ARE Bluefin Tuna barrels of fun or barrels of pain? Ask the crew of Reel Weapon who hooked and landed a 91kg Bluefin Tuna in 30 metres of water at Montague Island on Monday.

After almost five hours of reel screaming action, tension, exhaustion and finally jubilation the big bluefin was gaffed and landed.

It has been a long time since a quality bluefin was landed in water this shallow, hopefully a sign of things to come.

Click here for the story, video and photos of the epic tuna battle

Click here for all the latest South Coast fishing news and reports

The tuna run this year has been unpredictable so far, with a nice show of Bluefin between Tathra and Merimbula last week, but this week has been fairly quiet, with water temperature dropping over the shelf.

Local charter boats Nitro and The Sheriff have both landed some nice Tuna, but they have been fairly illusive.

Local beaches are still loaded with schools of salmon around 2kg, with best results have been obtained by rigs using a combination of bait and surf poppers.

Montague Island kingfish are still showing that they are real ‘fin teasers’, over the last week they have been very evasive - until Saturday afternoon, when a school of 90+cm kings made a brief appearance as the current started to run from the north.

The rest of the week has produced plenty of kings, but they were all undersize.

There are large schools of silver trevally on the north-eastern side of Montague Island in 80mts at the moment.

Best bait for these pocket rockets are either strips of squid or fish flesh. Remember to always bleed Silvers and place into an ice slurry as soon as possible.

Schools of tackle stealing Chinaman’s jackets and green toads haven’t been as big a problem this week, while these pests are absent there will continue to be some nice bags of flathead being landed in the 25-35mtr depth contour right along the coast.

Fishing Fact of the Week: Most brands of quality lipstick contain fish scales

- John Moore

Wagonga Inlet report from Ocean Hut Compleat Angler

Some days, fishing just goes to plan and becomes catching. Other days it doesn't quite go to plan and you earn every single fish you catch. Today (July 4) was definitely one of those days,14 odd legal sized fish ( all released ) over 8 hours for 3 people is far from what we are use to, but I shouldn't be complaining, for if we wanted a feed to take home then we had it. 

The most frustrating (or teasing )part was watching the several bust up's of fish yet again in freshwater bay sanctuary zone and not being able to indulge in what would have turned a hard day into another fantastic day on the water. Speaking tongue in cheek, i reckon there was more jewfish under all the commotion happening as well, but that's one thing we'll never know.

It was to be the day of the trevally today (July 3) as everywhere we went they seemed to be.

Trevally must like the cold water as the Inlet dropped another degree over night, after the hail storm we had yesterday, nothing much else seem to like the sudden drop in temperature as it was yet again tough going!

Best fun today was "channel rating" on the run out tide where we managed a double hook up of salmon and trevally. All fish caught today were released to fight another day. There are squillions of bream, blackfish, trevally, and whiting in the main channel from the Bridge to the "drop off"!, but getting them to play on lures was frustrating . So maybe a well presented live bait such as nippers or worms might be the trump card for a win. Cheers Dash!

NSGFC fishing news: new competition starts

WE are full swing with our 2015-2016 annual comp, good to see fish already being recorded.

Warwick Huntsdale and Les Waldoc started the comp off on July 1 at Brou Lake, catching some nice salmon and bream on pilchard bait.

Young Cassidy James proved that fish don't have to be big to be fun, and had a great time catching a lot of trevally off Taylor's Wharf with Grandad Les Waldoc while on holiday.

She let them all go after a photo and a kiss. Hope it was not Cassidy doing all the kissing!

Come on blue water competitors, Gavin Mitchell has only just won last year’s comp and is ahead of you already with two nice striped tuna – one 60cm and one 65cm.

Members are invited to attend an outing to Brou Lake on Sunday, July 12, meeting at the camping grounds or on the beach at 8am when the tide will be right.

So come along and bring your family, it should be a great day out.

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

Club Narooma fishing report

CLUB Narooma held its fishing competition over the weekend and with a chilly start to the day.

It gets better and with that warm water still at Montague Island the fishing is great for this time of the year

Winners for the month were Mick Uglystick and his offsider Mike Cavic, Robyn Babidge, Dave Clark, Peter Shakeshaft, Wayne Giffen and Jack Babidge all getting into the mix.

For those that braved the cold they were rewarded with some nice fish with bream, salmon, tailor, trevally, snapper and long fined perch all making it to the scales this month.

I must say I tried our sponsors charter this month and Mr Moore and his crew do a very professional job and would recommend his boat especially if you’re new at the game.

Next month will see the AGM held after the comp has finished and anyone who would like a position on the fishing club committee the nomination sheet is waiting for your name in the bowlers section at the club. Presentation night will be on September 19 at Club Narooma with a 6.30pm start and tickets are only $10 bucks for adults and kids are free that’s if you’re a fishing club member.

On the ocean the water was 19.5 on Saturday but a quick trip on Monday had seen it drop to 17.5 but there was a nice 91kg bluefin caught on the fowl house on Monday and looking at the water map it’s still pushing down the coast at 20 deg so every day is a new one out there.

I have put our name down for the recreational Fishing NSW Advisory Council position for Section 5 and have been getting some good feedback on the artificial reef for Narooma, so fingers crossed!

Have you check out the new Marine Parks app – it works great and I recommend it.

One of our long time members Garry Breust is not the best and from all your mates at the club, we’re thinking of you and the club would like to welcome Nick and Norm Ingersole who have jumped on board as sponsors so tight lines till next month.

- Fishfingers

Rock fishing recommendations welcome

SURF Life Saving NSW has welcomed the Coroner’s recommendations, which include mandating the wearing of lifejackets for rock fishers, and looks forward to assisting Police and Emergency Services with the implementation of any safety initiatives.

Surf Life Saving NSW’s Lifesaving Manger, Andy Kent, thanked the Coroner for her thorough inquest into the deaths of nine rock fishermen who were swept or fell into the water and drowned in the last few years. Fifty-three people have died while rock fishing in NSW since 2010. Rock fishing is currently the leading cause of coastal drowning in NSW.

This inquest comes four years after Deputy State Coroner Buscombe recommended compulsory lifejackets for rock fishers should be considered and three years after a Surf Life Saving report commissioned by the Dept of Primary Industries recommended mandatory lifejackets while rock fishing be legislated.

“Surf Life Saving NSW fully supports the recommendations delivered today by the Coroner,” said Andy Kent. “We welcome the opportunity to assist Police and Emergency Services, Department of Primary Industries and recreational fishing groups to work through these recommendations and how they can be implemented.”

Surf Life Saving has been tackling rock fishing safety by focussing on public education, encouraging use of lifejackets and issuing dangerous surf warnings through the media when hazardous conditions are forecast. Despite these efforts, surf lifesavers have become increasingly frustrated as the drowning toll continues to rise.

Mandating the use of lifejackets for rock fishers is a sensible next step, according to the peak coastal safety organisation. Coastal safety assessments of rock fishing blackspots contained in Surf Life Saving’s Project Blueprint reports were tabled at the inquest.

“Our volunteer lifesavers see first-hand the untold impact these tragedies have on the families of those killed and we fully support any measures which will make the sport safer,” said Andy Kent.

“As the inquest was unable to find any evidence that wearing a lifejacket would make rock fishers less safe, we would support a move to make them mandatory as a way of reducing drownings,” he said.

“This would also decrease the risk faced by our volunteers who are called on to rescue rock fishers who have been swept into the ocean.”