It’s the time of year when our warm waters retreat north and the current pushes up from the south, bringing all sorts of species with it. Snapper, teraglin, swordies and big tuna are just a few of the fish we can expect to see in the month of June, along with mainstays like kings and mulloway.

There’s been a bit of action on the inshore reefs lately, with most of them holding fish. Jack Covic fished with his Dad Ivan off Long Reef, slow drifting unweighted pillies down the trail, when up came a good snapper and belted Jack’s bait, A great fight ensued, with 8-year-old Jack the victor. As our season progresses, this species will certainly get bigger, so don’t be shy on using big baits like whole butterflied cowanyoung or slimies.

Craig Butcher has also been out to Longy and landed a few fish on the bigger baits, with a couple of good teraglin falling to Butch’s whole mullet on a paternoster rig in 35m. Teraglin can be a bit hard to find and quite skittish to keep around, but will often bite aggressively once berleyed up.

We’ve still got some late season kings holding on our northernmost reefs, so be prepared to take heavier gear with you and put a big livey out, as you just don’t know what’s around.

Captain ‘Blackbeard’ Dan Webster, a name synonymous with the Mad Hueys, has been out chasing mulloway and getting a few too. Dan fished Sydney Harbour, landing fish to 78cm, fishing 3 rods at staggered depths and all baited with fresh squid. It was a mad solo session on the ghosts fishing at night.

Surface pelagics are still on the cards at the moment, with a late season run of bonito and mac tuna. Jake Levy headed out chasing schools of surface feeding fish, and by casting small metals in amongst the action he managed to hook a few, including rat kings, salmon and mac tuna. Lures in the 14-55g range were matching the hatch and worked a treat on all species. When you head out after these winter schools, try and identify which direction they are heading and get in front and cut your motor. Running motors often scares fish and makes them dive, hence the reason some guys can’t get within cooee, often not even close enough to recognise the species or the bait that they’re taking.

Pittwater is still holding the odd king and is a good estuary for chasing a lot of our colder water fish. Jett Butcher headed out with his dad and set up a berley trail with pellets and fish frames, hoping for some trevally to wander upwards picking at the scraps. I bet 3-year-old Jett got a bit of a surprise when a rat king smashed his cuttlefish strip and tore off into the distance. After a bit of instruction from the old man, Jett got on top of this stoush and the king was landed then released to fight again. Well done young fella, that’s a great fish for a tacker of your age.

With the recent flushes we’ve had, the beaches are performing quite well, with reports of trevally, mulloway, bream, tailor and even big flatties coming in. Popular spots to try are around most of the lagoon outlets like Queenscliff, North Curly, Dee Why and Narrabeen. These have all produced fish after storms during the runout. Once the fresh starts to head out, so do a lot of fish, hence we get bigger specimens waiting outside the mouths of these waterway looking to pick up an easy feed.

It’s a good time to spin lures like shallow running hardbodies and big soft plastics in search of a lure-caught mulloway. For those wanting a more relaxing trip, setting a big bait will also put you in the zone, but be sure to use at least 10kg mono or 20kg braid for main line, as there’s plenty of hungry sharks out there also looking for an easy feed.

Fishing these runout tides often means big baits with little lead, as the out-flowing water will hopefully take your bait out to where the predators are waiting.