Jamie Coates
A WET and wild weekend across the South East hampered the efforts of many anglers, but those who braved the elements were rewarded with some nice fish.
The offshore guys were hit the hardest by the weekend’s weather.
Not only have they had the strong winds and rain, but they had big swell thrown in too.
There were some fishable days late last week which saw good numbers of tuna boated, with not much happening since.
Port MacDonnell’s Jason Fulham, Tyson Kain and crew have continued their run on the big fish and boated some between 80kg and 100kg over the last week, along with excellent numbers of school fish.
Jamie Widdison and crew have been in on the action yet again, with a solid 110kg fish boated by John Schinkel.
The South East Amateur Surf Fishing Club held its annual Oil Rig Square fishing competition over the weekend and plenty of keen anglers braved the wind and rain to hit the beach.
There were good fish weighed in and the top prize went to Graeme Ploenges with a couple of nice gummy sharks.
Some nice salmon just under 2kg were weighed in by the seniors, while the juniors prize was taken out by young-gun Alex Lamb with a nice bag of salmon.
The Beachport Salmon Hole has been a hit-and-miss.
I am yet to hear any reports from the weekend down there but I would not mind betting the big seas have kicked some of those bigger fish into gear.
Through Canunda and south into Carpenter Rocks has seen an improvement in numbers over the last week or so.
The fish are of varying sizes, but they are consistent now.
Anywhere from salmon trout size through to a couple of kilograms have been caught by those using lures and bait.
There have been fish further to the east along Nene Valley, Browns Bay and Piccininni, but after a bit of a blow, the weed has been a problem at times.
The garfish have continued strongly and even with the feral weather the fish are still eating.
The best and most consistent spots seem to be Cape Douglas, Nene Valley and Livingstons Bay when the weather will allow.
However, as usual other protected bays with a bit of ribbon weed around will be worth a look too.
Mullet numbers have been pretty good again and the corner of Red Rock and Lighthouse Bay’s have both been productive thanks to the piles of rotting weed acting like a big burley bucket.
Other spots worth a try are Nene Valley, Hutt Bay or Racecourse Bay.
The inland fishing has been great over the school holidays and it has been good to see the Victorian Fisheries stocking hundreds of little lakes and dams with trout or natives for the kids to catch.
The Ess Lagoon in Casterton is a fabulous spot to take the kids and there is plenty of room to pull the camper up or pitch a tent, with the Lagoon freshly stocked with rainbow trout.
Jett Lennon and his family spent a couple of days down there over the weekend and managed to catch a few trout on spinners just off the fishing platform.
They will also take soft plastics or bibbed minnows, or if bait is more your thing, a worm under a float or some powerbait.
The Glenelg River was abuzz with anglers over the weekend and from all reports, there were a few mulloway boated.
There was not any hot spots, but anywhere from Taylors Straight up to Dry Creek seemed to be worth a look.
The fish have not been massive yet, but 70-90cm seem to be the average at the moment, which are still excellent fish.
The bream and perch have been in good numbers and they are spread out again.
Nelson and the estuary has been great, through to the upper reaches along the snags and the deep rock walls.
Hard bodied minnows and soft plastics have been popular for the lure chuckers, while the baitos have done well on whitebait, prawn and cut crab.
Looking forward to the weekend and it looks like we could be in for some fishable days.
The swell is laying down and the winds are easing, so I have no doubt there will be plenty to report.
Until next week, safe fishing.
