Fishing Monthly - Latest Fishing Reports - Updated Weekly
COMPILED WEEKLY BY TONY ZANN IN EVANS HEAD:
e-mail: t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au
Tweed Heads

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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Byron Bay

Offshore: Heaps of mackerel in the bay, mostly Spaniards. Also big kingies. Nice snapper to around 8kg also showing up. Nice blue water.
Rock, beach: Big tailor and plenty of them from rocks and beaches and good catches of bream, whiting and dart on most beaches.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle 02 66 857 133

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Ballina

Rhonda at Dave’s Bait Shop says the Richmond is working well for bream, blackfish, flathead and some school jew up to Pimlico. Good tailor from the walls and headlands and some nice bream, too.
Mackerel, mostly Spaniards, making an appearance off Lennox Point, Black Head and Riordans Reef.
At Evans Head there are plenty of bream and blackfish in the river, along with some big mullet starting to school up for a run to sea. Some tailor on the walls and beaches along with the odd bream and school jew. Patches of mackerel, again mostly Spaniards, offshore but they’re not thick at this stage. Also some cobia on live baits but the snapper are pretty thin on the ground.

Dave’s Bait Shop 02 6686 2481
&
Tony Zann

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Yamba

Plenty of school prawns in the lower estuary of the Clarence River. These have brought the fish down as well – jew at Palmers Channel, Harwood Bridge and at Browns Rocks. Jew were trawled there on Thursday morning by professionals. This suggests that fishing for bream or jew at Browns should be good over the next couple of mornings on these large early tides. Clear water is making to Browns so plastics should be really worth trying.
Offshore seems to be fishing ok, with the best mackerel for the past week tipping the scales at 19kg. Not a bad Spaniard.

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

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Coffs Harbour

Still can’t get to sea because of junk on the harbour blocking the ramp entrance mouth. If the cyclone forming off the north Queensland coast comes down we should have a new artificial reef! Beach launching only but those who are putting out are getting nice Spanish mackerel, heaps of spotties, mahi mahi off anything floating and some very nice reds off the inshore reefs. Water temperature in 20 fathoms is 26.5°.
Estuaries fishing particularly well as the dirty water has pushed all the bait well downstream.
Beach gutters are cleaning up and holding nice tailor, bream and the odd jewfish.

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

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South West Rocks
Calm seas and nice days greeted us last week. A heap of fishermen took advantage of these conditions and wet a line. You still need to work for the fish but some nice ones were caught.
The river is fishing well at the moment. Drifting the North Wall again proved successful with local Matt picking up a 5kg jewfish and a 3.5kg flathead. Jessica Woodbury hooked a nice 2.28kg flattie in the river. There have been reports of good bream around but you will need to get out of bed early for the bigger ones. Blackfish have made an appearance but they are not in big numbers yet.
Smokey Beach is fishing better than it has for a while with good whiting, dart and bream. Reports of big greenback tailor off the beach early in the morning. The Gap Beach is also fishing well with flathead on the northern corner and whiting and bream being caught all along this pristine Beach. Climb onto the rocks on the north side of this beach for good tailor. Back Beach and Little Bay are fishing OK for whiting.
There is still good fishing for the rockhoppers, with nice tailor off the rocks in front of the Jail, along with some fat bream up to 1.5kg. Watch the swell if you are inexperienced – it can sneak up on you.
Outside fishing is again a mixed bag. Finally, the spotties have arrived but that does not mean they are jumping in the boat. The fishos are all trying different methods and baits to hook these beauties. At this early stage it is a hit-and-miss affair. There have been a few Spanish up north. Ethel Rowsell caught a nice 7kg one off Grassy. The marlin seemed to have moved on, following the bait schools to their next location. Black Rock is producing jewfish at night, if the conditions allow. Darren Morgan and Steve Lunn caught two specimens to 9.5kg. Fish Rock is still very slow with again not much happening there at all. It is a mystery: Where are the kingies?

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

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Port Macquarie

On the beaches, whiting remain abundant with North and Lighthouse beaches producing on most days, together with some bumper fish from down around Lake Cathie. Bream are reasonable but should improve markedly during the latter part of the week and onwards courtesy of a diminished moon and favourable dawn and dusk high tides. Tailor remain patchy but there have been some red hot sessions on occasions. Mulloway have been a little hard to find, but North Beach has given up a few schoolies and should fish well this weekend.
Off the rocks, tailor are on the improve with Lighthouse and Bonny Hills being the pick. Bream numbers remain solid, particularly around Point Plomer, while Lighthouse and Miners have given up a few exceptionally well-conditioned blackfish. Little to report from a surface fishing perspective but with bait schools, including whitebait, garfish and slimies, beginning to move up the coast, look for the action to hot up soon.
In the estuary, the breakwalls have been the place to be, with good catches of many species. On the South Wall, bream have been solid whilst the odd good flattie has also been extracted. The North Wall has also produced the goods, with bream and tailor common and the odd schoolie thrown in for good measure. Late last weekend, schools of tailor were chasing to the extent they were beaching themselves en masse on the little inside beach on the North Wall. The tailor and bream fishing was excellent. Lake Cathie is still producing some good feeds of prawns but the rains have reduced water clarity considerably, to the extent scooping is a challenge. The lower part of the lake is also alive with blue swimmer crabs. Whilst many crabs are quite large by the lake’s standards, just be mindful of size restrictions and ensure all undersized crabs and any female carrying eggs, are returned to the water unharmed.
Offshore, access remains a day-to-day proposition with the weather continuing to be quite unstable. On the days when access allows, some nice snapper have been snared from waters closer in, whilst the wider reefs continue to produce good mixed bags of kingfish, pearl perch and most common reef species. Mahi mahi have also shown some improvement, with most FADS, including the NSW Fisheries FAD, containing good numbers of ranging from around six inches to six kilos.

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

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Forster

Offshore: Water temperature has been a constant 24° and has produced the best fishing for months. Over the last week on reefs north and south of town quality kingfish up to 24kg, samson fish, mulloway, bonito, mac tuna and even a few cobia have been caught. Bait fish are in huge numbers. Some small black marlin are in the area. Snapper and morwong are best sought from Blackhead wide to Five Mile Reef.
Beaches: While beach structure isn't the best, most beaches are producing a wide variety of fish. If you want whiting, areas north of town seem to have produced the biggest fish. Tailor and bream are well established with even the occasional salmon already in the area.
Rocks: The amount of sea garfish being reported must mean the northern bluefin are about to hit full stride. Those live-baiting off the rocks report lots of mac tuna, bonito and tailor annoying their livies. Traditional rock fishing will provide a feed of bream, tailor and some drummer.
Estuary: Lots of mulloway from the breakwalls but the size is down. Those fishing the ends of the walls have caught quality tailor. The lake proper is fishing well for bream, flathead and mullet. Big whiting have been taken after dark on live prawns. A few ABT stars have been spotted checking out the bream situation prior to the MegaBREAM pre-fish ban on April 5.

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Port Stephens

Estuary: Flathead galore in Shoal Bay, Little Beach, Fly Point, Corlette groynes, Corrie Island, Myall River – best run for years. Flounder on the bar. Kingies caught trolling around the tubes at the Heads. Luderick on the co-op wall, bream in the marina, crabs North Arm Cove.
Beach: Jew to 15kg at the Huts, stack of flathead near the wreck, good tailor on dusk anywhere. Whiting and bream on Stockton and One Mile.
Rocks: Luderick on Tailor Rock at Cemetery. Tailor One Mile, Sunny Corner. Longtails off Tomaree LBG and One Mile, kingies Boat Harbour headlands. Snapper Fishermans Bay.
Offshore: Marlin from 30 fathoms to the shelf, stripes, blacks and blues. Mahi mahi Minefields, Boulder Bay traps and the FAD. Kings on the Sisters and The 21. Bonito Cabbage Tree and East Head. Snapper Fishermans Bay and the Broughton shallows, especially in the washes around East Head, the Looking Glass and Cod Rock. Jew on The Tank, The Vs and the Gibber. Trag and samson on The Gibber, trag on Uralla. Heaps of tailor Little and Big islands. Longtails off Little and Big Gibber headlands with heaps of mack tuna as well.

Graham Duffy, Salamander Bait and Tackle 02 4982 0711

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Hunter Area

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

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Newcastle
Lake Macquarie: One of my mechanics who fishes the lake quite often, Ray Lettice, came to me on Monday reporting an impressive sighting of a shark in the bay area. It was cutting through a huge school of tailor and garfish and the two-metre shark gorged himself on the baitfish. Ray also reported that on the Sunday afternoon when he sighted the shark there were thousands of seagulls working the schools of tailor ‘everywhere you looked’. Another big Snapper caught by a customer on Monday who fished two hours in Belmont Bay for four big Bream, two 35cm squire and a healthy 2.35kg snapper. Jumpin’ Johnny Frith also excelled himself on the weekend with eight big bream and three 45cm squire at Green Point on fresh mullet gut.
Beaches: Russel Fisher of Caves Beach finally landed himself a respectable jewfish of 12kg. A 41kg fish was caught at Caves last month and another couple of big ones over the last few weeks. Whole squid is the go.
Offshore: Scott Sanderson landed a 100kg blue marlin off Port Stephens last weekend. Last weekend saw plenty of marlin caught off our coast with a few boats having multiple hook-ups. Hot spots last weekend were mainly the car park off the bay in 60-80 fathoms and some bigger blue marlin were caught around north Norah Head canyon inner mark. Don't forget that the most success has been on downriggers or weighted live baits. Plenty of mahi mahi around the traps and out wider.
The Port Stephens Trailer Boat competition will be on April 1-4 with a total of $80,000 worth of prizes for the 400 competing boats and 1000 anglers.

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

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Central Coast

Offshore: The reefs south of Broken Bay, such as Esmerelda, Trawleys and Nine Mile, have produced medium kings, snapper nice bream, samson and big tailor on the bottom. Current has been slight so you can use minimal lead.
Estuaries: In Brisbane Water there’s a good run of bream down near the Woy Woy bridge on pillie cubes or gar cubes, best fished on the run out tide. Towards Gosford plenty of flathead on live poddy mullet.
Beaches: Pretty quiet but tailor and salmon late in the evenings.

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

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Sydney Northern

During these warmer months while the fishing is at its peak some quite unusual captures are reported. During an inshore trolling session David Lucas had a 2.3-metre black marlin take a liking to his 5” skirted McGoo lure trolled on an 8kg snapper outfit. With only 250 metres of line, the boys set off in hot pursuit. An hour or so later, in not so comfortable conditions, the marlin was released. Other species picked up included striped tuna to 2kg and mahi mahi to 65cm.
Mick Lyons from Allie Hunter Charters reports mahi mahi at the local fish traps and buoys. Marlin reports have eased up during the week, John Bennit had a report of a captured 100kg blue.
Des from Hookem Cookem has amberjacks lurking around most floating marker buoys particularly in Middle and North Harbours. Des says Sydney Harbour water is 23ºc and recommends the eastern Wedding Cake as his spot of the week. David Haughton landed trevally behind North Head using prawns and berleying; other species caught were flounder and flathead with plenty of unknown bust-offs thrown in.
Sydney Northern Division had its second estuary round last weekend with Geoff Sutcliffe cleaning up with nine species including a 4.3kg flattie.
Pittwater Pete of Harbour and Estuary Charters says some big kings are lurking around Barrenjoey while leatherjackets have moved in to many a spot, hindering bream fishos by scoffing baits. Blue swimmer crabs are on the move again and plenty of yakkas can be caught at local live bait venues.

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

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Sydney Southern

Mako Tackle
Gary Brown / Greg Mercedes 9600 6999

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Wollongong
Lake: Nice blackfish on the southern side in the back channel on green weed but it’s hard to find. Plenty of chopper tailor on the entrance near the rock wall. Still plenty of flathead in the channel on prawns and soft plastics. Bream around Canhooka on soft plastics in motor oil colours.
Beaches: Port Kembla going well for whiting and a few good bream down near Windang lake entrance. Salmon and tailor on Coniston Beach and some bream off Jones Beach on worms.
Rocks: Bream and drummer around Bass Point on royal reads and ab gut. Kiama has kings on blue and green metal spinners around 40g.
Offshore: Plenty of mowies on Wollongong Reef, kings off Gap and Rangoon islands on live yakkas. A few bonito on 4” pink skirts. A few reds in close around Helensburgh on royal reds and tuna strips.

Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

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Batemans Bay

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

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Narooma

Offshore: Wagonga Inlet firing for some nice flathead but the jewies have gone a bit quiet on the moon. Lots of bream and whiting around.
Beaches: No swell with a few salmon and tailor but only the odd bream and small whiting.
Estuary: Island has a few kings and a lot of bonito. Kings around 6-7kg but you have to work hard slow trolling live slimies. Kings also off Potato Point.

Darryl, The Ocean Hut 4476 2278

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Bermagui
Offshore: Marlin still chewing nicely with live baits and lures working. Switchbaiting working well. Spearfish. Yellowfin busting out occasionally with fish to 50kg caught this week. Island pretty slow because water in close is going north. Reef fishing consistently good for quality snapper and mowies, with flathead and the rest going well. Twelve Mile loaded with Chinaman leatherjackets.
Rocks: Salmon and tailor loaded up around the headlands with tailor and bonito mixed in.
Estuary: Salmon coming into the harbour along with some big trevally. Good run of bream in most estuaries open to the ocean. Blackfish, whiting and trevally mixed in and flathead are still persisting..

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

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