey rivers are always a great option for a good bream and the odd good mulloway in the Fitzroy.

If you are looking at a place to take the kids fishing in a safe environment you can fish along the canal in town, which has a large fishing platform or just pull up on the grass and fish off the bank. This canal can produce some good fish at times like whiting, bream, mullet, salmon, and more – great and safe for all the family.

Remember that all fishing licences increased as of July, so if you are unaware of the increase contact us at Compleat Angler or jump online. You can call us on (03) 5521 1844 for all your fishing and weather reports or visit at 61 Bentinck St Portland and check out our whole range on offer.

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