"

Less rainy days for May, please
  |  First Published: May 2017



Hopefully we will have less rain in May than we have been experiencing in Sydney over the past couple of months. Many anglers who regularly fish Botany Bay and the Port Hacking would find that during the month of May, trevally, bream and luderick make up the bulk of their bags.

Off the rocks you’ll be getting into the bream, trevally, bonito, luderick, tailor, salmon and snapper. The beaches would still be producing whiting, bream, dart, tailor and salmon. Offshore there would be morwong, trevally, cuttlefish, snapper and a few sand flathead mixed in with them.

Checking on the long-range weather forecast, May is supposed to be less wet than the last couple of months. If this is so, you should be able to get amongst a few fish in the upper sections of the Georges and Woronora rivers.

For the land-based anglers who like fishing the Georges River, try beside the bridge at Milperra where you could target bream, mulloway and the odd dusky flathead or two. The best baits by far would be bloodworms and nippers, but if there is a fair amount of fresh in the water, try pilly tails and chicken coated in Parmesan cheese.

If you prefer to use soft plastics and you are after dusky flathead or mulloway, lures like the ZMan 4” DieZel MinnowZ or a SwimmerZ on a 1/4-3/8oz jighead have worked. If you prefer something else, try the Gulp 4” Nemesis.

Further downstream I would try the Georges River State National Park. This area has a number of great land-based fishing spots and the area can be fished on the run-up or run-out tides. The best rigs would be the paternoster and the running sinker down onto the swivel and a long leader.

To increase your chances of getting a few, berley here with what I call ‘berley bombs’ – chicken pellets, bread and smashed up pilchards soaked in water then made into a ball between a golf and tennis ball in size. Make sure then to squash the water out of it. These can be thrown just upstream and allowed to break up as they sink towards the bottom.

For those of you with a boat, try the Moons, the Como Bridge, Oatley, Kangaroo and Bald Faced points. When I fish from here I find that the run-out tides seem to work the best. Once again, the best baits by far would be bloodworms and nippers, but if there is a fair amount of fresh in the water, try pilly tails and chicken coated in Parmesan cheese.

If you are targeting luderick, you’ll need to make sure you get yourself some fresh green weed. Some places you could try are the pond at the back of the Deep-Water Motor Boat Club at Milperra, Kelso Park Creek, Dolls Point or Renown Creek. If you have no luck there you could try off the rocks at Cronulla, Coogee, Bondi and Maroubra. The shoreline at Little Moons Bay, the rock wall upstream of Alfords Point Bridge, Bald Face Point, the Cooks River entrance and the Captain Cooks Bridge will hold luderick during May.

In the Woronora River, you could try both sides of the river at the Old Woronora Bridge, Bonnet Bay and the northern side of the bridge at Prince Edward Park for luderick, mullet and bream. Watch out – the rocks on the eastern side can be very slippery.

For those of you that are going into Botany Bay, try the usual spots like the end of the third runway, the sticks, the oil wharf, Bare Island, Yarra Bay and Sutherland Point. The best bait by far is the peeled Hawkesbury River prawn. Next would be the pink nipper and then the bloodworm.

Offshore there have been a few good catches of snapper, morwong, trevally and sand flathead coming from the Wedding Cake Island out from Coogee, Maroubra, Little Bay, Kurnell, Merries Reef, Osbourne Shoals, Jibbon Bommies and the Humps off Stanwell Park.

One of my favourite fish species to chase during May is drummer off the rocks. This type of fishing is not for everyone, but it would have to be one of the most mind-blowing forms of fishing. Drummer, pound for pound, have so much strength that I have seen anglers shaking in their boots after being monstered by a big drummer.

I prefer to use either my Shakespeare Ugly Stik USG-SP1202LM, 12ft, 3-7kg rod mounted with a Pflueger Salt PFS60 threadline or the 12ft Bruce Alvey Special mounted with an Alvey Beach Classic 625B side cast reel. Both are spooled with 6kg line.

Depending on the swell you could try north Bondi and Maroubra and Bare Island. Remember that if you are fishing off the rocks in the Randwick council area you will need to be wearing a life jacket. Further south you could try Sutherland and Jibbon Points, Coalcliff and the northern end of Stanwell Park Beach.

In the Port Hacking you will find that the luderick and leatherjacket numbers will have increased, as the water gets colder. There will still be a few bream and whiting coming and going and you could also try berleying up a few silver trevally.

Inside the Port Hacking the squid numbers should increase, and for those of you fishing offshore there will be a big increase in the cuttlefish. Remember if you pass a cuttlefish that has been chewed up, make sure that you have a cast or two at it for the snapper that could be feeding on them.

• If you have been out lately and you would like to see yourself in the magazine, drop me an email to --e-mail address hidden-- with a picture and short explanation of how and where and I will endeavour to get it into my column.
Reads: 2091

Matched Content ... powered by Google




Latest Articles




Fishing Monthly Magazines On Instagram

Digital Editions

Read Digital Editions

Current Magazine - Editorial Content

Western Australia Fishing Monthly
Victoria Fishing Monthly
Queensland Fishing Monthly