The smell of summer is in the air, the water temperature is rising and even better fishing is just around the corner.

Botany Bay is normally slow over the cooler months but we’ve had no problems finding fish each trip and the place is looking great and fishing well.

Trevally are the mainstay of Botany Bay all year but love relatively cool water. Some days I have to work to find them but once they are lured to the berley, it’s double and triple hook-ups at times.

Lately I have also flicked small soft plastics down the berley trail to add a little variety to the action.

I have had great results with Schneider’s new High Performance Braid and have found it to be of a similar high standard to their mono. I tested the lighter braid on trevally, flathead and bream on spin gear and baitcasters and have given the 10kg give a good work-out trolling and casting for kingies, salmon and bonito and gave it a thorough work-out on a recent Weipa trip.

The Squidgy Stealth Prawn is proving a winner across the vast sand flats at Towra Point and many other areas around Botany Bay. Worked slowly ahead of the drift, they have caught quite a few species including bream, trevally, quite a few flathead and even the odd small jew.

These shallow areas are tough to fish at times because the water is very clear most of the time and you spook lots of fish as you drift across.

A top little outfit for this type of fishing is built around a 1.8m to 2m graphite rod rated at 2kg to 4kg, a 2500-size threadline reel spooled with braid around 6lb and a light fluorocarbon leader. This combo will cover all that lighter spinning that you might encounter this Summer, especially in shallow, clear water.