"

Another great season ahead
  |  First Published: November 2006



Last year we had a ripper start to the game fish season with a number of notable captures happening.

This year has started the same with tuna to 60kg being landed and even bigger fish lost over recent weeks. The shelf has been the place to fish with water temperatures hovering around 20 degrees. That’s quite warm water for this time of year and it wouldn’t surprise me to see an early season beakie get caught. Trolling both skirted and bibbed minnows has worked well with smaller pusher types in brighter colours producing better results. With the yellowfin, expect albacore to 15kg and have your wire ready, as a decent mako shark is always a possibility when the tuna are running.

At Montague Island the kings have fired up with jigs, livebait and fresh squid on flasher rigs all catching fish at times. The north end has seen bigger fish to 8kg, with Fowlhouse reef on the western side producing school fish to 3kg. One thing to remember about kingies is they bite best when the current is pushing hard from the north. If it’s only trickling south or there’s no current at all, the kingies can be hard to entice regardless of your offerings. If this happens going down a few line classes in the tackle department can pay dividends. You may loose a few fish to the seals but at lest you’ll get more bites.

Inshore the snapper have been going great guns for months now and this should continue. The close-in reef at Brou fires up at this time of year with fresh squid the best bait. Anchoring up here and using burley will also increase catch rates. If you decide to fish here, expect a few morwong and tiger flathead also. Fishers after a feed of flatties should have little trouble with the grounds at Kianga and Glasshouse rocks. These tasty table fish really fire up with the warmer water in November so expect some good bags.

Wagonga Inlet has been a little on the slow side but this month will change that. Big flathead should well and truly be active with some formidable specimens already being caught and released. We have landed 5 or 6 over 80cm so far this month so let’s hope the great fishing continues. The big flatties are responding well to big soft plastics in natural colours, with shad type tails working best. The main basin has seen some good snapper to a kilo and bream are available on the weed edges and oyster racks. Bream are spooked easily so take a quiet approach if fishing the crystal clear shallows. Both soft plastics and hard bodies will produce the goods.

Salmon are still plentiful on most local beaches and headlands with Narooma main, 1080 and Tilba the best beaches to the south. If fishing north of Narooma, Dalmeny headland, Brou and Jamisons beaches are the pick. All methods are working for the salmon, with anglers casting chrome lures having a ball on fish to 2kg. Expect some good whiting and bream to turn up this month too, with live beach worms, pipis and mussels working best. Fishing the flooding tide in the late afternoon is best.

The rocks have slowed considerably due to the calmer seas at present. When the swell increases the blackfish and drummer should staring playing the game again. Kingies are a real possibility this month and you’ll experience the best bites on livebait, lures and whole ganged pilchards.

Reads: 1280

Matched Content ... powered by Google




Latest Articles




Fishing Monthly Magazines On Instagram

Digital Editions

Read Digital Editions

Current Magazine - Editorial Content

Western Australia Fishing Monthly
Victoria Fishing Monthly
Queensland Fishing Monthly