The tailor fishery has been a bit different so far this season. They have not been in abundance, but the fish are of good size. Normally, several fish would be caught out of a school of tailors, but they must be in very small schools of fish because we only catch one or two with little happening between fish.
The quality snapper has been few, with most fish between the 35-45cm range. Normally, we have a squid and yellowtail pike visiting our shore, bringing on the snapper. I hope the squid and pike show up soon, otherwise we will have missed the snapper fishing season. The snapper fishery closes in about a month, and by then, the water temperature is a bit cold in the shallow bay areas for snapper.
The winter bream fishery has been exceptional so far, and many fish in the 40cm range landed all along our coast. I caught a 39cm bream and a nice sweetlip. The hook snagged the bream in the cheek, and it pulled so hard that I thought I had a big snapper.
Tom Darton sent in some photos of flathead and bream he caught on a fine afternoon, the first beautiful non-windy day in what feels like months. Tom’s wife said it was too nice to work on the house and they should go fishing.
He caught a 62cm flathead on mullet using a light 8ft rod, Alvey reel and light line. Thanks to a friend, Len, who recently refurbished and donated the rod and reel, worked brilliantly. Tom also caught a 37cm bream caught on salted prawn.
Last week, Raymond Kennedy had a poor day at North Pine Dam with only 24 bass caught between them.
Only seven bass were over 30cm, with the largest only 34cm. The big schools have completely disappeared.
If you have any fishing questions or photographs of your catch or would like a fishing session, please get in touch with Michael at desdavidmichael@gmail.com
