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Lake turns it on
  |  First Published: September 2014



We are getting closer by the day to the end of this cold stuff. It has certainly been a cold winter for us but we have also seen some great fishing which helped to ease the winter pain. We have had salmon schools as thick as ever, great catches of mulloway, some solid bream reports, big female flathead and the offshore kingfish have been on the chew so we can’t complain too much.

Although I do enjoy winter I am really looking forward to some warm summer weather and hot fishing this year.

The Lake

In September the lake can really turn it on and it’s a great month for some very solid bream. My best bream from Lake Mac have come each September so I’m very keen for more of the same this month.

Although not traditionally a prime month for bream on the flats it is a great time to pull some real horse bream off them. The numbers are often down a little but you will find some very big bream on the many flats throughout the lake.

Shallow running hardbodies such as the Damiki DTSCO or Asakura S hornet are two of my favourites on the flats, and natural colours such as browns and clears work well. You will find fish in that 0.5-1.5m range. Some bait fishers have also been seeing great numbers of bream fishing extremely lightly weighted baits of peeled prawns in these shallow waters with fish to 40cm not uncommon.

Salmon are still about in good numbers for those who love a little sportfishing. These speedsters have been providing plenty of fun on light gear. Pro Lure flick bait soft plastics in chopper colour have been accounting for many salmon catches this year, with 80-100mm being the go-to size lure.

Once again we have seen some very large flathead taken over winter and they should still be about during September. Deep water is still fishing well with many fish coming from the 7-10m areas. Soft plastics around the 4-5” mark are doing well, and bait fishers are getting some good fish as well by simply drifting half pilchards along the bottom in these same areas. This year has seen a load of flathead in the 40-50cm range; it’s always nice to grab a few at that size for the table and then the big girls can be released to do their thing. Bolton Point, Coal Point and Fishing Point areas have all been producing.

Ocean rocks and beaches

Anglers have been getting some solid fish of late and we are even seeing the odd kingfish being landed from local rock ledges. There have been many good catches of tailor and salmon, with plenty of good bream in the washes. A lot of anglers choose to spin lures from the rocks while they have a live bait out under a float, and it’s these live baits that have nabbed the odd kingfish. It’s great to see and hopefully indicates a good summer ahead for them also.

Offshore

September is a great time here off our coast. The kingfish are about both in size and numbers. Deep rigged live baits such as squid and yakkas are scoring some great results from offshore reefs, and the deep water jigging brigade is producing as always. The leatherjackets are hit-and-miss so if you’re lucky you can get away with scoring some good kings without losing too many jigs.

The reds have also been very good this year with nice catches coming from areas such as Terrigal right through to the Fingal Bay and everywhere in between. Even inshore reefs have been quite productive on school size reds which has been good to see this year.

On the game fishing front, a few solid sharks have been landed and a few tuna are also out there in the mix. but they are wide and there is a load of water being covered to get the bites that have been managed. The weather has also been an issue for offshore anglers with windy weekends being a real problem so hopefully we see this settle down for the summer ahead and hopefully the marlin bite that should come with it.

For the very latest on what’s biting, visit the friendly team at Jayro Tackle, 396 Pacific Hwy Belmont.

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