Our local beaches are producing some of the fattest King George this year and its not just local beaches either. Both Geographe Bay and Flinders Bay are also firing with Whiting. Squid are around in good numbers and are an easy target from busso jetty and the disabled jetty in Augusta. Tailor are still the target species along our coast and as the sun disappears over the horizon you had better be ready for action because line will be peeling from your reel in no time. Mixed in with the Tailor are some respectable Mulloway that are still weighing in at the 4-9kg range and there are bigger out there but they are being lost to equipment failure, if you are going to target big fish from shore then please use the appropriate gear need for the job ( or come and see us and we will show you ). Herring are still plenty full along our shores and a feed can be landed very quickly if your using the right gear.
Ant Bostock “Spanish Mackeral”
David Robertson “yellow tail kingfish”
Lochie Pendlebry “Big Squid”
Dan Lyon “dhufish”
Joe Ryan “ Pink Snapper”
David Robertson “Pink Snapper”
Offshore
Inshore reef systems have slowed up a little but out wide in the deeper water fishing is red-hot. Most of the demersals are being taken off the hard coral bottom out in the 40-60m edge good dhuies all around the 10-12kg are plentiful. Pink snapper are just as ready to smash a bait in the same grounds that the Dhuies are along with Break Sea cod and Queen Snapper. Those that have fished out much wider have landed massive Red Snapper around 4-5kg and have caught their demersal limit in about 10 mins. Easy fishing but it’s a long boat ride out to the 100m edge plus you will loose a lot of gear to Marauding packs of short Fin Mako’s. The pelagic action has been hit and miss we had a super warm current off the coast around Australia Day and many Spanish Mackeral where landed as a result. The water has cooled back to about 19deg and the action has slowed down a little. There are still Spanish Macks around but maybe not as many as previous years. This may mean we get a bumper Salmon season , fingers crossed hey.
Freediving
Well if this is your first year of freediving our reef systems then you have been treated to one of the best Cray seasons in a long time. If only the wind would stop blowing 20knots from the south you would almost go as far as saying it was a perfect summer. The Crays have thinned out a little bit and there are not as many jumbo’s, but there are still many good sized Beetles under the ledges. This year has seen an increase in the numbers of Southern Fighter Crays along our shores which maybe due to the slightly cooler water. Fish are still as plentiful for the freediving spearo as they are for the shore based fisherman. King George Whiting are a challenging and fun fish to hunt and so are the large Pike that inhabit our reef systems. If you want to dive deeper then it’s a mixed bag for those freediving out in the 10-20m water. Yellow Tail Kingfish and Spanish Mackeral are all I can think about this time of year so I find myself diving out in the deep looking for them. Blocks of Mulies cubed and chummed along with a flasher work a treat for most pelagics. Well folks till next month I wish you a safe a fruitful fishing experience. Whether you cast a bent hook or throw a straight hook just remember to look after our oceans and educate those that you see doing the wrong thing, we where all beginners once. Nuff said Ant Bostock.
