Your up-to-date fishing report from the team at Tackle World Moruya
Moruya River
This week saw good results for most anglers in the river, with good numbers of flathead, bream, whiting, tailor and salmon being the most common catches for anglers this week and to be honest it appears that the fish were spread throughout the system fairly evenly with flathead coming from all areas, bream coming from the lower and upper reaches, whiting caught throughout the system with salmon, tailor and trevally all towards the front flats around the airport, making this one of those weeks where you could escape the crowds and find a quiet corner and get a few fish. There was quite a few jet skis getting around this week on the main stretch of water in town from the highway bridge to the fishing platform at the quarry, making this area hard to fish but for many it was a chance to try out new fishing spots away from these water sport lovers who use the waterways as well. Soft plastic lures appeared to be the go for flathead this week with Squidgie fish in the 120mm paddle tail being the stand out or a Diawa double clutch slow rolled over drop offs. Bream and whiting were looking for top water lures, such as the sugar pen or bent minnow or if they wouldn’t quite commit to a top water for you then a slowly rolled shallow chubby should have got you the hook-ups.
Tuross
Well Tuross from what I heard was hot, cold, hot, cold, hot! One day the fish all seemed to come from the front of the system then the next day from the back of the system so it would be best to mix things up a bit to see how you go – try new lures – try downsizing your leader – sometimes you’ve just got to give everything a go. The guys who moved through the system did manage to do well, however it was tough and triggering the bite was challenging at times, but this is why it’s called fishing! To me this sounds like there’s one common theme happening and one main contributing factor - tide!!!! The guys moving up stream with the tide did well and got fish consistently using bait and lures from what I heard and then when the tide turned they followed it back staying on top of the fish. Tuross can be heart breaking at times and even the most experienced anglers can struggle in there, so if your finding yourself struggling try using the tide to your advantage to get the results. The guys getting the good bags were using a variety of lures and baits ranging from hard body shallow and deep diving to soft plastics and top water. The bream and whiting are taking a wide range of baits and the flathead are only taking a well presented pilchard or a soft plastic - they have been very picky this week. Here is my tip if you’re struggling in Tuross this week. Find the breeze and use it to your advantage. Fish the banks getting the most wind hitting the edges this stirs the edges up and creates cover for fish making them more active when feeding, so get a shallow running hard body and slow crank the edges and I bet you will get the results. So many people try to get out of the breeze and find the most sheltered areas to fish - while that’s ok sometimes it’s not always the best idea.
Beaches/Rocks
Most beaches produced a range of species from gummy sharks to bronze whaler sharks, trevally, bream, whiting, salmon and tailor. The wind sock beach produced nice sized flathead, salmon and tailor but it did not produce many bream or whiting like Congo or Coila beaches produced. Coila beach produced some quality fishing for bream, whiting and snapper around the rocky edges with the odd jewfish showing up and Congo turned on some excitement if you were out after dark on the hunt for a shark with Congo beach producing quality gummy sharks at night and a few jewfish. The break wall in Moruya again saw large numbers of anglers targeting tailor and salmon from the wall and most anglers got into the action with at times multiple hook-ups with anglers trying to dodge one another!
Reef fishing
This week started off firing on all the reefs with most anglers bagging out on snapper and flathead with a few morwong and kings however this changed quickly and anglers started to struggle finding decent snapper, flathead, kingfish etc however the reports were patchy with some anglers reporting average bag sizes with the odd solid fish in there to keep them keen. Some anglers reported no current while others reported strong current and the current was where the action was, so the trick is to find those reefs with good current and the fish were generally there. Still a stand out this week has been the snapper flasher rig, rigged with one squid tenticle and placed into the rod holder and left alone while the seas did all the work rolling the boats around putting just enough action into these rigs and it didn’t take long for most to get hammered by hungry snapper. Also on the reefs there was plenty of sharks still and anglers are loosing plenty of fish to these guys, so if you start getting taxed then move on to avoid further disruptions. Kings were around off Pedro Point and Broulee Island in water around 70 metres deep and were loving a jig with several boats bagging out with the average fish around 8-10kg and one boat managed to hook and land two solid long tail tuna around the 40kg mark to top off their day out. The one thing that has stood out this week is that most of the action has come south of the Moruya river mouth out off Pedro and Tuross, so if you haven’t headed that way then maybe it’s time to give it a try.
The following INLAND report is proudly brought to us by Adam Monday.
I hope you all had a safe and relaxing Easter break.
Everything certainly aligned for perfect weather over the Easter long weekend - full moon, lovely warm temps, sunshine and no wind made for beautiful days and warm evenings - for those who were not in the snowy’s targeting trout that is! The weather up here was too perfect for trout fishing.
Lake Jindabyne and Eucumbene were fishing very slow, Tantangara wasn’t much better and the streams appeared to be without any fish. I fished both Jindy and Eucumbene with a mate and only netted one rainbow and a little brown between us over several hours and sessions flicking lures. I also fished a local river and didn’t sight a single fish which was unusual for this location. Sunday afternoon I had the itch and went to a location with my brother that holds smaller rainbows and usually produces something for us, we successfully netted/released 5 fish between us on 3cm Bullet Lures.
The reports coming in from all the lakes was frustratingly slow, no matter what style of fishing, the fish were just shut down and not moving.
Tantangara Dam
Currently 27% capacity. This past week nothing has been consistent in producing fish, it appears persistence and luck have been the best methods.
Lake Jindabyne
78% and falling again. The fishing is very slow, possibly due to all of the above mentioned plus the water level keeps going up and down - like a cold beer after work. The surface temps are around 17 degrees which is approximately 5 degrees warmer then previous years at this time. Some lucky anglers caught the occasional brown from the edges. Boaters tried everything to no avail.
Lake Eucumbene
Currently sitting at 25% capacity and steady, which should see the fishing improve. Eucumbene had slightly better reports then Jindy and Tantangara over the Easter weekend. Some of the lucky and persistent anglers managed a few rainbows and browns in the 1lb - 2.5lb range. Trolling: flat lining the shallows and tree lines seen the odd boat hook up. Bait has also been a hit and miss with the pre dawn hours getting the most bells ringing. A local angler at Old Adaminaby using worms netted 3 nice browns yesterday afternoon, hopefully the fish are moving again.
Thredbo River
I visited this location on Easter Monday. It’s a stunning time of year with the trees covered in bright yellow leaves and the crystal clear waters trickling below. The water level is very low in the Thredbo and starting to allow you to rock hop across in sections which is concerning. This river is a fly fisho’s paradise! One very lucky fly angler netted a stonking big brown on Easter Saturday, apparently 10lb+ in under a foot of water, I have seen photos and it’s a very impressive big brown, possibly ex brood stock. Just shows you never know what lurks below in the Thredbo.
Easter Monday afternoon did see some rain in the area which was very welcomed. Anzac Day usually sees the start of the frosty mornings and when the freeze begins the fishing improves.
Tight lines my friends and remember “Every days a good day for fishing …”
Team Tackle World Moruya
