Forster

There are more than just flatties

FORSTER Luke Austin

The beautiful Great Lakes area has been reasonably busy for a couple of months now, steadily getting busier and busier as we approach the holidays. The crowds will hit a peak over the next few weeks as we move through Christmas and into the New Year. Still, while our local waters do become all but choked up with all manner of aquatic craft and holiday makers, the local fishing remains very good throughout the busy period.

Estuary fishing is almost too easy at the moment; catching a flathead now is about as close to ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ as you can get. They are being caught in great numbers in just about every corner of the Wallis Chris with a cracking December mulloway. This month is perfect for chasing the bigger fish.

Lake system. Walking the bank down towards the rock walls or bridge throwing 3-4” soft plastics on a 1/6oz-1/4oz

This month is perfect for getting the kids out for a fish. jighead will guarantee you a fish or two, and once you get the hang of it you will get a fish every few casts! There are some monstrous fish mixed in the schools, with reports of fish up over 80cm very common.

Fishing strips of mullet, bonito or slimy mackerel in the same areas will also get their attention, but for numbers, you can’t beat covering ground using lures. Other areas that are producing plenty of fish include The Paddock, Breckenridge Channel, The Cut and Tern Island, however you will pick them up all over the place!

Sand whiting are loving the nice, warm ocean water that is pushing into the estuary with each tide. The clean high tide really gets them fired up, and they have been up on the sand flats feeding hard on just about anything they can hunt down. Baits of beach worm or yabby are working great, but it’s hard to beat fishing these areas with surface lures. The action can be heart stopping in ankle-deep water and you never know what you might find cruising about in the shallow stuff!

There are still some cracking bream hanging about the rock walls and bridge pylons, and they are in amazing condition. I caught a very solid fish while chasing flathead recently which was probably only in the high 30cms, however it was the fattest bream I have seen in a very long time, and fought like it was possessed! There are fish up on the weed beds as well as the odd one up the rivers, however the amount of rain that we have had seems to be keeping a lot of the fish out of the tributaries.

The mouth of the system has been getting a lot of attention over the past couple of weeks as there is some insane fishing on offer down there. Mulloway and kingfish numbers are really good at the moment, and there are some absolute beasts sitting in the schools. If you do decide to have a play down around the channel, please be respectful and responsible towards other users and the fish themselves. These fish are a finite resource, please only keep what you need and look after any fish you intend to release!

Local beaches have hit summer mode now, and most are producing great mixed bags of whiting, bream, dart and the odd flathead. 9 Mile

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It’s not all about the flathead over the warmer months.

and 7 Mile beaches are both fishing well and we even had a great report come through from an angler that managed to bag some big whiting off Main Beach in the centre of town, however for the best fishing you may have to travel as far as Pacific Palms or Seal Rocks. There is still the odd salmon and tailor cruising about, however not quite in big enough numbers to make it worth targeting them in earnest.

Reports from the stones are typically very slow at this time of the year. There is still the odd snapper being caught up to about 45cm, along with the seemingly ever-present bream and luderick.

Offshore reports have been relatively positive lately. There have been some great pearl perch landed out in the deeper stuff, snapper numbers have been very consistent on reefs from 30m-80m, and early morning or evening sessions are seeing anglers hit their trag bag limits with ease.

With ocean temperatures on the rise, mahimahi have now well and truly settled out at the FAD. While there are a lot of smaller fish there, those anglers that fish smart and put in the time have been finding the odd fish up over 80cm. • Luke is the owner of Great Lakes Tackle - your ‘local’ bait and tackle store. They only sell the best brands and offer sound, friendly advice on where you can go to land your next trophy fish while visiting the wonderful Great Lakes region! Open 7 Days in the main street of Tuncurry, you can call them on 02 6554 9541 or find them on Facebook to see what they have been up to!