By Jamie Coates
A BREEZY weekend across the Limestone Coast made the going a little bit tough for most anglers, but those who did not mind the wind still made the most of the relatively calm seas.
Offshore news has been a little bit slower this week, the wind the main factor there.
There looks to be a window mid-week coming up for those lucky enough to swing a day off, but looking forward to the weekend, we should see most anglers back on the water then.
The beach fishing has been pretty good considering.
There have been plenty of fish around and the weed situation has not been all that bad.
My two-year-old son Finn and I fished on Wednesday in Bucks Bay for a couple of hours and managed half a dozen nice big mullet for the table and plenty of salmon trout which were thrown back.
Joe Atkins, Finn and myself went to Lighthouse Bay on Friday and got into plenty of salmon on bait, the best being around 2kg, along with a flathead and plenty more salmon trout.
Browns Beach has been fairly good – I have heard of a few 4-6kg gummy sharks caught in the middle of the day, along with salmon and a few big bream.
There have been some nice catches of whiting inside the Port MacDonnell Breakwater this week.
Anglers have consistently been getting 6-10 fish a trip and some have even been up around that 40 centimetre range, which is a great fish.
As always there are plenty of small whiting in between the big ones, but that is a good sign of a healthy fishery.
A few folks have mentioned the small snapper being a bit of a pest when chasing whiting, which is also encouraging for the seasons ahead.
While we are talking snapper, I have still heard nothing yet about the 20/21 snapper season, so as far as I know, it will be the same set up as last year with the tag ballot.
We will be sure to keep you posted as soon as we hear anything.
The gar numbers have been great again.
I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to the gar, but how good has this run been?
The last few months have seen excellent numbers and size of gar and the distribution has been brilliant too.
Livingstons, Cape Douglas, Hutt Bay and Carpenter Rocks are all spots worth heading for a look and as per usual, a berley trail, gents under a float and a couple of hours should be all you need for a fantastic feed.
Squid have been fairly abundant when the sea is clear enough.
The beauty of Livingstons Bay is it does not take too long to settle.
We can have a day or two of four-metre seas and then in two days’ time, you are back into the squid again.
There have been a few nice fish caught land based recently.
The Beachport jetty, Cape Jaffa marina and even the Robe jetty have seen increasing numbers over the past couple of weeks.
There have been some reasonable bream and estuary perch caught in the SA section of Glenelg River this week and the only trick seems to be fishing along the deeper rockwalls and drop offs.
I chatted to a few of the Nelson locals this week and there are a few fish down that end too, but still a ways from being back to where it was before the heavy rains.
It will not be long though – it is a healthy system and will bounce aback as strong as ever.
The forecast for this weekend looks a bit rough for Saturday, but Sunday is shaping up to be an absolute cracker.
Hopefully plenty of you get out on the water and we have plenty more to report next week.
Until then, safe fishing.
