Anglers enjoy fabulous weather

By Jamie Coates

THE weekend across the Limestone Coast was absolutely fabulous weather-wise.

The sun shone and the wind was light, so plenty of anglers made their way to the coast.

There are lots of reports coming through to me already from the weekend, which is always a good sign.

Offshore anglers made the most of the weather late last week and headed out in search of bottom fish.

Most did very well.

I saw some nice gummy and school shark caught from the 60-100m depths, along with some terakhi, snapper and big leatherjackets.

We are still waiting for a spell of really good weather so we can hit the shelf and chase blue eye and hapuka and it looks like from next weekend, we should be good to go.

Surf fishos have found some nice fish over the past few weeks.

Gummy sharks have been awesome locally along Piccininni and Browns Beach, while school shark nudging that 20kg mark have been on fire up around the Beachport area.

There has been some nice salmon caught this week.

Along Carpenter Rocks and into Canunda NP there are fish to 2kg being caught – and after dark.

I am hearing chit chat of a few school sharks in around the same areas.

There has been a bit of everything this week.

I have seen snapper, whiting, elephant shark and even a couple of smaller mulloway landed recently, so there is plenty on offer right along the South East beaches.

Speaking of whiting, what a season so far.

I have heard countless stories of fishos finding both big fish and big numbers in all the usual hot spots.

That being said, it is not just the hot spots that have been producing.

Plenty of anglers have fished reefy and broken bottom for snapper and sharks and picked up the odd cracker whiting – most of those bigger fish are well over the 50cm mark.

The average size for the breakwater fish has been great this year too, with plenty of those solid samples over the 40cm mark.

There has been some nice fish caught land-based this week, with Cape Douglas, Nene Valley and Blackfellows Caves all fishing well.

There have been a few good reports from further up too.

Beachport, Robe, Cape Jaffa and Kingston are all fishing well in the sand holes out the front of each town.

Squid numbers are steady again this week.

Boaties have found nice fish from the Port MacDonnell breakwater through to Livingstons Bay.

The jetty fishos have done well from the Port MacDonnell jetty of an evening and a few have come from down on the Beachport jetty too.

The shimano flashboost squid jigs have still been the most consistent, but the other quality jigs out there are still picking up their fair share too.

Adrian Finch flicked a few jigs around in Kingston over the weekend and found a nice mixed bag of calamari and cuttlefish on a few of his home made custom jigs, a great effort out of the kayak.

Garfishos have started getting a few more fish this week after a bit of a quiet spell.

Cape Douglas and Livingstons have fished well for both land-based and boaties.

Other land based areas worth having a crack at the moment have been the Petrified Forest at Port MacDonnell, the sheltered side of Blackfellows Caves and in around Carpenter Rocks.

With the calmer weather on the way, plenty of anglers are starting to gear up for a bit of sweep fishing.

Sweep are reef dwellers, so getting near them when there is a bit of swell on is hard and can be quite dangerous.

The rig to use is very similar to what you would use chasing whiting, although I know some guys who will use a float to keep baits up and out of the weed.

Whatever works for you is the best way.

On the table, sweep are fabulous and on the hook, they are even better.

They never say die and are tough fighters.

The Glenelg River is still hit and miss this week.

Those who put in the effort have found fish the whole way through but the going has been tough.

Bream and perch have been the saviour the past few weeks, with mulloway reports becoming scarce.

Lure fishos have found success on cranka crabs, Z-man slim swims and Samaki boom baits, while bait fishos have done the best on whitebait, prawn and cut crab.

There has been the odd perch taken on top water lures so far but they really have not kicked into gear just yet.

The forecast for the week ahead looks a little breezy at this stage, but should definitely be fishable for most.

Keep an eye on it and let’s hope it gets a bit nicer.

Until next week, safe fishing.