Central Coast

Springtime strategies

CENTRAL COAST

Jamie

Robley It’s always great to see the start of a new season, especially when it’s also the beginning of warmer weather and brings the promise of better fishing. Hopefully this is what September will deliver and

However, there are still fish around and they do have to eat. As mentioned last month, salmon are very much a common customer at this time of year, and they’ve been hanging around our neck of the woods in typically solid numbers lately. In fact, this month it’s pretty much a sure bet that they’ll be along our main become less likely to feed, as they effectively become baitfish themselves!

Of course, many local anglers don’t want the salmon, so is it possible to avoid them? Well the obvious way to avoid them is not to fish the rocks or beaches in the first place. Realistically though, I would suggest two things. One is to fish the rocks or from a beach adjacent to rocks, with baits like bread, cunje, crabs or green cabbage, which gives you a better chance of attracting species other than salmon. There are still fish like bream, snapper, groper, drummer, silvery trevally and luderick around at this time of year.

Another strategy is to present smaller baits closer to your feet. By this I mean close in around the rock ledges or by casting baits just behind the shore dump at the beach. This is more the domain of foraging species like bream, as salmon tend to anywhere around Brisbane Waters, Tuggerah Lakes and Lake Macquarie. However, I would definitely be concentrating more around Patonga, Ettalong, Woy Woy, The Entrance and in the lower sections of our feeder creeks, around Tacoma or East Gosford for example.

Because the water is still cool at this time of year it means that flathead, although keen to eat, aren’t as aggressive as they may be during the warmer months. So although I would always suggest using lures like soft plastics and sinking vibes for them, I would also strongly suggest keeping retrieves slow, with plenty of pauses along the way. We are very much spoilt for choice when it comes to suitable flathead lures these days, but I’m a very firm believer in white or light-coloured softies around 75-100mm in length. Thin, slinky sort of plastics are hard to go past for flathead, but any of the prawn imitations are also highly effective.

Right through the winter months I’ve encountered some quality bream around the lakes. This, combined with the fact that we had floods earlier in the year, could indicate we are in for a good time lure casting for bream in the coming months.

If you’re keen on bream, keep an eye on the weather. The big key at this time of year is warmth and basically, the warmer the better. So if some hotter days start creeping in early in the season, polish up your bream gear and get out there.

All in all, fishing looks quite promising for the month ahead. The main things we need are some warm weather, a few calmer days and most importantly, no further lockdowns and COVID restrictions!

Baits suspended under a small float, fished close in around the rocks this month should entice a few bream. Of course, luderick and drummer are also very possible.

after all the westerly winds and extended lockdown we’ve endured here, we could certainly do with some better times.

Make no mistake though, fishing can still be tough this month, as those westerly winds normally persist for a while yet. Westerlies flatten out the seas, which at first glance may look good, but the fish aren’t so agreeable when the ocean is so flat and calm, with an absence of whitewash around the rocks and along the beaches. beaches and headlands and very catchable through the month. Still though, if you want to hook into a few it’s far better to fish a rising tide early in the morning or later in the day and into the night. With the sambos also come sharks, tailor and jewfish, so if a big mob of salmon has moved into a gutter at the beach there’s a very good chance that around sunrise or sunset some of these predators may move in. Generally, when larger sharks are around the salmon Despite all the wind lately, there has been a sprinkling of excellent weather. This is when you’ve got to drop everything and go fishing, because tomorrow may not be so good! Spring is typically unstable and less predictable than other seasons.

stay a bit wider out. FLATTY TIME

Back inside calmer waters, flathead commonly spark up during September and become more active as the weather and water temps gradually warm. You can certainly run into a flathead

If you can pick the right day, expect a few luderick to be hanging around the local rock ledges this month.

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and deeper areas for most of winter, and now they’ll start to spread all throughout the lake, particularly the northern end, into the shallower water. As the weather continues to warm we’ll start to see more prawns moving into the system, and the flathead will feed on them.

A few squid are also starting to turn up, and there have been some nice mulloway getting caught too. September is traditionally the peak time to catch mulloway, because it’s when many of them move from offshore into the estuary. The most popular methods are bait fishing, vibing and using soft plastics, but you can also get good results on deep divers, with the added benefit of a bycatch of tailor.

Soon we should start to see a reappearance of a lot of sand whiting, and their numbers will build as spring progresses. We probably won’t see a prawn run until around October, but you might see a few fluffing around the shorelines through September. That will spur on the summer species like bream and whiting.

Tailor traditionally gather in numbers to spawn in September, before they leave the estuary and start to move offshore and along our coast. There have been quite a few tailor around the 50cm mark caught lately, and they’ll probably hit their peak around mid-September before disappearing for a few months. In August we were seeing quite a few kingfish taken offshore, and some nice snapper on inshore reefs. One of our local anglers Grant Slender caught a 72cm snapper recently on the inshore reefs. For our local waters that’s an excellent red, and Grant was stocked with it. He caught it on a floating half pilly bait down a berley trail, which is a reliable way to catch them, unlike soft plastics which don’t work as consistently. It’s always a good idea to float a bait out the back if you’re flicking plastics up the front.

Finally the yellowfin turned up… and then we couldn’t access them because of COVID restrictions. After waiting for these fish all year, the offshore ban was hard to bear after we had seen the tuna smashing through the hordes of sauris, and taking lures with gusto. COVID rules are in a near-constant state of change, so I recommend following us on Facebook to keep abreast of what’s allowed and what isn’t. Hopefully restrictions will ease soon.

There have been some good catches of yellowfin off Swansea in recent weeks, with most around 30-40kg. There have been a few bigger fish in the mix too, reaching 70kg+, and we’ve also had reports of bluefin up to 80kg and the odd marlin. In September we should see some more good catches if the currents are still favourable.

If you’re like most anglers and live further than 5km from the water, now is an excellent time to do those jobs you’ve been putting off for months, or even years. We’ve had customers tell us they’ve been doing jobs they’ve been putting off for 5-10 years, such as sorting out a cluttered shed, and that it feels good to finally get that stuff done.

A good place to start is to go through your tackle boxes and discard any old rusty hooks and other busted terminal tackle. Put new split rings on, new trebles, get them cleaned up and ready to go. And after that’s done, I recommend organising your tackle to make things easier when you’re about to hit the water. Grab a permanent marker and give the different boxes labels such as ‘Flathead Lures’, ‘Tailor Lures’, ‘Squid Jigs’ etc. This task can actually be quite enjoyable, and it makes life a lot easier.

If you have a boat, do a safety audit; make sure the flares are in date, your torch batteries aren’t corroded/flat, your instrumentation and lights are working, and so on. If you can’t do the maintenance yourself, start look at servicing requirements.

And remember, we’re all in this together and we’ll get through it. • 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.