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: Very little to report, not much is being caught.
Rock and beach: South Beach has some big bream, also around the north and south walls.
Estuary: Some big bream can be found around the co-op walls. Bream around the Spur Wall. Still very little up-river due to the floodwaters.

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

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Heaps of huge tailor and big salmon along the beaches. Also big bream and whiting which probably have been flushed out of the rivers. Not too many reports of jew but that might be a good sign as the jewie boys usually shut up when things are good. Raging current from the north so divers are groping for the bottom in 1.5m of visibility out at Julian Rocks. Also some big dart coming in close into the gutters. Some good deep holes on Tallow Beach worth inspecting with a bait.

David Keevers, Coastal Fishing Tackle (02) 6685 7133

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Mandy at Dave’s Bait shop says South Wall has nice tailor with jewfish at night. River still very dirty. Heaps of bream off Lighthouse and south beaches and starting to come back into the lower river, Snapper and pearl perch out wide.
Steer clear of Evans Head for the next week if you’re after a quiet fish – the Evans Classic is on again and organisers are hoping for 1000 entries. They should get good snapper on the wider grounds although the closer reefs are still a bit stirred up and carrying a lot of fresh water from the flooding. The beaches have been great with big bream and some nice whiting, school jew and even the occasional flathead.

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

t.zann@fishingmonthly.com.au

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River is brown and muddy around Maclean but better further downstream. Good blackfish around Moriartys Wall. Bream are going quite well down-river and the flathead have been going well, too. The Clarence fresh is only on top and there’s still good salt underneath. Some nice jew spun up from the Iluka wall. Plenty of tailor and some salmon in the lower reaches and on the beaches on the southern side. Browns Rocks also has had some decent bream.
Outside there have been some nice snapper to 4kg and trag and tuskfish on the closer grounds.

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

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Offshore: Conditions not looking flash for the weekend but the offshore reefs have been working well for big snapper and samson. Tailor and salmon around the rock washes.
Beach gutters fishing extremely well after the big wet with gutters close to the estuary mouths turning up nice bream and whiting and a good run of jewfish on the night tides. Saturday night could be perfect.
Estuaries have been a little quiet but the fish are starting to push back upstream as the dirty water clears.

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 bucketloads of solid rain and big seas were followed last Friday by one the best July days you could wish for and from that point on you could sense the fishing was about to turn red hot and the action has certainly not disappointed. All areas apart from the upper reaches of our estuary systems produced the goods consistently. So now is defiantly time to get out and into some action.
In the estuary, the big fresh saw some excellent mulloway action off the breakwalls with the south wall proving the place to be this time. Several fish were landed last weekend, highlighted by Casey Harrison’s stud 26kg jew. As usual, lures were the way to go, with big rattling tremblers achieving the better results. The lower estuary also fired up with blackfish, with the south wall fishing exceptionally well during the height of the rain, while the co-op and surrounds fired once the fresh came down, with black weed the gun bait. Bream numbers have also been excellent around the lower reaches. A few solid lizards have also been snared, with the better results achieved once the clearer water began to push back up the estuary.
Lake Cathie is again open to the sea, with the solid rainfall last week seeing the lake rapidly rising to the point which triggers opening. The beach around the opening has fared best, with plenty of solid bream, a few better than average school jew and the obligatory salmon. As the lower part of lake begins to clear, look for the whiting to fire up, with the first couple of weeks after opening usually seeing some the best estuary whiting action this part of the coast has to offer.
Elsewhere off the beaches, the bream have simply terrific, with most regular beach fishos saying the action has been the best for many years. All beaches are well worth a go but the more consistent results have been on North Beach during the evening tides. The tailor are still AWOL but once the water clears they should be back on the chew. There are now enough salmon about to ensure any bait should no go untouched for too long.
Off the rocks, drummer are well truly on the chew and as with the bream, as good as they have been for several seasons. Lighthouse and Shelley have been achieving the better results but most ledges will be worth a go as the dirty water clears up. Diamond Head, Point Perpendicular and to a lesser degree Plomer and surrounds have all fired this past week and should continue to for the next month or so. Lighthouse has been producing some terrific bream.
Offshore anglers have also been having a good time and sea conditions have been pleasant on most days. Good numbers of snapper have been scored close in off Cathie and the wider reefs have produced mixed boxes including snapper, pearl perch and kingfish. Leatherjackets remain in solid numbers particularly beyond the 70-metre mark and will most likely become thicker. Make sure you have plenty of wire on board or the terminal tackle casualty rate will prove expensive.

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

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Offshore: Last week’s big seas abated quickly and allowed most craft to get out last weekend. Those that went north initially did best on snapper. Over the past few days the fish have been more fussy with the best bite time varying from after dark to the middle of the day. Pearl perch have gone quiet but this seems common on the new moon. Plenty of tailor to be had around Latitude Rock when all else fails.
Beaches: Very slow except in the Seal Rocks area.
Rocks: Terrific drummer fishing up and down the coast. Ab gut is out performing all other baits. Still plenty of bream and tailor.
Estuary: The lake is still very dirty and the bream constantly on the move. When you find them the action is thick and fast. Hard-body lures work a treat in the dirty water. Some mulloway have been reported from the breakwalls. One good sign is the number of big bass that have come down on the recent flood. Assuming they get an easy passage back up into the fresh after spawning, the summer should see some top bass action.,

Lloyd Campbell, Great Lakes Tackle 02 6554 9541

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Estuary: Bream around the racks, the co-op wall and behind Corrie Island. Blackfish the Tubes and the breakwalls. Trumpeter whiting on the Soldiers Point flats.
Beaches: Tailor and salmon off all beaches with some good greenback tailor. Bream off Stockton and One Mile.
Rocks: snapper off Fishermans and Boat Harbour, pigs on Cemetery and Fishermans. Blackfish off Cemetery, tailor from most headlands.
Offshore: Snapper in the shallows around Broughton, squire at Big Island, Little Island and Cabbage Tree. Jew on The V and the 21. Flathead out in 40 metres.

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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Heaps of kingies out on the Perch Grounds from 3kg to 10kg and some unstoppables. Some good reddies out wide.
The odd jew around North Entrance. A heap of good bream around. Estuary perch in Brisbane Water but the jewie and flathead runs have tapered off. Salmon off the rocks, especially North Avoca.

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

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There’s plenty of cold water out there, especially after the recent fresh flush, causing the fishing to slow down considerably. Offshore conditions seem to be providing some respite, with a little remnant warmish water and temperatures hovering around 18°. Inshore is markedly different. The beach water temps are still the warmest of the waters close to shore, hovering around 17° near Barrenjoey, but as soon as you get around the corner and inside the mercury drops off the scale. Pittwater was measured at 12° earlier this week and the Harbour struggles along, reaching above 13° only on sunny days.
So it is really no surprise then that the Harbour is slow on the fishing front. Sluggish fish are quite uninterested in eating. The decent bream that are around in town are not exactly active. The deeper fish must be in water close to 10°. Even the hardy and voracious trevally can’t bring themselves to get animated. The fresh didn’t do too much for any salmon around the Heads, either, with many of the fish being pushed deep or moving offshore and out of the range of the fisher in a tinnie.
Pittwater is almost a replica of the Harbour at present, with the exception that it adjoins the largest moving body of fresh water in Sydney (Hawkesbury River) and therefore may take a day or two longer to recover to its usual levels of salinity. Fish are often highly sensitive to changes in salinity and may be put off the bite or forced to move out of the area for several days. For the desperados there is still the odd bream around Taylors Point that can be berleyed up, and some trevors spread sparsely throughout the bay. The water hasn’t put off the squid, though, and there are some large ones around Tennis wharf.
There is some fish activity offshore including the continued presence of a few yellowfin and the odd albacore. Fin around the 60kg mark are being taken from east of Browns, mostly on skirts. Green and blue patterned McGoo Pushers are guns at the moment. Live small striped tuna (around 3kg) have also been a worthy temptation.
The beaches are still fishing pretty well, especially in comparison with our estuaries. Nice black drummer are still firing for the ledge brigade, getting stuck into ab gut and occasionally fresh bread. Salmon are off the front of most headlands, including Curly and Dee Why, where they can be spun up with small metals or just baited. Jewies have been about in good numbers lately but there is a run of massive Eagle Rays at present, some up to 25kg, that is making find-the-jewfish look more like Where’s Wally and causing plenty of bust offs. But if you are persistent the jewfish are still there, and big.

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.

Garth, Deans Bait and Tackle, Windang 4295 1615

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Raining again after the rivers were just starting to clear up. Everyone is staying at home
Durras Lake is open and worth a try for a jew. Salmon are down at Binji and there have been hundreds of slimy mackerel out around South Head at Moruya. Bream, flathead and some blackfish still on hard crankbaits where the headlands meet the beaches.
A few cuttlefish turning up on the beaches so it’s snapper time. No one has been outside much apart from a few blokes, including Don Brown from Durras, who have been catching snapper mid-morning. Charter boat Top Cat has also been experiencing some midday bites from good reds.

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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