Tony Zann’s weekly fishing report
The entire Richmond River catchment, including all headwaters, is closed to commercial and recreational fishing until further notice after massive fish kills following flooding in early January.
This closure includes the coastline and a kilometre seawards north to the easternmost point of Flat Rock and down to Moylans Lane on the beach south of Ballina.
The closure will be reviewed monthly.
Bruce at Dave’s Bait Shop has taken the noose from around his neck and got down off the chair and says the beaches north of Flat Rock are producing whiting, bream and flathead, with tailor up around Lennox Head from the rocks and along the beach.
The sea looks like settling over the weekend so there should be a few pelagics out in the blue water and patches of snapper and trag in closer.
Patchs Beach, south of the closure, is fishing fairly well for whiting.
At Evans Head, big tides and undercut dunes have made beach driving hazardous from Half Tide upwards but there have been some bream, whiting, dart and flathead in the surf, although the swell has been bumpy.
Nobody has ventured offshore because of the rough conditions but it looks like settling over the weekend for a change. What’s out there is anyone’s guess.
The Evans River has bream, whiting and flathead up to around the Iron Gates and the water is coming in relatively clear on the high tide.
Tony Zann t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au
