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Fishing action hots up
  |  First Published: November 2010



Things are starting to warm up on the fishing front.

Narrabeen Lake and Pittwater, as well as the close reefs around the Northern Beaches, are all starting to show signs of the summer fish species, with a few winter species still hanging around.

Several exceptional catches by locals are giving us plenty of encouragement to get out and wet a line. All signs indicate we are in for a bumper fishing season.

The outside grounds are producing mixed species such as snapper, large trevally, samsonfish, morwong and some really great size kingfish.

The close reefs, such as Valiant off Barrenjoey, Trawleys Reef, the Glasshouse and Brichgrove wreck are all accounting for great size trevally, the odd snapper and plenty of decent size morwong and leatherjacket.

Peter Higgins, founder of Mortgage Choice, has had some great fun at Browns Mountain recently, taking several large gemfish and few big blue-eyed cod. He also reported a number of small yellowfin and mako sharks in the area.

The close grounds off the Northern Beaches can be very productive during the early summer months and it does not take long to catch a decent mixed bag of fish.

The reefs are around 30-40m deep and are easily fished. For best results use as much berley as you can and fish as light as possible.

The Long Reef area is consistently providing big snapper and large kingfish – good spots are the Wall and White Rock. You will need patience for the big reds though and again, use lots of berley.

The Narrabeen Sands Fishing Club members have landed some really big kingies at the Long Reef Wide ground, some weighing more than 8kg.

Wayne Thorncroft has weighed in several snapper this month, with a couple weighing more than 5kg.

Lindsey Reiny has also weighed in two over 6kg. Lindsey uses plenty of pilchard berley and only top quality fresh squid or stripy tuna.

The beaches are really starting to show good signs of the summer species, such as whiting and bream, with a few jewfish being reported.

The southern end of Newport Beach, Octavia/Loftus Street areas of North Narrabeen Beach are tossing up reasonable numbers of large surf bream on the run up tides, with afternoon and early evening fishing being the best times.

The bream are responding to live nippers, Hawkesbury prawns and worms.

Colin Buckley has been taking some good whiting up to 800g from the Avalon and Palm Beach areas. He has also seen some good catches of salmon and bream from these two beaches.

Narrabeen Lake is showing signs of a good summer season as well, with flathead, flounder and whiting providing fun for the locals.

Top gun, Chris Leslie, has accounted for plenty of nice size flathead. Chris generally is a catch and release fisho but has said that they are all of a good size and in excellent condition. Chris has seen millions of tiny prawns in the shallow waters of the lake. This indicates that the lake should be firing soon with prawns and fish.

There are plenty of big garfish around the Narrabeen Bridge area – light gear for these fish and they are a great feed!

Whiting are also abundant around the ocean bridge area at night or early morning and they are responding to live worms and pippies.

The Deep Creek area is showing good signs of bream and flathead and they are being taken on soft plastics, such as 2” or 3” shrimp or Gulp worms.

Don’t forget to please call in and visit us at Narrabeen Bait and Tackle, we are happy to assist with local knowledge and advice. We always welcome your stories and photos and you can email these to me on --e-mail address hidden--

Facts

Hot Spots

The Whale for big kingfish

Trawleys Reef for a good mixed bag of morwong and squire as well as nice size tailor

Narrabeen Lake , Wakehurst Parkway side, for bream and flathead.

Facts

Bait Tips

The fresher, the better result – make sure you don’t skimp on bait quality.

Live beachworms for the large whiting and bream off the beach

Fresh local squid for snapper and kingfish

Live nippers or Hawkesbury prawns for bream, flathead and whiting.

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