Hastings

Fishing options aplenty!

THE HASTINGS Mark Saxon

castawayestuarycharters@bigpond.com

November can be a top month in our region, with the offshore fishing, rivers and lakes all starting to warm up with higher water temperatures and hopefully, nicer days to go with it.

In the rivers, mud crabs, flathead, whiting, bream and school mulloway are all worth targeting, and we will hopefully will see prawn activity in our rivers and Lake Cathie. Lake Cathie had one of its better years last season.

In the Hastings there has been plenty of flathead activity, with the lower reaches around Pelican Island producing some big specimens. The coal wall also has had plenty of flatties along it and is worth a try. Moving upriver, the edges across from McInherney Park are worth a fish, as are the shallow regions from the Whalebone Wharf upstream. And, as usual, the flats inside the Maria River section is another potential hotspot.

Bream should be spread through the system, with prawn feeders probably worth a shot around the edges. The coal wall and both the sea walls will still produce for anglers using lures or bait.

With some luck the whiting will now be on the shallow flats and Pelican Island, Limeburners Creek, Lake Cathie will be firing. Using surface lures is my favourite way to John with a solid coal wall bream. Ryan Ford with a nice bass from the Wilson River.

Ryan May with a nice school-sized mulloway taken upriver.

target them, but a lightlyweighted nipper, worm or live prawn drifted over the shallows will get you whiting, and also a few bream and flatties.

Mud crabs will be worth looking for this month, and you can use your fish frames for baiting them. It’s a big system and you can get crabs all through. Just remember to check your traps regularly, because if you don’t, one of the resident poachers will! It’s a big problem, so don’t leave your traps overnight or there’s a good chance they’ll be stolen by these lowlifes. Looking on the bright side, there are plenty of crabs, and a fresh feed of chilli crab is on the cards in the coming weeks.

Mulloway have been about in most sections of the Hastings. There have been plenty of juveniles encountered since the rains, however there are still plenty of bigger models being caught from the walls and deeper holes upriver. Persistence is the key to catching these, and when it comes together you will be glad you put in the effort. Live baits, bigger paddletails, swim baits, soft vibes and diving hardbodied lures all catch mulloway, so you have plenty of options.

If you enjoy catching bass, you can try Wilson River, top of the Hastings, Maria River up to Pipers and Connection Creek. With a little luck the water will be okay and you will get a few.

Offshore, I have been getting reports of some nice pearl perch, snapper and flathead catches, and one of the joys of fishing is drifting a paternoster rig across some of the patches from Plomer Bay to the North then to Lauriton in the South. A good drift with fresh bait or soft plastics can see you land a good mixed bag of reef fish and come home with some tasty flathead fillets.