Narooma News Fishing Report: Blue water, blue skies, blue fin and blue eye
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GOOD News: The first stage of the Narooma Apex Park boat ramp changes has been completed. The council work crew did a great job with the work on the old jetty, making that part of the project safer for boaters and the general public.
Yellowfin tuna have been noticeable by their relatively small numbers this year, but tuna chasers can get their ‘fix’ with the arrival of some nice schools of bluefin making an appearance south of Tathra in the last few days.
It is now just a waiting game before these barrels of power are within range of Narooma based boats.
Large bue eye trevella have come aboard those boats with the right ‘secret spots’ and electric reels this week.
The larger blue eye have been taken with rigs using strips of slimy mackerel.
Local knowledge is vital to be successful in chasing blue eye, so ask your local tackle shop for the right advice.
There are plenty of bonito taking trolled skirts on both the western and northern sides of Montague Island, the larger bonnies were taken on the North End, with some over 4kg.
Best lure (skirt) colours have been purple and green, trolled at 6 knots.
Kingfish have gone into true ‘winter mode’ at the moment, with only a few fish being landed this week.
It will be interesting to see what the kings are like after the full moon on Thursday.
If you are a true fish connoisseur then you can’t go past a feed of long-finned perch.
These gastronomic delights are in good numbers in water below 45mts on the north and eastern side of Montague at the moment.
Best to use a pater noster rig, with either strips of fish or squid baits. 3/0 Octopus Circle hooks are perfect to use for the size of perch that are there at the moment.
There are excellent numbers of small snapper in all waters at the moment, this is certainly a good sign for next summer when most will be over the 30cm legal size.
Squid have been attacking live baits meant for kingfish, with one boat landing some very large arrow squid after they used a squid jig on the top of a pater noster rig.
A sign that squid are around is the tell-tale bite marks at the back of the head of live baits.
Gummy sharks are starting to show up in good numbers off Tilba cemetery and south of Tuross Head. The key has been to use plenty of berley and nice sized fish strip baits.
The annual run of silver trevally has started early this year, with the larger fish (up to 1kg) offshore.
Remember to bleed silver trevally on capture and place into a salt water ice slurry, this will ensure a premium eating experience.
Wagonga Inlet continues to be the estuary of choice for local anglers this week, with more than one local angler catching their first legal jewfish. There have also been some nice bags of bream, whiting, salmon, tailor and flathead taken around the power lines.
Local beaches are teeming with nice sized salmon up to 4kg. ‘Surf Poppers’ and bait rigs are accounting for some of the larger fish.
Fishing Quote of the Week: “My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it." Koos Brandt
Fishing Soap Box: Local and visiting fishers are asked to get behind the efforts to create a new artificial reef between Kianga and Dalmeny.
- John Moore
UPDATE: Tuesday. June 30 - Well we didn't have to wait for the full moon, the Kingfish came on today at the tide change and when the current started running from the North. Capt Dave took today's Narooma Fishing Charters trip and landed some nice kingfishj, with the best going to Kurt from Leeton with a nice 81cm king caught on the troll.
Ocean Hut Compleat Angler report
Arvo session in Wagonga Inlet was pretty tough going on Tuesday, but still managed a fresh feed for tea tonight. Total tally was 6 Tailor, 1 Salmon and one Flathead. The heart breaking part was watching the Salmon/Tailor go "off their chops" in the "freshwater bay" sanctuary zone! Birds everywhere, fish busting up all over the place, would have been awesome fun casting into the mayhem!! - Dash
Bermi Bait & Tackle report
Quite a strange day for most of Monday with lots and lots of fish coming on the bite after dark. 36'43S 150'38E was the general area from last night so it has moved closer than over the weekend. Still quite a few nice yellowfin tuna amongst the blueys and also closer in on the 1000fthm line. - Baron
Monster King George whiting caught at Bay
THERE’S been another rare capture of a King George whiting on the Far South Coast of NSW.
And this time it was a real stonker – a fish that any South Australian would be proud to catch and down that way, they call any KGW over 50cm a “kidney slapper”!
The 1.61kg King George Whiting that measure 620mm long was caught north of Batemans Bay, on Thursday, June 11.
“Quite a remarkable capture for these waters. The NSW record is 1.8kg which means they are not unheard of up here but still very rare,” said the skipper of the fishing boat Alan Brown, who sent us the photo.
It was caught on fresh squid in about 20 metres of water by angler Steve Cochran.
Skipper Alan thought it initially was a salmon or snapper or even a small mulloway when they saw colour and it put it a pretty good fight!
The fish’s stomach contents included sea urchin roe, leading the guys to think it may have been following a larger fish such as a snapper or ray picking up the scraps, and also beach worm, leading them to think it had also been in close to the beach or estuaries.
According to records, the previous record fish was caught by an Ivan Allcock at Berry in 1998.
This is the second report of a King George whiting on the Far South Coast after a much smaller model was caught in Wagonga Inlet at Narooma back in April.
Local estuary fishing guru Ronny Butler had caught a few previous King George, but other locals have scoffed at these, saying Ronny got the identity wrong.
Ronny decided to keep this one for a feed and to prove beyond doubt that they do occasionally occur in our area from time to time!