SORRY to sound like a broken record but the water temperature inshore took another tumble this week.
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On Thursday we had a mild 20 degrees at Montague Island, then the temperature plummeted to 18 degrees on Friday before reaching a bottom of 16.8 degrees on Saturday.
Not only did the water go cold, but it also changed to an ugly shade of green.
On Sunday the temperature was 17.8 degrees. To add to the confusion on Saturday the water 3km east of the Island was recorded at 20.2 degrees. The current has been running from the North at 2-3 knots.
A check of the Manly Hydraulics website (mhl.nsw.gov.au) satellite image shows that there is a band of 17-18 degree water inshore from just south of Jervis Bay to Eden, where there are a couple of pockets of 16 degree water.
The good news is that there is warm water in the 23-24 degree range just inshore of the Continental Shelf from Jervis Bay to Tathra.
This news is made even more encouraging as there is a large area of 22 degree water further to the east, creating a funnel of warm water along the shelf.
It might be worth dusting off the heavy game gear for a trip to the shelf in the next few days.
For those keen fishers who watch the Manly Hydraulics sea surface temperature website, they are currently in the process of updating their programs, so you may need to update your browser. Go to the Manly Hydraulics home page and click on 'New Home' this will take you straight to the new information.
There is no surprise that the green, cold water has knocked the guts out of close in offshore fishing since Friday.
When you could get out to the island, the fishing was very patchy with a very few legal kings and a few undersize kings taking baits and jigs.
The snapper have been quiet and flathead have only been a bit better. From charter boat reports it was only a little better to the north with catches of large mowies and flathead around Brou reef.
Narooma Charters took out a group of 20 divers from Sydney over the weekend, however they also had to contend with the poor visibility created by the cold green water.