Geraldton

Continuing inconsistency

GERALDTON Graham Maunder & Michael Triantopoulos

Fishing over the previous month or two has not changed much, with the weather and fish continuing to be a bit inconsistent.

The summer tailor season has dropped off quite a bit with less bag limit catches of smaller chopper tailor reported. But, as happens most years, when the smaller fish aren’t about more of the bigger greenbacks and mulloway get a chance at the bait.

Most of the beaches from south of Flat Rocks and as far north as Lucky Bay have been producing well. Tailor have been well over 50cm and mulloway are mostly in the 70-100cm category. As our bag limit of tailor over 50cm is two fish, it still sounds good to tell your mates you caught your bag limit and put a few fish back as well.

In past years, our costal run of pelagic and sharks would start in early to mid-summer and start to drop away by about May, but over the last few seasons mackerel and tuna catches have been very inconsistent at best.

Over the last few weeks the odd capture of boatcaught mackerel or tuna has turned into reports of free jumping fish chasing bait close to shore along most of our northern coast. Anglers ballooning and fishing from Hutt River to Wagoe have landed some great fish to 20kg.

Beach anglers in the same areas have also been catching lots of small (up to 1m) school sized whaler sharks pre sunset; once the sun has gone the big ones are moving in. The beach channels look great for mulloway and tailor but once the sharks move in the time for landing any other fish is over.

Fishing from the rocks and jetties around the local marinas at Port Denison and Geraldton has picked up a lot in recent weeks. Silver trevally, black bream up to 1kg, yellowtail scad and yellow eye mullet over 30cm, pike and small mouth scad have been biting well most evenings. With a couple of burger buns broken up and hanging in a berley bag, they hang around for an hour or two after sunset. Pieces of Pilchard fillet on a no.10 hook for the mullet and yellow tail and chunks of pilchard on a single no.1 – 1/0 hook used on 4-8kg leader without any added weight has been the best set up.

Pink Snapper are usually plentiful all year round from most of the marina rocks, but normally much too small to keep. Luckily over recent weeks, pinkies up to about 60cm, and even bigger morwong, are keeping some of the locals busy on light tackle. BOAT

A late run of Spanish mackerel have arrived with consistent numbers over the last few weeks, along with the occasional 20kg one landed too.

Trolling lures and or baits such as garfish, pike and mullet north of town towards Drummonds and south to Southgates has been producing very good numbers off Spanish mackerel. Anglers are seeing best results early morning, or the late afternoon bite sees more fish.

Rigging garfish for mackerel generally consists of a set of ganged hooks suitable for the baits, octopus skirt or bait spring over the mouth (to keep it closed to avoid twisting), and 30-50cm of 40-50kg single strand or multi strand wire. There are a few weighted rigs on the market suitable for rigging Brendan Hughes with a nice wahoo caught in the north west. Viv Moss caught this 73cm spangled emperor using floating baits.

baits to swim, which is a simple and effective way.

Fishing south of town has been a bit hit and miss for the bottom species, some anglers have reported of dhufish to 8kg, pink snapper, bald chin groper to 4kg and coral trout. Back of African Reef has had good numbers of Spanish mackerel, unfortunately the sharks have made landing the fish difficult.

The northern end of the channel markers have been producing good numbers of pink snapper to 70cm, bald chin grouper, sampson fish, spangled emperor and school sized whaler sharks. • Geraldton Sports Centre is the Mid Wests specialist Fishing tackle store. Drop in and see the friendly professional staff for local advise and knowledge and browse the extensive range of fishing equipment on show at 204-208 Marine Terrace Geraldton WA, Phone: o8 9921 3664.

From page 110

it pays to wait a week or so before spending a day casting the big stick baits or poppers. After a blow, time can be better spent soaking baits for a mulloway or pink snapper. As usual, the new and full moon has been producing the most mulloway. Sharks and rays have been particularly a problem when soaking the larger baits, causing a lot of lost gear and wasted time.

A species I recommend targeting in July is tarwhine, on matched gear 2-4kg are

Sharks and rays have been a big problem while soaking baits in the surf, at least this bronze whaler is a good eater.

great little scrapers. They are found around structure like the jetty or reefs although at times they will roam the weed banks, beach gutters or shore break. They respond very well to berley, readily taking baits or lures. Tarwhine are bottom feeders so work the lower parts of the water column. Lures of choice would be small vibes, blades or soft plastics. A lightly weighted cube of pilchard, floated down with a small circle hook is a highly effective method to score a few.