Over the next few days, we’re expecting to see some really ugly weather come through the Limestone Coast, but over the weekend, it was quite fishable and mild, so plenty of anglers made the most of it and wet a line.
There was a bit caught over the weekend around the place and we have had a few reports filter through, so let’s get straight into it.
The offshore news has been quiet for a little while, but we did see the return of barrels this week to Port MacDonnell.
Late last week the fish turned up again in bigger numbers and Jamie Widdison from Extreme Marine Charters put his clients onto a cracker at over 120kg.
They also lost another one prior, so hopefully once this weather passes, the fish are hungry.
The bottom fishing prior to the bad weather was excellent, we saw some excellent catches of nannygai and flathead, along with some hefty sharks too.
Anywhere from 60mt through to 120mt has been worth a look, just find a nice bit of bottom and give it a crack.
The inshore fishing for shark has continued to impress again this week.
Gummy and school shark have both been caught along the coast this past week, and there has been some pretty decent models in both species.
Fish in that 12kg – 15kg range are the most common still down there and make up the majority of the numbers, but there are still those 20kg and better fish amongst them too.
Snapper have backed right off now and it’s been a week or so since the last inshore fish has been reported, but have not we had a stellar season.
The landbased and offshore snapper have been incredible, and we should only see them go from strength to strength next season too.
As we see the weather really start to crap its dacks, lots of us turn our attention to chasing Aussie salmon off the beach.
I have mentioned the salmon briefly in the last few reports, but now we’re really starting to see things pick up.
The fishing around Cape Banks, Canunda NP and through to the Beachport salmon hole has fired up this week, with seemingly bigger and more fish being caught.
Signs so far for the season are encouraging, last year was a bit of a fizzer for many of us, myself included!
Anglers chasing gar before the blow found some nice fish around the Cape Douglas and Hutt Bay areas this week, but they were pretty hard work.
Plenty of small fish between the good ones, and lots of little tommies and salmon, but persist and there’s a good feed to be caught.
Livingstons and Pelican Point will be worth a crack once the weather settles down again, so get out there and have a go.
The Murray cod in the Valley Lake have wised up to us a bit now. They’re more of a challenge to catch now and that’s not a bad thing.
Flicking spinner baits and stumpjumpers has been the tried and true method since day one, but now were seeing anglers expand into new methods such as swimbaits, big plastics, vibes and topwater, all which add a whole new element to it.
The Glenelg River is full.
As full as I can remember in recent years anyway.
The landings are all well and truly underwater, and even most of the Nelson boat ramp car park!
That has not stopped the fish though, plenty of estuary perch have been landed this past week, some of the better ones have been up over a kilo in weight, and have come from all over the river.
Up in the snags above Pritchards has been popular for anglers to fish since you can dodge the winds up there, and a good mixture of soft plastics and even flies have produced the goods.
Bream have been caught predominately on baits the past week, with prawn and whitebait being the go-to, the deeper rocky banks and close to the edge has been the hot zone, often the closer you can get, the better it is.
The mulloway news is still very light on. Again anglers are seeing the fish on the sounder, but getting them to bite is another story!
Looking past the week’s weather and into the weekend, we should see things settle down enough to be fishable again for all anglers, be it offshore or inland.
Until next week, safe fishing!
