It’s certainly a great time to be fishing our waterways and one of my favourite times of the year to target big bream on lures in Lake Macquarie.

Last September was great with some really good bream taken on the flats and I’m looking forward to more of the same this year.

This is also basically the last month of the year when we see chilly weather and with both sea and air temps increasing, the fishing should also start to heat up.

The lake has fished reasonably well for those putting in the hard yards.

Salmon continue to entertain many fishos and this year they seem to have moved into areas where they have not ventured in previous years.

Salmon have been thick in the lagoon at Summerland Point, which I’ve not seen in the eight years I’ve lived here.

Their numbers should begin to thin out a bit to allow us to concentrate on some of the better table fish on offer.

There have been some good catches of bream from Salts Bay and along with the salmon, a few kingfish have been surprise visitors – always a nice by-catch.

Over the past couple of months there have been quite a few bream tournaments on the Lake and these have certainly had an effect on the bream numbers for the local lure fishers.

We saw some fantastic results in the earlier competitions (such as the BETS round) but catches dramatically dropped as the pressure from these competitions increased, as seen in the results of the July ABT round.

Don’t get me wrong, these competitions are a fantastic idea and great for the area and our local economy. I just think we may need to look to spread them a little more throughout the year if that is possible.

The comps did show the exceptional bream fishing that we have on offer here with some great fish to 1.7kg landed.

Best places to try for bream at the moment include the moored yachts throughout the northern and southern ends of the lake. And now we’re moving into some slightly warmer weather, it’s as good a time as any to start hitting those flats again.

Flathead numbers have been reasonable with some good fish coming from Wangi area.

Drifting half pilchards has been very productive in this area. Work the nearby drop-offs and deeper holes for some quality fish.

There have also been some good jewfish taken in the lake. Many of these have been landed by bait fisherman in daylight hours with some guys getting three or four fish a session.

One lucky angler fishing for bream from his kayak around boat moorings with deep-diving lures was pleasantly surprised when he eventually landed a jew of 7kg on his light bream gear.

Offshore has been hit and miss with some crews doing exceptionally well and others putting in big hours for little reward.

The standout over the past month or so has been some fantastic southern bluefin tuna results. The hot bite moved up the coast from Bermagui to Jervis Bay, then Sydney and finally the waters around the continental shelf off Swansea.

Some quality 30-50kg yellowfin and some much larger models also featured in the mix.

Generally trolling has been the most effective way of locating these tuna and then crews quickly set up a berley trail and begin cubing to make the most of this run of fish.

Kingfish have also been quite productive. We have seen some crews bagging out on quality kings to 10kg on jigs and live bait.

These fish are being caught from Terrigal all the way up to Allmark off Port Stephens.

The majority of crews are seeing good numbers of fish around 6kg with a few 8-10kg models. We will see the inshore kingfish action start to pick up into the warmer months.

Rock and beach fishing has been OK. Beaches such as Blacksmiths have been producing good salmon and a few nice bags of bream and tailor.

In recent times we have again seen the sad loss of lives on our nearby rock fishing locations. I do not rock fish but I know many do so with much enjoyment. All I can say is please take care when you are out on the rocks and if it doesn’t look safe, don’t do it.

Go home, spend the day with your loved ones and try again when the seas are more favourable.