The Bega River entrance at Tathra closed over the Easter break due to the rough seas.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter.  With the low pressure system out off the East Coast, we ended up with some huge seas for half of our Easter long weekend.

Boats that were flathead fishing prior to Good Friday were catching good numbers of sand flathead in 25 to 30 metres of water up off Bournda Island and in the Merimbula Bay.  However, since the huge seas, the flathead have gone to ground.  Boats that ventured out Easter Sunday and Monday really struggled to find flathead from 25 to 60 metres of water.  The inshore ocean waters are very churned up and may need a week to settle down for the fish to come back on the bite.

The reefs, I would expect to be in the same boat. This rough weather however, will help bring the reefs back on the bite quicker, with the snapper up in the shallows chasing a feed of cunjevoi, crabs or squid killed by the huge seas.

There were a few salmon and odd bonito being caught on Monday off the rocks and Merimbula Wharf after the seas settled.  Hopefully the salmon have come back onto the beaches after huge seas followed two days later by no surf. The gutters and sand banks will have changed again, so the salmon should be searching in close for a feed. There also should be bream and possibly whiting in behind the shore break.  There were salmon caught off Merimbula Wharf early on Easter Monday on live yellowtail and pilchards.

The game fishing is still slow on the shelf.  With the water around 21 degrees. I did hear some radio chatter on Sunday of some marlin being lost in 80 fathoms off Eden.  There wasn’t much bait out wide, but the boat was drifting trying to catch bait and had the marlin taking bait off the jigs.  They spent 40 minutes on a marlin that took a bait jig before losing  it.  There was one marlin landed on a lure in 60 fathoms east of Mowarry Point, off Eden on Sunday.  The water Easter Monday was 20.5 degrees with no current.  The marlin have thinned out off Merimbula, so now it’s time to target a broadbill till the tuna turn up.

The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is closed this Friday, Anzac Day.  So we will see everyone at the club the following week, May 2nd, where there will be the monthly species draw for trevally, the March Marlin presentation along with our raffles and a BBQ dinner for a gold coin donation.  Hope to see everyone there.

Fishy Fellow