Helby Bank continues to produce this year with yet another customer reporting the catch and release of two marlin. The two fish were estimated to be 60kg and 100kg. Amazingly they were caught accidently on a Rapala CD14 and a Halco Laser Pro 190. Steve Good and young Steven Bailey were the lucky anglers and they also caught two dolphin fish, which were taken home for a fresh feed for dinner.

The reports this week from customers tell us that there are Chinamon fish in big schools around the grounds west of the Muiron Islands. Red emperor have been hard to find this week, but thankfully the sharks haven’t been so bad. The running sinker rig in depths up to 40m has been working well when the current and wind is not too strong. Squid has been the preferred bait. The whales are showing up all over the place and the odd Mata Ray has been sited by anglers in boats as well. The queenfish have been found at the Muiron Islands and we strongly suggest using barbless hooks on lures for these fish…..just ask young Aiden Lerch…he found out the hard way and ended up with a hook in his leg, with the other hook on the lure in the fish! These fish can jump wildly and when there are plenty in schools, you can catch them easily. They are not the best of eating, so if you are to let them go, try and release them in the water with pliers, rather than taking them out of the water to flip around on the deck. Their gill plates come right up to their lower jaw, so using a single barbless hook on the back of a chrome twisty gives you a good hook up, with minimal damage to the fish. It also makes it easy to release them.

If you missed out on the knot rigging and casting session at the Town Beach on July 19th with the EGFC, then drop in to the store and we will help you or put your name on the list for the next session. The great news from the EGFC this week is that the club has had funding approved through the Royalties for Regions program for the clubhouse. A big thank you from the members goes to the current government for this funding. Now all we need is the lease arrangements finalised and we can finally start to build.