Bags filled to the bream

WITH a break in the weather we should start to see an improvement in fish catches, though a lot of platforms and pontoons are still in flood with fresh water.

Bream love conditions that are brackish, and the Scamander River on the East Coast and Browns River at Kingston are giving up some really good specimens.

The range of Hawk Snipers is proving a good lure for the bream, but I’d certainly not discount smaller lures in the 3-4cm range.

Offshore, believe it or not tuna are still being taken, even in as close as the Hippolytes and around Bicheno.

Anglers wanting to catch good fish could try Brushy Lagoon in the North. It received an injection of ex-brood stock rainbow recently, with some monsters thrown in as well.

Around the rocks on the North Coast, sweep are getting caught, and some of them are real thumpers.

I find the best bait for sweep is small pieces of mussel. Don’t use berley because you will be inundated with small pickers such as juvenile leatherjackets, toadfish and wrasse.

Sweep are a delicious fish, which I liken to flounder, and pound for pound they go as hard as any quality sea fish.

Freshwater fishing throughout the “Land of a Thousand Lakes” should be absolutely awesome at this time of the year, with lakes being full and clear.

I received a report that Woods Lake is quite clear and very full, and that the weed that was becoming a problem has been all but chopped off by some high winds that have hit the area. The weed on the far shore is nearly one metre high and piled up, giving an indication of the ferocity of the waves that must have hit.

The fish are in great nick and are responding well to soft-plastic lures.

Penstock Lagoon was quite muddy last week, but should settle if no further rough weather hits.

Blackmans Lagoon in the North is fishing well, with water levels nearly up to the shacks. The Inland Fisheries Service reports that anglers catching fish early in the season tell that many are below average condition.

Brown trout spawn between May and July. During this period they have eaten little and spent considerable energy moving up through the cold, fast water to the spawning grounds. Male brown trout can mature as early as two years of age and females at three. They have been known to live for more than 20 years. During their life they will spawn multiple times.

It is not unreasonable for some fish you catch at this time of year to still be in the rebuilding phase. Some older fish may never recover.

A good healthy fishery has a wide range of fish ages and sizes, indicating successful spawning in most years. Typically, as the weather warms more food will become available and the trout will fatten up.

In the brine, salmon fishers have been having luck off the Margate Wharf. Small snotty trevally and flathead have also been putting in an appearance.

Around the Tasman Bridge, some unusual night catches have been reported. Anglers using baits under floats of a night fishing off the abutments have been taking many different species, including bream and small couta.

In the Tamar River, schools of fish jumping around Shear Reef are presumed to be salmon and snook.