Small fry club member, Patrick Jeffrey, with a nice pair of snapper he caught in the recent Snapper Classic. Good fishing Patrick.

The outside flathead bite continues with plenty of boats bagging out in quick times from 30 minutes to an hour on quality sand flathead around 50 centimetres and better. Boats are fishing from Turingal Head, back to off Long Point to catch these fish, but the Tura Head area has been really firing. The best depths are around 40 to 50 metres of water. If you are not catching many fish, keep moving around, you will come on to them eventually. If you still can’t find them, look at your bait! Salmon, salted striped tuna, salted mackerel fillets or anything fresh are the baits of choice. The in-shore water temperature is sitting around 19 degrees. There are also a few gummy sharks being caught also with the flathead.

The reefs are still giving up a good feed of snapper and morwong with the odd nannygai, leatherjackets and an array of other reef bait stealers. The tides are better this week with it rising in the mornings. So, a burley trail is a must for those keen snapper fisher people and hopefully a big one is there waiting to be caught. Plastics are also a good option. There are still a few bonito and odd kingfish getting around the reefs and headlands and fresh bonito is great bait.

Our beaches seem to have salmon and tailor moving around on most of them, but you need to be fishing the rising tide, whether it be bait fishing or casting lures. Tathra Beach still has some salmon schools on it, so too does Bournda Beach and Haycock Beach.

The estuary fishing is slowing up with the water sitting around 15 degrees. The Bega River at Tathra is still giving up a few bream, trevally and an odd small salmon and tailor at different times. Merimbula has a few blackfish being caught around the edges on a high tide down in the front lake and tailor, odd salmon and trevally up the top lake in and around the bait schools when they are active. The yellowfin bream have all but gone now. You don’t see them in the channels at Merimbula, but the seals have scored most of the fish from the front lake now. Trolling the channels might catch you an odd tailor or trevally also, as they are usually hiding under boat moorings looking to ambush a feed as it passes by.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club Seafood night is on this coming Saturday night, 20th June from 6pm. There are still a few seats available for any last-minute decisions. $50 a head for members and $55 a head for non-members. Call Phil on 0403 409 879 to reserve your seat.

The club will be open this Friday night from 6pm. Come along and buy a ticket in the weekly raffles sponsored by the Lakeview Hotel and Goodalls Butchers. Enjoy a bevvy and catch up on the week’s fishing. Bring a crew and make a pre-dinner drink of it.

Till next week.
Fishy Fellow

Here are two of our club’s keen as, small fry anglers, who caught some excellent snapper in last week’s Snapper Classic. Baxter and Bronson Pryor both caught excellent snapper. Baxter with his 68 centimetre (left) and Bronson with his 61.5 centimetre snapper (right).

What a weekend for fishing. The weather was perfect, so too were the sea conditions. The outside excellent flathead fishing continues out in depths from 40 to 50 metres. I’m hearing of great catches from Bournda Beach right down to off the Pinnacles. The fish sizes are excellent with sand and tiger flathead ranging in sizes from 40 to 55 centimetres, which are great table-sized fish. There is also the odd gummy shark being caught in the mix. The inshore water temperature is sitting around 19 degrees and there is not much current.

The reef fishing is still on fire. The snapper are hungry and have been very keen on burley trails over the last week. There are plenty of 40 centimetre snapper on most of the reefs and after burleying for a while there is a chance of bigger fish coming in for a feed. I have had reports, but not confirmed, of fish in the high 70’s taking unweighted drift baits, way back down a burley trail. Plastics are also working a treat in the 5- and 7-inch sizes. The best fishing times are the 2nd alf of the rising tides and the changes. There is also a chance of morwong, nannygai, leatherjackets and even a gummy shark, if you are near the reef edge when burleying. There are also quite a few rat kingfish being caught and there is still a chance of a legal kingfish too, as I had one about one metre long chase up a snapper last weekend. Couldn’t catch it though.

The beaches are still carrying good numbers of salmon with North Tura Beach, Haycock Beach, Long Beach, Short Point and the Merimbula Bar holding schools of salmon and tailor. I saw the Short Point school of salmon being herded on Monday from the rocks onto the beach around high tide, then the school disappeared along the beach into the white water. So, they will be either off Tura Beach in a gutter or back on Short Point in the deeper water along side the white water. There are good gutters and banks on all those beaches mentioned.

The estuary fishing is starting to slow a bit. The Bega River is still giving up a few bream along the rock walls and the shallow edges that hold worms and nippers. The salmon and tailor are hanging around the bait schools and there is still an occasional mulloway being hooked in the river. The Merimbula Lake has trevally and odd bream in the front lake, and trevally, tailor, salmon and odd bream up the top lake around the edges and bait schools, which the birds will show where they are. The estuary water temperature at Tathra and Merimbula is sitting around 15 degrees.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is open this Friday night, opening at 6pm. Come on down and enjoy a cold bevvy, buy some tickets in our Friday night raffles sponsored by the Lakeview Hotel, Bar Beach Kiosk and Goodalls Butchers. Catch up on the week’s fishing reports and meet some new friends.

Till next week, good fishing.

Fishy Fellow

The practising picture last week paid off!! Here we have Fiona with another Snapper, her PB Snapper, 64.1 centimetres.

The outside flathead fishing is still going off. Reports are telling me that there are good numbers of sand flathead up to and over 50 centimetres. These fish are being caught in depths from 40 to 55 metres right down the coast. Over the weekend I heard of areas outside the Haycock reef, off Tura Beach, Tura Heads and off Bournda Beach, so there are no excuses to go fishing and catch a feed. There was also a few gummy sharks being caught over the weekend and a pretty large one measuring up to 1.5 metres. The inshore water temperature over the weekend was sitting around 19 degrees.

The reef fishing for the Snapper Classic was out of this world on the weekend. There were 25 Anglers fishing the Snapper Classic, and between them there were, 19 fish at 50 plus cm snapper caught, 12 over 60cm, 1 over 70cm and all the pan-size eaters people took home. Most of those big fish were photographed on the measure mat, then released back to swim another day. There were also a selection of morwong, nannygai and other reef species. The caption picture was the winning longest snapper on a lure. The longest on a bait went 755mm and we had the juniors and small fry with a 680mm and a 615mm snapper to take out their section of the competition. It was great fishing for all involved.

The beaches at North Tura Beach, Haycock Beach and Tathra Beach, are still holding schools of Australian salmon which have tailor mixed in with them. Pilchards have been the best baits of late, and whole pilchards, not half pilchards. I’m told casting metals is also catching fish when they come in close enough to reach with a lure.

The estuary fishing is still fishing well, the water is crystal clear and sitting around 16 degrees at Merimbula, the best area to fish is the top lake where they’re catching tailor, salmon and trevally, fishing around the bait schools. The Bega River at Tathra, they’re still catching a few bream along the rock walls, trevally around the bridge, odd mulloway, tailor and occasional salmon. The water in the Bega River is still sitting at 13 degrees.

We have reached the end of our fishing year with the conclusion of the Snapper Classic. So coming events for the MBGLAC:-

• • The Seafood dinner night is set down for Saturday 20 June.
  • Then next is our presentation night which is normally the 2nd weekend in August. So, watch this space as dates come to light.

The MBGLAC is open this Friday night, opening at 6pm come on down for a quiet beverage, enjoy some lite snacks, catch up on the week’s fishing reports, and buy a ticket in our Friday night raffle, sponsored by Goodalls Butchers, the Lakeview Hotel and the Bar Beach Kiosk. Love to see some new faces come along.

Till next week, good fishing.

Fishy Fellow

Member, Fiona Beasley has been out practicing for this coming weekend’s Snapper Classic. Here she is happy with a 480 mm snapper she caught on a lure in our local waters.

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

Fishy Fellow had a nice catch of reef fish and flathead, caught on Saturday off Merimbula.

The weather was fantastic on Saturday to venture out to sea to catch a nice feed of flathead. The fish are all over the place but are still finicky. I caught my flathead fishing between Bournda Island and Tura Heads in 40 metres of water, and they ranged from 38 to 52 centimetres. It only took me an hour to catch my bag limit with 5 of the fish all around 50 centimetres. What did make a difference was the bait. I was using salmon and salted striped tuna and 8 of the 10 fish were caught on striped tuna. Other reports had fish caught just south of Tura Heads in 45 metres and other boats fished as wide as 60 metres and caught fish. So, there are flatties being caught all over, you just need to move around till you find a patch. There is a fair current of water pushing south at 19 degrees.

The reefs are also a bit patchy, but when you find some bait, there are fish nearby. The snapper in the photo was 510mm long. There are plenty of pan-sized snapper on the Haycock Reef and Long Point reef systems with 40 plus snapper being caught. Morwong are also in really good numbers at the moment, with fish ranging from 34 to 44 centimetres long and a mixed bag of nannygai, leatherjackets, sergeant bakers, odd bonito and rat kingfish to keep you interested and the water temperatures are all over the shop. Haycock Reef had 18.4 on Saturday and Merimbula’s Long Point reef only had 17.3 on Sunday, but the currents were swirling everywhere. No two drifts are the same, but it is going to the south.

The beaches all have salmon moving along them at the moment. Tathra has some large schools on it. The Merimbula Bar and along Main Beach still has fish staying there. Haycock Beach has a large school of salmon on it in the mornings. North Tura has some great gutters and there is a school on Bournda Island, and Tura Beach also has a school of 40 centimetre fish moving along it. If you are not catching salmon on any beach, you’re doing something wrong.

Our estuaries at Bega River, Merimbula, and Pambula were all fishing okay over the weekend. Bega River at Tathra fished well on Saturday with anglers catching dusky flathead, salmon, trevally, bream and estuary perch. Merimbula had trevally, tailor, bream, whiting and blackfish caught. Pambula River had blackfish, trevally small duskies and tailor caught. Lures and fresh nippers for bait all caught the above fish. The estuary water temperature is hovering around 15 to 16 degrees at the moment.

The game fishing is in limbo mode currently. I have heard of the odd marlin being seen but not caught and the tuna fishing has very little to report. The local long liners are fishing from the 30 line out in the Tathra to Greencape zone, with fuel costs limiting the amateurs even trying. The water temperature on the shelf is sitting around 21 degrees and it’s warming up the further out you go. There is a very strong current pushing south at nearly 2 knots I am told.

Coming events for the Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club Incorporated are the Snapper Classic on May 30th – 31st and the Seafood Dinner on June 20th. You can put your name down for a reservation for the Seafood Dinner on the list at the fishing club which is open at 6pm on Friday night and while you’re there, enjoy a cold bevvy and snacks. Buy a ticket for the Friday night raffles, supported by the Lakeview Hotel Merimbula, Goodalls Butchers Merimbula and the Bar Beach Kiosk. Also, catch up on the week’s fishing reports and chat with the locals.

Till next week, good fishing.

Fishy Fellow