Fishing Australia

JETTY FISHING

Last week I wrote about how the Clyde River was one of many South Coast Estuaries that is starting to produce good lure fishing for bream, whiting and flathead, particularly up on the warming shallows as the tide comes in.

Lure fishing does require specialized rods reels and line, a reasonable amount of experience, plus lots of walking or wading, or better still a boat or kayak.

Of course bait fishing from a boat is also good in the same areas.

Another good option is use baits from the shore, which is particularly suited to families at times, and that’s the approach I took with my kids Caitlin and Emily at the weekend.

We fished the jetties around the township of Batemans Bay and spotted some big bream in the shallows on the last couple of hours of a largish 1.7 meter rising tide.

A good quality pilchard bait brought one nice specimen undone and then some yellow eye mullet turned up in the berley trail so the kids became pre-occupied with catching these. A small piece of pilchard on a un weighted size 8 long shank hook did the trick.

They also caught plenty of small tailor, along with some better 32 cm plus specimens in the deeper areas when the tide peaked and the flow slowed for a bit.

Polarized glasses were a must, as was berley: any finely mashed oily fleshed fish scraps will attract all the above species, stimulate pellets or stale bread soaked in fish oil also work very well.

There were some big bream peeping out from under the jetties and I am sure I could’ve caught a few more on my own, but I had my work cut out for me watching the kids target the easier fish.

Sometimes it’s good to let the kids find there own feet and develop a love of fishing for themselves; one fish that Emily lost last visit is still bringing her back for more!

As the tide started to fall the fishing slowed a little, no doubt the deeper spots would’ve been good right at the bottom of the tide when the berley is not swept away as fast, but that was 5 hours away and the ice cream shop was much more attractive at that point…

TUROSS

That night the kids practiced tying the ‘uni’ knot, a must know for any angler, and they are getting good at it, especially on the weekend when they are a little less tired from school and sport.

In the morning they got to try their knots on the Bream at Tuross when we hit the water with Peter Gicesku and Mile Cuturic.

The Tuross system is like a huge maze with lots of islands, creeks and lagoons-it can be hard to know where to start! However a local oyster farmer by the name of Bushy was kind enough to show us a few good areas; and his oyster punt was big enough for all of us to ride in!

The first two spots were quite, but the third spot about a kilometer up Trunketabella Creek produced 5 nice bream in an hours fishing.

The girls new knot skills did well on the bream especially considering the light 4 pound line we were using. Caitlin caught the biggest bream around the 35 cm mark.

Other anglers also reported good numbers of bream in the shallows around Horse Island, Deuaumba Island and Brices Creeks.

An unweighted or lightly weighted piece of pilchard, nipper, prawn or other good bream bait on a 2/0 hook is a straight forward way to catch these fish.

Any spot where shallow nipper beds fall into 2 to 6 feet of water is likely to hold bream. Give each spot half an hour and then try elsewhere if needed. Once a patch of bream is found there has been plenty in the general area; our fish were caught in any direction we cast from the boat!

So as you can see Tuross is may be closed to the sea and not have a tide, but many species are still up on the flats where temperatures are ideal and food is plentiful.

OFFSHORE

On the gamefishing scene the lads aboard ‘On Site’ found excellent numbers of albacore around the 10 kg mark on the 1000 fathom line due east of Batemans Bay.

TROUT

Up at Eucumbene and Jindabyne snow melt has seen the lakes rise up over fresh areas and this is fattening up the trout. All the usual techniques have been working well; but it is a tad hit or miss: you have to be in the right spot at the right time to hook into the better numbers of fish.

See you on the water.

Rob Paxevanos