Over the past week, there have been several windows of opportunity to get offshore for a fish.
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Wind, waves and tides have been favourable to those who had a bit of patience and waited for the lulls. If the mornings were a bit ordinary, the afternoons were okay.
Those who did venture outside were well rewarded with some prime Nambucca seafood. Snapper, pearl perch, tuskfish and some late season mackerel have come to the cleaning tables.
Pete Brennan is in town from Oberon, dodging the cold weather. Pete was out mid week and put five big parrots, a pearlie and snapper in the tub.
A couple of the parrots went over 50 centimetres and around four kilograms. He also explored the river with deckie, Richard and they fished the pilons of the new highway bridge and the entrance to Newee Creek with soft plastics for a dozen good flathead. The best went 59 centimetres.
Dave Gladman and Billy Cook were on the water, Sunday, and fished the close reefs for snapper and pearlies.
Ray Fogg and Billy Watts travelled out to the wider reefs and fished the 70 metre marks for a feed of snapper and pearl perch. Bill said it was straight up and down fishing with little current and whole pillies or big strips of mullet were the best baits.
One crew went way out to 250 metres chasing cod and pulled up one of the fattest pearlies I’ve seen. It was well over 50 centimetres, but thick through the shoulders and tail.
There are good parrots about from mid water out to 60 metres. Most are taking baits on the drift and most in about 40 metres.
I noticed a boat anchored up well south of the bar and in about 35 meters. There are rubble beds in that area that might be well worth a drift through.
This to me is the best time of the year to fish offshore, so if the opportunity is there, take it. Unfortunately, my boat is in dry dock for a few more days, but the weekend is looking real good.
I took the boat for another putt up the river looking for leaks and noticed that there were plenty of keeper bream hanging around bank structure.
There was nothing in mid water, so if you are fishing off the bank, don’t toss the bait out into the middle of the river, let it drift down along the bank, there’s half a chance of putting a nice bream in the bucket.
A trip to the local bait and tackle shop might also shed light on what’s biting, on what and where. Ya can’t beat local knowledge.
