A magnificent effort by Naroma girl Georgia Poyner who caught and released a big striped marlin on Sunday.
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The effort was all the more remarkable in that the Year 12 student at Narooma High School used a light rod and spinning reel and was fishing on dad Jon’s relatively small 5m inflatable rubber duck.
She now has the blisters to show for it after the epic two-hour battle.
Dad Jon says it was one of the biggest striped marlin he has seen, measuring 3.8 metres in length and weighing an estimated 140 kilograms plus.
Also getting into the marlin were Narooma Sport and Gamefishing Club members Bob Hirs and Warren Horrigan, who fished out of Narooma on Saturday on their boat “On Strike” with Bob'’s dad Henry and Rick Ziarkowsky.
They caught some nice kingfish at the island before heading northeast towards Tuross, tagging two marlin. Henry was elated to catch and release his first marlin. We'll done boys.
Then the next day, Bob, Warren and Rick took out Jayden Willox out for a kingfish and then a marlin, and they caught both.
The boys at Bermi Bait & Tackle report that it has been too rough for most to fish in recent days, but a couple of boats had a shot or two east of the 12 Mile on Tuesday.
“Plenty of bait about this afternoon there but not this morning. Some boats caught dolphin fish on their bait jigs amongst the slimies on the 4 Mile. A couple of makos in close on off Camel Rock also.”
Back on inshore waters, Darren “Dash” Bowater from the Narooma Ocean Hut Compleat Angler reported the rare and unusual catch of an estuary perch from Corunna Lake.
Graham at the Moruya Tackle World reports the Moruya River backwaters have fished well this week for bream, flathead and the odd whiting here and there. Grub tail soft plastics are working great for the bream and flathead. Surface lures are also working great for the bream and whiting.
The entrance of Ryan's Creek is still fishing reasonably well for flathead. The old faithful Gulp Wwimming Mullet has been getting the job done.
The bridge flats of a night are producing some nice flathead, perch and bream on baits, metal vibes and soft plastics.
On the Tuross River system, the shallow flats throughout the system are fishing extremely well early mornings using surface lures. Bream, whiting, flathead and tailor have all been caught using Jackson surface poppers.
Mulloway have been caught in some strange places this week with reports of one hitting a small surface popper on the flats. It was landed on light gear and measured just over one metre.
The oyster leases have been great fun for the bream fisho’s with plenty being caught on poppers and grubtail soft plastics.
On the rocks and beaches, squid are starting to fire up off the rocks in reasonable numbers. Look for a point with patchy broken ground, weed and sand and you'll be in with a good chance.
Tailor are still around in good numbers. Moruya breakwall has been a hot spot as of late with pillies and gang hooks working a treat. Some salmon are also being caught in the same area on both baits and metal slices.
Thanks Graham!
Merimbula Big Game & Lakes Angling Club fishing report
Competitors in the Eden Open last weekend enjoyed a variety of weather conditions but overall had a wonderful time. Congratulations to 14-year-old Oscar Weingarth who captured, tagged and released his first ever marlin from Dylan Smith’s vessel Outfor. As well as marlin, the tournament saw the tag and release of a number of mahi mahi and three sharks.
Great catch!: Eight-year-old Silvia Williams of Canberra shows her ocean flathead taken near Kianinny. Off the Tura Golf Course, Tura Headland.
Snapper and morwong are available off Boyds Tower, North Head, Lennards Island, Haycock and Long Point, White Rock and the Pinnacle north of Kianinny. Try 18-20 fathoms. There are excellent gummy sharks off the reefs but need lots of berley to get them excited. There are good patches of baitfish; slimy mackerel and yellowtail fairly close inshore, you can’t get better bait. Chinamen leatherjackets are becoming a problem from Merimbula to Tathra and as well as chewing off our rigs love plastic lures.
At the regular grounds ocean flathead are on the chew but remain in small patches. You may need to do some long drifts to find and mark a patch of feeding flathead but when found they are quite voracious and multiple hook-ups are possible. Off the Tura Golf Course, Tura Headland, Bournda Island and north of Kianinny appear to be the best spots.
Good calamari squid are being landed at both Tathra and Merimbula wharfs with luderick remaining on the chew at Merimbula, try using plastic lures. The best times are morning and evening. Good luderick are also ravenous off our headlands try Tura Beach Headland. Excitement for all when some rat kingfish schooled past the Merimbula Wharf, great fishing, but kingfish under 65cm in length need to be kissed and released.
With the lack of heavy rains, estuary fishing remains excellent. There are trevally, bream and luderick about the oyster racks in Merimbula Lake. Dusky flathead, flounder and mullet are available in the channel and tailor are schooling in the main lake, soft plastics and small hard body lures will bring great returns for flathead and bream, silver spinners for the tailor. Estuary fish are relatively slow breeders so take what you need to eat and release the rest. Good whiting are schooling over the sand flats just up river from the Merimbula Bridge. Try Sugapen lures. Good tailor, trevally and mullet are also prolific at Pambula Lake.
The Bega River is fishing well at Mogareeka and also well up river for bream, dusky flathead and whiting.
There have been some excellent prawn catches from Merimbula and Wallagoot Lakes during the new moon, we now await the next run in March.
Keep your rods bent! More info at www.mbglac.com.au