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Blue water and brown
  |  First Published: April 2013



Over the past month we have seen some blue water hit our part of the coast but there has been a lot of rain to flush it away as well.

On those days when the blue water came in close Broken Bay and Pittwater, the fishing has been exceptional. When you strike the warm, pea soup-coloured water, fishing is trying, to say the least.

All along Pittwater we have been finding masses of very large brown jellyfish. The area that they cover is massive and this has made it hard to downrig at times.

I would love to say to you to try the western or eastern side of the river but they are moving around and there are so many of them you will just have to go and find an area that is devoid of them.

The shallower areas seem to have fewer so hopefully this can be a starting area for you.

Squid are pretty easy to catch at the moment and most weed beds seem to have a few. Jigs in natural colours in size 2.5 are working well. Areas to try include Towlers Bay, Portuguese Beach, The Basin, Sand Point, Careel Bay and West Head.

Remember when casting to a likely spot, cast ahead of you so the boat drifts towards your lure, allowing it to sink so you can work the area before your mates get a chance.

COASTAL KINGS

Along our coast the kingfish have been fairly scarce on the days of poor water quality but there seem to be millions of them about on the blue-water days.

So my suggestion to those wishing to chase kingfish along the coast is to first gather live baits, then find some blue water.

Areas that provide your best chances are Whale Beach Headland, Barrenjoey Head, Newport and Long Reef. Other areas to try north of Broken Bay are Box Head, West Reef and East Reef.

These areas all produce fish over the warmer months and with a little luck and decent weather, fish should be there.

Broken Bay is seeing a bit of action as the last of the fresh water exits the Hawkesbury. If you fish the run-in tide, reefs such as Flint and Steel, Lion Island and Barrenjoey Head are all worth anchoring and berleying around.

There have been some big bream around as well as the odd small jewfish taking squid baits on the bottom and small kingfish are hitting squid suspended in mid-water just out of sight.

It has been better to fish the last of the incoming tide and then pull up stumps an hour after the change.

BONITO

Schools of big bonito have been saviours of many anglers lately. These speedsters are a lot of fun on lighter tackle and this year they all seem to be big.

Live yellowtail have been the downfall of most of the larger ones but trolling a hard minnow will also catch quite a few – just watch for the birds to indicate feeding fish.

The reef fishing has been patchy. Boultons Reef has turned up nannygai, the odd morwong and small snapper. There is plenty of baitfish activity showing on the sounder so the area will burst to life shortly.

Depths of around 60m still seem to be holding decent flathead on the sand and there are snapper on the reef edges.

There are plenty of leatherjackets about so send down one line to see if you can come up with a fish other than a jacket before you send down more.

The best bait seems to be fresh caught slimy mackerel fillets but a lot of fish are also chewing on squid.

Take out an outfit that may be able to handle a billfish, too. We have had numerous outings when a marlin has showed up but refused everything except for a slimy from the nearby school of fish.

Drifting around the ocean with a balloon floating out the back and a slimy under it, what could be better except battling a feisty marlin?

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