The outside flathead fishing is giving up a good feed of sand and tiger flathead and a few flying gurnard. There are heaps of small flathead and red spot whiting stealing baits, but the better fish are in amongst the bait stealers. The keeper fish are ranging in size from 35 to 45 centimetres and there are better fish up to 50 centimetres. A lot of boats have been fishing off the golf course off Tura Beach and up to Bournda Island in depths from 35 to 45 metres. The swells were up on Sunday and there were still boats out there fishing. The in-shore water temperature is sitting around 16 degrees.
The reef fishing is still excellent with plenty of snapper on all our local reefs. These fish are ranging from pan-size fish to 60 plus centimetres. A lot of the better fish are being caught on plastics now as you always have an active line in the water and the snapper love the moving plastics. Baits are still working, but all the other species are fighting for that bait also. There has also been some good morwong, nannygai, and leatherjackets being caught and these species also take lures if presented and they are hungry.
The MBGLAC Salmon Sunday was run and won today, with Tathra Beach at the Mogareeka end being the venue. Leanne Hoath took out the trophy this year with a nice 56.5 centimetre model. Seas were up, caused by the high-pressure system off the east coast of New South Wales. We had a dozen fish caught between the competitors all on bait rigs. Those using lures didn’t see any action. There was a school of salmon out the back, which you could see in the waves, from time to time, but it was a long way out. There are also schools on North Tura Beach, Dolphin Cove Beach and I heard of a patch around Tura Heads during the week.
The lake fishing fired up in the Bega River on Saturday. I got a report of one angler who caught five bream, all over 30 centimetres and one dusky over 50 centimetres. He also said the water was 10 degrees. There are also a few trevally being caught around the bridge and bream are being seen on the flats but are spooking easily. The Merimbula Lake is still hard fishing. The water in the channels is so clear and there are no fish to be seen. The top lake has a few tailor and odd salmon being caught trolling or casting lures around the bait, and there are the occasional small dusky flathead and trevally around the weed edges. Merimbula’s top lake water temperature is 11 degrees.
The game fishing is on fire up the coast at Batemans Bay and to the North, but the boats are venturing out to sea up to the 150 50 line, but down our way, things are slow. Plenty of donuts for those trying. I have seen a pic of one yellowfin caught during last week out of Tathra. Fish size, I’d estimate around 50 kilograms, but that is it. Not even seeing any albacore. The water temperature looks to be around 17.5 degrees on the surface and there is cooler water underneath.
The MBGLAC presentation night is next on our agenda. It is Saturday night at the Lakeview Hotel, starting at 6pm. We have 50 people booked in already and there is room for more. You have until Wednesday 5th August to confirm attendance, so ring Shane on 0428 424 496 to reserve your seats. Don’t forget also our AGM is happening on Monday 10th August at the clubrooms at Spencer Park, beginning at 7pm.
The MBGLAC club rooms will be open again this Friday night from 6pm. Come along, have a chat with the locals, grab a ticket in the Friday night raffle, kindly sponsored by the Lakeview Hotel and Goodalls Butchers, and enjoy a cold drink from our fully licensed bar. There’ll also be the usual weekly fishing reports and plenty of fishy stories to catch up on.
Hope to see a few of you there.
Till next week.
Fishy Fellow.