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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Good fishing, heaps of mackerel. You can see them ripping into the tailor behind the break at Tyagarah.
Plenty of dart , bream and whiting on the beaches.
Jew to 11kg under the lighthouse and some good-size tailor there, too, along with Broken Head. Divers report 30 metres of horizontal visibility.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle 02 66 857 133

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Bruce at Dave’s Bait Shop reports school jew in the Richmond River from Wardell to Burns Point and along both walls, with some also around Broadwater rocks on the beach. Some bream and a few whiting and some nice flathead also in the river along the Porpoise wall. Mackerel outside around Lennox and on Riordans with some good snapper weighed in as well.
Down at Evans there haven’t been many boats out during the week but with the westerly moving in and the sea flattening, that should change this weekend. Along Airforce beach there have been some tailor, bream and school jew with some mullet in the shore break. Try the headlands for bream, school jew and tailor. Evans River fairly tame but a few bream after dark.

Dave’s Bait Shop 02 6686 2481
&
Tony Zann

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Glen’s away in the Middle East and Paul Kneller is bothering the Borroloola barra, so no real report this week but I’ve heard of plenty of small bream throughout the river, some tailor and bream around the rocks at The Bluff and some squire on the reefs north of Woody Head. (TZ)

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

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I had a wonderful weekend at North Beach with plenty of flathead to 3kg and my neighbour and I must have caught 40 flathead between us in the shallows on yabbies. My wife got four nice bream on Monday and the river system is full of fish now that the pros have been sent packing.
Some nice mackerel with water 20° on the bank and 24° offshore with some snapper and reef fish around as well.
Good bream along the beach gutters.

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
rocksmarine@dodo.com.au

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On the beaches, bream are still patchy but there have been some top fish caught to well over a kilo. A few better than average tailor have begun to appear including a few well into the greenback category. Best results have come from beaches south of Port, but with North Beach continuing to hold great formations, it is only a matter of time until the tailor there pick up as well. Whiting remain reasonable, particularly around Lake Cathie, although catches are beginning to dwindle as is usual at this time of year. North Beach and Middle Rock have a few school jew on live worms, although by all reports the full moon has been fishing substantially better than the dark this season. For those keen on snaring a better quality fish from the sand, now is the time to try as the mullet and tailor currently travelling the beaches nearly always attract big jew.
Off the rocks, tailor numbers have picked up as has the quality with reports of fish over 3kg from Bonny Hills and Diamond Head. Drummer numbers remain encouraging and will improve further once the southerlies kick in and shift some sand. Bream are on the improve with areas around the lighthouse fishing well, whilst Lighthouse has given a few solid jew on tailor and whole squid. No reports of bluefin over the past week although Ledges south around Forster have given up a few fish, and there are again plenty of garfish milling around locally. With the current lines still close, the LBG season appear far from over.
Offshore fishing has continued to provide a bit of challenge with the currents simply not letting up for the past week or two. Best results come from the closer reefs with small to medium snapper and flathead dominating boxes. Mahi mahi are still hanging around although on most days locating a FAD float on the surface is the challenge. Barries Bay continues to produce a bit of excitement with the odd cobia hanging around, and one lucky boat scored a totally unexpected black marlin which looked well over 60 kilos. No real sign of mackerel in the bay – maybe next year!
In the estuary, good flathead continue to be taken with the Maria, Limeburners and the main channel giving up quality fish. Whitebait remains the pick of the baits although lure-tossers have enjoyed particular success. Blackfish are on the improve with the south wall beginning to give up a few good fish, while the Maria and Limeburners have also seen a better showing. Bream numbers have picked up with the better catches at dawn or dusk, or in the dead of night.
This recent dark again saw lake Cathie give up a few good feeds of school prawns, with the quality excellent. Next dark should also be productive although with a few cool westerlies beginning to blow of a night, a good wetsuit or considerable internal insulation will be required. Crabs are still worth a go although the swimmers have slowed a little. Best bet is to chase a muddie or two with Maria and areas above the Dennis Bridge producing the better results.

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

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Offshore: The quality reef fishing of recent weeks has slowed a little but the quantity of bait fish remains as great as ever. One angler jigging for bonito off Snapper Rock had a black marlin take a bonito at the back of his boat. Cobia are traditionally at their peak during the next few weeks. Mulloway have been common after dark.
Beaches: The Tailor fishing is improving day by day but the fish remain, on average, small. Plenty of large whiting are being taken by those ignoring the temptation to chase tailor or bream. Mulloway fishing after dark has been exceptional.
Rocks: Bream, tailor and drummer, take your pick. Land-based game – forget it!
Estuary: Mulloway galore from the breakwalls, particularly on live bait. Quality bream are established in the lake and the flathead remain very active and won’t leave my bream soft plastics alone.

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Estuary: Luderick moving in on the breakwall, the Tubes, Windy Woppa. Jew around Middle Island, Soldiers Point with one 55lb caught this week. Flathead Karuah River, bream co-op wall, Rocks Awash, Oakey. Longtails blowing up in the bay right up to Middle Island but they’re moving quick.
Beaches: Mullet running with jew and bream under them. Still a few whiting Fingal Spit, Stockton. Tailor on Box Beach.
Rocks: Pigs Cemetery, Honeysuckle, still a few longtail off Tomaree, kings Sunny Corner. Good tailor of Cemetery and Boat Harbour.
Offshore: Snapper in the Broughton shallows, Sisters and in the washes around the islands out the front. Good bream in the washes around Fingal, especially the Tommy Rocks. Plenty of tailor Cabbage Tree, Tomaree. Mahi mahi still on the FAD, Minefield.

Graham Duffy, Salamander Bait and Tackle 02 4982 0711

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The last week has seen the classic autumn weather continue with reports from our local beaches of good numbers of quality bream and flathead as well as plague numbers of salmon and tailor at certain times of the day. The start of the travelling fish season has seen schools of bully mullet move through the estuaries and onto the local beaches with other species like bream following. Stockton Beach has seen bream and flathead caught right along with most falling to half pilchard baits or live worms. Some mulloway captures have added to the tailor action with Anthony Payne of Cardiff landing an 8kg fish over the weekend on whole pilchard while targeting the tailor.
Lake Macquarie continues to offer good numbers of whiting around Green Point and Belmont Bay as well as flounder and whiting from the Drop-over with live bloodworms or fresh prawns the best bait. Reports continue of good numbers of tailor around the southern area of the lake but we searched for the schools over the weekend and could not locate them. Lure fishos report some good flathead with James Carroll nailing some nice fish through the week on soft plastics.
Flathead and bream continue to be caught from Newcastle Harbour with some very happy school holiday anglers landing fish from the harbour’s popular spots of the Brewery and Crown Plaza.
A couple of days spent at Port Stephens through the week reminded me of this fish-rich area we have available to us within an hour of home. The Nelson Bay Marina breakwall was producing large luderick and bream to those who tried and northern bluefin tuna had been caught from the entrance of the port. Offshore charter operators were reporting some exceptional catches of trag and mulloway with some nice bags of snapper and kingfish as well. Whiting and flathead were being caught from the Fingal Spit and squid were available from the rocks with Bill Willingham catching a feed in record time. What a shame holidays have to end.

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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Today (Apr 29) finally we have some much-needed light rain sweeping along the coastline. We badly need more heavy rain to flush out the river systems and put some colour in the waterways.
As we leave one of the driest Aprils on record, the fish have continued to bite offshore and in the estuaries.
Brisbane Water is still producing some quality flathead on live baits, leatherjackets are biting down at The Rip Bridge on the high tide and there are a few bream about in the same area. Blackfish have started to show up in the channels but finding good green weed is a real problem, but the fishos tell me that Avoca and the pipes at Tascott are worth checking. Good numbers of those blue swimmer crabs are still about but they are only biting early in the morning, before the wind starts to blow.
Down in the Hawkesbury River the bream have been on the chew around Dangar Island. The flats are the best areas to fish on the run-up tide with live pink nippers for bait. Further up the river catches have been slow with only the odd flathead caught and a few bream coming from Spencer.
Out in Broken Bay schools of salmon and tailor have started to mass around Lion Island but they are not keen on taking lures at the moment. Down in Pittwater those line-stretching kingfish are still taking live yellowtail baits fished in around the boat moorings.
Offshore the reefs south of Broken Bay are producing the best catches with good size snapper, bream, morwong, and tailor all biting well. If you have the right boat the Perch Ground has been on fire this week, producing big numbers of perch. It’s a long way to go but those that have made the trip have been rewarded.
The mullet run has started and the pros have been beach hauling for two weeks now, as of today (Apr 29) the Gosford mullet team had taken over 90 tonnes of mullet from several local beaches.

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

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The fishing bonanza that has been the Harbour this season has slowed down a little over recent days, coinciding with a drop in temperature of a bit over one degree in the water. The kings that have been so good to all this summer are finally tailing off the bite. While there are still a few about they are much harder to come by and to entice into feeding. Des Toms of Hook’em Cook’em Charters reports he has been able to bring quite a few up to the boat around the Quarantine marker buoy, but that only a small percentage of these would take the bait. If you’re still keen to persist, live yakkas are having the most luck. Bonito are also about in the same area, as well as around South Head towards the Gap. Trolling Rapalas such as the blue mackerel in a CD-9 size will get you smashed up on the South Head run, while inside the Harbour, especially around Dobroyd Bombora, live baits such as yakkas, squid and slimies are doing the trick. Plenty of all these baits are available through the Harbour. The bait grounds off Balmoral are holding both squid and yakkas at the edge of the kelp, and in North Harbour there are still good schools of slimies. Plenty of tailor are also about hitting these baits. Good bream are still about in all parts.
The Northern Beaches have thrown up a few nice bags recently. Big salmon and some massive greenback tailor are being taken from Dee Why. Pillies are the major weapon of choice. Solid winter bream are taking up a fair proportion of the catch off Curly. Bonnies are being spun up from the rocks with metal slugs.
Offshore, Mick Lyons of Allie Hunter Charters has spent some time indulging his customers in large numbers of mahi mahi. They can still be occasionally patchy but it is well worth the effort to try out a few different FADs and markers. While the Dollies might not be biting on one, they may well be going off at the next. Some decent Autumn kings can also be found around a few of the close offshore reefs. East Reef is a great example with some biggish fish taking live baits fished on the bottom.
Pete Le Blang of Harbour and Estuary Charters reports the drop in water temp has hit Pittwater as quickly as Sydney Harbour, and with it has come the same drop in feeding intensity, especially from the kings. Occasional rats have come into his berley trail around Scotland Island and they will take baits if they are very well presented and very fresh (or live). Tailor have been hanging around Pittwater, taking lures, baits and pretty much anything thrown at them. The average size is pretty small but can be good fun on light tackle. Bream have finally made it up to McCarrs Creek in better numbers, loving fresh squid bait, and when good berley is used some trevally can be brought in around the boat in the same area. Blackfish are having a quiet feed off the rocky foreshore around Bayview. Don’t forget your crab traps as blue swimmer crabs are still around.
Broken Bay proper is fishing well for jewies at the moment, though not all of them as big as the massive over-40kg monster taken last week from Juno Point. Numbers of fish in the 3-5kg range can be found from Lion Island to Spencer. Bar Point reef has been a good producer of late, as have the road and rail bridges. Most success is being had on live yakkas, live squid, or the whitest of white fresh squid. Deep holes on the edge of the main current or rocky reef outcrops that cause large eddies for these lazy fish to wait in, ready to ambush. Plenty of live bait available from bait grounds around West Head, with a few slimies and even the odd garfish amongst them.
Squid can be found around Cowan Creek. Search out a shallow sandy bay with good seagrass cover. Flatties are still chowing down on those small sweet little live yakkas wherever they spy one drifting past. Likely drift spots include Refuge and Americas bays, around Dangar Island, the Pittwater drift, and the entrance to Brisbane Water. Plenty of bream in the deeper holes and around structure all throughout the Bay, seeming to prefer fresh squid over fish baits at the moment. Soft plastics like the Berkley PowerBait 3” Bass Minnow are also doing damage.

Stefan Hansson

Darren Thomas
Fish Outta Water 9949 9488
fishon@uunet.com.au

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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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Fairly quiet. Up at Nelligen the best spot. Flathead, bream, flounder, trevally the pick of it, with even some school jew on prawns. Bream in the lower river and the rock wall at the marina is working well.
Offshore: A few snapper.
Rocks and beaches pretty slow apart from a few salmon and tailor.

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

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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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