A wild spell of weather has kept all-but the keenest of anglers at home for the bulk of the past week.
Massive seas, gale force winds and plenty of rain are hopefully giving us the last taste of winter before we some nice weather kicks in.
There has been no news from the offshore guys this week, but before the weather turned I was still hearing of good numbers of gummy shark and flathead from the 90 metre – 110 metre areas.
I have no doubt the fish will still be there, so we just need some good weather again to allow us back on the water.
The surf guys who have been brave enough to hit the beach have found some nice salmon this week.
The winter like conditions must have spurred them into gear right across the South East.
I have seen some nice fish from Piccininni Beach through to Browns Bay, into Nene Valley, Carpenter Rocks and through the Canunda National Park.
There has still been the odd gummy shark caught again this week, they have not been monster fish, but still great eaters.
The whiting fishos have been waiting for a stir like we saw over the weekend to put a bit of colour back in the water.
With the forecast for the next week looking very fishable, I expect to see some good fish caught.
Before the bad weather, the fishing was still good even though the water was clean.
The usual haunts were still producing, such as Port MacDonnell Breakwater, Cape Douglas, Blackfellows Caves and Carpenter Rocks.
A few other places such as Racecourse Bay, Nene Valley and Pelican Point have been fishing well too, but the fish can be a bit more spread out and harder to pinpoint.
Silver trevally are still getting better each week in most spots.
They can be a bit of a pain when you’re trying to target whiting, but they are hard fighters and great on the table when eaten fresh.
Garfish have been pretty good through the bad weather.
The beauty of our area is we can almost always find somewhere that is protected and out of the wind for when we just need to fish.
Cape Douglas and Hutt Bay have been those areas for us over the last week.
Livingstons Bay is great when the weather allows, but it is very exposed.
Hopefully this coming week’s weather settles down as its forecast and we can get back out there.
A few anglers have found the odd gar in the breakwater this week, but most have been bycatch, so if you actively target them, you might be surprised.
The Glenelg River Angling Club had their first competition over the weekend and there were some cracking fish weighed in.
Garry MacDonald had a field day weighing in mulloway, bream and estuary perch all caught around the Donovans area.
Garry’s bream were crackers, all but one of his five was well over 800g.
The mulloway were all between 70cm and 75cm – great fun on the light gear.
I have not heard much news from the Victorian section of the river recently other than some nice bream and a couple of mulloway caught down in the blue water of the estuary on an incoming tide.
I am sure there are more fish being caught that I’m not hearing of, so it’s always worth heading down for a crack.
With the forecast looking to improve and some anglers having gone a week or more since wetting a line, this weekend should be fabulous.
I am just hoping they have got it right.
Until next week, safe fishing.
