What’s biting?
By the Tin Can Bay Fishing Club
Three fishing training days – free to locals – are planned. Check out pages 8 and 9 and book early on 0437242717, as numbers are limited.
With the warmer weather the mangrove jack have become more active and have been caught on various flesh baits as well as live baits such as poddy mullet, herrings and diver whiting.
While the better quality fish have been caught at night, early mornings and late afternoons have been productive, particularly on the rising tide.
The bite period seems to be fairly short at the moment with most activity being for up to an hour some time on the top half of the rising tide, so it seems to be the right time in the right place is important.
Most of the local creek systems have produced jacks during the last couple of weeks. If the jacks prove to be elusive on the day there are usually a couple of gold or black spot cod or bream to be caught to put on the dinner plate.
The inside reefs have produced a few fish with sweetlip, nannygai, slatey bream and large tusk fish being caught.
The grey overcoat brigade are patrolling the reefs at the moment as any live bait or larger flesh bait put down to try to catch a cod are being hammered within minutes by toothy variety sharks of all sizes.
Two in the two-to-three meter range have been wrestled to the side of the boat recently for a quick photo and then released .
The summer whiting and flathead are a bit elusive at the moment with a bit of effort required to catch a feed .
They have been seen in the shallows but finding them in a hungry mood seems difficult. There are always a few winter whiting to be found in the deeper water and keep a look out for squid following them up and have a jig at the ready.
It is not the traditional time of the year to catch squid, but there are still a few small patches around to top up the fresh bait if not enough for a feed.
There are a few mud crabs around at the moment but individual catches in good numbers must be difficult with the large numbers of pots seen in the creek systems, especially over the holiday period.
Some of the creek entrances nearly need traffic lights and speed limit signs installed to control some enthusiastic crabbers .
It is always worth putting the boat in the water on a good day if only to get out in the fresh air and cruise around slowly looking at and appreciating all the various sea creatures that make our local waterways their home.