Fishing report Far South Coast NSW: Feb. 11

Unheard of figures such as 25.24.17 (16 Stripes 1 Black) for Richie, Brad, Kev, Chris and Jeff fishing east of Bermagui out of Narooma on Tuesday.

“The boys ran out flags and had to use hats. Some Stripes are pushing over 120kg's here at present. It's a good bite for sure.” Scott Bradley from Bermi Bait and Tackle reported on his Facebook.

Scotty and crew went out themselves on Tuesday going 14.10.7 and happy to be part of an awesome bite.

“A few boats with similar tallies and one mate of ours has tagged 16 fish beating a previous best of 13 in one day.”

It seems the dolphinfish are still out there as well in amongst the marlin with boats reporting more mahi mahi catches this week.

Click here for all the South Coast fishing news and reports

Narooma News fishing report - Fisherman’s basket

THIS has been one of those weeks where “fishing” should be called “catching”: the south coast has turned on some excellent fishing action, with great weather to match.

The big seas and rain of the last couple of weeks have gone for the time being, and plenty of fishers have been out taking advantage of the great conditions.

The kingfish run around Montague Island is certainly underway, with varying numbers of kings caught every day this week. Last Wednesday’s full moon didn’t put the kingfish off, which was probably attributed to the thick cloud cover on both Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Kingfish have been found all around the Island, and they have been caught on everything from trolled lures, jigs, poppers, squid and live baits, even pilchards have accounted for a few nice fish.

Marlin continue to be caught in excellent numbers, with most fish in the 70 to 110kg range. Striped Marlin have been the most common captures with a few blue marlin amongst the mix. 

Dolphinfish up to 15kg have been caught along the edge of the Shelf, with one boat catching 10 Dollies up to 12kg after they found a large piece of a tree branch floating just wide of The Kink

For the fishers not venturing far offshore flathead had a fairly solid bite this week, both sand and tiger flathead were in good numbers around the 30 metre depth contour. Flathead over 50cm were quite commonly landed.

Whiting have also been taken both off the beach and in the local estuaries, best baits have been beach worm and nippers.

Mulloway (Jewies) have been falling for a variety of soft plastics in a couple of local estuaries, best result reported was Alexander from Ocean Hut who landed four jewies in one session in Tuross Lake.

Australian salmon have changed their pattern in the last week, with salmon preferring the water just outside the line of breakers. Best tip here is to use a nice long rod with light line to increase your casting distance.

For the dive community, water visibility at Montague Island has been varying between 15-25 metres, and there are seals and turtles, while a group of more than 10 Grey Nurse Sharks was seen by divers inside the Grey Nurse Shark Critical Habitat Protection Zone on the weekend. For the record a group of sharks is called a:  gam, grind, school, herd, pod, collage, or shiver - a great trivia night question!

Fishing Tip of the Week: When surf fishing try using a surf popper about 30-50cm above your bait. You might be surprised at the results

Fishing Joke of the Week: An elderly fisherman wrote a mail order house the following: Please send me one of those gasoline engines for my boat you show on page 438, and if it’s any good, I’ll send you a cheque. In a short time he received the following reply: Please send cheque. If it’s any good, we’ll send the engine.

- John Moore

A few good mulloway catches

NAROOMA Ocean Hut Compleat Angler Staff member Alex Krantz and his mate Nathan Batten had a memorable jewie session in Tuross Lake last Tuesday on the incoming tide, clocking up four “silver slabs” or mulloway in about an hour.

“That is some awesome fishing right there,” the Ocean Hut Compleat Angler reported on its Facebook page.

“Looking closely at some of the pics, it looks like the Zman Diesel Minnow was doing most of the damage. Love ya work guys, got to love the full moon phase.”

Andrew "Milko" Cowley of Narooma meanwhile got his first jewie last Thursday that went 85cm in his favourite fishing spot and he released it.

This follows his son catching his own first mulloway a few weeks back – and back then we made Brandon the Catch of the Day too!

Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club news

 YOUNG Narooma Sport and Gamefishing member Stephie Ovington fished with her dad Mick on Sunday under glorious sunny skies and calm seas last week.

She boated several dolphinfish, also known as mahi mahi, without catching one of legal size. She had lots of fun and loved how they jumped and performed when hooked.

Further afield, club members Arlene and Bernard Jackson with some of the great rainbow trout they managed to land on a recent fly-fishing trip to New Zealand.

As usual the Narooma Sport and Gamefishing 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.

Members please note that this weekend is the monthly competition, so grab the gear and hit the waterways. Weigh-in is 4pm Sunday afternoon, followed by a barbecue.