Obviously, the use of a witchdoctor-style teaser used sub-surface may assist in attracting a fish and it is more a function of ‘it might as well be in the water than not’ if you have one on board.

The practice of keeping a fish that has come up on a surface teaser interested enough to hang around looking for something more palatable to chew on is becoming a more popular fishing method year on year.

Dedicated teaser reels upon teaser poles, rods or run of the outriggers allows for movement of the teaser away from a hopefully ‘ready to eat’ marlin that may then be fed or pitched a live bait (preferably re-rigged from your bait tank).

Technically, there’s a bit more to than that moving a teaser in to clearer water out of the wash retaining the marlins attention is pertinent and once a fish spies live or dead bait in full view and decides to eat it is a very impressive sight as opposed to often invisible bites on lures and slow trolled livies.

More recent developments in spinning reel design and construction has lead to a fleet of reels capable of enduring the battle with marlin to over 100kg readily. Braided/Gel spun lines of 50-80lb and 7-8 foot rods with such reels provide an outfit that is an exciting means to switch bait marlin from teaser to bait. There are a couple of nice shots of such fish hooked up on our web site’s image gallery at www.fishbermi.com

We do find that late in the season the hook up rate increases somewhat on lures and given the likelihood of tuna’s being more apparent lures certainly have their place on any given day.

Heavy rains refresh local inlets around Bermagui

HEAVY rains along the eastern seaboard in particular Bermagui picking up a total of 12 inches in 24 hours has lead to the opening of our local inlets, which not only sets the region up for a prawning season next year but has provided some excellent fishing from local estuary mouths and beaches with plenty of tailor, bream, whiting, mulloway and salmon.

The water remains filthy with high tannin levels still pushing down the creeks and rivers and may take another couple of days to clear.

The spin off for offshore anglers is the heavy debris floating down current where logs and other structures are providing resident areas for dolphin fish in particular to hold beneath.

Lots of legal size specimens through to those touching the scales at over 10kg. Try trolling lures around floating structure and dropping live baits.

The larger fish may hold much deeper than the smaller specimens which will tend to hang around closer to the surface. Remember these fish have to be at least 60cm long and a bag limit of 10 with only one over 110cm.

Bonito are in good numbers around the headland areas and the Blue Pool bommy, the trolling of a couple of skirted lures or deep diving hard bodies will readily produce such fish.

There are a few kingfish amongst them also. Squid fishing is off the cards until the waters clear up.

Inshore reef fishing hard been hard work for some and it's a matter of perseverance in finding where the sand and tiger flathead are holding but we can say that whilst the murky water persists these fish are inside 40m of water in areas such as the Step, Camel Rock and inside the Island.

Southern areas where more structure exists are much slower at producing fish aside from some reasonable snapper fishing off Bunga Headland in around 20-30m of water.

Anchoring up and floating a slimy mackerel down as dead or live bait producing the best fish. Alternatively, deeper water of 80m plus (try 6-Mile Reef) is producing plenty of larger rubber lip morwong and some snapper with the odd John Dory amongst them.

The recent king tides allowed for some good fishing on the oyster racks for those finesse fishing with small suspending hard bodies lures and stick baits across the surface.

Flathead fishing in the estuaries has been tougher going and until the water clears and warms further it will be a little hard to find the better specimens but that could be tomorrow.

Minn Kota has released the IPilot which gives you a GPS based trolling motor based on a wireless control system.

The IPilot integrates GPS technology into various Minn Kota mounts. Basically, you can record tracks you prefer and save them after that you can have the motor follow that exact path to within 2m.

-Cheers,

Scotty, Cam, Milla and Barks

Another successful Blue Water Classic

LAST month saw another successful Blue Water Classic with 62 boats entered and a record 251 anglers registering.

Bermagui Big Game Angling Club president Paul Blacker said bigger boats, including two over 50 feet and 20 40-footers, saw more anglers participating.

“Visiting boats steamed in from Sydney, the Shoalhaven, Batemans Bay and Eden with trailer boats coming from Melbourne, Albury-Wadonga and Canberra,” Mr Blacker said.

The weather did let the club down with fishing on Day 2 cancelled due to a gale warning.

Day 1 saw a lot of marlin spotted but only 12 caught, but Day 3 was the best day including a four-hour battle with a blue marlin that Mr Blacker himself witnessed as he pulled alongside.

Young Canberra angler Joel Death's 141.6kg striped marlin caught on the last day is a pending 15kg line class NSW and Australian record and all tackle record for a junior.

Mr Blacker thanks the sponsors including local business Bermagui Bait & Tackle, as well as Shimano and Yanmar motors.

Next year is the 75th anniversary of the Bermagui Big Game Angling Club and its classic tournament, making it the oldest game fishing club in Australia.

The club is also considering making it a four-day event.

For the full results see the Bermagui Big Game Angling Club section of the Bermagui Country Club website.