Illawarra

ILLAWARRA Greg Clarke

As I look out to sea from work, the white patches of seagulls hovering over the ocean tell me that the salmon have arrived. Flocks of gulls covering large areas, sometimes as large as football fields, are picking up the tiny, clear, eel-like baitfish as they are forced to the surface by the schools of hungry salmon.

The area around the islands off Port Kembla up off National Park and down around Bass Point and Kiama are the pick of the spots at the moment, but a school can turn up just about anywhere at any time.

Mid-morning and late afternoon seem to be when they are most active, although they tend to be single-minded in what they will eat. If it isn’t the tiniest of lures, you can forget it. Just after daybreak when the schools are still scattered is the best time to catch them because they haven’t yet settled in to eating only the tiny baitfish.

This is where the tiniest of metal lures, particularly those that imitate very small baitfish, do their damage. For casting these tiny lures you will need very light mono or the thinnest of braids, generally no heavier than 3kg, with 2kg even better. This means you will have to use some amount of skill to land your prize before posting it on Facebook rather than just dragging it in as quickly as possible. Salmon are arguably the toughest and hardest pulling fish for their size in the land of Oz, and will test the skills of any angler on light tackle. They are very hardy too, and even after a long battle they still swim away well when released.

Tussles with big sambos are great fun. They leap clear of the water with shaking heads, then dive deep and lug near the bottom, resisting every centimetre of line the angler gains, only to charge to the surface and blast out of the water before heading for the bottom again. If they played dirty like yellowtail kings and headed for the nearest rocks or ledges you would be lucky to get them out of the water on sporting tackle.

They aren’t all schooling up and gulping down tiny baitfish, with quite a few being picked up by the pilly tossers working the washes. Trolling at this time of the year produces a few fish, but it generally just puts the fish down deep and off the bite, much to the dismay of those working the schools casting lures and flies. So, for a bit of fun keep an eye out for the seagulls.

Cuttlefish are still popping to the surface around Bellambi and Austinmer, and the snapper don’t seem to mind one bit. They should still be about for the next few weeks before moving on when the cuttlefish finish spawning. This year’s run has been good and bad, depending on who you ask.

Most anglers chasing reds have done well, although the size has been down a bit on previous years, with the average good fish being around the 3-4kg mark. There are still plenty of pan-sized fish but everyone likes at least one skite fish of over 6kg each cuttlefish season.

Leatherjacket are still thick over the reefs, as are the sweep. Mowies are on the improve, with most boats drifting getting a couple around the kilo mark, but they should improve over the next couple of months. The flatties are slow with no numbers coming in yet, and you can throw in a few pigfish and heaps of barracouta seemingly everywhere.

You will get plenty of silver trevally in the berley too, usually way outnumbering the snapper. However, the snapper generally get what they want when they are about, and the trevally move out of the way.

Towards the end of this month the game fishos will start to get the spring itch, and it won’t be an allergic reaction to pollen because there aren’t many trees 40km offshore, out around the shelf.

The end of August usually sees the arrival of the big blue and mako sharks, and they shouldn’t be far away as the little inshore makos have been pestering the snapper fishers for about a month now.

There have been a few striped tuna and the odd schools of yellowfin tuna and albacore and there may even be a stray bluefin still hanging about.

On the closer reefs a few kings should be about, with knife jigs and live baits set near the bottom good options.

Back closer to shore it’s drummer and groper time off the rocks. Due to the prevailing westerly winds the sea gets very calm, so many usually inaccessible spots are now able to be fished in relative safety, which usually results in better catches. Just remember the sea can come back at any time and catch the unwary.

Virtually any white sudsy water will hold a few drummer, with berley being the key to good catches. A little bread goes a long way to making the difference between a fair session and a good one. The use of peeled prawns fished with little or no lead, or under a bobby cork among the berley, should really move things along.

Groper seem to get a bit more attention when the westerlies blow around this time of the year. The rock hoppers can try the deeper ledges around Kiama, Bombo, Bass Point and the break walls at Port Kembla. Out in the boat, almost any piece of reef has its resident population of groper.

The hardest part of catching groper is catching the bait in the form of crabs. You could go in for a swim around the rocks with the mask and grab a few red crabs, but the water can be freezing at this time of the year. The other option is to chase them around the water’s edge after dark, but you really need to know what you are doing because being at the water’s edge on the rocks at night can be very dangerous.

A few sea urchins for berley will help too but you will have to swim for those as there aren’t any left where you can easily reach them. Quite a few nationalities love harvesting them for a feed, leading to very few urchins in water you can stand up in.

The beaches are pretty quiet at this time of the year with a few salmon, bream and tailor being caught by the dedicated beach fisho. There are some jewies about but a lot of cold hours will go into each fish.

Things are a bit quiet in the estuaries too, although the feeder streams of Lake Illawarra still have some good bream moving around the snags and deeper holes. Prawns have been the pick of the baits, while calm nights with little or no moon the time to fish. There will be the odd big flathead about but they seem to be roed up at this time of year and should be left alone.

That’s it from the Illawarra for August. Pretty quiet, but things will be better next month.

Not all the snapper are big, and they are often outnumbered by hordes of barracouta.

The Murray crayfish season is now underway, and NSW DPI Fisheries Officers are reminding the public to abide by strict size and bag limits after a Queen’s Birthday long weekend blitz.

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Acting Director Fisheries Compliance, Tony Chen said that leading up to and over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, Fisheries Officers from across Southwest NSW inspected 448 fishers, where 53 offences were detected.

“Some of these offences were detected thanks to information provided by the public to the NSW Fishers Hotline, with a number of people apprehended in closed waters before the season had started,” Mr Chen said.

“The operation focused on two areas: the Murray River from Albury downstream to Strathmerton; and the Murrumbidgee River from Gundagai downstream to Berembed Weir.

“While most fishers were abiding by the rules and regulations, Fisheries Officers detected several offences relating to size and bag limits.

“This included two fishermen who were found in possession of 16 Murray crayfish including seven of a prohibited size and carrying ova externally. This offence saw both fishermen receive multiple penalty notices totalling $1400 each.”

The operation also found another 11 people in possession of prohibited size Murray crayfish, and a further six people were also apprehended for possessing Murray crayfish carrying ova.

A total of 22 Murray crayfish and nine unprescribed traps were seized by Fisheries Officers.

Mr Chen has urged fishers to familiarise themselves with the rules and regulations surrounding the capture of Murray crayfish.

“During the open season of June, July and August, Murray crayfish can only be taken from prescribed areas of the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, and it is an offence to take Murray crayfish using any form of trap.

“Murray crayfish have a minimum size of 10cm and a maximum size of 12cm carapace length, with a daily take limit of two and a total possession limit of four.

“The species must be measured correctly from the rear of the eye socket to the centre rear of the carapace, or head shell excluding any attached hairs.

“Any crayfish carrying ova (eggs) must be returned to the water immediately with the least possible harm.”

The public are encouraged to report illegal fishing activity to the NSW Fishers Hotline on 1800 043 536. – NSW DPI This is the average size for this time of the year, but much bigger snapper are out there.