Dead cold winter nights are sufficient incentive for most people to stay at home in front of the heater and watch the idiot box, but up here on the northern beaches there’s a mad kind of fella that loads up the boat and heads off down the Cowan in search of the mysterious and prehistoric hairtail.

Two of these young fellas are Jack Allen and his mate Luke Desylva. The guys headed down the Hawkesbury River for a night session after coming into the store for advice, and landed some of these mythical fish on light gear. Chasing the sabre toothed bumper bars on 8lb braid is a gallant effort. Some 27lb wire at the business end ensured no bite offs would occur, and they used pillies and live yakkas to land plenty of fish to 1.2m, keeping only a few for the table.

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding these fish and their preferred capture methods, and 1 such mystery of the red glow stick 2’ above the bait worked on this night. Single hook rigs were also in the anglers’ favour. Now most guys that get the ‘hairy bug’ often stay out all night, but Jack mentioned they were back at the ramp by 10.00pm. Well done, fellas.

Some warmer than average temperatures are holding back our winter species’ arrival a little, but plenty of fish are on the chew offshore. Some tuna reports are filtering in and great kingfish are still on the bite in close. Vic and the guys from Oceanhunter Sportsfishing have been into the kings all month on live baits of squid and yellowtail, micro jigs, and even strip baits and plastics. Zane Levett fished with them at the 40m mark off Manly recently, landing some good fish over a metre, all of which were tagged and released. The boys were using live yellowtail with good success on the ultimate slow troll, working around structure and schools of bait picked up on the sounder.

Sydney Harbour in all its glory has some terrific visibility at the moment, so is holding good schools of fish from the heads to Parramatta. Plenty of big squid have entered the harbour now and are taking 2.5-3.5 jigs of all colours and brands. Be sure to apply some sort of scent to your jig, be it Stimulate spray, S Factor or even pilchard gut. This does 2 things; firstly, it gives the attacking squid a taste of what it thinks is a live creature, even though it may not feel quite right. Secondly, most scents will leave a trail of where they’ve been, therefore summoning any squid that crosses the trail to swim up it. Pound for pound, squid have the largest eye in the ocean and can pick up movement from a reasonable distance, so make sure you pepper you cast zone, particularly at night.

The calmer days of late have allowed plenty of light watercraft anglers to get out and for me this means ‘hitting the ’yak’. The ability to launch a craft that doesn’t require a boat ramp means you can put it in virtually anywhere with minimal hassle. I grabbed the 2kg and 6kg kits and headed out in search of the elusive soapie mulloway that reside all over the harbour for a bit of 1-on-1 towing and certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Super clear water and a glass-off meant fishing the deeper water was a good option for an afternoon session, after fellow fisherman George Anastasiadis mentioned he has been catching them deep. I fished with the 6kg rod for the first hour to no avail, but all the action came when I picked up the 2kg. Flathead, bream and trevally all took a liking to the Austackle Sugar Glider in 12-16m of water. Towards the end of the afternoon it was tow time, when a couple of good soapies took a liking to the tiny lure on offer. I wasn’t doing any more than working the sinking stickbait quite slow, like a soft plastic, on and near the bottom.

I’m becoming a big fan of 2kg out of the ’yak for most species; the fight was intense with 6lb leader and tiny hooks, but with a well-set drag the gear did all the work. For those of you after a giggle, the 5 minute fight is on YouTube(Sydney Harbour ghosts on 2kg in the yak) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUSFKTN53Zo

Working full time in a tackle store, I want to keep you all in the know with the fast moving trends as they hit, and this includes all products that go crazy. I want to finish off this month with a lure review and I think this lure should be in every light tackle armoury for the guys fishing in all depths of salt and fresh chasing bass, yellowbelly, flathead, bream, mulloway and whiting. The Sugar Glider is made by Austackle, whom are a relatively new company making some pretty serious inroads in the fishing industry. They have plenty of well-priced gear that is designed for the Australian market. At 5.3g and 45mm in length, this little lure is an absolute workhorse. It can be slow rolled or twitched like a plastic, or jumped across the bottom — basically there is no end to the different methods with which it can be worked.

In the past month we’ve sold out twice as anglers are learning that you don’t need to be a master to make this lure work. These are not an expensive Japanese lure, so they don’t come with the corresponding price tag. At around $13, give them a try. They come in a variety of colours and having caught fish on most of them in all scenarios (even after midnight), I still haven’t decided on a favourite yet.