Albany Catches
Picture: Now this is fishing! Great to see Dylan with a cracker of a smile with his fish (Photo courtesy of Dylan Picken).
It has been tough work trying to find a day to head offshore, but there was the odd boat that managed to pick a short break in the rough conditions and headed out. Those crews appeared to head mostly to the back of the islands and seemed to mainly pick up small pink snapper, breaksea cod, dhufish and queen snapper.
The inshore fishing wasn’t much better with even the protected waters of King George Sound and both harbours becoming whipped up by the persistent strong winds. When the conditions did settle somewhat, it was mostly small King George whiting, sand whiting of mixed sizes, skippy to a kilo and flathead caught. Squid have remained a rare commodity in these parts with most crews ordinarily catching fewer than three of the popular cephalopods each outing. Judging by some accounts, squid catches have been better in the inshore waters east of town. Similarly, salmon have been turning up in better numbers along the coast east of Albany. A customer of Albany Rods and Tackle scored a hot session on 4 to 6kg salmon at Nanarup last week.
Bremer Bay has reportedly been fishing consistently well for salmon and there have been some good sessions had at Bluff Creek. Herring are also good in these parts while the best options for the bread and butter species near town appear to be Sand Patch and Cable Beach. The Bremer River has been fishing well for black bream while both of the local systems have been producing good numbers of fish to 35cm for lure and bait fishers. The Hay and Denmark have been a little hit and miss. Wilson Inlet is still open and fishing fairly well and Nanarup is also open, but rather cloudy.
Esperance Catches
Picture: Nannygai is a prize catch for deep water anglers on the south coast. The Recfishwest app has given this fish a 5 star edibility rating! These guys are also known as bight redfish, nanny or red snapper (Photo courtesy of Cowan Wise).
A good mix of bread and butter species including garfish, herring and squid can be sought at the Taylor Street Jetty. Bandy Creek Boat Harbour is mostly producing King George whiting and herring. Salmon were reportedly thick along the beaches during the past week with Thomas, Alexander, Dunns, Stockyards, Salmon, Fourth and Fourteen Mile among the spots that produced fish to a thumping 8kg.
Big skippy have been on the bite at Dunns, Fourteen Mile and Roses. The boats that fished approximately 10 to 15km from town did well on pink snapper to 6kg. Those who ventured out to the ground 30km out and beyond scored good size nannygai and queen snapper. Small southern bluefin tuna are expected to turn up soon following the arrival of big schools of small mulies.
