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Mount Gambier

Spot On Fishing Tackle & Outdoors Mt Gambier 

South East Fishing Report - 30th October 2024

A near perfect weekend of weather across the Limestone Coast saw tonnes of anglers heading for the water, even those who don’t fish unless conditions are absolutely smack on dusted their gear off, some for the first time this season! From the offshore, to the inshore, along the sand or up the river, there was some excellent fish caught in the last week so we’ve got plenty to cover!

Calm seas and light winds were a delight to offshore fishos this week, with the most boat trailers in the Port Mac carpark as we’ve seen for a little while. Some of the bigger boats headed wide over the shelf in search of some deep water species, and mixed reports of blue eye, gemfish and blue grenadier amongst a few others have steadily flowed in from fishos. Those not venturing as far wide as the shelf have found some really nice mixed bags of fish in depths anywhere from 70mt to 150mt. School and gummy shark to 25kg each have not been all that uncommon, along with some great reef species such as snapper over 70cm, big nannygai, knifejaw, flathead and terakhi just to mention a few. As has been the case over the last several weeks, jigs are now accounting for a fair whack of those fish landed out there, some of the better fish of each species have been taken on jigs, and you weed out a few of the undesirables that you’d usually have pinching your baits. There has been a bit of chat this weekend of tuna off Port Mac, apparently there has been school fish spotted jumping in anywhere from 50mt and beyond, and the amount of birdlife, seals, whales and dolphins has to be seen to be believed.

The surf fishing over the weekend was pretty decent for most. I’ve seen some good shark from Piccininni and Paradise area, and from all accounts the weed has been very manageable in most areas down that way. Kerryn and John Munn found some great salmon off the beach over the weekend and some of those fish at an impressive 60cm! I’m seeing more consistent snapper catches from the beaches now, with areas like Paradise, Nene Valley and Blackfellows Caves all starting to produce fish fairly reliably. The whiting in the same areas are also starting to fish better, and we should only see them getting better and better as the weather warms up. There hasn’t been a heap of Coorong news this week, but there are still some nice gummy shark being landed up there, and as far as beach conditions go, if you let your tires down and keep the momentum up, you’ll be laughing!

The inshore reef is starting to produce some really nice snapper for the boaties now. Launching from the Port Mac boat ramp sees anglers heading east to either Orwell Rocks, Danger Point or Green Point, all of which are great spots to try and are usually fairly productive for chasing the snapper. Whiting and squid will often be caught in the same areas, and both are a welcome bycatch. Gummy shark in the same areas are also a real possibility down there too.

There have been plenty of anglers targeting the garfish over the last week or so and most have had no problems at all finding some good fish. Boaties and landbased anglers are both getting in on the fun, and the average size has been quite good. Pete Haarsma fished with his granddaughter Izzy Harter and found some ripper fish on Sunday, with gar, whiting, salmon and mullet all on the menu, and I think Izzy is now addicted to fishing! Waders at Cape Douglas and Livingstons have been into the fish too, some anglers finding their bags without too much trouble, whereas others have had to work a bit harder, but there are still good numbers of salmon trout and mullet mixed through them to keep you entertained.

The lakes/reservoirs mentioned in this report are all locations in Victoria that are exempt from the Murray Cod season closure period, so if you are travelling through Vic with the intention to target murray cod, just check if where you plan to fish is a part of the closure area or not. In the fresh water this week, there has been more cod caught at Lake Charlegrark.  The landbased fishos casting a rod in from the bank have found some more nice fish, most between the 45cm and 60cm mark, which are excellent fun on the light tackle. A mixture of baits are worth using, but worms, yabbies, cheese or even prawns. Rocklands is producing more cod and yellowbelly this week, the lure casters have been doing well on dark coloured shudderbaits, soft plastics and blade type vibes, while the bait anglers are still using yabbies and worm. Bigger cod over 80cm are still being fairly regularly caught by both the lure casters and the baitos, so persisting for the big one is always worth it! Yellowbelly to 60cm again are on the cards, and much like the cod, they’ll eat a big offering of lures or baits.

The Glenelg River is fishing pretty well again this week, with some very nice bream and estuary perch hitting the decks. Anglers fishing lures have found the best fish on double clutch hardbodies in on the steep cliffs, or natural coloured plastics such as gudgeons or motor oils. The bait anglers have done well on cut crab, prawn and worms, but keep on the move until you find where the fish are. The mulloway news is light, but there has been the odd little one caught on lures by fishos targeting the bream and perch. There hasn’t been any hot-spots as to speak, the fish have been pretty spread out for the most part. Some days the upper reaches will fish better than the lower and vice versa, but you’ve just gotta get on the water.

A bit of breeze forecast for the weekend could make things a little tricky if you wanted to head offshore, but being in the north for the bulk of the weekend should be perfect for surf fishos.

Until next week, safe fishing!

Coatsy.