Casting with Coatsy

Casting with Coatsy

A pleasant weekend on the Limestone Coast was the shot in the arm that plenty of us needed to dust the gear off and get motivated, with the temperatures slowly getting warmer and the fishing starting to heat up.

Offshore fishos had a bit of wind to contend with, but there were still a handful of boaties who made the trip out.

Shark remained good with gummy and school shark both being caught.

The 60-metre line is fishing well for sharks, as is the 90 to 100-metre zone, where flathead are also in encouraging numbers.

The other reefies such as blue morwong, nannygai, knife jaw and terakhi have been fairly spread out, but keep on the move and you should find a nice feed with not too much hassle.

The surf fishing has been a little bit hit and miss. There has been a fair bit of weed around, which has made the going a bit tough for most in their usual hot spots, but a few reports of some reasonable fish have come in from the Piccaninnie and Paradise area with gummy sharks up to 6kg and some nice jack salmon.

The guys up at the Coorong have found some nice shark right along the beach, but the mulloway have been a little bit more elusive.

As we start getting into the warmer weather, I have no doubt they’ll fire up. The whiting fishing has been nothing short of brilliant and I have seen pictures of fish caught from the Port MacDonnell Breakwater, Cape Douglas, Livingstons and Carpenter Rocks.

Mat Stark and Pete Johnson boated around 10 fish inside the Breakwater and even couple of nice flathead for the table, while the jetty at Port MacDonnell will get better from now on for whiting fishos.

Off the beach the going has been a little tougher, but I think once the sea stirs a bit this week, we will see a change.

Silver trevally are in the mix for whiting fishos in most of the above-mentioned areas as well.

Garfish have remained impressive and all the usual haunts have been productive with the size and numbers both very good.

Livingstons Bay has probably fished better for the boaties recently, but Cape Douglas has been equally good for the boaties and waders.

Small tommy ruff have been in fairly big numbers and while they can be a pain in the bum when the gar are biting, it’s an encouraging sign coming into summer.

With border restrictions slowly relaxing, it’s great to see our region slowly getting back to normal.

If you do want to travel up to 70km into Victoria, all you need to do is jump on the SAPOL website, follow the instructions to get your pass and adhere to the rules.

Nelson has been fishing well for bream and estuary perch lately with the bait and lure fishos both sharing in the success.

Mulloway numbers have also started to improve, with some lovely fish being taken on trolled live mullet. It was great to see pictures of some of the millions of fish that were stocked into Rocklands Reservoir being caught.

Yellowbelly at around a kilo in weight are being caught by lure fishos right across the lake, which is brilliant going for fish that were only put in three years ago.

The murray cod and trout news up there has been kept pretty quiet, but it will improve when the Rocklands fires up.

The week ahead looks like it’s got it all with a bit of heat, a cool change and maybe even a storm, so it should be fishable.

Until next week, safe fishing.

Column by Jamie Coates of Spot on Fishing Tackle

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