March turned out to be another windy month and with all the easterlies and very little rain, the entrance closed mid month. However, despite the weather being unkind, the fishing has been excellent with a variety of species caught in the estuary and off the surf.

The full moon period has probably been the toughest time to fish in the lake but the best time to fish the surf. The gummies have really turned it on and they show no sign of slowing up or decreasing in size.

From what I have seen over the past few weeks or so I can highly recommend a night session on the beach. There have been mixed bags of tailor, trevally and salmon landed using blue bait and surf poppers. But when the wind blows hard from the east, the only place to fish the surf is tucked in behind Pearl Point on the western side. It’s amazing how much shelter you get and there is no side wash.

Quality bream and luderick have been caught in the lake and channel on sandworm and peeled local prawns. The lake is now closed so some of the usually shallow areas are now accessible and good places to try.

The sand flats from the mouth of Swan Lake to the mouth of the channel have been really productive over the last couple of years, particularly when using shallow diving hardbodies. For the bait fisher, the Mahoganies is always a good place to start with plenty of fish caught off Pelican Point and around the mouth of the river.

The luderick have spread pretty much through the whole system with Bobs Bay one of the more popular areas to try. Sandworm is the gun bait for the big luddies and it is always worth trying a float as an extra option.

Soft plastics and vibes have been working well down the channel with good catches of bream, trevally and tailor reported. The bream have been taking a fair array of plastics with 100m Wrigglers and Cammo Worms working well.

There are a few prawns remaining in the system and with the entrance now closed we should get a reasonable go at them over the next couple of new moon phases. At this stage they are just good bait size but I’m sure a few will end up in the pot as well.