Quite a cool, but pleasant weekend across the Limestone Coast saw plenty of anglers get the boats out of the shed and hit the water.
From offshore to shallow reefs, off the sand or up the river, there has been some very nice fish caught across the board, so let’s get to it.
The offshore fishing has slowed down a little bit this week, but there are still barrels being landed.
Jase Fulham from Port Mac Charters has boated a couple of nice fish this week for his clients, and we have seen a bit of a return of the school sized tuna.
They’re quite spread out again now as they were previously, but they have been happy to take a mix of small skirts and deep divers, so mix it up a bit.
While we’re on the tuna, it’s a bit out of our usual area, but late Sunday arvo in Warrnambool, Grub Cole called through with the news that he had landed a potential world record southern blue fin tuna caught on 15kg line.
After throwing it on the scales and making sure all the boxes were ticked, the fish beat the record by a couple of kilos and is now a pending world record at a very impressive 120.4kg! An awesome effort by both angler and crew!
In deep dropping news, we saw some lovely fish off Port MacDonnell over the shelf.
Connor Murphy and crew boated some lovely hapuka over the weekend, the fish of the trip being a beast at 32kg, made even more impressive that it was all wound in manually too!
Hayden Sneath and Greg Saunders boated some ripper pink ling and hapuka over the weekend, making for a nice few feeds coming up.
Inshore we have seen more nice shark caught around that 40m – 80m range, with some very solid gummys being boated.
School shark are also in the mix and all seem to be around that 10kg – 15kg mark.
Snapper, nannygai, terakhi, knifejaw and flathead have all been boated out there too, so there’s a real good mix on offer.
The inshore reefs have fished well for sharks again this week.
The schoolies and gummys have been in good touch, and there are some pretty serious fish down there.
Gummy shark to 23kg have been boated along the Danger and Green Point areas in depths ranging from 4mt to 12mt.
We’re still seeing some nice snapper thrown in the mix, though they are definitely thinning out more and more each week.
The baitfish have been decent though for the fishos down there.
Salmon trout, pike and a few mackerel have been caught, so fresh baits are not too far away.
The surf anglers have been loving the northerlies over the last week or so.
If you’re targeting salmon from the sand, there have been some nice fish caught from Cape Banks, through Canunda and to the Beachport Salmon Hole.
Metal lures are still the pick of the bunch, giving you the ability to cover a bit more ground, but the bait fishos are still holding their own and finding their fair share.
Fish to 1.5kg have been the norm for most in all the afore mentioned areas, but the odd bigger fish over 2kg have been mixed in.
Sharks are still being caught around the Piccaninnie Ponds area and all the way back through to Browns Bay, but they are starting to slow down a bit now.
Elephant shark, snapper and even the odd whiting are being caught still, so even though it’s a bit frosty, it’s definitely worth a crack.
With the calm conditions we saw last week, the garfishing was excellent for most who had a dabble.
The size has been impressive once again, and although they were a bit tricky to get going for some anglers, once they did start to bite, catching a feed was not too difficult at all.
As usual the live gents are a no brainer for bait, and fished under a pencil or feeder float, you cannot really go wrong.
Mullet, salmon trout and tommy ruff might join the party, but a mixed basket is never a bad thing.
The Glenelg River is still blocked and water levels are well and truly up.
Pretty much all of the non-floating landings are now covered, so if you are out on them, please be very careful because they’re incredibly slippery.
Onto the fishing, it has not been too bad for most.
The bream and perch fishing has remained good, and that’s been both up and down the river.
Lures or baits have both been working, so if you prefer one over the other, you should still find some nice fish.
The mulloway news has been virtually non-existent again, other than a couple of anglers hooking some really big fish on their light gear before being busted off.
I do not think there’s any talk yet from the authorities about if or when they’ll release the river, but I know it’s always preferred if it can go on its own.
Looking forward to the weekend and it looks like it’s gonna be pretty average.
Swell, wind and rain, it’s all on the way! The river and inland will be better options I think.
Until next week, safe fishing!
