WE might be in the grips of an approaching chilly winter but there is some great fishing to be had on the Far South Coast’s estuaries.
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Now that the fish are searching out the warm shallows on sunny days, the river bank is just about as productive as any other spot – and you don’t even need a boat or kayak.
Just recently I had a another fantastic late afternoon on my favourite local river’s skinny waters, whose exact location I will not divulge, suffice to say it is somewhere south of Narooma.
The first fish of the session was a reasonable bream from the cut bank requiring some accurate casting with a lightweight jig head fitted with a 65mm Squidgy Wriggler in Dusk colour.
The rod a Samaki Skitch fitted with a Daiwa Aird 2000 reel spooled with 6lb Super PE broad and tipped with 8lb fluorocarbon leader.
Then onto the shallows were the flathead were absolutely firing, and thrown in was a bonus sand whiting.
After landing a few decent flathead on the Squidy soft plastic, I decided to switch to a larger 8cm Gulp Swimming Mullet plastic in Green Prawn colour, still on the same light jig head.
This immediately delivered a big fish around the 55cm mark, as well as some smaller models, several of which regurgitated small baitfish.
These were around the same size as my Gulp and also light-coloured after coming out of the fish’s stomachs, so I know I was “matching the hatch” – a term well familiar from my fly fishing days in the Rocky Mountains.
Another big flathead took off on a screaming run in the shallows only a foot or so deep, uncharacteristically launching itself into the air like a mini-marlin.
The big shallow hole also delivered another bream on the Gulp and the different and dogged fight was most rewarding.
As the sun was setting, I decided to wade across to the deeper pool across the way that had in the past delivered some fine bream.
Here I was rewarded however with the biggest flathead of the day measuring over 60cm according to my rough calculation using my rod – this fat girl fought long and hard using the deeper water of the pool to its advantage.
Not sure how long it was but by the time the fish was measured, photographed from different angles, with and without lure, and gently released back into the depths – the sun was setting.
Thankfully it was only a short walk back to the car.
The finally tally was two bream, the whiting and probably around 10 dusky flathead but then again whose counting on such a pleasant afternoon, now evening.
If you use any of these tips, please treat the waters with respect and why not release all the fish, as these are limited and special waters…
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