NSW
Plenty of productive days in store SOUTH WEST ROCKS
Vic Levett
There’s been a real buzz amongst the guys and girls that have been fortunate enough to get out and about enjoying our favourite pastime: fishing. The weather gods have been more than kind, and the east coast currents have been delivering loads of warm water with plenty of fish. How good is autumn! OFFSHORE Spanish mackerel, spotted
Jayden have been getting into the wahoo, scoring a solid ‘hoo more often than not. Stickbaiting has also been effective, with a quite a few yellowfin tuna in the mix. The current has been racing past the rock, causing upwellings loaded with bait that have these speedsters in a feeding melee. The phenomenal run of marlin has tapered, but there have still been plenty of encounters. Both black and striped marlin have been caught in the bay in recent weeks, along with a ridiculous number of sharks, which don’t
An unusual stargazer caught and released from the Macleay River. Mahimahi (dolphinfish) numbers are still good, however, as per usual, smaller fish tend to dominate catches later in the season. Small kingfish are also prolific around the DPI FADs. As mentioned before, the current has dictated the bottom fishing, but we did manage a session when the EAC dropped and we scored
Zane Levett with wahoo taken from Fish Rock.
Jess and Owen Truong with a solid South West Rocks Spanish taken onboard Oceanhunter Sportfishing Charters. mackerel, wahoo and even school mackerel have really stepped up a notch lately, with all species readily taking trolled live baits, dead baits and artificial lures. Trolling in and around any of reefs have been producing the goods, with Fish Rock being the stand out location. Local gun angler Graham Allen and his son
mind a free feed if allowed. Bonito, mac tuna, frigates, slimies and yellowtail schools have been turning the water to foam all around Trial Bay, with no shortage of large predators keeping them company. Cobia have been prevalent around the bay, however most of them have been small. I did hear of one large cobe of
over 30kg taken by one of the charter boats. It fell to a dead bonito fished on the bottom. Many boats targeting mackerel have also been faring well on snapper, which have been taking mackerel baits in the berley trail. May should see snapper numbers improve, especially if the water temperature drops.
prime targets this month, and now is also the time some of the bigger Spanish for the season will fall to big trolled baits. Slimy mackerel have been hard to find, but if you put
the time in to fill the live bait well, you’re almost guaranteed a mackerel. It will also be worth pulling hardbodied lures around the Solitary Islands for both mackerel and the odd wahoo. There may still
be some small yellowfin about as well. A special mention this month to local angler Troy Boulton who recently scored a marlin grand slam off Coffs Harbour. Fantastic effort Troy!
Zane Levett with a great stickbait-caught Spanish. plenty of small snapper and pearl perch on fresh tuna strips. The odd large offshore mulloway should show up this month, with live yellowtail fished close to bottom being the number one method of targeting them.
flathead and small mulloway falling to live nippers and herring, which can be jigged up along the river rock walls. Bonito can been be seen in the river busting up on bait balls brought in on the top of tides. Hairtail should be
around Jerseyville, whiting have been plentiful, along with the odd school mulloway on the many mud flats. When fishing the river, try to fish the smaller tides. BEACHES AND ROCKS Whiting and dart are the mainstay for our beaches at this time of year, and the pipis and beach worms should not be hard to find along Smokey Cape Beach, which runs all the way to Hat Head. Find yourself a nice gutter and a high tide and the fish won’t be able to resist. The Headlands will should be alive with bream and drummer in the weeks ahead. Bread berley and fresh, wild Australian green prawns fished in the trail has to be one of the best ways to spend an autumn arvo. Even though winter is
Mark Papadopoulos with a beautiful mahimahi caught on board Oceanhunter Sportfishing Charters.
There should be some larger longtail tuna patrolling our waters throughout May.
ESTUARY The Macleay River has been firing in recent weeks, with plenty of bream,
encountered more often this month, and a live yellowtail is hard to beat. Further up the river
not far away, the ocean is still in summer mode and there are plenty of calm days and warm water coming our way. MAY 2023 59
