From now, through the summer months, till around May is the best fishing time of the year. The water temperature is rising, bait fish are becoming increasingly nervous and the weather is improving. Get organised, get going and hang on.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Time to dust off the "Squidometer" and head for the moorings in Shoal Bay. If you own a boat just drift, cast and slowly retrieve or idle over the sea grass meadows towing a squid jig of any colour. The varying colours are designed to catch the squidders, not the squid. Outside the heads Esmeralda Bay on Broughton Island holds squid as do the quiet bays south to Birubi. Inside the harbour Soldiers Point "Crabologist" Andrew Teer tells me that the "Crabometer" is sitting on 6 and heading up. Blue swimmers are cruising through the channels from Soldiers Point to the entrance to Cromarty Bay and back inside to Lemon Tree and Carrington.
The estuary is alive with flathead, whiting, bream, mulloway, squid and crabs. Outside the heads: snapper, mulloway and savage squid are on the prowl.