THE Far South Coast has experienced a bit of a hot marlin bite over the last week, breaking the monotony of those still waiting for kingfish action.
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Variety is the name of the game, or at least as far as offshore fishing has gone this week.
Anglers have had be adaptable, trying a variety of spots and methods to ensure a feed at the end of the day.
Chinaman leatherjackets continue to plague anglers from Bermagui to Moruya, if you can get away from them the rewards are snapper, leather jackets, flathead, morwong, nannygai and pigfish.
For those fishers who know where the deep reefs are (around 400ft - ask nicely at Ocean Hut and they might tell you), there have been good catches of morwong, very large nannygai and ocean perch.
Before you venture out to these spots, check the current, if the drift is more than .6knot then forget it.
On Sunday, Peter Davies the owner of "All Torque" hosted Benn Bolton and Nick Cowley from Charter Fish Narooma for a bit of a “play day” chasing marlin.
With a crew like that there was no surprise when they caught two striped marlin of 90 and 75 kg both taken on trolled skirt lures.
Apparently, Pete and Benny are equal on two marlin each for the season – let’s see how that one ends up!
There have also been increased numbers of dolphinfish or mahi mahi found around fish trap buoys.
A couple of boats have been drifting strip baits under these buoys and catching dolphinfish up to 4kg, but remember the size limit is now 60cm.
Dalmeny angler Jon Poyner also did a lot of kilometres on Monday after hearing that everyone was hooking into marlin at the shelf – apparently he heard a report of one boat getting seven beakies.
He too noticed plenty of dolphinfish around the traps, so had some fun with those for a couple of hours.
They hooked around 40, but only managed two legal size of around 70cm.
“We trolled marlin lures back from up north, but kept catching dolphin fish on them. Saw a huge sunfish, lots of penguins, and big bait balls. So all in all, a nice trip.”
Also, congratulations to those fishers who have found the large schools of undersize kingfish at Montague Island, and quickly left them alone after realising they were all undersize - this means undersize fish will grow to size within two months.
After the play day away from clients on Sunday it was straight back to work for Nick Cowley on the Playstation on Monday.
He decided to take his punters north to try and avoid all the leatherjackets that are in plaque proportions at the moment and it paid off with a nice haul of 15 snapper, a heap of mowies and other reef dwellers as well as a nice gummy to top it off.
A very acrobatic mako was also hooked but won its freedom after putting on a show for the crew.
Two days before, skipper Andy Legg from the Sheriff also headed north getting some good snapper and gummy sharks for his clients.
Scotty at Bermi Bait & Tackle meanwhile reports a solid bite out the front of Bermagui on Monday but the best of it is off Merimbula with a hot bite seeing a number of boats hooked up.
The estuaries should continue to fish well although a heat wave can sometimes put fish off.
The plethora of boats and waterskiers on the waters at the moment does make fishing difficult, but if you can find a quiet spot then we hear there are some good whiting in Tuross Lake.
The surf meanwhile has been very quiet with the calm conditions filling in gutters, requiring a storm to dig them out again.