Sydney South

Plenty of species about

SYDNEY SOUTH Gary Brown

gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

We have gone through another cold period, and there don’t seem to be as many anglers getting out there and braving the chill to get amongst the variety of fish species on offer during the colder months.

Trevally are still about in great numbers in Botany Bay, the Cooks and Georges rivers, right up as far as Alfords Bridge in the Georges and Tempe Train station in the Cooks. The trevally don’t seem to mind what bait you use, whether it’s peeled prawns, half pillies, strips of chicken, worms or strips of fresh squid. They are also taking hardbodied lures and soft plastics.

Even the close-in reefs off the entrance to the Port Hacking and Botany Bay have been producing good numbers of trevally, along with pan-sized snapper, bream, tarwhine and many other reef species. When I’m fishing while at anchor and using bait, I always have a small and steady berley trail going out the back of the boat. If I’m fishing in water that is 10m or more, I lower my berley pot down to about a couple of metres off the bottom. The only problem that

David Anderson caught this 43cm whiting while using soft plastics over the flats at the entrance to Gunnamatta Bay on a falling tide.

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Payment via direct deposit (Details on entry form) The walkway down at Lugarno is always worth a shot for bream and flathead. Try using half pilchards, strips of mullet and chicken.

can occur is a shark eating your berley pot, which happened to me one day. To overcome this, I put dry berley ingredients into a paper bag and tie on a heavy snapper sinker, which is attached to a long piece of blind cord, and then lower it to near the bottom. Then give it a big tug and the bag will break, leaving the berley to do its job. You will find that when you bring it back up the broken bag will still be there. It’s just a matter of taking off the broken one, throwing it into the rubbish and putting on a new one.

The main rig that I use is a running ball sinker down onto the bait. Sometimes I will also have a paternoster rig, which I lower down to rocks. Bream, tarwhine, trevally and slimy mackerel are also about there.

The southeastern side of Bare Island has also been producing luderick and the odd drummer. Berley and either fresh green weed or cabbage is the go.

In the bay, the usual places like Trevally Alley, the end of the third runway, The Sticks, the oil wharf, Sutherland Point, the oil drums and the drift from Brighton to Dolls Point will produce a few bream, flathead, tailor, whiting, flounder and the odd trevally or two. Try using strips of chicken, mullet, slimy mackerel and freshly caught squid.

The break at the entrance The Moons, Soily Point, the rock wall near the Alfords Point Bridge, Picnic Point and Cattle Duffers. A few places to try in the Woronora River are the old road bridge, Bonnet Bay, Prince Edward Park and upstream of the car park at the landing.

The amount of rain we get through August will determine how clear it is. At the time of writing you can easily see the bottom in about 5m of water. If so, and you are bait fishing, you will need to berley to get the fish active. Chicken pellets soaked in tuna oil and bread would be a great combination to start with, and remember to scoop it out with a ladle and only do it about every 5-10 minutes.

The author caught this 63cm dusky flathead while working the boats in Woolooware Bay with ZMan soft plastics.

about a metre off the bottom and stick in the rod holder. One hook will have a plastic on it, while the other one will have a squid jig. All it takes is the movement of the boat to make them move about.

Inside the bay at Bare Island there have been a number of good-sized snapper caught both at the Starboard marker on a run-out tide and off the to the Cooks River and the groynes along Dolls Point and Kurnell will be worth a shot for luderick on a rising tide. It’s just a matter of finding which ones they are feeding at. Green weed or cabbage will do the job, but you could try berleying with bread and then using it as bait.

Luderick will be starting to school up at Lugarno,

Squid will be about in numbers along most of the rocky shoreline in south- and northwest arms. I have found that you will need a variety of colours and weights in your jigs to find out which one they will prefer on the day.

Please keep those photos coming into gbrown1@ iprimus.com.au and you too may find yourself in the magazine.