16 September 2016 – South Coast Fishing Report

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Albany Catches

Albany Pink Snapper

Picture: A solid southern pinky specimen (Photo: Courtesy of KV Evans).

Sport fishing enthusiasts have been finding samson fish ranging from 20kg to a back-aching 30kg in relatively shallow depths of less than 20m. The sambos seem to be lurking in the shallower ground south of Albany as well as in waters east and west of town. Reef fishing has been productive along the coral in depths leading up to 85m of water when the weather has permitted.

The common mix of pink snapper, breaksea cod, queen snapper and dhufish were picked up from the coral this past week. Hapuka appear to be in good quantities beyond the shelf with the crews putting in the effort, finding the schooling fish and setting their drift right scoring the bigger hauls. Red snapper are expected to turn up at the edge of the shelf in big concentrations following a recent drop in offshore water temperatures.

Pink snapper are being caught in huge numbers in Wilson Inlet. A customer of Albany Rods and Tackle caught a superb 71cm snapper on a soft plastic at the inlet recently. King George whiting have been caught in fair numbers through the inshore waters of the sound and both harbours. Squid remain rather scarce in local waters, however better catches have been coming from the seagrass beds to the west and off Cheynes. Salmon are turning up in better numbers along the beaches east of Bluff Creek. Herring and sand whiting are the main species being caught from the local shores. The weather has not permitted a lot of rock fishing to be performed, but there have been some nice catches of big skippy landed at some of the local haunts. Black bream have been hard to tempt while the local populations engage in spawning.

Esperance Catches

Esperance Black Bream

Picture: “Went out last weekend armed with the new Fish Arrow 3″ flash j grub and its safe to say the bream love them just as much as i do!” – Massamone on his stonker Black Bream. (Photo: Courtesy of @Massamone).

Salmon to an astonishing 8kg have been appearing along Fourth Beach and Fourteen Mile. Stockyards has skippy to a kilo, salmon and juvenile salmon on offer while Alexander Bay is producing bigger skippy to 3kg. Squid and small herring are the main species being caught from the Taylor Street Jetty while herring, King George whiting, black bream and small skippy have been coming from Bandy Creek boat harbour.

The small boats targeting bread and butter species within a couple of miles of the coast continue to do well on whiting and squid. Samson fish to a solid 30kg have been caught in less than 10m of water. Mixed catches of nannygai, queen snapper and breaksea cod have been picked up out wide.

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2017-01-13T14:02:55+08:00