STUNNING weather over the Easter break was almost ideal for anglers right across the South East and it did not matter if you headed inland or coastal, the fishing was excellent.
The offshore scene was excellent over the break, with tuna finally turning up in reasonable numbers.
Some days the fish were in as close as 70 metres and others as wide as the shelf, but the signs are promising for the upcoming season.
There are rumours of a 104kg fish caught off Port MacDonnell, so the big boys are on their way.
The average school fish was in the 15-20kg range and the few albacore boated on the shelf were in the four to eight kilogram bracket.
The bottom bouncing has been excellent of late, with several nice shark boated in the 60-metre line.
School shark to 27kg have been landed and gummy shark around the 20kg mark, so the quality is incredible.
Other bottom fish such as snapper, terakhi, knife jaw and flathead have all been caught in good numbers, so the option of a mixed bag is always there.
Surf fishos have been getting into some great salmon fishing.
The Carpenter Rocks area through Canunda and into the Beachport salmon hole have all produced well for fish up to about 2kg, though most are around that 1kg mark.
Small metal lures on a nine-foot graphite rod spooled with light braid is all you will need to get in on the action.
Some guys prefer to fish baits and at times will catch just as many as the lure fishos.
Half a pilchard on a pair of snelled 4/0 hooks will do the trick more often than not.
The Coorong produced some nice fish over the weekend for the guys who made the journey.
Gummy and bronze whaler sharks were the most prolific, but the odd schoolie and elephant shark were also in the mix.
I have not heard of many mulloway from the weekend, but the few I know about were decent fish, between the 85-100cm range.
The fishing will only improve up there now as the schools of salmon move in closer to the beach, so when the weather allows, get up there for a crack.
Snapper fishos found some nice fish around the Danger and Green Point areas, with plenty of those nudging the 60cm mark.
There have been a few other species caught by the snapper fishos again.
Along with the usual sharks, whiting and mulloway, there have also been a few elephant fish, pike and even the odd crayfish being pulled up on the line.
There have been some good reports of whiting, with several anglers managing fish well over the 40cm mark and good numbers of them.
The Port MacDonnell breakwater has been very consistent again.
I know of a few nice bags taken during the middle of the day by the boaties, so even though dawn and dusk is the prime time, it is not the only time.
The land-based guys have done well, with Carpenter Rocks, Port MacDonnell jetty and Portland’s breakwall all producing nice fish, with a few mullet and tommies mixed in.
The numbers of tommy ruff of an evening off the Port MacDonnell jetty have been the best I have seen in years and there are still some good numbers of squid around.
The gar fishos have been catching plenty again.
They have been wide spread, with Cape Douglas, Hutt Bay, Livingstons and Pelican Point all fishing well.
There have been quite a few tommy ruff and mullet mixed in, along with the odd trevally or big sea bream.
The inland fishing over the weekend was red hot.
Rocklands, Toolondo or just about any other of the Western Victoria lakes and waterways produced some excellent redfin and trout.
Lures and baits seemed to work quite well, so there was no real secret.
Matt and Alex Bell found some excellent trout and redfin on a vast selection of trolled lures, with their best fish of the weekend being a reddie that went an excellent 48cm.
Alex managed his first brown trout, as well as adding a few more rainbows to his tally.
As the weather cools off, we should start seeing some more trout action from Lake Toolondo and Rocklands, so keep that in mind if the weather on the coast is not too flash.
The Glenelg River seemed to fish quite well over the Easter period.
An influx of boat traffic can often slow the fishing almost to a standstill, but that certainly was not the case this year.
Bream and perch were the two most prolific fish over the break, with some excellent samples of both caught.
Young Shaky Von Stanke fished with his parents on the weekend and landed some excellent bream along the cliff faces below Donovans, two of which were 43 and 45cm – not bad for his first time fishing the river.
There were a few mulloway caught and although the biggest I heard about was only in the mid 70cm range, it is still a very encouraging sign.
Aron Coleman found a couple in the estuary, while Hayden Sneath and Greer Bechet found theirs up around the Princess Margaret Rose Caves.
They are very spread out, so it is a great time to fish any parts of the river.
The forecast for the coming week looks magnificent so far, so let’s hope it stays that way and we hear of plenty more fish in the coming week.
Until next week, safe fishing.
