Hunter Valley

HUNTER VALLEY Nick Price

The fishing in both Glenbawn and St Clair has been hot and cold. At times the fish have been very hungry, and at other times they have been shut down. I have been moving consistently, looking for those active fish that will take a bait.

The ice jig bite has been the best for a few years. The bass in Glenbawn have schooled up and in some spots are thick on the sounder. Ice jig fishing is fun, and anyone can do it. It requires finding a school of fish and dropping the ice jig vertically into the fish. Often the fish are sitting in trees in deep water. If you park your boat next to the tree, the bass will Anglers from Fresh Hope catching a few on ice jigs during a weekend away at Glenbawn.

A subset of offshore anglers around Australia like to deploy their own makeshift fish aggregation devices (FADs), ranging from a simple weight with a float through to piles of washing machines. This practice is illegal under the Commonwealth Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act, and also contravenes many local littering laws, but that has agreed to pay $8,400 for disposing of a boat into Gulf St Vincent – an offence under section 22 of the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act 2016. Blackley was also required to pay $7,500 to a commercial salvage operator in an attempt to recover the vessel.

The penalty is the outcome of an investigation led by the EPA, with support from the Department of abandoned at Largs North. EPA officers subsequently searched a Largs North address, locating and seizing a fishing vessel and other items suspected of being used in the operation.

Forensic analysis identified a GPS location where the other vessel was thought to have been sunk. On 17 December 2018, the EPA and SAPOL Water Operations officers went to the GPS Beach. EPA officers also matched the sunken vessel to an 8m vessel sold through a Facebook advertisement.

EPA Investigations Manager Stephen Barry said the EPA is aware that some anglers disposed of items at sea to create illegal artificial reefs for their own purposes.

“This practice may have occurred over many years, however in 2016 the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act introduced penalties for anyone caught doing this,” he said. “The act also has provisions requiring offenders to pay to recover such items. We have heard of scrap metal, whitegoods, shopping trolleys and vessels being towed out and dumped in waters around the state.

“Sunken items can contain pollutants such as oils, greases and chemicals, and pose a risk to navigation and a hazard to commercial fishing equipment. They also undermine authorised actions by government to create artificial reefs for habitat restoration and public recreation.”

Neil MacDonald from the Saint Vincent Gulf Prawn Boat Owner’s Association said that privately deployed artificial reefs were a threat to commercial fishing safety.

“The prawn industry has grave concerns at the growing proliferation of illegal reefs or FADs and the risks they pose to the safety of prawn boats and their crew,” he said. “We operate in a high-risk environment at sea fishing at night. Regardless of the skill of our skippers and crew there are real risks to the lives of crew members and the safety of fishing equipment and boats.” – FM usually move under the boat, viewing the boat as a protective structure, and wanting to get in its shadow. Then you just move the jig up and down with short, sharp hops. If you’re unsure, or want to buy some jigs, drop in and see us at the shop in Aberdeen.

These deep fish can also be caught on paddletail plastics. You can either fish the plastics vertically with a slow wind, or can be used when fishing weedless, and again if you drop into the shop we can show you the different ways to rig weedless. Some plastics also work better than others when fished weedless.

Suspending jerkbaits target big fish throughout winter and are great fun to fish. There are many varieties on the market, with varying sizes and depths. The basic technique is to cast next to some type

Commercial fishers say that illegal artificial reefs are posing a danger to crew safety and equipment. Image courtesy of EPA SA.

didn’t deter one angler in SA from scuttling an old boat to create his own personal FAD.

The former commercial fisherman agreed to pay a civil penalty after the vessel was sunk off O’Sullivan Beach, SA in November 2018, to create an artificial reef.

David Alex Blackley has been penalised by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), and Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA), South Australian Police (SAPOL) and the Onkaparinga City Council.

Evidence obtained by the EPA includes CCTV footage of Blackley launching a vessel at O’Sullivan Beach boat ramp on 18 November 2018. The footage also records another boat arriving at the ramp to tow the vessel into Gulf St Vincent. The trailer used was later found location and commenced a grid search using advanced sonar capability. They identified a vessel on the sea floor, nearly 15km off O’Sullivan Beach, at a depth of approximately 30m.

A commercial dive team surveyed and took video footage of the sunken vessel. The footage revealed the sunken vessel had characteristics consistent with the vessel seen on CCTV being towed at O’Sullivan horizontally. Again, colour matters when doing this. It is worth fishing a variety of colours until you find what the fish are after. I recommend fishing both natural colours to trying to match the hatch, and UV colours such as lime chartreuse.

By far my favourite type of winter fishing is the edge plastic and jerkbait bite. Lake St Clair has many weed beds, and fishing these is great fun with lots of fish on offer to be caught. When fishing plastics on the edge I like fishing weedless, I hate getting snagged and fishing weedless reduces snags considerably. There are a few different rigs that of fish-holding structure such as weed or timber. Wind the lure down and let it sit. Give the lure a series of jerks and let it sit again. The lure will suspend in the water column. Vary the time the lure suspends, from a short few seconds to a long minute! Usually the fish hit the lure on the pause but sometimes they will also hit them on the jerk.

Next month I will focus on fishing the edge using weedless plastics and look at some of the different techniques and plastics to use.

In the meantime, if you’re heading to Glenbawn or St Clair, feel free to drop in and ask about the different techniques.

Pull up next to trees and the bass will generally move out from the trees and under the boat. Then you can target them vertically with fewer snags.

Winter is a great time to take the family out and catch school bass.