Lure trollers working the foreshores of the Parramatta River have been catching plenty of bream and flathead. The area around Putney and the Concord Bridge has been productive. Spinning into the pylons of the road and rail bridges is also worth a try as some quality bream have taken up residence at both locations.
Alan Walker trolled up 6 bream and 4 flathead in Hen & Chicken Bay. He trolled on the electric motor using a red and black Smiling Jacks lure.
The southern side of the Harbour Bridge, around Dawes Point is also fishing well for bream. Catches of up to a dozen have been reported from there with most of the fish around the 500 gram mark. Bloodworms are the best bait. It continues to astound me that a feed of quality fish can still be taken on the doorstep of our major capital city.
There are a lot of chopper tailor cruising around the Harbour. Boat anglers have been catching them at Middle Head, Fort Denison and the Sow & Pigs Reef. Shore based anglers have been doing all right from the Rose Bay Wharf. Pilchard baits are working best at night but small chrome spinners are also hooking up fish early morning and evening. Just be careful where your back cast swings though. It is a public wharf and we don't want any innocent bystanders hooked up do we?
In Middle Harbour there have been kingfish prowling around the Spit area at night. I haven't heard of any being landed
Hawkesbury River
Some monster flathead have been coming out of the river. I was down at Parsley Bay ramp at the weekend and saw three flathead come in, from different boats, that were all over four kilos each. The best spot is wide of Flint & Steel with a lot of big lizards being caught there on live baits by those anglers fishing for Jewfish.
I haven't heard of any big jewfish coming out of the river so far this season but there are plenty of school jewfish up to 10 kilos being caught at Bar Point, the rail bridge and at Flint & Steel. The best fish so far reported was caught by Chris Smith from Patonga who nailed a 19.2 kilo fish at Flint & Steel. He had fished the Flint the night before and lost two jewfish, and the fish he finally boated had one of his hooks in its mouth and was full of the mullet heads they had been using for berley.
Bream catches have not been big in numbers but there have been plenty landed over a kilo. One of the secrets to catching the bigger fish is using black crabs for bait. The smaller fish tend to leave them alone. Day-time anglers, fishing the smaller tides, have been doing reasonably well at the Vines, Bar Point and at Spencer. The oyster leases up in Mooney Mooney Creek have also been productive. Night-time anglers, fishing the high tide on the new moon, have caught fish in Berowra Creek and Cowan Creek with some medium catches also coming from the Icicles shore in the main river.
Whiting have come in with the warmer water. John and Damien Iles fished the Dangar Shoals for 18 whiting. They caught heaps more but only kept the bigger fish.
Botany Bay
Watts Reef is fishing well. They are catching trevally to a kilo and some quality snapper. The best spot to fish is along the edge of the eastern drop-off in about seven metres of water.
In close to Ramsgate baths, boat anglers on the drift are picking up flathead and a few flounder, using whitebait or pilchard fillets for bait. The drift from Presidents Avenue to the Sticks is also productive.
Land-based anglers have been doing well on bream fishing from Brighton Beach. Best results are being had with live nippers or prawns for bait.
In the Georges River they are catching bream and school jewfish behind the Riverside Restaurant in Newbridge Road at Moorebank. The jewfish are only in the two to three kilo range, but there are plenty of them. They have been getting a few mud crabs there too.
There is a hole at the north west corner of the Como Bridge and it has been fishing well for bream, flathead and whiting. Greg Westhead boated three flathead and four whiting there using pilchards and said there were a lot of small fish pinching the baits. Those anglers using bloodworms have been getting near their bag limits of whiting.
On the flats at Cattle Duffers, they are catching bream and whiting using bloodworms for bait. The run out tide is the best time. The run in is better at the Milperra and M5 bridges where they are catching jewfish and bream using bloodworms and tubeworms brought up from South Australia.