WINTER is moving in with vehemence, freezing over any chance NSW have of regaining the Origin, and triggering a tsunami of salmon in local waters.
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Lake Macquarie is full of them at the moment, attracting a flotilla of sports fishos intent on bagging a fishcake.
The key is to fish light with three or four-inch Casper clear soft plastics.
The One-Armed Wonder, Peter Maessen, got two nice salmon (60cm and 57cm) fishing off Bolton Point on Monday.
‘‘I brought in one flattie [54cm] and missed a huge one, 80cm-plus, one that spat out a lucky little 20cm bream that I had on my line which survived and was released,’’ Pete reported.
Pete also laid out some crab pots using leftover salmon from last week’s catch and got seven blue swimmers.
Chef Ben Outram and father John got 24 salmon in Swansea channel on Tuesday.
As far as eating goes, Ben, who cooks at The Depot on Darby Street, recommends you rest salmon in milk to get rid of the blood, then chuck ’em in a curry, or grind them up for fishcakes, then feed them to the cat.
Fridge full of fillets
SWAN Bay is boiling with bream, according to Bobby Antonic.
Her partner, Owen Ward, has been hitting the area at night on high tide this week and the upshot has been a daily supply of beer-battered bream fillets.
‘‘He’s been getting really big ones,’’ Bobby said yesterday as she prepared to run for Port Stephens council in a byelection tomorrow.
‘‘There’s lots of poddy mullet about, which he’s been using for bait, and each morning when I open the fridge I’ve been finding two or three fish for dinner.
‘‘He’s been getting a lot of sharks too, but he throws those back.’’
One of Bobby’s election pledges, if voted in, is she’ll relaunch a fishing competition in Karuah later this year.
Warmer water working
TAILOR have been a bit hit and miss on the beach this week, according to Chris Weeks from Fishermans Warehouse.
‘‘They should switch back on with the next full moon and big tide,’’ Chris said yesterday.
‘‘There’s been a few bream in the southern sections of the lake where the water is a bit warmer. Guys have been getting a few trag on the inshore reefs and pan-sized snapper just on dark.’’
Winter ends the game
THE game-fishing season ended last weekend.
As expected, Born Free won the Newcastle-Port Stephens Game Fishing Club crown and Amokura took out the Lake Macquarie title.
Tim Dean, the skipper of Born Free, was up in Queensland yesterday trying to come to grips with the Blues’ atrocious performance in Origin II.
‘‘We’ve broken it down stage by stage, and we reckon the Blues lost it when they ran onto the park,’’ he joked.
On a more positive front, Tim reports the transition to winter conditions out wide is in full swing.
‘‘There’s lots of seals, gannets, albatross and whales about,’’ he said. ‘‘And the water temp around the Carpark has dropped down to about 21degrees.
‘‘They have been catching albacore and big-eye tuna down around Sydney this week, so we should start to see a bit of this up here soon.’’
Small-screen action
TIM will feature in an episode of Ifish on Channel 10 on July 10.
He and host Paul Worsteling headed out to the Shelf on this particular day and caught 10 marlin, so it should be spectacular.
Brent ‘‘Hammer’’ Hancock is also going to feature on Ifish soon, fishing the estuaries around Nelson Bay.
Meanwhile, Jason ‘‘One For’’ Nunn was out on Lake Macquarie yesterday filming with Dave Buttfield for an upcoming feature on Aurora for the show ‘‘Hooked! with Dave Buttfield’’.
Hat-trick hurdle
NEWCASTLE District Anglers Association finished a close second in the Harry Ponty Rock and Beach Inter-Divisional Teams event, held at Hat Head over the long weekend.
Shooting for a hat-trick of titles, the NDAA boys fell 46 points shy of eventual winners Hastings District Fishing Association.
NDAA angler Craig Oaten finished third in the individual division.
‘‘If you want a feed of bream and tailor, head to Hat Head,’’ Craig quipped yesterday.
The NDAA’s next event will be the season-opening rock comp on August 7 and 8.
Marine park meetings
TIM Dean was an interested stakeholder at two meetings with the federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) reps last week to discuss the proposed creation of a marine park off Newcastle/Port Stephens.
Tim’s prediction is it’s going to get ugly.
‘‘We are going to lose fishing areas,’’ he said.
‘‘They can sugar-coat it as much as they like, but there are going to be no-fishing zones. People have every right to get angry because the reasons they’re saying we need it don’t stack up, and compensation is going to be a big issue.’’
Fraudulent claim
IT seems Tim is not the only man sceptical about the process.
Bob Kearney, an emeritus Professor of Fisheries at Canberra University and a former head of fisheries research with the NSW Government, appeared on the ABC show Landline on June 10 and described the science used to justify the creation of marine parks as ‘‘fraudulent’’.
To read details of the interview, click .
If you want to get an idea of the areas being considered for the marine park, Google ‘‘Marine bio-regional planning’’.
