The seasons have varied greatly over the past 20 years but this year looks like getting back to the ‘old style’ of weather.

We have had the westerly winds blowing full strength for days on end, as we used to in August in the old days.

These winds flatten the seas and make the water on the beaches very calm. These conditions bring the sharks and stingrays in close to the beach and make the fish move further out, where there is some cover around the close inshore reefs.

In the river the water becomes very clear and although the bream and luderick can be seen feeding around the rocks along the retaining walls, they will not take a bait.

Night is when you have to fish for these species if you wish to catch good numbers.

Despite the winds and clear water some nice bream around a kilo have been caught at night in the river.

The bream are moving upstream and the best catches can be made by fishing around the oyster racks at night with bait.

When the winds abate, good catches of luderick have been taken on green weed around the gantry on the river wall.

The school jew have been erratic. They can be on the bite for three or four days and then go missing for a week. Most are from 7kg to 10kg.

During the past few years the chopper tailor have been turning up in great numbers by the end of July but not so this year.

There have been a few small tailor on the beaches and the occasional decent fish to 1.5kg. In the ‘old days’, after the end of July there would not be any more tailor until the Christmas choppers arrived.

There are some decent bream to be caught on beach worms and pipis when the wind is down.

Flathead, snapper, pearl perch and leather jackets are the most frequent species in offshore anglers’ boxes.

The leatherjackets are in plague proportions and are causing havoc by biting off the lines where they enter the water.

Soft plastics are accounting for most of the snapper with fish to 5kg over the close reefs.

The northern grounds are the best to fish for the pearlies, while drifting over the sandy areas gets plenty of flathead action.

This year should see a much better September than in previous years.

Luderick should be on the bite in the lower parts of the river while upstream, bream should be plentiful.

Salmon will provide most of the action on the beaches with a few chopper tailor on lures and pilchard baits.

Around the rocks drummer and groper will be on the bite with cunjevoi and red crabs will be the best baits for these scrappers.