This week we feature local keen fisho Ian "Hoots" Cowie and his stonker 98cm dusky flathead he caught on a small plastic and 4lb leader on the weekend, hopefully not peaking to early for the Narooma Flathead Challenge this weekend! Paul O’Brien at the pub let us know that he is expecting 73 boats on Wagonga Inlet. Talking about big fish, check out the massive jewfish on Page 16 with more online.
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Tilba ex-pro fisherman Ron Snape says the prawns have started to move again after the full moon. His wife Tralee scooped for an hour on the north side of Brou Lake for a handy 1.5kg before the wind made it impossible to see the prawns.
Ron also let us know that well-known fishos Alan and Vicky Perry, who manage Tweed Bait, camped at Blackfellows Point for a week and did it tought barely scratching up a feed most nights. However things are looking a good deal better on the beaches from Hoyer’s to the the mouth of Wallaga with a good patch of big salmon. Local Peter Blessington and a mate had 10 in quick time using metal lures. Most were between 2 and 3kg.
Ron also says Bega River is the stand out in the estuaries. It’s closed and jewfish have reached the magic meter. Flatheads and tailor are having a real go as well on 4-inch plastics.
News just in that might wreck your plans is that Bega Valley Shire Council will open the Bega River mouth to the sea north of Tathra early tomorrow. The council has been carefully watching the rising river level in recent weeks, with live updates available every 15 minutes via a monitoring buoy at Mogareeka.
Mechanically opening the Bega River system starts to be a consideration when the river height reaches 1.26m, in line with guidelines from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. The approved opening height is 1.36m AHD.
Tilba Lake meanwhile is in sad shape and stinking out the neighbourhood while there have also been dead fish in Kianga Lake. More on the sad state of our little estuaries online and in print next week.
Out wide, young skipper Nick Cowley of the charter boat Playstation has been doing very well as usual and getting great marlin photos from last couple trips, last Saturday he skippered PlayStation and we managed a nice black marlin.
Nick also reported that mid-week at Montague Island last week, he managed to get a cracker couple of 13-14kg kingies for his clients. There are very nice fish for Narooma.
Narooma charter company owner Benn Bolton had a triple marlin hit, fishing couple days ago with three striped marlin and a blue marlin landing two from three, including a blue well over 100kgs.
And on Tuesday, they had famous fly fishermen Peter Morse on PlayStation, with Nick and Benn landing a marlin on fly, which is the target for the next three days. Stayed tuned for more.
Moruya report – Graham at Tackle World Moruya is back furnishing us with his report: Down the front of the river around the flats at Garlandtown has been producing some nice flathead and trevally mainly drifting live poddies and flicking soft plastics. Jewfish are being caught around the hole in the wall on both squid and soft plastics while back up river whiting are being caught on the flats above the hospital.
Perch and bream are being caught in the deep holes around the boulders using EcoGear ZX and VX Blades. If it's bass you’re after, head up above the pump station - try throwing some deep diving Jackson Kabua 38 mm and Prolure crank 36 mm into the deeper holes near snags or deep banks. After dark throw around some surface walkers like the Jackson or Tiemco cicadas.
At Tuross, Jack and myself had a reasonable morning out catching some nice flathead on both CRANKA crabs and Jack’s favourite blade from FG blades with some bream also. Whiting are being caught around most of the flats especially from Borang up to the highway bridge - best time seems to be the run out tide using squirt worms or nippers. Surface walkers like the Sugar pens and Jackson Pygmy pencil are a great way to catch these fish. Jewies are still being caught around the VRA shed and along the deeper channel towards the narrows.
On the rocks and beaches there are good numbers of bream and whiting are being caught along the airport beach mainly around the wind sock using fresh beach worms as bait. Great squid are being caught from Broulee to Bingie and Mullimburrah mainly on 2.5 inch 10 grams jigs.Nice whiting are also being caught around these areas with some nice drummer and bream off the rocks around Bingie .
Offshore has good numbers of sand flathead are being caught around the edges of reef in about 50 metres of water straight out off Moruya - fresh fish bait seems to be bait of choice, while snapper, mowies and the usual reef fish are being caught from wide off Broulee Island down to Tuross. The FAD out wide off Burrie Point has been producing good numbers of Dolphin fish with Marlin cruising the warm current line all the down the coast. – Graham
NSGFC report – The Narooma Sport and Game Fishing club’s next outing is at Wallaga Lake this Friday. High tide is around 8am which is perfect to fish this waterway. By boat or off the sandflats, join them for a fish then coffee and cake, about 11am, at the nearby reserve/picnic area just over the bridge. Les Waldock will be wading the sandflats, throwing lures and is happy to have you join him, just give him a call on 0411 392 608. The club’s next Friday night “eat-in” at the rooms next to Taylor’s will also be this Friday evening from 4pm to 9pm. Come and join them and see what is on offer this month! – Jan Hemmingsen
Bermagui Social Anglers – A wet weekend didn’t deter anglers with the bi-annual competition between the Bermagui Hotel Fisho’s and the Bermagui Country Club Social Anglers’ Club. Meeting up for the Sunday barbecue at the club, both clubs were very well represented. While the weigh-in compared well, the hotel fisho’s won the day with a margin of only 10 grams. Winners of the monthly club competition were Tad Korycki offshore and Robert Brown onshore. President Fran congratulated all for the contributions to a very successful day with a big thank you to the cooks. The usual raffle was a winner for Lyn Manton. – Gone Fishin’