Big blue bearing big fruit

Luke Austin

This month is one of my absolute favourite months of the year for fishing! There are so many options out there right now, with a huge array of species on offer.

The estuary fishing continues to tick along very nicely. Fishing during the run-out tide with soft plastics or vibes will give you the best shot at finding the flathead and bream, and both of these species have been the standout targets by a mile. The better fish are still schooled up in and around any structure sitting to the east of Wallis Island.

Bream have been particularly hungry, and just about any lightly-weighted bait offering or small soft plastic has been absolutely smashed when cast into areas such as The Paddock (or just about any other oyster lease) or down along the rock walls. The Tuncurry rock wall has been producing some particularly solid fish, with one angler managing to land a beastly 53cm fish that fell for a good old strip of mullet!

Huge schools of whiting have been spotted sitting on the sand flats downstream from the bridge, and the area in and around the rock pool has been absolutely stacked with really big whiting, which is really cool to see, but remember that this area is a no fishing zone! In areas where fishing is allowed, fish are nice and active and have been happy to gobble up baits of beachworms, yabbies and even artificial worm baits like the ones from Gulp.

The mouth of the estuary has been a popular place for both land-based and boating anglers of late, as they take advantage of healthy numbers of hungry mulloway. There is a real mix of sizes schooled up along the walls at the moment, with most fish ranging from about 40cm through to 120cm or so. When these fish school up in these sorts of numbers, they are often relatively easy to catch and can be caught on live or dead baits, as well as a huge variety of hard and soft lures.

If you are going to target these amazing fish, please take the time to learn the regulations around minimum size and bag limits! These fish are very special and if we are to keep enjoying them for generations to come, we need to look after them, and to see anglers keeping undersized fish or more than their one fish limit is absolutely infuriating!

Fishing from the rocks can be amazing in autumn, and this year has already proven to be productive for most anglers. Plenty of pelagic action is occurring up and down the coast, but unfortunately the sharks have been very active as well, and will make short work of a fighting longtail tuna!

The bit of little swell that we had recently made for perfect conditions to chase some big bream, and there has been the odd early season drummer sneaking about as well. The rocks down south have been worth exploring early and late in the day, and a few dedicated anglers have been landing some very nice land-based snapper up to about 4kg.

Our local beaches have been fishing well, which is to be expected during late summer and into autumn, with most stretches of sand holding some nice deep gutters to explore and anglers have been landing some very healthy mixed bags of bream, whiting, flathead and tailor.

Those anglers who have put in the time have found the odd mulloway up to about 12kg, however the tailor have been painful for anyone using live or cut fish baits, so it may be worth soaking some beachworms as an alternative.

Jack with a nice spotted mackerel. All sorts of pelagic species can turn up during March.

Offshore fishing is well and truly on! The snapper fishing has been amazing, with lots of solid fish getting about. It hasn’t mattered if you are fishing up north, down south or out the front, it seems that just about every reef has been holding fish. The deeper reefs are also producing the odd trag and pearl perch, and if you happen to drift off onto the soft stuff there have been plenty of tasty flathead waiting for you.

The pelagic scene is still cruising along beautifully, and Spanish and spotted mackerel are about in good numbers. Mackerel can be found on just about any inshore reef complex, and with by-catch species including cobia, longtail tuna, snapper, spangled emperor and mulloway, it’s an insanely exciting time to be hitting the shallow reefs! and trevally are still being caught in good numbers, particularly around the whitebait schools, which seem to be concentrated in the lower half most days. At times there has also been a fair bit of bait upriver. There are even a few bonito in the mix, too.

• Luke is the owner of Great Lakes Tackle – your ‘local’ bait and tackle store. We 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. Ph: (02) 6554 9541 or find us on Facebook to see what we have been up to!

The days with a bit of wind are proving to be the pick for surface action on the flats, with cicada lures working well for bream under the trees further up the river. There are a few small mulloway in the river at the moment, but the better fish are hard to find.

On the beaches, whiting and bream numbers are pretty good along Lighthouse Beach and around Lake Cathie. On the decent days, North Beach has been fishing well for tailor and bream.

The crab season remains pretty quiet, and I’ve noticed there haven’t been as many traps being set this month, which is a sign there’s been little reward.

• Castaway Estuary Fishing Charters specialises in calm water, guided estuary lure fishing experiences based in Port Macquarie, NSW. For more information visit: www. castawayfishing.com.au.