Moruya river.
The water temp has taken a dive for sure this week, getting down to around 13-14deg! Not great for swimming or the fishing! Not all is lost though, the fish still need to feed during the cooler months of the year, just not as much, as they are less active. Burley can help get them interested in your offerings, who doesn’t love a lazy Susan of delectable morsels slowly wafting past your nose! Be prepared to put more work in for your catches this time of the year.
As the water temp continues to plummet, the clarity will drastically increase, this time of the year the water can be gin clear. Making hiding from predators a harder prospect. The deeper water generally offers more coverage for fish trying to be left alone. That is why bladed lures work well this time of year. With their fast sink rate and ability to be worked slowly, they offer a great option to tempt fish into a reaction bite.
The lower sections of the river that have more exposure to the regular tidal influence can offer slightly better fishing, as the constant in and out of tides does tend to offer a slightly stirred up water column, if only by a small percent. Scaling your fluorocarbon leader down to get the bite will also work, but you do run the risk of losing a few fish to the odd bust off. Lighter drags and a go softly approach will help when fishing lighter rigs.
We can also start to see a few more salmon visiting the river as the water temps drop off, they are a lot of fun on light tackle.
Tuross river.
With the same dropping temps in Tuross, the fishing will be mostly the same as Moruya. Concentrate on the deeper holes, which Tuross has more of than Moruya, so options here are already increased.
Burley and slowly worked, deep presentations on lighter fluorocarbon leaders will all help get a bite.
Tuross is spoiled with areas to try, from sand flats to the racks and deeper holes, there is always an option when fishing this areas premier piece of water.
Rock and Beach.
Salmon are again the main stay on the beaches this week, with some absolute horses being taken out of the local gutters.
Moruya breakwall has a few seals hanging around at the moment, which does slow the fishing up. If seals are in the area you are looking to fish, move onto an area where they are not around.
Wind sock, Pedro point and further south have all seen good numbers of salmon this week.
Drummer are also available from the rocks in good numbers at the moment, once you have a few for a feed, move onto something else, as this eases the pressure this species can see this time of the year.
The crays are starting establish themselves well along most headlands at the moment, so if you have the gear to get wet, and enjoy diving for a feed, then get amongst them.
Offshore.
The game crews are still finding numbers of bluefin tuna this week, as the season progresses and the water temp drops, bluefin numbers and activity will increase. They really do like the colder waters that bring them up this way this time of the year.
For those more looking to in close fishing, flathead and snapper are very much on the list of available species this week. Try in around the 30-40m mark for the snapper, and any stretch of sand, has the chance of finding a feed of flathead.
The bait freezer, is starting again to look a little on the light side when looking at block pilchards, and mullet fillet is still unavailable. We do have stock of most of the other main baits though.
Stay safe everyone and remember, “every days a good day for fishing…”
Team Tackle World Moruya.
