Reel life | Catch of the day

Rod said he had not seen such good fishing for a number of years.

The area is teeming with slimy mackerel, an important bait fish. Rod said the presence of the mackerel, combined with krill, another bait source, was part of the reason for such good fishing. He has also been catching gummy sharks in and around the dive sites; they are a by-catch when fishing for flathead and snapper.

Three of my favourite fish are on the bite: whiting, flathead and gummy shark. Bought from a fish and chips shop, they are good; caught and cooked fresh, they are magnificent. Add a few snapper fillets, and life will not get any better.

The best way to cook the fish is to dust the fillets in seasoned flour and put them straight into a well-oiled pan — I use peanut oil. Cook until golden and then let them cool before enjoying the best-tasting fish you have ever experienced. Or serve with lettuce, tomatoes and salad onion, wow!

I don’t intend for this to become a cookbook. All I will say about cooking your catch is to keep it simple. If you get too complicated, you will lose the unique flavour and taste of fish.

Rod was also catching southern calamari squid and arrowhead squid; both make brilliant bait, as well as table fish.

Adamas Fishing Charters has developed a reputation for finding fish. Rod has located a large population of trevalla, a fish related to the New Zealand blue-eye trevalla, a deepwater table fish with excellent eating quality. The strange thing about Rod’s find is that when the tuna are around, the trevalla go off the bite. These fish weigh over 2kg, so it is hard to imagine them as food for tuna. But when they are on the bite, they provide anglers with a good workout.

Speaking of a workout, Rod said that while mainly “rat size” (not big fish), the kingfish were providing plenty of action for anglers. The fish are found mainly offshore near the reefs, as well as just inside the heads in front of the rip, where the tide flows through the heads.

There is also similar action in Western Port Bay, according to Rod, with snapper along the rubble beds, flathead and leather jackets on the sandy bottom and whiting among the inshore grass beds.

North of the border at Eden, John Liddell said it was about the same along the coast from Boyd’s Lookout to the Victorian border near Green Cape; the only difference, according to John, is that the fish are bigger. Mark, the skipper of Freedom Charters at Eden, says that since fish traps were banned, he was now the only charter boat at Eden. The pressure on the fish has been reduced, and this has led to bigger fish.

Boyd’s Lookout dates to when Eden was a whaling station, and one of the families involved in whaling, the Boyds, built the lookout so they could spot pods of whales. If you ever get the chance, you should read the book Killers of Eden. It is about a group of orcas (killer whales) that used to help the fishing boats capture whales by herding them into Twofold Bay — their reward was some choice bits of the capture.

The fishing further along the coast at Narooma is about the same, according to Graham Cowley. He said kingfish and flathead were on the bite.

South at Flinders Island, James noted that it was slim pickings when it came to whiting and snapper, but the flathead and gummy shark made up for their absence. James said he had not been fishing for trumpeters so far this year.

Closer to home, freshwater fishing has been patchy, with both the Goulburn and Murray rivers packed with campers holidaying for the Labour Day long weekend. This extra traffic on the water made it a tough haul for anglers.

All that aside, the fishing has been reasonable, with a lot of small cod being caught and released. Among those fish were a number of keepers.

The best fishing was in the dams, Eildon, the Hume, Mulwala, Waranga Basin and Dartmouth. The best fishing was still Eildon, despite the hordes of holidaymakers. Late in the day and early morning, the river arms were producing plenty of cod; reports of metre-plus fish reached my ears. Apart from bait-angling, surface lures and deep-diving lures were getting results.

Redfin were found among the tree line, while in the early morning, when it was cool, some late-season trout were caught by anglers using fenders trailing a bait or lure. Some trout were also being caught using the same method at Dartmouth; during the heat of the day, the fish went deeper, and weight was needed to reach them.

Catches of redfin have been reported at Waranga Basin and Lake Hume; baits and lures were successful.

I hope you had a safe and happy long weekend, and that if you went fishing, you had success.

Look after yourself and drive safely.