East Coast
VIC
Both lakes fishing well MALLACOOTA/EDEN
Kevin Gleed captainkev@wildernessfishingtours.com
The busy period is in sight, and with the summer weather on the way and visitors arriving, the fishing will be on the improve. This will keep visitors and locals happy after the cold winter period. At the time of writing, the offshore water temperature is around 14°C, which is right on average
for this time of year. In the coming weeks it will rise to around 16°C. All reports indicate there are good opportunities to catch some quality fish offshore, with reports of southern bluefin tuna in close. The problem has been the weather, with the windy conditions not allowing the boats to head offshore and try their luck. The fishing for tiger flathead and sand flathead will only improve as the water warms. The Mallacoota area can provide great fishing for
both of these species, along with good catches of gummy shark. The main thing to remember over the summer months is to get out there early, catch your fish and get back before the wind really starts blowing. Luckily there is no need to travel too far to catch fish, with plenty of good catches coming from in front of the aerials and out around Gabo Island. Fishing along the local beaches over the colder period is all about salmon, and the colder
Plenty of tailor around this size are in the lake, terrorising the baitfish schools.
In the warmer months, catching enough for a feed is not too hard. These days, many anglers choose to release their fish.
water also sees some bigger than average tailor being caught. The warmer water will see yellowfin bream, sand whiting and a few other species show up as well. Some years good numbers of dart can be caught, depending on just how warm the water gets. Good tidal movement in the lake has been great for the system, with healthy weed beds forming, which is great to see. These beds supply plenty of food for the fish, and provide great habitat for prawns and other aquatic creatures. Both the top and bottom lake have been
fishing well, with dusky flathead being caught in the shallows. As the water warms these fish will move into deeper water alongside the shallows. This allows them to find their comfort level, which in turn will see them on the feed. For those who want to chase flathead, fish will also be found upstream past Gypsy Point. If you’re travelling in these areas, take it easy as there are plenty of shallow areas, and these areas are constantly changing. Yellowfin bream and black bream are being caught in both the top and
bottom lake, with good numbers of black bream also in the rivers and creeks that feed into the lake. Anglers have also been catching silver trevally and blackfish. A great area to target the silver trevally is the weed beds alongside the channel at the front of the lake, with lightly-weighted soft plastics often doing the trick. The sand whiting will increase in numbers over the summer months, with a good entrance allowing fish to move freely from the ocean beaches into the lake system.
PRODUCT NEWS
Suzuki is helping to clean up the oceans Suzuki Motor Corporation has begun production of 5 mid-size outboard motors with the world’s first MicroPlastic Collecting Device (MPC), as standard equipment. A huge amount of marine plastic waste that flows into the ocean has become a significant environmental issue in recent years, and micro-plastics that are further crushed in the natural environment are concerned to have an impact on ecosystems. To tackle these issues, in October 2020 Suzuki announced the development of a MicroPlastic Collecting Device that can be equipped to outboard motors. By installing this device to outboard motors, micro-plastics near the water surface can be collected simply by running the boat. After the announcement, monitoring surveys were conducted in 14
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countries, including Japan, the United States and Europe, and improvements were made to the device.
The 5 models (DF140BG, DF115BG, DF140B, DF115B, and DF100C) started production
with the device as standard equipment, available from the fourth quarter of 2022. The Micro-Plastic Collecting
Device will also be available as a spare part to prior models of DF100C, DF115B and DF140B at $500 RRP.
OVERVIEW OF SUZUKI CLEAN OCEAN PROJECT • Clean-Up the World Campaign A volunteer waterside clean-up campaign by Suzuki Group employees and partners was conducted in 2011. Until March 2022, 53 distributors and more than 10,000 people worldwide have participated in total. From this year we will expand and further continue the campaign. • Reduce plastic packaging Suzuki aims to reduce the plastic packaging for outboard motors and genuine parts, under the keywords “1) Can we stop using it? 2) Can we reduce the amount? 3) Can we replace it with materials of less environmental impact?”. Since its start in October 2020, we have avoided using over 11t To page 91
