As always over the holiday period we get plenty of land-based reports. With the windy weather this week keeping the boats on the trailer, several people decided to head to the jetties and other land areas to try their luck.

We had some good reports from the Powlett of bream with a lot of smaller ones but a couple that were also very reasonable.
Calamari were caught off most of the jetties as well as the beaches at Cleeland Bight and Ventnor, but not in big numbers. Some quality in size but at times a long wait between catches and a mixture of colours needed for those using artificial jigs.

Boats and kayaks that got out on the water did better. With a lot less traffic on the water the calamari were not quite as flighty.

Salmon reports always get better over the holiday period with considerably more people fishing on the surf.
We often get the question “I know salmon are a winter fish but are there any around”.
We see salmon all year round and I think the, “it’s only a winter fish,” comes from how many people fish for them then.
Many years ago, I remember dad driving us down to Kilcunda at 3am in the morning in the mid-winter with a howling wind, just to get us  a good spot on the beach and we would do that many weekends over the winter but never in the summer.

You don’t see those packed winter days on the beach anymore, but you do see people fishing all year now and I think that’s where the whole theory of them only being a winter fish comes from.
We see as many caught during the summer as we do through the winter and if you took boats into the catches we see far more in the summertime.
The other thing to remember is salmon are a fish that will swim by in a school looking for food and keep swimming if there is none.
They don’t have little tide watches to tell them its high tide and they need to head to the shallows of the beach.

Our reports come from all year, all parts of the tide and all times of the day.
Haven’t seen any big snapper in the Bay lately but we are seeing some quality pinkies still and the tiny undersized ones haven’t gone anywhere either.
We have seen a couple of bigger snapper from offshore which was a surprise to those who were chasing a gummy, towards Kilcunda the best.

There is plenty of other activity in the bay with quality whiting not running out yet.
The numbers at times haven’t been there but when they are around the 40cm mark, six or 10 make a very good feed.
We have lost count of how many reports we have had from people catching whiting while looking for gummies or snapper in the deep channels.
There hasn’t just been the odd one from the deep, with most who caught them while not targeting them catching several, and those who are actually targeting them in the deep having no problem getting a good bag to take home.

Whiting from the deeper water, 10m and above, tend to be on the bigger side and you don’t seem to catch those small undersize ones.
Gummy reports have been good in the bay as well and while not as big as offshore they are still a reasonable size and worth the effort. The best reports have come from just off Elizabeth Island and Gardeners Channel.