Cold westerlies are the order for August and luckily for us we should start to see some sunshine and warmer temperaturess by the end of the month.

The fishing over July was steady with a couple of good weekends giving us working folk the chance to hassle out the reef fish. Those who were lucky enough to get out the front in the weather windows did manage to get amongst some great fish. We should see similar weather patterns during August so keep your eye out as the snapper, sweetlip and cobia will still be on the cards.

Bream are in plague proportions in the river at the moment and as they move up and down the river the mad keen bream addicts will follow them. I was lucky enough to get out and hit a few bream when they were schooled up on the north wall recently.

There was quit a crowd, including a few pro net fisherman, just waiting for their chance at the bream. Fortunately, as the tide changes the bream move around and make it a lot harder to find them, which gives the rest of us a chance to intercept them.

I did mange to get few nice fish on soft plastics and blades off the north wall. The quality of the fish getting around is good, although this will change as they spawn.

There have been some nice grunter being caught in the deeper holes in the river and out on some of the newer structure that was washed into the river during the flood. I spent some time searching around the river mouth with my new Humminbird side image sounder and the images are amazing. There are some very interesting things laying on the bottom around the river. I found jetties that still had the hand rails and all sorts of poles, pylons and frames. All of these will have fish hanging on them at some stage during the year so make sure when you find something that you mark it because it may not have fish on it when you’re there, but as the waters warms, different species will move in and out of the river.

The flathead are making their presence felt in the river but as there are now a lot more sand bars and drop offs to fish, they are more spread out and can take some time to locate. August should see them start to school in preparation for the spring tomfoolery.

The mighty Baffle has been fishing pretty well with flathead, bream and grunter being the mainstays amongst local anglers. The mouth is the place to fish this time of the year with plenty of sandbars and drop offs holding baitfish and small prawns. If you like to troll, using small lures will get more bites, but up-sizing your lure will get more attention from the bigger fish. The upper reaches are still very fresh and cold, which tends to slow the fishing down and I would probably leave a trip for September.

Baffle Creek was hit pretty hard in January's flood and there were 90 odd houses and business's flood effected along the river. The Moore Park Lyons Club recently presented some of these flood victims with over $20,000 worth of vouchers for food and other essentials they need to help put their lives back together. I would like to put a big thank you out to the club as their hard work will make a big difference to the communities living along what is one special river.

I am very grateful to be involved in such a caring and dedicated community and believe this is just the start as their is much more to do and many more people to help. If you’re planning a trip away next holidays, please consider the Baffle as a destination as tourism is a real supporter of the small communities in the area.

The secret river the Kolan has been fishing pretty steady lately and as the fresh keeps dribbling over the weir, the fishing will hot up.

Most fish species like a bit of fresh around as it helps shake off parasites and it mixes up the different species of baitfish that travel the river. The big movers and shakers are the barramundi and they are still being caught even while the water temperature drops into the teens.

My last visit there I got a mangrove jack and dropped an 80cm barra at the side of the boat on a Prawnstar. We only fished for a couple of hours during the last of the run out tide and as I have always said that last of the tide reveals all.

As always the crab pots are like a slalom course, even though there hasn't been many crabs caught. Keep your eye on the sounder as there are some new drop offs and structure that hold fish and will be awesome come spring. The freshwater reaches will still produce, it’s just the bite times will be short in the cooler weather so look out for those odd hot days and head into the freshwater.