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Fishing picks up as days lengthen
  |  First Published: September 2013



The end of winter has been a real eye opener.

Recent fishing has really picked up as the water cleared. The town jetties have been fishing extremely well as the luderick have schooled up mainly around the post office jetty. Live shrimp is dynamite and will catch a range of species. Some nice bream have been taken on vibes and soft plastics fished slowly around the pylons and boat hulls. Dark colours such as pumpkinseed, bloodworm and camo styles have been best. Some nice estuary perch have been caught at the Nautilus Jetty on suspending hardbodies and soft plastics.

Bullock Island has been faring well with salmon and trevally on the sandblasting jetty. Bluebait and squid strips are good options and spinning with metal lures has been productive. Small whiting have been caught on peeled prawn and plenty of mullet are taking sandworm fished under a float in the north arm near the boat ramp. In the creek there have been plenty of bream, trevally and luderick taken on sandworm and shrimp.

In the upper reaches of the north arm good bags of garfish have been caught on sandworm mainly upstream of the winery. Gars are great fun on ultra-light gear and taste fantastic! Anglers throwing hardbodied lures in the snags have caught some beautiful bream up to 1.2kg but they can be hard to find at times. Cranka Cranks and minnows have been standout especially in the olive prawn colour fished super slow.

Lake Tyers has been exceptional of late with bream in the deeper holes around the glasshouse taking a range of baits and lures. Larger smelly baits like striped tuna and salmon cubes are often overlooked as bream baits but can be dynamite especially when the water is discoloured. Spider crab and peeled prawn are great baits too and you will often pick up a feed of flathead at the same time. Lure anglers are mainly throwing metal vibes and are cleaning up with some ripper fish up to 1.5kg with most between 600-900g. Once you find the fish work the area thoroughly.

The power lines at the glasshouse is a great place to start looking as well as deeper drop offs and rocky areas. A few big tailor have been caught trolling metal lures in the Nowa Nowa arm. Around burnt bridge a few flatties have been caught but things are still fairly slow. Some nice bream and luderick have been caught in the snags in the Nowa Nowa arm on unweighted sandworm and small hardbodies. Behind the caravan park a few perch have been caught on shrimp and prawn.

The surf beaches have been hit and miss with schools of huge salmon cruising the breakers. The weed has been between Lake Bunga and Lake Tyers but either side has been fine. As usual spinning is the preferred method but bait fishing with bluebait on a paternoster should see you score a few too. Plenty of mullet are in the breakers too and by using sandworm on a light rod these are great fun! Mullet caught in the surf are exceptional eating and also make great bait. For those bothering with bigger baits there have been hoards of Port Jackson sharks present but there’s always a chance of a big winter gummy cruising in the wash.

Offshore fishing has been brilliant on the local reefs for snapper, morwong, nannygai and leatherjacket. Squid and pilchard are perfect baits but fresh ‘couta is hard to beat if you can get it. Snapper snatchers are handy if the pickers are destroying baits too quickly. Jigging with soft plastics and Octa style lures have been good but the ‘couta tend to make short work of them if you happen to run into a school of them.

In about 30m there have been some huge gummies caught especially down to the west near the pipeline. Anchoring up and berleying are the keys and expect to sit through the rubbish sharks while waiting for the gummies to turn up. Persistence is the key

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