Marlin mania continued this week with reports of these exhilarating billfish, continuing to be taken directly offshore from our Illawarra coastline.
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Mark Halling maintained his seemingly never-ending quest to catch, tag and release as many marlin as possible this season, before they move elsewhere.
Last weekend Tyler Atkins joined the crew of Anticipation and successfully tagged and released his first ever marlin with a healthy striped estimated at around 60 kilos.
The thrill of holding onto the bill alongside the boat and then releasing to watch it swim away is something that he will never forget, well done Tyler. There were plenty of marlin tagged over the weekend with many boats getting more than three fish for the day.
There were also plenty of big dolphin fish with a couple well and truly over the 20 kilo mark and even a couple of wahoo caught and crews made the most of it, as this weekend's weather forecast, does not too flash.
For those chasing reds, there were still plenty of them about especially out on the deeper reefs such as Bandit and Wollongong where fish to 4 kilos were taken drifting the vast bait schools that are present at the moment.
Not only were the hungry snapper sitting under them, they were joined by game species including marlin, dollies and one report of a 12 kilo wahoo was taken.
Pig fish and mowies were pulled from the bottom zone if the baits were not nailed on the way down.
Schools of frigate mackerel are starting to thicken up offshore with these little speedsters gorging themselves on whitebait.
Kings were still about in good numbers with some good fish again coming in from the Islands off Port Kembla and again there were very few rats in the mix.
Beaches are still fishing good for the bread and butter species with some good bream and tarwhine about at present.
Still also plenty of good schools of salmon and tailor about both dawn and dusk with some big tailor amongst them.
Whiting are still prevalent of most beaches if you are adept at catching your own beach worms that will almost guarantee a good feed.
Cod stocks replenished in Darling River
More than 60,000 Murray Cod have been released back into the Darling River near Menindee back on December 7, two years after severe drought triggered fish deaths.
These restocked Murray Cod were the offspring of fish rescued by DPI Fisheries with the help of community groups in the sweltering summer of 2019 and the brood stock were taken to the NSW Government's fish hatchery at Narrandera, where they have stayed until conditions improved.
A further 50,000 Murray cod fingerlings were also released into the Macquarie River on December 15 and these fish are the offspring of adult cod rescued from the Macquarie last year, which were relocated from severely drought-affected sections of the river.
It involved a joint operation between local landholders, Inland Waterways Ozfish, DPI Fisheries and other community groups.
The previous native fish rescues and current restocking efforts are a great example of the fishing community and DPI Fisheries working together.
Trout release
DPI Fisheries has released tiger trout in NSW for the first time with 1500 bred at the Gaden Trout Hatchery at Jindabyne. The fingerlings were released into Thompson's Creek Dam on January 11, with more planned for Lake Wallace, Portland Millpond, Lake Lyell and Lake Pillans later this year.
Tiger trout are a sterile hybrid between a brown trout and a brook trout and they have a reputation for eating other fish, which makes them especially useful where pest species such as redfin are a problem.
Excellent returns at Game event
Luke from Leisure Coast Bait and Tackle at Corrimal happily commented on last weekend's sensational weather, where just about everyone made the most of it, especially those competing up in the Game Fishing Association annual interclub game fishing tournament at Nelson Bay.
Due to current health restrictions and requirements, it was run in a totally different format than it has been in the past, but that was only on land.
Boats found and tagged huge numbers of game fish that were released over the two-day event including many sharks, tuna, marlin and dolphin fish.
Convention off
The ongoing health restrictions have had a serious effect on a number of 2021 ANSA (Sportfishing NSW) conventions.
Narooma Sport and Game clubs convention has been cancelled until 2022 and the very popular ANSA NSW Sydney Sportfishing Convention is postponed to November 2021 with a confirmation date yet to be finalised.
