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