There’s no doubt that summer is just around the corner. The howling northeast winds remind us of what summer is all about. For me, though, I’ve always preferred the still cloudless days that winter brings.

The offshore fishing is picking up in the Eden area with catches of big albacore and some nice yellowfin tuna. One charterboat also recently boated a couple of small southern bluefin tuna. The water temperature on the shelf is 18ºC and the water charts show there is a patch of good water heading this way. As long as the wind can stay away and let the boats get out to the shelf some good pre-Christmas fishing should be had.

As the water warms we can expect striped marlin to show up, while inshore kingfish will start to make an appearance. The inshore reefs have been fishing well with catches of morwong, snapper some nice tiger flathead keeping trailerboat anglers happy. While out fishing, keep your eyes open at this is the time of year as the whales are moving. If you’re lucky they might put on a show for you.

Around the beaches and headlands salmon are still plentiful along with a few tailor. The Dusky Flathead have been biting well in the Kiah River along with some nice Yellow Fin Bream. A drop of rain has helped get the river flowing still a lot more is needed to keep it flowing. Whether fishing in Twofold Bay or offshore with a bit of persistence at this time of year, you should be guaranteed a feed of fish.

As reported last month, Wonboyn estuary is closed to the ocean. At the time of writing, machinery is on the beach trying to open the bar. This is all being helped along by the oyster farmers, as without tidal flow oysters will eventually die and there goes the farmers’ livelihoods. But one can only think it is a waste of time as without rain to scour out a good channel it will only silt up and close again. As with other estuaries on the South Coast, good rain is needed to flush the system.

The fishing in the lake and river has picked up with a drop of rain putting some colour back into the water. There have been some salmon caught in the lake that have obviously been trapped with the lake closure. Some legal-sized snapper have been caught in the lake with the best of these fish around 1kg. With bream, flathead and whiting all being caught, there is definitely some great fishing to be had in the lake and river.

Off the beaches at Baycliffs, salmon and tailor are being caught. Disaster Bay is a known great fishing spot for sand flathead but with the entrance closed there is no way to fish this area, besides the long haul from Eden.

CAP

Greg Crews with an exceptional lure-caught silver trevally of around 2kg.