Mount Gambier

A beautiful weekend weatherwise across the South East saw plenty of anglers trying their luck. From offshore on the boats, surf fishing or inland, we saw fishos having a crack at everything. There was some lovely fish caught over the weekend so let’s get straight to it!

Boaties who headed offshore during the nice weather found some excellent fishing. Hayden Sneath and his crew have been back on the sharks again this week. Hayden boated an absolute ripper of a gummy shark, pulling the scales down to a very impressive 25kg. They also landed another couple while out there, and still managed to be home and hosed by lunchtime! Jai and Charlie McDougall fished on Sunday with Corey and Jett Edwards down off Green Point and boated some ripper sharks between them. 18kg – 20kg was the weight of their fish, which would have been unreal fun for the young fellas in near perfect conditions. Steve Jensen and his young bloke Levi found some nice sharks late last week, and while out there too, the boys picked up a feed of real solid winter whiting too, most in the high 40cms! Tuna news locally has been pretty quiet. I did hear a few crews went for a look, but after turning up nothing all morning, most pulled the pin and bottom fished for the remainder of the day. A few barrels have been caught down at Portland, but we’re yet to see any more here just yet.

Fishing off the beach has been excellent this past weekend. Chasing salmon has been high on the list for many, and with the bigger jackies coming in at the moment, why wouldn’t ya! Beachport salmon hole has been reliable, and we’re seeing some nice fish too. Wayne Little bagged himself a nice lot late last week, with some of his better fish over 2kg. Metal lures are the go-to up there, so if you’re up that way, give it a crack. Carpenter Rocks has been fishing very well this last week, the prime times, ie dawn and dusk, have produced the best fish, some of nearly 4kg, though you’ll catch them through the day, albeit not quite as big. My kids and I fished Lighthouse Bay on Sunday, managing 10 or so salmon to around 1kg, and a handful of big mullet which were a welcome surprise. We were just bait fishing, keeping it simple and found the fish fairly easily. A few land based fishos have been throwing baits in at Paradise, which is largely unfished this time of year, but we’re seeing plenty of salmon trout and even the odd elephant fish caught there, which is an easy and accessible place to keep in the back of your mind.

Plenty of anglers made their way to their favourite garfish spots over the weekend and made the most of the calm weather. Although there was still a bit of tidal surge, we did still see most fishos manage to find the fish without much hassle. The light north wind was great to spread the burley around, and we also saw plenty of those anglers get a few nice tommies, salmon trout and mullet in their catches too. Livingstons, Pelican Point, Cape Douglas, Hutt Bay, Petrified Forrest and Racecourse Bay all produced over the weekend and should again once we see this next run of bad weather pass.

The Glenelg River is still producing some cracker perch for the anglers down there. It did appear like they’d moved up a bit last week, but now we’re seeing some nice catches from the bridge to Dartmoor. Lure of choice has been different every day, some anglers found that galaxia minnow divers were the best, others using vibes, and others on soft plastics. Like we always do, take a collection with you and shift on the fly, if something isn’t working, try something else until you find what they’re eating on the day. Bream are in good numbers for the bait fishos. Whitebait, crab and prawn are the go at the moment, and try different parts of the river, under the trees, rock banks, deep holes, in the shallows etc, they will keep moving around, so we have to too! There has been a few mulloway reports this week, a couple in the Taylors Straight area, and a couple higher up between Hutchessons and McLennans Punt. Trolling live bait is still the number one, but a deep diving minnow or swimbait is definitely worth a crack.

The forecast for the coming week doesn’t look all that crash hot, we’re expected to see strong winds, big seas and plenty of rain, so this weekend looks like the river and inland lakes are going to be our best and maybe only option to wet a line!

Until next week, safe fishing!

Coatsy.