Hello everyone
After a couple of perfect weeks of weather it seems it could be a bit cooler this weekend, with the wind coming out of the south/west over the weekend we should see the start of this years annual Mullet run this will continue into the middle of May, so far it has been a slow season for the beach crews but for most of us rec- fishermen its been one of the best beach fishing years for quite some time. For the past month there have been large schools of Frigate mackerel along the Belmont/Blacksmiths stretch holding schools of bait fish hard up against the sore break mixed in with Bonito and heaps of Tailor and now it seems a few Salmon, one lucky angler even spun up a Long Tail Tuna off the front of Blacksmiths surf club its been a amazing.
Both Patrick and myself headed over after I finished work and there were Tailor busting up everywhere we spun up a quick 13 fish and the next night I headed back over with good mate Al McMaster and nailed another 16 Tailor, it seem everyone has been getting into the action, further up the beach there have been plenty of school Jew although not big theres stacks of them and the preferred bait has been Beach worms either live or preserved it doesnt seem to matter.
Offshore is still gaining momentum with big schools of Trag off the coast at the moment from Catherine Hill Bay up to Dudley/Redhead most reefs are loaded with these fish however there are a lot of small fish mixed in with the schools, it really seems bag limits have seen these fish start to build in numbers up and down the coast who knows maybe one day they might return to sort of numbers that were off the coast in the late seventies.
I had a report of a group of Cobia seen at the front of Moon Island the other day there were around 5 fish swimming in and out the Yellowtail schools, with water temp still around 22/23 dec these fish might be around for a while to come, even a couple of spear fisherman I spoke to told me they have been seeing huge school of Mulloway south of Swansea some schools would have had at least 150 fish or more in them with fish ranging from 4-8kg one would think with this many Jew in close there must be fish on our coastal reef by now I just think there not enough boats heading out to fish with live baits at night any more it hard to work out why.
Out on the farm there we are starting to see a few Snapper come in but beware it seems there are still a few Jacket out there I think the key to fishing out deep now days is to not stay in one area for too long as soon as you start to get bitten off move to the next spot. With all this warm water heading down the coast there are still a enough small Black Marlin around to keep it interesting along with a few Wahoo which have been an added bonus.
Back in the lake we are starting to see the winter fish move in with plenty of travelling Bream been caught these fish are a lot more silver than the normal lake fish and have a smaller head and higher back they are an excellent eating fish, I had a crack at a few of these fish on Saturday night in the channel once again fresh Mullet was the gun bait.
Good number of Tailor have also been coming back into the lake although not a lot of big fish yet after the big blow this weekend next week could be a good chance to see if things have changed. Squid continue to be in good numbers throughout the lake the small jigs are doing the best with some big catches coming in, Crabs on the other hand are another story it appears there still not in big numbers however with winter just around the corner there should be a few in the deeper water.
Regards
Jason
