Sydney Harbour Shoey RAY Oppie has been catching school jewfish up to 10kg around the mouth of the Lane Cove, and under the Gladesville Bridge. He has been catching the jewies right through the winter months using fresh squid for bait. He uses nothing heavier than 10kg line and rigs the squid bait without any weight and just drifts it down with the current. He says that when he cleans the fish they are full of mantis shrimp, also known as prawn killers, so he is looking for a regular supply of the shrimp to use as bait. Pyrmont Bay has been producing some monster leatherjackets. Some anglers are switching to stainless steel long shank hooks as the leatherjackets are biting through the normal steel hooks. John Dory can be found around the bait grounds at Clifton Gardens and near Forty Baskets Beach. Keeping a live bait down long enough for a dory to find it before a tailor chops it to pieces is the biggest problem. For the land-based angler, Middle Head is worth a go. A few drummer and groper are being caught there and there are tailor within reach late afternoon. Rather than casting a whole pillie for the tailor, try a half pilchard or pilchard fillet. It sometimes works better when they are a bit tentative on the bite. Some good catches of blackfish have been coming in. Best spots appear to be the wharf at Rose Bay, under the convent at Vaucluse, the eastern wedding cake marker and, when the wind is not too strong, Sow & Pigs Reef at low tide. In Middle Harbour, Ray Furrugia fished about 50 metres down from the Spit Bridge for a catch of bream, tailor and some large calamari-sized squid. Hawkesbury River Some reasonable catches of bream are starting to come in. I saw a nice catch of 14 bream being cleaned at the Berowra Waters ramp that were caught at Bar Point. Four of the fish were around the kilo mark. The Vines is also starting to produce some reasonable catches. The traditional way of fishing this spot, anchoring three to four boat lengths out from the shore and fishing in the current, is not working, though. More fish are being caught from boats drifting in close to the shoreline and casting unweighted prawn baits in front of the boat and letting them sink to the bottom as the boat drifts over them. Peter Barratt and Gabriel Quercigrossi fished under the wires between the rail bridge and Brooklyn for a catch of 12 whiting caught on bloodworms, and seven flathead, two bream and a flounder caught on whitebait. This spot has become known as Petticoat. I would love to know the story behind that naming. The Milson Island flats are producing some big flathead. The best drifting ground is between the wharf and the eastern end of the island, fishing in about three metres of water. The drift from Juno to Lion Island is also producing some flathead with some big flounder also coming in. The Pursehouse family, who are members of the Kuring-gai Hornsby Fishing Club, fished that area recently spinning up some salmon on the surface but also boating flathead and flounder from the bottom, with some of the flounder weighing in at 400g cleaned weight. Cowan Creek is fishing particularly well with schools of salmon working as far up as Bobbin Head and a few being caught on fly. Bobbin Head wharf has blackfish but keep an eye on the legal length. Squid are also abundant, and they are not small squid either with two or three of them providing a decent feed of calamari. Bass are being caught above Wisemans Ferry and they appear to have already spawned so they are obviously moving up river. Adrian Clarke and his son caught 10 bass at Sackville with the best fish going 38cm. Botany Bay Land-based anglers have been doing well of late. At Bare Island they have been catching drummer, blackfish and the odd groper. Flathead are being caught from the beach at Ramsgate and Mark Henry fished an early morning session from the shore near Barton Street for a catch of bream and whiting on bloodworms. Boat anglers drifting near the three channel markers off Towra are doing well on flathead. The best drift is along the weed beds inside the red marker. Most of the fish are being caught on whitebait with Hawkesbury River prawns also accounting for a few fish. In the Georges River, the stretch of water between the Captain Cook Bridge and Sylvania has schools of tailor working late afternoon. The choppers are averaging around the half-kilo mark and are taking both cast pilchards and spinners. The blackfish have returned to the middle section of the river after a fairly quiet month. Geoff Barr and Les King boated 14 stud fish at Green Point. Some of the luderick went better than a kilo in weight. Billy Wittaker and Norm Brown caught 13 at Presidents Rock, opposite Cattle Duffers, and John Burke fished the run in tide at Lambeth Park for nine fish. Float fishers, using bread or dough for bait, are catching their share of fan tailed mullet around Kelso Park. The little creek just downstream from the Deepwater Motor Boat Club has a resident population there that hang around the weed beds. Fan tailed mullet are not what I would consider a good eating fish, but they are great fun to catch on light gear, and worth freezing down to use for crab baits later in the season. Offshore The charter boats have been getting good catches on the reefs wide of Sydney and down south of Port Hacking. Brian Dorsman took his party down to the Marley Wreck where they caught 90 flathead, 35 morwong and some gurnard. Just Magic, with a crew of nine, fished the Hump off Stanwell Park for a catch of 150 fish, mainly reds, morwong and sweep. Ken Bradley, who skippers the Punchbowl RSL boat, went out to the Peak and they fished the north west corner of the reef for 27 pinkies and some morwong. One disappointing factor in the offshore scene is the small size of the morwong that are currently being caught. At the moment a 2kg fish is considered a monster. For example, Ross Able fished the Tank Mark off Kurnell for 16 morwong, six of which went back as they didn’t make the minimum legal length. At 28cm, that’s a pretty small morwong. The northern reefs are staring to fire for snapper with fish to 4.5kg reported from Long Reef and the close reefs off Avalon also producing some quality fish. Out wide, the warmer water is bringing the marlin. Ross Hunter has been getting regular hook ups on small marlin. John Williams and mates went out to the Canyons looking for yellowfin or marlin - without luck, but guess what they did find? Five spotted mackerel! Rock and Beach Drummer are the best bet off the rocks. Good catches have been taken from most of the recognised washes. Best spots appear to be South Malabar Point, Cape Banks, below the cemetery at Waverley, and on the north side, the Hole in the Wall at Avalon. The water has been very clear due to the westerlies and the gun pig fishermen are saying that late afternoon is the best time. In fact the best bite is during the last half hour before dark. Some blackfish are being caught at North Maroubra, Coogee, Turrimetta Head and the pool at Mona Vale. The luderick are very finicky and the best catches are being taken by those anglers prepared to go down to 2kg leaders. Spin fishos trying for salmon are still scoring reasonable catches. The salmon are also getting a bit touchy and small lures, around the 15g weight, cast on light line are doing best. Some big salmon around the 3kg mark have been taking live baits under bobby corks. The southern rocks around Marley and Wattamolla have been very productive. Closer to Sydney try North Maroubra, the pool at South Coogee, Harbord and Curl Curl. Salmon are also being caught on the beaches. Wanda Beach has salmon in the gutters up near Green Hills. Catches of salmon have also been reported from Narrabeen Beach, Dee Why Beach and Palm Beach on the north side. A few flathead have been coming from the southern corner of Maroubra Beach with bream on the bite in the gutter in front of the pavilion at night.