14/03/2026
Hot off the press is Michael's Eden report, having just spent over a week there. Michael reports the coastal headlands, Twofold Bay and even all the jetties and wharf are teeming with fish....
"We went wide once to no avail, but inshore the fish are just everywhere. They're saying it's the greatest run of bonito in years. Boat, wharf or any jetty, it doesn't matter. Some real big ones as well. Metals, skirts, plastics or baits.... It's quality fishing no matter what your taste with the right gear, they are thick and we had multiple five way hookups trolling small squid skirts and diving minnows on the boat. Then you will pass another 100 yards and massive Australian salmon would dominate, all around the headlands, North Head, under the coastguard tower, around the chip mill. They are the extra large type, real greenbacks pushing 7-8 pounds. We must have released 60 salmon over a couple of days but here is a tip, they are awesome sashimi'd, magnificent, and we enjoyed them over several nights with soy and wasabi. Take a look at Steve Starling's recent video on YouTube regarding the quality of salmon as sashimi. They are taking the same lures as the bonito, and also baits when bottom fishing. We found pinkies to 45cm but some of the locals are getting really good reds around Mowarry and Bitangabee Bay, also Leonard Island. We also found trevally, some real bruisers, and morwong inside the bay along with the usual wrasse, Sergeant Bakers, rock cod and other reef species. A couple of rough days had us sheltering well inside Twofold Bay where we found some lovely flathead, and to cap it off we had a double hookup the other day on a big thresher estimated at 150kg and a lovely hammerhead. These were well inside the bay, around the coast guard's tower, we were anchored up only around 50m from shore. The sharks took a live slimey mackerel and a headless bonito respectively, ploated under balloons, and after a tremendous double fight they were tail-wrapoed, promptly bled, cut up and vacuum-sealed, and they are going to feed a lot of people. If I had to pick one negative, it was that the kings are not here, at least not in the numbers we saw 10 years ago, and we didn't see any at the ramp during the week. We only hooked up a couple of rats ourselves whilst trolling. As I always say, something always fires at Eden, soon the Tailor will move in all along the coast and then in May the Striped Tuna will be flooding Twofold Bay. You don't need to venture out too far if you don't want to, or if conditions don't permit, to still have spectacular action. We kept a lot of fish, properly harvested, everything immediately bled, iced and vacuum sealed, but we would have released what we kept many times over. A small selection of hundreds of pics"......
Michael is instore Monday and Friday this week if you want to get the latest on what techniques and gear will get you on to the action.
