VIRTUALLY overnight the Clyde River turned from a bream desert into a vibrant sea of silvery, chrome and yellow oyster-crunchers.

The sea-run bream have once again returned to the estuaries after their Winter procreation urges. The October/November influx of yellowfin bream can be relied upon almost like clockwork.

Michael Williams is a bream addict from way back and found himself in the thick of the action recently. Most oyster racks seemed to be holding good numbers of fish of various sizes, but tempting one pod of six or seven kilo-plus thugs proved impossible. Mick’s soft offerings were totally refused, even when he dragged the wriggler barely millimetres past their noses for zero inquires. He did manage to catch a good bag, though, and I’d expect the action to really hot up this month. Baitfish numbers should steadily rise with the corresponding rise in water temps.

Wade Eaton and Ben Roberts had a blinder of a session on estuary perch recently, after many months of searching in vain to find them. The fish moved into a spot they had been fishing all Winter, so the fish technically found them! They weren’t huge, averaging 35cm, but they were certainly plentiful and a 4kg jewfish also got in on the act just to keep them on their toes.

Trevally and flathead numbers have dramatically increased in the Tomakin River, not to mention a glut of big bronze blackfish whose numbers should only increase as we roll into Summer. Trevally are a real bonus when chucking plastics around for bream: They fight to the end and are rarely fussy, often providing multiple hook-ups. Tommo bream have not really showed up as I type this but they should be viable by the time you read this.

The beaches could be well worth a throw, with salmon just as prevalent as they have been all year. Whiting should soon make an appearance and bream are also a possibility. Jewfish might also be lurking if you are really lucky. I caught a schoolie last November out of the rod holder about an hour before dark on a slab of mullet. Tailor should also be on the cards, as I believe they never even left the South Coast this year.

November should see a rise in ocean temps and a corresponding rise in kingfish numbers. This Summer should be red-hot for kingies and the reefs off Moruya and Durras will feature heavily once more. Farther offshore, those balls of muscle they call striped tuna will be making smaller baitfish nervous. If the stripies do show, you can expect something big to be lurking nearby. It might have a beak or, more likely, big sharp teeth, but I wouldn’t expect anything from the once plentiful, now missing-in-action, yellow-sickled clan. The end of the month may see a few mahi mahi if the currents push hard early but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Whether you chase them off the rocks, beaches or offshore, salmon are as thick as they have ever been. This fellow around 3kg scoffed a live yellowtail.