AFTER a couple of false starts, with small schools of undersize kingfish, a massive school of kings in the 55-65cm size range arrived at Montague Island last Friday.

These fish came on as soon as the current started running from the north, the photo below shows one of the many schools which were in the shallow water between “The Fowlhouse” and the western side of the Island.

On Saturday the current slowed, and so did the kingfish. The golden rule when chasing kingfish is ‘No Run No Fun’, this means when the current stops the kings stop feeding, and you won’t catch them.

At the moment the best local offshore fishing tip is to check on the current, if there is no current head to Tuross and chase snapper, if the current is running (either north or south) then go to the Island and look for kingfish, the legal fish can’t be too far away.

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Water temperature has returned to around 18.5 at the Island, which is getting into the perfect range for quite a few pelagics, especially for kingfish and bonito. A couple of more degrees and we can hope that the run of dolphinfish will start. We certainly have great fishing options this time of year.

Nick Cowley and crew onboard ‘Nitro' landed the first legal kings for the season on Friday afternoon, these fish just made the 65cm legal size, however the ratio of legal to undersize kings is around 1 in 20. After catching 2 legal kings Nick left the undersize and moved onto snapper.

‘Well done' to the commercial fisher, charter boats and recreational boats at the Island on Saturday for realising that there very few legal kings in the schools.

These boats then left the kings alone, instead of risking doing harm to undersize fish.

Small schools of yellowfin tuna, albacore and stripies have been found in local waters over the last week.

One 10kg yellowfin was surprisingly caught in 65mts of water due east of Bermagui, and other yellowfin in the 15-25kg range have been caught north and east of ‘The Kink’.

The new fish size/bag limit stickers and pamphlets have arrived - collect them from your local tackle shop. At the moment Fisheries Officers are in the education phase of the introduction of the new rules, but it is best to get into the habit of sticking to the new rules.

Family Tip: A suggestion for the non-fishers, Narooma has a great opportunity with Penguin Tours to Montague Island. These tours include a boat trip to Montague Island, visit the seal colony and drop off to check out the lighthouse and residences and then watch the penguins as they come ashore. Three Narooma charter boat operators offer these tours.

Fishing Joke of the Week: Why do they call him 'River'?

Because the biggest part of him is his mouth.

Fishing tip of the Week: When you apply sunscreen, use the back of your hand and not your palm. Touching bait or lures whilst you have sunscreen on the palm of your hand is a real turn off to fish.

Fishing Soap Box: 'Narooma boat ramp improvements’, your taxes and rates being wasted. Around $60,000 spent so far and not a thing to show for it - don’t you just love to throw money away! Makes you just want to give the council more money in a rate variation (not!). 

- John Moore

Sharks and other unusual fish in Narooma inlet

THERE continues to be sightings of unusual fish in Wagonga Inlet at Narooma with two hammerhead sharks caught and released this week.

Narooma locals Paul and Lorraine Clark made the hammerhead catches while out celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary with a fishing trip on Forsters Bay on Wednesday evening.

They estimated the two sharks to be about 90cm long and the second shark was a bit bigger.

“There must have been a school of them as we caught the two one after each other pretty much in the same spot out in front Taylors,” he said.

The sharks took live poddy mullet that Paul had out hoping to catch flathead, and they did end up getting a nice flathead to take home for dinner.

Both the sharks were released and just as well as hammerheads since 2012 have actually been protected and have to be released when caught.

There are also restrictions on what sharks can be caught in the habitat protection zones inside the Batemans Marine Park where Paul and Lorraine made their catches.

Unusual catches inside Wagonga Inlet are nothing new with a whole range of species being caught inside the estuary, including northern bluefin tuna, cobia and most recently amberjack.

There have also been cold water species such as South Australian snook and even King George whiting.

There was a fishing report in 2012 of a five foot hammerhead shark caught in the Narooma estuary, while there were also reports of bull sharks in Forsters Bay in 2011.

But go back even further when the tuna cannery was operating on Forsters Bay and there are even more unusual reports, including great white and tiger sharks.

Coincidentally, Paul used to work in the cannery as a teenager but by then it was only a packaging and handling facility for the tuna to be taken to other canneries such as Eden.

Paul, 62, remembers some interesting fish in the estuary back then too when there were sharks attracted to the run-off from the cannery at the base of what is now Gem Crescent.

Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club news

OVER the weekend the Dudley and the Cathor boys went on a father and son trip to Bemm River in Victoria for a successful weekend with about 50 fish caught, mainly bream and flathead which were all released back into the water.

I believe there were a few sore heads after their night at the local pub!

John Swinehoe our friend and member from England, recently travelled to the reef off Port Douglas, and caught spangled emperor and slate bream.

Spangled emperor are a true member of the emperor and sea bream family. They are a staple table fish for many northern anglers and are prized by southern anglers who travel north to target them. They put up a tough account for themselves and can be a challenging opponent off the rocks and in shallow coral lagoons.

The Slate Bream is common in the tropics. It is found all along the Queensland coast, around the top half of the continent and the top half of Western Australia. It frequents sandy areas of the reef but will occasionally be found in estuaries. It is usually found in large schools.  They grow to 94 cm and can weigh over 5kg.

Join us every Friday evening to mingle with the local Narooma fishing community. Find out what’s biting. Children are most welcome!

- Jan Hemmingsen