Around The Bay - Wednesday, April 27, 2022

With Jim’s Bait and Tackle

THIS week rang in the last days of the school holidays, perhaps this is why the majority of our reports came from the land or because the last weekend the boat ramp required a 20-minute wait.

It’s always good to have those who have come to the Island for the long weekend and decided to give fishing a go.

For most, it’s just something to pass the time and for others it’s almost a rite of passage when visiting a fishing village like San Remo.

This is where the saying “beginners’ luck” becomes forefront in our minds, armed with a fishing rod, a bit of bait, basic tackle and absolutely no idea what they are doing the tourist go fishing.

The comeback in the shop the next day we ask them how they went; they then reel off all the bites they had, the fish they saw and of course the fun they had, this is all great until they get their phone out.

On their phone is a picture of a fish, whilst they show us this picture, they tell us how they didn’t know what it was and they threw it back, without realising they have just caught and thrown back a nice 45cm whiting.

Then after they leave, a local comes in, knows all the tricks all the spots and still hasn’t caught a single thing.

The Victorian Fisheries have an app and on this app, there is all of your rules and regulations, but also fish lengths, bag limits and photos of the fish for your identification.

If you still struggle your always welcome to send us a picture through our socials and we can help you out almost any time of the day.

The number one target this week continued to be whiting, but the number one catch for the week has been salmon.

There has been some nice Salmon for Cleeland Bight, Cape Woolamai, Inverloch, San Remo Jetty and Newhaven majority land based and nearly all above the 1kg mark.

This week’s flavour has been the small metal slugs, the 15grams in the silver of the blue, anything metallic that has a reflective strip has been the success.

Those in the boats did manage a couple of nice night runs on the gummies, one local mentioned he was fishing on the mud, shone the light on the water and there were flashes of grey submarines circling the underneath of the boat.

Other reports coming out of Rhyll from early mornings with a few gummies over that 15kg mark. Early in the week it was much like last, almost impossible to get through the mass amounts of Port Jackson sharks, later in the week though saw an easier run with not many baits lost.

It’s generally this time of year that we say goodbye to our official “summer season” and prepare to bunker down for winter.

This now means the shop will be shutting two days a week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

If, however, there is an exceptional day for fishing that falls on these days we will open.

The shop will also be closing an hour early on Sundays, now closing at 4.

If there are any short notice updates on our opening and closing hours, they will be posted as soon as they are known on our Facebook page.

For those who do not have social media, do not hesitate to call the shop for updated hours.