|
We have had a couple of exceptional months fishing and to be honest, I can’t think of a late spring that has fished so well since the very early eighties.
Gamefishing fired up over the past month with albacore up to 15 kilo in big numbers and striped tuna were to be found from 40 fathoms to the shelf and beyond. I'm sure that the Yellowfin would have to have been out there but unfortunately no crews came across them. Not too many fishos fished for Harpooka and big eye but the crews fishing marks south of Merimbula seemed to be the most successful. Burly out wide was a must if shark fishing with plenty of Makos on the prowl.
Good news is the FAD has now been returned to the 70 fathom mark east of town and hopefully fish such as dolphin and kings will return. . In closer kingfish are also keen to take a bait or lure and 10 kilo fish are not out of the equation. Greencape and Mowarry are the hot spots but can be very fickle due to fishing pressure and anglers are finding that quality fish are hanging more and more on our local hot spots around Haycock, Long Point, and Tura Headland.
The inshore reefs have been very good with snapper, morwong and leatherjackets found from Goalen Head to Greencape. Earlier in spring Goalen Head was the pick of all but now our local reefs including Long Point and the Haycock area is starting to fire.
Flathead fishing was tough with a lack of fish until recently but anglers fishing north had the best results. Some were lucky to find gummy shark at times but now thankfully both tiger and sand flathead up to 50cm have come on the chew. Anglers when fishing the bottom should always have a livebait out this time of year because you can never tell if a shark, kingie or tuna are about.
Estuary fishing was a bit slow earlier and even the salmon neglected to venture into Merimbula Lake and only occasionally were found in the Pambula River. When found in Pambula anglers had a ball catching them on light gear with plastics, small hard bodies and metal jigs.
Anglers did it tough in the 2010 Tri-Estuary with big fish being a bit finicky but since then it has been brilliant with big Tailor, Bream, Trevally and Dusky Flathead all on the chew. Prawns have also been on the go with crews having great catches for a couple of hours work and hopefully this trend will continue over the next few months. Some of our members travelled to Eucumbene and had a ball catching heaps of big fresh water yabbies. These are very sweet and go down well with a coldie or two. Some even caught Rainbow and Brown Trout AKA Spotted Pommy Carp for the smoker or garden compost and now there is talk of a trip to Sue City or the Blowering Dam to catch Redfin, Yellowbelly ”Golden Perch” and Murray Cod.
All in all it’s turning into a great year and now if the weather will settle we could be in for a blinder.
Firstly, congratulations to all anglers who participated in our 30th Annual Yellowfin Tournament. Congratulations to Paul Jones on Sea Mode who was the eventual winner with a 67kg Yellowfin Tuna on 24kg line.
Our tournament started off with 11 boats taking advantage of the early entry discount and on the evening of the briefing there were another 20 boats registered. It was sad to see a few boats namely: Black & Blue, Amigo and Anthony Watson’s boat unable to fish as all had motor or hull problems, see you all next year no doubt. It was really great to have 32 boats enter our competition and with the weather report being excellent for the first 2 days anglers were chomping at the bit to start fishing.
Friday was a near perfect day and it wasn’t long before boats were calling in captures of Yellowfin Tuna between 40 & 60kgs. The crew on board Sea Mode were having a ball with captures and a total of four fish the biggest being: 67kg, 55kg, 51kg, 44kg and a Mako Shark weighing-in at 102kg all were captured. Master Will Hodge (Junior Angler) caught his first Yellowfin Tuna & what a beauty it was. It took Master Will approximately four hours to capture his fish of 53kg’s on 24 kg line.
The bench mark had been set and all boats and crews were really looking forward to Saturdays fishing. The wind was up a little but the fish were on again with Jodie Clarke (Lady Angler) landing a beaut Yellowfin of 51kg on 24kg line. Other notable captures were Tom Scott : Blue Shark - 103kg, Angus Chirnside: Yellowfin - 50kg, Daniel Broardsmith 32.5kg on 15kg, Ronnie King: Stripped Marlin 96kg, Ole Ersvaer: 51kg Yellowfin, Steve Plevey: 51kg Yellowfin, Daniel Huges: 54kg Yellowfin and there were many more. There were also some good Makos of 80 to 95kgs either captured or tagged.
Saturday night saw our Tournament Dinner at Tura Beach Country Club and congratulations for putting on an excellent evening. Our monster raffle was a huge success with many prizes on offer. Sunday the weather was not kind at all thus only 15 boats took to the water and were logged off come lunch time. On Sunday afternoon the presentation commenced at 4pm with about 100 odd members and their guests plus out of town entrants that had come from as far away as Melbourne and Albury. Refreshments along with bar snacks were served and the presentation commenced. Sea Mode was the big winner of the tournament taking out the major prizes and congratulations to Paul Jones and his crew. To all of the other winners congratulations on your achievements. From what I’m told several crews partied on and there were a few sore heads on Monday morning.
A heart felt thank you goes to all of those folk who assisted in the organising of the tournament, the anglers, members and especially all of our sponsors, with out your support we could not run this event.
Plus the very professional volunteer radio operators who looked after us while we were on the water THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR COVERAGE
See you next year Snappy
|
