Spectacular fishing on the surface schools

PITTWATER

Marc Ternen

Up around Pittwater, the area from Sinclair Point has a nice cove and beach where we get a lot of nice whiting at this time of year. You can get good results on 20-30mm clear poppers (e.g. Sugapens) or small stickbaits (e.g. Samaki Dirty Dogs), working them from shallow water back to deeper water.

You can also encounter some thumper bream, and there’s the odd pelagic there as well; many fish like the drop off into deeper water.

Soft plastics are very popular in around Sinclair Point also, particularly small 2” grubs.

In the areas from First to Third Head, a lot of the guys drift for flathead, and it’s pretty easy – just a paternoster rig and any type of fish bait such as tuna, mullet or bonito.

The area right through from Stokes Point to Sandy Point has been a surface fish bonanza. There are a lot of mixed schools and it changes every day. You can encounter bonito, tailor, mac tuna, and small to medium size kingfish. There’s a lot of small bait holding up through those points, so you need to match the hatch with a 10-15g shiny metal or a 2-3” white soft plastic. This kind of fishing is really enjoyable. The schools are vast, and moving with the bait. It’s good fun in the morning and afternoons, particularly those afternoons when you can fish the points during a nor’easter.

THE HARBOUR

There is a lot of accumulated bait right throughout the harbour, virtually from North Head right through to the Harbour Bridge region. Good areas include Georges Head, Vaucluse Point and around Bradleys Head. There are a lot of mixed schools –hordes of bonito, plus tailor, kingfish and mac tuna. While you’re targeting surface fish, it pays to have a line on/close to the bottom to pick up other species, such as kingfish and jewfish. These scavengers get an easy meal from the scraps floating down from the melee above. I’ve seen some beautiful fish taken off the bottom in this way, including 8-10kg kingfish and jewfish from 50-110cm.

You can catch them on large baits, such as big squid strips and big whole pilchards. Live or dead yellowtail or slimy mackerel can also be effective on these larger predators lurking below.

Lady Bay wreck has seen consistent catches of kingfish, with most being caught on squid. Small slimy mackerel can also work some days. Obviously live baits are best, if you can get them. The Edward Lombe wreck is also yielding some good fish. The kingfish like to sit around that mid-harbour structure, and there is plenty for them to eat there.

I have seen some great catches of big, silver sea bream in and around Store Beach lately, mainly on peeled local prawns. Anglers are getting consistent catches on 4-6lb line, fishing quite close to the beach and the point.

If you’re land-based, I recommend fishing around Pickering Point wharf up in that middle harbour region, and under Roseville Bridge. Those areas are producing lovely catches of bream, whiting and flathead, and it’s very accessible by land, with parking close by. You can also try fishing around the large wharf at Clifton Gardens. I saw a guy with a couple of nice bream there, and he said he’d lost a kingfish off the wharf.

OFFSHORE

I’ve seen a lot of mahimahi (dolphinfish) around on the FADs. The wave rider buoy at Long Reef has also fished well for dollies. A small trail of pilchard pieces will keep the dollies following your boat instead of other boats. Feed your bait out in the same fashion and you should score a bite.

I personally prefer fishing with 3-4” white soft plastics, and you can also get good results on 30g micro jigs. Drop your jig down 30-40m, and work it back up to the boat. We particularly like the Eureka Ghost micro jigs, which come rigged with a small assist skirt.

The Broken Bay traps are also producing mahimahi, but remember the traps are people’s livelihood, so try not to run over them or leave lures lying on them. We all want to fish there for years to come.

Broken Bay wide typically produces trag at this time of year, along