The close reefs off southern Sydney will start to fire over the next couple of months and if you have a boat capable of getting you out there, March would be a good time to get the cobwebs off the fishing and boating gear.

If you don’t have a boat you should think of booking a day’s outing on one of the many fine charter operations that Sydney and the Central Coast offer. (Refer to the charter boats and guided fishing section in this magazine.)

My boat is not capable of offshore fishing so I have tried many different charter boats and guided fishing tours. I have chased morwong, snapper, leatherjackets, sand and tiger flathead on Bianca, Halicat, Cetacea, Kiama, Narooma and All At Sea Charters to great success.

Inshore I have fished with Topspin Sportsfishing for bream and flathead with lures, Southern Sydney Fishing Tours and Fishabout Tours for kingfish, trevally, flathead, leatherjackets, bream, tailor and salmon, with Australian Sport and Fly Fishing for salmon, tailor and kingfish, Calmwater Fishing Charters for mulloway and flathead and Foreshore Fishing Charters for salmon, tailor and kingfish.

All of these charter skippers will supply you with the gear you need or you may take your own along. If you have never been outside before or you think you may get seasick, I suggest you take some kind of travel sickness medication – I do! You don't want to spoil a day’s fishing by leaning over the side and throwing up all day.

If you do own your own boat or you have fish with a mate who has one you could try some of the following GPS spots:

• Kurnell Cark Park S34.01.320 E151.14.300 Snapper, morwong, kingfish

• Kurnell Lighthouse S34.02.200 E151.14.000 Snapper, morwong, leatherjackets

• Boat Harbour S34.02.390 E151.12.270 Snapper, morwong, kingfish

• Bate Bay Patches S34.03.150 E151.11.350 Bream, trevally, tailor, snapper

• Flathead drift S34.07.055 E151.09.998 Flathead, snapper

You can drift or anchor at any of these places but to be successful while anchoring you will need to berley and fish as light as the conditions will allow.

My three favourite rigs for these spots are the paternoster, running ball onto the hook and a live bait suspended under a bobby cork or balloon.

March is also when I find myself fishing off the beach, the rocks, offshore or in the estuary, depending on what the seas and weather are like at the time. March weather can be very stable so you may find your can fish each of these scenarios.

Bream and kingfish should have shown up in numbers in Botany Bay and Port Hacking but this year they seem to be a bit slow for the bait anglers. I have been out on the Georges River, Botany Bay and various parts of Port Hacking chasing bream and kingfish with lures and have been getting my fair share.

Hopefully the bream should pick up in numbers and the kingfish might stop being as shy as they have been.

To get among a few dusky flathead you could try Dolls Pont, Yarra Bay and The Patches at the end of Towra Point.

Over the past year or so there has been a big increase on the availability of fishing videos, DVDs and TV shows and I find these types of fishing media very helpful in getting a point across in my classes. Next time you’re at your local tackle shop you should check out some of the new DVDs, some of which come free with the purchase of certain company’s tackle combo.

It is well worth getting hold of the Alvey and Silstar DVDs, which take you through tackle, fishing locations, gearing up, types of baits and rigs, bait gathering, knots, casting, filleting and maintenance, just to name a few topics. Shakespeare and Shimano are also bring out their own shortly.

You could also have a look at the DVDs by Greg Joyes and David Butfield on catching giant mulloway, Craig McGill’s program on soft plastics and Alex Bellissimo’s new release on beach and rock fishing.

If you are interested in my fishing classes email me or call 0422 994 207.