Breeze does not deter keen anglers

KEEN YOUNGSTER: Finn Coates was all smiles holding a nice crayfish.

By Jamie Coates

THE warmer weather last week feels like it was ages ago now, but over the weekend was not too bad for those hitting the water, despite a bit of breeze about.

The offshore guys found some nice fish.

I saw pictures of excellent mixed bags of reef fish, including blue morwong, nannygai, latchet fish, knife jaw and snapper, along with some reasonable shark.

There has still been no tuna to report and you all probably think I am lying when I say they are not far away.

The Portland and Victor Harbor guys are still catching plenty.

We will just have to patiently wait our turn.

The Port MacDonnell Offshore Angling Club held its snapper competition over the weekend and it was good to see so many eager anglers on the water.

The fish of the competition went to Phil Lewis with his 2.45kg specimen and the most meritorious was Tony Bell with a 1.34kg fish on 3kg line.

While we are talking snapper, haven’t they been awesome?

There has been some great fish caught right along the coast and until they let us know the quota has been caught, we will keep catching them.

Remember if you are targeting snapper, even in shallow water, the release weight is still a requirement to have on board.

The fish have been nice and spread out over the last few weeks, which has allowed everyone a crack at them.

Land based and boat fishos have all shared in the success.

Tegan Podobnik has been landing some great fish the last couple of weeks off the beach around Nene Valley, including her new personal best of 50cm.

The boaties have been into some nice fish from Orwell Rocks, right across to Racecourse Bay, Danger Point and Green Point.

Mixed in with the snapper there has also been some nice big whiting, along with some squid and salmon.

The whiting fishos have been getting some nice fish this week, as the little bit of stir has been just what we needed after things settled a bit too much.

The Port MacDonnell breakwater is still fishing well, with plenty of legal fish between 32cm and 40cm reported, along with the odd bigger fish over 40cm.

Further along the coast the guys fishing Cape Douglas, Hutt Bay and Carpenter Rocks have found some good numbers and while the size has probably been a little bit smaller than usual, they are still cracking fish.

Gar numbers have been excellent again this week.

I know of some excellent catches from Cape Douglas and Livingstons Bay by both the waders and boaties.

The size has been excellent again and we are seeing some of those nice red beakers.

The trick is as simple as always – anchor or fish over your weed beds, burley up steadily and they will come.

You will find mullet, tommy ruff and salmon trout around the same spot, but the gar will never be too far away.

The Glenelg River has kicked off over the past few weeks.

We are seeing more mulloway landed now, including some reasonable fish of 80 or more centimetres.

The Glenelg River Angling Club held a fishing competition over the weekend and it was excellent to see a nice mixture of fish weighed in.

There were a handful of legal mulloway caught and some nice bream bags.

Roger Caines boated a beauty at 43cm in his bag of five and junior Harry Cram caught himself a nice mulloway and some big bream.

There have been a few guys trolling live baits down around the estuary this week and a few reasonable fish have been the result.

The next few weeks I would expect things to heat up even more down there, so keep your fingers crossed.

The forecast for the upcoming week could go either way.

It looks fishable at the moment but we all know how quickly it can change.

Until next week, safe fishing.