September is a great time to get out and chase a fish the mighty Clarence River is well known for – mulloway.

The lower middle reaches of the river, anywhere from Browns Rocks up to Harwood, should start to produce fish.

So if catching a daytime mulloway in ‘gentleman’s hours’ is something you want to tick off on your bucket list, you could do a lot worse than throw a blade or a soft plastic around this month in the deeper holes and the reef drop-offs in the river.

I prefer to go with lighter gear if I’m in the boat because I can always chase a fish if I hook a better-sized model. But with the schoolies that you’re more likely to encounter, the lighter gear definitely gives a more sporting fight and let’s face it, most of us do it for the fun.

My personal outfit is a 7’ BJP 2kg-4kg stick, 2500 Shimano Stradic with 10lb Schneider braid and 15lb-20lb Platypus Stealth fluorocarbon leader. Plastics from 4" up to 7" work well.

My favourite softy lately has been a pearl 5" Z-Man GrubZ. Head weights vary depending on the tidal flow and depth of water I’m fishing.

I generally carry an assortment of TT jig heads from 1/4oz-1/2oz. All my jig heads are from the TT Extreme Head Hunter series; these are the best heads for the job bar none.

As with the jig heads, my blades are of a variety of weights from 1/4oz-1/2oz, with my favourites the purple glimmer in the TT Switchblades.

The water should start to warm up this month, depending on the weather and rainfall, and those big flathead should start to move down towards the mouth of the river.

As the weather starts to heat up, so should the flattie fishing.

Just remember that those big flathead are the breeders, so if we want to keep catching these awesome fish, practise catch and release.

Take a brag pic of your trophy flattie and then slip her back in the water to breed up a storm and fight another day. Then proceed to send your brag pic of to all your mates and make their day.

Bream will start to move up river now and the increased prawn activity will mean it’s time to catch bream on my favourite technique, popping. It’s always fun to watch any sized fish hit surface lures.

And although I'm an avid saltwater fisherman, at this time of year there is nothing I love more than to jump in the trusty Hilux with the wife and dog and head bush to chase a bass or two in many of the tributaries of the Clarence out the back of Grafton.