Monster seas and gale force winds absolutely smashed the south coast over the weekend. Seven metre waves made a bit of a mess of some of our local beaches, but it stirred the fish up.

At long last, I can finally report the first tuna off Port MacDonnell has been boated and what an absolute ripper it is too. Jamie Widdison and the crew on Extreme Marine Charters have landed not only the first fish of the year, but the first barrel too.

Mark Mudford was the angler on the rod and the fish is estimated at 120kg (yet to be weighed at time of writing) so we are off great start.

I have got no doubt the smaller fish will be right behind them, so let’s hope we’re in for another boomer. Before the big blow there was plenty of fishing going on by the boaties.

The offshore fishos got stuck into some school and gummy shark over 20kg, while there have been plenty of reefies such as queen snapper, red snapper and flathead mixed in too. Surf fishos enjoyed calm seas before the weekend as anglers walked the beaches on the eastern side of the Glenelg River Mouth and found some nice gummy shark, salmon and smaller mulloway.

From the mouth through to Nobles Rocks has plenty of excellent water with low crowds. There have been a few sharks caught locally down along the Piccaninnie area. It is usually this time of year that we see the big sea bream start turning up in the first gutters of most beaches.

Downsize your gear a little bit and you’ll be surprised at just how hard they can fight in the shallows. With the big sea forecast to roll into the coming weeks, we should see some salmon start popping their heads up in better numbers.

From now on I think we will see the size start to creep up as the weather deteriorates, which is what those big jackies love. Canunda National Park is always a hot spot for the big salmon, but getting in is an adventure in itself, so keep to the track and avoid the big waterholes.

I think after the swell event we had, the sea should stir nicely and be just right for the big whiting. Hopefully the water is not too cold for them and they keep on as they were.

The land based and boat anglers have had a dream run, landing not only great numbers of fish, but excellent size too.

It was not only the usual hot spots that fired this year with whiting in some of the lesser fished areas as well. Before this past weekend, the Port MacDonnell Jetty has been red hot for the land based fishos.

We were seeing some nice catches of big tommies, garfish, mackerel and even some nice squid still. Hopefully once things settle, we’ll see them return back to the numbers we were catching.

The Glenelg River fished well over the weekend for those targeting a few bream, although the mulloway were a little on the quiet side. The bream were quite spread out for the most part and I know of fish from aisle of bags, all the way through to the upper reaches.

Prawns and cut pilchards were the weapons of choice for the weekend, but we know how often they can change their tastes. I have not heard any perch news from this week, but there is no doubt a few are still sniffing around.

The Port MacDonnell Offshore Angling Club’s 40th tuna and sports fish tournament is not long away and entries are available in store or on the PMOAC website.

The forecast for the coming weekend is better than the last one, but it’s still going to be very average. A few mid-week days look right for a fish, but for the most part its batten down the hatches.

Until next week, safe fishing.