During the last month we have seen some fantastic stable weather and with it has been some great fishing particularly inside Georges Bay.

This summer there have been quite a few small “Pinkie” Snapper caught throughout the bay, both on baits and soft plastic lures. Areas such as Moulting Bay, Treloggins Shore and Beauty Bay have produced some good catches and some fish have also been caught from the jetty’s. Recently a couple of regular anglers fishing the bay caught their bag limit of snapper ranging from 30cm to 38cm in size. The bag limit for Snapper in Tasmania is 5 fish per person and a minimum size of 30cm.

The Garfish have also started and good schools have been present in the bay for almost a month or so now. Whilst they still have a little bit of growing to do before they are at the giant size we have become accustomed to there are still some excellent sized fish to be caught at the moment.

Good numbers of King George Whiting are also still being caught by bait fisherman in Georges Bay. There have been plenty of reports of large Whiting being caught in the Bay mostly around the shallower sand bank areas along the channel. These fish can be caught with baits such as Pippies and Clams but one of the best baits for them is the Dynabait Freeze Dried Tubeworms and Bloodworms. This is a Freeze Dried Tube or Blood worm bait that you simply soak the in salt water for 25 minutes and then you are ready to fish. As soon as this baitworm hits the water the flavour explosion will attract any fish within a reasonable distance resulting in a biting frenzy. The freeze dried product has a shelf life of at least 2 years and can be kept in the car, in your tackle box or on the boat, are environmentally friendly and are all natural and available exclusively at St Helens Bait & Tackle.

The bay has also been alive with many schools of small to medium Salmon, whilst not many fish are the big models we saw last season they have still been a lot of fun on light tackle, also mixed in with them are Tailor and some of them not so small. A report came in recently of some Tailor caught around the 4-5lb size which offered great sport and good table fare.

The last month has also been an absolute cracker for quality Bream, many of the East Coast systems have been producing excellent numbers and sizes of Black Bream and at this time of year the flats fishing with hard body lures is just superb. One recent outing to Anson’s Bay by a number of young anglers with Michael Haley of Gone Fishing Charters caught some of the best Bream of the season so far with the largest fish coming in at 48cm to the fork. By the end of the session they had caught a large number of fish for the day, all of which were released, with the biggest 10 all being over 45cm to the fork. All fish were caught in either deeper water on 100mm Squidgy Wrigglers in Bloodworm colour and once the tide was up on the flats with Bushy Stiffy lures in Tassie Tiger.

Prawning has started again with plenty of people heading out on the calm nights, prawn light, net and bucket in hand and many have not been disappointed. Georges Bay, Anson’s Bay, Scamander River Mouth and various coastal Lagoons have all produced some good hauls of quality Prawns all around a good eating size. The Easter period should see them grow a little more and the next month or so should be prime time for Prawning. Remembering that the possession limit is 2kg per person, if you happen to see anyone collecting more Prawns then they are entitled contact Fishwatch on 0427 655 557.

Along the coast it seems plenty of boat anglers are catching good numbers of larger than normal Flathead, and most fish seem to be in the shallower water at the moment around 15-20m. Areas between the Gardens and Sloop Rock have been productive as has Paddys Island and off Scamander. 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. These will be available exclusively over the Easter period at St Helens Bait & Tackle.

Offshore the action is starting to hot up and during the last month a number of Marlin sightings have been reported both inshore and out wide. Over Easter there were some decent Yellowfin Tuna weighed in for the Easter Game Fishing Competition, a 66kg and a 75kg Yellowfin Tuna were brought to boat caught in only 70m of water just outside Merricks Reef as well as a few Bluefin to 23kg further out wide. Also a Marlin was lost at the boat after a short fight by another Trailer Boat

For more information and entry forms and any more advice on where to go and what to catch just drop in and see me, Jamie, at St Helens Bait & Tackle…….Tight Lines