Jamie Coates
WIND and rain peppered us along much of the Limestone Coast on the weekend, but there were a few opportunities to get out and on the water.
Although the weather may not have been perfect, there were some quality fish caught.
The offshore guys we the hardest hit, but before that, there were a few reasonable days.
The most commonly caught fish this last week for the offshore anglers has to be snapper.
It seems like they are everywhere at the moment.
From the inshore reef and kelp beds, through to 100-odd metres, they are in excellent numbers.
We can still only keep one fish per person per day, but it is great to see anglers now targeting them on lures, be it jigs, soft plastics or even on soft vibes, taking a quick snap, then releasing them.
Other fishing news this week has been the shark fishing.
Gummy and school shark are still in excellent numbers right along the South East coastline and much like the snapper, it is great to hear of guys keeping one or two for the table, then letting the rest go.
Some fishos I have heard of have released over 10 big sharks in a session, which is a big day on the water.
Tasty reef species are also making an appearance, be it red snapper, jackass morwong or blue morwong from the 50-80m depth range, or knifejaw, flathead and silver dory from a little deeper, there is plenty on offer at the moment.
I have not heard of any tuna news again this week, but a few reports have mentioned that the signs are there that there should be tuna about.
Baitfish and krill being harassed by birds, seals, dolphins and whales is enough to raise the heart rate of any fisho, but there has not been any bites as yet.
In previous years we have seen tuna caught as late as the end of November, so you never know, but I would not be putting the gear away just yet.
Surf fishos this week have had a bit of wind and weed to contend with while on the beach, but those who have persisted or kept on the move have found some nice fish.
Echoing the offshore report, it is all snapper again.
Anything from undersize pinkies of around 30cm, to a couple of beasts over 70cm, this week has had it all.
Flynn Thomas has been landing some beauties around the Nene Valley/Blackfellows Caves area over the past week, he is even getting a few ripper whiting mixed in too.
Joe Atkins has also been fishing the same area over the last few days.
He has managed fish to 80cm and released plenty in the 50-70cm range, plus a few sneaky whiting also.
Speaking of beach whiting, they have been excellent again this week.
I have seen whiting from the beach at Browns Bay, The Woolwash, Cape Douglas, Nene Valley and Carpenter Rocks, so it does not matter too much where you go, if you use the right gear and fish the right conditions, you should find yourself a very nice feed of fish.
There has been salmon this week from the Beachport salmon hole in varying sizes.
The calmer days have seen good numbers of trout and lumpies while the rough and stirred days are seeing the bigger jackies move in.
A few fishos have been chasing the gummies along the Coorong and doing quite well.
Richard Hateley landed a couple of nice ones over the weekend up pretty high during a quick overnight mission.
There are still a few mulloway being caught up there too, you just have to fish through the gummies to get them.
Back to whiting, the boaties are having another cracking season so far.
I have seen fish from right down past Green Point, back through to Port MacDonnell and right up to Cape Jaffa.
It seems to be tracking as good, if not better than last year and we all thought last year was the best on record.
The size and numbers of fish has been impressive right across the board and the fact the land based guys are getting as much of an opportunity as the boaties is great for everyone.
Tony Bell has been having a great run on the whiting this year.
I have seen plenty of pictures of his and his crews catch on social media in recent weeks which us great to see.
There are a fair few trevally getting around at the moment in the previously mentioned areas and they seem to be creeping up in size again.
There have been a couple nudging the 2kg mark, which make for a cracking fight on the whiting gear.
There are starting to be some pretty consistent catches of squid now coming from the Port MacDonnell jetty of an evening.
The calm days and warm nights we had last week really kicked things into gear and although this weekends average run of weather will not help the cause, it will not take long for it to settle again and we see the fishing quickly return.
There have been some nice fish caught inside Livingstons Bay by the boaties.
More of those 2kg big squid we love to see have been landed, along with plenty of those great little table or bait sized squid.
As we get closer to summer and the warmer weather, we will only see them improve.
Inland fishing has been fantastic again this week.
There have been some lovely fish caught at Rocklands once again by the lure fishos.
Trolling stumpjumpers, get bent chatterbaits and flicking dark coloured soft plastics has been the red-hot way to get the hooks into some nice murray cod, yellowbelly and redfin.
I probably dribble on about how exciting Rocklands is going to be in the next couple of years, but these fish are already a few kilo and 60+ centimetres long.
They are going to grow quick and Rocklands will become a destination lake.
The Glenelg River has fished pretty well despite the dirty water still running down.
The angling club held its first competition of the season over the weekend and in trying conditions, the guys still managed to weigh in some nice fish.
Ian Minge boated some lovely bream overnight, Neville Isaacson managed some big perch and Troy Huitema caught a nice 40+cm bream from his shack.
Ian Antonoff, fishing just below Donovan’s on Saturday afternoon, caught something he was not expecting – he reeled in a 9.5kg carp.
No doubt it was flushed down river with the flood waters, but hopefully that is the end of them.
The coming weekend looks like it will be a wet and windy one again and most fishing might be restricted to the beach or river.
If you are sticking in town, come down to the tackle shop for one of the best viewing places for the Mount Gambier Christmas Pageant and say G’day.
Until next week, safe fishing.
