Sydney South

Early birds beat the crowds

SYDNEY SOUTH Gary Brown

gbrown1@iprimus.com.au How time flies! It’s December again and everyone is eager to get ready for those upcoming Christmas holidays.

So, what will be on offer for anglers wanting to get out and have a fish in the Southern Sydney area this month?

First of all, the kingfish should start to show up in numbers in both Botany Bay and the Port Hacking River. Places that are worth a look would be the end of the third runway, Trevally Alley, Yarra Bay, Bare Island, the oil wharf and Sutherland Point.

One of the ways that I try and locate the kingfish is to troll either a couple of live baits or lures around these areas. Once you have located the fish, you could either keep trolling or anchor up and start feeding out those live baits.

Squid seems to be the best bait to troll with. Whether it’s live or dead, whole or cut into strips, will depend on the day what the kingfish prefer. The only problem lately has been getting enough squid. Maybe this is due to how much dirty water we have been experiencing over the past couple of months.

You could also try trolling yellowtail, slimy mackerel and poddy mullet. Alternatively, you can troll lures such as Halco CD 7s and 9s, Fish Inc. 115mm Flanker Winglets, or even a 5” or 7” jerkshad (e.g. scented ZMan Jerk ShadZ) rigged on a 1/2oz, 5/0 jighead such as a RevlockZ.

The bream will have started to move around the bay, fattening up to get ready to spawn off the coastal rocks and beaches. All of the above spots that I have listed for kingfish will also hold bream. It will be just a matter of anchoring up, setting up a small and steady berley trail, and either fish with a small running sinker down onto the bait or a running sinker down onto a swivel and at least a metre of leader.

Baits to try are live nippers and worms, peeled

prawns, half or a fillet of pilchard, mullet and chicken gut or small strips of skinned yellowtail fillets. The trevally will also be on the chew this month. It will just be a matter of locating them as they will move around the bay, and the size will also vary from day to day. Berley will be an essential element in your arsenal to get them on the bite.

For those of you who prefer to drift around the bay you could try the stretch of shoreline from Brighton to Dolls Point for flathead, flounder and whiting. Keep an eye out for those schools of tailor and bonito that pop up every now and then. Strips or mullet and squid, half pilchards, plus live

nippers and poddy mullet are the go.

Don’t forget to also try those soft plastics that you have in your tackle box. They may not work every time, but they are a great way to stay active and get yourself a feed at the same time.

Offshore, the FADs will start to produce dolphinfish (mahimahi), tuna and kingfish. It will just be a matter of beating the crowds. If you want to avoid a host of other anglers, an early start would be on the cards.

Sand and tiger flathead can be caught while drifting the 30-50m depth. Try using a paternoster rig and mix up your baits. The odd good-sized snapper can be caught on the drift out

from Coogee, Maroubra and Jibbon Point.

Whiting, bream, and dart can be caught off most of the eastern beaches from Coogee to Stanwell Park in the south. It’s just going the be a matter of working out which beach is going to hold them. This is why I make sure to keep myself mobile, with a set-up that allows me to move quickly from gutter to gutter. To achieve this, I will have only one outfit, a single small tackle tray that fits into a shoulder bag, my bait (usually beach worms) and a knife.

The Port Hacking has always been a harder place to fish. That is why if I am bait fishing,

I will always anchor up at my chosen spot and have a small and steady berley trail going. Bream, trevally, tailor, whiting and dusky flathead are always on the cards if you stick to this simple of effective way of fishing.

The kingfish should be on the chew in the coming weeks. If you can’t get a few squid, I would suggest that you try catching yellowtail, slimy mackerel and those Port Hacking

pilchards. They can be used dead or alive.

There will also still be a few luderick about this month, so keep an eye out for them.

Don’t forget to keep those reports coming into gbrown1@iprimus.com.au.

The author has been getting good results on the new 2.5” ZMan PrawnZ. Glenn Loveday with a 51cm dusky flathead destined for the pan.

There should still be numbers of Australian salmon about. Try casting soft plastics, blades and half pilchards in and around any of the schools you see or drop-offs in the Port Hacking River.