Ben Hulme with a lovely snapper he caught in dreadful conditions on Saturday.  The fish measured 67 centimetres.

Unfortunately, our weekend’s weather forecast was excellent wind wise, but the rough seas didn’t subside quickly enough to run the snapper competition.  Some people still fished Saturday and caught fish.  However, Sunday was the pick of the days.  The reefs were slow fishing, which was due to the churned up waters from the stormy weather prior to the weekend and that churned up water went out to sea till we got to 50 metres off Long Point.  We caught snapper to 50 centimetres off the Haycock Reef on plastics and that’s basically all that was caught.  The water in close was 13.5 degrees and out over 50 metres, it rose to 15.5 degrees.  Burleying in close was a better option.  The fish in this week’s photo was caught in this way and they caught 9 snapper in total burleying.

We got sand and tiger flathead from 48 to 51 metres as we went further out the bites stopped.  There were a lot of undersized fish in between keepers and plenty of bites which we found out were red spot whiting.  There are also some nice flying gurnard up to 50 centimetres, but no gummy’s.  The flathead ranged in size from 35 to 50 centimetres. There wasn’t much drift.  Maybe fishing off Tura Heads and north a bit might be a better option to get away from the milky water to catch some flathead.

Salmon seem to be very scarce at the moment.  The estuaries only have odd fish in them and the beaches have changed again with some gutters and sand banks forming after last week’s weather, so surf fishing might be worth a try on Tura Beach and North Tura Beach.  I did get reports of a possible large school of salmon off the Dolphin Cove end of the beach on Friday.  That is another possibility for surf fishing.

Our estuary fishing has basically shut down.  Fishers are seeing bream around the oyster racks, but told it’s very hard to get a reaction on lures or bait.  The estuary water in the Merimbula Top Lake is around 10.5 degrees after the rain.

Gamefishing saw a few boats head out off Bermagui today for odd fish.  Reports are that the tuna were erupting near boats but not many caught.  Maybe after this next blow, the weather might settle enough to allow a few more boats outside to test the waters.  Reports are that 17.5 degrees is what the tuna are hanging in so that’s a good starting point when heading out.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is open this Friday night, opening at 6pm.  Come on down and enjoy a cold bevy, support our raffle sponsored by Goodalls Butchers and the Bar Beach Kiosk, catch up on the week’s fishing reports.  Love to see some new faces there.  Don’t forget the junior winter holiday fishing competition that is running at the moment in our estuaries.  Get into to Merimbula Tackle World or Boss Outdoors to enter and get your showbag of goodies. 

Till next week.

Fishy Fellow

Trevor, an MBGLAC member, with an excellent capture on Sunday of a yellowfin tuna weighing 66.3 kilograms.  Great capture Trevor! Congrats!

The calm before the storm this weekend just gone.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday, have seen and will see excellent weather for off shore fishing on the far south coast.  However, by Tuesday, we will be getting ready for an east coast low weather system to hit us in the morning hours of Wednesday.

We will start with our game fishing report this week.  Saturday and Sunday were both excellent days to head wide from Bermagui down to Eden.  Saturday saw lots of smaller fish from 15 to 30 kg caught, trolling and casting surface lures at rising fish.  Sunday was the same again but a late afternoon bite saw some excellent fish over 60 kilograms being taken on the troll.  The water temperature is ranging from 16 degrees on the shelf to 18.5 out over the second drop off with the current pushing out to sea.  Our members caught a couple of better fish, with the caption photo of Trevor with his 66.3 kilogram fish.  Geoff caught a 57.1 kilogram fish and Peter caught a 43 kilogram fish.  There were also a couple of smaller 30 kilogram fish caught which are all great eating.  These fish were all caught in that east range from 25 to 28 depth.

In shore, in the flathead grounds, the water is hovering around 15 degrees.  There is next to no drift as the wind is not blowing and the flathead are still biting very well from Bournda Island back to off the Horseshoe Reef in depths around that 40 to 50 metres of water.  Sand and tiger flathead are being caught.  There are quality fish being caught from 40 to over 50 centimetres consistently.  There is also an odd flying gurnard and an occasional gummy shark.

The reefs are still fishing well with some quality snapper being caught to 60 centimetres and also morwong and an array of other reef fish.  Next weekend is the Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club’s rescheduled Snapper Classic and with the east coast low coming during the week, it should stir up the seas and improve the fishing.  Fingers crossed the seas settle quickly once it passes.

The salmon and tailor fishing are still spread very thinly.  I haven’t had any reports or seen any schools on the beaches.  I heard that Wapengo or Bithry Inlet have fish still moving up that system.  Pambula River, there are none in the channels, but there is an odd fish upstream off the boat ramp.  Merimbula is very quiet, but last Wednesday afternoon there was a small school seen inside the boats around Mitchie’s Beach, which was being worked by some seals.

The lake fishing is all but non-existent.  There is an odd salmon being caught off Merimbula’s Mitchies beach fishing the rising tide using pilchards as bait.  The Top Lake’s water temperature is 12 degrees and crystal clear and the bait is all over the place.  So, trolling deep diving lures might find you a fish.  Good luck.  The Bega River at Tathra has been dead this last week with nothing reported and Pambula has only had those couple of salmon up the river reported to me.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club held its seafood night on Saturday and was a great success.  Thanks to Proteins Australia for supplying the ling and squid, Merimbula Gourmet Oyster for their delicious oysters and the QLD tiger prawns from BidFood, Pambula.  Also to Jaz, Damo and Lorraine from Sapphire Eats for putting it all together. 

Snapper Classic registrations are this Friday night starting at 5.30pm.  We do have our raffle at 7.00pm, so come on down and support the club with a few bevies, fishing report and a short briefing.

Till next week.

Fishy Fellow

Nobby and Riley Holley with a great morning’s catch out from Merimbula on the weekend.  Riley’s snapper he is holding is just under 80 centimetres.  Great fish Riley!.

A great weekend’s weather and the fishing was great also.

The outside flathead fishing is still giving up a good feed of sand and tiger flathead.  The flathead can be found in depths from 40 to 50  metres of water in areas from Turingal Head back to Leonard’s Island.  The flathead are a consistent 40 plus centimetres with odd bigger fish in the mix.  There are also a few flying gurnard and an odd gummy shark being caught.  The inshore water temperature is sitting around 16 degrees.

The reefs are fishing very well of late and Riley and Nobby proved that on Saturday.  The reefs off Long Point, Haycock and Leonard’s Island are all giving up reasonable numbers of snapper ranging from 35 to 55 centimetres and an occasional monster.  There are also some nice morwong and still a few nannygai being caught.  The reefs south of Eden also have plenty of snapper, pigfish, morwong and nannygai being caught.  Drifting with patternoster rigs is working well to find the fish, then plastics are taking over when targeting the snapper.

The salmon and tailor fishing has slowed up.  The headlands, with these calm seas, are a good chance for the land based anglers and also the boats trolling.  The beaches have a smaller number of smaller salmon in that 500 gram size and odd larger fish.  The salmon in our estuaries are now confined to the Pambula Lake system.  The Merimbula Lake’s fish have left, which I found out on Sunday afternoon.

The estuary fishing has basically shut down for the bread and butter fish like bream, whiting and flathead etc.  There is an odd black bream still being caught in the Bega River, but with the water temperatures hovering around 12 degrees, the majority of fish have lost their appetite to feed and with the water being so clear and cold it is hard to entice a bite.

On a brighter note, the gamefishing fired up over the weekend with numbers of yellowfin tuna caught in the rescheduled Canberra Yellowfin competition.  Tuna were caught from 15 to 60 plus kilograms, all out of Bermagui.  There were a few tuna caught out off Tathra to Merimbula up to 50 kilograms.  Trolling hard bodied lures and Montague jigs caught the majority.  The boats were fishing from the shelf out to 35 nautical mile line.  The water temperature out wide is around 19 to 20 degrees.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is holding its seafood dinner next Saturday night starting at 6pm.  For last minute bookings please call Shane on 0428 424 496.  Other events coming up are:

• Tuna Bash – throughout June and finishing on July 31st.
• Snapper Classic – July 5th and 6th
• Junior Winter School Holidays competition – July 5th – 18th

The club rooms are open this Friday night opening at 6pm.  Come on down and get involved with the weekly raffle sponsored by Goodalls Butchers and the Bar Beach Kiosk.  Find out what’s biting and where, enjoy a cold bevvy whilst chatting to the locals.  Hope to see your there.

Till next week.

Fishy Fellow

Club member, Fiona Beasley, caught this oversized flying gurnard on the weekend fishing out off Tura Heads.  It measured 571mm.

We had great weather over the weekend for a bit of outside flathead and snapper fishing. The outside sand and tiger flathead fishing was excellent over the weekend.  The flatties were biting really well in depths from 40 to 50 metres.  There were boats from Bournda Island right down to the Pinnacles, that we could see.  We caught our flatties just north of Tura Heads.  The sand flathead ranged in size from 38 to 50 centimetres and the tigers were a contant 36 centimetres.  We also found a few flying gurnard, but no gummies.  However, others caught them closer to the reefs.  The water is a dirty green on top at around 18 degrees, but the sinkers were a lot colder when they came up and the current was to the south.

The reefs were a little slower this weekend, but the tide wasn’t quite right.  There were still plenty of snapper caught, but a lot of smaller fish around that 40 centimetre size.  There was also a few morwong, nannygai, sargent bakers and other reef species.  We even caught salmon out in 35 metres of water.  Plastics worked for us, but a bit of burley may have held the fish behind the boat.

The salmon and tailor are feeding well in our estuaries at the moment. There are plenty of smaller 500g fish on the beaches suchs as North Tura and Bournda.  The beaches are very deep with not many banks, which makes them hard to baitfish, but lures have been getting plenty.  Main Beach Merimbula has some nice banks and wave action and is probably worth a try for the bait guys.  Otherwise you will need a boat and to head into the estuaries.

The estuary fishing is pretty busy if you are after salmon and tailor.  The Pambula River has good numbers of salmon and tailor in the river section.  There is also still a few bream and odd trevally along the rock walls.  The Merimbula Lake has salmon and tailor in the front lake and a few bream and odd blackfish were seen on Sunday.  Up the Top Lake the salmon and tailor were gorging on the baitfish on Saturday.  There were a couple of trevally also feeding with the preditors.  The Merimbula Lake’s water temperature is around 16 degrees also.  The Bega River is very dirty and the boat ramp is covered in trees after the recent rains.  If you can get your boat in the water, there are a few bream and odd perch biting up the river and odd salmon and trevally down the front.

The game fishing is showing signs of firing up.  Sunday, a boat out of Tathra found a few small yellowfin.  They didn’t give any details, but it is a positive sign.  There are a few of our local longliners fishing out wide off Mallacoota, well over 50 nautical miles off shore, and that current looks to be travelling up along the 1000 fathom line.  So hopefully, we get a chance at these fish at some stage.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is open this Friday night at 6pm.  We have the draw of the monthly species, “snapper” which will take place between 7 and 7.30pm.  Fish must be on the board by 7pm.  The draw is sponsored by Michelin and Son eath works of Eden.  We also have raffle with a meat tray sponsored by Goodalls Butchers and a voucher for the Bar Beach Kiosk.  Come on down and enjoy a cold bevvy and catch up with the locals.

Till next week.

Fishy Fellow

Member, Glen Rollason caught this nice mulloway, just before the rain, in the
Bega River. It measured 960mm.

The fishing over the last week has still been pretty good, and with the rain to dirty up the water, it should get better.

The outside flathead fishing is still fishing well, with good catches of sand and tiger flathead being caught off Long Point in 45 to 55 metres of water and inside the Haycock reef system in depths from 25 to 30 metres.  Fish to 40 centimetres are consistently being caught.  There is also an odd gummy shark and flying gurnard in the mix.  I haven’t had any reports from Tura Heads, but would think if the fish are off Long Point, they would be off Tura as well.

The local reefs are still producing snapper, morwong, nannygai and a quantity of other reef species.  The snapper are ranging in size from 30 to 55 centimetres with odd larger fish occasionally.  I have had reports from North and south Head at Eden, Leonards Island and Haycock reefs.  Over the weekend prior to the rain and swell, anglers were drifting, burleying with float baits which worked a treat.  Casting plastics is also producing a few.

The salmon have been on the bite off the Merimbula Wharf.  There is a also a good patch of salmon and tailor on Main Beach, Merimbula.  They have been going into the lake overnight, so bait fishing and lures early in the morning or late afternoon might catch a fish or two off Mitchies Beach.  The salmon are very skittish once in the lake, but thirteen seals in the lake can do that to any fish.  Other beaches giving up a few salmon are North Tura Beach and Tura Beach.

The lake fishing has slowed up considerably.  After the rain, the lakes have cooled down in water temperature to around 15 degrees.  The Merimbula front lake is struggling with the amount of seals looking for a feed and even with the dirty water on the weekend, the fish were very hard to find.  The Top Lake has a few mulloway, salmon and tailor around the edges and the bream and dusky flathead are hard to find.  With the temperature low, they look like they have bunkered down for winter.  The Bega River at Tathra still has a few bream, perch and odd mulloway biting at the moment and the water is only 13 degrees up there.  Pambula River has some salmon and tailor in the system currently.  

There is nothing to report on any game fishing through the amateur boats, but some of the longliners are currently working off Merimbula, fishing between 25 to 30 nautical miles out.  So, if the weather allows, maybe some boats may get out for a look.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club rooms are open at 6pm this Friday.  We love to see new faces down there.  We have raffles with three meat trays, supported by Goodall’s Butchers, a coffee and cake voucher from the Bar Beach Kiosk, wine and chocolates.  Also, fishing reports and of course plenty of mixed drinks.

Till next week.

Fishy Fellow

The MBGLAC President, Shane Mayberry with a beast of a snapper caught last weekend, measuring 68.5 centimetres.

The fishing during the week outside has been very good and the weather has been fabulous.  However, this coming week, it looks like wind and rain and hopefully it will clear up for next weekend’s Snapper Classic competition.

The outside flathead bite has remained steady over the week, with good catches of sand and tiger flathead being caught off Tura Heads back to Long Point, with them being caught in depths from 40 to 55 metres.  There has also been an odd gummy shark in the mix.  Flathead are consistent 40 plus centimetres with the odd bigger fish being caught.

The reefs have also fished well for those out trying.  With the MBGLAC’s Snapper Classic this coming weekend, it should be good.  There has been some quality snapper being caught from pinkies to over 50 centimetres and morwong and an assortment of other reef species.  There has also been an odd kingfish bust off for those chasing snapper.  Fresh baits like squid, pilchards and salmon or mackeral and plastics are catching the fish.

Salmon fishing is a bit funny at the moment.  The salmon are schooled up in places, mainly around rocky headlands and smaller packs are patrolling the beaches.  The beaches are very deep, so there is not a lot of wave action once the tide rises a bit.  I would suggest for beach fishers, to start fishing soon after low tide to get some wave action or head to the headlands or wharfs on a building tide with a live bait or pilchard under a float or lures for those inclined.  

The lake fishing has slowed a lot and with the water at around 17 degrees.  A good burley trail on a falling tide will entice bream, trevally, tailor and even salmon if they are in the system.  Now trolling for tailor is coming into vogue, so bibbed lures or silver wobblers on a rising tide early and late should catch some fish.

The game fishing is not happening at present.  The water is around 22 degrees on the shelf, but there is not too much activity.  We are waiting for some yellowfin and bluefin to find there way to our shores.

With the Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club’s Snapper classic this coming weekend, go to www.mbglac.com.au to see details and a link to the competition rules.  The club will be open at 5.30pm this Friday for registrations.  Come on down and support our raffle, sponsored by Goodall’s Butchers and the Bar Beach Kiosk.  Enjoy a cold bevvy, catch up with the locals and enter the comp.

Till next week.

Fishy Fellow