Fishing

Coffin Bay, is a beautiful bay system that holds large numbers of Snapper and the mighty Kingfish from November through to February. The surrounding national park is a must for campers, but the majority of campsites require a 4WD. Enjoy the magnificent beaches, towering sand dunes and tranquil sheltered bays.

Sick of waiting for the men to live up to their title of hunters & gatherers, the trio of Tina, Marina and Pina decided to take things into their own hands and insisted David Ellis take them out in the boat. During a camp at Memory Cove, out-fishing the men was the highlight of their adventure, much to skipper’s disgust. It was ‘morwongs on the menu’ and a kid free weekend that delighted the ladies!  Picture, left to right Tina Nicholls, Marina Ellis and Pina Cliff.

Coffin Bay has been rapidly developing a reputation to rival Port Augusta for decent size kingfish and this image will add to that.  Brothers Tom & Maciek Maciejewski fished in October 2007 for a 88lb kingie. This kingie was caught using a live bait and provided quite a test for Tom and his equipment before being landed.

Kingfish have been causing a lot of excitement by smashing into schools of mullet and garfish. Several kingies have been caught using a variety of methods including casting lures – poppers and imitation garfish, and using live bait such as mullet, squid and salmon trout.  October saw small to medium size trevally coming from the Brothers and salmon trout and garfish were found iin most of the bays; legal whiting patchy with some nice fish along the Ledge and near the boat ramp.

This very large tommy was caught from the surf at Convention Beach. by Brendan Bails of Coffin Bay.

Despite the shallow water being very stirred up with sand, Brendan still extracted a few nice fish for a very pleasant meal.

COFFIN BAY
Nice whiting are coming from the town ship bay with some popular spots being the jetty and by the ramp and island.
Garfish are quiet with the best place being in Mount Dutton Bay.
Further afield there some fish around the leases but do not access them unless permission is sought from the operator.
Small king fish to about 10 kilo have been seen in some of the bays.

COFFIN BAY
Those venturing offshore to Rocky Island have found plenty of tuna spread between Greenly Island and rocky and also further south. Many of the schools are only holding a dozen or so fish with some noticeably larger schools in between patches. The average size is 15kg but there were some schools of very large fish also in the area.
Kingfish, Nannygai, Snapper and Blue morwong were also caught around the lumps close to the Hummocks and Rocky Island.

ALMONTA / GUNYA BEACH
Both beaches do not have a lot of salmon but anglers are all getting a few fish ranging from 1 kilo to 3 kilo.

Nine-year-old Sam Charlton had a memorable day at Coffins a while ago. Fishing with his brother Matt, on the left, and their dad Scott, they came across a school of kingfish chasing bait in the shallows. Sight casting with a soft plastic garfish on spin gear Sam hooked up and spent the next hour fighting this beauty.
When landed the kingy weighed 28 kg or 61 pounds, a truly great capture!

Another successful angler on kingfish was visitor Leonie Kerr.
Whilst her husband stayed ashore, keen angler Leonie went fishing with her in-laws at night and using a brand new rod & reel and a pilchard for bait she landed her first kingie.
Her hubby will have some catching up to do.