By Jamie Coates
SINCE I last penned a report, there has been a few positive changes to the fishing bans that were initially implemented in the South East to help with the containment of the ABV abalone virus.
While the control area has spread further west to Southend, the fishing rules have been relaxed.
Inside the control area, fishing is permitted from the boat or shore, but if you are in the boat, you are not permitted to drop the anchor. Drift fishing is okay or if you are equipped with an electric motor with the spot lock feature, that is also okay.
From the boats or the land, any fish caught in that area can not be transported to another.
For example, if you caught salmon at Browns Beach and wanted to use it for bait in Carpenter Rocks, that is not allowed at the moment.
Lastly, when you get home, wash your gear down with fresh water and allow to air dry before going again or putting away, but that is already common practice for most fishos anyway.
Into the more exciting stuff now and the fishing was great for most anglers over the long weekend.
While the seas may not have been the best for boaties, plenty of anglers still made their way onto the water to wet a line.
There were plenty of bigger boats fishing offshore and the bottom bouncing was quite productive.
I have had some reports of big shark coming from the 60-120m areas, gummy and school shark both over 20kg, along with the other mixed reef species we would expect to see, such as nannygai, terakhi, snapper, flathead and even a couple of knifejaw.
A few boats did head wide for a look for some deep water fish over the shelf and although the fishing was not crazy, there was still some lovely blue eye, gemfish, pink ling and ocean perch caught.
Anglers were also doing a bit of trolling over the shelf while they moved from spot to spot in hope of an early season albacore or tuna, but to my knowledge, none were caught this time.
The surf fishing was excellent.
The Lower South East Amateur Surf Fishing Club held its annual March long weekend Coorong competition and it was great to see so many anglers make the trip up.
There were plenty of fish caught over the two nights by most of the fishos, including some nice mulloway.
The fishos on the podium this week were Dave Taylor, Grady Janeway and Brent Deland who picked up first, second and third in the senior section.
The junior honours went to Jack Taylor and Henry Vandenhoogen who each picked up a win.
It sounds like the crew all had a great weekend and there were plenty of cool beverages had.
Locally we have seen some more nice snapper and the odd whiting from the beaches between Blackfellows Caves and Cape Douglas.
Further east to Browns Bay and Piccininni beach we are still hearing of snapper, the odd gummy shark and salmon.
There has been some nice whiting caught from the Port MacDonnell jetty.
We are finally seeing some more consistent numbers now which is encouraging after a slow start to the season.
The average size of the keepers has been a solid 35-40cm, although there have definitely been some that have been much bigger.
There are still good fish caught from the beaches around Nene Valley, plus a few up around Carpenter Rocks, so just keep on the move around the place and have a look.
There are plenty of spots where you will find them.
The guys chasing garfish have found some good numbers around the usual spots.
We are seeing good numbers from Port MacDonnell, Cape Douglas, Hutt Bay and Livingstons Bay, but predominately from the waders, since anchoring is off the table.
There have been some nice fish amongst them, some of the best gardies all year.
There are still some nice tommy ruff, salmon trout and chunky mullet coming from the same places too, so you never know what might come up the burley trail.
There have been more nice fish coming from the Glenelg River.
It has been the bream and perch again that have made up the bulk of the news, with some good samples of both coming through.
The mouth of the river has now blocked for the first time in a number of years and that always gets me a bit excited.
As the water slowly rises, we will see areas that are usually high and dry go underwater.
With no tidal currents, it seems the fish are more out and about.
The mulloway news this week has trickled through.
I have heard of a couple of legal fish from down around Nelson, so that is encouraging and I think we should see those numbers improve too.
The forecast for the coming weekend looks like we should get another bit of sun, but not as hot as last week.
There is a bit of wind forecast too, but we should be able to wet a line.
Until next week, safe fishing.
