Swansea

What will spring bring?

SWANSEA Jason Nunn

When I wrapped up my report last month, we were still wondering when the salmon were going to turn up. Then, a few days later when I was filming our social media fishing report, everything changed. We pulled up at the ramp and saw 4-5 fish jump, and a guy with his rod bent in half. That’s more like it!

Since then, the salmon have been back bigger and better than we’ve seen for the last few seasons. They have just poured in, with fish from Lucys Breakwater right the way down to Swansea Bridge.

We are seeing fish anywhere from 2.5-4kg, which are pretty big estuary fish, and they have been really challenging fly fishers and lure anglers. Release rates are high, which is good to see.

On some weekends there have been upwards of 40 boats over there fishing; everyone seems to be having their turn.

The kids have been having great fun on the salmon too, and it’s been a real winter highlight to see so many happy people catching fish. The action should continue in the coming weeks.

Normally the beginning of the run-in tide is best for salmon. However, just recently I was down there watching what was going on during the run-out tide early in the morning, and the salmon were on fire around the sunken breakwater. They were smashing the water everywhere.

The advantage of the salmon being as thick as they are, is that they’re taking both lures and bait quite readily, and not really showing a preference for either.

Guys are catching them on chrome slices and also soft plastics in clear colours, such as the Berkley PowerBait 3” Minnow in Casper clear.

Plain old white is also a good choice, particularly in dirty water.

Having said that, colour doesn’t seem to be too important at present, as the fish have been chopping into just about everything.

Quite a few trevally have been caught over in Salts Bay lately as bycatch, and some tailor have been mixed in with them too.

This flurry of salmon activity means that even the shore-based anglers can do well at the rocks at Lucys Breakwater, or fish over at Blacksmiths breakwater fishing back into the channel, or indeed off the sandy shore of Salts Bay itself. Both baits and lures have been working equally as well.

When it comes to bait, pillies have been the top pick, but you can still catch salmon on worm, prawn or flesh baits meant for other species. Because salmon haven’t got teeth like tailor, you can even fish with half pillies.

You can fish your baits on a running sinker rig (good in tidal flow; you can lengthen your trace which moves it around), a floating bait (when the fish are feeding on the surface) or, if you’re fishing the beach or breakwater, a paternoster is good in the current.

Often the fish have been down in the water column, but sometimes they have been up on the surface, possibly due to the clearing water, eating baitfish.

On these surface feeding fish you can use a little stickbait or small soft plastic fished with the lightest jighead possible. When the water was dirty, we were using1/4oz or 3/8oz on the bottom, but now the salmon have been more responsive higher in the water column, so you can fish lighter. OFFSHORE

Over the past month it has been difficult to fish offshore, but fortunately we’ve had a really good run of inshore snapper along our part of the coastline to keep anglers occupied. We saw it last year and thought it might be a one-off, but this year has been just as good.

There have been good catches coming from Red Head south, and anglers have also been getting some at Mereweather. Moon Island south to as far as Bird Island is where they’ve been especially prominent. Most fish have been coming from less than 30m of water; usually around that 20m depth.

The best fish have been up around 4kg, with a lot of fish in the 2.5-3kg size range. There’s plenty of bycatch in the form of trevally and tailor.

Plastics around 5-7” have been getting consistent results, or you can use the old faithful floating pilly, fished down a nice, uninterrupted berley stream.

The rule with berley is to deploy small amounts consistently, to keep the fish in your area. Some people just throw a bucket in and start fishing, and then wonder why the fish go off the bite!

When the weather has permitted, we have had some really good reports from deeper water at The Farm.

There have been a lot of very good snapper caught around the 3kg mark, with a few up around 4-5kg mixed in. The most consistent depth of late has been 93-96m.

At the time of writing, yellowfin haven’t turned up in numbers yet. When you have 1.5-2 knots of current out at the shelf, and the water is 21.5°C, it’s definitely not conducive to catching these fish.

Ideally you want 19.5°C for fin, and a good upwelling of nutrient-rich food off the bottom. The strong current we’ve had has been preventing that.

Recently some of the boys went really wide, around 45nm out, saw some big ‘fin busting up amongst striped tuna but didn’t get any.

Another local went out for a troll for yellowfin, and got a short-bill spearfish instead. Normally you’d catch short-bill spears later in the year, because they like warm water, and this gives you an indication of what the conditions are like out there at the moment. Even a mahimahi has been caught.

We are hoping that this month we may actually see some fin coming down the coast. Watch this space. ESTUARY

The estuary fishing has been quite good overall, but sadly there has been a pretty big fish kill down on the southern end of Lake Macquarie. We’ve seen the death of hundreds of fish, including bream, mullet, flathead, tailor and a threatened spotted eagle ray.

The EPA is conducting tests, and by the time you read this, we’ll hopefully know what caused the fish kill.

This winter has seen some beautiful bream caught throughout the lake and the channel. There are some big fish showing up in the mix, with specimens up to 45cm.

Oily baits like pilchards are a good option. The run-in tide is probably fishing a little bit better than the run-out, surprisingly – possibly because there’s so much rain-affected water coming out on the run-out tide. The fresh ocean water on the run-in tide may be revitalising the bream and getting them to bite.

There are still good numbers of tailor throughout the lake, and that will continue right the way through September. It could be our last chance to catch those guys for a while.

We will see the whiting and flathead begin to kick into gear as the weather starts to warm up, and a lot of us are looking forward to that.

Remember that as of 1 August, all dusky flathead above 70cm must be released, and the bag limit has been reduced from 10 duskies down to five. The bag limit on lobsters has also changed, from two per person to three.

Something that has been a bit of a problem over the last 6-8 months has

Barkeley Gibbons is mad about fishing. He was super excited with his session at the Maroochydore River mouth as this was the first flathead he had ever caught. It measured 42cm and was released to fight another day.

Alex Schmaler-Loomes with a Swansea Channel tailor caught at this time last year. It took a soft plastic amongst the salmon.

been a couple of grey nurse deaths. A 2.8m female grey nurse got washed up on the beach recently.

The grey nurse sharks live out around Moon Island, and they like to eat salmon, so it’s probably not the best idea to target sharks in winter when there are a lot of salmon around.

The one caught most recently had a shark hook in its gob and a gaff in its side, indicating that the gaffer couldn’t tell the difference between a grey nurse and whaler shark.

If you’re unsure, please look up exactly what these sharks look like so you can release them unharmed. Grey nurse sharks are protected for a reason – they have a very slow reproductive rate.

If we don’t do the right thing to safeguard them, the whole area could be closed to fishing, as has happened elsewhere. • Fisherman’s Warehouse Tackle World has a large range fresh and frozen bait as well as a huge range of rods, reels, lures and accessories. They also sell and service outboard motors, and have a competitivelypriced selection of new and second-hand boats. The friendly staff are all experienced local anglers, and they’re always happy to share their knowledge, whether you’re a novice or experienced angler. Drop in for a chat at 804 Pacific Highway, Marks Point, or give them a call on (02) 4945 2152. You can also find them on Facebook, or check out their website at www.fishermanswarehouse .com.au.