Although the kingfish may have quietened down a bit in Botany Bay, there are still plenty about if you are prepared to put in the time and effort.

At this time of year you will need to be using prime baits. This doesn’t mean that you always have to use live bait for kings. I was out the other day and managed two legal fish and three throwbacks on strips of squid. I did try live yellowtail and slimies, whole dead squid, whole garfish and whole WA pilchards but only squid strips did the job.

Three days later I was out on the bay again chasing bream and silver trevally. But I had forgotten to take berley, so I motored up to Scotty Lyons and asked if I could use my electric motor to stay near his boat.

The trevally were so thick that I caught nine on the one Berkley Gulp Sandworm in camo. Once Scotty stopped berleying and moved on, the trevally turned off. If it had been anyone else’s boat I would not have even asked but it did give the guys on his boat a bit of an idea of what you can do with soft plastics.

There have also been a number of large flathead and mulloway caught, especially by those who have anchored up and berleyed in 1m to 5m. Use long leaders. Flatties can also be caught in the deeper parts of the bay and Port Hacking, where I would suggest you try a ball sinker directly down onto your bait.

Just because it has become a bit colder, you shouldn’t stop fishing. Other species that you will come across during the cooler months include drummer, luderick, john dory and groper. Try fishing for these fish species off the rocks at Burning Palms, Garie, Wattamolla, Kurnell, La Perouse, Little Bay, South and North Maroubra, Bondi and North Coogee Beach.

If rock fishing is not your scene, you could always try the Georges and Woronora rivers for bream, flathead, whiting, luderick, tailor, mullet and the odd mulloway.

This month I find that a lot of the larger flathead are caught on live yellowtail or poddy mullet or just by jigging the deeper areas with soft plastics.