The North East coast has been fishing well with good catches of Australian salmon and southern blue spotted flathead being taken off the beaches. The salmon have weighed up to 2kg and the most popular beaches have been around the Bellingham and Beachford areas.

The best tide seems to be the run in tide in late afternoon or early morning. The flathead have been taken mainly on soft plastic lures but some anglers have had success bait fishing with squid bait. The first 2 hours of the run out tide seems to be the most productive.

The Tamar River has started to slow down a bit due to the cooling water temperatures. The water temperature is around 12 degrees and still falling. This doesn’t mean you should hang up the rods. The estuary is still producing good catches of snotty trevally, silver trevally, Australian salmon, pike and barracouta. The snotties (blue warehou) have mainly been taken around the George Town and Beauty Point areas. Anglers have had the best results in the bay at Garden Island. Pipe Clay Bay has also been producing the occasional good catch as well.

Silver Trevally have also been taken off some of the Tamar River pontoons. The Pier pontoon at George Town seems to have been the most productive. Chicken breast and Squid have been the number one bait for the trevally. A Sabiki rig or bait catching rig spiced with a small piece of bait about the size of your fingernail works well. The most popular water depth is about 5-10m.

Australian salmon have also been taken as far up as Gravelly Beach pontoon.  Consistent schools have been popping up in Spring Bay and Redwood Bay on most days. They are mainly smaller fish known by local as cockie salmon. They can be caught around the high or low tide changes. Keep your eyes open for working birds or surface action. Of late they have been hard to catch because of massive amounts of small bait fish. The salmon are over-fed and will only take what closely resembles the baitfish. A small fly or clear plastic tubing with a single or treble hook through the centre of it normally does the trick when they are a little tough. Couta and Pike have also been taken in the estuary as far up as Swan Point.  The best catches have been taken around the Middle Island and middle bank areas.

The next month or so should see the start of sea run brown trout appear in the estuary. They can be spotted chasing whitebait around the shores of Deviot and the middle reaches of the Tamar during the months of July and August. September onwards they will run up the North Esk and South Esk rivers as well as the Trevallyn power station.

A few nice black bream have been taken from the Tamar of late up to 37cm. The fish have been caught on square backed crabs. The best winter spots for bream in the Tamar would be around the Power Station at Long Reach and off  Boat Crews Point in West Arm. Trophy bream can be caught during the colder months for the braver angler. Fish over 2kg are occasionally caught. The best tides seem to be the run in tide over shallow pipi beds. Bream are definitely a worthwhile option during Tassie’s colder months.