Julie/Graeme, Anglers Warehouse Tweed Heads (07) 5536 3822
anglerswarehouse@shopsafe.com.au
Wayne, Kingscliff Bait and Tackle
Matthew/Charlie, Deep Sea Fishing Charters

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Beaches: good size bream and big dart, especially on Tallow Beach. A few school jew in the deeper gutters and some big tailor mooching around, with very little under 2kg and plenty better. Blue water just coming back into the bay.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle 02 66 857 133

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Bruce at Dave’s bait Shop says the Richmond River is in flood, with everything coming down – trees, water hyacinth and all sorts of stuff. But they’re catching bream and blackfish around the walls up to Missingham Bridge on the top of the tide, with a few flathead and whiting as well. Get ready to eat mud crabs, they’re everywhere! But remember, no traps are allowed downstream of the Burns Point ferry, only witches’ hats and hoop dillies.
Some good jew spun up around the walls and a few bream in the surf. Once you get away from the dirty water, towards Lennox or down along South Ballina Beach, there are tailor biting on lures and bait.
A few boats went outside on Tuesday and they caught a few snapper and jew but catches should improve next week. Southerly blowing on Friday.
At Evans Head the beaches have had some quality whiting, bream and a smattering of school jew. Worms, naturally, have been far and away the best bait and the most versatile.
The Evans River is still chocolate but some nice bream and blackfish are along the walls. Best bait is yabbies, which are great for the bream and the blackfish. The rocks have been OK for school jew. No boats have ventured outside much so it’ll be a lottery there.

Dave’s Bait Shop 02 6686 2481
&
Tony Zann

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Glen Porter, 6646 2017
The Bait Place 6646 2017
ports@reeltime.com.au

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Bad weather has limited fishing conditions on the Coffs Coast. Boats are hoping to put to sea this weekend to see if the mackerel still exist.
Estuaries have been fishing well, turning up very nice bream, whiting and flathead with big flatties still coming from the Kalang, Boambee and Bonville creek areas.
Beach gutters have re-formed. If you can find one that’s not full of seaweed you should be able to turn up jew, tailor and bream. After the big blow it’s a matter of waiting to see.

Peter Russell, Fish Tackle Australia 6652 4611
motackle@midcoast.com.au

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Mark and Denise Bird and Paul and Michelle Martin
Rocks Marine Bait and Tackle 6566 6726
birds@tsn.cc

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On the beaches, bream numbers are encouraging, with numbers good for this time of year and virtually all fish taken are in excellent condition. While a little patchy at times and not aided by a big full moon, good reports have come in from Lighthouse, North Beach, and in particular, beaches south around Laurieton. In conjunction with the run of bream, whiting have been excellent, as has the quality, with several reasonable bags from Lighthouse and around Lake Cathie. March is traditionally the premier month for quality whiting off our beaches and this year is shaping up as no exception. Tailor have been rather quiet with the exception of the odd choppers from the north. North Beach gave up a few school jew over the full moon but little to report from areas south.
Off the rocks, plenty of blackfish are on offer with many locations well washed out for this time of year. Let’s hope this scouring trend continues over the next couple of months so that we may enjoy a better drummer season ahead. Bream remain reasonable around Lighthouse and Miners although tailor have been a little quiet apart from the odd feed around Point Plomer and ledges north. Little to report from a land-based game scene but if the seas allow, expect the longtails to arrive soon.
In the estuary, blackfish have improved although they are still a little hit-and-miss. Considering the colour of the water, results are quite encouraging. Flathead are reasonable with both the breakwalls and Limeburners Creek providing some nice lizards. Bream have been excellent, as you would expect with the river quite dirty. Gut baits have been achieving the better results. The good run of whiting continues with the Maria, Limeburners and around Settlement Point producing the better bags. Plenty of blue swimmers still residing within the Hastings and muddies firing well in the lower reaches.
Outside reports, as you would expect, are rather quiet with the seas last weekend ruling out any access. In the brief opportunities before and after, good snapper and mulloway remain on offer together with a few better than average kings.

Jason and Virginia Isaac, Ned Kelly’s Bait and Tackle 6583 8318
cjisaac@ozemail.com.au

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Offshore: Weekend after weekend of very average sea conditions have prevented us building a detailed picture of what’s happening outside. Local pro fishos have been jigging bonito in large numbers. Based on info from the interclub at Port Stephens last weekend, bait is plentiful in the 50 to 80 fathom line and provided quite a few striped marlin. Mahi mahi should be present around trap floats wide of The Pinnacle and Five Mile. Best of the reefs up north produced some big trag.
Beaches: Quality bream are being reported on most beaches along with a few whiting. Tailor are available, with the best of them taken on lures at Jannies Corner in the middle of the afternoon over the last few days.
Rocks: Tailor, some quality bream and some monster drummer have all been reported over the last week. Still no LBG action.
Estuary: The seasons are changing with schools of mullet moving into the lake closely followed by some big bream. These bream are fairly common off the Tuncurry Breakwall. Small mulloway have also been common from the wall. The lake has fished well for flathead with plenty of garfish providing some variety.

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Estuary: Longtail tuna blowing up in Shoal Bay, Fly Point, Wanda Head. Flathead Corrie Island and Myall River mouth. Mud crabs up Tilligerry Creek and Karuah. Blue swimmers Tahlee-Carrington. Bream on the wall and into North Arm Cove. Sand whiting on the Middle Grounds.
Beaches: Sand whiting on Stockton, a few bream and flathead towards the wreck. Tailor started to run evenings and mornings. A few jew around the huts and Yaegon headland.
Rocks: Bluefin off Tomaree and One Mile headland. A few good kingies off Sunny Corner. Squire off Cemetery, Fishermans. Tailor One Mile Head, Sunny Corner and Fingal Point. Bream in the washes at Rocky.
Offshore: Little black marlin from 40-60 fathoms, bluefin on The Gibber and Little Gibber headlands and Shag Rock at Yacaaba. Kingies at the Sisters, Looking Glass, East Head. Fair jew from Gibber, Mungo, Cod Rock. Trag and samson on The Gibber, trag on Uralla and The Tank. Lots of small mahi mahi Minefield and Boulder Bay Wide. Striped and blue marlin on the shelf. Alistair McGlashan was aboard a boat which got seven stripes, a tiger shark and a black marlin off the shelf on Thursday.

Graham Duffy, Salamander Bait and Tackle 02 4982 0711

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Extremes of weather over the last week have seen fishing conditions quickly change. To be successful anglers have had to alter plans or change their fishing methods. Before the dramatic rise in swell rock fishers had been having a ball, spinning up good numbers of quality tailor from local rock platforms and Blacksmith Breakwall with many fish over 2kg.Then many of these fishos changed tactics and fished the more sheltered areas for big drummer and bream which were feeding in the whitewater. The best of the baits was abalone gut but fish were also caught on prawns and from one report the humble garden snail.
Bream are also being caught in good numbers with the harbour area and the river producing good fish on blood and tubeworms with some large sand whiting. Reports of some small hairtail caught by anglers targeting mulloway in the harbour.
Lake Macquarie is producing some large flathead with many fish moving from the feeder creeks into the lake to gorge themselves on the abundant food washed down with the recent rain. One of the fish we caught last week had three 10cm bream in its mouth as well as the soft plastic lure we were using.
Outside, when conditions have allowed, anglers have been catching good numbers of snapper, flathead and tailor with the Port Stephens reefs producing some exceptional catches of squire and Swansea good numbers of flathead.
Only one day of fishing over this last weekend was available to complete this years Interclub event with overall champion tag and release club going to Broken Bay `s team two and overall champion capture being won by a team from Newcastle and Port Stephens club. Reports were that the fishing was the best it had been for three years with marlin numbers up on the previous year.
Good luck to the many local anglers who are competing in the ABT Bass Pro round being held this weekend at Glenbawn Dam. There are still places available for non-boaters who will be teamed with a boat owner for the tow days of fishing. Word has it that many of the lake’s bass have moved their way down to the lower areas and are schooling in good numbers and can be successfully targeted with large spinnerbaits or by dropshotting soft plastics such as the Berkley 3” minnows and Slider Bass Grubs. Congratulations to local angler Colin Peak who has qualified for this year’s ABT Bream Pro Grand Final after the round held at Batemans Bay last week.

Jordan Armstrong,
Tackle Power Fishing Stores,
Jordan@tacklepower.com.au

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Peter Sanderson, Fisherman's Warehouse (02) 4945 8922
enquiries@fishermanswarehouse.com.au

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Gary Oxley Coastline Bait & Tackle, East Gosford ph/fax 4325 4255
kathgaz@bigpond.com
http://www.coastlinefishing.easysites.ws

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Disregarding the monstrous conditions on the weekend, the fishing hasn’t been all that bad throughout the week. The offshore scene lacked a few marlin but plenty of mahi mahi have moved to the wave rider buoys and other offshore fads. Mick from Allie Hunter Charters fished with FOW staffer Stef for fish in the 3-6kg range, the larger fish preferring live slimies while small yakkas accounted for the smaller fish to 3kg. Striped tuna were also trolled up between the current lines approximately 10 miles out on Christmas trees and 5” McGoo lures.
The bigger than usual swell kept most rock and beach fishos indoors, but we did receive reports that Dee Why and Harbord rocks produced kings to 4kg on livies (floating) and Bruce Dancaster fished Freshwater beach for salmon to 2.5kg (70cm) on pillies.
Sydney Harbour is still producing kings and amberjacks for Des of Hookem Cookem Charters; some fish were also caught on fly. Dan Kennedy and I christened the new boat at the inner North Head marker buoy with samson fish and kings on live yakkas, the biggest around 2.6kg and 61cm. We left them biting at 5pm and first bait over the side was 3pm. For a mid-afternoon session the action was pretty hot.
Fish Outta Water’s newest staffer, Andy Ings, fished Middle Harbour drifting unweighted pillie baits around the edges for flathead to 2.7kg.
Fish Outta Water’s End of Summer Sale starts this Saturday at 8am and will end the following Sunday at 5pm, so don’t miss out. There will be plenty of bargains throughout the store.

Peter/Kurt
Darren Thomas, Fish Outta Water 9949 9488
captainkurt100@hotmail.com

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Mako Tackle
Gary Brown / Greg Mercedes 9600 6999

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Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

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Rodney Stockman,
Harry’s Bait and Tackle
ph 02 4472 4393, fax 02 4472 3405

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Offshore: Weather has been pretty shocking for the past week with outside events on the weekend convention pretty much a blow-out. Hardly any swell on Friday morning, though, and weekend prospects look good.
Beaches, rocks: Nice bream form the beaches with plenty of salmon and tailor from the rocks and beaches and good drummer from the rocks.
Estuaries: Best flattie of the convention was 6.5kg on 1kg line, Stuart Hindson has been catching flathead to around 4kg, bream to a kilo and some estuary perch.

Darryl, The Ocean Hut 4476 2278

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Darren Redman and Mark Rose,
Bermagui Ocean Hut and Charter Booking Service, 6493 4688

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