Where they’re biting around Ballina
Welcome to the first of our regular fishing reports for the Ballina Shire area. The reports are provided by expert fisherman and journalist Tony Zann, editor of New South Wales Fishing Monthly magazine. For more of Tony’s fishing news, visit www.fishingmonthly.com.au
Mandy from Dave’s Bait Shop says the beaches around Ballina are the best bet for a fish at the moment. Some nice bream and quality whiting have been caught, mainly from South Ballina Beach with a few more up towards Angels Beach, with just average catches on Lighthouse Beach. As you’d expect after the minor flooding the walls have been firing for bream and whiting during the day on yabbies and worms with mullet strips and gut also working on the bream. Some decent jewies have been taken at night from the walls on live bait and worms, occy and squid. The odd good tailor off Flat Rock.
In the river, the Missingham bridge area has been the first to clear with flathead and whiting being taken. Flathead are around the Porpoise Wall but upstream of there is still too dirty. The bigger tides around the oncoming new moon should push up more clean water and more fish. The mud crabs have come on in the past day or so and there should be some good hauls over the next few days on the fast-running tides.
Unfortunately the flooding has also produced some significant fish kills, mainly around the Wardell area, where reports indicate more than 500 mainly flathead, whiting and bream have died in water depleted of oxygen. DPI Fisheries officers are investigating and news reports indicate that mud worms have also died, meaning that there’s almost zero oxygen from the surface to the bottom.
January 28th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
[...] NSW Fishing Monthly editor Tony Zann writes: “Unfortunately the flooding has also produced some significant fish kills, mainly around the Wardell area, where reports indicate more than 500 mainly flathead, whiting and bream have died in water depleted of oxygen. DPI Fisheries officers are investigating and news reports indicate that mud worms have also died, meaning that there’s almost zero oxygen from the surface to the bottom.” [...]