Mount Gambier

A hot Aussie Day long weekend across the Limestone Coast saw plenty of anglers head for the water. From offshore to inland, off the beach or up the river, there has been plenty caught right around the district, so let’s get straight into it!

While the was a bit of breeze to contend with offshore, there was still plenty of fishable weather. Those who did venture out found some nice mixed bags of reef fish, including snapper, nannygai, flathead and terakhi. Depths from 60mt and beyond have been the most productive, but as per usual, if you find your features such as a ledge, drop off, bommie or anything that holds the baitfish, your trophy fish shouldn’t be too far away. The shark fishing is still excellent out there, gummy and school shark have all been boated in fairly reasonable numbers, and the sizes have been varied from rippers over 20kg, to some smaller fish that guys are letting go. Again, there isn’t any specific depth that’s any better than another, just find that feature and you shouldn’t go too far wrong.

The surf fishos have been getting into the snapper this weekend right around the South East. I’ve seen some lovely fish from Canunda and Carpenter Rocks from the last few days. Gummy and school shark have been on the menu, along with some nice snapper, some unseasonally big salmon over a couple of kilos, and even a few just under but very close mulloway. Blackfellows Caves, Nene Valley and Jones’ Bay have produced more snapper, gummy shark and even a few big whiting this weekend. The Woolwash, Deep and Eight Mile Creeks, Browns Beach and Paradise all fished well too. I saw a nice bronze whaler shark from Browns, and the usual snapper, salmon, a couple of flathead and an elephant fish too!

Whiting and snapper fishos enjoyed the bit of stir in the water early in the weekend, then as we progressed, it really cleared up and made things a little more difficult. Boaties managed some lovely fish of both species at Danger Point, Racecourse Bay, inside the Port Mac Breakwater, and down at Blackfellows Caves. Getting a steady burley going, fishing your dawn and dusk best bite times and when the water has a bit of colour to it is almost always a recipe for success.

Gar numbers have been excellent this week Lacey and Jameson Carrison fished Livingstons late last week with their dad Tim in the boat and found some really nice gar, along with a few whiting and squid to help fill the freezer. Waders have done well this week walking around Pelican Point, Cape Douglas and Hutt Bay, and a few have found fish in the Petrified Forrest too. There are some big schools of mullet and tommy ruff in those same areas too, along with some silver trevally also.

The Glenelg River has been producing some lovely mulloway this past week, fish to the mid 90cm range have been landed, and several smaller models are also being caught. There isn’t a hot spot at the moment, some anglers have found the fish up higher than Wilsons Hall, while others are doing well in Dry Creek, Nelson and at the estuary. The bream and estuary perch fishing has been red hot again, some lovely examples of both have been caught on both baits and lures down there, and from a wide array of areas. My young fella Finn and I were fishing Saturday evening and a rod we had soaking with a white bait on it took off, moments later the young fella pulled up a little gummy shark, the first for us in there, but one of about half a dozen that I know about from the last couple of months! The dark nights last week were prime conditions for fishos to get the dab net out and into a few big mullet once the sun goes down. They’re right through the river, just putt around slowly with a powerful spotty and a good dab net and it’s a seriously fun way to get either a good feed, or some prime mulloway baits!

The forecast for the next week sees nice calm seas, but there is a fair bit of wind blowing, the temps are up and down again, bit nothing quite as warm as we saw this week!

Until next week, safe fishing!

Coatsy.