Jamie Coates
A PLEASANT weekend across the Limestone Coast was a delight to anglers wishing to wet a line.
The offshore scene seems to be slowly but surely improving as we get further into the New Year.
We are hearing now of anglers finding pockets of warmer water amongst the cooler stuff, which has been great as we have seen a return of the good fishing.
There has been some nice shark caught this past week, with gummy and school shark over 20kg reported, though the majority have been those ripper eating size at 12-18kg.
It is not only sharks making an appearance out there.
We are seeing nice snapper, nannygai, morwong and flatties, just to name a few.
As we see the water keep improving, the fishing will get better through all depths.
The surf fishos have been having a field day again.
There are more snapper reports this week from Piccininni, Browns Bay, Nene Valley and Blackfellows Caves, though the fish certainly are not only in those areas.
There have been some beauties caught and some up over the 60cm mark and even nudging 70cm.
There are a few gummy sharks hanging around off the beaches and there have been plenty of good table-sized fish coming in, with a lot around the 4-8kg mark.
Elephant shark, salmon and even the odd flathead have been caught in the surf, which is great to mix it up.
Youngster Ryder Meek beached his first gummy off the beach over the weekend while fishing with his old man – it was a beauty too.
I am sure that is not the last time he will be in my fishing column either.
The 44th annual Kingston SE Lions Club surf fishing competition has been run and won for another year.
Although there might not have been a truckload of fish caught, the weather was as good as I can remember and everyone had a great time.
The lucky winner this year was Horsham angler Matt Spasic, who landed himself a nice one at 5.5kg.
Spasic has been fishing the comp for years and reckons this is the first time he has weighed one in.
The junior section was taken out by Naracoorte lad Aaron Braithwaite who reeled in a nice shark to secure him the victory.
The organisers and volunteers have again done an excellent job running this year’s event.
I know so many are already looking forward to next year – ourselves included.
Whiting anglers have been getting a feed the past week, but it has not been an easy task.
The boaties have done well at Racecourse Bay, Port MacDonnell, Nene Valley and Blackfellows Caves, while the land-based fishos are catching them off the Port MacDonnell jetty, Cape Douglas and Blackfellows Caves.
We should see them improve again as the water warms and settles down, but in the mean time, mix it up and move around if it is quiet.
The fishing from the Port MacDonnell jetty has been excellent.
The warm evenings have had plenty of families down there throwing a rod in, and there is plenty on offer to catch.
From tommy ruff, garfish and mullet under the floats, to whiting, trevally and mackerel on the bottom, there has been a good variety.
A few of the keener anglers down there have even found some reasonable snapper in the evenings, some to 50cm, which has been great to see too.
The Glenelg River has finally started producing some more reasonable and consistent mulloway, with fish to 15lb caught down there.
They are spread out at the moment, with a few from the estuary, a few from Taylors Straight and a few from Donovan’s from what I have heard.
Neville Issacson boated a nice 12lb fish on Sunday morning on a live mullet and he also had a cracker bream over 1kg which also took a liking to another live bait.
There have been a few perch sniffing around and the best bet still seems to be topwater cicada type lures.
Late evenings at last light, or early morning as the sun rises is the best time for surface, and it is extremely good fun.
There is a bit of wind and swell forecast for the long weekend, but it still looks like there will be plenty of options for those wetting a line.
Until next week, safe fishing.
