Mount Gambier

A warm and pleasant weekend right across the Limestone Coast was definitely taken advantage of by fishos, we saw plenty off the sand, out of the boats and up the river, so there’s plenty to go through!

The offshore fishos have been waiting for a weekend like this one for a while now, finally we’ve seen the wind and swell both back of for consecutive days, allowing us a good opportunity to head wider and have a crack over the shelf. I saw some real mixed bags from the weekend, a bit of everything hitting the deck. It’s been a while since I’ve reported hapuka, but a few crews did find some reasonable fish, there was some big blue eye, pink ling and gemfish boated too, so it was a good weekend by the sounds. In a bit closer, we did see a handful of nice sharks boated in that 50mt through to 120mt line, along with some solid nannygai, terakhi and flathead. Chris Hale and Mat Perry had a day to remember when one of their big sharks they were just about to lift into the boat was spectacularly chomped by an even bigger great white! Luckily once the big fella had a feed, he took off again.

Off the sand we saw plenty of anglers making their way to the beaches, and what a weekend for it! Warm and still evenings, excellent surf conditions and to top it off, plenty of fish! The South East Amateur Surf Fishing Club held their yearly Adelaide Cup long weekend comp and there were plenty of fishos who made the journey up. Grady Janeway took home first prize for his efforts, bagging a nice 7.4kg gummy shark, second was Craig Schmitt and his 6.2kg gummy, and Adam VanDooren winning third with his nice 6.1kg mulloway. Locally we did see plenty of fishos hit the beach too, snapper were the most prolific, with some being lovely fish near the 60cm mark, and there was also a few gummy shark mixed in, some reasonable and around that 5kg size. Nene Valley and Carpenter Rocks have been the most popular areas, though anywhere with some deeper water and free from the weed is worth a crack.

There has been some nice snapper from the boats over the weekend, and it seemed like the better fish came from the Danger and Green Point areas. Fishing hard in the kelp was the best bet over the weekend, that’s where we saw the better fish landed. The better fish were up in the high 60’s for length, though most were those good eaters between 50 and 60cm. There is no shortage of bait fish down there at the moment. Mackerel, salmon, pike, couta, there is tonnes and at times they’re a pest stealing your prime snapper baits! There has been very little talk about sharks in close down that way, but get the burley going and you never know what might pop up!

Chasing gar has been on the cards for plenty of anglers coming into the long weekend, and I think with the flat seas and light northerlies, it was definitely the weekend for it. The numbers and size have been great for most, and they’re spread out nicely from the Port Mac Breakwater, though the Petrified Forrest, Hutt Bay, Cape Douglas and into Livingstons. The boaties and the waders have both been in on the action, and there’s reports too of some hefty tommy ruff mixed in with them.

Whiting fishos did pretty well over the weekend, and while I didn’t hear of many bags full of fish, I don’t think anyone went home empty handed. Fish have been well spread out again this week as we’ve seen in previous reports, so any of your favourite old haunts are well worth a crack. The size has continued to impress again this week, with lots of those high 40cm fish and even the odd 50cm too. Land based fishos have found their fair share of fish along Cape Douglas and Nene Valley, while the boaters have been very spread out.

The Glenelg River is abuzz with activity this week, finally we’re seeing some reasonable mulloway caught and in better numbers. Trolled livies is the best bet, and good mullet aren’t too difficult to find at the moment, or a decent 100mm – 130mm diving minnow lure is also worth a crack. There are still big numbers of bream and estuary perch right through the river at the moment too, it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re fishing on the sand flats, or up in the sticks, you’ll run into a few good fish. The lures of choice have been topwater cicadas, or natural coloured 2.5 inch grubs and minnows. Keep working until you find where they’re holding, sometimes it’s real shallow, other times its in the deeper drop offs, just keep working until you find them!

The forecast for the coming weekend is for another burst of warm weather, before we see temps back off and even a bit of rain. Keep an eye on conditions, but it shouldn’t be too bad at all.

Until next week, safe fishing!

Coatsy.