Sydney South

Finding a quiet spot to target autumn offerings

SYDNEY SOUTH Gary Brown

gbrown1@iprimus.com.au As I sit here putting this report together, parts of NSW and Qld are still devastated by their worst ever floods. My heart goes out to them during these extraordinary times.

Over the past month, the fishing in Botany Bay has been a bit up and down. One day you will find heaps of legal-size trevally at the oil wharf and Trevally Alley, and the next day you will struggle to find any.

The same goes for trying to find the bream, whiting and flathead. One day they’ll be at the 3.5m mark off Towra and the foreshore at Brighton, and the next day you will have to move to the deeper water off Silver Beach and the end of the third runway.

Most of my bait fishing is done while at anchor because I don’t do much drift fishing in the bay. This is mainly due to the fact that when I bait fish I always berley. Trying to do this when drifting is very hard; you end up drifting away from where you have just berleyed.

I have been known to drift while trying to locate the fish in Botany Bay, but once I have found them, I will put a waymark on the Lowrance HDS 12” sounder and go back and anchor up so that I can concentrate on fishing that area.

What I have also found over the past year or so is that there are so many more boat users on the water, especially on the weekends. This tends to create a crowd at places like the end of the third runway, the oil wharf, Trevally Alley and in Yarra Bay on the weekends.

I am very lucky as I can go for a fish on any day through the week – that’s why you may not see me out there on the weekends, because I prefer to fish during the quieter days of the week. If you can’t get out during the week, I would suggest that you try other areas, other than the ones mentioned above, because most of the time you will have it to yourself. As we all know, the fish will move about the bay due to the coming and going of the tides, the movement of the baitfish, the wind and the weather. My suggestion would be ready to move after about 30 minutes if you haven’t had a bite, and don’t forget to berley when you are anchored up.

For those of you that are venturing offshore, there are good reports of snapper and sand flathead being caught off Coogee in 20-30m, off Kurnell and the JD Reef off the southern side of the entrance to the Port Hacking. Kingfish, bonito and salmon can be trolled up working the washes from Bondi and down to Garie Beach.

The FADs have been producing kingfish and dolphinfish (mahimahi) on both lures and baits. On the weekends the FADs get very crowded, so getting there early usually gets you a few fish. You can also do better if it’s overcast and raining, because many anglers tend to stay at home.

The rocks off La Perouse, Kurnell and Boat Harbour have been producing drummer, trevally, bream, luderick, snapper, kingfish, salmon and bonito. It’s just a matter of keeping an eye on the swell conditions and the weather.

I had a very productive short session chasing bream off the rocks at Cronulla a short while ago. Five bream were caught on peeled prawns in just under two hours. To get them I had to be prepared to move about a bit to work with the incoming tide. Check out my session on my YouTube channel, ‘Gary Brown Fishing’, and look for video #12. I was fishing with an Okuma Barbarian rod, Azores reel and Platypus line – all ideal for this type of fishing.

By the time you read this report, hopefully the rains will have eased. If not, caution will need to be taken when driving your boat as there are plenty of objects of all shapes and sizes floating around.

If you are going to try your luck in the Georges and Woronora rivers, I would suggest that if you are fishing from a boat, try and stick close to the shore as the fish will tend to get out of the current.

The Port Hacking is another stretch of waterway that can get extremely busy on the weekends. Even so, this waterway can fish well during the weekend. It’s just a matter of getting out and finding a quiet area, anchoring up and getting a small and steady berley trail going. You will need to also fish as light as possible.

Garfish, mullet, bream and flathead are worth a shot along the main channel and over the weed beds.

Don’t forget to keep those pictures coming into gbrown@iprimus.com.au or call into the BCF store at Taren Pont on Wednesday or Thursday and say hi.

There are some ripper bream about that have been taking 4” soft plastics meant for dusky flathead and kingfish. No other boats at Trevally Alley during the week. One of Scotty Lyon’s clients caught this legal kingy while fishing for trevally on a Monday morning.

REMORA 490 • RATED TO 115HP

490

FIBREGLASS FISHING BOATS BUILT TOUGH ON THE NSW CENTRAL COAST