The winter blues have begun to settle in with frequent days of horrid weather. Fishing has still been reasonably productive with large schools of silver trevally haunting the tidal channel in search of white bait and other food sources. The jetties and deep channels are holding schooling bream, but locating them has been hard. Use a quality depth sounder to help locate the schools.

Our local town wharves have schools of silver trevally and mullet, which are frequently being caught. Anglers targeting these fish have been getting great responses bait fishing with a weighted float and either peeled prawns or pilchard fillets. Fish close to cover and allowing the current flow to move the bait naturally.

Our local bream have started their usual winter patterns of schooling in deeper water usually around some form of structure like a moored boat or jetty. Anglers have found consistent results on a combination of heavy weighted grub style lures and blades in a range of colours. Natural olive and black colours have been the go-to choices.

For good results at this time of year it’s important to cover a large amount of water in search of these productive schools. Once located, these schools can see an angler pull at three or four bream from the same area before moving on. At this time of year it is a great bonus to be in a kayak or boat fitted with quality depth sounders, as they make it easier to locate schools. This means you have more time fish in productive areas.

With the colder water settling in large schools of luderick have started to school around the town and keen anglers have enjoyed the tricky art of catching these smart fish. The most productive method lately has been to fish some fine green weed suspended under a float. Locals call this ‘horse hair’ as it comes in long thin strands. A big tip is to fish a bait rig as close to the pylons as you dare when there’s good tidal flow, so your bait drifts and covers more ground.

With the lake beginning to quieten down, the fishing has become patchy. Many anglers have to work very hard to locate schools of active fish in the lake. Areas such as the channel markers have held schools of mixed species – mainly bream and trevally. These shut-down fish have been hard to provoke, but a small blade will produce results worked with a combination of hops and pauses along the lake bed.

The higher reaches of Lake Tyers in areas such as the Devils Hole and further upwards of the Nowa Nowa Arm have held plenty of fish which have been more active in the slightly warmer water. The timbered edges are still holding quality bream. These fish are scattered and a great deal of moving is important to locate feeding fish.

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