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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Rock and beach: Tailor on South Beach; tailor, bream and dart on New Brighton Beach. South Wall for bream and jewfish, jewfish around North Wall.
River: Bream and blackfish around the boat harbour, bream and mangrove jacks around the Spur Wall. Bream around the highway bridge, flathead around the Ferry Reserve Caravan Park. Whiting, trevally and mangrove jacks up river.

Joe
BP Discount Fishing Tackle Brunswick Heads (02) 66851268
brunswick-fishing@netspace.net.au

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Cornflake weed around Broken Head and in the Bay. Snapper to 6.6kg out wide. A few good jew poking around Broken Head away from the weed. Most beaches for good whiting, some nice big bream and the odd flathead. Plenty of undersized whiting and dart to steal your bait.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle (02) 6685 7133

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Bruce at Dave’s Bait Shop says whiting have been good all week along the Town Reach and around Pimlico on the rising tide with bloodworms during the day and yabbies at night doing the job. Still a lot of big flathead along the Porpoise Wall and along the Town Reach in the deeper water. Also worth a try for a lizard in North Creek and on the shallow sandbars in the main river. Jew have been OK around the ferry and upstream. Swell has built a bit so there should also be a few around the walls. Emigrant, Creek, North Creek and around Wardell for muddies.
Offshore: Really good mixed reef fish, snapper, pearlies, samson and other stuff on the wider reefs.
Beaches: A few whiting and dart.
Some nice reef fish coming from Evans Head as well, with snapper, trag and quite a few pearlies from the relatively shallow reefs like Red Hill. A few better reds out wider along with some mahi mahi around the wide traps.
Beaches have some nice whiting and the odd good school jew with more jew and some bream around the headlands.

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

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Rock and beach: Some pretty good tailor to 3kg, plenty of school jew as well north and south of the river mouth. Some good sized bream and tarwhine. Whiting and flathead also around.
River: Plenty of big breeding flathead in the lower reaches and around Oyster Channel, including a jew capture on fly there this week. Whiting going OK in the lower reaches with Sandon also fishing well for them.
Offshore: Some spotties around Black Rock, snapper and jew going well off Sandon shoals with a few pearlies and tuskfish as well.

Paul Kneller
Big River Bait and Tackle, Maclean (02) 6645 1834

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Offshore: The harbour boat ramp is finally open again and it’ll be interesting to see if the new sand protection system works. Some nice snapper out there this week with pearl perch and an unusual run of kingfish. Still waiting for the mackerel and small black marlin – won’t be long.
Beaches all have excellent whiting and a good run of small school jew with some big sea-run bream in the gutters, especially early morning.
Estuaries are all fishing well for flathead bream and whiting.

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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In the estuary, flathead continue to star and whiting have also improved noticeably. Best results on the lizards from further upstream, with whitebait, prawns and lures of all types successful. For the whiting, beach worms and yabbies have been the pick of the baits but live prawns have also accounted for some quality fish from Lake Cathie. A few bream have been taken from around the walls and co-op while the Maria River and Limeburners Creek continue to produce scattered catches of blackfish. On the prawn front, Lake Cathie has been a little and miss this moon with some reasonable catches on occasions by the guys with drag nets, but scoopers have enjoyed little success. Next dark should see the lake a lot clearer and hopefully a few more prawns up and running, so keep the scoop nets handy.
On the beaches, whiting are on the improve, with Lighthouse fishing well on the run-up tide. In with the whiting are improving numbers of bream, with pipis accounting for the better catches. Good news on the tailor front, with Lighthouse and North beaches giving up a few solid fish. A few school mulloway have also been snared after dark, with the beaches around Lake Cathie and Dunbogan producing. Salmon remain as thick as ever, with some locals almost calling for commercial harvesting to resume so they can get a bait through to the more palatable species.
Off the rocks, a few tailor have shown up with Lighthouse and Blueface producing reasonable catches. Drummer have been the real stars, with bag limits reported from Hat Head and Plommer, while plenty of multiple catches have been snared around Rockys, Flagstaff and Miners. Given our poor winter season, it comes as no surprise there are a few fish left hanging around, and the next few weeks should also be well worth a throw.
Offshore reports have been encouraging as far as bottom bouncing is concerned, with Domonic Vidot scoring some excellent snapper to nearly 8 kilos as well as a 10kg jew, while pearl perch, kingfish and other mixed reef species have featured in most boxes. No real pelagic action as yet.

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

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Offshore: Water in close is yet to clean up but out wider, striped tuna and marlin are being reported. All reefs are subject to strong current but the fish are there. Seal Rocks remains the place for big kingfish although rats are around most areas. Mahi mahi are yet to show in numbers.
Beaches/rocks: Still slow. The small tailor you expect at this time of year are not thick as yet.
Estuary: More mulloway have fallen to 6" Storm Shads from both breakwalls. Flathead remain ever reliable throughout the system. Big bream are being taken after dark as are the best of the sand whiting.
Tip for the holiday boaters: Have your boat ready to launch before you get to the ramp!

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Estuary: Sand whiting in good numbers Middle Ground, Jimmys beach, Shoal Bay and Bagnalls. Trumpeter whiting Taylors Beach and Tahlee. Flathead Corrie Island, mouth of the Myall, Karuah above the bridge. School jew Middle Island, Salamander wreck. Bream around the co op, with Bob Murulla catching one of 1.7kg on Tuesday. Heaps of crabs in Cromarty and Little Salamander bays.
Beaches: Whiting coming on the bite anywhere from 4-10km down Stockton with still a few bream among them. Jew at The Huts and Hawks Nest Beach, chopper tailor working Stockton and One Mile. Whiting on Fingal Spit and Samurai. Bloody salmon everywhere…
Rocks: Laurie Beckett caught a 12kg jew on Boat Harbour on Tuesday night. Stack of big blackfish on Cemetery and Tailor Rock. Loads of squid Rocky, Fingal, Boulder Bay. A few snapper off the rocks at Fishermans and Boat Harbour.
Offshore: Snapper in the shallows off Fishermans and Boat Harbour with ‘Fingers’ Riley getting reds of 7.6kg, 6.3kg, 5.4kg and six others to 4kg on Tuesday night. Water up 2° to 19° this week. George Trinkler caught a 26kg kingie from East Head at Broughton on Wednesday. School jew on The Tank, Bulahdelah and in 50 fathoms. Trag on The 21 and masses of sand flathead off the back of Mungo.

Graham Duffy, Salamander Bait and Tackle 02 4982 0711

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

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School Jewies and some bigger ones are in Brisbane Water. Rat kings around Broken bay but nothing big as yet. The Hawkesbury has some really big bream and there are also good ones in Terrigal Haven. No real surface action as yet but plenty of lizards coming in from the charter boats and in the estuaries. Leatherjackets still going strong offshore, cutting lines and staling rigs. No bonito or salmon much to speak of. Heaps of undersized reds but no decent ones coming in.

Aaron / Joel
Freddys Fishing World (02) 4367 5555
Shop 1/ 229 The Entrance Rd Erina

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Hot days, hot water, and hot action on the fishing front; you gotta love summer in Sydney. And to top it off, the kingies are starting to turn it on, with more than a few decent fish taken around the mouth of the harbour this week. Marker buoys around Neilsen Park and Quarantine Bay are the go, especially for the stickbait jiggers. Surprisingly, these still seem to be working better than live baits. White is the gun colour. Rapala CD-7s and CD-9s have also done plenty of damage trolled around the same areas, as well as out the front of South Head. Livies have accounted for a few fish, mostly around Bluefish Point, but in general there is a bit of a bait shortage in the Harbour. There are a few slimies around Quarantine, and some other baitfish including yakkas around the inside of Old Mans Hat, but you only really need to bother if lures aren’t getting results. Some remnants of the winter trevally population are working inside the mouth of North Harbour, and bream are starting to warm up all over.
Pittwater has seen a few gear-busting kings lately, but the fish are starting to spread out and the most aggressive lure-smashing fish now seem to be rats, under the legal 60cm. Small skirts like the 5” McGoos are working inside Mackerel Beach and toward the Basin moorings, and Rapalas are also working a dream. Pete Le Blang of Harbour and Estuary Charters says the odd larger fish is out there for the patient, but you can only get ’em on live squid by drift trolling the moorings on the eastern shores. Some good flatties are about on the Careel Bay flats, mixed in with the odd flounder. Whitebait is the key to a decent haul. Whiting have also been taken from the shallowest Careel sand flats, on the old standby, beachworms.
Offshore conditions still aren’t anything to write home about, with no great masses of bait, but that didn’t stop Bill Martin from picking up his first marlin, onboard Mud Crab II: 82.5kg for your debut stripey ain’t bad. Mahi mahi are also here but most of them are rogue individuals and they haven’t taken to holding on any of the FADs yet. Plenty of mowies on the gravel grounds are helping the reef fishos get by while we wait for bigger and better summer fish.

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

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Lake: Whiting in the channel and towards the entrance on squirt worms and bloodworms. Mullet creek mouth for flathead, bream at Berkley Harbour in the evening, lake channel for flathead and the entrance for bream and whiting. Minnamurra, Gerroa at Crooked River and Mystics Beach also have good whiting.
Beaches: Bream on MM Beach at Port Kembla and Coniston at the southern end.
Rocks: Early season kings to 70cm on live slimies and yakkas at Marsdens at Kiama, Hill 60 at Port Kembla.
Offshore: Try 60 fathoms or less for kings and tailor on diving lures. Six-spined jackets and mowies plentiful in less than 70m, best baits squid and pilly tails.

Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

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Offshore: Between the rainy days and the rough seas there haven’t been too many reports of late. Dedicated snapper anglers like Justin Lake and Anthony McLennan have headed out for good reds to 5kg. Charter boats have reported plenty of mowies and other reef fish with the odd king thrown in. Nick from Reel Class Gamefish Charters took out Rob Paxevanos the other day and although they caught no yellowfin but they raised three marlin, so dust off the big gear.
Estuaries: I’ve fished a couple of different systems this week with flathead all through them. The rivers are all fishing well on the run-out tide. Bream on the rock bars, racks and snags. Don’t forget the perch up the rivers in the snags. Also big black bream that are gold in colour the further up towards the fresh you head. Plenty of garfish and quite a few whiting. Some light gear tuna oil and bread berley with dough or worm baits and you should get plenty of gars and a few whiting.
Rocks, beaches: Not many reports from the beaches and rocks but there should be a few reds off the rocks. Whiting in the rocky corners.

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

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Water starting to clear after the rain.
Estuary fishing well for flathead, tailor and jew, but the whiting are still recovering from the flush.
Beaches a little quiet apart from a few salmon.
Offshore: Good flatties on the edge of the 30-metre line. Island has good bottom fish like long-finned perch, some real nice snapper and good mowies. Kingies still only in dribs and drabs. The other side of the shelf there are yellowfin and albacore.

Darryl, The Ocean Hut (02) 4476 2278

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

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