A whole-bared snapper as a main course, an entree of prawn cocktail or a plate of oysters, natural or Kilpatrick, or for something different, oysters dafodite, oysters with sliced bacon, sliced hot chilli and a splash of Tabasco sauce, yum.
I want to add a crayfish to the menu, but I can’t afford one at over one hundred dollars a kilo. It puts them out of reach of all but the wealthy. There are plenty of dishes based on seafood, both hot and cold, all making a good alternative to the traditional roast Christmas dinner.
Regardless of whether you have a seafood dinner or roast. There is one course that will not alter. I am referring to the Christmas pudding, a bowl full of fruit topped with custard whipped cream, ice-cream or hard icing. In the old days, it was filled with silver coins.
Nowadays, there are silver tokens, whatever is in them when it comes to the pudding; all I can say is, yum. So regardless of what you have for Christmas dinner, enjoy it and enjoy the company you are sharing with.
So Christmas dinner, whatever you have, is a time to enjoy each other’s company and to tell those dad jokes contained in the Christmas crackers, to wear those funny hats and enjoy that afternoon nap brought on by overeating.
Now, back to the present time, the start of summer has been better than the forecast predicted. The river has been lower than expected, and the fishing has been great, but it has been reasonable with a lot of juvenile fish, not many keepers. But all in all, it was a good opening, with most anglers happy with the outcome.
Fishing in the north-east for trout has a mixture of brown and rainbow trout, which has been promising some fish up to a kilogram.
The fishing in Dartmouth has also been good. Most fish are caught early in the morning, but they back off to the deep water during the heat of the day.
Trolling a fender is the most popular, but do not underestimate a bait under a float; it is also worth employing this method overnight.
Eildon is the pick of the spots, with plenty of species to choose from, including cod, yellowbelly, redfin and trout. Eildon is relatively close to Shepparton, which helps with its popularity. Plus Eildon is big enough to find a spot that is not overfished.
Even closer to home is Waranga Basin which is producing redfin. Trolling a lure and making sure it bounces along the bottle is a certain fire way of getting a catch.
Yellowbelly and even cod can be caught in the basin, and believe it or not, you can sometimes catch trout as well. Back to the cod opening, most fish were taken by anglers using bait cheese, chicken, yabbies, shrimp and worms.
Down south at Queenscliff, Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters has reported fishing, in general, has been good with snapper. Finally coming on the bait, the larger fish have been scarce, but the pinky size and slightly larger are biting on the offshore reef as well as up the bay around Mornington and further north.
Other species around the heads have been flathead, salmon, trevally as well as couta and even whiting.
Rod said fishing to date has been good.
He said there was still gummy shark and some early slows of kingfish coming on the bite.
Rod said fishing in Western Port was also good.
He said quality snapper was being caught along the rubble beds bordering the shipping lanes from Cowes to the northern end.
Whiting was also biting along the inshore, weed and grass beds, while gummy sharks were being caught in the deep around Phillip Island and San Remo, while flatheads were biting on the sandy bottom.
Down south at Flinders Island, James Luddington reported that in the channels around the Isalnds around Lady Baron, he was bagging good hauls of flathead and gummy shark, and along the reefs, he reported snapper and whiting on the grass beds.
North of the Victorian border at Eden, John Liddel said the crew from Freedom Charter was bagging snapper and morwong as well as flathead, leather jacket gurnard and other table fish.
John said some tuna was off the shelf.
Further north of Narooma, Graham Cowley said he was bagging the same fish mainly around Montague Island, but off the shelf, he was catching some tuna as well as kingfish. While inside the bar, around the oyster leases, there were flatheads and bream.
But now it is time for a warning: early this week, the firebombing helicopter was stationed at Shepparton, and already it has been called out to drop water on two outbreaks. Fortunately, there were only minor outbreaks, but it should serve as a warning to people camping out during the holidays.
So to all take care and be safe.
