Reel Deal: Locals enjoy tuna bonanza

Offshore there were again plenty of tuna leading up to the weekend with quite a few locals having some excellent days on stick baits after finding the tuna were not hitting skirts or plastics.

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Tuna to 65 kilos were raised on the stick baits with fish blowing up all around the boats, with some monsters in the mix that couldn't be stopped with even the best fishing gear.

Reports started filtering through mid-last week of commercial longliners unloading at Bermagui and Ulladulla with good catches of bluefin tuna which had every game boat frothing at the bit for the impending run off the east coast.

The professionals were working quite wide over the past week but the water in which the tuna were holding is moving quickly closer to our coastline so fingers crossed we will see good number of big blueys in the coming weeks as a couple were taken by rec anglers further down the coast.

For those chasing reds there were plenty of good fish come in late last week with Sunday being the pick of the days and many opting for the afternoon bite with the new moon only days away.

A good tide change just before 6pm saw some solid reds round the 3 kilo mark mixed in with some good sized sampson fish, mowies and trevally.

There were a few solid kingies landed over the weekend again with Port Kembla holding plenty of good sized hoods at present with fish to the 10 kilo mark and reports of a couple of bigger ones winning their freedom after short hard tussle.

All the flathead drifts were still holding excellent fish with the magic depth reported by many over the weekend was between the 45 to 50 meters straight off Stanwell Beach.

Crews reported it was only taking a couple of hours to bag out on some solid fish up to a kilo.

Send your high resolution fishing pictures to Gary at gazwade@bigpond.com for publication.

Agreed a little early, but the "Gone Fishing Day" is on again and you need to mark Sunday 10 October 2021 in your calendar for NSW Gone Fishing Day as this popular event is not to be missed.

It doesn't matter if you haven't fished before or if you're the keenest of anglers, Gone Fishing Day is for everyone with free community fishing events, it will be hosted by DPI across NSW to celebrate our love of fishing and encourage everyone to get out on the water.

Once again, clubs and organisations are encouraged to host their own event with options to apply for grant funding of up to $2,000 or for a Gone Fishing Day package which includes 30 rod and reel sets to assist with your event and giveaways/prizes and advisory information.

Application forms and grant funding guidelines are available at: https://bit.ly/3pk6E5p Gone Fishing Day is run in collaboration with the Australian Recreational Fishing Foundation.

Activities in NSW are supported by the Recreational Fishing Trusts and NSW DPI.

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The latest edition of the "RAP Report" (DPI's Research Angler Program newsletter) has been released and in this edition, they take a look back at the 2019/2020 season.

Find out about great catches from the monthly winners, as well as some interesting facts and figures from this year's donations.

Check it out at https://bit.ly/3wERQB3

The RAP report is produced from information provided by everyday fishos like you as your fishing successes help the Department learn about fish growth and their movements.

Donate frames from your mulloway, snapper, kingfish, dusky flathead, blue spot flathead, pearl perch, Spanish and spotted mackerel catches.

More info at https://bit.ly/2PGLM86, including the location of your closest drop-off points.

Local beaches have been still fishing really well with near wall to wall (wave to wave) loads of salmon and tailor about in good numbers and size that have been devouring just about anything that has been put in front of them.

Dawn and dusk are the prime times to target the fish, with anglers report plenty of good catches.

There have been some really big blue nosed bream getting around the beaches and rocks at present with quite a few pulling the scales down past the kilo mark as well as some monster tarwhine as well.

You should get to know the difference as size limits apply to each.

The drummer were on fire over the weekend and once the sea abated the blackfish joined in melee with plenty of solid fish coming from the rock washes and ledges with the natural green weed, neck and neck with the artificial green weed flies.

With the weather throwing an arctic blast at us this week it will be interesting to see what will be caught during a chilly weekend.