For the first time in several months I have to report the fishing is not as good as in previous reports. As the water cools the fishing is quietening off. Bream seem to be patchy. Some anglers are getting their bag and others are reporting getting very few to take home.

Some anglers suggest that the bream have moved up the rivers and they have been getting good bags using sandworms, black crabs or live prawns fishing from the river bank. There have been reports of good bream captures down at Frenchs Narrows on frozen prawns. Most bream are over 36cm.

For the angler targeting luderick, it’s another matter. Schools of big luderick are throughout the whole system with anglers reporting many over 40cm and several a lot bigger. The best results have been fishing the mud banks and rock groins along the river banks and the islands using sandworms.

Golden eye mullet are still in good numbers throughout most of the system. The best results come from using a paternoster rig baited with sandworms. Plenty of salmon and tailor are taking metal lures down towards the entrance. Prawns are still here and most seem to be bait size. They can be found on the sand flats that run from the Marlo Jetty all the way down to Frenchs Narrows. Dusky flathead can be found in the same area preying on the prawns.

The surf beaches seem to fish well all year round with big schools of salmon and tailor patrolling our coastline. As well as salmon and tailor, anglers have reported getting plenty of decent mullet, flathead and gummy sharks. The best results come using surf rods baited with blue bait, white bait, squid, pilchards, fresh fillets, pipis and accompanied with a popper, or spinning with metal lures.

Fishing offshore, weather permitting, has also slowed. Kingfish are either in smaller numbers or just harder to capture. In saying that, anglers have been getting a few on both Tamboon Reef and Marlo Reef using knife jigs, flutter jigs, hardbodied diving lures, surface lures, poppers, soft plastic lures and live baits. With the pelagics slowing down anglers are targeting the local fishery. There are plenty of flathead, gurnard, barracouta, juvenile snapper, morwong, blue head wrasse, salmon and gummy sharks here all year long.