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The Welcome Hotel Fishing Club had a couple of outings last month, with most of the members concentrating their efforts around Cockatoo Island and the mouth of the Lane Cove River. As usual, the bulk of the catches have been flathead, with fish to 2kg caught on whitebait.
Under the Gladesville Bridge, on the Gladesville side near the wharf, they have been catching some thumper bream. There have been a few school jew showing up there, too, with one of the bream fishos losing a 3kg fish before he could get the net under it. Boat anglers have been faring better on the Drummoyne side, where they have been boating jewfish to 8kg while fishing with squid baits. Just wide of the moored boats downstream from the bridge has been best, on the run-in tide.
Middle Head bream
There have been some good bream catches taken down the bottom end of the harbour. In front of the shacks on Middle Head has been one of the hot spots, where catches of a dozen or so fish are not uncommon. Cubes of striped tuna are proving a successful bait.
Flathead and flounder are being caught in North Harbour. A drift off Washaway Beach should produce a feed. They have also been catching flathead between the Heads, with a mix of both duskys and sand flathead taking pilchard baits.
Flagstaff Point, inside North Head, has been another good spot, where they are catching mixed bags. Trevally, morwong and kingfish have been caught in the area. It’s a bit unusual to see morwong caught in an estuary but it is fairly deep water off Old Mans Hat and if you fish the junction of the rocks and sand using a paternoster rig and prawn baits, you should find a mowie or two. The kingfish are chasing the hooked trevally and more than one angler has been pulling in a trevally, only to feel a mighty whack and the line go limp as a marauding kingie takes his fish.
Hawkesbury River
Flathead are being caught on the drift between Juno and Lion Island. Most of the fish are around the 750g mark, but the odd bigger fish is being caught. One of around 6kg was sighted at the Parsley Bay cleaning table, reportedly taken from wide of Flint and Steel.
The top end of the river has also been fishing well for flathead, with reasonable catches taken from around Mangrove Island at Spencer, and fish to 4kg have been caught by anglers using live prawns for bait at Wisemans Ferry.
The bream fishing is still best among the oyster leases. Both bait and lure fishos have been catching bream in the leases at the top end of Mooney Mooney Creek and around the mouth of Berowra Creek. The western end of Milson Island has also produced a few bream, with chook gut or Hawkesbury River prawns the best baits to use.
Blue swimmers active
Now that the water is warming up a bit, the blue swimmer crabs are becoming more active. I picked up half a dozen in witch’s hats from around Milson Island a fortnight ago but found the nets were continually fouled with kelp and weed. The crabs were very lethargic when we were untangling them from the nets, an indication that the water is still a bit cold for them. This month should see them moving about a bit.
Both the bridges have produced a few school jew. Flint and Steel Reef is also worth a try and, by the time you are reading this, I will be surprised if a couple of big fish haven’t been caught for the start of the season jewie run.
The surface action continues around the mouth of the river, with schools of salmon and tailor chasing baitfish between Lion Island and the entrance to Cowan Creek. A run-out tide early in the morning will provide the best opportunity for some spinning action.
Botany Bay
The container wall has been fishing productively at night for bream, tailor and small snapper. Drifting past the green channel marker at Molinaux Point and casting lightly weighted peeled prawn baits around the marker should score some trevally. There have also been reports of kingfish off the end at Molinaux Point and a live bait suspended under a bobby cork could produce a keeper king.
Both breakwalls of the Cooks River are producing whiting. These are good fish, too, with blue-nose whiting up to 500g being landed. Worm baits are best, with the fish showing a preference for tubeworms and the whiting are biting only during the run in tide.
Most of the recognised flathead drifts are producing, with good reports from the end of the third runway, Akeds Hole and wide of Kyeemagh Baths. Some flounder and keeper-size reds are also being caught off the baths.
Georges River whiting
Watts Reef has been fishing well for trevally, tailor, tarwhine and bream but the Port Jackson sharks are proving a bit of a nuisance.
In the Georges River, whiting are becoming more plentiful in the catches. The stretch of river between Flower Power and Hind Park at Milperra has been productive, with fish up to 35cm common.
Craig Moffatt fished near the large sloping rock opposite Picnic Point Boatshed for a feed of bream and flathead. He caught the fish during the run-out tide using Hawkesbury River prawns for bait.
For the land-based angler, Kelso Beach could be worth a try. They have been catching bream and flathead fishing between the weed beds out from the beach, using bloodworms and nippers for bait.
The stretch of river downstream from the Milperra Bridge continues to produce good catches. Hoi Tech landed a top catch fishing about 100m from the bridge on the southern side. Fishing the last of the run in and the first of the run out tide, he caught 13 bream and a 3.5kg jewfish, using bloodworms for bait. His biggest bream, a monster of 2.16kg, was caught on a small squid bait meant for a jewfish.
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