Fishing southern NSW report

Autumn is a great time of the year to ditch the rigours of work and get out and on the water; summer crowds begin to dwindle, the water gets a little cooler and some fish just seem to get hungrier.

I recently spent a few days travelling down the coast as far as Eden visiting friends, family…and fishing hard. And sure while not all species were enjoying the respite from the heat as much as I was, the ones I found obviously agreed it is a great time to inhabit the area.

While Kingfish have been off the menu at many spots, there has been some good numbers at times at Montague Island. At other two other hotspots I checked: Mowarry Point and Green Cape, the kings have slowed due to baitfish moving out to the shelf.

The far South Coast has also been a little quite for marlin, there is enough for locals to target, but if you have the choice between Jervis Bay and Brush Island is the hot spot at the moment.

In the estuaries and my experience is that Merimbula top lake and Pambula Lake fish very well on an outgoing tide, especially if your chasing a feed of Flathead or Trevally. This trip was no different; the 'Old Man’ and I struggled at the start with worm styled plastics on light and heavy jigheads, but when the tide started to run out that the fish came on the chew. We found vibration lures like 'Blades' in bright gold/Yellow colours accounting for some great Flathead. Healthy smatterings of fishing scents were applied to all lures resulting in one particular session on Pambula becoming ‘a fish a cast scenario’ for hours on end.

From all reports Clyde River Jewfish have been about for those anglers putting in a good number of tide changes with live or fresh bait. Myself and fellow angler Beau Inkpen took my new bass boat to Nelligen for a shakedown but we were chasing species a little more bread and butter. With the tide up high I was keen to head as far up the system as the sandbar depths would allow. We fished the falling tide at Currowan Creek and found plenty of Bream and Tailor ripping and sipping surface amongst the rocks.

The highlight of the tip and real surprise was the abundance of big Estuary Perch. The sight of a decent EP on the way back to the boat with his mates in tow was a real eye opener. Right place, right tide we managed over a dozen large specimens off the surface using 40mm poppers and 65mm stick baits. All were released except one for  the tooth.

The trick was to use a light leader, cast as tight to structure as possible, countdown a long pause and work back as slow as possible. Upon my return home to Canberra I received a tip off that small soft plastics fished around the National Museum walls were producing dozens of quality Redfin with a couple of 45 cm stonkers landed.

The National Museum envelopes the edge of the West Basin and is quite deep in areas but it's just around the corner on the shoreline towards the paddle boat hire and Ferry terminal that always fishes well for me. Featuring strewn rock bars cascading the whole length of the shore out into deeper water it’s like something out of an estuary reef system.

Schools of Goldfish and Carp have been spotted from the new Nishi building within casting distance over the last few days mid-morning and afternoon…a great scenario to go polaroiding with lure and fly.

Finally all readers should note the 2014 Canberra Carp Out is on Sunday the 30th March. Run by the Canberra Fishermans Club, the event is a great chance for family members to get out on our iconic Lake Burley Griffin and educate our youngsters on the impacts that European Carp and Redfin have on our waterways.

Derek 'Paffoh' Steele
Derek owns and runs ‘Import Tackle’