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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Offshore: Good size snapper on the local reefs. Snapper and cobia around the Plonk Hole. Snapper and jewfish around Wooyung.
Rock and beach: Tailor can be found around the North Wall, South Wall. Good-size bream inside the river walls.
Estuary: Big bream and mangrove jacks can be found around the co-op walls. Bream around the Spur Wall. Flathead around the highway bridge. Jewfish at night up-river towards Mullumbimby. Good size trevally and whiting in the upper parts of the river.

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

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Swell still up on the exposed beaches but everyone is out trying for a fish. Not too much to report apart from a few flathead along the more sheltered beaches and a few good dart as well. Some tailor and bream towards the Belongil. Divers reckon there are still spotties around the close reefs.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle (02) 6685 7133

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Matt at Daves Bait Shop says legal chopper tailor have been taking chrome in the Town Reach of the river and from the sea walls. Bream showing up well in the Town Reach on the high tides, especially around dark. The odd flattie still getting about with some bigger ones persisting on larger baits and lures. Still school jew from the walls and the lower river.
The beaches around Lennox Head and Boulder Beach have dart with bigger tailor from the same places on cut baits after dark. Swell has been up for the past few days but there should be snapper and trag on the 32-fathom reefs when the boats can get out, and jew down on Riordans Reef.
I’ve been in Brisbane working on the July NSWFM so I’m afraid I really can’t say anything about what’s been at Evans recently.

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

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Salmon from the beaches and even up the river as far as Brosn Rocks. Tailor have been patchy and the big seas haven’t helped. Plenty of school jew from the beaches especially the southern side with big jewies on the northern side. Bream around Maclean have gone quiet but Browns Rocks and Middle Wall firing. Flathead are either undersize or over 65cm. Some trag and the occasional squire and parrots when the boats have got out. Pros have netted a total of three tonnes of jewfish from the river in the past week so no joy there.

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

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Beach gutters have been alive with good bream and tailor, not to mention the odd salmon. No sign of running mullet.
The estuaries fishing well for good bream, whiting and flathead.
Offshore there are still good mackerel, big snapper and an early run of samson fish.

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, results have been down on recent weeks, with less than optimum tides having an impact. The latter part of this week will see vastly improved conditions for an early morning or evening session. If the weather and seas remain reasonable, most beaches are now holding good formations and should fish well this weekend. Best bets would be bream early on mullets strips, pipis or worms, whilst the evening tides are close to ideal for chasing mulloway. The only variable remains tailor, with little action off the sand. The fish are travelling wider as they did a couple of years ago, however if the bait schools move in, the tailor will follow. A lure or pilchard may pay dividends in the near future. No real sign of the salmon schools inundating our coastline as yet, however it is only a matter of time now.
Off the rocks, tailor have picked up locally and around Point Plommer, with the average size also on the improve. Bream numbers have been reasonable, particularly at night. Improved reports on drummer numbers continue to filter in, particularly from Point Perpendicular and Diamond Head, although the water is as yet to cool sufficiently to really fire the pigs up. Also have had several reports of good numbers of early season juvenile groper, with ledges to the south producing more consistent results to date.
In the estuary, blackfish remain the star attraction, with the South Wall, the Coal Wall and Limeburners all producing quality bags. Bream have been reasonable and should improve later in the week during the evening session, particularly in the few days before the moon gets too bright. The breakwalls and Limeburners should produce the better results. Plenty of flatties are still on offer, with both whitebait and yabbies achieving the better results from a bait perspective, whilst lure tossers too are enjoying continued success, particularly with the ever improving ranges of soft plastics now on the market.
Outside, after a short disappearing act, the mahi mahi are back around the FADs with plenty of fish to around 4 kilos. With the cooler water now pushing up from the south, now is the time to get into this action before the dollies bundy off for the Seasonsnapper remain reasonable although leatherjackets are beginning to be a pest in places. Time to stock the boat up with wire and long shank hooks and get ready for the inevitable inundation by these at time annoying, but great tasting, winter visitors.

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

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Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Estuary: Bream on mullet strips and gut around Corrie Island, the mouth of the Myall and Boulders. Tailor off both breakwalls, a stack of luderick at The Castle and the co-op wall. Flathead on Dutchy’s and Baggies Beach. Still a few tuna in the bay. A few crabs up around Tilligerry.
Rocks: Pigs at Boat Harbour cemetery, rocky. Stack of tailor and salmon on sunny Corner. Plenty of luderick boulder bay and the and the keyhole at fingal.
Beaches: bream on Stockton to 1.4kg from Noel terry who got 17 fish wed night, stacks of the usual salmon and some decent tailor.
Offshore: Plenty of jew on the tank w2ith fish to 10kg. A few snapper john
ambrons 7.5kg Little island. Flathead on the drift behind Mungo and Big gibber and Lighthouse. Good feed of tailor on Cabbage tree and Cranky Rocks. A few tuna still off the Gibbers.

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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Mowies, trevally and snapper have been good offshore with charter boats and the recreational fleet going well, especially around Terrigal Wide. Leatherjackets and green toads have been big trouble but the reef fish are under them. Some solid reports of kings to 15kg in close on big livies although the wider grounds haven’t been as reliable for them.
Tailor and salmon from the beaches and rocks and good quality around, with bream to a kilo underneath the feeding schools at times. Avoca and Wamberal have been the best.
Blackfish at The Entrance going very well but you have to get there early to get a good spot. Most other estuary options are fairly quiet.

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

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It’s been a bit of a mixed time for fishing lately as water temperatures plummet. Just over a week ago it would not be hard to find 20° water anywhere around Sydney, but things are now much closer to 17° across the board. Even the relatively warmer surrounds of Pittwater experienced one or two days of water as low as 16° lately.
In spite of this, Pitty is still fishing better than any of the other close waters around Sydney, especially in comparison to the Harbour which has been hard work. In fact it is fishing so well that Pete Le Blang, resident expert and owner/skipper of Harbour and Estuary Fishing Charters, is still pulling a minimum of two kings each and every day, and has done since Thursday last week. They are all respectable size fish too, most between 70 and 80cm. Getting them this late in the year is somewhat of an art form, with a combination of the right size live squid (less than 10cm hood) and a downrigger stealing the show. Good spots include Soldiers Point, Stokes Point, Tomahawk and the Supermarket. Some of the massive salmon schools that were busting up off the Northern Beaches and up toward Terrigal have moved in to the mouth of Broken Bay, and are occasionally seen on the surface herding up small baitfish between Lion Island and Barrenjoey. A troll around Barrenjoey Point has been pretty successful in picking up a few even when there’s no surface action, with blue and/or silver CD-7 Rapalas the pick of the lures.
Now is a good time to stock up on your Rapalas, with Fish Outta Water currently running a 3 for the price of 2 Rapala sale. Check out the dump bins at the front of the store! Bonito are another fish that will smash well presented lures, and there are a few still roaming around the inside of West Head, though they’re not as abundant as some weeks ago. Tailor are also holding in the same area though just as sporadic. Mackerel Beach is producing a few dory for those drifting under and around the schools of yakkas with a live yakka set a little off the bottom.
The Harbour has struggled with the cooler waters, and baitfish are in short supply, but there are a few fun fish to catch on light line. Salmon are yet to make a real showing at the heads this year, with a few fish about but no consistency, so it is up to tailor to show itself as the best sportsfish at present. Luckily there are a few more of them, around Reef Beach and between Washaway Beach and Middle Head. Live yakkas or ganged pilllies are both proving successful.
Our annual Fish n Tips nights will run each Thursday for 8 weeks, with a different guest speaker each week. Be sure to ring and claim your place!
Quite a few grunting trevally have found their way into well set berley trails or been taken on peeled prawns from around harbour structure this week. They are a touch smaller than early in the season, closer to 25cm, but still a great fight on light gear.
Offshore fishing seems to have changed the least in the last week, with fin fin and fin on everyone’s mind. Rob Lang hooked a massive yellow out at Browns and brought it to the boat only to have the gaff man slip, the fish bolt again and his reel explode off the rod as he watched the fish of many people’s lifetime disappear. Crushing seems a light word. There are, however, at least a few out there. Snapper are about again but the majority are just pan-sized. Andrew Parkes did manage to find one closer to 3 or 4 kilos only to have it straighten the hook within sight of the boat and almost within his reach. Gravel beds in about 60m are quite productive areas.

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

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Mitch, Mac's Bait Bar
428 Princes Hwy Blakehurst
ph 02 9546 1341, mobile 0411 661 911.

Lake: Good bream along the breakwall on peeled prawns. More over near Mt Warrigal on darker soft plastics. Mullet creek bream biting better on peeled prawns and some blackfish there on weed.
Beaches: Windang near the pub track working well for salmon on worms, pillies and lures. A few bream on Warilla Beach towards the island and some good tailor on Coniston on strip baits and pillies.
Rocks: Good trevally at Hill 60 at Port Kembla on prawns; pigs on Windang Island on royal reds and ab gut. The Boneyard at Bombo working well for drummer in a bread berley. No reports of kingfish.
Offshore: Wide of the small pesky leatherjackets there are some good bigger ones. Nice snapper on Wollongong Reef and the Five Islands. Shellharbour has good bream in close and flathead just outside the harbour. Yellowfin off the Kiama canyons with Steve Quirk catching a 61kg fish last Sunday. Also good blue-eye cod on the bottom.

Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

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

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Offshore: Going off! Plenty of yellowfin to 20kg and lots of albacore, with Tuross Canyons a good place to start. Kings at the island in patches with jigs the way to go. Bottom-bashing for reds and mowies still good.
Rocks and Beach: Beaches chockers with salmon. Salmon and tailor from the rocks and a few nice pigs.
Estuary: Big lizards still in the inlet with a lot of trevally and bream. Tailor of all sizes from livies to livie eaters going well.

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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