Bermagui Bait & Tackle fishing report

The billfish and the anglers travelled south last week and we heard reports of 20-plus boats heading out from Eden to chase the marlin.

But by the middle of last week, any marlin hitting the warm water (23.2 degrees) on the Far South Coast would have been travelling north pushing up to the Bunga Canyons, so the fish were in better numbers of Tathra and now Bermagui again.

There are also always a few stragglers on either side of the main action.

There were even a couple marlin landed on the 4 Mile Reef in close off Bermi and there was stacks of bait in 70-80 fathoms.

There were also some solid kingies in 20 fathoms off Bunga last week, while staff member Michael and customer Harley brought back a mako while fishing for snapper in the area.

No reports of decent kings at Montague Island yet but we are hearing reports from fishers of big schools of undersize fish up and down the coast.

The schools are there one day and gone the next, but hopefully they stick around when they get legal size.

With rough seas forecast for most of the week, the focus was on lakes and rivers where Wallaga Lake continued to produce nice dusky flathead around the 70cm mark.

There have also been some solid whiting with some nice bream on the surface.

We’ve been trying a bit of whiting fishing on light gear in the surf for something different with great results and I reckon these fun fighting fish are probably on most beaches these days, as well as in the estuaries where they can be caught on the flats using surface lures.

Stormy afternoons also make for great bass fishing and we were fortunate enough to show Lee Rayner what some of our rivers hold last week, 15-20 fish caught in a couple of hours predominantly on surface lures.

Bermagui game boats Mr Hooker and Billraiser as well as a couple of trailer boats headed wide yesterday grabbing the first opportunity to look for marlin after the weekend storm.

- Scotty