Batemans Bay

Fishing in lockdown

BATEMANS BAY Anthony Stokman

As COVID-19 continues to affect our lives it also affects our lifestyles, which includes fishing. Rules can change by the day, but at the time of writing we are allowed to fish as long as we are within our Local Government Area (LGA) and/or 5km from our front door if leaving our LGA. Fishing from a boat means staying in your LGA and no more than 5km out from the coastline. You can fish with one other friend or anybody in your household.

The difference this year is that tackle stores are unable to open, unlike last year. However, they can perform click and collect, so you can be served at the front door.

Unfortunately, some fishos are stuck in an LGA where there is no water and no fish. The obviously been within the 5km range from the coastline due to restrictions. Lockdowns mean it hasn’t been super busy on the water, but what boats have been getting out have been finding some average to good days on snapper, mowies, sharks, flathead, nannygai, ocean perch and so on.

The lockdown has turned my extremely busy life to just busy, so I managed to get out for a look myself with mate Rob Frawley. We tried an early morning plastics flick in the shallows, and it seemed the water was very clear and quiet, so we moved out to put some baits down and micro jigged. First drop and had a snapper on within seconds on bait. It wasn’t long before the micro jig connected on a fish, and from there in 30-60m of water we were getting fish in every depth with micro jigs and many different species. I had six drops in a row with a micro jig and jigged it I then kept releasing line out to stay close to the bottom before retrieving and doing it all over again.

I found I was getting a lot of hits and hook-ups from being quite aggressive with the rod tip. The jig was naturally rising off the bottom due to the drift, and without retrieving line I’d flick the rod tip up and down quite violently about six times, and then let the jig dance around and flutter down – then moments later I’d get hits or hook up. It was working extremely well.

One thing to keep in mind is there are no rules to micro jigging. I quite often start fishing them quite subtly and then try other things. Flicking them aggressively this day was the key and got us a good feed of snapper, mowies, ocean perch, leatherjacket and so on.

Other boats have been experiencing good catches with bait, plastics and jigs also. It really depends on the day and it’s good to have a few tricks up your sleeve if one method isn’t working.

As we go into October and into November, a lot of attention turns to snapper fishing as it can be one of the best times of the year for them. They are typically found in the deeper waters, spawning in big numbers up and down the coast. Micro jigs are definitely a great option in the deeper waters, and going up to 120g or 150g will be needed on faster drifts. It will surprise you how aggressive the fish can be; they’ll sometimes take jigs bigger than themselves!

The most accessible fishing during lockdown is land based, and fishing from the rocks and ledges can be good at this time of the year. Being early spring it’s cooler water fishing that applies, so snapper, drummer, bream, grouper, salmon and tailor are traditionally the most prolific species during October. Baits, plastics and metals with a number of approaches and rigs usually work best. But what’s now starting to be explored here in our area is slow pitch jigging, land based. I can see myself at this time next year writing more on landbased slow pitch jigging with micro jigs, as it is becoming more popular. Obviously being land based and in shallower water, it makes sense to use a 7’6” or longer rod to work the jig away from snags and navigate hooked up fish. Expect to see more of this style of fishing.

A very popular landbased species at this time of the year is squid. There is always a great run of squid in spring when they also tend to spawn. Boat ramps are always a very popular location, and ledges that have a lot of weed or dark structure. The key to finding squid is finding the clear water. Squid love the clear water over weed and dark areas. A good tip is to ask the spearfishers in the area where the best water quality is, because that’s what spearos are looking for and that’s where the squid will be.

Although it’s spring, the beaches will still be affected by the cold winter waters during October. Species like salmon, tailor, trevally and bream can be expected before the water temperature catches up to the air temperature, and we start seeing species like whiting.

The estuary fishers start getting excited now as they get their big plastics, swimbaits, and oversized surface lures out to chase metery flatties as they come out of their winter hibernation. This has become a popular endeavour and has made lures like big Crossfires, big Sugapens, jointed swimbaits or big cod lures become very popular for this style of fishing.

From now on, the estuary will continue to heat up, and with spring being a good time for estuary mulloway fishing there will be a lot of attention on these waters. It will be interesting to see how the mulloway adapt to the new Batemans Bay bridge in the Clyde River. I think it won’t change the mulloway, it’s the anglers who will have to change their fishing spot.

Upstream, bass fishers are getting their vibe on. Vibes, small hardbodies and small spinnerbaits are popular before the surface lures come out when the temperature increases.

We are all welcoming the temperature increase as we move through spring. It’s great to be able to pack your thermals away and enjoy a flick in the warm sun. • For more up-to-theminute information on what’s biting where, drop into Compleat Angler Batemans Bay and have a chat to Anthony or one of the other friendly staff. They’re located at 65A Orient St, Batemans Bay (02 4472 2559).

Georgia Poyner switching onto some spring bass.

other big downside is that offshore fishing for tuna was prohibited throughout August, September and possibly into October. The months of August and September would have seen some good tuna fishing, and as we go into October there is still a chance for tuna, particularly albacore. We did have a good run of 20-30kg yellowfin in close last spring, so if restrictions ease, I expect boat ramps to be full of fishos itching to get out and see what’s out there.

The best fishing has and got a different species each drop.

I was using a 60g pink and glow Nomad micro jig and it was performing extremely well until a barracuda stole it. I then dug around in Rob’s tackle box to find something similar. I found a 40g Samaki Ribcage that was also pink and glow. I was a little unsure about the weight, but conditions favoured us, and I was able to get it down even in the 60m depth, although I had to cast ahead of the drift. Once I found the bottom Harry Young with a pre-lockdown tuna.