Lancelin

LANCELIN Peter Fullarton

March to April presents peak water temperatures for the year and some of the best boating weather.

Samsonfish have been moving in closer to the shore from the offshore breeding grounds.

It is the prime time to be looking for some of those tropical pelagic species that visit our waters each year.

Calm weather gives

A cracker breaksea cod caught by Chris Hartanto during a recent LAAC comp.

more opportunity for larger boats to head out wide for a deep drop, after bagging a few bottom dwellers. It’s well worth to look out for some bait schools or sit back and take it easy on the way back in towing a few lures. Wahoo, large yellowfin tuna and marlin can all be on the cards out wide. A spread of some larger sized skirted lures can be towed 8-10 knots on the cruise home.

Spanish mackerel are always my number one target species this time of year. You don’t tend to get a lot at these latitudes but are well rewarded on landing a good size one. They yield a huge amount of high-quality meat, relative to similar sized demersal fish, and

they can be a worthy and powerful opponent.

It’s very important to fish a light drag on the initial stages of the fight, a third of the breaking

strain or less. If the mack takes off on a sideways run there is enormous amounts of extra strain put on the tackle by the line simply being dragged sideways through the water at speed, enough to easily straighten hooks or pop the line. Upgrading the hooks on lures will give a much higher chance of landing larger fish. Using mono or having a long mono wind on gives a bit of stretch to help keep the hooks tight in the bony jaw in the closing stages of the fight.

Keep in mind dhufish are now spawning, so carefully look after those that need releasing. There have been great catches of bald chin, pretty much right through the depths out from the 25m. They are the

easiest of the demersal fish to find, just head out around high 20s or deeper and set up a drift. A paternoster rig with two 7-8/0 hooks loaded with octopus bait is ideal, they will often pick at the bait before taking it properly, octopus stays on the hook during the picking. Mutu style circle hooks work extremely well for the baldies. BAY

Herring in the bay have been a huge size and great condition this year, it just keeps on giving they have been there for months with some fish in excess of 400g. The best way to find the schools is to troll some small lures around the southern shallows. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of lure metals, plastics, vibes all work, just keep them in the size range of 4-6cm. Once the fish are found drop the anchor and cast to the school.

Tailor have been very active in the bay this year too, with a few usually caught while chasing the herring throughout the daylight hours. They more actively feed towards sunset. Plenty have been caught off the jetty and the north beaches of the bay have been productive too. Large samsonfish, and skippy usually turn up in the bay during March.

Sambos can be caught fishing with large poppers from the jetty early in the mornings. Fishers use gear more akin to popping for GTs up north, 37kg line and locked drags. Skippy look for some deeper areas of the bay with structure and burly to bring them to the boat. Early mornings and sunset have been best to chase up a few squid off the jetty or from the dinghy. BEACH

Tailor fishing has been fantastic this season with plenty of choppers right along the beaches. March usually sees in some better size class fish around the 50cm. They will be in top breeding condition full of roe or milt, so limit the catch rather than catching the limit, giving some a chance to do their thing. Both herring and dart have been taking the pilchard baits as well, so it pays to keep the hook size down to get a mixed bag. Using a gang of 4 Mustad tarpon hooks in 3-4/0 size will get much better hook up rate on the smaller species. Dart are mainly caught north of town they love to hang just at the back of where the waves break at the edge of where the sandy water meets the clear. A good berley trail off the beach will usually keep the session going well into the morning, transforming from a tailor bite into herring and dart.

Once we have a good rain the mullet will start their run north, which will attract some of the larger fish close to the beach. Big baits cast out at night have been picking up whaler sharks and guitarfish. Late this month we can look forward to increasing numbers of large mulloway along the Lancelin coast.

Drone fishers have been doing well targeting pink snapper from the nearshore reefs, once a bag limit is caught think about down sizing the hooks to some #1 circle hooks and drop in some broken sand holes for some King George whiting.

March new moon is always abundant for lobster along the nearshore reefs, just make sure to get the pots into some nice heavy ground and you should be seeing the pots full of reds.

Small hooks on the drone can catch some nice fish, Tom pulling 50cm+ of King George whiting!

Graeme Doodsons was not disappointed with this by-catch while casting for tailor!