Weekend fishing report
NSW Fishing Monthly editor Tony Zann’s weekend fishing report for Ballina and Evans Head …
Bruce at Dave’s Bait Shop in Ballina says whiting have been quite good all week with bag limits above Pimlico Island on bloodworms. But the tides are starting to get smaller now so they’ll taper off a little.
A few flatties and some nice bream in the lower river along the Town Reach. A few small school jew around Wardell.
Blackfish aren’t too bad on cabbage and weed if you can find it around the ferry, the Porpoise Wall and Prospect Bridge. Mud crabs in Emigrant Creek and the main river.
Beaches have had a few whiting and dart, with chopper tailor morning and night.
Offshore: Still small black marlin around and the wahoo seem to be getting bigger. Mahi mahi around the FAD and pearlies and snapper on the wider reefs.
At Evans Head the bar is very shallow and demands plenty of respect of a morning on a falling tide. There are breaks but be prepared to wait and don’t risk it if you’re in doubt.
The beaches have produced some respectable whiting and plenty of dart, along with a few flathead up around the Broadwater rocks in the gutters there. I don’t know of much around the rocks but there should have been some jew earlier in the week on the bigger tides.
The river has the usual run of small whiting and flathead and the bream are still poking about, with the best catches at night. Blackfish still doing their thing around the walls but as the sea settles they should go back to grazing the rocks.
Tony Zann t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au
