The entrance remains open with the prevailing weather and moon phase dictating water levels. There have only been a few days where strong easterly winds have coincided with the new moon, and the lake has dropped to a level where a little more care is needed when navigating around the lake and gaining access to the river.

The fishing has been excellent despite some pretty ordinary weather and most anglers have been pretty happy to take home a good feed and put a few back for next time. Most of the better bream fishing has happened in the afternoons, leaving plenty of time in the mornings to either have a sleep in or chase other species.

A good option has been to troll or cast lures down the channel, targeting tailor, salmon and trevally. Some of the tailor have been around 2.5kg and really take some landing on light gear. Deep diving lures have been more successful than the normal metal slices and Lasers, as the fish seem to be ‘hanging’ more in the middle third of the water column than at the top. These fish can also be caught on soft plastics, particularly the trevally, however when the tailor are thick you can go through a pack of plastics in record time.

The bream fishing has been steady with some better catches now coming out of the lake. Sandworm has still been the most popular bait, however a lot of the better fish have been taken on peeled local prawns.

A good run of luderick is also being caught in the lake on sandworm. Better areas have been Bobs Bay and Siberia. Most of these fish have averaged around 1kg, with some of the better ones tipping the scales at 2kg. They aren’t as widespread as the last couple of years however if you keep moving in the suggested areas eventually you should drop on to them.

The surf has been a bit patchy mainly due to the windy conditions, however some anglers have made the most of the small breaks in the weather to land some nice fish. Salmon up to 3kg have been reported from ‘Pearl’ point with the best baits being pilchards and blue bait. Blue surf poppers as always have worked well. A couple of gummies were also caught over the last full moon and I think we could be in for some big nights in the coming months if the weather is OK.

The works on the carpark and boat ramp have now been completed with the final seal going down in mid October. We now have a facility we can use all year round whether the entrance is open or closed.

Mal Cameron with a tailor of around 2kg, caught on a lure in the channel at Bemm River.