We have experienced a variety of winter weather over the past few weeks. Some beautiful warm days and cool nights have been ideal for all kinds of fishing, contrasted with rain, wind and southerly seas to 4m. Throw in a few days of northeast gales and you’ll start to see the pinwheel of weather we have experienced.

A lot of the time beach, rock and outside fishing has been impossible due to the prevailing conditions, but the river has produced good fish at all times. The heavy seas have eroded the beaches so badly that travel on them is restricted to low tide. On high tide the water reaches right back to the vertical walls of sand on the dunes at the back of the beaches. It is quite easy to get caught on the beach by the rising tide and have to spend a few hours waiting for the water to drop back and allow passage off the beach.

Bream have schooled along the river wall at Harrington and excellent catches of these fish have been reported. Mullet strips, yabbies, prawns and fish pieces have all caught fish. Tailor pieces have accounted for many of the larger models caught. The best times to fish have been either side of slack water and high tide has been the best. Luderick are on the bite along the wall and the gantry area is the best spot. Green weed is the bait to use during daylight hours while fresh yabbies are best at night. Fish to 1kg have been landed but 700-800g is more common. School mulloway have taken live baits of herring and yellowtail fished from around the gantry. Most of the fish are in the 4-6kg range but the largest have gone 12kg.

Prior to the rough weather Crowdy Beach produced some excellent bream from the northern end, as well as good bags of tailor and the occasional salmon. As the beaches are now severely eroded it is difficult to find good water to fish. Consequently, catches have been down. A few tailor, some small bags of bream and the occasional whiting have been caught. The sand spit in the mouth of the river has fished well for mulloway, salmon and tailor. Most of the mulloway were in the 4-6kg range and were taken on worm baits.

When conditions have been good, quality snapper have been landed from the northern grounds and south off Old Bar. The best of the fish have been up to 6kg in weight. Pearl perch have been taken in 60m of water off Diamond Head while mac tuna have taken lures. Flathead are still being caught on the drift.

August is a good fishing month for our area. Chopper tailor can be found on the beaches and around the headlands while luderick and bream can be caught from the wall at Harrington. The beaches should be formed up by then and there should be plenty of good water to fish. Seas are generally flat and big snapper can be picked up around the close-in bommies.

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Flathead are still being taken on the drift.