Around the Bay with Jim's Bait & Tackle

The reports this week were mostly from shallow water with only a handful from the deep. I don’t think the whiting have gone from the deep, but the pinkies seem to have moved in by the 100s and the whiting are not getting a chance to get to the baits.

We had a couple of reports from customers that bagged out and some that got close with the majority of those coming from Cleeland Bight and Dickies Bay. Often both areas were needed to get your numbers.

Snapper reports this week definitely slowed down but more due to the fact there wasn’t very many out chasing them.

The reports from those who did target them suggest that numbers and size are still good.

This week the snapper was like the whiting with the shallower better because of the weather not allowing you to fish the deep.

We only had a couple over 5kg reported, with most of the bigger snapper closer to 4kg, perfect size for that Christmas Day BBQ.

Best areas were Corinella and as far up as the fingers then close to Rhyll.

Calamari reports are just rolling along. While being nothing too special no one is complaining much about what is around or the quantity they are getting.

We had some quality size reported from in Cleeland Bight, both from the boat and from the beach. The majority caught on baited jigs this week with the calamari often following the artificial jigs but just not taking them. Even the customers that caught them on the baited ones said that they seemed a bit timid.

No one reported getting their bag of calamari but five or six seemed to be the standard. The sizes were all over the place with everyone managing at least one big one.

Offshore hasn’t been that friendly for the average size boat to head out with a reasonable size swell over the last few weeks.

There has as always been a few opportunities for those more experienced. While the flathead was patchy and the pinkies seem to have also found their way into the deep, the best report for the week came from a customer that headed in Sunday, just after I had been sent a video of a large school of kingfish and decided to pick up a lure just in case he found them.

Getting out there and finding it a bit choppy to fish for flathead he decided to just do a bit of blind trawling and to his surprise was rewarded with, not a kingfish but a Bluefin tuna.

It is about a month earlier than they showed up last year but showing up now just fits perfectly with the strange year we are having. A handful were also caught off Port Phillip heads on Sunday as well.

Christmas is almost here and from speaking with the accommodation businesses there isn’t a lot left. If the weather is fine there will be a welcome influx of visitors spending plenty of money we hope.

It means ramps, jetties and beaches will be busy and you will need to fish a bit smarter to not get caught up in the traffic.

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