Merimbula Fishing Report | April 2024

G’day folks,

 The month of April has been kind to us here on the Sapphire Coast, with only one wash-out weekend thus far recorded. Autumn is a fantastic time of year to wet a line, with a good mix of pelagic and regular demersal species on offer.

Estuaries and Lakes:

I’m going to come straight out and shoot from the hip, and tell you that we have had one of the best Mulloway seasons in recent times. Admittedly, the majority of fish captured have measured between 60 to 80cm in length, but the numbers have been amazing, with most anglers scoring results when fishing around the tide changes. All our local systems have produced good numbers of fish, with The Bega River and Merimbula Lake being the stand-out. The bream fishing has kicked into gear, with most anglers catching good sized yellowfin bream on pilchard bait and prawns. Most of these fish are coming from the Merimbula channel around the Mariner Jetty and the road bridge. I expect to see these bream moving into the top lake next month, where you’ll be able to target them on bladed lures and soft vibes: such as, TT Switch Blades and Samaki Vibelicious. The flathead fishing has been solid, with good catches coming from both the top lake, and the shallow flats east of the bridge in the main channel. 

Our Staff member, Jamari Schulze, caught and released a stunning 73cm flathead, which took a liking to a Nomad top-water lure. This flatty was caught directly out the front of our store! Well done Jamari. 

Latest Flathead catches:

The trevally haven’t been in strong numbers, but are still being caught on soft-plastics, and prawn bait. I’m tipping the trevally fishing will pick up next month before they start to disperse heading into winter. The big news is that there are still a few legal sized kingfish roaming the system. They have been tricky to tempt; however, some have been hooked on live yellowtail. There have been a few sightings of the Australian salmon schools beginning to run into the estuaries, but they haven’t fully committed to holding yet. They have been caught around the Mitchies Jetty area, but most of them at night.

Latest Kingfish catch:

If you’re after a feed of tasty blue swimmer crabs, well now is the time! There are an abundance of blue swimmers crawling around Merimbula Lake, and it’s not uncommon to see double figure catches in a single crabbing session. Find the transition between the ribbon weed and the sand around the edges of the lake, and you should be on the money. Mullet, salmon and bonito make great baits for your pots. Come into the store for either a purchase or hire of crab pots.

Beach Fishing:

The beach fishing has been “red hot”, with heaps of big salmon and tailor around. Some of the tailor have measured over 60cm, and succumbing to a whole pilchard bait rigged on ganged hooks. Good tailor catches have been coming from Merimbula main beach, North Tura Beach, and Hobart Beach. Fishing the afternoon into the evening should see you score good results. Middle Beach at Merimbula has produced some huge salmon lately, along with Tathra beach faring good numbers too. The bream and whiting are still on the chew, but you will need to use beach worms for bait if you want to successfully catch numbers of fish. Pambula Beach still remains the pick.

Latest Taylor catch:

Rocks & Wharf

Anglers who have been fishing the wharf have enjoyed great catches of bonito, salmon, tailor, with the odd rat kingfish in the mix. Most fish are being caught on metal lure, with the burn and kill retrieve being the favourite. 

Latest Bonito Catch:

The local luderick anglers have been catching good numbers of blackfish from the wharf and ledges, and this will only get better as we delve into the winter months. 

The squid fishing from the wharf has been tough, but I guess that’s a direct result of the amount of bonito schools hunting the inshore wash zones. The recent run of longtail tuna (Northern Bluefin) has stemmed, and we’ll have to wait until next season’s warm currents to get another shoot at these “line-burners”! 

If you like donning the mask ‘n’ snorkel, now is a good time to start looking for those delicious eastern rock lobsters. Be sure to adhere to the fisheries regulations when diving for crays.

“In the Bay”

The bay has been firing, with good numbers of sand flathead available. There are a few pockets of fish in 20m of water around the Pambula River mouth, but most anglers are scoring results in 45m to 60m of water. Fishing the deeper water will see a few tiger flathead and gurnard show up in your catch. The gravel patches around Long Point reef, and the horseshoe reef have seen the snapper starting to turn up. There have been some solid fish caught, around the 60cm mark…which is pretty good for our Merimbula fishery. I expect numbers to strengthen as the water temperature decreases. Currently, the water temp’ is roughly 19 degrees. Moving just outside of the gravel, you stand a really good chance of a gummy shark or two. We have one lucky angler come into the store who informed us of catching five gummies whilst drifting for flatties! Trolling around all the points and headlands from Eden through to Tathra should see you hook into a few bonito. I embarked on a recent fishing trip with my family, and had a ball hooking into some solid bonito out of Eden. We caught them on 120 Halco Laser Pro’s, and Rapala X-Rap lures whilst trolling at 10km/h.

Latest Snapper catch:

The Deep Blue:

Fishing the F.A.D. (Fish Aggregation Device) out of Eden has produced awesome catches of dolphinfish. Unfortunately the F.A.D. was recently dislodged by huge seas, and set sail for some unknown destination. I have heard that N.S.W. fisheries have replaced it; however, I’m not certain if the original coordinates are matching up with the F.A.D.’s new location. 

The Marlin scene has slowed up, but some anglers are still finding the odd ‘Stick-face” lurking around the bait-balls. It’s an exciting time of year for the offshore angler, as those beautiful big Yellowfin Tuna shouldn’t be too far away. I have already heard reports of some “fin” being caught out of Batemans Bay…so watch this space. 

That wraps up our Boss Outdoor fishing report folks. So if you would like to know where to fish in Merimbula, feel free to call the store for more information on 02 6495 3985, or pop in and see the team as we’ll be only too happy to help. 

Catch / cook / conserve.

Ando Badullovich.