Anglers battle weather conditions

EARLY MORNING PRIZE: Brad Long poses with one of the nice school sharks he and his crew boated off Port MacDonnell Tuesday morning.
EARLY MORNING PRIZE: Brad Long poses with one of the nice school sharks he and his crew boated off Port MacDonnell Tuesday morning.

INCONSISTENT fishing conditions have made the going a bit tough this week, but there have been a few pleasant days which have seen plenty of anglers hit the water.

I know there have been a few boats trolling in hope of a big tuna over the few good days, but unfortunately they have all come home empty handed.

Guys in the know seem to think the majority of fish have headed further west like they have done the previous two or three years, but who really knows.

The bottom fishing has been excellent of late with some nice gummy and school sharks, along with some nice snapper.

Brad Long and crew went out on Tuesday morning and found some nice school shark off Port MacDonnell.

Nigel Telford went for a quick run after work and boated some nice gummy shark and a couple of very nice snapper up to 70cm.

Bodhi Pannenburg also caught a nice feed on Friday afternoon, with a nice mixed bag of sharks, snapper and terakhi.

The surf fishing scene has started to fire up over the past week or two, with good numbers of gummy shark coming from the Browns Bay through to Piccaninnie areas.

At times the weed can be an issue after bad weather events, but a move up or down the beach can often yield results.

Salmon numbers have been excellent again, with the Canunda and Oil Rig fishos beaching the biggest fish.

The Beachport salmon hole is still fishing well, although the fish are on the smaller end of the scale.

The whiting anglers have started coming out of the woodwork thanks to a couple of nice warm spring days and it seems like we could be in for another bumper season with some fantastic fish being landed already.

Craig Philp went off to Carpenters Rocks on Tuesday afternoon and managed three lovely whiting, all over 40cm.

The breakwater has produced a few reasonable fish so far, but the coming weeks should really see it start to happen.

Gar fishermen around the South East have been having a dream run of late, with hardly anyone missing out on a feed.

Pannenburg has been at it again, with a quick solo trip after work to Livingstons reeling in 30 fish in little over an hour.

Cape Douglas has been a hot spot with large numbers of big fish.

Squid numbers have been a bit slow this week in Livingstons, largely due to the unsettled sea making visibility tough.

All we need now is a week or so of flat seas and we should really see them fire up.

Anglers who targeted mullet this week have seen some excellent numbers of big fish coming from the Red Rock Bay area.

Tucked in tight to the corner with a good burley trail will almost always see you bag some nice fish.

Small bits of cockle, prawns or even live gents are a great bait for not only mullet, but tommy ruff and salmon trout too.

The inland action has remained constant, with good numbers of trout still being caught in Lake Wallace, while we are starting to see some nice redfin coming from the Rocklands Reservoir and even Lake Toolondo.

There are talks of yabbies starting to crawl in plenty of lakes at the moment right across South Australia and Victoria, so the signs are there for another great year.

The Glenelg River has produced some monster bream this week, with several anglers catching 40cm plus fish down on the sandflats of the estuary.

The best bait at the moment seems to be live pod worm, but those using prawn and whitebait are still boating some rippers.

There has been a few perch and bream taken on vibes up around the bridge area and boats with sounders hold the advantage in locating these schools.

The mulloway have been elusive again this week, but once the flow settles down and we get some clarity back into the river, I think it should be on for young and old.

The long weekend does not look too bad at this stage, but offshore boaties may struggle.

Best of luck to the professional and amateur crayfisherman, whose season starts Sunday.

Until next week, safe fishing.