Anglers are working towards consistent fishing

It’s definitely been a strange ‘summer’ season so far. Cold water gave way to very hot water very quickly, and algal blooms and very average water conditions followed. There were also more sharks than I can recall for a long time.

Bouts of driving rain followed by southerlies interspersed with occasional stretches of good weather have been the order of the day.

The bigger kings have been present inshore and in the harbour, although the sharks have made consistency an issue. The bigger fish have never stayed in one place for too long, although the smaller fish have been consistent on most reefs and markers in the harbour.

As usual, fresh squid is your ticket to consistent fishing, although live baits have taken their fair share also. Squid have been on and off, with most of our catches being green-eye calamari taken over the kelp on jigs in the #2.0 to #2.5 size range.

Numbers of winter/ autumn species like tailor and trevally around have just added another twist to the overall unusual nature of this summer season, these taking live baits and squid baits with gusto.

The mullet are starting to move from the backs of the estuaries to do their run, and the odd good jewie has been showing up along with them.

Schools of small bonito have been everywhere in the lower harbour reaches, taking small metals and flies.

Numbers of large bream have been moving down to the lower reaches of the harbour, as you would expect for this time of year. We have been picking up some good catches in the 5-10m depth ranges, and there are also some large fish in the shallows at the moment. We’ve been taking these