Overall numbers have slowed but there are still a few black marlin mixed up in among the more standard striped marlin. The island has been slow for kingfish though, with more miss than hits. 

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Nick Cowley, skipper on the charter Playstation, confirmed he has seen the marlin bite slow down the past few days but will pick up again soon. “Kingies at Montague are remaining a bit slower with only a few legal kingies each trip yet still some nice size fish up to the 90cm range. Full moon at the moment makes things at bit slower and expect it to pick up In a few days time.”

Russell Banks of Congo sent us photos of a rare wahoo speared off Batemans Bay with Paul Martin and Josh on Tuesday morning.

The Narooma News’ fishing report last week predicted that a wahoo could be a possibility in local waters due to the push of very warm water coming down the coast.

Russell said he read our report last week. “It was with that in mind that I ventured out. We trolled threw and jigged a few lures around for a few small dollies before jumping in and seeing the wahoo,” he reports.

“The fish was made even sweeter seeing as I ventured out to the Bay FAD yesterday to find it missing. Apparently washed away over night. The water was around the 25 degree mark.”

On the inlets and lakes, the hot temperatures are making for some great surface and shallow-water action for bream and flathead on hardbody lures. Wallaga Lake has been fishing well.

Corunna Lake has been hit and miss for flathead since opening recently but some anglers getting onto patches were able to get a good feed using soft plastics and bait.

Wagonga Inlet will be very busy this weekend with around 80 teams expected for the Million Dollar View Narooma Flathead Challenge – let’s hope there are some good flathead to be photographed for the judges at O’Briens Hotel. 

​Kalen Stachurski on holidays from Emerald, Queensland and visiting his Narooma family caught this big salmon from under the Narooma Bridge last week.

He was pretty stoked and dad said the youngster begged him to go and get the fishing rods and bait after they spotted the school of salmon swimming under the bridge. There were also apparently some big bream around as well. They did well to catch the fish in the spot known for its strong currents. Well done Kalen!

There continue to be great flathead catches coming out of Tuross Lake, with Max Feeley catching and releasing another 89cm whopper on poddy mullet.

Now is also the time to head upstream for the native bass and estuary perch as they come on in the hot weather and the annual spawning closure is not too far away. 

Ray at Brewing, Camping, Fishing at Moruya said the Moruya breakwall has been fishing really well with large salmon being plentiful and some good tailor as well. The beaches around Moruya are producing whiting  and bream in the gutters on worms and pippies. Blackfish are plentiful in Moruya river on weed and small nippers. Gulp Nemesis in Pumpkinseed colour are nailing flathead in the shallows near the airport, Ray reports.

The Dalmeny Fishing Club’s February weigh-in was extremely  quiet with a lot of members away.

The only two who weighed in were Buzz and Norm with some lovely bream. Buzz was the winner for the day with his 1.144kg thumping bream and Norm was the lucky angler.

The next weigh in will be on March 20 with some of the ladies venturing out with Wazza on Lighthouse Charters, so expect some big catches next month.

The annual trivia night will be Easter Saturday, March 26 at 6pm, $15 a head for members for a two-course menu, tables of six so organise your team tables asap. Tickets will be on sale at Club Dalmeny soon, there will be limited seat numbers so don't miss a great  night. The Nashberries will be playing, so there will be lots of dancing after trivia. Don't forget to check the raffle roster! – Kim

NSGFC news

Narooma Sport and Game Fishing Club member John Scott finally landed that elusive marlin! John has hooked them previously but this time, fishing with Bob Hirs out of Bob’s boat “Blackfin‟, he stayed connected to a 77kg striped marlin.

Very tired but very happy, John weighed the fish at the clubhouse and then fed the caravan park with delicious fillets from the fish. 

Bob meanwhile was at again this week fishing for sharks off Lakes Entrance, Victoria. They had a big night Tuesday on the makos. “We got 14 makos and one tiger. Makos ranged between 60 kg and 150kg.”

Recently some members had a successful trip down to Bemm river, Marlo and Mallacoota targeting bream and flathead.

Back closer to home, it seems the new Narooma FAD is doing its job with several dolphinfish were caught including by president Les Waldock and member Shane Ovington. 

NSGFC will again in its annual ANSA Sports Fishing Convention on March 11-13 with a catch-and-release section, in addition to the traditional line class and weight divisions.

The competition is open to all anglers not just ANSA club members, so contact NSGFC president Les Waldock on 0411 392 608 to get involved. – Jan Hemmingsen

Poor prawn perfomance

Coila service station owner Pete Ward grew up fishing Coila Lake as a youngster and so has a deep connection to the lake. So when he has gone down in recent weeks to check out people prawn fishing, he has been very disappointed with their attitude and behaviour.

“People in this shire are constantly critical of professional fisherman but over summer round Coila Lake we had a new group that make the pros look good and those people are the recreational prawn fisherman,” he said.

“There were literally hundreds of people in there every night and the mess left behind on the beach and in the dunes was a bloody disgrace especially from drag nets.”

Mr Ward said he found piles of dead small fish, crabs, octopus and seaweed everywhere as the fishers took what they came for and discarded the rest. Someone had actually thrown three stingrays into the dunes and someone’s dog found them the hard way.

The legal limit for prawns is 10 litres per person. Fishermen are allowed to use either drag net, a net dragged between two people, or individual scoop nets. The drag net is fairly indiscriminate getting smaller prawns and lots of small fish and other creatures as bycatch. 

“All round the local area these people were gloating on the fact that they got X amount of prawns, boasting 10kg, 20kg, 60kg and when you asked them quite simply why, most of them got offended as they obviously see it as their right to destroy the environment they are part of,” he said.

Tuross Head Fishing Cub secretary Max Castle confirmed there had been huge numbers of people prawn fishing, and Fisheries officers had been down several times in recent weeks, checking licenses and catches. Click here for full story

Drain reminder

​A resident let us know someone poured an apparent oily substance, possibly from an outboard motor, down a storm drain on The Loop in Narooma. Please do the right thing people as anything you pour down the drain ends up in our inlet! We posted the photo on the Narooma News Facebook page and people suggested security cameras on neigbouring houses may have caught the culprits, thought to be holidaymaker staying in an adjacent holiday house.