Around The Bay - Tuesday, February 1, 2022

By Jim’s Bait and Tackle

MEL has spent most of the week laying out the new shop and it’s all but finished and starting to look like a tackle shop with a bit of stock on the walls.

We have been asked several times if we are having a sale when we move.

While at this stage we have no plans for a moving sale as such, we are looking at putting something together for the March long weekend or over Easter, and will let everyone know through the reports and Facebook.

Something definitely in the planning is our Good Friday Easter Fishing Comp, which will be our 5th having donated over $10,000 so far, $4000 of that last year.

It’s difficult to write a report without mentioning tuna again this week, with the way they have been fishing.

They just seem to be everywhere and in big numbers, in close, in the entrance, foots, bore beach, right along the coast to cape Patterson and out to Cody banks then 5 minutes later they are nowhere to be found.

My suggestion for those struggling is wait for the moon in a week or so and simply assume nothing and try everything.
While offshore there have been plenty of flathead caught and looking at the quality, it’s well worth putting some time in to find them.

While the reports have been good, finding them has been a challenge and many short drifts and a bit of grid work is needed.

To help improve your chance, try using the smaller hook snapper snatchers with a bit of pilchard or squid and make sure you have enough lead to get to the bottom.

There are a lot of quality salmon around the schools of tuna, gummies up to 12kg were reported from the area around the Powlett, and a handful of snapper from the same area.

Back in the bay and the whiting reports improved in the shallower areas now the traffic has slowed off a little.
Cleeland Bight still patchy with plenty of noise heading offshore but the reports were much better from Dickies Bay and Reef Island this week.

While there were still reports coming from these areas the fish were very small, reports this week contained several of the 40cm plus models and not as many of the undersized ones.

Whiting is still fishing well in the deep, but the pinkies seem to have got thicker and it becomes a little frustrating at times. 
We haven’t seen much in the way of snapper of late and the size pinkies are also having trouble to get to the baits, but in fairness the number of boats fishing in the bay has dramatically decreased with everybody taking opportunity of the calm offshore conditions.

Aside from all the regular species we are seeing excellent numbers of species as well.

The tuna of course which are also travelling into the bay, kingfish being caught around Cowes and Elizabeth Island.
Reports of mulloway from several different spots, 100s of mackerel and yakkas being caught off the jetties and in the boats, calamari from all corners of the bay, garfish have been bigger than the whiting and we are seeing regular catches into the double figures of flathead worth keeping.