Sydney Rock

Embracing the cool conditions

SYD ROCK & BEACH Alex Bellissimo

alex@bellissimocharters.com.au

Are you feeling the cold? Well yeah, of course, but if you’re like me it doesn’t bother you too much – particularly when there are fish to be caught! It’s conditions, especially in the heart of winter with the cold offshore winds. If you rug up warmly and hit the water, without a doubt you will enjoy this amazing pastime even more!

ROCK FISHING

Winter can be great for snapper, particularly if you time it right just before a big can encourage snapper to venture inshore into more shallower waters in search of prey or scraps. As you can imagine, this window of an abating swell off the ocean rocks provides a great opportunity for both snapper and anglers.

Distance casting is a great way to target them,

Mark George with his first beach mulloway. He opted to release this nice mid-70cm fish, and being only lightly mouth hooked it released very well.

like any outdoor sport or activity you take on – if you do it only when the weather is perfect, your body doesn’t acclimatise to less favourable conditions. Basically, the more you’re out there the better you’ll become as an angler in sometimes testing swell or (for most snapper anglers) after a big swell. Cunjevoi, crabs, limpets, chitons, small reef fish that didn’t escape in time, and many more species of crustaceans get hammered by the big swell, and become a smorgasbord for hungry fish like snapper. This and is one of several ways to catch snapper off the ocean rocks. You’ll be casting out to the sand/gravel edge, which could be as close as 30m out or as far as you can cast – 100m+. For distance casting I like the Daiwa 122S 7-15kg, 12ft rod (longer 14-15ft rods are great too), coupled with a Daiwa Crosscast Surf 45 spooled with J Braid Grand 30lb and approx. 4-6m of Wilson 30-40lb fluoro leader. The rig is quite basic – just a 3-5oz snapper sinker sliding down to the swivel, below the swivel is the fluoro leader and then a 3/0 92247 Mustad hook. Good baits include squid strips, bottle squid, yellowtail strips and slimy mackerel strips, and the bycatch includes trevally, tarwhine, salmon and tailor.

The high ledge at South Curl Curl near the club off Lumsdaine Drive is a good rough water high ledge, as is Warriewood high ledge. During flatter conditions, Flat Rock at South Curl Curl, North Curl Curl, the ledge in front of North Narrabeen swimming pool, and the ledge in front of Mona Vale pool can fish quite well for a snapper and the other species I mentioned.

Groper can be caught year-round, but July is a

particularly good month for them because the swell conditions can be flatter than usual, which means you can fish ledges closer to the water. Groper to approximately 5kg have been caught recently, and even larger fish up to nearly 8kg were caught last month. Groper are one of those species that you have to go out of your way to catch, because you need to gather crabs for bait. Check out the DPI website for rock spots where you can legally harvest bait. Red crabs are the best, with a close second being the green/black crabs that you see in cracks, most often well above the tide mark. Please remember that you are most vulnerable to the ocean swells when targeting red crabs because you are closest to the waterline. The red crabs are caught in the carpets of purple/red weed and in the red weed-covered cracks.

Trevally are in good numbers off the deeper ledges. Berley with bread/ pilchard wet mush, fish light sinkers and preferably a 1/0 size hook. Half pillies and peeled prawns are good baits. Luderick and rock blackfish are also in good numbers. For the groper, luderick trevally and rock blackfish try Little Bluey end of Bower St Manly, South Curl Curl’s Flat Rock, and North Curl Curl ledges.

BEACH FISHING

It seems to happen every year – the vast majority of whiting anglers have given up on targeting this succulent fish. In reality, you can still target whiting on some beaches until the end of July. The beaches worth going for them are Dee Why, Curl Curl and Manly, which tend to hold late season whiting. You won’t get the numbers that you do throughout the warmer months but they are definitely worth targeting.

Sean Collins was surprised at the fight put up by smaller kingfish like this just-legal one. You will still encounter them off the estuary rocks in Sydney Harbour and off the ocean rocks, and this will continue until around the end of July.

Sebastian Tanase with his first rock blackfish. These fish are one of the hardest pulling species off the rocks, and July is a prime month to target them.

Some nice bream have also been caught whilst whiting fishing lately.

As usual, having live beachworms or pink nippers will maximise your chances. Most tackle shops that sell live bait won’t have them at the moment (although it’s still worth calling them just in case they do), so you will probably have to devote more of your time to pumping yabbies or catching beach worms. I teach beach worming, so if you haven’t tried it before, I’m happy to help.

Big salmon and some stud tailor are on the chew as well. You will catch them throughout the day but the best time is during the evening, from mid tide in to the high. Some of the tailor are up to 65cm, according to local reports, and the run should continue until at least mid-July. Typically, tailor anglers fish with 3-hook 3/0-4/0 gangs and a whole pilchard. This is the time when the oversize pilchards (the ones that are 170mm+) come into good use, because big tailor like big baits.

Late season mulloway are still occasionally being caught, and you may encounter a nice silver/ bronze slab this month. When night fishing at this time of the year, don’t fish with bare feet. Yes, it’s OK when the waves are lapping around your feet, but when exposed you will cop the chill. A pair of surf boots is a start, and if you wear long nylon quick-dry pants, a couple of jumpers or thermals, and a raincoat as a windshield you’ll be pretty comfortable.

At this time of the year you’ll be wanting to target the winter species like trevally, groper, salmon, rock blackfish and luderick. However, don’t forget about the snapper and kings off the rocks, and off the beaches there are whiting and mulloway. When you get to August there is a distinct decline in water temp and you will have August, September and even all of October with those frigid water temps between 14-17°C. • For rock and beach guided fishing or tuition in the northern Sydney region, visit www. bellissimocharters. com.au, email alex@ bellissimocharters.com.au or call Alex Bellissimo on 0408 283 616.

A nice 58cm brown groper for Dean Corkery, caught in fast running white water. Groper like to have white water cover while feeding, especially during the middle of the day.