If anyone remarks on how cold Winter has been, they won’t get any argument from me!

Beanies, jumpers and jackets have been the order of the day and on the odd occasion, a flask of hot coffee, too.

But this month we should start to see a change in the weather because August is a bit of a transition month around here. We still feel the dregs of Winter but also usually see the signs of warmer months to come.

It can be a tricky month to predict the weather but the fishing can be red hot at times.

Some good snapper are taken this month on our inshore reefs and fish of 5kg and up can be regular occurrences if you find yourself in the right place at the right time. In saying this, though, August can be hot or cold but fortunately the Tweed region offers up a lot of opportunities.

If the weather won’t allow us to get offshore then the river is always an option.

The Tweed River has experienced a really good run of chopper tailor with the odd good one mixed in.

They have been gorging themselves on the schools of bait that are roaming the river. If you find the bait the tailor won’t be far behind.

Slugs and poppers have been doing most of the damage with the smaller lure models definitely the pick.

Throwing soft plastics for flathead and bream has been a frustrating affair at times, especially with lighter lines and leaders, because the tailor make short work of your plastics and quite often your jig head as well.

The tailor have bnot just been in the river; the headlands have been producing good numbers as well.

By-catch of Australian Salmon has also been a welcome surprise. Although they are not one of the better fish on the table, they are great fun to catch.

As with the river, slugs and skipping poppers have been the standout producers. Early morning and late afternoon are the prime times.

The Tweed often experiences a late run of bream and blackfish with a lot of the better fish coming out in August. If they aren’t around in good numbers in July then look out for them this month.

A few years ago we had a pretty cold Winter and the numbers of bream that were around in August was truly astounding. This Winter is following a really wet Summer so let’s hope that they put in a good show again.

Flathead are also good targets in August with many of the bigger fish becoming active this month. Smaller plastics around the 3” and 4” sizes will get you the numbers but if you concentrate on the deeper sections of the river and up the plastic or live bait size then you will be in with a chance of a trophy fish.

Bear in mind, though, that the big females are our breeding stock for the future and need to be handled with care.

Last month I mentioned that the kingies and amberjack should be starting to show in good numbers and this has definitely been the case, with some good-sized fish making their presence felt.

The 45-fathom line has been the pick location for chasing these brawlers, with live baiting and jigging the best approaches.

The key to success is to find the roughest, nastiest ground you can.

The really big amberjack are suckers for whole live squire or pearl perch and if you want to get a big one then you may have to sacrifice the odd prime table fish and have a go.

We recently fished a reef on charter and had two squire caught on bottom rigs slammed while we were bringing them up. A live bait was quickly sent down and the result was a solidly bending rod followed by 20kg of amberjack.

Just make sure that your tackle is up to the task and do your best to keep them out of the reef.