Chilly conditions have battered the Limestone Coast over the last week or so and it’s been our first real taste of winter.
Rain and wind have lashed the coast making the fishing a bit tricky for most, but as we always see, the keenest of fishos will make the most of their days off and still wet a line.
There was plenty of fish reported from the last week, so let’s get straight into it!
The offshore news this week has been thin thanks to the weather, but mid to late last week we did see the conditions back off enough to allow the bottom bouncers to have a crack.
Shark are still the number one out there, with some really nice samples of both school and gummy sharks being landed.
The depths have varied, some anglers fishing 14mt – 20mt, and others out wider in 50mt and beyond.
Other reef species are also being boated, such as snapper, morwong and terakhi, so when the weather does settle again, it’s definitely worth getting back out for another crack.
The big news this week has been the salmon that have turned up in good numbers.
Last year, a fish at 2kg was a bit of a rarity and we did not really see that pick up all year, but so far this season we’re seeing some genuine 3kg+ fish, and quite consistently too.
Cape Banks has been productive, with both Red Rock and Lighthouse Bays holding fish, plus the length of Canunda and into Beachport are also always worth a look this time of year.
Flicking metal slugs has still been the most productive way to go about it, but if you do prefer to throw baits out, you’ll still be right in on the fun.
There is still a few shark being caught from the beaches this week, most recently that I have heard of has been Nene Valley and Joneses Bay areas, with some reasonable gummies hitting the sand.
There has been some good mullet caught this week by the waders off the beach.
In the corner of Lighthouse and Redrock Bays, Nene Valley and the Port MacDonnell breakwater have all been spots worth trying out, just get a steady burley trail going and you’ll soon know if there’s any mullet in the area!
While we’re touching on wading, the gar have been fairly good again this week for most, the usual haunts such as Livingstons, Pelican Point and Cape Douglas have all produced some nice fish.
Tommy ruff and salmon trout are mixed in with the gar as usual, so mixed bags are on the table.
Silver trevally are still around in reasonable numbers too in the same areas, which is another good one for the table when eaten fresh.
The Glenelg River is fishing well again this week for bream and perch.
Some solid fish of both species have been reported from right through the river.
Flicking the flats of the estuary has been productive
this week, 2.5 inch grubs in natural colours have been getting the nibs, and it’s great to see so many perch still down the front.
There are loads of salmon in the river at the moment, so if they’re around, you might end up with a heap of them too!
Up river, the fishing along the snags and rockwalls has been great.
If you’re using lures, grub or minnow shaped plastics to three inches are working well along with small profile deep divers too.
If trolling is your thing, a small diving minnow that gets down to seven or eight feet is ideal.
Bait fishos have been doing well on prawn and cut crab flicked around the rocks, some fish I have seen this week have been well over 40cm, so there are some real monsters cruising around at the moment.
There have been a few small mulloway landed this week, which has been more than we have seen in recent times.
Fish nudging the 60cm legal limit were caught, so we’re not far off, let’s hope we see some bigger fish fire up soon!
The forecast for the coming weekend is probably the worst we have had for a little while, but I have no doubt we’ll see plenty of salmon from the
beach and fish from up the river.
We might have to pick and choose where we go, but we’ll still be able to wet a line.
Until next week, safe fishing!
