Port Stephens

PORT STEPHENS Paul Lennon

October is a great month to be fishing the waters of Port Stephens as it offers a wide range of species, regardless of whether you’re fishing from a boat or from the shore.

Inside the Port there are still luderick being caught in from the Nelson Bay rock wall, but they are getting harder to catch as they are spoilt on trawler scraps and see plenty of hooks and lines everyday. For that reason, light leaders around 4-6lb are a must. Unweighted prawns or nippers are the best baits to use when fishing here, and it helps to throw in a handful of bread/tuna oil mix to slowly sink down alongside your bait.

Dusky flathead are turning on in the Karuah and Tilligerry Systems, with some good fish to the run-out tide.

A little tip when chasing these fish: don’t stay in one spot too long. The more ground you cover fishing for flathead, the more you will catch.

There have been reports of mulloway to the magic metre mark coming from both bridges on the Karuah River, with tide changes the key to success. Soft vibe-style lures or 130mm plastics rigged on 3/8oz jigheads are accounting for the rock walls and oyster racks with small, lightlyweighted soft plastics or small hardbody crank-style lures is very productive at this time of year. Focus your efforts around the bottom end of the system from Tahlee through to Tea Gardens. BEACHES

School mulloway to 10kg are being caught from Fingal, Samurai and Stockton beaches, with the majority of jewies taken by anglers fishing after dark. While some dedicated anglers will pull all night fishing sessions in a desperate effort to catch a mulloway, you are far better off with a more targeted approach. You will find that 95% of fish caught will come within a couple of hours of a tide change.

There have been some big tailor caught along Fingal Spit, with dusk periods accounting for some nice greenbacks up to 3kg along with a few salmon mixed in.

Whiting will start to be become more prevalent on the ocean beaches this month. Most of the gutters fished on the high tide will produce a few, along with some bream, especially for those anglers using live worms or pipis.

OCEAN ROCKS

Now is not the greatest time to fish the stones, as the winter species like drummer and luderick are a bit of hard work. However, it’s still not a total waste of time if you put the effort in.

Some nice dusky flathead are starting to get around.

the water warms up.

The ever-reliable Nelson Bay Marina holds some mammoth bream as well as some of the biggest silver trevally you’ll find anywhere in NSW. These fish can be extremely fickle, especially during the day, as 80cm being reported. The last hour of the run-up to the first two hours of the run-out is the best time to fish up in the shallows for flathead. Then it’s time to slip back to the dropoffs and mouths of feeder creeks for the remainder of most of the fish. Feeding back a live bait around the bridge pylons will also do the trick; just about any livie is worth putting out, including herring, trumpeter whiting, tailor, yellowtail and mullet.

Bream fishing around

The best option this month from the rocks would be some light tackle spinning from Box Beach, Fingal Head or Sunny Corner for a few tailor. With a bit of luck, you may come across a school of rat kings or early season bonito. OFFSHORE

There have been reports of trag, snapper and the odd mulloway coming from the offshore reefs such as 21,Vee and Gibber. The most productive way to fish these areas is by drifting with a good old-fashioned double paternoster rig, baited with a tough bait like squid or mullet fillets.

the beautiful Port Stephens estuary system with a calm water fishing charter that can be designed to suit your needs from family bait fishing to hardcore lure and fly fishing anglers.

www.fishportstephensestuarycharters.com

Contact Paul Lennon :0434370687 email: paul.lennon.fishing@gmail.com fishportstephensestuarycharters @fish_portstephens

Whiting will get better over the coming months.