CHATTING in the tackle shop the other day we all agreed the only place to escape the persistent leatherjacket plague is to either fish shallow 20 metres or less or head out past Montague Island or the 12-mile reef!
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Bitten off line is still all too common on local waters.
Equally frustrating is the front-page news that long-liners are having a bumper bluefin run but the fish are 150km out leaving only one or two yellowfin within range of recreational anglers.
The highlight continues to be some red-hot beach fishing, plenty of good fish on the deep drops and some pretty decent estuary fishing on warm, sunny winter days.
The skill of local charter skipper Benny Bolton was evident again when he scored for his clients a decent bag of snapper and kingfish, yes kingfish for those who remember them, at Potato Point.
Josh down at Bermagui Bait and Tackle reported on Monday that it had been a very tough weekend’s gamefishing for all with just the one yellowfin and a couple of makos to talk about.
The main eddy on the SST continues to be out of reach for bermi anglers so many fished north of Jervis Bay for mixed success on bluefin.
Bottom fishing remained solid for most willing to keep moving till they found the right drift.
Josh confirms the 12-mile is still the pick of it for a good feed of flathead.
On Monday night it was the dark of the moon so Josh and a few others went on the hunt for a gummy off the beach.
But a southerly played massive problems down south, so they came back to Longswamp south end.
Josh lost a jewfish at his feet on his second cast that went about 7-8kg and then had two Port Jacksons and a tailor before quitting due to the savage winds.
On Saturday, Josh reported that Billraiser caught a 47kg yellowfin after fishing the sea mounts for no success, they scored the fish on the thousand fathom line on the way home.
A couple of makos made up the rest of the day’s catch.
On Friday, Hotshot landed a 61kg yellowfin thanks again to the knowledge of the charter skipper.
Josh says last week was a tough week on the gamefishing with a couple of sharks the only notable captures from Bermi.
Most boats bottom fishing the Twelve Mile reported excellent captures of seriously big tiger flathead with the odd good snapper and a few hard luck stories on the trumpeters.
Beaches continue to fire on the salmon through the day and tailor after dark and Josh says find yourself some deep water to cast a metal lure into.
Darren “Dash” Bowater from the Narooma Ocean Hut Compleat Angler has had some great sessions.
He had an awesome day fishing on Tuross Lake on the weekend in typical winter conditions and 11 degree water still managing 30 flathead.
Son Riley scoring his new PB at 71cm - none very happy chappy!
Last week, Dash had a couple of red-hot salmon sessions at Brou Beach just north of Narooma.
Paxavanos: Bizzare sight at sea…
AFTER last week’s good reports I just couldn’t resist having a crack at a one of my favourite game fish: big southern blue fin tuna…after all they only pass by our local waters here on the South Coast for a brief time-there’s roughly a four week window of opportunity.
Good thing about these tuna is that when they get up this way most are typically not school sized fish any more.
They often start at 40 kilos and our charter boat “Seafox” had caught an 80 kilo specimen two days earlier, and then two 70 kilo specimens the day before!
And so it was we left Wollongong Harbor at 6am with every conceivable bit of gear and tactic, along with some great tuna anglers; notably our skipper Arron Bostock, who has made an art out of catching big bluefin.
Some 12 hours later all we had to show for our heavy tackle efforts was a few striped tuna, and a small albacore.
In heading some 50 miles south east of Wollongong we were in 2500 fathoms, and put all our bets on the bluefin.
Closer in the 700 fathom line had lots of albacore and a few makos in previous days, and some bluefin and broadbill late at night; but we were too spent by now to care. I could only be happy that everyone put in 100 per cent, and the small albacore was barbequed on the way in was a tasty consolation prize.
Interestingly the water was a balmy 19 degrees in places, there has been the occasional marlin caught, and we spotted some flying fish-all very strange for the middle of winter.
However the thing that will stick most in my mind was the sight of a dolphinfish stuck on top of a floating car wheel!
None of us could comprehend how this happened because dolphin fish thrash like crazy when boated; so while it is reasonable that the fish jumped into the wheel, how it didn’t flick out after 1000 tail kicks is amazing!
While a dozen of his mates schooled under the wheel, this beached dolly laid there well and truly dead, but it looked for all the world like it was sun baking: we could only but laugh at this bizarre sight.
Someone suggested a long liner placed it the fish there as a hoax; if they did it worked; but what a long shot to have someone come across a wheel floating 50 miles out to sea-I doubt this was the case. If you have an explanation please write in!
Back on the land and just before leaving my cabin at the Windang Beach Tourist Park I couldn’t help but wander over and see how the land based anglers were faring.
The late June flood run off has cleared and the fish that pushed towards the mouth were biting well with predominately blackfish, but also a few bream and flathead being caught off the new groyne and jetty structures.
Unbeknown to them, I had just done 200 miles trying for a bluefin. One successful angler told me with a grin that the estuary was the best spot to be for a feed of fish…I wasn’t in a position to debate!
See you on the water,
Rob Paxevanos
