Your Fishing Photos
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Albany Catches
Picture: When you’re spearing for popular species such as Harlequin and Queen Snapper, keep an eye out for the iconic Dhufish as reports from fishers are suggesting increasing numbers in the region.
A customer of Albany Rods and Tackle landed a samson fish that was conservatively estimated to weigh 35kg from the shore at Emu Point last week. More suspected sambos were hooked and lost at the popular spot during the past fortnight. Fresh squid seem to be producing a higher strike rate and apparently the bigger the squid the better. The boats that ventured out to the coral lumps off Cheynes Beach, Two Peoples Bay, Cosy Corner and Albany during the week also encountered samson fish together with a few yellowtail kingfish. Queen snapper, breaksea cod, red snapper and a few dhufish were picked up in reasonable numbers.
Hapuka were caught at the shelf, but most were relatively small. Notwithstanding the dirty water, King George Sound has been fishing well for King George whiting. Squid seem to prefer the clearer parts of the inshore areas while herring, sand whiting and skippy were caught in both the clear and murky parts. Surf fishers have been picking up a mix of herring, skippy, tarwhine, juvenile and mature salmon from the local beaches. Bigger skippy seem to be hanging around the deeper channels at Bluff Creek. The rivers east of the Pallinup are fishing better for black bream than the two local systems while the local populations continue to engage in spawning. Mulloway ranging from 20cm to 60cm were caught in Kalgan recently.
Esperance Catches
Picture: Short heavy spins rods and heavy overhead reels are preferable for Samson fish. It’s best to use something like a 24kg braid and 30-50kg mono leader (Photo courtesy of @seeland_argh).
King George whiting to a respectable 52cm were picked up at the James Street Jetty during the week with evenings proving to be the better time to target these good size Geordies. Herring and squid can also be sought at the structure as well as at the Bandy Creek Boat Harbour, which also has a few smaller King George. The Bream Lakes have been fishing well recently with fish to 45cm being caught on baits and lures.
Salmon have been turning up in dense schools at Roses every now and then while packs of a dozen or so fish have occasionally been appearing at Salmon Beach and Fourth Beach. Salmon and herring have been common at Dunns. Mixed bags of queen snapper, nannygai, which were mostly of average size, and samson fish were achieved wide of the islands. Small boat and dinghy fishers have been bagging a fair feed of sand whiting, herring and squid inshore.
