Around the Bay - Tuesday, September 20, 2022

With Jim’s Bait and Tackle

JUST when it was looking like we could put the winter jackets in the cupboard and start heading to the ramp with the boat, the weekend threw a bit of a curve ball, reminding us that the winter bite hasn’t quite gone yet. 

There are many other factors leading to the lack of reports lately and one big one is the cost of fuelling the boat. 

For a tank of fuel, you could get yourself a land based set up or even just a decent couple of rods and some gear, use your boat reels, and spend the day fishing off the many beaches or jetties around this area. 

We can help out with any information you need, what to use, where to go so just drop in and see us.

Mel and Amanda together with Women in Recreational Fishing (WIRF) ran another successful information night for the ladies at the shop last week with over 20 attending. 

It was a night of information designed to help those who wanted to hone their skills or simply get started in fishing with super provided and plenty of giveaways. 

There will be another night coming up before Christmas and I will put information in our reports or on our social media platforms. 

Barrel tuna! They don’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to move on with several reports still coming in over the last few weeks. 

The way it’s going there will be little rest between the barrels and school fish, which we would expect to show in another couple of months. 

These waters are becoming some of the healthiest and abundant waters on the southern coast which only adds concern to what affect a farm or windmills might have. 

If it’s also a concern of yours, make sure you have your say on the various site wanting feedback. 

The tuna also seems to have moved out to deeper water and not close to the entrances. 

Good reports of calamari from the beaches mostly this week with the jetties not quite as successful or with much smaller calamari. 

Ventnor, Cleeland Bight beaches the most successful and from those using baited jigs. 

From the land the artificial jigs caught a few but worked much better in the boats or kayaks. 

The jetties while we did get some reports, they were a little quiet despite the water being reasonably clean and weed free, that’s just fishing though, and this week could be completely opposite. 

The rest of the reports came from boats that headed out on the handful of opportunities we have had and were chasing snapper and whiting. 

Many that did get out found fish and while they got a feed, that was about it and nothing to write home about. 

The quality of the fish was good, whiting to 42cm, gummies to 8kg and snapper around the perfect pan size. 

The majority of the snapper and gummy reports did, however, come from the Elizabeth Island to the Lang Lang area, with whiting all over the place. 

Most of the new season’s stock has all come in now and there isn’t a lot of room left on the shelves in the shop. 

Time is also running out to get your rods or reels repaired, firstly because the time we have to fix them becomes less but getting parts becomes harder as we get closer to Christmas.