7 April 2017 – South Coast Fishing Report

Keep your eyes peeled for Recfishwest’s Tip of the week, see below!

Your Fishing Photos

Your fishing photos sunset

If you want to see yourself or your kids feature in our weekly state-wide Fishing Reports, send your best fishing photos and a description to tim@recfishwest.org.au

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Esperance Catches

Esperance queenfish

Picture: A lit up queen snapper, deserving of its monarchy in its beauty.

Boats

The dinghy and small boat fishers, who have been concentrating on the inshore waters, have been picking up whiting, bonito, snook and small southern bluefin tuna. The bigger boats that ventured to the islands and beyond caught nannygai to 2.5kg, breaksea cod, queen snapper and quite a few samson fish to 20kg.

Shore-based

The Taylor Street Jetty has been fishing well for herring, squid and skippy while herring, small King George whiting, a few black bream and loads of small pink snapper have been coming from Bandy Creek Boat Harbour. Salmon are being consistently caught at most of the local beaches including Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach, Roses and Alexander. Salmon schools have also been passing through the beaches near Thomas River and Poison Creek. Thomas River has also been good for mulloway to 80cm and gummy sharks. Some nice size skippy, mulloway and salmon have been caught at Dunns.

Recfishwest’s Forecast

A few easterlies into next week may be challenging on the south coast and a drive to the westward facing beaches east of town could be the best option for shore-based fishers if the swell isn’t pumping too hard. Late morning and after dark high tide will be the ideal times to fish with a chance of big south coast tailor turned on by the swelly conditions.
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Albany Catches

Albany mulloway

Picture: Mulloway are a welcome bycatch when targeting bream around the Kalgan River. Look out for tagged fish studying the unique populations in the Albany systems (Photo courtesy of @albany_fishing).

Boats

Sand whiting are about in good sizes and numbers through the inshore waters. Unfortunately, King George whiting have been a little hit and miss. Squid catches have improved and things should only get better on this front as the cooler months progress. Trolled bibbed minnows have been working well on salmon and small southern bluefin tuna off the headlands. The boats that worked the 50m to 80m depths off Cheynes, Two Peoples Bay and Albany scored dhufish, breaksea cod, queen snapper, red snapper and harlequin.

Shore-based

Steve Morgan won the black bream tournament that was held at the local rivers at the weekend with his bag of fish that included a 1.3kg beauty. Competitors had to sift through lots of small bream as well as a few whiting, juvenile salmon and mulloway to get to the bigger bream during the event. Big schools of salmon are certainly passing along the coast, however the 3kg to 7kg fish are not often making their way into the local beaches. During the past week, big salmon schools were spotted off Shelleys, Cables, Sand Patch and Bornholm, but frustratingly stayed well out of casting distance. Herring numbers continue to rise along the coast and there are some nice skippy to a kilo being caught. Rock fishing enthusiasts have been landing samson fish and yellowtail kingfish when the weather has allowed.

Recfishwest’s Forecast

Some nice light winds are forecast for the next week on the south coast with a chance of showers but mostly good weather. Swell is again set to rise up to 4m over the weekend, dropping into next week so rock fishers should take extreme caution and avoid fishing into oncoming swells. Late morning and after dark high tides are worth a try especially around the estuary for whiting and bream. Two Peoples Bay is worth a try for salmon while the spots facing southward are being hit by swell.

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Recfishwest’s Tip of the Week

Salmon

Single Lure Hooks

A couple of lure companies have made the switch to purpose made single hooks on their lures off the shelf. With people becoming more conscious about the importance of catch care, especially for catch and release fishing, single hooks are a logical choice. One hook point provides a single clean hook up, usually in the corner of a fish’s mouth and can be removed with minimal damage to the fish. Contrary to some beliefs you won’t lose many hook ups due to missed strikes using singles and because of the clean hook up and unhooking you can spend more time catching fish, and less time fishing out an awkwardly lodged treble hook.

Whether you are catch and release fishing or keeping a few for the table, make the switch to specially designed short shank single lure hooks this salmon season. For the ultimate in sport fishing catch care, you can also buy barbless hooks or simply crush the barbs with pliers on existing hooks. Then, in the case of busting off on a fish, it can shake the lure free and get on with its business.

Single hook lyres


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2017-04-12T10:21:14+08:00