It’s beginning to feel a lot like autumn and the fish are feeling it, too. It’s a time of transition on the south coast, with traditional summer species starting to make way for cool weather fish.
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In many ways, it’s a great time of the year to fish, with anglers able to enjoy the best of both worlds.
This is certainly the case in the estuaries, with flathead, whiting and flounder currently biting alongside trevally, tailor and blackfish.
The nature of the fishing has changed, though. The surface action for whiting, bream and flathead has slowed as water temperatures in most systems dip. The fish are a bit deeper, or around structure.
At Tuross and Moruya, flathead are taking soft plastic grubs and wrigglers fished around the drop-offs. Bream are on the cards, too, with hard-bodies worth a flick around the channels and weed edges.
Tuross is a great example of an autumn fishery in action, with everything from salmon and tailor through to mulloway and mullet biting right now.
Schools of salmon and chopper tailor are roaming the lake, so keep an eye out – they’ll smash anything thrown at them. Expect flathead and bream to be feeding under the schools. I like fishing a soft plastic or vibe under these circumstances.
The upper reaches of Tuross, where the water is at its warmest, are fishing well for whiting and bream on hard-bodies.
Offshore fishing has been great this week for snapper and other reef fish.
Good catches of kilo-plus reds have been take off Bermagui. Further south, there are plenty of flathead and morwong off Merimbula.
The kings are on at Montague Island. The fish are in the 70-80cm range and are hitting squid baits and jigs.
There are some seriously large dolphinfish on offer over the Shelf.
Most fish are being caught by anglers targeting marlin – but no one’s complaining about 20kg dollies as bycatch!
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking a few dolphinfish home for a feed – they’re the fastest growing fish in the sea.
For example, a 15kg fish is probably only six months old, making them a very sustainable table fish.
Canberra’s lakes continue to shine. Golden perch are gathering in tight schools in Lake Burley Griffin as we settle into autumn.
Boat and kayak anglers equipped with sounders fare best under these conditions as they’re able to pinpoint concentrations of fish and target them with deeply worked soft plastics, vibes or divers.
Trout fishing in the mountain lakes has improved – it always does at this time of the year, with the fish relishing the cooler weather.
Anglers walking the bank at Eucumbene are snaring small rainbows and browns on lures and flies. The action isn’t fast and furious by any means, but patient fishos are being rewarded.
Focus on early and late in the day for best results.
