Central Coast

CENTRAL COAST Jamie Robley

Welcome to the first month of the new season and what should hopefully be a good one on the fishing front. As is the usual case though, how tight our lines are will depend on the weather. But all going well, June is normally quite a decent month for local fishing.

Luderick have been moving around a bit more recently, and although I haven’t fished for them so far this year, I’ve spied quite a few swimming around under The Entrance bridge and through the shallow, sandy channels towards the mouth. If you pick a nice, sunny day and wear polarised sunglasses, it’s worth a walk over the bridge, stopping to look down for a while. If you spend a few minutes looking here and there, you may see plenty of good-sized luderick, bream, mullet and whiting in the vicinity.

Anglers have been into a few luderick along the north channel, mainly shore based, and also over on the southern side, west of the boatshed. However, it’s always worth a look down towards the mouth or, if you’re in a boat or kayak, head out around the islands and deeper channels.

Brisbane Waters also has no shortage of excellent luderick spots. The public wharves and adjacent to the bridges are popular places and easy to access, but a boat or kayak opens up a lot more opportunities here, particularly in the Woy Woy area.

Bream are also well and truly on the cards in the lakes and Brisbane Waters. At this stage of the year, numbers of bream are a bit thinner than the warmer months, but larger fish are often encountered. Although they can still be quite widespread throughout both waterways, better bream fishing is normally had in the lower reaches during winter. In other words, at The Entrance, from St Huberts Island, downstream into Broken Bay and the lower Hawkesbury. They are also more likely found in deeper spots, or at least adjacent to deeper water, at this time of year.

Mulloway (jewfish) can also be worth chasing in Brisbane Waters or Lake Macquarie this month. These days it’s getting more common to pick up a jewie or two during daylight hours on lures such as larger soft plastics or other lure types. There’s also no doubt at all that bigger snapper often fall to softies. But once again, we shouldn’t forget that refined bait fishing techniques can often be more reliable, especially when the main aim is to simply catch a find fish closer in, if possible. Always remember, further out doesn’t necessarily mean bigger fish. This is especially so with snapper.

ROCK AND BEACH

When sea conditions and weather allow, rock fishing

Silver drummer are often caught by anglers chasing bream, luderick or drummer from the rock ledges. This one is from the rocks below Norah Head lighthouse. Despite their name, they are in fact more closely related to sweep.

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of snapper.

Off the beaches the salmon were thick earlier in the year, but since then they have backed off a bit and sat down the coast. However, June is a typical month for salmon and tailor off our ocean rocks. You can catch some very good tailor along our coastal rocks at this time of year, but please be safe when you’re doing it. With rock fishing you must always wear a lifejacket and always try to fish with somebody, or at least tell someone where you’re going. Be aware of high tides, be aware of swell and definitely wear a lifejacket. If you whack your head when you fall in you have no hope – at least the lifejacket gives you a chance.

Through June we’ll start to see salmon move into Salts Bay down as far as Swansea bridge, and the run-in tide is the preferred tide.

At the moment there’s an incredible amount of bream in lake Macquarie on the back of the rains, and the bream fishing throughout June should be very good. My tip is to fish late in the evening and even into the night at this time of year for bream. Bait is the better option, particularly oily baits such as mullet, mullet gut, pillies, chicken gut and so forth. Prawns are good as well. Fish as light as possible, don’t fish too deep, and fish a high tide if you can. Floating baits are preferred if you’re in the lake. If you’re fishing the edges of the channel, use a running sinker to offset the current. A 2/0 octopus hook is ideal, and suits that fleshy bait.

Out in the lake, tailor will be caught deepwater jigging this month, along with flathead and mulloway out in around 8-9m of water. Looking for the bait schools; there will be vast schools out there. Just remember that a huge, pristine bait school may not be the best place to focus your efforts. The more desirable schools tend to be smaller and raggedlooking – a sign that there are predators underneath, ripping the school to pieces. On your sounder you’ll see red lines left and right all across your screen, as the predators rip though the hapless baitfish. That’s the kind of thing you’re looking for.

All of the the tailor/salmon gorging themselves near the surface will create a natural berley for the mulloway and flathead below, and all of these Tailor have been the mainstay for beach anglers for months now, and they are sure to stick around this month. The author caught these just after sunset.

The author with a solid Tuggerah Lakes bream caught on a vibe. June is a good month for catching quality bream.

or sinking vibes. However, fishing after sunset with firstclass bait like fresh squid, fresh or live mullet, tailor or pike still remains the most effective way of tangling with a better class of mulloway. It takes more effort and commitment to fish this way, but it can definitely produce the goods for the more serious anglers.

Snapper are another species commonly caught by angers casting soft plastics feed, rather than chase a trophy fish, which can be a bit more hit-and-miss.

In the coming weeks, offshore anglers will mainly be chasing snapper, along with trevally and kingfish. During this earlier part of winter, the fish tend to be found in a range of depths, from closer in (5-10m) or out wider (50-100m). Obviously, with the cost of fuel lately, it makes more sense to try to is normally first rate in the first half of winter. Bream, luderick, drummer and tailor are the primary target species. Others that can be expected in the coming weeks include silver trevally, salmon, groper and silver drummer.

June can also be a good month for larger calamari. We just need the weather to behave itself, and if that happens, a feed of fresh fish shouldn’t be hard to score.

species can be caught on soft vibes and plastics. We like to use Samaki Vibelicious and Zerek Fish Trap vibes. If you want to use soft plastics, my suggestion is a 1/2oz jighead with 4/0 hook and a 5-7” jerkshad, such as a Gulp or ZMan. I personally like Gulp in deeper water because it’s so heavily scented.

You can also opt to troll for tailor this month. You’ll want a deeper lure that gets down to 6-9m, such as a Rapala Tail Dancer or Halco Crazy Deep.

That’s it for this month – everything seems to be on schedule. Next month hopefully we will have something to report on yellowfin. • Fisherman’s Warehouse Tackle World has a large range fresh and frozen bait as well as a huge range of rods, reels, lures and accessories. They also sell and service outboard motors, and have a competitively-priced selection of new and second-hand boats. The friendly staff are all experienced local anglers, and they’re always happy to share their knowledge, whether you’re a novice or experienced angler. Drop in for a chat at 804 Pacific Highway, Marks Point, or give them a call on (02) 4945 2152. You can also find them on Facebook, or check out their website at www.fishermanswarehouse .com.au.