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After the big flush-out of the rivers and creeks, huge schools of mullet are present on all beaches and moving around the headlands. Tailor are being caught at Seven Mile beach, Boulder Beach, Flat Rock, Jew Point and Snapper Rocks at Broken Head, also at Broken Head and Suffolk Park beaches and around the lighthouse.
Dart at Flat Rock, Broken Head and Honeysuckle hill area. Whiting at Broken Head Beach, Suffolk Park and Honeysuckle Hill.
Jewfish are following the mullet and are being caught off the rocks at Broken Head, Taylors Lake and Suicide Rocks at the light house.
Some sharks at the northern end of Cosy Corner are taking live Tailor. Bream on Tallow Beach and around the rocks at Broken Head.
Simmo and Dave, Byron Bay Bait and Tackle 6685 7711
byronbaitntackle@yahoo.com.au
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Just got back from the beach to write this (Feb 7) at about 8pm. The beaches are very fishable now that the floodwater is starting to subside. With the big 1.99m tide today and the full out down to almost zero of a metre, the Clarence got rid of one hell of a lot of water. Further up the river the tides are not as great but down here at the mouth, the sandbanks which are normally visible on these size tides were very visible from our back verandah today. So
this means that the ‘creek’ will start to function from today onwards and I would predict that the fishing for at least the next seven to 10 days or better are going to be fantastic, firstly on the beaches and then as the good, clearer water makes into the estuary, then the Middle Wall and then the other training walls, ie Collis' and Turkeys Nest Walls, should really fire with bream.
Tonight my mate and I fished Convent beach on that making tide – we went down at about 5.30, a little slow to start but as the water made in the southern corner, then the bream moved in. We kept eight good fish plus a 2.5kg lizard which Peter hooked on his last bait. We used fresh mullet pieces cut into strips and the better bream came off the gut of the slabbed mullet.
Yesterday saw a 31.5kg jew taken on a lure off Flat Rock (the rocks at the southern end of Pippie Beach). I would predict that even at this stage this will be the fish of the year in that category. Last year's best jew was 29.5kg caught on a lure by Peter Rheinberger.
Without a doubt, though, for the best fish of the day weighed at The Bait Place at the BP Servo on Yamba Road was a 2.75kg mangrove jack taken by local stalwart Fred Farlow, who fished the Tuesday tide just before dark on what we call Mine Beach (beach between Flat Rock and Mine Rocks). He caught the fish on crab pieces in the middle of the beach in a gutter that to him looked 'pretty bloody good', and I might add, so did his fish when I weighed it for him. I'm very envious of a good feed of jack
Nothing offshore to report as yet, but it will happen.
Glen Porter, The Bait Place 6646 2017
ports@turboweb.net.au
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The 'big wet' certainly made a few changes to the fishing conditions in the Coffs Region and it appears to be still with us. The dirty water pouring down the estuaries has pushed the bream and whiting out onto the beaches and they are now starting to return with the big tides. The beach gutters are fishing well for bream, whiting and the occasional jewfish, with an interesting mixture of dart and tarwine just to keep you on your toes.
Offshore, yeah right, who's had a chance to get out there with the way the conditions have been but, a couple of blokes who did manage a trip during a short window in the weather came back with some nice snapper and a few pearl perch.
Looking ahead, the weather should be on the improve and I suspect that we will be starting to see a little surface activity. No doubt the teams will be taking the walk across Muttonbird Island complete with swimming pools. Let's hope for a better season than last year.
Speaking of things strange, how about Shane Spillman of Coffs who, while fishing for bream in the harbour with a pilchard as bait, landed a 1.5kg luderick. Not bad, you think. How about the next fish, a 2.21kg bream. It seems the harbour could be on the go at the moment, particularly if you like red fish with teeth. I'll say no more.
Peter Russell, Fish Tackle Australia 6652 4611
motackle@midcoast.com.au
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Like most areas of the North Coast, South West Rocks has been affected by heavy rains and strong winds over the past week.
The macleay River has been pumping volumes of dirty water out to sea. Those who have persisted have taken bream and flathead, mainly in the Clybucca Creek arm
Offshore anglers who have worked the edges of the dirty water line have been rewarded with quite a few dolphin fish. Cobia to 12kg have come from around Black Rock, where the water is much clearer.
Smoky Cape Beach has been fishing well for whiting, although there are a lot of small fish.
Peter & Amanda Jordan, Rocks Marine Bait and Tackle 6566 6726
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The wet season came with a rush and neither the Hastings nor the Camden Haven river systems reached flood situation. Had the rain continued, we were only a day or two away from this.
Not a lot of fishing has been done in the last week, – rain does not worry fair-dinkum fishos but the strong easterly winds curbed most other piscatorial activities. A few sneaky guys visited their favourite big-sea, big-wind spot and bagged out on bream and blackfish. The rain stopped too soon to produce any jewfish activity from the north breakwall.
I remember hearing many years ago that mud crabs are the canaries of the river system, they know weeks in advance of the approach of weather like that we have just experienced. As the inclement weather approaches, the crabs up and walk, and walk they did all last week.
No one has been to sea for a week, the rocks have been difficult and the beaches near impossible to fish. Another old saying is that the first boat that gets outside (offshore) after the big blow usually 'brains' the snapper. The prestige pelagics, being the spottie and barred mackerel family, along with dolphin fish, will not hang around in dirty water. It will soon need to clear if we are to have a decent mackerel season.
Next week’s report I feel will be a whole lot brighter and as the saying goes ‘last week the pain, next week the gain’.
Lloyd and Helen Hewens, Ned’s Bait and Tackle 6583 8318
nedsbandt@bigpond.com.au
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Bluewater:
Divers report some big kingfish and mulloway at the Pinnacle. Althouhg the sea temp has dropped following recent rain, small dolphin fish were reported at Latitude Rock. No recent reports of billfish.
Beach:
Excellent tailor at Yagon, south of Seal Rocks. Smaller tailor and some salmon from Nine Mile Beach and Seven Mile Beach. Good flathead coming from beaches close to the Wallis Lake estuary system.
Rocks:
Big seas last week reactivated the drummer and blackfish with reports coming in from the Pacific Palms and Sandbar (Smiths Lake) areas. LBG yet to fire.
Lakes:
Smiths Lake is producing reasonable dusky flathead on live bait. Wallis Lake continues to fish well ahd has not been overly affected by recent rains. Bream, flathead and whiting remain in good numbers; mullet and garfish are now being targeted.
Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 6554 9541
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Estuary: There’s been an influx of bait fish into the bay, mainly small slimy mackerel, which has triggered a run of tailor and bonito. They’re working into the bay on the high tide as far up as Middle Island at Soldiers Point. Big bream on most oyster racks with Bill Croft nailing one of 2.36kg on mullet gut.
Beaches: A few mullet starting to move! Stockton Beach for whiting, bream and jew near the Sygna wreck. Tailor in large schools.
Rocks: Full moon triggered the jew – Duffy, Colesy and Joey at Big Rocky got 23kg, 13kg and 17kg on squid heads. A lot of tailor off all headlands, mostly legal choppers with a few up to 1.5kg. Luderick thick on Century Point and One Mile wall.
Offshore: Dolphin fish on most trap buoys in 40-60 fathoms. A few striped marlin in 80 fathoms wide of Broughton, a couple of little blacks tagged north of Cabbage Tree. Large schools of mack tuna between Cabbage and Broughton. jew on 21 and the Inner V, trag on Gibber.
Graham Duffy, Salamander Bait and Tackle 4982 0711
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coming soon... (If anyone can help with regular reports please contact t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au)
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Due to the verrrrrry heavy rain and bad conditions there's not much to report this week. Phillip T as usual ventured out between the road bridge and Bar Point, reporting only five bream to 1.5kg using Windybanks Hawkesbury Prawns. Other anglers reported similar finds but the catfish and eels proved to be a
pest.
The river is now fairly muddy, try Juno Point or Walkers point using chicken gut or peeled Hawkesbury Prawns. There should also be a few jewies around Flint and Steel.
Windybanks Bait and Tackle, John & Anne Windybanks 9477 1501
windy@tig.com.au
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The past couple of weeks has seen some foul weather punish our coastline and with all that rain, the harbour resembles a chocolate milkshake. Fishing tactics should be altered to suit these dirty waters. As Les from Fishabout tours explained, try to use really smelly baits or soak some fish fillets in tuna oil – this will help the fish locate your baits in water of near-zero visibility.
Squid seem to have gone off the bite with the influx of fresh water into the system, but the surface fish still continue at the harbour entrance. Tailor made up the majority of the surface action last weekend, with some solid fish to 2kg landed on fly by FOW staff. The schools were moving fast, so it paid off to idle your boat and wait until the birds found the school once it resurfaced.
Those who were game enough to venture offshore were rewarded with lots of dolphin fish hiding under the various fish traps around. Mixed in with these delicacies were small samson fish. Those who fished the Ulladulla gamefishing tournament saw three-metre seas and 30-knot winds, but no one told the marlin the weather was bad, as the champion tag-and-release boat caught seven bills. Most boats saw fish, with one vessel raising 10 in one day, only to tag only one in the end. The Lake Macquarie game fishing tournament was the opposite story, with one marlin and rat-sized kingfish winning the comp for one boat.
On the beaches, the jewie fishermen have been invading the lagoon entrances, hoping to seduce the jew that should be awaiting the flush-out of live food. David Thackeray fought a big one for an hour one night before the hang hooks straightened out on him. Not deterred by the previous night’s disappointment, David set out again with his mullet fillets and hooked up another jew within 20 minutes of hitting the sand the following night. This time the hooks stayed in and a 13kg jew lapped up on the sand somewhere near Narrabeen Beach.
Ben Gross had six sizeable flathead on live poddy mullet in Narrabeen Lake. One flathead was so big they had to back the boat down on it as it was peeling 2kg line from the spool.
For all those great fly-fishing snapshots, Fish Outta Water is running a photo competition for the best fly shots. We have a yearly prize of $1500 worth of fly rod and reel set-up, and there are monthly prizes as well.
Peter/Kurt, Fish Outta Water 9949 9488
fishon@ozemail.com.au
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PORT HACKING:
Even though we have had record rainfall over the last week, you can still get out there and manage to get a fish or two. I ventured out into Gunnamatta Bay in Port Hacking on Sunday, mainly because this would be the first bay that would clear up first. We managed to get bream, trevally and a whiting that went 40cm from nose to the fork on strips of tuna. A constant stream of berley was the key to success. There were also plenty of live yellowtail and slimy mackerel around over the weed beds adjacent to the Fisheries near Darook Park in Port Hacking and around most of the marinas. Flathead, bream and legal snapper are being caught on the run-out tide while drifting parallel to the weed beds and the drop-off near Costens Point. The drop-off at the sand flats at Lilly Pilly has produce a couple of nice mulloway on live yellowtail or slimy mackerel.
Botany Bay: Scott Lyons from Southern Fishing Tours took out some clients on Saturday morning and got tailor while trolling the entrance to Botany Bay and the channel beside the container conterminal on Spitfires and Rapalas. They also managed to get some small kingfish on live yellowtail near the mooring buoys in the middle of the bay and flathead in Woolooware Bay.
George’s River: Due to the amount of rain we had last week, the main areas that you need to concentrate you fishing are near the mouths of the rivers. Tom Uglys and Captain Cook bridges have been producing bream and flathead on prawns, chicken gut and mullet strips.
What’s On: I am going to run a series of fishing classes at the shop on How, Where and When to Fish the Port Hacking, Botany Bay, George’s and Woronora rivers. I will be covering techniques, baits, rigs and fish species over three consecutive Monday nights. The classes will be starting from March 12 at 7pm. For further information you can contact either Greg or John at the shop or email me at gebrown@sia.net.au or phone me on 0417 690 508.
Gary Brown/Greg Mercedes Mako Tackle 9600 6999
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Darryl, The Ocean Hut 4476 2278
No report this week
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As usual for this time of the year, Wonboyn is fishing very well, with a variety of fish being caught.
Beaches: Greenglade, Wonboyn Middle Beach , Baycliffe & North Wonboyn Beach are producing good catches of salmon, bream & whiting. The best baits are pilchards, beach worms & stripey tuna. Lures are also catching salmon. Tailor are a bit scarce at the moment.
ROCKS:
Baycliffe for good catches of bream, trevally and the occasional luderick .
LAKE & ESTUARY:
Extremely good bags of dusky flathead to 3kg; some of our regular customers (30+years) say it is the
best flathead fishing they have had in15 years. Bream are being caught around the oyster leases. Some small tailor are taking lures with a 1.4kg tailor downing a poddy this week. A few nice flounder are also being landed by the flathead anglers. Best baits in the lake & estuary are live mullet, nippers, prawns & stripey tuna.
Wonboyn beaches, estuary & lake are the home of over 12 species of fish which are caught on a regular basis by both experienced and occasional anglers. A great place for all the family to throw in a line.
Bruce and Dawne Grant, Wonboyn Cabins and Caravan Park, 6496 9131
wonboyn@asitis.net.au
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