This season the water temperatures are already high. What can we expect because of this – when, where and how?

When – it doesn’t matter if you are an early starter, you like to sleep in, or you want a late start to fish into the night, the only things that may affect your chances of catching a fish is the weather or tides.

Where – is only determined by the type of fishing you enjoy as all areas, from the sweet water of Brogo Dam through to the estuaries or beach, right out onto the blue sea are producing fish.

How – dam fishing yields great results for bass in the early morning or late afternoon, however, the prime time for bass is into the night when the insect life is at its best. Surface lures or flies are not only effective, they also make for exciting angling. Currently all the estuaries are fishing well. Spice up your life and try a variety of them as we have many on offer in our part of the world. Species to target include flathead, bream, luderick or whiting, however many other species are to be found. Choose a fishing method, lures or baits are both working, however, for some fast action try using nippers on light gear in the shallows and count up the different species.

This is a beautiful time of year on the beaches, you can wake up early to watch the sun rise and target a few whiting, bream or mullet with a worm in the shallow gutters. Or you can enjoy a stroll along the beach casting lures into the many gutters in pursuit of tailor or salmon. In the evening, sit back in a chair and soak bait for some of those species or target some others like mulloway or sharks.

For the boaties out at sea targeting game fish, marlin are high on the bucket list. Baitfish are here in numbers attracting these predators to our waters, and striped, blacks or blues can all be found. Stripes are the most prolific however, at this time of year, many large blues has been encountered out over the Canyons often resulting in a long tedious battle lasting many hours. Ultimately the fish often wins! Yellowfin tuna are not in the numbers of years past although they are still often encountered while in pursuit of marlin. If tackling large biters is your thing, well-laid berley trails are likely to attract makos, whalers, and hammer heads. At this time of year, tigers are also possible.

Closer to shore, kingfish around Montague Island have been and still are plentiful, however getting them past the seals is a problem – you have to move quickly.

For those who just like being out on the water catching a feed of juicy table fish, you can’t go past the many flathead that are on offer and you don’t have to go far to find them. Just go a few miles from the entrance in and around the 30-40m water depths and your bag limits of sand or tiger flathead can be achieved in a short space of time. Once you have done this, try the nearby reefs as these will hold plenty of morwong, snapper, perches or pig fish just to top up your catch.