It’s May! May the fishing be good, May the weather be good, and most importantly May I take this opportunity to wish all the mums out there a happy Mother’s Day for the 14th of May.

It’s hard to believe we’re already almost halfway through another year. The days are getting shorter and cooler, and soon we’ll be back into winter, which is OK with me – I much prefer my winter fishing!

The end of April and the start of May means it’s time to start thinking about a trip down to the Eucumbene River for the start of the trout spawn run. It’s a pretty good run down from Nowra, taking between three and four hours, making it a real weekend proposition. It’s definitely something to consider if you’re after a bit of a sea change from fishing the salt water.

Locally, the fishing has been pretty good since the seemingly endless rain we had back in March and the start of April. The estuaries and rivers did get dirty but they cleared fairly quickly, making for some great fishing which is continuing on into the month of May.

Although the Basin fished quite well during summer and early autumn, it wasn’t what we had come to expect from it in years gone by. However, after the rain the fishing action really hotted up in there. Anglers have been getting into plenty of good bream and whiting, along with some nice flatties.

There have also been big tailor and snapper roaming around, giving anglers more than they bargained for on their ultra-light rods and reels. The Basin’s larger counterpart, Jervis Bay, is where you would usually go to fish for decent-sized reds, but at the moment the Basin is producing some real quality fish on pilchards and fresh strip baits. If you get those nice, still, autumn nights there is nothing better than sitting out on the Basin, anchored up with a berley trail going, gazing at the stars and waiting for that 3/0 circle hook to find its mark.

The mighty Shoalhaven River has also continued to fish well since the rains pushed a lot of fish down to around the entrance to the Crookhaven River. Some thumper bream were caught in early April but they have thinned out slightly now. They’re probably heading back upstream around the rocky edges of the canal and beyond to Broughton Creek, where they have the safety of snag after snag. Still, hiding out here can sometimes be their undoing, as anglers in the know concentrate on this area and work out where the fish are concentrated.

The estuary perch are currently concentrated in their usual haunts in the river. From the Nowra Bridge, just downstream of Broughton Creek and the canal are all good spots to try for an EP. And in all these locations you just never know when a mulloway is going to get in on the action, destroying you on the light tackle!

Jervis Bay has been somewhat of a struggle over autumn, however there have been a couple of saviours for anglers fishing these waters. The squid have been one of them, with plenty throughout the bay and some good size amongst them. When it comes to jig preferences they have been mixing it up a bit, from pinks and oranges to greens and goldy brown colours. A range of quality jig brands are working well, but my pick are the Yamashita Egi Oh Q Lives.

The other saviour for anglers fishing the bay has been a run of some nice pan-size reds. They are being taken around Longnose Bombie and Middle Ground for both the soft plastic/micro jigger fishos and the bait soakers.

Some big dusky flathead have also been taken in some of the tributaries of Jervis Bay in recent weeks, but be careful which tributaries you venture into and which areas within them you fish – there are a lot of Marine Park fishing exclusion zones in some of these tributaries, with some being no-fish zones altogether.

Enjoy the cooler weather everyone and stay safe!