Juvenile Snapper Release
The release of the juvenile snapper grown out under the Snapper Guardians program from eggs recovered from Cockburn Sound late last year will take place next Saturday.
It will take place on the beach at Jervoise Bay, Woodman Point (adjacent to Cockburn Power Boat Club and to the west of it) on Saturday 6 February 10 am – 12 pm.
All anglers and Snapper Guardians are invited to come and help Recfishwest release thousands of juvenile snapper. More details can be found in our Snapper Guardians Project article. Don’t miss out!
Albany Catches
Pictured: Red snapper
Red snapper of varying sizes are being found in dense schools in 110 to 120m of water. Grey banded cod, hapuka and blue eye trevalla were picked up in depths leading up to 500m, however the current has been hard to pick and making it difficult to hold bottom at times. A nice mix of reef fish including queen snapper, breaksea cod and samson fish have been coming from along the coral in 60 to 85m off Cheyne Beach, Albany and Denmark. Several crews reported catching gummy shark in a range of depths and areas.
Closer to shore, bag limits of King George whiting have been achieved in areas that have included King George Sound, Middleton Beach, Emu Point, Gull Rock, Caseys, Limestone Head and Goode Beach. Apparently early mornings and late afternoons have been the better times to target the Geordies, which have ranged from 30 to 45cm. Squid, sand whiting, snook and herring have also been caught through the inshore parts.
Herring stocks are increasing along the coast with many fishers reportedly picking up their bag limit, or close to it, of a dozen fish at the local beaches and the marina this past week. A couple of nice samson fish and queen snapper have been landed at the rocks at Cheyne and West Cape Howe. The occasional small school of salmon continues to turn up along the local beaches with bigger schools regularly passing by the Bremer Bay area. Mornings and evenings are producing a few tailor at Lowlands. Most of the rivers along the southern coast are very discoloured following the heavy rain and consequently the state of the systems would not be conducive to black bream fishing.
Esperance Catches
Pictured: Western Australian salmon
The Taylor Street jetty is fishing well for herring, squid, skippy, King George whiting, drummer and sweep while the James Street jetty has mostly been producing the two former species. Small schools of salmon and individual fish have been turning up at Fourth Beach and Salmon Beach. Stockyards has been yielding big herring, flathead, juvenile and adult salmon. A customer of Southern Sports and Tackle caught several mulloway at Rossiter Bay last Friday evening.
Dunns is worth a try, considering skippy, salmon, gummy shark and herring have been coming from there recently. Poison Creek has mulloway and tailor. Black bream to 40cm continue to be caught in the local lakes. The boats working the waters in close have been encountering small southern bluefin tuna, big herring, whiting, snook and squid. Big flathead, pink snapper, samson fish and nannygai have been coming from the ground near the islands.
