Albany Catches
(Picture: King George Whiting are a great catch and can be found in sand holes between seagrass beds)
Pink snapper appear to be hanging about in dense schools at the edge of the shelf following reports by several crews who picked up their bag limits of 6 to 7kg fish during the past week. A variety of reef fish including breaksea cod, queen snapper, dhufish, red snapper and skippy have been coming from along the coral in 60 to 85m of water. Schools of samson fish and yellowtail kingfish were also encountered in a range of depths and areas.
Good catches of King George whiting have been picked up around the harbours and the sound if you can get through the letherjackets. The bigger King George take a bit of hunting around, however boat limits are being achieved in a reasonable amount of time. Squid also take some work and there were many this past week who did better on the popular cephalopods late afternoon and evening.
A few sand whiting, flathead and skippy also featured among the inshore catches. Salmon still remain the dominant catch along the local beaches as well as those east and west of town. Bluff Creek, Nanarup and Bornholm were among the better performing spots for salmon this past week. Skippy catches have been improving along the coast while tarwhine, flathead and King George whiting were some of the other species to come from the beaches.
Shore-based fishers have been picking up a few squid at the marina and Frenchmans. Black bream in the high 30s were the better fish caught in the King and Kalgan this week. The odd bigger fish in the 40s has been landed in a few of the other systems either side of town.
Esperance Catches
(Picture: Plenty of Sand Whiting around during winter and a great fish for the kids)
Plenty of salmon continue to be caught at Salmon Beach, Fourteen Mile and Roses. Some nice flathead and good size skippy have also been coming from Fourteen Mile. Blue Haven has been a hot spot for big sand whiting while Poison Creek has mulloway in the 6 to 8kg range.
The Taylor Street Jetty has been fishing well for snook and there are plenty of herring at then Bandy Creek boat harbour. The boats that managed to head out wide found big concentrations of nannygai in 60 to 70m of water.
Squid and sand whiting are the main species being caught in the bay.
