With the extremes of winter kicking in, a great piece of equipment to take along with you when fishing the nights and early morning is some firewood.

Most anglers cannot cope with the chill factor and a trip to the beach, river or lake can be made bearable and even memorable thanks to a warm fire. Of course, you should check with local authorities to see if a fire is permitted where you fish.

This is a great month for fishing the beaches and close reefs as the water will usually be calm and clear. Tailor, salmon and snapper are the drawcards for most anglers in June .

It amazes me just how little respect we give to Australian salmon. There are a lot of anglers who know that a day fishing the beach will always be action-filled because of these fish, and along with the chance of hooking more desirable fish the fast furious jumps and leaps of the salmon certainly take boredom out of the wait.

Tailor also love this month as they follow the large schools of pilchards and whitebait. The extensive beaches we have in this area give you a broad scope for picking a tailor spot well away from the crowds.

Birds circling and diving will be a great indication where the bait is and you really don’t need a 4WD to fish such areas as Redhead or Blacksmiths Beach. Car park access to numerous parts of these beaches mean you can carry your gear in and walk only a short distance to find a gutter or hole. Stockton Beach does, however, require a vehicle.

For the boaties the close reefs can yield great fish. The most targeted through June are snapper and large bream that move from reef to reef. With the cooling water, trevally come into play as well.

Rockhoppers chase drummer, groper and luderick so Winter fishing is still pretty good around this area.

Squid is the best bait out on the reefs for snapper. A squid head on a 3/0 suicide hook on a paternoster rig sitting in a rod holder while you berley and fish for other species has accounted for many a large fish, especially around the North Reef Buoy. At times you may get kingfish here as well.

Estuary reports have been encouraging. Jason Gamer and some mates were fishing the mouth of the Hunter when an older bloke pulled up next to them and within 15 minutes had landed a jewfish around 25kg.

Darren Braid and his daughter, Shannon, on her first fishing trip, fished the shoreline at Stockton. Shannon was all smiles after pulling in two nice flathead.

Bream are being caught in large numbers, along with flathead and tailor, around Dora Creek. The power station outlet at Munmorah is full of squid and a few jewfish to 8kg have been taken. The water is full of herring so anything can be caught there.

Newcastle Harbour lure specialists are getting good results on large bream and a lot of tailor by casting hard-bodies around the pylons under Lee Wharf around low tide.

Here’s hoping Winter will fish as well as it did last year, their were some great captures in this area.

Young Shannon Braid with a late season flathead taken on a soft plastic in front of the Stockton Sailing Club on her very first time fishing.