Lancelin

LANCELIN Peter Fullarton

Fishing around Lancelin goes off this time of year! Great timing for school holidays and the Easter break. No matter where or how you fish with kids,

Dave’s catch off the drone, a few good feeds for the family!

big boats, small boats, kayaks or those who like to keep the sand between their toes, there is plenty of options to get out there and amongst them.

Samson fish are a by-catch of the drone that can be an effort to drag in from 300m out!

DEMERSALS

Fishers heading out wide dropping in 35-80m have been getting onto some great dhufish in the 8-15kg range. Drifting the depths out from the mid to high 20s, there is no shortage of baldchin groper, although there are small females mixed with the big blue males.

To separate the larger fish from the small ones try using a big bait and up the hook size to a 10/0 circle hook.

Queen snapper have been notable in a lot more bags than usual. Dinghies and kayaks have been getting some good catches too.

The lumps in 10-15m

have some good breaksea cod and dhufish. Setting up a berley trail around some of the reef to sand edges 8-10m behind the first line of reef can quickly attract

good pink snapper. PELAGICS

April is absolute prime time for the more tropical species that come down on the Leeuwin current each year. Out wide there is the chance of wahoo, large tuna or billfish. Closer to shore there is more likely to be mackerel or smaller tuna. You really don’t have to go far to be in with a chance, some of my best mackerel have been caught within a few hundred metres of the shelter from Lancelin Bay. Trolling hardbody lures is effective and covers good amounts of ground to find the fish, usually at 6-8 knots. Two areas that produce better numbers of fish are behind the first

line of reef, where it drops from 8-10m, or behind the white bank in 15-20m. If you find any good baitfish schools, there will almost certainly be some mackerel not far away. Either troll lures around the schools or my preference would be to catch a few to use as live baits and dead slow troll them around the perimeters of the bait school.

Mackerel feed very close to shore at times, with a handful caught from cast baits each year. Easterly winds will give the opportunity to put some baits further out aided by balloon. Drones are another way to get the bait out well offshore. BAY FISHING

The bay’s been teeming in herring and size has been sensational with fish over 30cm and 400g. With the fish the size they are, it’s great sport catching them on suitable matched gear. They respond well to a range of lures both trolled or cast, avoiding the blowfish that are about the bay.

Lately, I have been casting small surface poppers like the Ecogear PX55 for them on 2kg gear from the kayak. Great fun having them launching out the water like mini barramundi on the strike!

There are some good size blue spot flathead and King George whiting around the sand holes, and skippy and tarwhine move into the bay this time of year. Casting the

ZX Ecogear vibes on the light gear is another way of dodging the blowfish while having some serious fun.

Samson fish have been roaming the bay harassing the schools of herring down in the southern shallows, or at times raiding the baitfish around the jetty. BEACHES

There is so much changing along the beaches this time of year. Herring have been great for months, a huge size and plenty of them, but the official start to the season is Anzac Day.

Herring will always be attracted to a good berley trail. A session might start slow, if the berley is done well the fish should continue to improve.

Dart have been around in very good numbers this season too. North of town is where most are caught, with some larger specimens in the gutters along the bombing range.

Tailor will be spawning this time of year. We get the fish spawning twice per year usually late November/December and April. Once these fish spawn, the tailor fishing slows right down along this stretch of the coast as the water begins to cool. Now

Small bronze whalers and spinner sharks have been around in good numbers along the surf beaches.

Steven Toothill fishes most of the Lancelin Angling Club comps and seems to always find a good size dhufish.