October is a month that mainly goes two ways – it’s either a beautiful start to spring and the encroaching summer season or it’s an absolute last ditch effort from winter to linger as long as possible. I think this year we may just get a bit of both, so I recommend you avoid jumping into the summer species too early. At the moment you have twice as many species to target so don’t put away the trevally and salmon gear just yet, particularly as we’re still getting some great reports here on the Northern Peninsula.

We’ll hit up the report this month with some of the better offshore captures of late. Long Reef Pirate crew’s Tim Angus, Mike Bamforth and the guru Mike Bonnici headed out off Broken Bay in soggy conditions to 500 fathoms searching for yellowfin tuna and certainly didn’t disappoint. The guys landed albacore, striped tuna and yellowfin to 30kg using pilly cubes and live baits, while most of the crowds are down south at Browns Mountain there are still some cracker fish to be had just out the front.

Closer to shore, some good fishing can be had when the conditions allow. Local reefs from Mona Vale to Curl Curl have been holding teraglin, snapper, kings and flathead. Anthony Ball has been getting into some good snapper using soft plastics and miro jigs while Vic Levett from Oceanhunter Sportsfishing has been putting his clients onto kingfish in similar depths using baits and lures. Rudy Habaus went out in search of a feed in the 18-45m zone and landed a good feed of flatties to 55cm while drifting around off Dee Why using pillies for bait on a two-hook paternoster rig.

Our rocks have copped a hammering this last month, and this breaks off a lot of new feed so fish the platforms as soon as conditions are suitable after a big swell for best results. Spinning off the stones is a popular method of targeting pelagics and surface feeders. Kris Pruessner went for one such spin and had a mad session on salmon pelting metals. Don Rixon landed some solid tailor from Dee Why and nearly got spooled by a shark that wanted his fish more than he did!

Narrabeen Lake is slowly waking from its cold winter slumber. I headed out with the 2kg kit chasing flathead in the yak and finally landed that mulloway I’ve been chasing in there for 20 years. It was a great size fish to open my account with (it took long enough!) and I estimated it to be 25lb and over 1m long. It took a liking to a 3” nuclear chicken Gulp Minnow on 6lb Ocea leader. A 12-15 minute fight had the fish on the deck of the yak, and after a couple of quick snaps I released it. Being towed around in the yak by a good size fish is a memory that won’t leave me alone, and it has just made me more hungry for this style of fishing. It goes to show that good luck is still a requirement while versing a competitor with no rules, as this capture could have ended a half a dozen times during the fight.

Sydney Harbour delivered a wealth of species during the winter, particularly some of the surface feeders and mid-water species. Schools of tailor and salmon have been feeding at Harbour Central for a while now and are transitioning into their usual boat-shy mood, so be ready on approach and try to get in front of them and cut your motor so as not to spook them. Schooling trevally have been around in much smaller school sizes and can be berleyed to the boat at locations like The Spit and North Harbour using pillies and pellets.

Finally I’d like to touch a bit on one of the new scene taking off in Sydney: micro jigging. This newer style of jigging involves fishing in shallower water with lighter line, jigs and rods. A large variety of fish are falling to this method so it’s definitely worth giving it a go.

At Fishouttawater Tackle World we have dedicated an entire wall to jigging and all products associated with it, tripling the size of the current space. With Sydney’s game scene rapidly evolving, so has our game section – it too has doubled in size and received a total revamp. The shop is moving forward in leaps and bounds and we are very interested to hear your thoughts on our product range because it’s your shop too and it’s here to stay.