Batemans Bay

BATEMANS BAY Anthony Stokman

“Falling on my boat like a memory, falling into my estuary, I want to cast in the open wind, I don’t want any wind knots too, I want to fish in the dirty ocean, is it raining with you…”

Cabin fever is kicking in and has me rewriting music lyrics*. More rain could be on the way, so out to the shelf, it can hold dolphinfish (mahimahi), so if you’re trolling for marlin and you spot some flotsam, give it a pass by to see whether anything is holding there.

The one place that is least affected by the floods and dirty water is out on the Continental Shelf. April tends to be the last month of the majority of the visiting marlin, so make this month count if you’re after a stickface. you’ll get onto a couple of 3-5kg fish, while on other days it’s a mixed bag with some smaller snapper or flatties. But in general, the reef fishing has been a good option.

Rock fishing and the ledges have probably suffered more with the dirty water. There have been some big salmon, the odd bonito and very odd kingie. But the dirty water has kept these fish looking for cleaner places holding bait. Each year seems to see the bigger kings further south. Snapper don’t mind stirred-up water, and a couple of days after rain and swell is the time to try your luck off the stones. Hopefully this April the water will clean up a bit and we’ll see the run of bonito that I was hoping for this year.

The beaches have been pretty roughed up as well. However, but there is plenty of beach along our coastline, and if you get around the corner to some more protected places, or find a clean beach like up Bawley Point way, you can still catch some whiting. Salmon, tailor, flathead, trevally and bream are always on the list of by-catch here on the south coast. With all the lakes opening, it makes the surrounding beaches great for bream fishing.

The dirtiest water of all is spewing out of our estuaries. The rain just didn’t give up this season – all summer, just as it was looking to clear and give us a couple of days of fishing, it would rain again. However, fish need to feed, and fishing out the front of the estuaries is the go. Here there is more salt and more chance of finding fish that want to chew. The lakes can be less muddy than the river systems and you can have a better chance there, particularly if you are using live bait such as mullet or nippers.

Upstream has been a was-out, and we are hoping for the most of the water to have come and gone throughout April, giving us another crack at bass. Other than being totally washed out coming into autumn, April should be the month with a lot more stability and the last chance for our pelagic species like marlin and mahimahi. Then we’ll

Georgia Poyner has been finding some of the bream on offer.

don’t unpack your rain jacket from your tackle bag just yet.

Rain is good as it fills up our lakes, dams and systems. It brings life to the land as well, but too much can be not so good – just ask the residents in Northern NSW. A good break in the weather is what we need. Just as the river (and ocean) is looking to clear up a bit, more rain comes down to the point that it floods. This flood water devastates the river with dirty water and debris gushing out to sea. It’s not good for our river oysters, and the debris creates boating hazards, so keep your eye out when you are travelling through dirty water.

Heavy flood water pushes the inshore black marlin out, and the squid move out to clearer water and the estuary shuts down. This has been occurring of late, and we are all hoping for get some stability in April. The positive to flood debris is that once it gets Check the FADs and fish traps because dolphinfish are bound to be on them. There has been a good run of them, but mostly on the smaller side.

Another target that’s on the cards is tuna. I can’t mention tuna enough with the amazing few years we have just experienced. It doesn’t get any better, and at the start of March we had yellowfin on our northern seamount which is a great sign, and it shows that these fish are available all year round at the moment. I’m praying and hoping for another solid run of tuna this year, and it would be great if it could stay like this for years to come.

Inshore reef fishing hasn’t been too bad considering all the rain, swells and winds. Once there is a window when the aforementioned factors aren’t hindering the action, the fishing has been good. The snapper bite has been fairly constant over the last few years. On some days start looking towards tuna again.

The inshore reef fishing is always a reliable option at this time of year, as can be our beaches and rock fishing. It’s the estuaries that can fire at this time of year, and April is one of the last months to make the most of it before the cooler weather starts to set in. Some autumns also see the larger mulloway moving through the system in good

Badluck Doug with a nice striped marlin.

numbers. Let’s see what happens this April. *The original song is ‘Here Comes the Rain Again’ by The Eurythmics. • For more up-to-theminute information on what’s biting where, drop into Compleat Angler Batemans Bay and have a chat to Anthony or one of the other friendly staff. They’re located at 65A Orient St, Batemans Bay (02 4472 2559).