Winter species are becoming more numerous

Steve Winser

With water temperatures still high at 21°C+, there’s still a fair mixed bag of species to be had just now. We are starting to see a few of the winter species arrive, indicating a temperature drop may not be too far off.

The deeper reefs have been fishing well for the bread-and-butter species; snapper, mowies and the blue-spot flatties have been plentiful, and with a few days of light westerlies, the conditions have been good for a drift.

Some quality snapper have also been starting to show up in the shallows in close, particularly in the afternoons. These fish have been taken on a combination of bait and soft plastics.

The harbour has yielded a wide range of species lately – everything from kingfish, bonito, tailor and salmon to bream, trevally, blackfish and even a couple of teraglin.

Squid strips are (as usual) the choice for the kings. A few very large squid have been starting to show over the kelp

Clint with a nice twilight red from the shallows. beds, and a larger jig in the 3.0# to 3.5# size range is a good choice for these. The kingfish will start to push up into the upper harbour reaches as the water cools.

An all-round approach of fishing pilchards and squid strips with livies over any of the deeper structure in the harbour will see you come home with a feed of fish. You can encounter any of the aforementioned species, with some very large bream and blackfish showing up in the shallows often in less than a metre of water. A berley trail of bread and baits fished under small floats will see you with a feed. With air temperatures dropping rapidly and the water temperatures probably not far behind, next month should see a bit of a changeover as the winter species start to show up in greater