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Bread and butter species galore
  |  First Published: June 2016



The weather has started to get a little chillier, the days will get shorter, and the fishing may start to slow down, but this shouldn’t stop you from going out for a fish or two. Not everyone can just get up and go for a fish at the drop of a hat. You will have to plan when you are going, what type of fish species you are going to target and where you will go. These plans will have to be arranged around work time, family commitments, house chores and anything else that may come up.

I am lucky in that that many a time I have woken up in the morning and just gone for a fish. However, in the back of my mind I will already have had some kind of plan or a series of plans in place. One of the major things that is necessary to make this work is to have your gear in tip top shape and organised so that you can just wake up, pick up what you need and go for a fish.

As much as I love fishing from a boat, there are times when I can’t be bothered to hitch up so instead I just grab a rod and reel, a bag of bait and a shoulder bag with a small tackle box and head off to fish somewhere from the shore. When I get home, all I need to do is put the fish in the fridge (hopefully) wash the rod and reel down and put the shoulder bag and tackle box back where I found it.

At home I have a small tackle box (40cm x 25cm with 24 adjustable compartments) for baitfishing off the beach, rocks and estuary. There is also a tackle box at the ready if I am called up to act as a deck hand on the local charter – ‘All at Sea Charters.’

In the boot of my car I have a four-piece rod, reel, a few soft plastics, hardbody lures, blades and jigheads at the ready. This is very handy when I am out and about and feel like stopping for a fish. Just the other day I was driving along Parramatta Road in Sydney and stopped off at the Wharf Road ramp at the top of the tide and had a flick with a few lures for an hour. You can only do this if you are prepared! So spend a bit of your spare time getting a few small tackle boxes together and a few outfits at the ready and you too may be able to go for a fish when a friend rings up and says, ‘Do you want to go for a fish?’

During June it’s a good time to target whiting, bream, salmon and tailor off the beaches on the southern side of Sydney Heads. Try Tamarama for whiting, Bronte for whiting and bream, and Bondi for whiting, bream and tailor. Marley and Little Marley have produced whiting, bream, salmon and tailor. Check out Wattamolla for bream, whiting and tailor. Coogee, Maroubra, Garie and Stanwell Park are famous for whiting, bream, salmon and tailor, plus the odd mulloway and dart from Garie. Coalcliff has served up good numbers of bream and dart. The best baits are beach worms, pink nippers and half pilchards.

If you prefer to fish off the rocks, you can target drummer, luderick, bream and trevally off Bondi, Tamarama, Coogee, Maroubra, Kurnell, Garie, north Stanwell Park and Coalcliff Point. The best baits here are peeled green tailed prawns, cunjevoi and white bread.

For those of you who prefer to fish the estuaries, there are many spots you can fish from, sometimes so many it’s hard to choose. I would try the northern and southern sides of the Captain Cook, Tom Uglys and Como bridges for bream, trevally, the odd tailor, dusky flathead and mulloway on the run-out tide.

Botany Bay has a number of spots that are worth a shot. Try Bare Island, the groyne in Yarra Bay, the Cooks River breakwall, the Retaining walls off Dolls Point, the groynes off Silver Beach at Kurnell and the wharf at Captain Cooks Landing spot. I have found that over the years all of these spots produce good fishing from the top of the tide down.

In the Georges River you could try the beach in the Georges River National Park, Picnic Point and at the back of Flower Power at Milperra.

Bream, whiting, leatherjackets, squid and silver trevally can be berleyed up at Swallow Rock Drive, Gymea Bay and Gunnamatta Bay baths, as well as the wharf in Yarra and Dolans Bay. Use either a small ball or bean sinker down onto the bait or a sinker down onto a swivel, and then attach a leader at least 1m long.

Well, there you have it! Get prepared with a small, but simple tackle box, and an outfit at the ready and you too can get up in the morning or when you get that call and go for a fish before, during or after work. Or maybe you will just have to fit it in-between sport, family commitments or the household chores on a weekend.

If you would like to find out more information on how to fish the Southern areas of Sydney, or anywhere else just send me an email at --e-mail address hidden-- and I will get back to you.

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