We all love to pick the tides, moons and weather patterns to make the most of our fishing trips but the truth is we don’t always have that luxury.

My fishing is usually set around a pretty tight time frame and I’m sure many anglers are the same. A classic example of this is a mate, Rick Paterson, who has a marine business. He always says, “Twelve-thirty Saturday is a good time to go fishing.” That’s when Rick has time away from the store to do some fishing so that’s his best time.

It comes down to the fact you have to work with what you got and make the most of it.

This month get out there and make the most of the fishing on offer. As the Winter mode comes into swing and the action begins to heat up, its a good time to service your gear and get the tackle box sorted.

With the mullet preparing for their seasonal run, mulloway will be on the hunt and good school jew and the odd monster fish will be landed from the breakwalls on the Hastings and Camden Haven rivers.

Live baits will provide you with a great chance but a soft plastic or hard lure will also have you in with a chance.

The beaches will also be good spots to target mulloway this month, with worms, slab baits, live baits and soft plastics all working. Look for well-formed gutters with one end that has a good opening to the sea.

Offshore the bottom bouncers should be getting into the thick of things. At the time of writing those venturing outside were getting some nice snapper, pearl perch and the odd kingfish and samson fish. This month should be no different with good table fare on offer with snapper and pearl perch the pick of the bottom species.

The grounds off Lake Cathie have been producing some good snapper and those tossing plastics have been having a world of fun. It should really heat up this month with the reds really switching on.

Beach and rock fishing this month should start to hit its straps with tailor coming on. Hopefully the smaller choppers will give way to some greenbacks.

Best spots will be the northern beaches, Grants Heads and Point Perpendicular in the south. Whole pilchards and slab baits do really well, and don’t forget the good old metal slugs.

If you’re using bait and start to run out and have a few tailor already, don’t dismiss slabbing a smaller fish and using it for bait. You might even pin a jewfish shadowing the tailor.

Bream will start to move on the beaches and night anglers should get into some thumper specimens. There have been some good bream already on the beaches and Lake Cathie and Light House Beach will be among the prime spots this month.

The estuary has been in a transitional mode but should improve this month. Some good flathead have been willing to smack and I’ve been surprised at the number of fish over 60cm, not to mention the fish I’ve lost using tackle too light for the job.

Bream this month will be certainly moving to the lower reaches and those going for a night fish on the coal walls or local jetties will do really well with fresh bait on light tackle.

Luderick numbers have been improving and this month they should be flooding into our systems and eager to suck weed.

If you’re land-based then the walls are your obvious choice – look for a good rising tide and with some good weed you should tangle with some. Boat anglers should try then the weed beds in the Maria River and Limeburners Creek.

If you chase bream on lures you’ll be on for some good fun. Numbers have been good with a lot of small fish around and some good ones if you can find them. Bream will be on the move this month as they feed up ready to run to the beaches.

Recently I’ve been throwing a lot of hard lures at fish in the shallows but as Winter starts, the water generally clears and it’s time to switch to deeper-diving lures and more soft plastics.

It will be a matter of finding where the fish are feeding and what depth they are in. Don’t forget to try some sinking hard lures. Lipless crankbaits work well and sinking minnows do very well.

Port Macquarie will host two big bream events this year. Already entries are flowing in for the 2007 Sundowner BREAM Classic, on October 27 and 28. Teams are keen try their luck qualifying for the Classic Grand Final, which will also be held at Port Macquarie on November10 and 11. If you’d like more info head to www.bream.com.au .