December 2004 Report
Sydney Summer Pelagics
Well it’s that time of year when the water has warmed up and so has the
fishing. Schools of Salmon, Kings have turned up in Broken Bay,
Pittwater and Sydney Harbour and if we are lucky the bonito and stripped
tuna will follow in December and January. It’s been a great start to the
summer with kingfish to 90cm and even an amberjack around 6kg being caught. There have been big schools of salmon around North head to blue fish and
under with
Kingfish under them.
I was out on tour last week and I found huge school of salmon working
bait at the mouth Pittwater. I positioned the boat upwind and as I
pulled the boat out of gear and my crew cast their Gene Larew sluggers
in the middle of the school of surface feeding Salmon. Instant double
hook up as the fish came up I notice Kingfish following them. After I
netted and released the salmon I rigged the sluggers with a sinker in
front of the hook and told the fellows to let them sink under the
schooling salmon. And work them up from the bottom in a stop and go
retrieve it didn’t take long for a king to hook up

Speed Spin Gear
I like to use light spin tackle to target these small summer pelagics. I
find a 7’ to 7’6 “ 4 kg to 6 kg rod match with a 4000 to 6000 high speed
thread line load with 8 -10 lb
Fire line or 12 – 15 Super Braid works best. I have been trialing a new
Strudwick Blue water Softboz 7’6’ 6kg rod and I have to say it is the
best rod in this class that I have used it casts unweighted Slugo and
sluggers better than all the other rods that I have used in the past I
vet teamed it up with a Shimano 4000 Sustain loaded with 10 lb yellow
Fire line. I like brightly colour line when I have a number of anglers
casting it helps me keep track of all the lines being cast. I have found
that 4 and 6 kg outfits will handle most of Sydney summer pelagic. Its
only when odd big king turns up do we need anything heavier. With this
tackle I find that you can cast any lure to its maximum distance and can
be retrieved as fast as needed to trigger a strike.
Remember to vary the speed of your retrieve and put a pause in as often
the pause will trigger the strike
Saltwater Fly-fishing

I also like to use fly outfits on the lighter side to. I use Strudwick
DBT -8 wt rods on most outings.
But I always have a DBT 9wt and10 wt loaded in case some larger kings or
Mack tuna turn up.
Fly reels should be matched to the rods, should have a good drag and be
large enough to hold 300mt braid backing.
Fly lines I like fast intermediate Shooting heads the same weight size
as the rod weight
I been using Forty Plus integrated shooting heads and have found that
even inexperienced caster can cast these lines with a bit of instruction

I keep my leaders simple 6-10kg Fluorocarbon 2m – 2.5 m long. Make sure that you have a good range of flies so you can match the size,
colour and shape of the bait that pelagic are chasing.

If the fish are holding Subsurface in deeper water I use an Airflo 400 g
fast sinking line to get the fly down to the fish.

Finding the fish
The best way to find fish is to look for birds working or surface
activity. This can be easy on some days when the fish stay up. But on
other days you might only see a few bait fish
rippling on the surface so keep your eye trained for any surface
movement. Don’t
Discount any activity as there maybe larger fish under the small bait fish.

Bass on the chew
December is also one of best months to target the local bass and Estuary
perch. Some of the best areas to fish this time of the year are the
small creeks and ponds at the head of the creek. I will often head down
to a little creek close to where I live a couple times a month over the
summer months. Try not to over fish these small creeks and hole as they
only hold a small population of fish in some holes and become shy when
over fished. Also make sure you put them back so you can catch them
again. I must admit that small water fishing out of a canoe with lure
and fly my favorite way to fish. It’s quite and peaceful which is a lot
more relaxing than ducking lures and boats on schools of Pelagics

When I fish this small water I tend to use small minnows lures, there is
nothing better than a bass striking a diving lure especially when using
braid. Some of the better ones are small Feralcatt; Taylor made tinny
nuggets and nuggets, Mann 5+ & 10+. Start of using the lure that run
shallow when you don’t know how deep the water is

Don’t forget to pack some surface lures as these will produce
spectacular heart stopping surface strikes my favorite surface lures are
Taylor Made Basscada, Eastcoast Fat boys and the new Eastcoast bass n
fizz a small double blade fizzer, Jitter bugs and Heddon Torpedoes

November 2004 Report
Surface Lures are nearly here.
November is when the bass start looking up for any insects, rodents, baby birds or any other critter that is unlucky enough to fall into the water.

It’s also the time to pull out all your surface lures that have been sitting in your tackle box since last season and replace any rusty, bent or blunt trebles. I like chemical sharpened trebles on my surface lures, I have found that the hook up rate is much higher with these super sharp trebles. Even if the bass miss the lure with it’s mouths you will often hook them in the side of the head or body.

Early in the season the insects and bugs are usually small like beetles, moths and dragon flies so I start using smaller surface lures like small Taylor Made Surface Walkers, Eastcoast lures Bream Bandit poppers, Tiny Torpedoes and surface flies.

As the weather warms up and the cicada start to hatch I will up size my lures to suit

Using larger lures like Eastcoast Lures Fat Boy pop and fizz Taylor Made Surface and Heddon Dying Flutter. These lures give you more surface disturbance. The Eastcoast Fat Boy has been design to both pop and fizz it can be work slowly with minimum water disturbance with the fizzer blade turning slowly or worked hard with the rod tip to use the cup face and fizzer blade together churn up the water. Big bass love them.

The way that you work your surface lure depends what mood the bass are in and what they are eating. If the bass are fired up chasing prawn across the top the water I will rip

my fizzers fast to imitate that bait. If bass are shut down I will work my lure slower.

I like to cast the lure or fly as close as possible to the bank, let it sit for a up to 10 sec seconds by doing this it stays in the strike zone longer often this is when the bass strike if not I will give it a twitch it with the rod tip so lure moves a little, let it sit a few more seconds before starting to retrieve it back to the boat, pausing it every metre or so.

It’s important that as it gets dark to work your lure all way back as often bass will follow always back and will hit the lure near the boat or bank

I must admit that I love my surface lure especially when I have client on board who gets smashed by big bass close to the boat leaving them shaking at the knees

Surface lures work the best in the early morning, late afternoon and night, and casting them close to structures, over hanging trees, ledges, floating pontoons, under wharfs and into caves or crevices. Bass usually strike when lure first hits the water or after the twitch.

Don’t be afraid to use surface lure right through the day I have often caught bass all day targeting the shadowy areas

Eastcoast lures have expanded they range of surface lure to cover most of the fish in Australia that eat top water baits. Bream Bandit popper, Fat Boy pop and fizz designed for bass, Fish fingers large and small is a popper and fizzer for small pelagics, Barra Pop and Fizz for barra and pelagics. Turbo double fizz for big Barra, Murray Cod and Kingfish

Saltwater

This has been the best spring and winter Salmon fishing that I have experience in 7 years Guiding in and around Sydney with massive school salmon around Sydney Harbour

It’s made my life easy being able to target these wonderful Australian sports fish that fight hard and jump out of the water.

These fish are not always easy to catch you can throw lures at them all day with out success.

I have been catching these fish on every outing over the last few months using a variety of lures. I have found that boat position and lure technique the most important factor in being consistently hooked up with fish. I’ve watched many boats spend hours chasing fish without success

Most of the fish are caught by anglers with the knowledge of how approach and work there lure on schools of fish this includes all the Sydney Pelagic and sports fish on lure including Bass, Bream, Flathead, Estuary perch, Salmon, Kingfish, Jew and other Pelagics.

Any one wishing to learn about above I will be holding on the water sportsfishing schools over the spring and summer numbers are limited.

September October 2004 Report
Spring has arrived and the temperature is rising and the bass and estuary
perch are heading back up stream after their spawning. This is the time
when you will catch these fish in good numbers as they travel in schools and
will be concentrating in areas. I usually start looking around some drop offs near large corners in the river where the water is eddying.
This is where a good sounder and knowing how to read it really pays off. I
find my Humminbird Matrix 35 works like a charm it gives me wide coverage.
This allows me to quickly look over an area for fish and move on to the
next if there are none in that area.
I use my Matrix in auto with the fish ID on. I have found when my Matrix shows me fish symbols these are fish. On most
other sounders I turn the ID off as they show any object suspend are shown
as fish.

When the sounder shows a concentration of fish, double back and give the
area a good working over .I usually start with soft plastics worked deep
with a lift and drop the rod tip keeping in contact with bottom. Bass and perch will often hit on the drop so use a fluro colour line so you can see the line move if the fish bits on the drop. If I have a number of anglers on board I will use a variety lures to find
what is working best and will change to the most successful. I will have
one using surface lures like Taylor Made surface walker, the new East Coast
lure pop and fizz Bass Burglar or Feralcatt surface lures, one casting small
deep diving crankbaits my favorites are small Feralcatt, Taylor made nuggets
and Halco poltergeist and other angler will be using soft plastics with a ¼ oz
jig head with a small Beatle spin blade added to put more flash vibration
into water. I find that spinner baits the bass will eat but they are a
little large for estuary perch that is why I like to use Beatle spins they
will catch bass and perch. By using a variety of lures maximizes my chances
of finding and catching more fish.
New Lure

Keep your eye out for the new range of Eastcoast surface lures in five
different models,

Made and design by Dean Hayes and Mick Munn to catch any thing from
Bream to Kingfish. These are being stocked in some Sydney tackle shops which
include:

Windsor Bait and Tackle & Blake's Marine .

Salt water
It is also the time when the first of our spring and summer pelagics turn
up in Broken Bay, Sydney Harbour, Pittwater Cowen and offshore. Species such
as Mack Tuna, Striped Tuna, Bonito and King Fish mix in with the Salmon and
Tailor that have been here most of the winter
There is nothing as exciting as High speed spinning these speedsters.
Especially when using light tackle in the 2 to 4 kg line class. These fish
will test your tackle to its limit so it's important that you service your
reels, spool up with new nine and check those guides for any cracks or damage. If you are buying a new outfit to target these fish buy goodquality
rods and reels. I use Shimano Stradic and Sustain 4000 size thread line
reels spooled up with 8lb & 12lb yellow super braid on7" Strudwick 4 kg
and 7"6" 6 to 8kg rods

Spring time is also the time of the year when saltwater fly fishing will
out-fish most other methods if the pelagic are feeding on small baitfish.
Why? Because you can cast a small fly that is the same size, shape and
colour as the bait the fish are feeding on. You can also work a fly a lot
slower than most lures or you can let the fly just sit in the middle of a
feeding school.

It is also important to be able to cast your line maximum distance with
minimum false cast. This is the most important part of saltwater
fly-fishing getting the fly to the feeding fish as fast you can. So get out on the
lawnand practice your pickup, haul and shoot in one motion. If you are new to
fly casting or can't double haul spend a few dollars and get some lessons
its will give the advantage when you are working the feeding schools.

I use a clear fast intermediate Airflo 40 plus Shooting head fly. This
line allows me to pick up the line shoot and haul and cast maximum distance
with minimum effort.

If I use a standard intermediate line I will use a line a size up on the
rod size that I use. On my Strudwick DBT 8wt I use a 9wt Airflo saltwater
bonefish taper.

Leaders I keep simple I usually use 10 kilo 1.5m to 2m long but you may
need go lighter if the fish are shy. Check out the East Coast saltwater
flies as these are designed to catch Sydney pelagics Make sure that you have plenty of backing on the fly reel as you never know when a big Mack tuna or long tail might grab your fly and head for the horizon. Remember to back off the drag of your reel with the more line the fish has out as there is a lot of water drag on a flyline.Try to match the bait with the size and shape of your flies and
have look in the water at baitfish or that the fish spit out when you land them
.Get out there and give it ago its one of most exciting way to fish
Most 7wt and 8wt fly outfits will do the job on Taylor, Salmon, bonito and
small kings. You might need to carry a 9wt or 10 wt with a fast sinking
shooting head with heavy leader if the kings are hanging deep in the water
around reef or structure. I these areas its hand to hand combat
Lock up, point the rod and drag them out anyway you can including using
the boat to drag them out to open water even then they will drag you back to
cover

July/ August 2004 Report
THANK CHRIST FOR THE BOODLY AUSSIE SALMON

July and August can be the hardest months of the year to fish the Sydney area. Most of the bonito, kingfish and small tuna have moved on to warmer waters, but on the brighter side the mighty Australian salmon can be still found in good numbers. If you have never caught one of these wonderful fighting fish that pull hard and jump out of the water shaking their head trying to throw the lure it’s a good time to have go at catching them.

You can usually find the salmon in schools in most bays, inlets and off beaches in the Sydney area.

If you find a school of salmon working the top, take the time to see what direction and speed the fish are traveling. Don’t rush into the middle of the feeding school as often this will put the fish down for the day.

Most salmon schools work into the wind, so position the boat up-wind and wait for the fish to come to you. Often the boat will be surrounded by fish. Cast your lure and flies in front of the fish as this is where they are looking for a feed not behind them.

If you are trolling lures or live baits run your line long and work around the outside of the school and cutting in front of the school so your line will run through the school without having to drive through the salmon.

Often this time of the year the salmon will be feeding on very small bait and it can be hard for the spin guys to match the hatch. This is where the fly fisher has the advantage he can cast a small eye fly that is the same shape and size as the bait the salmon are feeding on.

It can be frustrating to fish near a fly fisherman that is hooked up all the time and you can’t turn a scale.

I always have some flies handy I will tie a short leader with a fly on the end to the split ring where my treble is. This will help some times but if you stop, the fly sinks so I carry a few floats so I have the weight needed cast a fly on spin gear and then can pause my retrieve without the fly sinking . A lot of salmon are caught on the pause when fly fishing

You can also try some of the smaller soft plastics that are used to target bream. You will have to also use your bream sticks to cast these small plastics any distance. But when you hook up you will have a ball.

Often I will work a 4” and 6” slugo slowly and let them sit in the middle of the school and will hook up even if the salmon are feeding on small bait. If there are a lot of other

Boats working the school, try to give other anglers room to move and fish.

Have a look around as quite often in the distance you will see birds flying around another school working. It can get pretty hairy when 30 boats are all casting metal lures.

May/ June Report
Winter is upon us once again and it only seems like yesterday that it was the beginning of Summer.

This past Summer and Autumn hasn’t been one to remember. Fishing both freshwater and saltwater has been hard and on most trips we’ve had to work for the fish we caught.
What we need is some good rain and a small flood to move a lot of the bass and bait fish in the area above the tidal zone down river. This would also push the saltwater down.

Over the last 6 months we’ve been catching more bream and flathead in areas that. normally you would expect the majority of your fish to be bass. Not that I’m complaining, it certainly adds variety to our bass fishing trips. It hasn’t been unusual for us to catch bass, bream, flathead, tailor, estuary perch and small tailor in one reach of the river. We’ve been using small crank baits, surface and plastics when fishing these areas.
Taylor made, Baby feral catts and Knolls natives have been the best of the hard bodies
and atomic and sliders soft plastics.

What all this salt water up river has done for me is made me fish water that I haven’t fished in years, such as small creeks, swamps and any other land locked water.
The fishing in these areas has been on fire with some of the best bass fishing that I can remember. Most of these bass have been caught out of my canoe and my Australus bass kayak. These have taken me into areas impossible to fish from a boat or the bank. Most of these bass have been over 35cm and some pushing 45cm. These fish also pull like horses.
Small diving lure and surface have worked the best

Great New Lures

I have also been using some new Lawson lures and have caught bass over 40cm on them.
They’re around 60mm long, medium diver and they have a unique body roll in their action. Also Ben Kennedy of Newcastle Knights is making a great spinner bait that has been slaying bass in the dams and estuaries, so keep your eye out for them as I’ve heard a rumor that he may be selling a few to some selected shops. Earlier this year I mentioned the new Baby Feral catt lure was on its way. Well the first of them hit the local shops, The Australian Bass Angler (Phone on 02-47 21 0455) and Windsor bait and Tackle (Phone on 02-45 77 2813). both these shops will do mail order.

The saltwater pelagic have been on the quiet side this month with only the odd salmon, Taylor and king making a showing around Pittwater and Broken bay. The good news is that small bonito have turned up in good numbers around the headlands, most falling to trolling lure and deep water jigging. I also fished middle harbor and caught some tailor that went close to 2 kg. They’re great sport on light spin gear. Bream have also been caught in good numbers and size in Hawkesbury and Sydney harbour with fish over a kilo not uncommon. Most of these fish have been falling to soft plastics.

Winter Bass and Estuary Perch

Winter is my favorite time to target big bass and estuary perch. This is when these fish school up to move downstream to spawn. Over the last six years that I’ve been guiding
on the Hawkesbury I’ve had learnt how to target these fish all year round and have found that on most winter trips that we catch as many as we do on most summer outings.

We also catch most of our bigger bass in winter. A lot of these fish are caught in deep water in back eddies. In these areas there is a lot of floating debris builds up and any prawns or baitfish hang around or under debris, and so are the bass and eps. We’ve found that sinking fly and soft plastic work the best. It’s important to have a good sounder and know how to use it as these fish can hold in a small area and certain depth. So take your time to sound these areas. Surface lures and flies worked in these areas and will catch their fair share of big bass. Keep your eye open for any surface movement. Or just work over these areas with your surface fly and lure you will be surprised how many big bass are caught using surface lures and flies

Target bass

Over last couple of years we’ve been using more and more soft plastics when fishing for Bass and Estuary Perch. One thing that has changed since we have learned how to fish with these lures is we are catching more Estuary Perch than Bass in the tidal areas of the river on most outings.

I was in the Australian Bass angler in Penrith the other day and listening to a couple of young anglers saying that they found it more difficult to catch Bass than EPs. I asked what lures they used and where and how they fished them. They were using soft plastics and had their boat about 15m to 20m off the bank casting close to the shore line and working them all the way back keeping in contact with the bottom.

I told them this method was great for perch but if they wanted to catch more bass than perch they should fish tighter to the cover where bass tend to hang. In years gone past we only ever used hard body diving, surface lure and spinner baits we caught mostly bass and only the odd estuary perch

Estuary perch tend to hold wide and deeper than bass so when we us soft plastics we keep them deep in the water close to the bottom and fish them all the way back to the boat. Most of the Estuary perch hooked up are wider and deeper than the Bass. Unlike hard body lures where most hook ups are bass come in the first couple metres of our retrieve. Bass also live a lot tighter to the bank and will hold up in small holes, crevices in the rock wall along the river. These areas are best fished with hard body lures as lead jigs sink and are the right shape to wedge them self’s into all cracks and holes. Bass also tend to eye ball lures before eating it so if it floats it can be kept in the strike zone longer. Often when using hard body diving lures and surface lures I will cast into a hole, let it sit a few seconds before moving it, and then I will give it a twitch before winding it back Often Bass will hit the lure when its sitting there or just after the twitch .

If you only wish to use soft plastics for bass up-size your plastic and work them parallel to the bank or add one of those beetle spins cast to the bank and swim them all the way back. Another method is to use one of the floating jig heads and action disc put out by Shipton trading, these can be cast with light spin gear and are deadly on bass.

It’s got to the stage that some new anglers don’t even have hard body lures in their tackle box. Some of the hard body lures that use target bass are Taylor Made Nuggets. Baby Feralcatt, Knol’s natives and East coast lures surface lures.

New lure and rods

Mick Munns and myself have brought out a new range of surface lures that we have developing over the last year. At this Stage we have four different sizes and models

which cover Dam bass, river bass, most other Australian natives, bream, barra and bonito, salmon, Taylor and small kings. These lures are poppers, fizzers and spooks

and we have combined them together in some of our models so some pop and fizz and others spook and fizz

These will be sold under East Coast Lure in some select stores in Sydney area at this stage.

I also had the pleasure using Some Strudwick Sicstik Pro range of rod over the last

few months . I’ve found them to be great for all my sports fishing needs from bream to Kings. Check out the 7’0” 1 to 3 kg for Bream and Bass especially rack fishing for bream, its got a light tip with plenty of guts down low to turn their heads Also the 7’0” 4 kg for tossing slugo, Bonito, Australian Salmon and Kings.

Any one wishing to learn more about Sportsfishing around the Sydney area I am

running on the water fishing schools on salt and freshwater species in July. Also Mick Munns and I are offering on the water fly fishing Schools for winter Bass and Estuary Perch.

March 2004 Report
Well the kids are all back at school and the waterway has returned to normal after the holiday break. The fishing for pelagics has been pretty good with plenty of kingfish, salmon, tailor and at last some bonito have turned up in Sydney waters. Most of these fish have been caught on Sluggo’s and poppers. I must admit these two types’ of lures I use the most. There is nothing like a big surface strike from a king or other pelagics to get the old heart started.I have witnessed grown men shaking at the knees after a big surface strike close to the boat. These lures can be either cast or trolled. I find that a popper trolled a long way back with a weight and unweighted sluggo staggered either side, one of the most effective lure patterns for finding and catching fish. Often when the fish are not working the top I will troll these around an area that I suspect may be holding fish. I tended to troll these a little faster than most other lures so there is plenty of surface spray coming of the lure. After a hookup I will troll over the area watching my Humminbird Matrix for bait balls and fish. After locating them I will then cast poppers and sluggos around the area .Poppers I work fast stirring up the area with plenty cast over area as this will often bring fish up from deeper water. In the Sydney area my favorite popper is the Kokoda roger in the two smallest sizes. These cast like bullets and kings, bonito, taylor and salmon love them. Slugo is the lure that I’ve always tied on at least one rod. Slugo I start with an unweighted work across the top with plenty of rod action to imitate an injured and fleeing baitfish, and kings and salmon love them. If the fish are working the water hard and fast I will high speed them across the water like a popper putting a pause in your retrieve will often trigger a strike.If the fish are a little deeper you can add weight to the slugo by winding lead wire or solder around the shank of the worm hook, or rig it with a leader and swivel and sinker above it. I find these rigs work best as they allowed the slugo to retain action. Working these plastics in deeper water I cast them, let sink and wind them back flat out with pauses on the way back. You should add more weight in deeper water or in strong current. I use yellow 20 lbs super braid as the bright yellow allows me to see when the line is on the bottom and the thin diameter lets me use minimum weight to get it down. I often cast an un weight slugo out and let it sink slowly and leave it to hang under the boat while casting other lures. On many occasions its been hammer just sitting there only the boat and wave action moving it

Slugo’s are a little hard to find out west but a few shops that do have them are Compleat Angler, Blacktown Fishing Tackle, Windsor Bait Tackle & Camping, Otto’s and Australian Bass Angler Penrith.

Good bass in Hawkesbury

The bass fishing in the Hawkesbury and Colo rivers have been fishing well with the bass slamming surface lures all day, as long as you cast them into the shadowy areas.

Soft plastics have been catching plenty of estuary perch, bass, flathead and bream in the Lower Portland –Wiseman Ferry areas.

John Bethune Has been fishing the Nepean with some new jigs that he has been developing with great results bass up to 40cm have been falling for these deadly jigs

New Boat

I have just launched my new charter vessel. It’s a 6.4 m Vision built by Vision boats Australia with a Yamaha 150 hp four stroke and 30hp Yamaha auxiliary Fitted and supplied by Blake’s Marine. The boat has been built to 2c survey and has the latest Humminbird Matrix sounders and GPS.

It’s been designed and built to my needs for Estuary and Light Offshore Sports and Fly fishing. It has a large elevated casting deck, 75 litres high water flow live bait tank, large kill tank and built in esky and tackle storage all built into a large centre box seat.

The hard top roof folds down so it goes in my shed and reduces wind drag when towing.

I’ve only had it on water for few hours but it’s very stable and soft riding and has heaps space to move around in. I will give a more detailed report in the coming months

November/ December 2003 Report
Well it’s that time of year when the water starts to warm up and so does the fishing. The schools of Salmon, Kings and other pelagic fish should start to turn up in numbers around Broken Bay, Pittwater and Sydney Harbour. It’s been an unusual winter with kingfish being caught in good numbers all through the colder months in Sydney Harbour and Cowan Creek Also we had an early show of both Frigates and Stripped Tuna in early August in the bay and harbour. We also had some good schools Salmon turn up and were caught in large numbers mainly on Slugo and large flies.

So hopefully it’s going to be a red hot summer for pelagics and may be we might even see a few bonito turn up this summer as I only caught a few last year.

Saltwater Fly-fishing

Fly tackle is also on the lighter side. I use Strudwick DBT 7 -8 wt rods on most outings.
But I always have a DBT 9wt handy in case some larger kings or Mack tuna turn up.
Fly reels should be matched to the rods, should have a good drag and be large enough to hold 300mt braid backing.
Fly lines like fast intermediate line one weight size up on the rod weight (for a 7wt. rod use an 8wt. line) and for the more experienced caster a shooting head would be my first choice. I use the Airflo fly lines.

I keep my leaders simple 6-10kg Fluorocarbon 2m – 2.5 m long.
Make sure that you have a good range of flies so you can match the size, colour and shape of the bait that pelagic are chasing.

If the fish are holding Subsurface in deeper water I use an Airflo 400 g fast sinking line to get the fly down to the fish.
Finding the fish

The best way to find fish is to look for birds working or surface activity. This can be easy on some days when the fish stay up. But on other days you might only see a few bait fish
rippling on the surface so keep your eye trained for any surface movement. Don’t discount any activity as there maybe larger fish under the small bait fish.

Have a cast around the washes and headlands as small baitfish will hide in the white water. The predators won’t be too far away. If you can’t find any thing using the above methods. If you still have no luck, try trolling a spread of lures around the headlands. I use a couple of deep divers, a popper towed short in the wash and a weighed slugo a long way back. I’ve found this a great way to find fish.

When you get a strike you double back to where the fish was caught as often the fish will be schooled up. You can keep on trolling them but this can put the fish down sometimes. A much more satisfying way can be to cast a lure or fly in the area, and you will be surprised how often you will hook up. Its also pays to keep you eyes on you sounder and set your fish alarm. If you find a good school showing on sounder run your lure over area few times

High Speed Spin

I like to use light spin tackle to target these small summer pelagics. I find a 7’ to 7’6 “ 4 kg to 6 kg rod match with a 4000 to 6000 high speed thread line load with 8 -10 lb
fire line or 12 – 15 Tuff line works best. I use Strudwick 7” 4 – 6kg rod and Shimano 4000 and 6000 Stradics on my tours. These handle 99% of the fish we hook only when odd big king turns up do we need anything heavier. With this tackle I find that you can cast any lure to its maximum distance and can be retrieved as fast as needed to trigger a strike.
Remember to vary the speed of your retrieve and put a pause in as often the pause will trigger the strike

FISHING REPORT FROM
DEAN HAYES, SYDNEY SPORT FISHING TOURS

Dean Hayes provbides Fly Fishing Charters on Broken Bay, Hawkesbury River and Sydney Harbour. For a great Sydney Fly Experience, email Dean at ozbass@hawknet.com.au, or phone him on 0408 334 892.

DEAN HAYES, SYDNEY SPORT FISHING TOURS

phone: 0408 334 892
email: ozbass@hawknet.com.au