I love these hot days, warm evenings and excellent fishing and this month there’s no better time to hit the water than at dawn.

If you like to dabble in lure fishing then November is great for some estuary luring, with bream, flathead and whiting switching on and ready to crunch your lure.

These three species will spread through the estuary system and will be found in a variety of locations.

The flats and weed beds will produce plenty, as will deep drop-offs and the rock walls. And artificial structure like jetties and pontoons will fare well, as will natural structure like fallen trees.

For the flats, a surface lure which draws the fishes attention is ideal and a pencil lure or a popper style are the best starters. I like to work these fast to get the fish interested, then pause as soon as you see any followers or boils.

A shallow-running minnow is also good; work it with little tweaks and pauses.

For the drop-offs, soft plastics are great. Make sure you use as light a jig head as the conditions will allow.

This time of year I like minnow and prawn patterns. Metal blades also work really well in this situation. I like to smear mine with scent and pretty much work them the same as soft plastics, with slow hops and pauses on the bottom.

Around the snags, surface lures are my starting point with a fizzer or a popper will impart a fish-attracting action yet remain in the strike zone as long as possible.

In the snags I also like to use suspending hardbody minnows, which also can hover in the strike zone.

This enables you to draw attention to the lure and give the fish time to break from the snag’s shadows and burst into the daylight.

The general rule is to use dark lures when it’s dark and lighter lures when it’s brighter, but always mix it up and find a pattern that works for you on the day.

Spots to hit this month will start down at the mouth along the coal walls and range to the deep holes around the ferries and Dennis Bridge and the snags around Rawdon Island bridge and Wauchope.

Those using bait will also do well this month, with after dark most productive, although prawns and yabbies cast in the above places will also yield all these species along with a few luderick and garfish.

Beach and rock fishing this month can be a little hit and miss and very dependent on the conditions.

Bream, luderick, drummer and tailor will be on offer but the key to success will be well-prepared gear and the freshest bait mullet strips, weed, prawns, cunjevoi and pilchards available.

Top beach spots will definitely be Lighthouse Beach between the golf course and Lake Cathie, North Beach and Dunbogan Beach. Any of the rock platforms in these areas will also be good.

Offshore anglers are looking towards pelagic species and can’t wait for the action.

Josh Anderson landed a 125cm longtail tuna off Point Plomer while chasing bream. The fish easily maxed out their scales, which went to 20kg and took an hour and 45 minutes to land on light snapper gear.

So if the water temp continues to rise we should get a whole bevy of pelagic species.

Good catches of snapper have come from the inshore reefs and out wider there are pearl perch, morwong and the odd snapper.

Kingfish, teraglin and mulloway are also on the cards, especially around Point Plomer.

So it’s good to wake up with the birds and keep fishing until the cicadas quieten down this month. Just remember to take care on the water and slip, slop, slap and wrap when you’re fishing this Summer.