With the new year comes new angling opportunities and it’s a good time to set some new goals as well. This year it could be to increase the size of your personal best bream or flathead. Or maybe your very first marlin or jewfish could be something to strive for.

Fortunately, this month and the following few months are about the best time of year to catch most species that you are likely to come by here on the Central Coast.

Bream are one of my favourite fish to chase, and luckily we have some excellent bream fishing opportunities this month. For topwater lure casting it doesn’t get much better than mid to late summer around our lakes and Brisbane Waters. With some good rains towards the end of last year the local prawns are abundant and this sets up everything nicely for a morning or afternoon throwing around your favourite topwater lures.

Some good bream are still caught on bait these days as well, and that’s the way a lot of people still prefer to chase them. Many big bream are caught in our waters on baits, especially at night. At this time of year it’s much easier to put in the hours after sunset than it is through winter. Try soaking good quality bait like fresh or live prawns or freshly pumped nippers at places like the rocky points around the lakes or the oyster leases around Brisbane Waters. Many people also do well on the bream at The Entrance at night.

The whiting and flathead will continue to come easily for those who put in some time with first class baits or lures. The same applies to jewfish in some parts of Brisbane Waters or Lake Macquarie. The Rip Bridge, Paddys Channel and Woy Woy are some places to start if you want to catch jewfish.

As is the case elsewhere along NSW, a lot of anglers will now be dusting off their large lever-drag reels and servicing their big eggbeaters, ready for the pelagic run. For some anglers that means heading out wide for striped or black marlin, and for others it could mean slow trolling live yakkas or squid around our bommies and headlands for kingfish. Other fishers who get a buzz from light tackle may be quite happy just to spin for bonito. The main thing is that it’s all starting to happen, and now it’s just a matter of making yourself aware of where the warmest ocean currents are and trying to score a free day to get out there.

Those without a boat can still get stuck into these pelagic fish from the rocks, but we don’t see too many marlin swim right in close on the Central Coast so our targets are mainly kingfish and bonito. Still, you never know for sure and each season is different, so it’s well worth being prepared for marlin to come right into the rocks or even tuna like longtails or yellowfin. It can and does happen sometimes. There’s also a chance that you’ll hook up to a big king off the rocks at places like Wybung Head, Terrigal or Avoca.

Beach fishing is another rewarding form of fishing in the middle of summer. There can be nothing more relaxing than having a bait out for whiting, and a great thing about fishing for whiting at the beach is you don’t have to be there super early to catch them. It’s mainly about using the right bait such as beachworms, bloodworms or pipis, and fishing during a rising tide. The only negative aspect of beach fishing right now though is the chance of being stung by a bluebottle. They can be very nasty.

So we have a lot of different options this month. Take care because there are many more people around the water through the holidays and things may get a little busy at boat ramps or some of our more well-known fishing hotspots.