Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters said he had had the best kingfish bags for quite a while. He said the kingfish continued to provide plenty of action, mainly on live bait but also on jigs, soft plastics and whole squid.
To provide variety, Rod said he was catching chunky-sized Australian salmon, with fish around two to three kilograms. He said these were taking small skirted lure called an occy.
The best time was on the run-out tide in the rip.
When it was too rough to go outside the heads, Rod was bagging out on King George whiting, mainly around the grass beds at the mouth of Swan Bay as far as St Leonards. Rod also reported pinky sized snapper from the inshore reefs as well as flathead, which were biting on the sandy bottom between the reefs.
Speaking with Rod, you get the feeling that just about all you have to do is put a line in the water and you will catch a fish, depending on which fish you are chasing.
But it seems the fallback fish is whiting. If you are not able to go off shore due to the weather, then King George whiting are okay by me.
Further along the coast at Portland, bluefin tuna are running, while closer to home, Western Port Bay is worth a go.
Snapper, flathead, gummy sharks, whiting and leatherjacket are being caught from San Remo and Cowes all the way to the steelworks.
North of the NSW border at Eden, the bulk of the fishing has been along the inshore reefs from Boyd’s Lookout to Green Cape near the border.
Most fish caught have been snapper, morwong, flathead and kingfish.
Occasional tuna, both yellowfin and southern bluefin, are starting to appear but John Liddell at Eden said they were still a month away from appearing in numbers.
John said the tuna that were biting were well off the coast, off the shelf.
Further north at Narooma, Graham Cowley said the fishing there was much the same, with most action around Montague Island; however, good-size flathead were biting on the sandy bottom close to the mouth of the bar.
Graham said snapper and morwong were also on the bite.
Down south at Flinders Island, James Luddington said he had packed up his charter operations for the season and would take things easy until next spring.
He said that for those that wanted to continue fishing around Lady Barron, there were still flathead and gummy sharks to be caught during winter.
Let’s take a look at the fishing in our region.
All reports over the Easter holiday period continued to be positive, in line with the great weather that we have had.
Fishing the Goulburn River was good, with cod still biting, although the majority of fish were juveniles.
There were good reports from anglers fishing the river from Seymour to Nagambie, although trout released from Snobs Creek hatchery were being mixed among the cod — these were former breeding stock and some were quite big.
Cod were more prevalent from the Tahbilk Winery all the way to Shepparton.
Fishing the Broken River and the other tributaries that flowed into the Goulburn provided anglers with cod as well as yellowbelly.
The Murray River was also fishing well but remember, you need to have a NSW fishing licence as well as a boat licence for that state.
Eildon and the Hume are both Victorian waterways while Mulwala and the others are in NSW.
In the high country, Dartmouth is fishing well for trout.
Remember that Macquarie perch are now totally protected and must not be taken. They must be released unharmed back into the dam.
One last thing, over half a dozen people drowned over the Easter break after being washed off rocky shelves.
Large waves had been forecast and most people ignored the warnings.
Keep that in mind and stay safe.
22°C