Let’s hope you have some time on your hands to go fishing because there are plenty of fish to chase and plenty of good places to go for them around southern Sydney at the moment.

If you are new to the area or new to fishing, you probably have plenty of questions about where and when to go and what to chase and how. I suggest you do a bit of research.

You can go to the many tackle shops in the area and ask them for some advice; you can surf the internet; organize a trip with a guide or charter boat; email, come along to one of my fishing classes or try the trial-and-error method.

Every year I make a few visits to Bawley Point on the South Coast to fish the beaches and rocks. I have a very good idea where and when I should go and what fish I should be targeting but before I go I do a lot of research.

I check the tides, weather forecast, ring a local mate, Alan Perry, organise my tackle and bait. I get the right size prawn I need, catch some squid, troll up some striped tuna or catch slimy mackerel to salt down.

If you want to be successful in catching fish, you will need to put in the hard yards and spend time on the water.

Some of the fish I will be targeting this month, in no particular order, are: Bream, flathead, trevally, whiting, salmon, tailor, mulloway, bonito and kingfish. You could also throw in leatherjackets as a back up.

Bream baits to try include peeled prawns, pink nippers, beach, blood and tube worms, strips of squid, pilchard tails or fillets, mullet and striped tuna strips.

For flathead you could use peeled prawns, pink nippers, live poddy mullet and yellowtail, worms and strips of squid.

Trevally like peeled prawns, pink nippers, beach, blood and tube worms and strips of squid , while whiting eat peeled prawns, pink nippers, worms and strips of squid.

Salmon, bonito and tailor will eat whole blue or frogmouth pilchards, whitebait and garfish while mulloway and kingfish will eat these plus live or dead squid. Jackets like small pieces of squid, peeled prawns and pink nippers.

For bream, try the end of the Third Runway of if land-based, Dolls Point.

Flathead chasers in boats should head to The Sticks, land-based fishos should head to Dee Ban Spit.

For silver trevally try Molineaux Point in a boat or off the shore at Sutherland Point

Whiting are available from a boat on the Lilli Pilli sand flats or from Brighton-le-Sands Beach.

For salmon try Bare Island or from Garie Beach; for tailor go to the Oil Wharf or fish off Stanwell Park Beach.

Mulloway can be caught from boats around the Captain Cook bridge or from the bank at west Bald Face Point.

Boat anglers catch bonito around Jibbon Bombora, while Kurnell Point is a good land-based spot.

Kingfish can be caught off Cape Solander or from the shore at Burning Palms.

Jake Whitlock, 11, put in the research, time and effort and caught this mulloway in Cowan Creek and two more this size, all on soft plastics.