Saturday morning was definitely the pick of the days to fish over the weekend as by the afternoon, the predicted swells were increasing. Sunday was pretty messy to start the day for outside fishing. The sand flathead were biting fiercely Saturday morning, fishing between Bournda Island back to Tura Heads. Reports have confirmed my last week’s fishing report with flathead being caught between 45 and 52 centimetre long fish and bagging out in just over an hour, fishing in 40 metres of water. Once you find the little ones, it’s time to head back up. We have confused currents at the moment, with the surface water temperature sitting around 21.5 degrees and an undercurrent sitting around 19 degrees.
The reef fishing has still been good through the last week, with reasonable numbers of pan-sized snapper around 45 centimetres and good numbers of morwong, with odd nannygai and a mixed bag of other reef fish. This swell that is on our shores should only help the reef fishing during the week and to next weekend when the Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is holding its annual Snapper Classic competition. There is $1800 in total cash prizes. $400 for the longest snapper caught on bait and/or lure in the seniors category and $100 prize for the longest snapper in the junior category. Registrations open Friday 29th May at 5.30pm at the MBGLAC clubrooms. Cost is $40 for non-members and $35 for members and $10 for juniors under 16 years of age. Check out the Tournaments page at www.mbglac.com.au for more details.
The surf fishing has been good during the week. Club member, Phil Jacobs, couldn’t stop talking about his 68centimetre salmon he caught midweek. He also said he caught heaps of 50 centimetre models on North Tura Beach. There were salmon schools during the week on Haycock Beach at the Merimbula bar and at the Surf Club end of Tathra Beach, before all the weather came in. There is a lot of sand moving, so we will need to check the beaches out again once things settle down a bit.
The estuary fishing is still consistent, but the water temperature is still dropping, which will slow the fishing right down very soon. Reports from the weekend, tell me that the Bega River’s water temperature is now around 13 degrees and on Saturday, the fishing was pretty hard. A couple of dusky flathead up in the shallows, small bream along the rock walls, with an odd trevally and tailor. The Merimbula Lake water temperature is a bit better at 15 degrees and they are catching trevally, tailor and a few blackfish on weed around the edges. With the rain that is predicted this coming week, this hopefully will warm the water a bit and stir all the estuary fishing up.
For those that are keen, there are lots of reports from Lake Eucumbene lately of plenty of brown trout being caught. These fish are all moving into the rivers now for their spawning run. There are still a lot of stragglers which are being caught trolling and some on the banks on lures or worms. You need to be heading up to Adaminaby and fishing that end of the lake. If you are casting the banks, use spotted dogs, which should entice a reaction.
Upcoming events for the Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club are the Snapper Classic next weekend. Registration opens at 5.30pm at the clubrooms at Spencer Park, Merimbula. Also the Seafood Dinner for members and guests on June 20th.
The clubrooms will be open at 5.30pm this Friday night for competition registrations, but still come down for a quiet beverage from our fully licensed bar, buy a ticket or two in the Friday night raffle supported by the Lakeview Hotel, the Bar Beach Kiosk and Goodalls Butchers. Catch up on the week’s fishing and chat with the locals.
Till next week,
Fishy Fellow