Anglers are still on the lookout for big tuna

WARRNAMBOOL

Mark Gercovich

mgercovich@hotmail.com

April can be an excellent angling month locally, with everything from barrel-sized tuna offshore, to big brown trout in the local rivers and streams.

Although kingfish season usually just draws to a close as April comes, this year it appears to have ended earlier than usual.

A few days of massive swells in late February dropped water temperatures, and the kings seem to have vacated early.

It had been a fairly good season, big fish wise, but there was not the number of mid-sized fish that had been around the previous few years.

The summer tuna have continued to be prolific though, with plenty of good school-sized fish being caught. Come April they seem to drift out to the slightly deeper areas with the new run of fish that appears from the west.

Of course, now is the time of year when keen tuna anglers are on the lookout for the bigger run of tuna in the 70-100kg+ size.

Last April saw some schools of these big tuna present along the coast off Port Fairy, and hopefully we’ll see more of the same this year.

There is already plenty of bait around in the 50-70m mark, so fingers crossed there will be some big boys feeding on it shortly.

Closer inshore, whiting fishers have been enjoying some good catches. These fish should still be present along the sand holes around the inshore reefs right through April.

The Hopkins River has had a pretty average six months for fishing after the big floods of late last year.

However, it has now definitely turned the corner.

Water clarity has improved with the wide-open mouth, and the bream and estuary perch have been in big numbers along the edges of the estuary. Targeting these fish on surface lures in prime conditions has been awesome fun, and some days almost every good cast has produced some form of enquiry.

Also, the number of smaller fish of bream and EP has been a great sign for the future of this waterway. It’s a handy positive given the continued reports of big carp infiltrating the upper freshwater reaches of the system.

With deeper mouth and the influx of sea water, we have seen many surprise catches with all sorts of unusual species for the river. These have included squid, flathead, banjo sharks and trevally.

Unfortunately (and surprisingly), mulloway reports have been pretty much non-existent. Still, April and the Easter tides are a traditional mulloway peak period, so hopefully a few silver slabs will turn up soon.

Cooling weather in April should see the local trout population really start to kick into gear. After a fairly cool summer, following all the rain we had in the lead up to summer, the trout should be in prime condition. There were a lot of solid mid-sized fish around last year, so another 6-12 months of growth into these fish should see some quality fish encountered.