Offshore joy

TASTY: Nathan Leggett with a nice mulloway caught in the Glenelg River.

By Jamie Coates

A BREEZY weekend made the fishing a bit difficult for boaties over the weekend but the forecast of a few ripper days this week has softened the blow a little bit.

Late last week there was an opportunity for offshore anglers to hit the water and a number of them took the chance.

The 60-100m line has fished well again for those targeting flathead and sharks.

Gummy shark have made up the bulk of the numbers, but school shark are still sniffing around too.

Nannygai, terakhi and blue morwong were also caught last week, so there is a real mixed bag out there at the moment.

A few anglers have had some decent mako sharks cruising around the boats out there this week but I have not heard of one landed just yet.

Every week I write this report I am expecting to talk of tuna captures but we still have not seen one off Port MacDonnell.

Surely we can only be a matter of days away.

Snapper fishos have had a cracker start to the season.

Lots of solid fish have been caught so far and it is encouraging to see.

They have been well spread out from what I have heard – I know of fish from Carpenter Rocks, through Livingston’s Bay, off the beach at Nene Valley and into the usual haunts from Orwell’s Rocks through to Green Point.

There have been plenty of other species mixed in, with big whiting, mackerel, sharks, squid and even crayfish all regularly caught and a welcomed by catch.

Whiting fishos have been into some nice fish again this week after the stir.

The Port MacDonnell breakwater has probably been the most productive and there have been some nice bags of fish from that area.

Land based anglers have found their fair share from the Port MacDonnell jetty and others have found theirs off the beaches around Carpenter Rocks and Cape Douglas.

There is still plenty of mullet and salmon trout being caught with the whiting, so an opportunity for a mixed bag is definitely there.

Garfish anglers have been getting stuck into some nice fish this week.

The waders have probably had the upper hand with the wind, but those in the protected areas have still managed a nice feed.

The usual hot spots such as Livingstons, Cape Douglas and Hutt Bay produced some nice gar and tommies over the last week and with the upcoming forecast, I can not see that changing too much.

The evenings down on the Port MacDonnell jetty have been great for those chasing a feed of tommy ruff.

Under the lights, throw in a burley float with a bunch of gents underneath and you are just about guaranteed.

You can expect to find mackerel, salmon trout and the odd gar there too.

While you are chasing the tommies, pop a squid jig out the back on a float.

There are some excellent numbers getting caught down there at the moment and who doesn’t love fresh calamari rings.

The Glenelg River has fished reasonably well this week.

I have seen a few decent fish caught but they have been spread out.

Neville Issacson boated a couple of legal mulloway down stream from Donovans on the weekend, with a handful of bream mixed in.

Nathan and Rachel Leggett fished Sunday afternoon just up from Dry Creek and boated 30 or more bream, keeping four of the bigger ones for a feed and a nice 80cm mulloway.

Not bad for a couple of hours on the water.

Eli Johnson fished under the bridge and found some nice bream and estuary perch, then got busted off on the big gear by something.

There have been more nice fish caught upstream this week too.

Ben Jeffrey and Craig Turner threw cranka crabs for a few hours on Sunday and found good numbers of both perch and bream around the rock walls.

This weekend looks like it could be a good one.

The wind is down and the swell looks fishable so far, so let’s just hope the weather man has got it right.

Until next week, safe fishing.