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Fishing Report 19/06/21

Well, what a few weeks we have been having. 

It’s almost beginning to feel that the prospect of seeing pigs fly might actually not be too far away, things that normally make sense are thrown out the door every day we open ours. But that’s the positive, we are opening ours and taking it day by day and thanks to the continued support from the locals coming in and those buying orders online we are still here. One day we were worried someone might cough on us, then we were concerned the bait would melt. From Covid to apocalyptic storms, we have had it all.

Now the only thing that should be of concern is the fact you’re here reading this report instead of out in the boat chasing those Tuna and Kingfish. For some reason, the new normal now involves customers catching Tuna and Kingfish in the middle of June! I said a few reports ago “the best is yet to come” and it turns out I was right, actual customers ventured out the front over the last week, since the storm has past the water clarity has improved. Not everyone is catching them, the majority are seeing them but the lucky few have actually landed them. We have had reports over the last week of a couple Tuna being caught, majority of them towards Inverloch some off Kilcunda. Not surprisingly they are down deep, majority of the reports are of schools hiding below the Whales that have moved in. There is a lot of traffic on the water lately whale watchers alike, but there were 2 customers lucky enough to snag a Kingfish! 

Again, it seems those land-based customers have out fished those in the boats, in both catch numbers and species count (customer v customer). The whiting is still going strong, land-based and boat based, majority or the reports are coming from the nice sandy banks. Offshore Flatties are also strong, good sized and fat, both in close and in that 30m mark. 

Salmon from the beaches have also decided to turn up in good schools with a lot of larger fish amongst them, there has been a few nice 3kg+ ones coming from Kilcunda. The flavour of the month seems to be the metal slugs in the pink and blue colour around that 20g mark. 

Gummy sharks have been more prominent this week with plenty of nice ones up the top of the bay toward Corinella, nothing huge but still a few kgs worth of flake for the freezer. No real reports of any offshore Gummys as yet with the majority still being the larger Schoolies, these buggers have a toothy grin so run a heavy leader or some wire.  

So, we can always tell when a new product is being promoted or populated online, it seems to get in a league of its own and the customers one after another begin to ask for it. Normally, we brush it off realise something is being pushed somewhere but this time is different, what is the go with the squid? There is too many people coming in asking for this to not have been displayed, written or shown somewhere and that’s heavy weighted squid floats. No I’m not talking about the everyday weighted squid floats that have a small amount of weight, I’m talking very heavy. We don’t stock these so people are buying 2 or 3oz sinkers to put on them. I’m not a scientist but isn’t the purpose of something that’s called a float simply supposed to float? The way people are using them they are sitting well below the surface. The advancements in squid jig designs give them motion, so its not that, the slight weighted floats sit perfectly on the surface, so its not that, and there is float stoppers that set height, so what’s left? Some insight would be appreciated. 

Apologies for the lack of reports over the last few weeks, there has been little to no use writing about the lockdown we were in or the fact there was just simply no fish being reported for a while. We would rather give you the facts without the typical fisherman exaggerations. 

We have spent the last couple of months updating the shop, moving it around, bringing in new lines so that our customers can have a better shopping experience whilst they are vising us in-store. So, thank you for your patience during this time, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you cannot find anything throughout the shop.