Central Coast

CENTRAL COAST Jamie Robley

Providing the weather behaves itself, we should have another excellent fishing month ahead of us. Although May is historically quite a stable, dry month, I wouldn’t go betting on anything weather related, given what’s been happening in recent times.

If, however, conditions are favourable, our local inshore strip should be pretty lively, with the annual mullet run and plenty of other baitfish around. Mulloway are the big prize this month, but kingfish, tailor, trevally and bream are other species that often put in a strong showing as we edge closer to winter.

Beach fishing will be high on the agenda for many local anglers, including myself. As mentioned, it’s mulloway time right now. Rounding up some fresh bait to chase these chrome beasties with shouldn’t be too difficult either, as it’s also prime time for tailor and calamari, both of which happen to be right at the top of the list for jewie baits at the beach.

As I sit here, typing up with month’s column though, the ocean is quite dirty and

A nice catch of bream and a lone luderick, caught on bread at Norah Head. If sea conditions are favourable, this is the sort of thing to expect this month from our local rock spots.

From page 58 so you may have to use lures instead. The kingies like poppers and stickbaits, but big 7-8” soft plastics, particularly white, are my pick. Just belt the plastic out across the surface and burn it back, jigging backwards and forwards to stir up the fish. A lot of the kingfish getting caught shore-based have been taking lures rather than baits, including a 105cm specimen patterns have made it hard to get out there, so there haven’t been as many reports as usual. If the bad weather continues and you’re stuck at home, you can achieve quite a lot in your downtime. Go through your tackle boxes and replace rusty trebles. There’s nothing worse than pulling out your divers or chrome lures and finding that the hooks are all rusted. You may also find new lures

Blacksmiths break wall is on fire, with catches of tailor, salmon, kingfish and flathead.

caught by a young angler fishing a white soft plastic from Swansea bridge. He released the fish, which is great to see.

I haven’t heard of yellowfin off the coast yet aside from the odd small one, but there are still a few striped marlin around for the deep water guys. Unfortunately, the unpredictability of weather in the cupboard that you’ve had for years and never used. Chuck them in your tackle box so you can finally give them a try.

I also recommend taking your reels off the rod and checking that there’s no corrosion under the foot and under the hood. You can opt to clean the area with hot water and add some grease, so you don’t get that bonding with the rod and hood.

It’s also a good time to respool your reels. Some anglers lose a lot of good fish because they have left the line sitting on the reel for too long. Remember that braided line will deteriorate over time – it’s not just mono that needs to be replaced. Additionally, consider how much braid you cut off whenever you get a wind knot; after a while you can end up with half a spool. I recommend replacing braid every 2-4 years, depending on how often you fish.

Monofilament needs to be replaced more often. I recommend replacing it every 12 months if your budget allows, and no longer than two years. Remember that when mono is on the spool we pack it on so tightly that it crushes on the spool. Some guys reverse it but that doesn’t really work, because you don’t want any of that crushed line going out.

Finally, if your reel is a bit dodgy, you can either send it in for a service or replace it, because when the weather comes good you don’t want any of your gear to fail! • 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. May is an excellent month for bream. The author caught this one at the southern end of Lake Macquarie, but some of the best bream action in the coming weeks will be around our coastal rocks and beaches.

stirred up from recent big seas. Mulloway certainly do like to hunt their prey in such conditions, but unfortunately it can be a bit of a challenge to catch calamari when the seas are like this. So if you have any spare time when the seas are clear and calm, head out with a few jigs and try to round up a few calamari squid to put away in the freezer. The ones you catch yourself and keep frozen are just as good as the freshlycaught versions. Just be sure to put them in freezer bags by themselves, not mixed in with other bait like pillies or other fish. This way, the squid will retain their own natural scent and flavour. If they get mixed in with other smelly old bait, their quality and appeal to mulloway deteriorates dramatically. So be mindful when it comes to jewie bait – frozen is quite good, as long as it’s good quality frozen!

If you’ve caught some mullet or tailor and intend to use those for jewie bait, don’t throw away the heads. A fresh, medium-size tailor or mullet head is another brilliant bait, and is naturally tougher and more pickerresistant on the hook. Just be sure to use a decent quality, sharp hook like a size 10/0 Gamakatsu Octopus, and hook the head through the nose or mouth, with plenty of point protruding.

Last May I got into a lot of bream around some of our shallow rocky points. That’s pretty much to be expected at this stage of the season, and I’m hoping conditions will allow for some bream fishing around the rocks and beaches. My two favourite inshore bream baits are bread or cut pieces of pilchard. If I’ve scored a few tailor in recent times, I also like to cut the fillets into bait-sized sections and give them a generous coating of salt, then wrap them in newspaper. The salt draws out moisture and toughens up the tailor. Ideally, I like to salt up some tailor like this a day or two before bream fishing, and put the tailor in a plastic freezer bag in the fridge. Extra tailor salted like this can also be stored in the freezer for future use. It’s certainly just as effective on inshore bream as fresh tailor, with the advantage of being much tougher on the hook.

We’ve got no shortage of great spots to try for bream around the rocks at this time of year. I really like to look for shallower places with a sandy bottom and plenty of patchy, broken reef and boulders. Some of the better places to look are from Wamberal through to The Entrance and then from Norah Head up to Munmorah and the south side of Catherine Hill Bay.

Luderick and drummer can also be very active at this stage of autumn. In some spots it can be relatively easy to score a mixed bag of drummer, luderick and bream, all on bread baits. But by using green cabbage or sea lettuce you can also avoid some of the pickers like toadfish, and be more likely just to hook luderick or drummer, without any bream. Having said that, it’s certainly not out of the question for a bream to snatch a green cabbage bait either.

We’ve certainly endured some pretty dodgy weather so far this year. If that’s all behind us now, the month ahead could really turn on the fireworks for local fishing. I’ve run through some good rock and beach options here, but offshore, Brisbane Waters and the lakes will all have something to offer in the coming weeks.