Giant flathead caught at Narooma
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NAROOMA fisherwoman Ashleigh Clarke sent a couple of great photos of her once-in-a-lifetime catch of a giant dusky flathead.
The photo went off on the Narooma News Facebook page reaching more than 15,000 by yesterday afternoon with close to 1000 likes, comments and shares.
Ashleigh caught the monster in the Narooma inlet last week fishing a pink Squidgy plastic and successfully releasing it with the help of her fishing partner Adam Babidge.
They didn't measure the big girl as they just wanted to get her back in the water, but judging by the size of the fish against Ashleigh, who is 5-foot-6, it was probably well over the magic metre mark.
“Sorry can't reveal my secret fishing spot all I can say is it was up the back of the inlet- it was a good fish, don't think I'll catch another like it!”
The elusive 1-metre long dusky flathead is the ultimate goal of every estuary angler with Wagonga known for its big fish.
All these big flathead are female and should be returned to the water to continue to breed.
Well done again Ashleigh for one the best catches we’ve seen here at the Narooma News!!
Extra nuggets – fishing update:
We can update the fishing report this Wednesday morning to say that Crusty the skipper the FishBermi.com charter boat says he got into some albacore tuna and mako sharks last weekend.
While on the 12-mile Reef they also had a great white shark up estimated length to be 10-foot plus.
Wallaga Lake also produced some good flathead as well as some bream.
One Bermagui local was lucky enough to get a jewfish on the Clyde River.
There have been reports of estuary perch in the Bega River but they were tough to find last week, but there were still plenty of flathead on offer.
Fishing off the Tathra Wharf remains quiet although some visitors targeting garfish with bread burley were successful on the weekend.
Following a visit from an Eden-based purse seiner scooping up boxes of salmon, these fish were a bit scarce but some locals did have luck on the beaches to the north of Tathra such as Nelsons and Gillards.
Narooma News fishing report – another strange week
IT’S been another strange week on the fishing front at Narooma and Bermagui.
The fishing continues to go well in the estuaries with good flathead on offer in most systems from Mummaga to Wallaga lakes.
Early last week large schools of striped tuna were caught between Montague Island and the Shelf, with a couple of pro boats catching over 200kg a day.
These fish were in water around 16 to 19 degrees. This warm water stayed local until Friday, by Saturday morning the water temp had dropped to below 15C, and the stripies were gone.
The water turned over and became dirty and the current on Friday was actually running uphill at the island, while out on the edge of the shelf warm water was running south.
On Saturday, three charter boats fished out of Narooma with Charter Fish Narooma vessel Playstation heading north for a nice catch of snapper, mowies and pigfish.
Playstation also found schools of undersize kingies on the sand, these fish were between 58 to 61cm and all were returned safely to the water, with these small kings around it is a positive sign that the real action should start shortly - fingers crossed!
Dreamtime of Narooma Charters fished on the east and west side of Montague and Aquanaut of Narooma Fishing Charters fished the southern end of the island, both boats catching mixed bags of snapper, mowies and Nannygai - despite constant pressure from hungry mutton birds or short tailed shearwaters.
The FishBermi.com charter boat from Bermagui Bait and Tackle meanwhile also encountered a few reef fish south of Bermagui on the weekend.
The trick to avoiding the mutton birds is to use heavier sinkers than you would normally use, this means your bait goes to the bottom faster and can get past the birds without any chance of them getting your bait.
Also of note were large schools of slimy mackerel and Cowan Young, which were scattered on most reefs, and not on the usual bait grounds. These schools were showing up well on fish finders, and bait jigs were effective in filling the live bait tank, with bait fish taken between 8 to 20 metres of water.
Aquanaut then found some large flathead in 31 metres due east of Glasshouse Rocks, but three hours into the falling tide the flathead stopped biting.
Whale watching charters have been very popular this season, and there have also been plenty of dive trips around Montague Island.