DUE to the weather there have only been a couple of days fishing in the last week, even then only a few fishers have ventured offshore.
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So far this year we have been fortunate, the “black water” of the last few winters hasn’t turned up.
“Black water” is cold and low in oxygen, which results in pelagic fish moving away and the remaining fish to go off the bite.
At the moment the water temperature around Montague Island is 16 degrees, which is quite mild for September.
Over the weekend there were mixed bags of fish taken around Montague, with mowies being the main catch.
The occasional snapper made an appearance around the tide change, and some large jackets were also taken.
The most productive target species was flathead, the best spot was in the 30-32 mtr contour due east of Glasshouse Rocks, with all fish being over legal size - a nice change on recent months when undersize were a real problem.
Local offshore specialist fisher Pete Davies on ‘All Torque’ landed a 60-70kg Mako shark while drop-lining at ‘The Kink’ over the weekend.
Goes to show that you have to be prepared for anything when fishing offshore.
Massive schools of slimy mackerel were found south of Montague on Saturday, but closer examination (and plenty of trolling) showed that there weren’t any predator fish in the area.
Flocks of gannets were also in the area waiting for something to push the slimes into range.
The reefs 2-miles east of Tuross Heads should start to produce good sized snapper shortly. Keep this area as an option when the wind is light of a morning, and if the snapper aren’t there, there are usually plenty of large flathead to target.
Joke of the week: Why don’t lobsters share their food - because they’re shellfish
Tip of the week: If the fishing is quiet in close, and there is no current - consider gearing up for drop-line fishing. See the crew at Ocean Hut for the right gear and terminal tackle, there are a few ‘tricks’ to this type of fishing, but the rewards can be excellent.
Stokman's Bay and surrounds fishing report
Hello fisho’s! Spring has sprung and started with some great weather. But winter didn’t want us to forget her.
So she has thrown together some big swells and some rain to rain on our Spring parade.
Durras Lake has opened, the whales are migrating back south and the bait should start coming in. It’s a beautiful time of the year where everything comes out of hibernation, the animals, the flowers, the fish and fisherman.
The rainfall has made the fishing a little tough in the estuary. But it’s also given it a good flushing and cleaned it up and that snotweed that was annoying everyone so much should now be cleared away.
By the time of reading this it should be looking good to coincide with the numbers of mulloway to be targeted over the next coming months. With all this recent rain we should see big numbers of estuary perch and bass coming out to play.
A big rain at this time of the year should see them happily breeding also. You can see the effects of this year’s breeding in about 5 years’ time when they will grow to 25cm and then the growth rate slows right down where they might put on another 15cm over 20 years. I’m expecting big things out of the estuary this October.
This month go upstream and pepper the snags, rock walls and holes for bass and estuary perch.
Hard bodied divers and 3 inch grubs have proven their success in the past. The schools of estuary perch tend to be tightly packed and you could only be meters away from a school.
So if you are casting at drop offs along rock walls make sure you cover the area completely.
Once you find them, you can pull 10 or more out of that patch.
If it’s the mulloway you are after then look for bait at the back of the eddy’s up and down the river. Last year we saw massive schools of prawns and bait in our estuary.
This could be due to the drought on land being over. So if this is true we should hopefully see a repeat this year.
Find the big schools of bait and the predators won’t be far away. You would think a prawn imitation lure would be effective and they were quite effective in the Tuross system.
But the lure of choice in The Clyde has been hard and soft vibes. There are a lot of different vibes out there ranging from 15g to 30g and being 7cm to 10cm in length.
Shimano Sniper Vibe, Shads Lures, Cultiva Mira Vibe plus a host of others will all work on any given day.
Tony G caught two nice jewie’s ranging from 65cm and 75cm on little bream blades a couple of weeks ago out of Tuross. In this case they were probably feeding on small bait and matching the hatch worked a treat.
The 5-inch jerkshad or 100mm Squidgie Fish has always been the most popular plastic and will catch you fish as well.
But probably the most important thing of all is put the hours in. For some it’s difficult because work gets in the way.
Work always gets in the way. But if you can put in a good 5 days fishing in you’ll start to live and breathe the system and you will track them down and your chances of catching the holy grail of the estuary just jumped.
Coming out of the estuary snapper are still being caught in close and out wider now as we expected.
There have been some good schools getting around in all depths. There’s the odd shark being caught and some flathead and the other usual reef suspects. We didn’t get as hammered by the leatherjacket as they did further south.
But we should soon start to see the other tackle rat turn up, the barracuda. Kingies are still very quiet with the odd school getting around.
Further offshore there has been some good 20kg to 30kg yellowfin tuna getting caught from Jervis Bay to Sydney. We are hoping that water pushes down to Batemans Bay.
There would have to be the odd tuna off here but due to bad conditions not many have been getting out. And when there has been a small window a lot more guys these days are getting into fishing off the bottom just over the Continental shelf with electric reels.
They have been bringing back some good catches of Ocean Perch and the odd gemfish. But it’s the blue eye trevalla that everyone is after and only so few have been caught recently.
Back on our beaches there is a good steady flow of salmon and tailor and if you fish out of the opening of Durras Lake you’ll be in for some action. During October and November Durras Lake itself should be fishing quite well.
They are still getting big bream off the beaches, but as you read this you’ll see them moving back into the estuary.
So it’s happy days. You can feel that extra warmth in the air, leaves will start appearing on the trees and the South Coast river and lake systems are coming back to life. Enjoy!
Cheers
Anthony Stokman
Complete Angler Batemans Bay