The last month or so has seen some decent rainfalls in Tasmania, particularly in the North East causing some dirty fresh water to dampen the angling pursuits of fisherman up and down the coast. The surface waters of most East Coast inlets have been murky with surface temperatures as low as 7 degrees however with some decent tides pushing good clean 13-14 degree water in the fishing has still been holding strong and once the grey clouds have lifted it has made way for some beautiful days of glassy calm conditions and some warm winter sun.

Although the Bay has seen some dirty water on top it hasn’t deterred schools of Salmon busting up the surface up and down the bay feeding hard on schools of small baitfish. These schools of small and medium sized fish appear on the surface and then disappear just as quickly and racing around trying to catch them can prove frustrating to say the least.

There has been some much l arger Salmon however being caught by anglers lucky enough to find the schools. Many of these schools have been roaming the channel from Akaroa through to the Barway and some fish are reaching 3kg. These fish can be a little harder to locate and will generally not show many telltale signs on the surface like their smaller brothers and sisters do. Keep a look out for single fish jumping and don’t discount any surface disturbance no matter how small. The birds don’t seem to work these fish so don’t expect them to give the location of the fish away. As the water throughout the channel is not relatively deep (2-5m) the fish seem to hug the bottom pretty closely so heavier weights on soft plastics and weighted flies need to be used or let your lure drop to the bottom before starting the retrieve.

Large Garfish are still being caught in good numbers, although spasmodic in their activity, and can be found mostly around the sea grass beds down along the red channel markers. A small float with a small #10-12 hook and a tiny piece of white squid bait is the perfect rig for the garfish. Whenever fishing for Garfish a good berley trail is as important as the bait and Ultrabite Stimulate Ground Berley mixed with a small amount of fish oil and sent in a trail down current will attract a school of Gars very quickly.

Good solid Silver Trevally are also still about and can be found all up and down the channel as well as underneath any of the schools of Salmon, Tailor and Mackerel feeding on the baitfish out in open water. The Trevally school up underneath the feeding fish and clean up all the scraps sinking down below. Mixed in with the Silvers have also been some Snotty Trevally and whilst can be a little more tricky to catch are great table fare and excellent sport. A lot of the good Snotty’s have been coming from the jetties around the bay as well so offer a good catch for land based anglers.

The Bream have also fished well through the winter months and although some of the water temperatures in the Scamander River and Ansons Bay have slowed the action somewhat there have still been some good big fish being caught on both bait and lures. Most fish have been coming from lower down in the systems however the next month should see a movement of schools heading further up the Rivers.

With some good winter rains and decent snowfalls just behind us the opening of the Trout Season this month should see some excellent small stream action here on the East Coast.

The Georges River and its tributaries have sustained good flows all winter and should have had excellent recruitment during the spawning season.

On the offshore front there has been good hauls of Flathead coming in from both the Gardens area and the coastline from Paddy’s Island down to Scamander. Most fish seem to be coming from water around 10-15 metres deep. The best lure for Flathead at the moment seems to be the Neptune Arrow Jig rigs in both the pink and pink/white however the new “LUMO colour has proven to be absolutely deadly.

Further offshore anglers are having good results drop lining for Blueye Trevalla with some boats catching bags limits on regular occasions. Now is also the time to start getting ready for the Striped Trumpeter season, as the days get calmer its time to look at the reefs in water between 90-120 metres for Striped Trumpeter.