Soft plastic prawns are picking up the pace

Sydney South

Gary

Brown

gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

Believe it or not, the amount of dusky flathead that are still being caught in Botany Bay and the Port Hacking have been the most I’ve seen in years of fishing these areas.

Whether you are an avid bait angler or prefer chucking around a few soft plastics for them, flatties should be still on the chew during the month of June – even though there will be a drop in the water temperature.

If you like drifting with baits or casting soft plastics fish trap up from Swallow Rock boat ramp, Bundeena and any of the deep bays.

By now the bream should have spawned off the beaches and rocks and have headed back into the bay, rivers and the Port Hacking. Trevally will be starting to school up and they would have increased in size.

Remember that if you are going to anchor up and bait fish for them, you will need run in the water, and also deploy some berley. Fish as light as you can in deep water, and in the shallower water have a running sinker down onto the swivel and at least a metre of leader.

Offshore on the close reefs and gravel patches the snapper will be starting to move about. One place that I like to fish is in 30m off the point at Kurnell. If you don’t find them there, move out to 35m. If you still don’t find them, try 40m. Keep an eye on your sounder to find a concentration of baitfish.

For those of you who like getting a bit of sand between your toes, Maroubra and Coogee beaches are worth a shot for whiting, bream and dart on a rising and falling tide. The best baits by far are live beach worms and pink nippers. If you can’t catch your own beach worms, you’re welcome to come and see us at BCF and buy some king worms.

The beaches from Boat Harbour to South Cronulla would be worth a shot for bream, whiting, salmon, tailor and dart during the day. Mulloway, sharks and rays are always worth a shot during the night, and a couple of days after we have experienced some big seas.

I have had a couple of reports of the odd mulloway been caught off the beach at Green Hills and down south at Stanwell Park Beach. Coalcliff Beach has been producing the odd trevally, drummer, bream and whiting near the rocks on the southern end.

FACT 4 last for about seven days. If there is any left after this time, I will freeze what is left and then use it next time in the berley.

In each of the last three issues of Fishing Monthly I have included a helpful fishing fact. Here is fact number 4.

Finally, I have created a YouTube channel and in Botany Bay, some places to try are the entrance to Woolooware Bay, the 3-5m depth of water from Brighton to Dolls Point, wide off the end of the first and third runways, just outside the yellow markers on the western side of the first runway and between the Captain Cook and Tom Uglys Bridges.

I have been uploading a new video every week or so. To check it out, go to YouTube and search for ‘Gary Brown fishing’. If you like the videos, give them a like and subscribe!

Don’t forget to keep those pictures and short reports coming into gbrown1@iprimus.com.au. And don’t worry – I will not share any of your secret go-to places with anyone.

Further upstream you could try Bald Face Point, the upstream side of the Como Bridge, the Woronora River downstream of the bridge, the stretch of water near Lugarno, Alfords Point Bridge, chipping Norton Lakes and the Milperra Bridge.

If you prefer to fish the Port Hacking you could try one of the many dropoffs, Lilly Pilly sand flats, the Ballast Heap, the weed beds at the entrance to South-West Arm, the end of North-West arm, beside the

Off the rocks the drummer, luderick and trevally will be on the chew. There may be still a few bonito, tailor and salmon about, so don’t forget to put in a few metal slugs.

If I am going to fish for luderick at a place where there is no weed or cabbage, I will go and collect it a day or so before I go fishing and at low tide. To keep the weed and cabbage in prime condition I roll it up in dry newspaper and then put it in the bottom of the fridge. I will then replace the wet newspaper each day with some dry newspaper, and this will

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ROUND3: 28thMay•StGeorgesBasin

ROUND4: 27thAugust•TackleAddiction•HawkesburyRiver

ROUND5: 24thSeptember•ShimanoRound•BotanyBay

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