Sydney
NSW
Bait is plentiful throughout PITTWATER
Marc Ternen
There’s a lot going on in Pittwater at the moment, including good catches of tailor, bonito and kingfish. These speedsters have been chasing anything small, bright and shiny, because they’re chasing small bait. We’ve been selling a lot of Halco Twisties in the 5-15g size range. Outfits to match that would be 1-3kg, 7ft rods matched to a 1000-2500 size reel for the smaller chrome slices. Most of the guys tend to stick to a 2500 size reel, just in case a kingfish shows up. Anglers fishing the slightly larger slices typically use around 3-6kg with a 4000-size reel for the larger model kingfish. Kingfish are also getting caught on 75-130mm clear Sugapens, cast around the moorings. Moored boats with a lot of growth attract baitfish, and in turn the predators. It’s also good to cast around a drop-off and bring your lure to or from that deeper water. Varying the retrieve is always a good option, to find what the fish want on the day. There have been quite a lot of bonito throughout the whole system. Areas such as the northern end of Scotland Island and Paradise Beach have been excellent early in the morning and late in the
afternoon. We’ve had some stellar afternoons out there. I take my boys and we get bonito from the tinny up around that Sandy Point area and Creel Bay. Then, around sunset, a lot of the schools tend to head over to the western side of Pittwater, perhaps because they can hunt bait easier in that failing sun. The action generally continues until darkness hits. We use small Halcos and topwater lures such as the Daiwa Slippery Dog, which catches bonito, tailor, kingfish and the odd mac tuna. Some of the mac tuna are quite big, around the 3-4kg mark, and put up a great fight on light tackle. Longnose Point has also been good for surface school action, and it can be pretty much an all-day event. The water is warm in there, and the different pelagic species will find bait throughout that whole system. Moving outside, catches have been excellent with the warm currents we’ve had right down from Palm Beach to Long Reef. There have been massive amounts of bait in that region, and guys are getting marlin in close in 30-50m of water. Because of the favourable conditions we’ve had, some anglers have been getting them from 12ft tinnies at Long Reef. One guy got towed for 8nm. Most of the marlin have been caught on slow trolled
live baits or slow trolled dead baits (garfish). When it comes to lures, you can try 4-7” skirts or divers. The dolphinfish (mahimahi) at the FADs have been providing good sport for everyone with the good conditions (provided you have lifejackets and a stable boat). The dollies have been ranging from around 60-80cm, and they have been very active around the Sydney northern FAD and the wave rider at Long Reef. Live baits have been very effective, and you can also get results on a white soft plastic on a light to medium jighead. Other good areas to try this month are around the Glasshouse wreck east of Avalon, and the wrecks off Narrabeen, in about 45-50m of water. We have been seeing good catches of trag there, along with some nice snapper. Some big blue morwong (1-3kg) have also been showing up in quite good numbers. The best baits are bonito, mac tuna and slimy mackerel, which are all in that region at the moment. The Valiant wreck, close to Barrenjoey, has been very good, too. There have been a lot of small to medium size kingfish around there, and it makes for a fun morning or afternoon on light tackle. You’re fishing only 18-25m of water, and you don’t tend to lose a lot of fish there
because there’s not a lot of jagged ground for the kings to bust you off. The council has opened up the lake finally, and we’ve had a lot of water going in and out of there, assisted by some big tides. There have been a fair few reports of jewfish, including a 11.3kg specimen caught by 7yo TJ Motler (with a bit of help from dad). The fish took a whole Hawkesbury River arrow squid in the region of the middle bridge. We’ve seen plenty of small soapy jew (2-3kg) caught, which is a good sign of a healthy fishery. They have been the most plentiful we’ve seen in many years. Some nice bream have been caught around the Middle Creek and Deep Creek areas. The go-to lures at the moment are the 2” Gulp Grub, and small blades (e.g. small Berkley 5-8mm blade) are very effective too, and light line is key – anywhere from 2-6kg. We have had a really good run of prawns in the lake, with prime areas being in the vicinity of Wimbledon Avenue and of course the entrance area. The flats on the eastern side of the ocean bridge have numbers of prawns, too. Some nice garfish have been caught around the deep creek bridge and entrance area on baits fished under floats. You can have a lot of fun doing that and there are some quite large garfish in there. They put
Young TJ Motler with his 11.3kg mulloway. up a great fight on 2kg line. In the front region of the Hawkesbury River, with the fresh combining with the salt, I would place all bets on the jewfish being there. Try areas like Flint and Steel, Hungry Beach, Brisk Bay and Pacific Head. Anchoring on the top or bottom of the tide will give you the best chance of success. The best bait is obviously squid, but don’t discount bonito, live legal tailor, or strip baits. Speaking of tailor, there have been plenty in those regions too, especially in Brisk Bay and around Croppy Point. • If you need fishing gear, quality bait or a chat about
what’s biting, head to Narrabeen Bait and Tackle. Owner Mark, his son Marc and long-time staff member Chris have been local fishermen for 30 years – so there’s not much they don’t know about Pittwater or Northern Beaches fishing, and they are happy to answer any questions you may have. The store stocks an extensive range of tackle, and their live and fresh bait range is renowned as one of the best in Sydney. It is sourced locally and includes live beach worms and nippers. Drop in and see them at 1469 Pittwater Rd, North Narrabeen or phone (02) 9970 6204.
The dreaded taxman strikes SYDNEY NTH
Steve Winser
As the East Australian Current finally kicks in with a vengeance, we see a real rise in water temperatures, and the fishing changes accordingly. A large amount of bait is moving in along the coast, and with it has come a change of species and targets. Snapper have been fishing well along the inshore coastal spots, with numbers of fish to be had in that 8-30m zone on a combination of baits and plastics, mostly fished into a pilly cube trail. Plenty of bonito are falling to trolled shallow running lures in that 150mm range along the cliff fronts also. The harbour has just been on fire! It’s chock full of bait and a variety of species, including some northern species that have come down on the current. Watsons leaping bonito and sweetlip (emperor) are among the northern visitors. 54 MARCH 2023
The summer staples of flathead, whiting and so forth are around in numbers on just about all the shallower sandy areas of the harbour, from Rose Bay though to north harbour. However, the real story has been the long-awaited arrival of the summer run of kings. There are some
absolute crackers in there just now, with fish well over a metre not uncommon, and profusions of smaller fish there also. Once again, the key to catching the kingies is to use fresh squid. The squid have been plentiful, and the arrow squid in particular have been super reliable over the ribbon grass beds. We
Chomp, chomp. Damn!
typically use smaller jigs in the 2.5 size for these. One negative with the arrival of all this bait – and of course, the kingfish – has been the sharks. We have been seeing some sizable sharks, and plenty of them. As you can see from the photos with this article, there are some real big ones prowling around down there. Have a look at the bite mark on the king in the photo – there’s no circular mark, just a straight cut indicating a big shark. Anything that can cleave a 10kg+ king in half in one chop is for real. If life was fair, this shark would have chosen one of our smaller fish to steal. But no, it had to take the best one of the day! Gawd, I hate sharks. The most alarming thing was that this happened near the eastern suburbs shoreline in the harbour – and some guys were diving not 50m away. I have surfed this area my whole life, and I would not swim in this harbour for a bet. Stay cautious, folks! • Fishing Sydney Tours takes pride in tailoring every trip to the customer’s preferred species, style of angling, and level of expertise, all
Nice king! Well, half anyway. within a friendly and relaxed atmosphere at competitive rates. There are some excellent fishing spots that can be accessed straight off Sydney, and we will show you where. We offer harbour, wash and offshore fishing
for species ranging from kingfish and mulloway through to snapper and mahimahi. For more info go to www.fishingsydneytours. com.au, call 0481 120 600 or look up ‘Fishing Sydney Tours’ on Facebook.
