Narooma News fishing report - Wonderful winter kingfish
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THE winter solstice for 2015 has come and gone, we can now start getting up a bit later to catch our favourite South Coast fish as the days get longer.
Last week’s bad offshore weather had every fisher wondering what would happen when things cleared.
At first things looked pretty ordinary on the fishing front for Saturday and Sunday, with only a few kingfish, as well as bonito, snapper, silver trevally, morwong, flathead and a few other species being caught.
Over the weekend the conditions looked good, with the water temperature still around 19.1c and a steady current from the north, but the water had a definite green tinge, which was just enough to put off all but the hungriest fish.
Some locals thought that this would mark the end of the kingfish run, as the green water can easily turn black which can result in all fish going into ‘no feed’ mode.
Monday was to quickly change all the predictions of doom and gloom.
The water had changed back to crystal blue, and the water temperature rose to 19.6c and the kings were soon found in the deeper water on the north-east corner of Montague Island.
The fish of the day was a kingfish measuring 1.20mts and weighed in at 13kg, landed by the Shane and Steve off ‘Spectre’ using bait squid.
A warning to boat operators are that pods of whales are now travelling north for their annual migration, most of the whales are travelling quite fast, which makes them easier to spot - and avoid.
On the tuna front, over the last few days the offshore water conditions are looking pretty good for the much anticipated tuna run.
Although the concentration of yellowfin tuna has been around 200kms offshore, the sea surface temperature charts suggest that they will be within the range of recreational boats in the next week or so.
Surf fishing continues to reap good catches of tailor, salmon, gummy sharks and flathead, remember that although tailor and salmon don’t score highly on the culinary chart, their eating quality improves greatly if they are bled after capture.
The local estuaries have made a mockery of one of the ’normal’ fishing rules - early morning fishing is best.
Those fishers starting at dawn have only been rewarded with cold fingers and toes, while those starting at a more civilised time have been getting the scores on the board.
‘Gentlemen fishers’ such as Dash and Hippie have cracked the fishing code this week deciding to start later and have been rewarded with some nice bags of bream, flathead, flounder and tailor.
The two tips for the week are: 1- Concentrate your efforts around the tide change and 2- Look for the birds feeding on bait fish and work that area with lures and soft plastics.
Fishing Tip of the Week: When you are fishing for kingfish at Montague Island, don’t go fast when passing other boats. Why? Because your wake can injure others, and the thumping noise your boat makes, as the hull hits the water, will spook the fish.
Fishing Quote of the Week: The Gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing (Babylonian Proverb)
Fishing Soap Box: Two weeks ago council concreted in new timber bollards at the Apex Park boat ramp, then they changed their mind and decided to rip them out last week. Our fishing licence money at work!
- John Moore
Winter Wagonga - Narooma Ocean Hut Compleat Angler report
We are definitely at that time of the year, when cold Wintery days sort the difference between the casual fair weather fisho's, to those that have it running through their veins.
I can tell you that if you wish to get an early start in Wagonga Inlet, then a bone chilling, knife slicing breeze accompanied with white numbed fingers are on the cards.
The good news here is that "numb nuts" like us that are crazy enough to brave the early witery mornings have worked out over the past few weeks that it is pretty much a waste of time. Due to the lack of fish numbers wanting to indulge in our well presented lures, the best bite times seem to be around tide changes, and almanac times, that arrive well after the sun has made its presence high in the sky, to the point the surface temperature rises 1-2 degrees.
Then its just a matter of finding one of the many bait balls present in Wagonga and hopefully you will find yourself in amongst a species buffet, where Salmon, Tailor, Snapper, Flathead, Flounder, Trevally, Bream are all possibilities ( or if your as skillful as Hippie, then Gurnards, silver biddies and every other "weird ass" species is on the cards as well ) . Best indication of areas worth researching is keep an eye on the humble bird life such as diving turns,
Pelicans, Seagulls and shags, for they are all key indicators of where the action might be at. We put this theory to the test yesterday by investigating an area where one turn was continually diving on bait and it turned a very slow half a dozen fish day into a red hot hour of power taking the total daily tally to 33 assorted species.
Making battling the cold temperatures all worth while. As most other lakes have plummeted to 10 degrees and below i think locally Wagonga Inlet is the pick of them all. Cheers Dash!
P.s New starting time next week "Hippie", will be 8am! "NOT 6"!
Cool day for Dalmeny Fishing Club
A BEAUTIFUL but cool June day with not much activity on the water greeted the Dalmeny Fishing Club members on the weekend.
Those who braved it and winners for the day were Graeme Sawyer with his 1.40kg trevally.
The junior winner was Sierra Cowley with her .368kg tailor.
After a delicious lunch, the club held its AGM with the new captain being elected for 2015/16 as Wayne Breust.
They had some new committee members coming on board to join the team, all looking forward to the new year ahead.
Birthday wishes go out to Basha, Milko and Graeme.
Dates to mark on your calendar are the August weigh-in on the 23rd, and then the senior presentation night on Saturday, August 29 and then the seafood night on Saturday, October 24.
Please check the raffle roster for your name! Happy days - Kim
New round of fishing competitions for NSGFC
THE new NSGFC annual competitions commence on July 1, and will be made easier to enter and understand. For more information see the newsletter or contact the weighmaster.
We’ve wrapped up the monthly competition, due to lack of members competing, replacing the events with regular fishing dates from July 2015 through to June 2016.
These fishing get-togethers will be heavily advertised, where we can all fish together, either on the beach, estuary or in boats.
Sunday, July 12 is our first get-together for the new fishing year and an attempt to get us fishing together.
We’ve picked Brou Beach as the venue where not only the beach fishing is good but the lake which can produce some good bream and flathead.
More details closer to the outing but again put it in your diaries and come along to mix, learn or just to get involved.
Cake and coffee is planned about 10.30am after the mornings fishing.
New committee time is approaching again, so if you’re interested in climbing aboard let it be known please, you’re very welcome.
This Friday night is the usual last night of the month dinner night.
Dining in the clubhouse is back on the agenda with everyone encouraged to bring a steak for the barbecue, something to heat in the kitchen or perhaps a pizza to put in the club’s pizza oven.
So please come and join us and use the club, enjoy the views and location.
As usual the Narooma Sport and Game Fishing Club rooms, situated on the inlet near the restaurants, will be open for fish stories, drinks and snacks from 4pm till 9pm on Friday.
Visitors are most welcome to come along and have a chat with the members.
- Jan Hemmingsen
Geelong Star kills another dolphin
ANOTHER dolphin has been killed by the Geelong Star – but the troubled factory trawler is still fishing.
The death of a ninth dolphin means the trawler loses access to a fishing zone off the New South Wales coast, under rules imposed by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority following the earlier killings.
It was disclosed on the authority's website, which said the zone, one of seven huge areas stretching between Queensland and Western Australia, would be closed to the trawler for six months.
The Stop the Trawler Alliance said the latest death was more devastating news for an iconic mammal.
"How many of these protected species is the Geelong Star going to be allowed to kill before it is stopped from fishing?" asked Tooni Mahto of the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
The ship has also killed at least four seals but Ms Mahto said seal deaths were only being reported quarterly by the fisheries authority.
"With increasing concerns that freezer factory trawlers cause unparalleled, unnecessary and unwanted harm to protected marine life, we are calling for a ban on this type of fishing in the Small Pelagic Fishery," Ms Mahto said.
The ship's representative, the Small Pelagic Fishing Industry Association, said the trawler's crew was seeing schools of up to 1000 dolphins around the vessel's target fish: mackerel and redbait.
"They have tried to find fish elsewhere but they always seem to be accompanied by hundreds of dolphins", association spokesman Grahame Turk said.
He said the loss of access to a zone was important, but he rejected a suggestion that the venture's viability was under a cloud.
"This will make life more difficult," Mr Turk said.
The latest killings come after a revelation that the independent chairperson of an official Australian Fisheries Management Authority advisory group resigned shortly before the Geelong Star venture was announced.
Dr Kirsten Davies, a New South Wales academic, said in her resignation letter that the influence on the group's advice of a Geelong Star proponent "presents a situation of an unacceptable level of pecuniary interest and conflict".
The letter was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Stop The Trawler group, who said the Geelong Star was continuing to damage the reputation of Australian fisheries.
Mr Turk said the advisory group was meant to bring to the table people with particular interests, and it should be no surprise this included the fishers.
(From the Sydney Morning Herald)