Illawarra

Catching a Xmas feed

ILLAWARRA Greg Clarke

It’s time to hit the beaches and actually get a feed of quality fish. Last month was a good start, but this month is better. The water is warming so your toes don’t get cold, and the fish have spread out over all of the local beaches.

Whiting were a bit hit-and-miss last month many anglers make is hitting the beach and setting up camp in the one spot and hoping there are fish in that spot. However, when chasing whiting it is best to be mobile. With a bag over your shoulder and the worms on your belt, you can walk the beach casting into likely gutters and flats until you find the fish. They are usually in schools.

It’s a similar situation

Chasing the big jewies (mulloway) that will be about this month, particularly around the Christmas/New Year big tides, is a different kettle of fish (sorry, bad pun). These guys tend to actively hunt during the evenings just after dark, when they move from their day time hiding/ layup spots to chase down the whiting, tailor bream and whatever else they can find along the beach, often while travelling along the coast. For this reason, picking a good, deep gutter and setting up for the long, dark hours on the rising tide is the key. You will also score some tailor and salmon as they like to move in after dark too, and even a few bream. A good sign is when you are getting a few fish, particularly tailor, and then they suddenly stop biting. There is usually a reason for them suddenly going off the bite, and often that reason is a big mulloway has just moved into the gutter and is hunting them.

They also get active on heavily overcast and rainy days with a bit of chop on the water, so put on the raincoat and have a look. It’s not like we haven’t had much rain this year, so you should be used to it.

Flathead will be about and grabbing whatever comes past their nose, but flicking a few plastics in the gutters is always a good way to pass some time.

The rocks are on the up and up as well, with schools of salmon, small kings, bonito and tailor working the headlands hunting schools of baitfish. Port Kembla break walls, Honeycomb, Windang Island, Bass Point and all the deep water points around Kiama will fish well this month.

Spend some time catching live yellowtail, mackerel or squid as the big kings are back lurking close in the washes in the early mornings and late afternoons. They are great to hook but hard to land. Alternatively, you could try big poppers cast on a heavy threadline outfit for maximum excitement value.

For something more sedate there are still plenty of drummer, bream and a few trevally in the washes if you just want to walk the edges and cast into likely-looking spots with unweighted baits of prawn and cunje.

Something to remember too it is now mandatory to wear PFDs while fishing on all Wollongong council area rock platforms. There is a 12-month grace period at the moment before fines are imposed. We have one very dangerous platform in the area, notably Honeycomb, but making this law a blanket for the whole coast is ridiculous because most of the local ledges are formed, so it is virtually impossible to get washed in. Still, that is the way things are these days.

Offshore it can be a bit hit-and-miss over the coming weeks, with cold water welling up from down deep, turning everything off the bite. Water surface temps of 15°C are not uncommon at this time of the year, before boiling through the next day at 22-23°C and full of life, before settling down after Christmas and getting sensational.

The FADs are always worth a look for any early dolphinfish, and the early ones are generally bigger than the hot water schoolies.

Kingfish are what many anglers are looking for, and these fish don’t mind a little cooler water. As long as the current is running they will have a crack at your baits. Bellambi Reef, the islands and Bass Point are key spots close to shore, while Wollongong Reef, Bandit and the Hump in the north will be the pick of the deeper spots.

Down rigged squid and mackerel seem to be the method of choice these days to hook big kings, but in the deeper water spots, big knife jigs are lethal. Just bear in mind that leatherjackets can prove costly to the jig stocks if they are about.

Further offshore there have been a few school yellowfin up to 30kg about, but they have been patchy and a long way out.

A few striped marlin have been sighted and hooked while chasing the ‘fin but it won’t be long before the blacks arrive. If they are early a few should show up on the last week of December as they pass through, because we know they will be in Jervis Bay for the LBG guys right after Christmas, as they are on most years.

If you need some bait there are a few striped tuna getting about out past 50 fathoms, and the odd school blowing up in closer, along with the schools of salmon and bonito in the bays and headlands.

Some nice snapper have shown up over the reefs in 30-50m of water, gabbing plastics and micro jigs. Fish to 6kg are not uncommon, with 1-3kg the norm.

For the bottom bouncers there are plenty of flatties about over all of the sand patches, with some of them pushing 60cm particularly up on the northern sands. However, they will not last as the trawlers put the cutters through them during the nights in the run up to Christmas. When they disappear and they are still on the smaller sand areas, that is why.

Mowies are around in good numbers and if you want to put the pick down and do a bit of berleying, there have been good numbers of small snapper to around the kilo mark about over the closer reefs and gravel. As mentioned earlier, the bigger fish are in the deeper water, and will this be the season that the trag make a return. It seems to be every four years or thereabouts, so a look at the trag bumps on warm moonlit night could pay dividends. There were a few fish about last year so this may be the one.

The lake and Minnamurra have whiting over all the flats, grabbing squirt worms and nippers. Flathead are now just about everywhere but will get even better as the month progresses. Plastics and poddy mullet are the baits, and a feed is just about guaranteed.

Bream are in the feeder streams to the lake and around the bridges in the lake, and Minnamurra during the evenings. The feeder streams are also holding some fair-sized mullet, and it’s great fun for the kids.

Throw in a few tailor and blackfish around the weed beds and there is plenty of fun in the estuaries.

A few nice reds are about over the deeper reef areas in 30-50m.

but are now pretty much a given on all the beaches, so a few beach worms and a bit of walking should get a few.

One of the mistakes with the bream. They are not on every centimetre of beach but they’re in schools, so you must find them and when you do, happy days. Schools of tailor and bonito are about grabbing lures cast into the feeding masses.