Like most of us, I am very much looking forward to some nice Spring weather and the improved fishing that comes with it.

While it could be slow to get better, I’ll be keen to chase flathead, bream and salmon over the coming month.

At a local beach I’ve recently enjoyed some great sport fishing for the salmon that have turned up in rather large numbers.

Because some of them have been very close to shore, I have been able to use a light rod that I normally use in the lake for bream or flathead.

A small metal lure casts a long way with this tackle and those hungry sambos hit with aggression and strip line from the spool at blistering speed.

Other days, the salmon are still there but they just won’t hit a lure, or instead of hooking up on nearly every cast, you will catch only one or two. Those days can be frustrating but still fun if you do manage to hook a couple.

Guys using longer beach rods and casting pilchard baits would probably do a lot better, but I much prefer to use the light tackle and lures.

Some salmon have also been roaming around the southern end of Lake Macquarie and again, the light bream-style tackle means you will be kept very busy with each fish you hook.

Sometimes you may be chasing the salmon in the lake and a big tailor will grab the lure instead. When that happens you’ll either be bitten off straight away or have another good fight on your hands.

In September you may find some quite large flathead down the bottom end of Lake Macquarie.

I find the 5” Berkley Gulp Jerkshad to be a great flathead lure when slowly bounced close to the bottom, but other anglers may have more luck with plastics like Squidgy Fish or Wrigglers. The choice is yours, but in any case just keep casting and work over your chosen spot thoroughly.

Those flathead should also be going well at The Entrance and back inside the lakes. These fish aren’t normally of the same size as you can expect to find in Lake Macquarie or Brisbane Water, but they make a nice feed.

Bream should be improving from now on but fishing for them can still be up and down for a while yet.

Depending on how the season pans out, it could be as late as November before you really see them in better numbers and more willing to hit lures.

Some good bream have still been caught from the local rocks and beaches as well.

Often these ocean bream can come in bigger sizes than their estuary cousins and the big ones may take large baits cast out for other species like salmon, tailor or jewfish.

Off the rocks this month you can still expect the usual Winter fish, such as blackfish and drummer. I’ve heard some great reports coming from those fishing rock ledges at Snapper Point and Catherine Hill Bay but the same good fishing should still be happening at our southern rocks around Terrigal and Avoca, as well as Norah Head and Crackneck.

For offshore anglers the kingfish jigging is still an option out wide this month.

I’ve heard that some days the sharks are a problem taking kingfish during the fight while other days the seals are attacking fish as you bring them to the boat.

It sounds like tough fishing but apart from such problems, some good kings have been boated, some over a metre.

The salmon have also been schooling up close to shore so you if you’re not keen on beach fishing then perhaps you could take the bream tackle out with you in the boat.

They are not normally very far out and not at all hard to find. If they don’t hit metal lures then they should hit a lightly weighted soft plastic stickbait.