There have been a few good fish getting around over the last month. Bream, mulloway, big flathead, leaping bull sharks, and swimming kangaroos.

A couple of good mates and myself have been focusing our efforts on the spawning winter bream. They are throughout the whole system and, when we’ve had a chance, we start in the early mornings fishing bridges.

Cast Cranka Crabs tight beside the bridge plyons and allow them to slowly drift down along the oyster encrusted concrete – this is easily the most successful way to entice a decent bream in winter. Another favourite technique of mine, canal bashing, involves a couple of different outfits all with light line, 4lb leader and a variety of lures.

I try to always have three rods with me – one with a deep diving crank, one with a small curly-tail soft plastic and another with a surface lure. I can cover all bases and save time without constantly having to retie and change lures. You’ll find that in canals, most bream will be hiding in the shade of a pontoon or between boats, so casting accuracy is required.

Flathead have been thick around just about all the corners of the river. Light line, early morning, run out tide and a small to medium size soft plastic will see you with a bag of flatties in no time. Try the Piggery, Condong Sugar Mill or behind the Tweed Heads Golf Course.

For those who have a little more patience, coincide a tide change, low or high, with dawn or dusk. Spend a little time fishing one of the many mulloway holes throughout the river, especially the Terranora hole and Boyds Bay Bridge, which is where there have been reports of anglers smacking them lately. Use the same luring technique as you would if you were targeting flathead. With a bit of time, you’ll come up with the goods.

For those of you that know me, its coming into my favourite time of year. Slowly but surely, summer is just around the corner with mangrove jack! They should be starting to bite, as days are getting warmer. Try throwing some bigger 4-6” paddle-tail soft plastics around common man made structure such as rock walls, bridges, jetties and moored boats.

A lot of time and patience is required. Don’t be afraid to use heavy gear. A 5-10kg rod, 4000 size spinning reel, or bait cast, and anywhere up to 40-50lb fluorocarbon leader – a very rewarding type of fishing. Fingers-crossed they come out in force more aggressive then ever, and sooner than later.

A recent trip just outside the river mouth saw my good friend Cody Munro and I chasing birds, busting up schools of what we thought were tuna, but turned out to be trevally. Cody was casting stickbaits and I was throwing 5” jerkshad soft plastics. It took all of 30 seconds for Cody to hook-up to a reasonable size GT. He was pumped! After a good five minutes he landed his fish and that was it.

We called it a day. The birds flew off, bait balls had split up and the ocean turned into a washing machine. We started the motor and headed back through the bar, but just as we crossed I noticed a head bobbing in the water. We went over to check what it was.

“It’s a kangaroo!” Cody yelled.

Couldn’t believe it, a kangaroo crossing the Tweed River mouth swimming from Jack Evans Boat Harbour to Fingal – not something you see everyday!

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Check out this cracker GT of Cody’s!

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Cranka Crabs are really effective on these canal flatties.

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Be patient, try to time your tides with dawn or dusk. It’s nearly time for those beaut mangrove jacks.

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Winter bream are easy to entice around the pylons.

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A swimming kangaroo, crossing the river.