WEIPA
BERMAGUI
CATCHING THE BLUES
Yes it is southern bluefin tuna season along our coast line and now is the best time to get a dose of the blues. Sadly they are not all that easy to find but when you do it may be on for young and old.
It is always a challenge in finding fish, especially at present with those big southern blue fin tuna out over the Continental Shelf. Reading the signs like the quality of the water, where the bird life is concentrated, even the fish themselves that come to the surface feeding on schools of sauries or other bait fish. Learning this part of the game all contributes to the hunt of these fish which is something I like almost as much as catching the fish themselves. Fish well over the 100 Kg mark are not uncommon with most fish averaging around the 80 Kg. The best areas are out over the Continental Shelf over 1000 fathoms and beyond to the sea mount. Picking your days where the big winter highs dominate will see slight seas where a lot of anglers have been travelling in parties of two or more boats, not only to find where the fish are concentrating but also for safety reasons when travelling large distances to sea. Mixing in with the blue fin have been a few reasonable albacore, the odd yellowfin and striped tuna. You can be assured that wherever there are tuna there are likely to be mako sharks and there have been some exceptionally large ones around at present.
For the bottom fishos there is plenty to be had on most reefs with morwong both rubber lip and jackass along with snapper being the dominant catch. Mixing in with them are a few pigfish, ocean perch, leather jacket, closer to shore out from most beaches there are plenty of sand flathead to be found. With the calm conditions it has allowed anglers with the gear to pursue deep water fish out on the Twelve Mile Reef and over the Continental Shelf. The twelve mile has seen some nice Tassie trumpeter plenty of perch and some exceptionally large tiger flathead, while out in the real deep water hapuku, blue eye trevalla, gemfish and alfonson have been making up the bulk of the catch. Back on shore off the stones it is drummer season with plenty of lovely big black drummer, the odd silver, quite a lot of luderick and the odd silver trevally and bream taking a liking to cunjevoi floating around in the suds. Those wishing to work a lure or float a pilchard off the stones should encounter reasonable numbers of salmon and the odd decent tailor. These salmon schools are persisting along the coast line providing not only good angling on the rocks but for those fishing the beaches or trolling along the shores. There are also a few bream off the beaches and on the moon where the deeper gutters are formed gummy sharks and jewfish are an option. In the estuaries things are pretty quiet with an already exceptionally cold winter. The main stay around Bermagui at present are luderick around the rock walls, the harbour and the bridges at both Bermagui and Wallaga Lake. Some of those salmon schools have moved into the estuaries providing an unexpected catch especially in Wallaga Lake where also schools of tailor are feeding on white bait within the lake system itself. Don’t expect anything sensational in the estuaries in the near future as they are only going to getting colder until the spring months start to warm them.
CATCHING THE BLUES
Yes it is southern bluefin tuna season along our coast line and now is the best time to get a dose of the blues. Sadly they are not all that easy to find but when you do it may be on for young and old.
It is always a challenge in finding fish, especially at present with those big southern blue fin tuna out over the Continental Shelf. Reading the signs like the quality of the water, where the bird life is concentrated, even the fish themselves that come to the surface feeding on schools of sauries or other bait fish. Learning this part of the game all contributes to the hunt of these fish which is something I like almost as much as catching the fish themselves. Fish well over the 100 Kg mark are not uncommon with most fish averaging around the 80 Kg. The best areas are out over the Continental Shelf over 1000 fathoms and beyond to the sea mount. Picking your days where the big winter highs dominate will see slight seas where a lot of anglers have been travelling in parties of two or more boats, not only to find where the fish are concentrating but also for safety reasons when travelling large distances to sea. Mixing in with the blue fin have been a few reasonable albacore, the odd yellowfin and striped tuna. You can be assured that wherever there are tuna there are likely to be mako sharks and there have been some exceptionally large ones around at present.
For the bottom fishos there is plenty to be had on most reefs with morwong both rubber lip and jackass along with snapper being the dominant catch. Mixing in with them are a few pigfish, ocean perch, leather jacket, closer to shore out from most beaches there are plenty of sand flathead to be found. With the calm conditions it has allowed anglers with the gear to pursue deep water fish out on the Twelve Mile Reef and over the Continental Shelf. The twelve mile has seen some nice Tassie trumpeter plenty of perch and some exceptionally large tiger flathead, while out in the real deep water hapuku, blue eye trevalla, gemfish and alfonson have been making up the bulk of the catch. Back on shore off the stones it is drummer season with plenty of lovely big black drummer, the odd silver, quite a lot of luderick and the odd silver trevally and bream taking a liking to cunjevoi floating around in the suds. Those wishing to work a lure or float a pilchard off the stones should encounter reasonable numbers of salmon and the odd decent tailor. These salmon schools are persisting along the coast line providing not only good angling on the rocks but for those fishing the beaches or trolling along the shores. There are also a few bream off the beaches and on the moon where the deeper gutters are formed gummy sharks and jewfish are an option. In the estuaries things are pretty quiet with an already exceptionally cold winter. The main stay around Bermagui at present are luderick around the rock walls, the harbour and the bridges at both Bermagui and Wallaga Lake. Some of those salmon schools have moved into the estuaries providing an unexpected catch especially in Wallaga Lake where also schools of tailor are feeding on white bait within the lake system itself. Don’t expect anything sensational in the estuaries in the near future as they are only going to getting colder until the spring months start to warm them.
