FRIDAY 12.2.21
What a week with bonito busting up around the bay chasing white bait & Garfish. Try the small wharf at Little beach, Sally Shores & break wall with 15-20g metals. Cobia around the metre mark was taken from Sally Shores Wharf on Wednesday – trick is to get a live bait out to the deep channel around 80m off the end of the wharf.
Garfish are on – they are here & hungry biting their little beaks-off. Best method is float fishing with your bait suspended around 3 feet under the surface. Small 10-12 size long shank hooks – float goes down and whack.
Today’s tip is around Garfish – berley is key, use pieces of bread or chicken pellets to get the school into a feeding frenzy will increase your catch rate. Bag limit is 20.
Best spot is Shoal Bay Wharf around half to high water. Great fun to catch and a top table fish or prime snapper bait.
Eastern Sea Garfish (Hyporhamphus australis) (nsw.gov.au)
Early signs of blackfish with the odd fish taken on weed from the main & break wall.
Reports a number of small jewfish, all throw back’s but a little fun. Also reports of school Jew from Western side of Middle Island on squid and fish baits.
Hit the short-cut wall for bream on hard bodies or work plastics for hungry lizards. Anchor at the Short-Cut with beach worms or nippers for whiting to 38cm.
Reports of sand whiting on high water at Roywood Reserve and Taylors Beach – try surface poppas.
https://www.salamanderbaittackle.com.au/bassday-sugapen-surface-lures-for-bream-whiting/
Crabs on the chew this week. For blue swimmers get you’re traps out along Wanda Beach and Sunset Beaches. For muddies hit Tilligerry Creek, Karuah River, Fame Cove or North Arm Cove– mullet bait is the way to go. Please remember to mark your crab floats correctly so the DPI don’t seize them. For all the local crabbing rules;
Bream to 38cm drifting west of Rocks a wash on fish baits, although the fish are sensitive. Best method for bream 00 running ball sinker onto a 1/0 Mustad Penetrator hook or similar and let the fish take the bait and swim away before striking. Hold the rod under your arm with the tip pointed towards the water, leave a little slack in the line and watch it, the bream will pick the bait up and the first thing you will see is the line move, give it a little line and then set the hook. Use a reel with a bait runner feature or if not then perhaps consider opening the bail arm to let line peel off freely. The fish are to 35cm and appear in good condition for this time of year.
Flathead taking plastics around Sandy Point, Shoal Bay Beach, Little Beach and Nelson Bay Beach towards Fly Point. The flathead hit instinctively thinking the vibe is a live fish. Loop-knot is recommended to attached your lure to FC leader allowing the lure to action as naturally as possible.
https://www.salamanderbaittackle.com.au/samaki-vibelicious-for-flathead-bream/
Little Beach Wharf producing heaps of Arrow squid in the evening on 1.8 size jigs. Hit Sally shores wharf for bream, squid and the odd pelagic from the end of the wharf. Always worth live baiting out to the deep channel which runs about 80m from the end of the wharf.