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Albany Catches
(Picture: The Shire of Denmark have recently installed 5 new Angel rings to make your fishing safer. Read more about them here.)
Sunday turned out to be quite good weather-wise and there were a few who made the most of the calm conditions and hit the 60 to 85m depths. Breaksea cod, queen snapper, a few pinks, skippy and samson fish were picked up along the coral leading up to the 85m mark while red snapper were more prevalent in the deeper waters. The smaller boats have been doing relatively well on King George whiting, sand whiting, snook and squid at areas that included King George Sound, both harbours, Frenchmans, Gull Rock and Goode Beach.
Salmon continue to be caught along the local beaches as well as those east and west of town. The bigger salmon schools have not been appearing as regularly though. I spent the weekend at Shelley Beach where mulies accounted for most of the 3 to 8kg fish. I was not geared for bait fishing and managed to pick up several fish by sight casting bibbed minnows along the reef. One of the salmon would have been close to my biggest to date and would have given 8kg a good nudge.
I was very impressed with some of the herring that were about – fish around 30cm. Rock fishers at West Cape Howe and Cheynes have been landing queen snapper, pink snapper and samson fish. A few bonito have also been caught from the rocks and headlands. Black bream enthusiasts have been using soft plastics and baits to catch fish to 40cm in the King and Kalgan rivers. Hard-bodied lures are also enticing a few bream, but require some effort. Herring and juvenile salmon are still being encountered in the Kalgan.
Esperance Catches
(Photo: The cold water Coral Trout, the Harlequin fish, matches it’s tropical look-a-like in the taste department)
Salmon turned up in huge numbers near the river mouth at Munglinup during the long weekend. Roses Beach has also been fishing well for salmon. Early mornings and late afternoons have been the best time to target salmon at Salmon Beach.
Eleven Mile is producing some very good skippy as well as herring, juvenile and adult salmon. The big swells limited the amount of fishing performed along the coast east of town, however there were some who put up with the difficult conditions presented at Poison Creek and Cape Arid and picked up gummy shark to 10kg and salmon. Herring and squid can be sought at the Jane Street Jetty. The boats that worked the ground 20 to 25 miles offshore scored nannygai to 70cm and pink snapper to 8kg. Big sand whiting and squid continued to be caught in the bay.
