Jamie Coates
SOME nice weather over the last few days has been a joy to anglers around the Limestone Coast.
From off the beach to out of the boat, inland or up the river, some lovely fish have been caught right across the South East.
The offshore guys made the most of the last week’s flat seas by heading all over the place.
Some boats heading out wide found some nice hapuka and blue eye over the shelf, along with pink ling and gemfish.
The fish are spread out nicely, with reports coming to me from as far east as Portland, all along our Port MacDonnell and Beachport coastline, through to Robe and Cape Jaffa.
In a bit closer around that 60-120m line, we are seeing some nice shark.
Both school and gummy shark have been boated, with fish of both species to 20kg landed.
There have been plenty of other reef species among them too, with snapper, nannygai and flathead all gaining a mention.
Daniel Robinson and crew had a good session out last week, boating all the previously listed species, along with a couple of cracking Tasmanian trumpeter, the best a bit over 100cm.
The tuna news has been very light on this week, but Portland and Kingston did see more fish over the weekend, so if you are up for a drive either way, you should find the fish.
The surf has fished quite well over the last week or so.
I have seen some nice fish from the Beachport area from the weekend and late last week.
Anywhere through the 5-10 mile areas has been productive.
Clayton Skeer managed a couple of nice shark to 15kg along that area and a few other crews have had similar success.
There has been a few snapper, mulloway and a few flathead caught in the bay between Beachport and Southend also, so that is another spot worth a look too.
Canunda NP has fished fairly well this week.
We are still seeing salmon on a regular basis, along with a few gummy shark, elephant fish and small mulloway.
Whale Rock and Channel Rock have been where the bulk of the action has been, but if you came back through to the old drain or even near the Carpenter Rocks end, the water there looks fabulous so it would definitely be worth putting a bait in.
Nene Valley, Browns Bay and Piccininni Beach have fished fairly well when the weed has not been an issue.
Even though those spots are a fair bit from one and other, they are all subject to a bit of weed from time to time, so if you can get there and the beach is clean, you will be in with a red hot chance.
Snapper, whiting and sharks are the targets in all those spots and have been fairly good for most, so definitely get down there and have a crack.
Whiting fishos this week have found some nice fish inside the Port MacDonnell breakwater from the boats and off the jetty, though this weeks average size seems to be a touch smaller than it was a month or so ago.
The numbers are still pretty impressive, so there is no need to worry at all.
There has been some more nice fish caught this week around Cape Douglas and Hutt Bay and again it has been both the boaties and the waders sharing the success.
Beachport is still producing whiting in the bay for the boaties and although the majority of the Beachport jetty is closed for renovations at the moment, the open section has produced some nice fish.
With the light winds and flat seas we saw over the weekend, we see plenty of fishos chase sweep.
Usual sea conditions might be okay in open water, but it takes exceptionally smooth and calm seas to be able to get into the sweep spots.
In under the Lighthouse at Port MacDonnell is always a popular spot, but any reefy spot or around a few bommies is always worth a crack.
Gar numbers have again been impressive this week.
Waders and boaties have both been taking home a feed across the South East with not too many troubles at all.
Petrified Forest, Cape Douglas, Nene Valley and Livingstons Bay have all fired over the last week, but if you do not find them straight away, keep on the move.
There have been some chunky mullet mixed in with the gar this week too and a feed of mullet is always welcome on my dinner table.
There have been some nice fish caught in Rocklands this week by the lure casters.
Yellas to a couple of kilo have been boated in the heavy snags and most have been taken on chatter or spinner baits.
The unique design of that type of lures means they can be fished in pretty heavy structure without too much fear of them snagging up.
Of course they are not 100 per cent snag-proof, but we can fish areas we would have traditionally not even thought of throwing lures.
It is not just the yellas that have been on the chew, we are seeing a few cod each trip, along with some solid redfin.
I know I have said it before, but how good is Rocklands now, and it is just getting started.
The Glenelg River has fished well for bream and perch.
Lures and baits have been getting the job done and they are spreading out quite nicely now.
There hve been some nice bream boated this week on cranka crabs around the Donovans and Reed Bed area along the rockwalls and steeper banks.
The go-to colours seem to be the darker ones in the range to match the colour of the local crabs.
The mulloway fishing has improved a little, with more fish caught this week.
The caves and Sandy Waterhole area has been where the bulk of the news has come from, but there have been one or two in the Taylors Straight area as well.
The forecast for this week is not a good one, with a massive sea forecast for Friday, plus strong winds and cold days.
But looking beyond that, the turn around looks to be a quick one.
Until next week, safe fishing.
