Fishing Monthly - Latest Fishing Reports - Updated Weekly

Fishing Monthly - Latest Fishing Reports - Updated Weekly

These reports are updated weekly.
Last Edited: Friday, 27 August 2004

Quick Jump Links:
Byron Bay, Ballina, Yamba, Coffs Harbour.
South West Rocks, Port Macquarie,
Forster, Port Stephens, Hunter Area,
Newcastle, Central Coast, Sydney Northern.
Sydney Southern, Wollongong,
Batemans Bay, Narooma, Bermagui.
Archived Reports, Weather & Tides.

COMPILED WEEKLY BY TONY ZANN IN EVANS HEAD:
e-mail: t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

Tweed Heads

Quick report this week.
Fishing this week has produced tailor at the mouth of the Tweed river, Fingal and Cabarita headlands.
Good whiting have been caught at anghorage and Oxley cove, whilst school flatties have been snared at the braodwater and Scotties Island.
Offshore: there have been nice catches of snapper and parrot fish and the 36's and 24's

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

Brunswick Heads

Outside: Snapper, flathead & parrot fish on inshore reefs black kingfish around Plonk hole & Wooyung, mowong & trag on the outer reefs
Rock & beach: Good -size tailor & dart local beaches, whiting & flathead south beach. Tailor & Bream north & south walls black fish south wall
River: Black Fish on all the river walls bream around boat harbor & the hi-way bridge, jew fish as well up towards Mullumbimby with sum whiting about also.

Craig Wraight
BP Discount Fishing Tackle, Brunswick Heads
ausie_28_red@yahoo.com.au
Phone (02) 66851268

Byron Bay

Wth the swell being very small at the moment the fishing has gone along with it.
While fishing from the beaches in the most part has been quiet there have been regular catches of bream, dart, whiting and flatties from the open beaches.
From the headlands there have been better catches of tailor to the 3kg mark and regular jew around 18-20kg. If you put in the time you should be rewarded.
Offshore there have been decent catches of snapper and pearlies at the 4 mile.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle (02) 6685 7133

Ballina

The word from the guys at Dave's B&T is that it is a bit quiet around at the moment, with only a few bream and tailor being caught from the beaches and the odd jewie in the river.
One or two jew also taken from the headlands while offshore has been very quite with only a few leather-jacket and reds being mentioned.

Dave’s Bait Shop (02) 6686 2481
&
Tony Zann

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

Yamba

Glen Porter,
The Bait Place (02) 6646 2017
ports@reeltime.com.au

Coffs Harbour

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

South West Rocks

Over the past weeks it has been slow on the fishing front but finally there are a few fish around with good reports from all over.
Morning and afternoon sessions on the beaches are becoming productive. Smokey Beach is fishing well for Tailor, Salmon and Bream with reports of Whiting being caught in small numbers. If you want a bit fun there are Salmon all over Back Beach at the moment. These fish seem to be taking pilchards and are not really interested in your silver spinners. There have also been some Flathead out of the opening to Back Creek. Gap Beach is fishing well for Bream on the south side of the Beach.
The River, despite the clear clean condition is fishing well. Black Fish have come on the bite on the run out tide with a few fisho’s bagging out. The Wire Fence and the Jew Bite have been the better locations. Good Bream all along the walls are being caught with live worm or gut bait working well. Tailor and Salmon are being caught at the mouth of the river at the end of the Break Wall. Flat Head are a little slow with the odd one being caught. Two big GT’s were landed along the Wall near Elringtons.
The Rock Fisherman are doing well at the moment with great catches of Tailor and Bream off most of the ledges in front of the Jail down. Nice Bream are around the Gutter with Tailor coming out from both sides. Drummer are in front off the Light House along with Tailor and Bream.
Fishing outside is very good at present. The Charter guy’s are fishing the 60 fathom line off Scotts for monster Pearl Perch and good Snapper. Bar Cod are also coming in along this line. Nice Snapper are being caught around Fish rock and Black Rock. A few Dolphin Fish are out wider but you need to search for the traps that are there. Leather Jackets are still making their presence felt, they should be moving on shortly.
Cameron Macdonald, Mat Mc Niven, Mick Harris and Chook cleaned up on the Tailor up to 3 kilo and some big Bream around Green Island.
If you are fishing outside don’t forget to check your safety gear and log on and off with the good guy’s at the Coastal Patrol.

Mark and Denise Bird and Paul and Michelle Martin
Rocks Marine Bait and Tackle 6566 6726
rocksmarine@dodo.com.au

Port Macquarie

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

Forster

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

Port Stephens

Graham Duffy, Salamander Bait and Tackle 02 4982 0711

Hunter Area

Swell abates but offshore fishing quiet.
The start of the weekend saw the swell and winds abate to near calm conditions which allowed keen offshore anglers the chance to head for their favourite reef to chase the rumored snapper action. This hot bite talk which had been whispered amongst some over the last couple of weeks had gained momentum with many heading north and south to get into them on either fresh baits or soft plastics. Many came back disappointed with trevally, pike and salmon aplenty but reds few and by the Sunday the winds had started again. That’s fishing.
Beach and rock fisho`s continue to catch a feed with the northern end of Stockton beach providing some good tailor action as well as some nice bream being caught around sunrise
with the best of the baits being pilchard pieces. Another local fishing party headed to the big gibber for a overnighter and landed 7 mulloway with the first falling to a soft plastic lure. Luderick are present from the Newcastle rock platforms with Nigel Baker landing a few from the Cowrie hole area through the week. Mark Harrison fished the spoon rocks area for drummer this week landing a few good fish using cunjevoi and run into the seal who has taken up residence there for the time being, could be the same seal that’s been feeding on the schools of Australian salmon just offshore.
Mixed reports are coming from lake Macquarie with bream reportedly quiet in some area’s and the continuation of catches of large tailor with Eraring outlet and vales point area providing some big fish for those spinning with metal lures. Squiding in the channel remains a good option for those still keen for a feed of calamari and Lucys wall is offering good luderick with Paul Sneddon of the Shortland Fishing Club and his mates catching their share of fish.
The new "sugoi" bream and bass popper range has arrived in you local tackle store with the first trial in our area proving successful on our local fish populations. Imported by well known angler and fishing personality Kim Bain, these poppers mimic a wounded bait fish and come in a natural colour range.

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

Newcastle

G`day again its that time of the week when we explore the world of piscatorial pleasures.
So to begin this week we will round out the final results from the now famous Broughton island trek. The guys finally got some reasonable weather on Thursday and Friday. Thursday they tried to make up for lost time bit to no avail the fish around the island itself seemed to be shut down with only the odd token bream and drummer taken. they covered a lot of ground and through a lot of baits around but as we know they can the fish just did not want to play. Friday dawned and was by far the best day weather wise they encountered for the week and indeed was to be fishing wise as well. the long trek to seal rocks ( some 15 to 18 miles by boat )was undertaken and turned out to be a very smart move with the first fish of the day being a 5.5 kg red taken by peters illustrious mate Matt .Peter also finished the trip in style by finishing with a 5.5 kg model himself, in between these two great fish they caught quiet a few fish between 1.5 and 3 kg on both baits and soft plastics ( more on these later ) . so the final tally for the three days spent fishing from the boat was 5 snapper between 4 and 6 kg and 15 fish around the 2 kg mark. as reported last week there was also the drummer caught from the rocks. So the boys had a reasonable week but they are probably a bit disappointed with the results Although fishing was limited by the weather they still had a great time (as they always do ) all the same.

Just another quick note on the soft plastics and snapper i had another trip to Broughton ( I know, twice in one week i thought it was beyond me as well ) on Thursday using just plastics and had another great time with two of us nailing 12 snapper with myself finally getting my personal best snapper of exactly 6 kg , which was released

Well what’s happening on the local scene ? I am happy to say plenty.
With all the great weather we have had this week lots of people have been out and about with some outstanding catches being reported. We do not have to travel very far at all to find some good fish at the moment with Moon island producing some great fishing over the last week we had one gentleman (name unknown) called in with a ripper catch on Tuesday consisting of 2 kingfish of 8kg and 11kg both caught on bottle squid and an amazing bream of 2.5 (yes that’s 2.5) kilograms or 5.5 lbs in the real scale caught on a prawn. Another customer of ours ,Steele Lambert had a ball around the island catching and releasing rat (small) kingies , trevally, salmon and tailor both these catches made less than 5 minutes from Blackies boat ramp, how easy does it get.
In the lake
yes it was the weather and the lack of people fishing for them that made the whiting appear scarce because there have been some good reports coming in of good whiting ,no huge numbers but good fish nonetheless. still plenty of tailor with Jason again being out fished by his 5 yr old son on there way to a good haul of 9 nice fish on Wednesday night.
Starting to get more and more reports of flathead being caught in the channel with one chappy bringing two live fish to be weighed and released one being 2.3 kg the other a very nice 3.4 kg (and both were released alive ,great to see ).The bream have again been a little quiet but there are still some pocking around the sunken wall in salts bay.
Offshore
Offshore this week has seen a steady flow of fish. the kingies are still there still, taking jigs and providing a heap of great fun for anyone who comes across them. Snapper are still readily available although they are out in very deep water (up to 100m).Closer to shore there are still plenty of salmon around and still tailor . what is different though is that we are now starting to see some flathead amongst the catches as well so get out there and have a drift around on the gravel and you may be surprised by the amount of fish you bring home.
Rocks and beach
There are plenty of drummer around and blackfish , however we have started to notice a decline in the amount of salmon coming from the rocks ( not the beach however).The kingies are starting to make there presence felt around the rocks ( the tailor fisherman with the blank look on his face and shredded 20 lb line are good sign the kingies have just been through) and a few bream have been landed again this week from the stones. The beach has been a bit on the dull side but there are some bream still there a few whiting are on the chew as are quiet a few tailor. For those chasing bigger targets the first of the constant onshore winds we have had this week tells us it is nearly time to break out the big gear and chase a jew.
Timely Tips
When fishing for whiting in strong current ie Swansea channel use a larger than normal sinker and a long trace, in clear water use fluorocarbon leader.
When deep water bottom bashing try a lumo bead on the top of your hook
When drinking beer make sure you get the cold one ( no one said they had to be fishing tips)
Try drifting over the reef you are fishing instead of anchoring you will cover more ground and more fish
Use a little burley a lot rather than a lot every now and then
use floating baits (either no sinker or a very small sinker ) when possible instead of anchoring your bait to the bottom

Weekend tides
Sat
high 6.46am
low 12.21pm
high 6.55pm

Sun
low 1.38am
high 7.35am
low 1.15pm
high 7.45pm

That’s all folks for this week
See ya and have fun
Shane

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

Central Coast

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

Sydney Northern

Still not enough rain, 40 days & nights seem to be what is required to stir up the system and bring the fishing on. Sydney harbour has at times had 30-40 meters of visibility according to Des from Hookem and Cookem .He also states that the average water temp is around 15.4 virtually suspending appetites and raising awareness levels.There are still patch’s of Sambo schools along the coastline but they are becoming quite boat shy but still very hookable if you are the smallest lures and flies.The big news is that some large to X-large Eastern calamari have been caught both inside and outside of the harbour with Sott Heath reporting some beauties of the stones near DY using a prawn style jig.Alex Bellisimo has been having success on the rocks as well with Drummer up the 3.5kgat Old Mans Hat and some keeper reds from Longy. This week on Thursday Night Fish'n'Tips we are lucky enough to have the before mentioned Alex to come and share some of his technique’s including ROCK, BEACH, KINGS and THINGS. It is sure to be a well attended night with give aways from both Strudwick (a rod) and Alvey stuff. So if you would like to come and see what all the fuss is about give us a call on 99499488.

Pete LeBlanc reports a little more action on the bream and flathead around the Joey. Drifting is the preferred method at this time of year to cover as much ground as possible. A longer berly trail can also arouse a few fish.

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

Sydney Southern

Mako Tackle
Gary Brown / Greg Mercedes 9600 6999

Wollongong

Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

Batemans Bay

Very patch over the past week, with salmon being caught off the beaches on fly, some black fishing moving into the estuaries and the odd red on pillies at north duras. The boys are away at the fishing show in Brisbane for a while, it look like thay have taken the fish with them.

Irene

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

Narooma

Offshore has been quiet due to the cold water temp (16 - 17) but there have been some decent catches of snapper and morwong offshore, especially around Potato Point. The island is quiet also due to the water temp.
Off the beaches there have been regular catches of salmon with some tailor mixed in.
Fishing the inlet is producing regular hauls of whiting, gar and tailor, with the odd jew also being pulled from the 13 degree water.

Darryl, The Ocean Hut (02) 4476 2278

Bermagui

With the offshore water temperature 16 - 17 degrees there has been very little fishing out wide. Some of the pro's have remarked that there are heaps of sharks about at the moment but that is about all you are likely to get.
Closer in there have been good catches of snapper and morwong, plus tiger and sand flatties as you get closer in.
Off the beaches the have been decent catches of Salmon and tailor.
Into the estuary there have been absolutely heaps of black fish, for those who know what they are doing.
Weather as always is perfect.

Darren Redman and Mark Rose,
Bermagui Ocean Hut and Charter Booking Service, (02) 6493 4688

Archived Weekly Reports

Year 2004 Weekly Reports
05/01/2004	09/01/2004	16/01/2004		30/1/2004
06/02/2004	13/02/2004	20/02/2004	27/02/2004
05/03/2004	12/03/2004	19/03/2004	26/3/2004
02/04/2004	08/04/2004	16/04/2004	23/04/2004	30/04/2004
07/05/2004	14/05/2004	21/05/2004	28/05/2004
05/06/2004	11/06/2004	18/06/2004	25/06/2004
02/07/2004	09/07/2004	19/7/2004	23/07/2004	30/07/2004
06/08/2004	13/08/2004	20/08/2004

Year 2003 Weekly Reports

07/01/2003

10/01/2003

17/01/2003

24/01/2003

31/01/2003

07/02/2003

14/02/2003

21/02/2003

01/03/2003

07/03/2003

14/03/2003

21/03/2003

28/03/2003

04/04/2003

10/04/2003

17/04/2003

24/04/2003

02/05/2003

09/05/2003

16/05/2003

23/05/2003

30/05/2003

06/06/2003

13/06/2003

20/06/2003

27/06/2003

04/07/2003

11/07/2003

18/07/2003

25/07/2003

01/08/2003

08/08/2003

15/08/2003

22/08/2003

29/08/2003

05/09/2003

12/09/2003

19/09/2003

26/09/2003

03/10/2003

10/10/2003

17/10/2003

24/10/2003

31/10/2003

7/11/2003

14/11/2003

21/11/2003

28/11/2003

5/12/2003 12/12/2003 19/12/2003 29/12/2003

Year 2002 Weekly Reports
04/01/2002	11/01/2002	18/01/2002	25/01/2002
01/02/2002	08/02/2002	15/02/2002	22/02/2002
01/03/2002	08/03/2002	15/03/2002	22/03/2002	29/03/2002
05/04/2002	12/04/2002	19/04/2002	26/04/2002
03/05/2002	10/05/2002	17/05/2002	24/05/2002
01/06/2002	07/06/2002	14/06/2002	21/06/2002	28/06/2002
05/07/2002	12/07/2002	19/07/2002	26/07/2002
02/08/2002	09/08/2002	16/08/2002	23/08/2002	30/8/2002
06/09/2002	13 /09/2002	20/09/2002	27/09/2002
04/10/2002	11/10/2002	18/10/2002	25/10/2002
01/11/2002	8/11/2002	15/11/2002	22/11/2002	29/11/2002
06/12/2002	13/12/2002	20/12/2002		30/12/2002

Year 2001 Weekly Reports
25/1/2001
01/02/2001	08/02/2001	15/02/2001	22/02/2001
02/03/2001	09/03/2001	16/03/2001	23/03/2001	31/03/2001
6/04/2001	12/04/2001	19/04/2001	26/04/2001
3/05/2001	10/05/2001	17/05/2001	24/05/2001	31/05/2001
7/06/2001	14/06/2001	21/06/2001	28/06/2001
5/07/2001	12/07/2001	19/07/2001	26/07/2001
3/08/2001	10/08/2001	17/08/2001	24/08/2001	31/08/2001
7/09/2001	14/09/2001	21/9/2001	28/9/2001
5/10/2001	12/10/2001	19/10/2001	26/10/2001
2/11/2001	9/11/2001	16/11/2001	23/11/2001	30/11/2001
7/12/2001	14/12/2001	21/12/2001	28/12/2001