SYDNEY – Gary Brown
Now that it’s getting chillier during the day, many anglers will have started to hibernate and pack their gear away for when it gets warmer. As for me, I never stop fishing throughout the year; every chance I get, I head out for a fish. Whether it’s out of the boat or fishing from the shore, I can’t get enough of it.
This month you will find me concentrating on fishing off the rocks for drummer, bream, luderick, snapper, tailor, salmon and bonito. You can check out a rock session I did while chasing a few bream on my YouTube channel, ‘Gary Brown Fishing’, where I test my latest combo (TT Siva/Okuma Rockaway).
I will also be out and about giving a talk at the St Georges and Sutherland Shire Anglers Club on 17 July. At the time of writing this report, I’m not sure what topics I’ll be covering in my talk, but if you follow me on Facebook, I will update you.
MYSTERY FISH
I work a couple of days a week at the BCF store at Taren Point, which has me meeting many anglers and hearing their reports. Some of these customers have been fishing for years, while others are just starting out.
Occasionally, novice anglers will come in and show me the fish they’ve caught and kept for a feed, asking me what species it is. Keeping a mystery fish is a bad idea, as it may be illegal to keep it. Two examples are undersized mulloway and groper. As many of you know, the legal size for mulloway in NSW is 70cm, and you can’t catch a groper. Unfortunately, it’s pretty hard to tell a groper not to jump on your line. Maybe it didn’t get the memo from the Minister!
WHAT’S BITING
As for what is going on in the bay, there are good catches of bream, trevally and pan-sized snapper coming in from the end of the third runway, Trevally Alley, the southeast corner of the bommie at Bare Island and the oil wharf.
Salmon and bonito are still on the chew off the rocks at Kurnell for those using whole pilchards and metals. Just remember you must wear a life jacket when fishing off the rocks and also in the Wollongong area. There were a couple of lives lost at the end of May by a couple of anglers fishing off the Kurnell rocks.
Whiting have shown up in good numbers from Dolls Point to the entrance to the Cooks River, Towra Point and in Kogarah Bay. The best baits by far have been live pink nippers and worms. If you can’t catch your own, that’s OK; you can always get some at Mac’s Bait Bar at Blakehurst. A friend of mine couldn’t be bothered pumping nippers on a recent trip, so we drove his boat from the Hole In The Wall at Sylvania and over to the back of the shop. Walked up and bought our nippers, got back into the boat and went and chased bream and whiting off Brighton in about 5m of water.
There was a kayak comp in the Georges River in late May, and many of the competitors bagged out on their catch of a 3-bag limit on bream. During the 2-day event, not only were there plenty of good-size bream caught (including a 1.64kg horse) there were big numbers of mulloway, trevally, flathead and tarwhine caught as well. It’s great to see the Georges River is fishing so well.
The Port Hacking is starting to fish better than it has over the past few months. I think this is mainly due to the river clearing up with the help of the big tides we have been experiencing. Whiting, bream, flathead, tarwhine and luderick have been on the chew, and many customers that have been coming into the shop have reported good catches from both the shore and out of a boat. I got a report from a young angler, Brent, who was fishing with his dad and caught and released an undersized kingfish while fishing off the pontoon at the Swallow Rock boat ramp.
There have also been reports of bonito, salmon and the odd kingfish being caught off the Gymea and Gunnamatta Bay baths, plus the Lilli Pilli pool. Squid can also be caught here throughout the day and night. Just remember – don’t leave any mess around. Please clean up after yourself.
From next month onwards, I will be giving out a small prize for the best catch of the month. It doesn’t have to be the biggest fish – just the best photo of someone with a fish they have caught in the southern Sydney area. The prize will be a couple of packets of TT jigheads and a couple of packets of ZMan plastics. You can send your photos to gbrown1@iprimus.com.au.
Don’t forget, if you are in the Taren Point area, call into the shop and keep those reports coming to gbrown1@iprimus.com.au.
