One could not have imagined that the weather would be so wet and windy and the sea so rough for so long.

Beach and outside fishing efforts have been restricted to occasional short sessions when the weather has abated a little.

Another fresh is coming down the river and bringing with it the rewards that freshes bring to our eastern rivers.

Prior to the dirty water reaching the lower parts of the Manning, the jew turned up at the mouth of the river and were waiting for all the delicacies that freshes bring down to them.

Mulloway of 17.5kg, 18kg and 20kg were caught in two days from the end of the sea wall on soft plastic lures.

Some other smaller jew were hooked by bream anglers fishing with light line but it did not take the fish long to find a rock to rub the line against.

Despite the dirty water, there is not enough run in the river to make fishing difficult.

Most anglers are catching up to a dozen fish a session and there are many stories of the one that was too big and took the line under a rock and got away.

While these stories are true, most off the cut-offs occur on line of 6kg to 8 kg so I suggest that when the water is muddy that 12kg to 15kg line will land more fish without a great loss in the number of bites.

There are a few luderick in the river that can be caught at night from the sea wall on live yabbies.

The jew should stay around for a couple of weeks and by that time it will be full moon with high tide after dark – the ideal conditions for catching jewies.

Big tailor have turned up on our part of the coast. Usually, the best fish at this part of the season run around a kilo to 1.5kg but this year fish to 5kg have been taken.

In past years Hat Head and South West Rocks have had the big fish show up but this year there have been very few tailor caught in those areas.

The larger fish are still to be caught when condition allow, with most tailor averaging over a kilo gilled and gutted.

Good bream are being taken from Harrington and Crowdy beaches on mullet strips and mullet gut.

A bream of 1.3kg gilled and gutted was caught before the rain hit.

The outside fishing has been great, apart from the interruptions by the south-easterly seas.

Snapper to 7kg have been caught on the close reefs on plastics and bait although the reds average 2kg to 3kg.

Some nice cobia have been picked up by the snapper anglers as well.

Trag and pearl perch are still being taken from the northern grounds, while south of Crowdy Head there are heaps of bonito and some mackerel tuna to be trolled up.

August used to be the month when you did all the repairs to your rods and reels but not any more.

Last year the fish stayed on the bite with tailor, salmon, bream and jew being caught from the beaches and luderick and bream on the bite in the river.

This August is shaping up to be similar and given the number of freshes that have come down the river, the fishing could be even better.