An unseasonal blast of warm weather has delighted fishos right along the south coast these past few days, and it has come at the perfect time to coincide with the remainder of the Port MacDonnell Fishing Competition.

After a few ugly days early on in the competition, the weather just got better and better as the week progressed.

The sea laid down, the winds died off and the fishing definitely hotted up.

There were come cracking tuna caught over the week by competitors, and it was great to see the juniors put their names on a few of the big ones too.

Ben Virgo and Jake Walkom are a couple of young guns who both landed a ripper tuna each, among several other species for the week.

There were also a few out of the ordinary fish boated too.

A few crews managed to find some dolphin fish (mahi mahi) which are quite uncommon for our area and the cooler waters, and Jai McDougall pulled up (and released) a sunfish from 150 metres of water which, from what I could gather talking to a few people, is pretty rare.

There were some great sharks caught over the week, Marcus Pearson from Victoria is a gun when it comes to big shark on light line, he managed a school shark over 20kg on 2kg line, it’s an incredible feat considering that’s lighter than most of us fish for garfish.

Corey Edwards won the heaviest mako section with a nice 34kg fish on 8kg line, then the boys had one bite through the trace only an hour or so later that was probably double the size, so if you’re thinking makos, it’s a great time to go for a look.

Tag and release champion is always hotly contested, and this year it went to Tyson Kain, the skipper of Want To Fish Charters.

He managed to tag and release three of his own barrels for the week, landed one that is a pending state record on 60kg line, and still managed to get others onto the fish.

He also had his daughter Scarlett onboard for a few days, and she not only managed to win the heaviest red snapper for the juniors, but also landed her first tuna too.

Keep an eye out in the coming years, I do not think this is the last you’ll hear in the report from Scarlett.

Champion angler for the competition was won by Portland’s Shane Sanders, another absolute guru when it comes to big fish on light line, this week alone they boated tuna, school and mako sharks among all their other species, plus they also picked up champion boat, heaviest mahi mahi and heaviest sweep.

Lastly, this year’s major prize of the boat, motor and trailer was won by a bloke who has fished a huge number of Port Mac Tuna Comps over the years and he’s a genuine great fella, well done Max Barrett.

In other fishing news this week, we were starting to see salmon numbers really start to build, but as soon as the sea flattened off and the weather calmed down, so did the fish.

It’s alright though, they would not have gone far and rest assured there is more stirred seas and strong winds on the way.

The Canunda area was fishing very well before it slowed, and you’ll probably still catch fish down there when you try, but the numbers hopefully have picked back up by the time this goes to print.

Whale Rock, Channel Rock and Oil Rig Square have all been noted productive areas through Canunda, and the Beachport salmon hole out the other end.

Carpenter Rocks has been good in the late arvos, lure and bait fishos are sharing the success, but the family of seals in there have been giving anglers a bit of a hard time.

Garfish numbers have been good this week.

After the blow late last week, things have settled nicely and we’re seeing the usual haunts all producing fish.

Livingstons Bay has been good for both boaties and land based anglers, as has Cape Douglas.

If you’re just wading, Hutt Bay and Petrified Forrest are both fishing well too.

The mullet and tommy ruff have been good in all those previous mentioned areas, though the size is very varied.

There has been a few barracouta in the same areas coming up the burley trail, so if you’re getting the odd bite off and not knowing what’s happening, there’s a fair chance they’re your culprits.

There has been some nice whiting caught this week.

We typically do not talk whiting in the cooler months, but this week I know of some beauties.

Andrew Hood boated fish just under 50cm in the Danger Point area, while others found success in the Port MacDonnell breakwater, Nene Valley and Carpenter Rocks areas.

There are still a few nice ‘ting coming from the beaches too, they might not be in the numbers we expect through the summer months, but the size usually makes up for it.

There are also a few sneaky late season snapper still cruising the same areas too, so get ready if you hook one of those on the whiting gear.

The Glenelg is still producing some nice fish this week, I have seen the first confirmed 20 pounder for the season, and it’s come from down the bottom on the sand.

Fishing live baits under floats to keep the weed off the hooks was the only way to get the fish, and it definitely paid off.

There has been more caught up river again this week, but the size has been varied from tiny little 30cm fish, through to a couple of solid fish in the 80 and 90cm range.

Bream and perch numbers have still been good, some of the better fish I have seen this week have been from up river, around that Sapling Creek area.

Live minnow under floats have been the number one bait if you can find them, but fresh whitebait or live crab is a close second.

The coming week looks like we’ll have a few fishable days before the wind picks up at the weekend.

Luckily for us we have plenty of other options for if the weather is really bad.

Until next week, safe fishing!