Some big fish down south

BERMAGUI Darren

Redman

djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

It is that time of year when we see big tuna, cooling water, and vast amounts of food. Additionally, with the close proximity of the Continental Shelf, and usually the best weather of the year, it’s happy days for anglers.

It is bluefin and yellowfin tuna time, as these fish are travelling from the southern waters to their northern winter-feeding grounds, coming within range of Bermagui anglers.

If you consult sea surface temperature charts, it’s quite predictable to know when these fish will pass, although sadly we can’t predict how long they will stay. Last season was short, only lasting a few weeks, but it was intense and some excellent captures were made.

All indications are showing that the fish are on their way, and the season should be another good one.

The unseasonably warm currents off the east coast have stalled the fish arriving, but this may be good news for anglers because when the fish do arrive, they may stay longer.

Following the tuna are sharks, makos, blues and whalers. There are often a lot more sharks accompanying the tuna than reports would indicate, because when the tuna run, anglers tend not to target sharks. A well-placed berley trail laced with tuna will bring these sharks to you, where the likelihood of encountering a very big mako may become a reality.

If you have an electric reel, you can fish the abyss while waiting for the shots, encountering species like blue-eye trevalla, gemfish, hapuka, ling cod, perch and many others coming from the depths.

Also on offer offshore are the many winter reef fish, with snapper being top of the list. They can be found on most reefs, although the more prolific are the ones south of Bermagui where the snapper will be accompanied by many species like morwong, nannygai, perch, and those ever-present leatherjackets. There are also some flathead on offer, mostly sandies, and the occasional gummy shark.

Onshore it is cold, so what cool options have we here? Well, the rocks are one option, with black drummer top of the list, and you don’t have to go far to find them: the main headland right around to the blue pools. Mixing with them are trevally, bream, luderick and silver drummer, which are all too willing to take a wellpresented piece of cunjevoi, prawn or piece of cabbage weed. If you use a piece of red crab, you’re also in with a chance of catching a blue groper, in addition to the other species. On the beaches, passing schools of salmon can be sighted in the calm, slight shorebreak created by offshore breezes. These fish can be targeted by anglers wishing to cast lures. Small metal lures or even poppers can create