With the weather over the weekend, fishing activity was limited. I did get some reports from a couple of boats that fished on Thursday before the weather came in.
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The flathead fishing outside was still fishing pretty well off Tura Heads to Long Point. They were catching some nice sand flathead to 40cm in 30 to 40 meters of water. They also caught a few just legal tiger flathead.
There were plenty of small flathead in close to shore. Best bait was salmon fillets.
Salmon and the odd tailor can be caught trolling around the head lands using 100mm skirted lures traveling at around 6 knots.
They're still catching both salmon and tailor off most beaches fishing the rising tides. There are also salmon starting to move into the Merimbula Lake and they have been in the Pambula and Tathra systems as well.
The reef fishing before the rain was pretty good with reports of nice plate size snapper to 42cm, morwong to 38cm and a couple of nice six spine leatherjackets. Best baits were fresh yellowtail fillets and squid.
There are also some larger model snapper being caught on soft plastics.
Some large calamari squid have been caught by those weighting a jig and leaving it a couple of meters off the bottom while their drifting over the reefs.
The estuaries at Merimbula, Tathra and Pambula are all fishing great, and the rain will only improve the fishing.
Bream, trevally, dusky flathead, tailor, salmon and the odd mulloway are being caught. Bait fishing with fresh nippers in the channels around the drains should catch a feed. Or casting blade style lures and hopping them on the bottom has been working for some.
For freshwater fishing, I got one report from last weekend. They fished at Middling bank for a 6-hour period, catching twelve rainbow and brown trout to 40cm in length.
They caught the majority on powerbait and got a couple on lures. All fish were caught off the bank.
The brown trout spawn run is now underway with the brown trout heading up the rivers with the recent rains.
If you are chasing those spawning fish, please catch and release them as they're the future of natural breeding trout in our lakes.
There is nothing to report on the game fishing front except the water temperature has risen to about 21 degrees and I am told there are a heap of sharks getting about.
The Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club is open every Friday night from 6pm, with raffles, meat trays, bar service and good company.
The Snapper Classic is coming up on May 25-26.
