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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Outside: Snapper and trag.
Rock and beach: Bream and whiting on South Beach, bream on New Brighton Beach, South Wall bream.
River: Bream and blackfish around the boat harbor, bream around the Spur Wall, whiting and flathead at Simpsons Creek right up to the bowling club. Bream, flathead around the highway bridge, flathead around the Ferry Reserve Caravan Park. Whiting up the river with mangrove jacks and mud crabs.

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

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Young Mark Costigan was in a tinny off the cape catching squire and parrot when a 30kg black marlin grabbed a parrot. Mark’s first marlin stayed in the boat. A few big tailor on the move around the cape and Broken Head. Some big whiting, like around a kilo, along with nice flatties and bream – try Belongil, Tallow, Clarks. Water has gone cool and green, visibility around 5m and around 17°.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle (02) 6685 7133

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Mandy at Dave’s Bait Shop says there have been some nice flathead around the Porpoise Wall and just upstream of the ferry. Whiting improving up at Pimlico with good tides coming up from Saturday onwards. The odd nice bream as well. A few school jew at night around the RSL and the Porpoise Wall. Mud crabs up Emigrant Creek and a few in North Creek. A few tailor around the walls and headlands early morning and on dark. Outside there are a few amberjack, kings and the odd snapper and the marlin have moved a little wider, out around The 48.
At Evans the southerly seems to have picked up a little and Saturday offshore trips could be in doubt for the smaller boats. Some nice snapper and trag in close with bigger boats heading wider for pearlies and samson.
School jew have been OK at Broadwater and Chinamans beaches and around the headlands, where a few tailor have turned up as well. Whiting and some fair bream on Airforce and New Zealand beaches. The river is getting flogged but there are still a few fair whiting and some flathead to be caught, along with crabs up around the golf club – keep your traps in sight!

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

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Lower reaches have heaps of quality whiting. Flathead have been patchy with masses of little ones or a handful of big ones with very little in between. Bream of any size have been pretty scarce. School blacktip sharks you could walk on showering mullet everywhere and everyone is catching them, even on prawns, and a dead herring lasts about two minutes. Just the odd school jew and trevally about.
Of the rocks there have been some very good tailor to 4.66kg on bait and lures, with the afternoons best. Heaps of jew on One Man, lovers, Green Point and the Bluff. Good jew, dart, whiting and flathead off the beaches with Sandon beach fishing very well.
Offshore action last weekend was good for reasonable snapper, pearlies, tuskfish and groper.

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

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Some big flathead, with plenty of fish over 6kg (week’s best 7kg) , in the creeks and the Bellinger River along with plenty of fish from 1-3kg. Beach gutters adjacent to the estuaries turning up flathead, whiting and bream. An excellent run of jewfish after dark with the week’s best fish 23kg. Offshore conditions have been good for the early starters with nice snapper to the 10.6kg big red caught by a young bloke not much heavier. Plenty of fish 6-9kg still in shallow water. The odd small spotted mackerel sighted but no Spaniards landed yet.

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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The annual Golden Lure is shaping up as another great tournament several marlin encounters, primarily with stripes, with waters just to the north holding good numbers of small blacks. The FAD holding some solid mahi mahi with better quality fish wider out. Water is 26° in patches. Bottom bashers have been scoring plenty of snapper from 1-5kg on the reefs off Lake Cathie and Point Plommer. Live slimy mackerel have been accounting for the better fish along with squid and pilchards. Morwong numbers are excellent as are flathead, while the odd better kingfish has been extracted from the various pinnacles.
The lower end of Lighthouse Beach is shaping up well while North Beach also sports some great spits and gutters. Whiting have improved with a few stud bream early in the morning or at night. Salmon remain reasonable and tailor are steadily improving with best results around Dunbogan and North Haven. A few solid school jew have been extracted from North Beach and around Lake Cathie. Expect this action to pick up considerably over the next week with some great high tides just after dark.
Off the rocks, drummer remain the flavour of the month, something we don't usually associate with January. Hat Head and Plommer have been producing exceptional numbers of quality pigs, while Flagstaff and Miners have also been well worth visiting. Tailor are reasonable but the quality is mostly not great. Blackfish are a good proposition with Lighthouse and Point Perpendicular producing a few reasonable bags, while a few good bream have been taken at night.
In the estuary, star attractions have been flathead and whiting. Flathead numbers have been excellent from around Settlement Point and Blackmans Point with better results upstream of the Dennis bridge. Blackmans has been the pick for whiting although those who venture further up the Maria have reported a better class of fish. Off the breakwalls, the odd bream and blackfish have been on offer although in the main, results are average. Lake Cathie continues to produce quality catches of whiting, particularly at night, while a few reasonable flatties have been taken around the bridge.

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

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Offshore: The fishing continues to improve in all areas. Small sharks have been reported close inshore, whalers, hammers and a few makos. Seaquest worked wide for a good day on the bar cod. Dream Chaser has been trolling the shelf and has tagged four marlin in the last few days. The NSW Fisheries FAD is holding mahi mahi to 10kg and lots of small kings. The Pinnacle is loaded with small kings and a few decent mulloway on the bottom. A couple of local divers tell me that areas around Seal Rocks have schools of rainbow runners in abundance. Most reefs will produce snapper, and some trag after dark. If you want to go outside and drift for Flathead you will catch a feed, but I'm afraid I don't call this serious outside fishing!
Beaches: At last a couple of reports of mulloway off Diamond Beach. The tailor remain small and the whiting are on offer, but not in the numbers you would hope for at this time of the year.
Rocks: Nothing significant to report.
Estuary: The prawns are running and the lake looks like a fairyland after dark with hundreds of lights dotting the water. The mulloway fishing in the channel remains a bit slow. The flathead action is as good as it gets. Quality whiting and bream are on offer after dark, particularly on live prawns.

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Estuary: Mud crabs Bobs Farm Creek, Karuah. Blue swimmers Tilligerry, Tahlee. Flathead to 4.6kg around Corrie Island on the eastern sandbars. Squid in Shoal Bay, Barns Rock, Jimmys Beach. Sand whiting on Middle Grounds, Manton Bank and Shoal Bay Beach, Back Paddock at Soldiers, Cromarty and Soldiers Beach.
Beach: Jew to 25kg on Stockton, stacks of whiting, a few bream and a few schools of tailor on dusk. School jew on Fingal, Green Hill. Whiting One Mile, Kingsley and the three front beaches – Zenith, Box and Wreck.
Rocks: Blackfish Cemetery point, Tailor Rock. Squid Boat Harbour, Fishermans, Rocky. Colesy’s best snapper this week 5.8kg at Fishermans. A few tailor One Mile and Sunny Corner.
Offshore: Trag on The Gibber, The 21. Kings off Fingal bommie with bigger ones on East Head at Broughton. Good snapper on Mungo, the Sisters. Water up around 23° in 40 fathoms with a few black marlin and striped ones turning up. Mahi mahi on the FAD, Minefield, Boulder traps. Jew on the shallow reefs, back of Mungo, Bulahdelah, Tank, Uralla. Fair snapper in the shallows around Boat Harbour and Telegraph Point on soft plastics and bait.

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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Offshore: Marlin showing up on the shelf with heaps of bait. Good kingies to 12kg out wide around the Perch Grounds. Mahi mahi on the shelf and the longliners report good yellowfin about 60 miles out. Bottom fishing is pretty sad with plagues of sweep dominating over a few reds and mowies. Some big groper around the rocks in close along with masses of tiny sweep. Good schools of tailor and trevally in close around the rocks.
Estuary: Good flatties in Brisbane Water and the prawn run should be a good one this week.

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

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Summer fishing is not taking off with the same bang as last year, with some parts of Sydney Harbour in particular noticeably patchy. Last year by this time there were big schools of pelagics roaming the harbour, terrorising fingerling-size baitfish. Kingies, bonito, amberjack and a few more obscure summer species joined forces with salmon and tailor that had remained in the harbour after the winter. Things are starting to look up, though, with Des Toms of Hook’em Cook’em Charters reporting some warmer blue water arriving at South Head, bringing rat kings around to add to the small schools of fish currently in the harbour. Des reckons Rose Bay or Double Bay are holding a few of these smaller king schools and are probably the best places in the harbour to start looking for surface action. Once the fish are found, it’s time to reach for the stickbaits, with plenty of fish falling for the white 10” unweighted variety floated down into a school. Live squid are the gun for bait fishos and there are a few smaller new-season ones about. Yakkas are proving extremely elusive, with the schools being pretty mobile, but if you can find them they’re definitely worth a shot. There are a few trevally around Dobroyd Point that love a bit of unweighted whitebait floated down the berley trail and North Harbour has the odd tailor and salmon.
Pittwater has been producing good size kings for over a month, as can be testified by Dan Coles who on Tuesday pulled a nice 5kg+ fish, a few rats around 62cm and was stomped by a monster, all while trolling live squid around the moorings on the eastern foreshores. Pete Le Blang of Harbour and Estuary Charters notches up another happy customer! The squid are not the easiest to catch, though. Pete reckons there are also plenty of flatties on the sea plane drift with pillies and anchovies the killer baits. There are some good size trevally around the Basin that love for live squid. Keep an eye out for a couple of pretty decent bull sharks when you’re out there. Around Scotland Island, especially over the sand and seagrass patches, there are a few local bream getting stuck into the whitebait.
Offshore there are plenty of bait schools but nothing to write home about as far as predators, especially in comparison to last year at this time, when there were stripes about in serious numbers. The water is incredibly warm when you get well wide, up to 25° in parts, but the fish have not arrived with it. To make things worse a pod of dolphins roaming off the shelf have learnt how to strip live baits off the bridle! There are a few marlin about, mostly stripes, but boats are averaging closer to one or two fish a day rather than the five or six that might have been expected by now.

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

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Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

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Estuaries: Plenty of bream on the rock bars, snags and racks with plenty of fish around 800g. Flatties on the chew with the entrance area best on the last of the run out.
Beaches have been q bit quiet apart from down Tuross way, where there are plenty of salmon. Most beaches have reasonable whiting. Try the Tuross entrance with squirt worms for premium whiting.
Offshore: Lots of reef fish with snapper going strong to 5kg. Still a few reds off the rocks. The odd fin on the southern grounds with the odd marlin.

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

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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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