The main estuary species on the bite include bream, flathead, tailor and mulloway there’s also been squid and a few luderick caught. Bream results have been best by those using a very lightly weighted bait and cast up-current, letting it wash down with the run in tide.
If you’re not getting bites try varying your sinker, you want the bait to drift almost on the bottom but not snag up and put more effort in around anything that disrupts the tidal flow or where channels / currents meet. Flathead have been caught by casting into drains running off sandbanks, or shallow bays, also look for anything lying on the bottom like logs, rock or weed patches, they love to lay beside them.
It’s well worthwhile having an unweighted pilchard out wherever you are on the water for a tailor or cast and slowly retrieve lures or pilchards close to bar entrances on the run in tide. We’re still seeing good catches of mulloway, best results were by those using a live bait within sight of a bar entrance on the turn of the tide.
In the Bay it still all about snapper but most of the popular reefs and wreck have lots of boats on them, which is spooking any decent fish. Try the less popular spots including isolated patches of rubble on the Spoil Grounds to the North, Western Rocks or Bulwer Ledge.
Offshore, snapper are the main target at this time of year. There’s been good catches of snapper to 50cm off the bottom end of the 33 fathom reef, you’ll need to float-line or slow troll live bait to catch the bigger fish.
There’s also been good numbers of tuskfish caught in 60m of water off Point Lookout and a few legal pearl perch, you’ll need to fish wire weed patches in deeper water to catch the better quality pearl perch.
There’s also been mulloway on the bait grounds and shallow reefs and wrecks. A live bait on a known wreck will give you a good chance of an amberjack, cobia or kingfish.
On the freshwater scene North Pine Dam continues its reputation as an excellent winter bass impoundment with bass over 50cm caught this week, most other impoundments are not fishing as well.