//BEST WHITING ON THE PLANET!

I don’t think there’s any argument these days that Tasmania’s King George whiting fishery is the best in Australia — and therefore the best on the planet! The numbers and especially the sizes of these delicious, hard-fighting fish around the north of the island are almost beyond belief, and the whiting wave seems to be sneaking a little further south each summer.

Big whiting can now be caught in almost any large bay, harbor and lower estuary — plus adjacent near-shore seas — across the entire north of the state, as well as down the east coast at least as far as Bicheno. The summer and early autumn months produce the best results on the mighty ’ting, but a few whiting now seem to be on tap throughout the year.

Squid — for both bait and to eat — are abundant!

Fresh squid baits fished on the bottom in two to 10 metres of water over sandy or gravelly sea beds close to weed and reef are the ticket, although it can take a few trips to work out exactly the best tides and locations. Bite periods tend to be short and intense, often associated with peak current speeds. The action can turn off as fast as it switched on. But when it all comes together — hang on! Fish in the 40 to 50 cm range are common, and genuine elbow and kidney slappers in the 50-plus range turn up often enough to be almost expected during most sessions. How big do they grow? Well, they’ve definitely been recorded into the high 60 cm range and weights in excess of two kilos… those are serious whiting in anyone’s language!

To the immense credit of Tasmania’s fisheries managers and anglers alike, these “new” King George whiting stocks appear to be in excellent hands, with a five fish per day, per angler bag limit and a minimum legal length of 35 cm in force. If everyone sticks to these very sensible regulations (and perhaps even voluntarily ups the minimum length to 40 cm), Tasmania will continue to emerge as the glittering jewel in the crown of Australian whiting fishing — a destination that will draw keen anglers from far and wide, with great benefits to local economies.

Starlo was gob-smacked by the calibre of Tasmania’s King George whiting.

//SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS

As rosy as the King George whiting picture is in Tasmania these days, sadly the same can’t be said of the state’s single most popular angling target: the humble sand flathead. Alarmingly, these important fish were recently listed as “depleted”.

Put bluntly, Tasmania’s sand flathead are shrinking: in both numbers and size. The existing minimum legal length is just 32 cm, and anglers are allowed to keep 20 fish over this length each day. However, in many places, you’ll catch at least 50 or 60 under-sized sandies to score 15 or 20 keepers, and a lot of those keepers will be only just legal.

To make matters worse, they’re incredibly lively and spikey to handle, meaning that many people grab them with towels, bits of rag or fish grippers for unhooking, or even (heaven forbid) stand on them! Those thrown back are often injured and have seriously compromised slime coats. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if post-release mortality is unacceptably high.

The recreational take of this widespread species is massively larger than the modest commercial harvest, too (by a factor of at least 10 to one). So, the onus is clearly on us as anglers to cop some pain for longer term gain.

To successfully manage a depleted fishery like this one, we clearly need to think outside the box. Simply raising the minimum legal length means that even more fish will be badly handled and tossed back into the water in poor condition, while lowering the bag limit is likely to lead to “high grading”, with equally bad outcomes for those flatties returned to the water. Closing the fishery entirely for a year or two would also be highly problematic, as lots of flathead would continue to be caught, badly handled, unhooked and discarded while trying to catch something else.

I don’t think anyone is claiming that these incredibly abundant fish are on the verge of extinction, but they are certainly chronically size-overfished and spatially depleted in many harder-fished areas. Interestingly, the species is apparently responding to this pressure biologically by maturing at smaller and smaller sizes, but the spawning of these smaller fish results in even smaller offspring. It’s a vicious circle.

I suspect a thorough education program will be required to encourage people to target other species in completely different areas, using alternative methods, and also to be a lot more careful about handling the flathead they continue to encounter as by-catch. It’s a big ask, but I don’t see too many viable alternatives to giving the sandies a break.

How good are silver trevally? Not only great fighters, but also tasty to eat if treated right.

//THE SKY IS THE LIMIT

Beyond the estuary, bay, harbor and inshore waters and their target species we’ve looked at so far in this feature, Tasmania offers some stunning deep water and offshore opportunities for those seeking larger fare and bigger challenges.

Bottom bashing and slow-pitch jigging over deep water reefs produces the delicious striped or Tasmanian trumpeter, as well as snapper, jackass morwong and a host of other varieties, plus the odd kingy, while trolling and lure casting are the go for bluefin, yellowfin and striped or skipjack tuna, as well as albacore and the occasional ring-in, like the bizarrely beautiful butterfly mackerel. There are also reasonable numbers of striped marlin and plenty of mako and blue sharks on tap when the currents are at their warmest in late summer and early autumn.

Bluefin tuna numbers, in particular, have rebounded spectacularly in recent years. “Schoolies” up to about 20 kilos dominate tuna catches, but it’s the “barrels” everyone dreams of catching, and they’re always a chance, with fish to well over a hundred kilos regularly encountered — and not just in the south east any more. The shallower waters of Bass Strait and the north west now consistently turn up tuna, and schoolies were being caught within 300 metres of shore just west of Wynyard in early January this year! The socalled “season” for these fish also seems to be expanding, with at least a few showing up nowadays in just about every month of the year, rather than being confined to a January-through-May window, as they once seemed to be.

Giant “barrel” bluefin tuna are luring more and more footloose fishers to Tasmania every year.

— Image courtesy of Jonah Yick

Finally, there’s the deep abyss, out beyond the steep edge of the continental shelf, which comes surprisingly close to shore in many parts of Tasmania, especially around the south end of the island. Here, adventurous anglers can deep drop baits in the hope of crossing paths with the mightiest gladiator of the oceans: the imposing and majestic broadbill swordfish. While waiting for sword bites, these hopefuls can also expect tuna, sharks, blue-eye trevalla, ling, gemfish, Ray’s bream, frostfish and a whole host of other “ooglies” that will have them reaching for the fish I.D. books!

//TOO GOOD TO MISS!

Game fishing’s holiest of Holy Grails is the mighty broadbill swordfish. Tasmanian seas are home to excellent numbers of these amazing creatures.

— Image courtesy of Jonah Yick

If it sounds like I’ve painted a glittering picture of Tasmania’s sea fishery, then I make no apologies. On the right day, in the right place, and using the best techniques, I would assert that there are few destinations on the face of the planet that offer better or more consistent saltwater angling action than our rugged island state… It can be truly exceptional. But yes, it can also be challenging, demanding and downright tough. Cold water, foul weather, howling winds and reluctant or absent fish are occasional facts of life in these far flung southern seas, as they are just about anywhere else we care to wet a line. I guess that’s why what we do is called “fishing” rather than “catching”! But make no mistake: Tasmania is worth the effort, and will invariably reward the hardy and the well-prepared… If you haven’t been yet, it’s time to fix that!