Fish such as pink snapper, yellowtail kingfish and king george whiting appear to have increased in numbers in southern Tasmania in recent years, a probable indication of warming waters.

If global sea temperatures keep rising as fast as they have in 2023, what’s next for Aussie fishos?

Coral reefs globally are already at risk of a major bleaching event in the current El Nino cycle, with record sea surface temperatures seen across the planet.

Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef and WA’s Ningaloo may be affected.

Tasmania is probably the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for overall ocean warming, Tasmanian fish captures can be seen on the Redmap here … https://www.redmap.org.au/region/tas/

Graphics above adapted from https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/ and https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

Have you already seen changes in your area?

The Australian salmon (Arripis trutta) and (Arripis truttacea) are hugely popular saltwater sportfish found throughout inshore waters across the southern coast, including around Tasmania.

They are caught from New South Wales south to Perth in Western Australia, but are most often targeted in the southern part of their range.

There are eastern and western varieties, with some co-mingling of the two species in the centre of their range around Victoria and Tasmania.

A third species Arripis xylabion is found in the waters around Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands.

Australian salmon often inhabit the surf zone, with juvenile fish abundant in estuaries and sheltered bays.

These fish tend to travel in schools.

Schools of adult fish will at times enter estuaries, but most anglers chase them in the surf.

Surf beaches that have an outer protective reef seem to attract the schools, with the fish coming inside the reef for extended periods.

Juvenile Australian salmon are abundant in estuaries, often being present all year.

Adult fish are more seasonal in their presence, with some areas producing adult fish all year, and others having a definite seasonal pattern.

The timing of their migration varies depending on the region being fished, and may vary each year. Check with local tackle shops about the likely timing of the fish’s arrival.

This species is popular because it is usually abundant and readily caught on a variety of baits and lures. They also fight hard.

Being clean fighters, they can be caught on light tackle, with the ability to cast a lure or bait far enough to reach a school being the main decider when choosing gear.

Paternoster rigs are ideal for salmon fishing. Wire trace is not needed.

The Australian salmon is a safe fish to handle, lacking dangerous spines or teeth, a plus when family fishing.

The maximum recorded weight of Australian salmon (east coast variety) was 9.4kg. The western fish grow slightly larger.

Large fish are common, making for great sport when a school lobs.

Simple chrome lures work well on them, and surface lures can add visual excitment.

Good Australian salmon baits include pilchard, gar and bluebait, but they’ll take almost anything.

The Australian salmon’s downside is that it is not prime table food, and must be bled on capture and iced to achieve reasonable table quality.

The fillets make acceptable fish cakes, and the fresh flesh is great bait for mulloway, kingfish and other predators.

While southern species such as pink snapper have been overfished and are subject to ongoing fishing restrictions, Australian salmon are currently a good news story, having made a huge comeback on Australia’s East Coast after being commercially overharvested.

There is evidence they may have adapted to climate change by changing their diet away from krill and moving to baitfish as warming waters push krill away from their usual distribution.

Australian salmon have different names in different parts of their range – South Australians call small salmon “salmon trout”, Tasmanians call small salmon “cocky salmon” and New Zealanders call these fish “kahawai”.

Big fish are often called “blackbacks”.

Check out this video of a massive salmon school at NSW’s Wapengo in 2023.

Read more about Australian salmon.

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The black jewfish or black croaker (Protonibea diacanthus) is northern Australia’s version of the southern mulloway.

“Jewies” are found north of around Gladstone in Queensland and Exmouth in Western Australia.

The black jewfish has somewhat different habits from mulloway.

This species is caught primarily over naturals reefs, wrecks and artificial reefs, where it forms small schools.

At breeding time these schools may become huge.

The fish tend to bite at the turn of the tide.

Night fishing is often more productive.

Large tides can produce fish on slack water over natural reef, but strong currents make fishing difficult over wrecks, so smaller tides are preferred.

These fish show up in large tidal creeks and rivers, but most fishing is done by boat over wrecks and reefs and other congregation points.

Jewfish schools can often be seen on the sounder, but these fishy also loiter singly or as small groups inside structure where sonar can’t detect them.

Jigging works when they are biting well, but they more readily take large fresh baits of fish flesh, squid, octopus or crab.

In well managed areas black jewfish grow to 20kg+, and fish over 10kg are common.

They have a fast growth rate, reaching 60cm in two years and maturing in four years at about 90cm.

Heavy tackle is needed to get big black jewfish fish away from wrecks, with 50kg handlines or stout rods loaded with 25kg+ braid ideal.

Heavy gauge hooks should be used around wrecks, and large snapper leads may be needed to keep baits on the bottom in the north’s strongly tidal waters.

Paternoster rigs are generally used around reefs and wrecks.

Black jewfish can be distinguished from mulloway by the narrower shape of the tail peduncle, and their darker colour.

Black jewfish are highly valued in Asian countries, where they have become rare to locally extinct.

The species is common in areas that are well managed, but small populations in Australia such as a group that lived off the tip of Cape York, have been locally damaged by overfishing, and showed little sign of recovery for years after management measures were implemented.

Studies indicate that various genetic local groups of black jewfish do not mix much.

Black jewfish are highly vulnerable to decompression injury when pulled from even shallow water, and fishing should always stop when the bag limit is reached.

Off Australia’s Top End, jewfish stocks are healthy.

Read more about black jewfish.

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