Autumn brings lovely mild weather to the Mid North Coast and there is a lot on offer for the angling enthusiast and the holiday fisho.

The beaches this month will be a hive of activity with quality bream and whiting moving. Best baits will be live worms for the whiting and fresh slab baits and pipis for the bream.

If you’re targeting whiting then Lighthouse Beach is the place to be. From around the golf course all the way down to Lake Cathie there should be some nice gutters. Dunbogan Beach will also be a prime spot for whiting.

North Beach, from the Port breakwall to Point Plomer, will work for bream and mulloway with live worms again best.

If you have a 4WD then visit the Hastings Council website (www.hastings.nsw.gov.au) and look into getting a beach 4WD permit. If this is not an option for you then on foot you can access Lighthouse Beach in many ways. Check out Google Maps and choose the satellite map and you’ll see the tracks leading onto the beach.

Offshore action has been great with reports of good snapper, pearl perch and mulloway.

Mahi mahi have been in good supply with some extra large fish being caught. These great sport fish can be very acrobatic and look spectacular when brought on board. They are extremely nice to eat, making them a great species to target.

If you come across any fish trap bubbles they are well worth a cast to see if any mahi mahi are hanging about; these fish just love being around floating objects.

Once you’ve hooked up, keep the hooked fish in the water until someone else hooks up. This tends to keep the fish switched on and will prevent them from scattering from your position.

Snapper continue to be taken on soft plastics although they are moving wider offshore and can be found in around 40m off Nobbies and Shelly Beach.

Best lures have been 5” and 7” Gulp Jerk shads rigged on 3/8oz, 3/0 jig heads.

The Hastings River should really kick into gear this month, with quality bream starting to show up.

A lot of anglers will target fish in the upper reaches, with spots around Rawdon Island bridge very productive, along with King Creek and the railway bridge at Wauchope.

Early and late in the day, vibes and suspending or sinking hard lures will be excellent. During the day, soft plastics worked extremely slowly on the bottom will do the job.

Bait will be an extremely good choice after dark, with salted mullet and bonito strips the best options. Use as little weight as possible and you’ll have a feed in no time.

Whiting have been slower than previous Summers and the huge volume of fresh water experienced this season could account for this.

With water temps improving, the whiting should be on the chew, especially on live yabbies and worms. A good clear popper or surface pencil will also get you a feed.

Flathead will be cruising the flats and well worth targeting. Live poddy mullet will snare some big lizards and good-sized soft plastics will always get into the action.

Best spots this month for whiting and flathead will be the back channel behind Pelican Island and Blackmans Point and the mouth of the Maria River.

Both of these spots are accessible by boat or foot and if you’re on foot, low tide gives plenty of land-based options.

In a boat, fish the run up and the start of the run out, targeting fish close to the mangrove edges or over submerged weed beds.