Sydney
NSW
Enjoy the moment PITTWATER
Peter Le Blang plfishfingers@bigpond.com
With another lockdown in Sydney it has meant most of us charter operators have been unable to do charters for a long time now. We unfortunately have been restricted when it comes to numbers of people, distances and areas that we could fish, and a lot of the time it just hasn’t been feasible to charge the amounts of money to one customer for a fishing charter. Hopefully in the very near future this will change. We are all looking ahead over the next month and waiting to be given the green light to do a job that we all love so dearly – showing customers beautiful areas, new techniques and ways to catch fish. When we are given the green light to go ahead, every day will be precious, as we
will not look at our jobs or beautiful areas the way that we used to. Most of us enjoy the company of meeting new people but everyone enjoys our beautiful country, and this will not be taken for granted ever again. So over these next few years we should all enjoy the moments that we are able to grab when on the water. Some of us will be spending time with family or friends and loved ones catching fish and enjoying the outdoors, with other anglers will be enjoying the peace and serenity of fishing alone. I am looking forward to the fast-approaching kingfish season along Pittwater and Broken Bay, with the odd trip along the coast. This month we should start to see more kingfish coming from the north with the East Australian Current as it pushes its way south. Each year we see schools of baitfish getting pushed into Broken Bay as well as Pittwater, and hot on their
tails are kingfish as well as other pelagic species that we can all tangle with over the warmer months. In my area, the first places to see kingfish being caught tend to be Broken Bay at Barrenjoey Head, West Head and towards Lion Island. Working seagulls and seabirds tend to mark the areas that schools of kingfish are feeding at. This surface activity is always exciting and it doesn’t matter how many times you have seen it in your life, your heart races, the adrenaline pumps and expectations climb. Casting soft plastics and metal lures can be the undoing of many of these fish, and most times matching the size of baitfish they are chasing is crucial to hooking up on one of these hard-fighting, brutal fish. There are other ways to target these bruisers, and of course live baiting as well as downrigging are great ways to catch good numbers of fish. Yellowtail and slimy
A couple of tasty squid destined for the dinner plate.
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OCTOBER 2021
Sunny days, calm water and decent kingfish – what else would you need for a smile? mackerel can often be used as well as squid strips. If you are going to downrig around the surface activity it’s important to make sure you don’t travel through the school and to target fish at the edge of the school whilst casting surface lures. You’ll not only attract fish towards the boat but have some fun with lures at the same time. After a week or two the surface activity usually moves into Pittwater, making it easy for everyone to find them. It is amazing though that after only a short time of the kingfish being in Pittwater, they seem to change over to preferring squid instead of yellowtail. They will happily feed on small hardyheads or whitebait but yellowtail doesn’t seem to appeal to them on most occasions. Other species to chase along Broken Bay include flathead and flounder, and jewfish should make their presence known as well. Flathead can be encountered whilst drifting between Patonga and Lion Island whilst using pilchards, fish fillets, prawns or squid strips. Drifting with a paternoster rig and using two hooks will quite often see two flathead come into the surface once a patch of fish has been found. Most of the points around Broken Bay (providing they have some current) should also see a few flathead being caught for those of you who wish to anchor and berley. The areas to target jewfish include Flint and Steel Reef, Walkers Point, Juno Point, Eleonoras Bluff and the pressure wave between the last two mentioned points. All these areas over next month should see jewfish of varying size being caught. All these areas are more productive around the change of tide, and by using a berley
trail you can attract baitfish to your boat, which will bring in the larger fish. Squid along Pittwater can be caught in all the usual haunts, with some of the better areas being Mackerel Beach, the weed beds at Palm Beach, Careel Bay as well as Coasters Retreat, just to name a few. Most of the squid will be pretty small so using size 2.0 squid jigs should tempt most. A variety of colours should be ready to use because normally at this time of the year they’ll prefer natural colours one day and then fluoro colours the next. For those anglers wanting to go offshore, the 50m mark over the sand will traditionally see a lot of blue-spot flathead being caught. Drifting these areas should also see the odd snapper as well. The deeper reefs from 60-80m of water should also see a lot of activity, with passing schools of kingfish as well as morwong being caught, along with snapper,
trevally and so on. Remember to find schools of baitfish hanging around deep in the water column before you start fishing. So as you can see, this upcoming month should give you plenty of opportunity to enjoy a great deal of things. Please support your local charter operator because these last few months have been difficult to say the least. Most of us thrive on seeing smiles on faces whilst catching fish and enjoying the scenery. One of the best things for customers is the knowledge they are able to gain whilst on charter. This knowledge can be new areas, new techniques and even using new fishing equipment that you are able to use yourself once back in your own areas. Hope to see you aboard soon! • Peter Le Blang operates Harbour and Estuary Fishing Charters, phone 02 9999 2574 or 0410 633 351, visit www.estuaryfishingcharters. com.au
Kids love time on the water spent with family.
