It may be the beginning of Winter but if you change your tactics and target species, the fishing can be just as good as in Summer.

Calm days in the estuary can be great fun and you don’t have to brave the cold in the morning. Pick your time and tide during the day, especially if your targeting bream in the Bay.

I love nothing better than fishing the incoming tide around the rock walls, tossing plastics in areas such as Soldiers Point, North Arm Cove and Pindimar Bay.

The water can be clear so it pays to fish fluorocarbon leaders of around 3lb-4lb.

I still like using braid main line because the sensitivity allows me to detect the slightest bites.

Also try using smaller jig heads of 1/20oz-1/40oz, which allow the plastic to sink naturally.

For bait fishing, there’s one rule: Fresh is best.

At this time of year I like to use oily baits such as mullet fillets or even mullet gut.

Keep things simple and light, with not too much weight so your bait can drift naturally.

Some of my best mulloway sessions have been in the cooler months, especially on plastics even in the middle of the day.

I need three main ingredients to target jew during the day – a tide change, bait and structure.

I’m constantly looking at my sounder, checking for drop offs that are holding baitfish. The Bay has plenty of structure, from rock walls to bridges, and all can hold jewies.

Sand whiting also can be caught in good numbers during Winter but live worms or nippers are the only way to tempt them. Concentrate in the lower half of the Bay around Jimmys Beach and Shoal Bay.

The beaches are fishing well with plenty of good-sized tailor to 2kg moving along the gutters at dawn and dusk. One Mile Beach is the standout and has formed some good gutters.

If you have a 4WD then try the adjacent Samurai, whose northern gutters often hold good bream at this time of year. It’s been a bumper season for those travelling bream, with all the gutters holding fish at some stage. Fishing the rising tide early morning will work best.

Rock Fishers are doing well on drummer, bream and luderick in the washes.

The untouched coastline of Boulder Bay offers plenty of areas to fish, even in a big swell, and the sheltered coves are the places to catch a feed of luderick.

Cabbage weed can be found in most of these areas but it can pay to take a bread berley and a few peeled prawns, because luderick will dine on both. Bream and drummer also love both.

The extended headlands such as Fingal, One Mile and Boat Harbour, offer tailor, salmon and the odd bonito for those tossing pilchards or metal lures.

Snapper will be on the cards as the month progresses; toss larger baits like whole squid into the washes.

Offshore fishing this month is all about snapper, especially in the shallows.

The Seal Rocks area (obviously the bits outside the marine park sanctuary zones) are a wonder for the soft-plastic fisher, with plenty of good real estate in as shallow as 5m. You will also find a few kings taking the plastics.

Broughton Island will yield plenty of snapper with bait fishers doing well floating baits down a berley trail. Teraglin are hanging in due to warmer than usual water so try fishing the reefs out the front such as The V and The 21.

A few locals are also fishing the edge of the continental shelf for bar cod and leatherjackets while Allmark Mountain is starting to produce kings for those jigging.