Despite the unpredictable weather, fishing outside and in the estuaries is still extremely productive for this time of year.

Offshore, there are plenty of excellent-sized snapper to be had on most of the Northern Beaches reefs, especially Long Reef, Collaroy, Boultons Reef and Newport Reef.

Several local fishos have encountered enormous snapper, up to 8kg, which seem to be consistently caught after rough seas – and they have been the norm lately! The average size of these reds is between 2kg and 5 kg at the moment.

Mixed with the big reds outside are good-sized trevally – 2kg to3 kg. These make for some great sport and are easily taken on good fresh bait, such as large prawns, or on 5” Gulp soft plastics.

Trevally provide excellent eating and are a real treat for the family.

Several of the closer reefs, such as Newport, Reggies, East and West, are all holding good bags of mixed fish including pan-sized squire, trevally, morwong, leatherjackets, tailor and more.

Try trolling in close to the rocky headlands from Avalon to Narrabeen for some monster kingfish in the washes. You will get the best results using Halco or Rapala deep-diving lures, or 7” soft plastics trolled slowly.

There have been several large hoodlums weighed in at Narrabeen Bait and Tackle with two super fish tipping the scales over 15 kg over the past few weeks.

There have been consistent catches of good-sized Winter bream off the beaches as well as excellent catches of large salmon and the odd greenback tailor.

Several fishers in recent weeks have taken big bluenose whiting from Narrabeen and Collaroy beaches using live beachworms. Whiting like these are a great bonus at this time of year.

Try fishing the northern end of Whale beach or the southern end of Palm Beach for quality bream to a kilo.

Early evenings have provided nice bags of salmon and tailor at both these spots, too.

Newport Beach at the southern end has been a standout for big bream and XL salmon.

The ever-productive Narrabeen Lake is surprisingly active for this time of year, with good catches of bream, flathead, luderick and long tom being caught in most areas. A couple of standout spots include the reserve at the end of Wimbledon Avenue for good flathead and bream, which are usually active late afternoon and into the evening.

The Jamieson Park area, adjacent to the car park, has bream and long tom.

Excellent catches of luderick are being taken from the Ocean Street bridge area as well as the area fronting the caravan park and the café on the ocean side of the bridge. Fresh local green weed is a must for bait to catch the luderick and we are now stocking green weed at Narrabeen Bait.

The recent ABT bream tournament for the kayak fishos held on the lake accounted for many good-sized bream and flathead on soft plastics and small hard lures.

Pittwater has produced consistent catches of good-sized salmon around Barrenjoey and West Head over recent weeks.

Mackerel Beach and Palm Beach drifting grounds are holding quality flounder and tailor. Try the mouth at Careel Bay for squire, especially after big seas. There have been some good bags taken here recently.