Fishing has been on the improve, especially at Montague Island, where there have been the odd keeper kingfish thrown in with lots of fish just undersize between 60cm and 65cm, which can be frustrating. The “Nursery” and Aughinish Rock south of the island have been most productive. There are also reports of good snapper at the island and tiger and sand flathead on the inshore grounds.
Local charter skipper John Moore reports there have been massive schools of kingfish south of Eden, but most days they are not biting, with hundreds of kings seen “finning” on the surface. Plenty of whales around at the moment too. The lakes are also starting to fire with reports of bait and dusky flathead in Wallaga Lake.
Graham Herbert at Moruya reports the water temperature in the Moruya River is rising and the upper reaches of the river are starting to fire up. Schools of whiting have been hanging around the bridge flats and live yabbies have been working well.
Flathead are biting upstream towards the hospital and some nice perch have been caught using grub-style lures around the hospital rocks area and the bass are starting to fire up a little further upstream.
The Tuross River has been fishing exceptionally well for flathead lately. Whiting have also been biting around the four-ways and they find fresh squirt worms very hard to resist. Bream are being caught around the highway bridge using lightly weighted live yabbies around the pylons and snags.
On the rocks and beaches, some nice bream and whiting are coming in off the beaches at the moment using beach worms and whiting rigs. Salmon have been a little hit and miss lately, but there has been plenty of tailor keeping anglers occupied.
Luderick are coming in off the rocks in Tuross on both cabbage and prawns and a few nice size bream have been caught also.
Offshore, snapper and mowies have been caught out the front of Tuross in roughly 60 metres of water using California squid and pillies for bait. Drifting Windsock beach in roughly 30 metres of water has been producing good numbers of sizable flathead on pillie cubes using a paternoster rig. Thanks Graham!
Member for Bega Andrew Constance is encouraging local recreational fishing groups to apply under the next round of the NSW Government’s Recreational Fishing Trust Grants. Some of the most popular projects include offshore artificial reefs and Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs), both restore and boost fish habitats.
Fish education programs for young people are also a success. Contact the DPI on 4424 7403 or email recreational.fishingtrust@dpi.nsw.gov.au
In other Narooma fishing news, the town’s main ramp at Apex Park has been closed for repairs.
NSGFC report – Sunday’s “Gone Fishing Day” was a great day for the Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club with quite a few members bringing out their boats and kayaks and some fishing of the jetties. Some tailor and bream were caught and yours truly caught a small trevally off the club jetty, but I had to send him back to his mum! Everyone returned to the club for a delicious morning tea and a great laugh at the lack of record breaking fish. A great day was had by all, better luck next time.
Junior member Cassidy James and her friend Sophie Hausman also fished on the day at Dolls Point, Sydney. Gary Skeers who was down for a few days, managed to land himself a big flathead on Saturday in Forsters Bay. Well done Gary! Nice to see people coming down and having a go.
Mal Baddeley recently returned from a trip to Swains Reef in Far North Queensland where he caught, amongst other fish, a cracking red emperor and also several small sharks, which he seems to like cuddling.
Just a reminder to members, don’t be shy, send in your photos and stories so we can keep a record of the club’s history. We are coming up to our 50th Anniversary and it would be great to keep the records up for a further 50 years.
As usual the Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club rooms, situated on the inlet near the restaurants, will be open for fish stories, fully licensed bar will be open for drinks and snacks from 4pm till 9pm on Friday. Visitors are most welcome to come along and have a chat with the members.
Don’t forget this Saturday, October 21 at 6pm is our final Trivia Night for the year, with Charlie looking after us once again. Always a great night, tables of eight or give us your name and we'll place you on a table. Theme for the evening is “Hat”, so get creative or wear that great fishing hat I've seen you wear. Call Sue Waldock on 0403 140 951 to include your names. – Jan Hemmingsen
Bermagui Social Anglers – Members showed great interest in the Bermagui Country Club Social Anglers Club weekend competition with Ian Reid the heaviest mixed bag offshore – 4.57kg. The onshore award with 1.85kg went to Ron McGlashan. The large flathead lost was sad news for Denise McGlashan, having her rod break in half. The big bag prize was a winner for Trevor Le Vin. But the good news for Robert Brown was winning the day’s raffle. Members enjoyed their social get-together barbecue, looking forward to the next meet in November. – WISHIN’ TO GO FISHIN’
Stan Gorton
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
