Illawarra

Warmer days kick-starting the food chain

ILLAWARRA Greg Clarke

We get a few warmer and even hot days during October, and these days heat up the estuaries and really kick-start the movement of juvenile baitfish and prawns in the shallows. This in turn gets the larger predators excited and hungry after the quiet times of winter.

While the water moving into the estuaries may not be summertime warm yet, the water moving out on the tide will often be several degrees hotter, thus stimulating larger fish into feeding.

Flathead will be moving into the shallows along with the first of the whiting, but not all the whiting will be keeper size. Flathead just love small whiting for dinner too, so casting to the edges of sand banks that drop into deeper water from the shallows is always a good way to start looking.

Rocky areas are also good spots to look for flatties, as the darker rocks hold the heat just a little better than the sand, so they will sit on the rocks on the edge of the current to stay warm and pick off any passing food.

Bream will be getting about the edges of the weed beds looking for the first small crabs and prawns that emerge from hiding or hatching as the water warms. The area out from Primbee to Windang would be a good spot to look. Alternatively, the lake’s feeder streams will still have some big bream on the fallen tree snags, but you will need live prawns for any real results. If you want live prawns, head down to the lake after dark, as they will start to move this month on the dark moon. Fishing them live on light line right into the snags is a great technique. You lose a few, but the hook-ups are exciting.

Offshore is not affected as much by the air temperature, but the first fingers of the warmer water will be starting to tumble down the coast later this month, kick starting the fishing action. The first of the warmer water often produces some of the biggest mahimahi of the year on the leading edge of the current.

A few spearfish will be in the mix, with October always a good time for yellowfin on the cooler edge of the first warmer waters. Sometimes they come in close too, and most of the bigger yellowfin over the past few months have been south of Jervis Bay, but that may change this month.

Albacore are usually about too, but like the yellowfin it all depends on the current, so a small skirt or two in the spread will entice them and a few handfuls of pillies pieces thrown in during the fight can bring the whole school up under the boat for hours of fun!

The striped marlin shouldn’t be far behind, but they are fickle with the currents, as some are nutrient-rich and hold heaps of food, while others can be dead eddies, void of nutrients with very little life. Let’s hope we get a good one this year!

The current shouldn’t be too strong this month, so a bit of deep dropping around the Kiama Canyons should still pay with gemfish, ling and maybe some bar cod or hapuka. You just never know what might come up from the depths.

Closer in the snapper are mostly in the 30-60m depth range, with plastics and jigs getting results and squid baits fished in a berley trail a great options too if the current allows.

Kingfish are around in the usual spots as mentioned last month, with live yellowtail or mackerel fished closer to the bottom working over the deeper reefs, while jigging and downrigging the best options in the closer, shallower spots.

A few schools of salmon have been working baitfish along the backs of the beaches and off the headlands. There have been a few trevally hanging under these schools, so if you don’t like sambos, fish with smaller soft plastics under the salmon. There are plenty of barracouta about too, so be prepared to lose a few jigs and plastics if you run into a school of them. If they become a problem, the only way to get around them is to move.

Flathead have started to make a move this month, but so have the leatherjackets, and they will strip your bait and probably bite your gear off in short time. You can

A few better kingies will be getting around over the deeper reefs this month. This one looks like the seals have been nibbling its tail!

only beat them in the same manner as the barracouta; move to another spot and hope there aren’t any there!

A few smaller snapper are over most of the inshore reefs, along with the pigfish and mowies at this time of year, and plenty of trevally and the odd early samsonfish can be found nearby too.

The beaches are just starting to kick into gear. It was slow at first, but now we are seeing quite a few whiting moving along most beaches, and this should get even better as we head into summer. The same can be said for the flathead, which are also improving every week.

Salmon are about but are moving in schools from beach to beach, and are more prevalent on the southern Illawarra beaches and Kiama. During the evenings there are some solid tailor up to 2kg hitting fresh pilchards just after dark and few jewies are starting to show as well. There haven’t been any big fish as yet, but a few schoolies to keep you interested if you invest the time.

Throw in a few bream and the beaches are starting to be worth a look for more species, plus you don’t freeze your toes off after dark!

The rocks are also on the up and up, with the cooler water fish like drummer and trevally still about in reasonable numbers in the north around the Seacliff Bridge area and down around Bombo and Cathedral Rocks. A bit of bread for berley always helps things along, then you can use prawns for bait under a bobby cork.

Bream and salmon are in the washes around the deeper ledges, along with a few kings out in the deeper water and even the odd mac tuna, which seem to come past at this time of year for some strange reason. Even a few early bonito could show up for the lure tossers!

Things are looking positive for October, so good luck!