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The Inlet opens up
  |  First Published: October 2009



w
ith mulloway, bream, and mega-flathead high on anglers’ lists, it’s a great month to target an array of estuary species, especially in Wagonga Inlet.

With the water hovering around 18°, a variety of different techniques at certain times of the day and tide will reap rewards.

One dynamite technique has been to fish deep soft plastics around bait schools and that will continue this month. Over the past two weeks whilst guiding at Wagonga we’ve managed nine mulloway to 14kg on soft plastics and light braid tackle.

This technique allows us to fish light for big fish.
t
here’s not too much structure they can hang you up on and you definitely get more hook-ups on the lighter stuff.

Mixed in with the jewies are salmon and tailor, with some hitting 4kg. At that size they are formidable opponents, even on heavier estuary tackle.

For those after a feed, flathead numbers are increasing as the weeks go by.

Fish are averaging 45cm to 50cm with the odd croc over the 85cm. Most fish are falling to smaller plastics, with live poddy mullet snaring a fish or two as well.

Further upstream, bream are thick around the oyster racks at times, but getting them to hit lures consistently has been challenging.
s
maller hard-bods cast to the shady side of the racks have worked but good casting skills are required, especially when it’s windy.

Towards the end of the month bream and whiting will become more aggressive towards surface lures like poppers, walkbaits and unweighted plastics. This type of fishing isn’t for everyone but to me, watching a fish eat in plain view of the surface is about as good as it gets.

Tuross has slowed to a crawl but hopefully recent rain will stir the fish. There are flathead in the lower reaches with plastics and vibes faring
ok
.

Upstream of the highway bridge, estuary perch have been caught but there’s plenty of water between them. With warmer weather, bass are certainly viable options later in the month on surface lures, deep-divers and even bunches of earthworms.

TOUGH GAME
t
he game brigade has done it tough with cold water, big seas and big wind working against offshore fishers. The season so far hasn’t lived up to earlier predictions but that can all change within weeks, all we need is
m
other
n
ature to do the right thing.

There’s some great-looking 20°-plus water to the north and when it does finally get here, yellowfin tuna, albacore, various shark species and marlin will all be encountered.

Trolling skirted pushers will be the go and wide of the shelf the place to fish.

At Montague Island small kingfish and a few bonito have been sporadically caught on jigs and trolled lures, mainly on the southern pinnacles.

Expect some bigger fish later in the month with live baits fished up the northern end of the island effective. Just remember the marine park exclusion zones that come into effect during November if you’re up that way.

On the reefs snapper, morwong, pigfish, nannygai and perch are the go.
m
orwong are thick on some reefs with the south-west corner of Montague a hot spot.

Potato Point and Tuross are holding reds in around 70m.

t
here are heaps of flathead in 50m to 60m.
BEAches improve

With more swells lately, the beach fishing has really picked up.

Salmon and tailor are prolific on some beaches, with Tilba, to the south of Narooma, a hot one. There’s a cracking gutter for a few hundred metres which has been loaded with fish.

A lot of anglers are casting small chrome lures into the suds and having loads of fun but all methods are working, with paternosters with a bait/popper combination most successful.

w
hiting, bream and yellow-eye mullet are all possible with live beach worms. I’d be trying Brou
b
each, north of Narooma, which always fires early in the season.

About half-way along Brou there’s a rocky outcrop that holds all of the above species. An evening flood tide is best.

t
he rocks have been stones a little up and down with blackfish, drummer and groper still possible but getting harder to catch. A few local blackfish nuts say things should improve during November. Those doing
ok
have fished early mornings on run-out tides with the freshest of cabbage weed and cunjevoi and good berley.
s
pots to try include the Golf
c
ourse
r
ocks in town, Dalmeny
h
eadland and the southern inside sea wall at Narooma.

Salmon are abundant on the local platforms with Mystery Bay the gun spot for smaller kingfish, bonito and bigger tailor.

If there’s a decent wash on the southern end of the ledge, a good snapper is on the cards. Cast an unweighted pilchard into the wash.

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