Mandurah

A bumper season ahead

MANDURAH Jesse Choy

October marks a great time for locals to get out and back into enjoying the fishing which our coastline has to offer. Though we will still experience some average weather, we can expect a notable change in temperatures and longer days on the water as a result. Anglers should proceed with caution however, taking particular note of the impending demersal ban which will officially be in place from 15 October.

Though winter made estuary fishing quite hard, anglers can anticipate a bumper season when it comes to fishing the Peel-Harvey in spring. Though occasional rains will temporarily halt the process in pushing salinity upstream, the general weather improvement is welcomed and will often encourage the fish to feed with more enthusiasm. If you’re heading out, it’s worth starting your venture midstream and adjusting your game plan to suit the day. Though the fish will be scattered throughout both the systems, fishing midstream is favorable as it allows you to learn from your mistakes and head the opposite way if you have gotten off to a less than ideal start.

Many anglers will

be excited to know that freshwater fishing truly starts to fire up during this month, and will generally get better in the months to come. It is a great time to get up to the weir, if you are hoping to cross your first trout off the list and want to experience the thrill of freshwater fishing. Though fishing is quite good at this time of the year, the scheduled fish releasing means that numbers are bumped up, increasing your odds of hooking up to and landing a beautiful fish. Redfin are also plentiful, with good quality and numbers achievable across most of our accessible systems.

Fishing from the beaches, we can expect smaller patches of seaweed to be present, but the water to be much more fishable than in previous months. Herring as well as whiting numbers indicate that even the most inexperienced fishers can have some fun and take home a bit of a feed.

If you opt to use your fresh catch as bait, there is quite the possibility that you will connect with the odd tailor and mulloway. Though the temperatures are not quite warm enough to bring the larger schools of fish in, it’s possible to catch a ghost by intercepting them as they start to gorge in the area and before they have been presented with too many baits. It is worth flying baits out if you fish with a drone, though as previously mentioned, anglers need to be very conscious of presentations to avoid demersal fish and to ensure that we have fish to target in seasons to come.

Though opportunities to take the boat out can be scarce, it is the prime time to target large inshore snapper and also to try your hand at a nice dhufish. If you are going after the pinkies in particular, you may need to present things a bit better than usual as fish can be particularly picky when going through spawning phases, and will often turn down the best of presentations.

Those targeting dhufish will want to do so in depths to around 60m, with quality fish coming from this zone and quantities appearing to increase with depth. Bottom bouncing with a simple paternoster is ideal, with fresh herring, squid or skinned octopus being the pick of the baits.

Heading into November, we can begin to look forward to the end of the crab closure and getting back into dropping pots. With continual rains during winter, we can only hope that our estuary has enjoyed the flush and that the warm weather fishing is ridiculous as a result!

Mulloway may be thin at this time of the year, but the run has to start somewhere!

Black bream grow extremely slowly, so releasing fish will ensure they have a future in our rivers. Rainbow trout are hard fighters and exhibit some of the prettiest colours you will see on a fish.