Ocean Hut Compleat Angler weekly fishing report
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IT’S been a painfully long wait fellow rod benders, but finally spring is upon us.
What an awesome time of year, new growth, new life, warmer days, footy finals and bloody swooping magpies.
On the fishing front the start of spring rings the awakening alarm for the dedicated bass and perch enthusiasts, as it’s open season.
These diehard breed would have already dusted off their arsenal, while sleeping with it tucked under their arms on August 31 awaiting the starters whistle on the very next day.
The old saying goes "It's Bass time when the wattle trees blossom", and those in the know would have noticed these trees have been in blossom for weeks already, so one can only hope there will be some lure testing Bass looking for a job
THE BIG BLUE: Some tasty news this week, for a whisper of yellowfin tuna not too far away as 18-20 degree water caresses the shelf.
Lately out the front there has been bait by the tonnage, with whales like "oceanic backhoes", along with dolphins, stripies and Frigate mackerel all trying their best to turn it into fertilizer.
It’s not hard to spot when and where this bait annihilation is happening, for the 20,000 odd birds trying to pick up the scraps of the aftermath will be the dead giveaway.
You could only think with all this bait and the predatory minders, it's got to make way for some red hot action at some point.
The weather wasn't the greatest over the weekend for the ocean bound renegade, but for those who braved the conditions were rewarded with assorted gems of the deep.
John Moore from Narooma Fishing Charters had team "lady luck" aboard on Saturday, who were very happy with the result from fishing wide off Tuross.
Snapper, gummies, and flathead all found their way to the scales at Narooma Bowlo Fishing club's weekend's competition.
I reckon it would have been a close, fierce but friendly competition between the girls, who I’m sure, no matter the result, would have celebrated over a couple of drinks at the weigh-in on Sunday.
Matt Betts from the Sheriff, was another keen as Mustad to get a boat load of punters on to some tasty reef dwellers on Friday, and again it was Potato Point, and Tuross reefs that produced the goods.
Around the 75m mark was the place to be, with plenty of snapper responding to well-presented squid and striped tuna baits.
Matt is out there again today and from what I’ve seen on his Facebook pages, it’s looking like another happy boat load of happy customers, who will be looking forward to the fresh feed for tea later tonight.
The water temperature outside seems to be improving every day, so the fishing should only follow the Mercury as we head into spring, and warmer days.
ROCK AND BEACH: Beaches still seem to have the "work in progress" signs out this week, for there are limited quality gutters to fish, so If your itching to cast a line from one of our golden miles, then you may find the longer of them like Tilba, Brou, and Potato Point, more suitable to set up camp.
Salmon, tailor, bream, and trevally would be the on the top of the list of possibilities, with an outside chance of a gummy shark or jewfish.
The obvious go to bait for most species is the humble pilchard, but if you’re hoping for a greater prize then a fresh slab of a recently caught fish, like salmon or tailor should pay dividends.
Across the stones it’s been up and down just like the swell, but when a safe opportunity presents itself then the tree has plenty of fruit on it. Again salmon, tailor, bream, and drummer have been the odds on favourite to snag from the hard stuff, while pilchards, mullet gut, cunjevoi, and metal lures giving your business end the best chance of success.
RIVERS, LAKES & INLETS: As mentioned in the opening statement, September marks the opening season for bass and estuary perch.
Fishing for these awesome, iconic, Australian celebrities will only improve as we move through spring and into the summer months.
But for the mad keen angler in the know, the season starts when the wattle trees blossom, trust me you'll know this angler when you meet one.
They'll have so many lures that if you joined them end to end it would stretch the distance of the Great Wall of China.
That’s right folks the eighth wonder of the world is a bass fisherman’s lure collection.
My guess to the theory to why it starts when the wattle trees blossom is that all new growth attracts all kinds of insects and bugs for various reasons, and its these little critters that is the draw card for the bass.
You missed out on Wagonga Inlets opening season, celebratory parade on Father’s Day.
It was fishing at its best, yeah sure a Jewie or two, and the 80cm flathead that we lost boat side would have made it a more memorable day, but apart from that, it was as good as a great days fishing gets. How many places can you go where you can catch six to eight different quality species, such as bream, snapper, tailor, flathead, salmon, flounder, trevally and more under the one bait ball, and that my fellow fish mungers is the optimum word, "bait ball"! It’s the only way to Fish Wagonga, and most other estuaries for that matter.
If you find big bait balls, then our finned friends won't not be to far away, so it pays to spend your time in these areas. Two other red hot tips I can tell you are, "match the hatch" and "watch the bird life"! Over the coming weeks, if it hasn't started already, you can expect Wallaga, Corunna, Mummaga, and Tuross lakes to fire up as well.
Folks if you want your best shot at a trophy flathead, your first/next jewfish, or just have a cracking multiple fish day on the water, then start now. It’s prime time from here on in till Christmas.
Hope you all have an awesome week of fishing, cheers Dash!
Narooma Sport and Game Fishing Club news
NAROOMA Sport and Game Fishing Club members Les Waldock, Jan Hemmingsen, John Cathor and Lou Moore headed out once again on Father’s Day to Tuross Head and caught a mixed bag.
They got two morwong, some decent sized snapper and a mixed bag of oddballs.
John decided that a couple of the leatherjackets would be okay for dinner.
There was plenty of baitfish about and the birds and the dolphins were having a good time.
As usual the Narooma Sport and Game Fishing Club rooms, situated on Riverside Drive near the Inlet restaurants and the boat ramp, is open for drinks and snacks from 4pm till 9pm every Friday.
Visitors are most welcome to come along and have a chat with the members, share fish stories (greatly enhanced after the first drink), make some new friends, cook a steak on the barbeque or maybe even some fish.
- Jan Hemmingsen
Narooma Bowling Club fishing report
WELL a man is not quite sure where to start with this month’s fishing report as it is breaking new ground at the club and with the way the results finished this month could lead with the headline reading it was Mother’s Day instead of Father’s Day or all the men went away for the weekend or the new weigh master made a boo boo but whatever I put the girls kicked butt at this month’s comp with charter boat crew having a very good days fishing.
Winners for the month seen Leanne Turnbull take out the overall section with a very solid 200+ points and the rest of the crew saw Karen Spackman, Brenda Setzer and Robyn Babidge also collect a few prizes for the exclusive girls’ club as it will be know from now on.
There were a few mere males that managed a few crumbs with Randal Setzer, Mick Cavic and Dave Clark in the mention but a big thanks to our charter boat skipper John Moore for showing the girls a great days fishing.
There were some nice gummies with the best at 8 kg some nice snapper all around the 2kg mark plus other reef fish with piggies, nannies mowies and a few flathead in the mix from outside with reports of big schools of bait (where is that Geelong Star) and all the fish were from up north of Spud point out wide.
The beaches were very, very poor with some action at Brou but every other beach was dead but strange enough the water temp must be 18 so it might be an early season (say this every year) so will see what next month says.
Now for some housekeeping it’s presentation night on September 19 at Club Narooma so the cut-off date is this Saturday, so get your tickets now or miss out and for those at Mystery Bay there will be a bus picking you up and dropping you off so thanks to Club Narooma for that.
We have one of our fishing club members sitting for the board again so good luck Pat with you votes from the fishing club.
It seems like Sydney is finally catching up with Narooma and they are getting a marine park and it seems they have found more new lies too sell the people but I think this will become real political this time and just to show we still care down here it’s interesting trying to find out how this sea grass is so rare and endangered, which is what they throw at you for anything you do yet the science goes back to 1972?
Yep that’s what I thought but still a work in progress on this one and last but not least the new boat ramp well if ever there has been a cockup this must be it.
Yeah it looks nice but apart from the left lane only half the width required, let’s say Christmas will be interesting this year and questions have to be asked at the way our money is spent from the RMS grants and our fishing licence fees anyway.
Let’s hope the warm water keeps rolling down the coast.
- Fishfingers