The fishing in Pittwater has been brilliant with kingfish around a metre caught. The usual live squid are the most productive, although the odd big fish has fallen to a trolled squid strip.

The areas to target still change from day to day but you can’t seem to miss at Barrenjoey Headland.

Live yellowtail and live squid are working there, so take both in case the fish are fussy.

While travelling along Pittwater, try to spot working birds. If you are lucky enough to find some, the fish aren’t staying on the surface for long so make sure you are ready and rigged.

Remember to turn off your motors and, if you can, place a live bait over the side of the boat, just out of sight.

If you put the rod down, make sure that you place it in a sturdy rod holder because these fish are hitting like freight trains and find it very easy to pull rods over the side.

Squid are a little difficult to come by at the moment.

The only decent run of squid I have encountered has come from the Palm Beach area.

Once found, the squid seem to prefer smaller jigs in orange or pink.

There are a few nice bream being caught at night over the shallows at Mackerel Beach.

These fish are eating prawns and as long as there is very little weight on your line, the bream are picking the baits up and bolting away.

The public wharf at Careel Bay is also producing some nice bream and the locals are using bread for berley and bait.

The odd large flathead has turned up at the mouth of Pittwater but there will be more around calm bays like Towlers and around Taylors Point, Woody Point and Sand Point.

Soft plastics seem to be the best way to track down a decent fish but drifting along with fresh fish bait should also mean a few fish come on board.

The best areas to drift for flathead is at The Hill, especially on a run-out tide.

Long Reef has produced some decent kingfish, bonito, striped tuna and snapper over recent weeks, as has the Hole in the Wall and Newport Reef.

The fish have been moving down the coast, devouring the schools of small slimy mackerel along the way.

Most headlands between Avalon and Sydney seem to have some action at the moment and let’s hope that they are still there when you read this.

The reef fishing is still somewhat sporadic, with decent snapper being caught one day and the next nothing but leatherjackets.

The shallower reefs in about 15m to 20m seem to be decent places to start and if you are plagued by sweep and leatherjackets, move on and try again.

The 50m contour is starting to produce some flathead but you just have to be lucky enough to find a patch of water that is devoid of the dreaded jackets.

Over the next month or so we will be starting to target mahi mahi and marlin at the FADS and surrounding areas. We will be hoping for a hot bite from striped marlin similar to last year’s, when we would use all of our livies for mahi mahi except for four, which we would troll a little wider of the dollies and score a marlin.

We recently hosted a group of anglers for a great day targeting Sydney Harbour kingfish. After an early start and an hour run down to Rose Bay Wharf we picked up our clients and set off to catch bait.

We had to travel to many spots to pick up squid, although the yellowtail easier to catch.

After an hour of no action at all, the tide turned and suddenly we were in the middle of a furious bite.

The first fish monstered the live squid and took off towards deeper water but after a five-minute fight we had a respectable 82cm on the deck.

Over the next four hours the fishing was red-hot and with every pass the fish were hungrier and bigger. The guys caught 16 kings to 98cm with only a handful taken for dinner.