Illawarra

ILLAWARRA Greg Clarke

March is the best month of the year fish-wise, and they are out there and ready to go. It doesn’t seem to matter what your angling preferences might be, there is a species ready to go just waiting for you.

The action on the rocks is fantastic, with everything from bream to beakies on the menu. The deeper ledges are the place to be if you want some pelagic action. Honeycomb, Bass Point, Bass Point is renowned for this at this time of year.

Live baits like yellowtail and slimy mackerel will take most of the above, with the addition of some solid kingfish, larger mac tuna and longtails. The chance of a marlin is also on the cards, even this late.

If you want to soak a few baits in the form of pilchards or prawns, there are bream, trevally, salmon and tailor in the washes and shallower bays all along the coast, with most headlands producing fish on any day.

Wollongong, Bellambi, the month.

Don’t forget the frigate mayhem this month in most of the harbours like Bellambi, Wollongong, Port and Kiama. The schools roll in chasing tiny baitfish and they’ll grab any very small lures in their path. It can be standing room only and it can be fun to watch as a school comes through and everyone casts in the same place, resulting in some epic tangles and choice words.

Offshore it is heaven, with warm water and all those northern visitors giving you so many options you even be a stray cobia in close mixed in with the kings, although they are usually found in small schools by themselves. A couple of spotty mackerel have been caught on pilchards in close but most just bite off the unsuspecting anglers.

Further out there are dolphinfish (mahimahi) around the traps and FADs. Dollies to 10kg are not uncommon but you have to be early and have large slimies or yellowtail so the small fish don’t get them straight away. Small yellowtail and pilchards should get you as many as you want.

Over the inshore reefs and beyond there are still a few marlin, mostly blacks with some monster blues out around the canyons with the odd stripe hanging about. A grand slam is not out of the question this month, particularly around the canyons at Stanwell Park and Kiama. Stray sailfish and the odd wahoo are always on the cards, along with a few striped tuna and yellowfin, so keep a smaller lure or two in the pattern for good measure.

Back in over the reefs in 30-40m the snapper have started to show, with fair catches of 1-2kg fish with some better reds to 5kg thrown in. Tuna pieces fished lightly weighted in a berley trail are scoring the best results, with the ever-popular plastics and micro jigs getting their share as well.

A few teraglin have been mixed in with the reds but they have been few and far between. Samsonfish have been a little more common, and the odd pearl perch has been popping up in the mix as well.

Over the sand, flathead have been in plentiful supply and they are good-sized fish again. Whilst drifting over the reefs you will pick up a few mowies, jackets, samsonfish, trevally and trag.

On the beaches it is heaven, with calm evenings and warm mornings making it extra pleasant at the peak fishing times. However, you won’t have time to take in the scenery, as there are too many fish about keeping you busy.

Get some beach worms and head to just about any beach for whiting, bream, dart, salmon and flathead. Throw in a few pilchards and the tailor should be co-operative, particularly in the deeper gutters in the evenings.

A feed of tailor is nice but a fresh slab of tailor fished in one of the deeper gutters should produce a jewie or two if you are patient. It may not be a monster as there are heaps of schoolies around at the moment, and the schoolies just keep your appetite whetted while you wait for the big one. Take plenty of hooks, as the whalers have been very active on most beaches, particularly those with extra deep gutters, maybe they li a feed of jewie.

There is no way I would swim or surf on any beach at this time of the year after the sun goes down, and that goes for anywhere along the NSW coast.

The lake and Minnamurra are still firing with plenty of action on all species. Flathead are on the bite just about everywhere with the usual plastics and the ever-reliable live poddy mullet scoring well. Good whiting are over most of the sandy patches with the entrances providing top fishing with nippers and worms working well.

Bream are around the bridge pylons during the evenings with fresh tuna pieces doing the damage. A few trevally are mixed in but they generally find the oysters pretty quickly. If you want some quiet time pick a bay and berley with some bread and bran and use small pieces of prawn to get among the mullet and garfish.

Not much tastes better than fresh gar and the mullet are tough fighters on light tackle and aren’t bad on the barbie in their own right.

Your fun could be spoilt though as the chopper tailor move through putting the mullet and gar off the bite.

The prawns should put in a late run on the next dark and there have been quite a few about this year for not just bait but a good feed as well.

And remember if you can’t catch fish this month give the game away and buy some golf clubs.

There are plenty of fish on the beaches – even a few dart.

Windang Island, Bombo, Kiama and Marsdens are the place to be for bonito, mackerel tuna, frigate mackerel, salmon and tailor on lures. If we get a solid late north-easterly then the northern sides of most headlands will have schools of pelagics chomping on the baitfish driven in on the wind. The northern side of Sandon Point and all the ledges to the North seem to be fishing well, with Windang Island, Bass Point and Kiama and the rocks to Gerroa the same in the south. There are even a few solid drummer on the bite even in the warm water, with the devoted blackfish anglers getting plenty of action towards the end of just don’t know what to chase first. Inshore, if you like chasing the speedsters they’re about taking lures. There are striped tuna, bonito, frigate mackerel, mac tuna, salmon, tailor, kingfish, rainbow runners and trevally. Just look for the birds and any surface activity.

Take a few live baits for larger yellowtail kings in among the schools. Most kings of late have been 70cm+, with not a lot of throwbacks. There could

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