Well what a month we have seen. The start of it saw cyclonic winds and a month of rainfall in 3 days, with an east coast low forming directly over the Broken Bay area. For the following 2 weeks there were trees and logs throughout the Hawkesbury, Pittwater and Broken Bay, making navigation difficult and fishing near impossible.

With that behind us now, Pittwater is still seeing kingfish show up for a feed. At the moment they seem to be hanging around Scotland Island, but are playing hardball 1 day and then the next they are almost throwing themselves into the boat. When the kings are feeding, they have been eating pilchard pieces, squid strips and prawns floated down for bream. There are also some big bream in the same area and these are responding well to berley.

Other places to try for big kingfish at the moment seem to be in the deeper structure of Pittwater. The area between Soldiers and Sinclair points are a great place to start. If you are going to down-rig this area, can I suggest that you try the shallower gutter first along its edge, before trying the middle of the channel. If you see working birds as you arrive, this will be where to start, as the big kings have been hanging around and smashing the tailor schools.

The bigger squid are being caught along Pittwater at the moment and the better area seems to be towards the mouth of Pittwater and on the ocean side of Barrenjoey Headland. Mackerel Beach, The Basin and Palm Beach Ferry Wharf seem to have a good population, and their favourite colour at the moment seems to be the natural olive green. The size of the jig doesn’t seem to matter, so choose 1 based on water depth and the area that I am fishing.

We are still catching the odd mulloway on Pittwater, as well as flounder and flathead. The fishing is a little slower than I would like, but for those willing to get active and use soft plastics or micro jigs, there are fish to be caught. Once again, I have been targeting areas with structure such as The Motor or The Supermarket and drifting through. I have found that by drifting through these areas you can often make a fish crash-tackle your bait because he wants it before his mate can get it. With the bait moving, it can also get fish out of a bit of a slumber to investigate the travelling morsels that are passing their stalking point.

For those wanting to chase those elusive chromed bars in Cowan Creek, well, they’re back. There are some great hairtail coming from Jerusalem Bay and Smiths Creek. The baits to use as normal are pilchard fillets, yellowtail or flutter jigs. It has been important to only have as much lead as needed to get the bait wafting down in the current. There are mulloway that are being caught as well when there is a live yellowtail cast out and left to sit on the bottom.

Hairtail are primarily caught during those cold, foggy nights, but they can be targeted in the late afternoon as well. Often there is a bite if there is a late changing tide of around 4.00pm. If you play your cards right, you can hit the water at 3.00pm and be loading up the boat to head home at 6.00pm with a few fish to score Brownie Points with the missus.If you are going to try for a ‘hairy’, remember to take wire, or better still, buy some knottable wire from the tackle store when you pick up pillies and a few glow sticks.

For those wanting to head offshore, there are big kings once again making appearances from Sydney Heads through to Broken Bay. These are very big fish and there have been a few caught (by others) that have nudged the 28kg mark.

From all reports the kings prefer to take baits from the surface, but of course the tricky part has been to find the bait schools first. Areas to try vary, but reliable big kingfish areas are Whale Beach Headland, Newport Reef, Turimetta Head, and of course the wrecks off Narrabeen.

The reefs are fishing quite well, with a variety of fish being caught. The shallower reefs are firing for snapper before the sun rises. Once the sun gets up, the snapper bite slows and a berley trail is needed to attract other species such as trevally and tailor.

The reefs in 30-40m are producing, with morwong and trevally the main captures. There are a variety of fish being caught in this depth of water, but the best seems to be from 40-60m. There are schools of plate-sized snapper, morwong, nannygai, pigfish, trevally and the odd lost flathead as well. The favoured bait has been pilchards, with squid strips being preferred by the hungry reds.

This depth of water is also great for fishing micro jigs. Whilst you are drifting you can set up a micro jig in a rod holder near the bottom and the boat action will twitch and rattle the lure, enticing a strike.

At the moment, the 120g micro jigs are heavy enough to reach the bottom, but take some larger ones with you if you are going to hit the deeper water.

The reefs to try at the moment are The Container, Newport Reef (40m), Turimetta Headland (50m) and Long Reef in 60-80m. Boultons is worth a look at on the way through for those leaving from Broken Bay, but there has been quite a few nannygai and pickers about to steal your baits.

I hope this report sees you all eager to grab a fishing rod and to get out to enjoy our wonderful part of the world. We have our winter mid-week specials available now.