Perfect conditions greeted anglers last weekend and the fishing did not disappoint with some great catches coming in to the cleaning tables

A few more reds are starting to turn up with some nice fish being taken in on the shallower reefs and gravel patches. Marilyn Whitfield had the chance to get out and landed a couple of great pan sized fish up to 1.5kg bait of choice was fresh squid and striped tuna.

Lake Illawarra continues to put on a feed for anglers with all culinary courses covered. The channel still has flathead on offer live poddy mullet or 3 inch riptide mullets are accounting for some good fish. For the entrée the blue swimmer crabs are still quite active even Fred Green and Harry Butler (the regions own Laurel and Hardy) managed to catch 20 crabs in a 2 hour afternoon session.

Windang Beach has some decent schools of tailor moving in late in to the afternoon with ganged pilchards. There are also some good schools of bream holding around the gutters near the entrance to the lake and the along the outer edges of the break wall. Freshly caught pipis or live worms are the pick of the baits.

The ledges around Kiama are holding some big bonito at the moment James Thompson hit the rocks for a morning spin session and landed 20 odd fish with the smallest weighing in at around 2.5kg and the biggest a true heavyweight for bonito it pulled the scales down to 3.5kg these are some solid fish and great fun on light gear.

But be warned there are some kings also around and if your fishing light and hook one odds are you’ll loose your lure and fray some line.

Anglers made the most of the great conditions the past week.

Lake Illawarra was again a hive of activity with a lot to offer anglers of all ages and ability. The keen lure fisho’s have been targeting the flats up the back of the Lake using surface lures landing bream to 40cm. as well the occasional monster whiting and horse flathead.

While those fishing live squirt worms or nippers around the entrance, have been landing some solid, sweet tasting whiting. Flathead are also on the chew around the channel just sitting along the edges of the sand banks on the run out tide waiting to ambush an unsuspecting future meal. This is where working a shad style plastic comes in to its own.

Offshore the fishing just keeps getting better. Snapper are starting to school up on the reefs as feeding up on the abundant bait around at the moment. While around the islands at Port Kembla, kingfish are still fraying anglers’ nerves and lines.

The kings have been finicky they will still take a live bait, but another option is to slow troll a fresh squid tentacle down deep to offer a bit of variety. Not to mention the number of marlin around the shelf line and the Dorado at the fads.

The rocks are veritable smorgasbord at the moment, with something on offer to please all anglers. Bonito are still around and willing to scoff down a metal lure or ganged pilchard.

For those anglers that prefer a milder tasting fish a few keen fisho’s have been getting amongst the bream and drummer that are foraging around the washes.

Fishing the low light periods in and around the washes, with unweighted baits like royal reds or cubes of striped tuna is the best technique to garner a feed. Berley and not to heavy line strength are also key ingredients to successful fishing outing.

The summer weather keeps on rolling along and the fish are along for the ride.

The big news around the cleaning tables is the amount of dorado turning up at the fads. Which is a good sign that the waters warming up. The great thing is the size of the fish with some bull specimens up to 20kg being landed, the average size of most fish being caught is around 4kg which is no slouch either!

The flathead drifts are producing a good feed with those fishing the deeper 50m mark also picking up a good red or two when they drift along the edges of reefs. The grounds South East of Bass Pt seem to be the pick of the spots.

For those that want to wet line and feel the sand between their toes Warilla and Windang Beach has been fishing well for whiting and the occasional bream. The corners of the beach have been the pick of the spots as some nice gutters have formed. Live worms or pipis are the way to go.

The story off the rocks is that the ledges around Bass Pt and Kiama that you had to take your own rock to stand on! With the crowds being so thick lately and with good reason the bonito are literally going off with fish up to 3kg being caught as well as the occasional king and some thumper salmon.

A few anglers are making the most of this hot fishing action and are targeting reds and bream in the low light times around these ledges the amount of baitfish and berley going in to the water is drawing the table fish looking for an easy feed. 

Lake Illawarra is not just a great place to catch flathead there are other species on offer if you don’t mind a bit of hard work.

The lake has been firing on all cylinders the past couple of weeks. If you’re keen to target some bream the back end of the lake proper is producing some solid fish to 1kg. Fresh or live lake prawns are a dynamite bait to land some big bruising bream.

But, if you want to have some serious fun surface lures like zappa’s and bevy pencils worked over and around the weed beds in the early morning or evening is providing some heart stopping action. The great thing is you may also pick up some thumper whiting or big flathead using this technique.

That’s not all the lake has to offer the crabs are back on and full of sweet tasty meat, the big key to success is fresh bait! Good sized chunks of mullet or even bonito heads well secured to the net and spaced effectively to make the most of the tidal movement.

If you’re using two ringed hoop nets check them regularly and while you’re waiting throw out a handline and work the crabs that way it will also help in improving your landing net skills.

The rocks are still firing with bonito on the boil on most deepwater ledges like Honeycomb Rock and Kiama’s Blowhole Pt. Metal lures and ganged pilchards are a couple of the most productive methods in hooking fish. You just never know what might jump on the end of your line, with a couple anglers hooking in to big kings and there are reports of a few cobia hanging around in the warmer water.

Offshore there is some good snapper action on offer if you don’t mind fishing deep and berleying. With reds to 3kg being landed and a couple of good fish 5kg coming in to the cleaning tables is always a good sign. 

for that, with some good sized kings being caught.

But if you’re after some serious hoodlums the place to be is out at the Banks or the Block and Cheese. The week before Xmas produced some heart stopping action with a couple of serious fish up to 22kg being landed.

For the holidaying angler the flathead drifts off Shellharbour and Windang has produced a good feed. A few anglers have also been picking up a couple of nice sized reds on the drift also.

Offshore a few more reports of marlin have filtered through and with the amount of baitfish around its no wonder the bigger pelagic fish are about. 

Lake Illawarra is still fishing well with a few anglers stalking the flats using poppers. Jeremy Nicol headed for an hour or two for a Xmas fish and landed a couple of nice whiting. Jeremy’s lure got belted by a solid fish that he thought was the monster of all whiting but it turned out to be a 1kg flathead which was almost lost to a pelican which tried to engulf the fish and $20 lure

The beach is a great way to spend an early morning or late afternoon chasing salmon and tailor or bream and whiting. Windang Beach around the radio towers has some nice gutters holding fish while Warilla near the entrance to Little Lake has some really nice deep holes in close holding fish.

If you’re after a feed of fresh calamari rings why not take the family down to your local boat ramp armed with a few squid jigs the kids will have fun catching squid and trying not to get inked. The most popular and effective colours have been the more natural prawn and baitfish patterns worked with an aggressively.

For all those that weren’t sure what that big yellow thing in the sky was? It’s called the sun and did it shine for some anglers over the weekend.

Offshore the game fishers got out amongst it with a few sharks being tagged and released but the big news was of a couple of marlin hook-ups wide of the canyons fish estimated to be around the 80kg mark and hopefully a good sign of things to come.

The inshore reefs proved a bit tougher with plenty of horse mackerel stealing baits meant for bigger table fish. Perseverance was the key for one angler named Will who landed a 7kg snapper off a reef near Wollongong.

The South East Grounds at Shellharbour fished well for a mixed bag of reefies. Dave Riddington and Andrew Koberlein landed a good bag of fish including reds, mowies and leatherjackets.

Lake Illawarra continues to produce some fantastic fishing even after the fresh. Col Leech fished the lake proper using live prawns and nippers for a quality bag of whiting luderick and flathead. Col had two horse whiting that weighed 580g each.

While the Basin continues to fire Glenn Sheriff fished with brother Wayne on Sunday and during their morning session the brothers landed 20 snapper to 35cm a couple of decent lizards up to 60cm and Glenn had torrid fight with a 80cm tailor that had him down to the backing on his reel twice.

The rocks at Bass Pt or bonito central as it’s now called produced again with some big bonnies to 3kg and even bigger salmon being landed. Metal lures and the white squid skirts under a bobby cork did the trick.

Kiama is also running hot with fish sitting in close. Grant Evans fished the early morning tide change off his favourite land based spot and landed a couple of 4kg kings.

The Port Kembla Islands was where all the action was at again the past week. The biggest variable was the water temperature around 18 deg and the fish where on any lower and it was a hard task.

The size of the kings landed was variable with just undersized fish to some good hoodlums around the 10kg mark scoffing down baits. One method that proved successful was trolling squid or cuttlefish tentacles down deep. This accounted for some good fish for those that struggled to get live bait.

Bass Pt big salmon cruised around the ledges willing to tangle with any lure or bait thrown out. The bonito were a little patchy but some good fish came in early in the morning. The salmon and bonito were fairly solid with fish over 3kg being caught.

With the amount of rain the beaches around the entrances to creeks, rivers or lakes fished well for bream and flathead patrolling the perimeter of the entrances looking for any baitfish flushed out. Fresh prawns or whitebait fished on small gang hooks works a treat. The bigger estuaries and waterways may have a few mulloway in attendance.

The inshore reefs and flathead drifts produced a feed for anglers that made it out on the weekend with some nice sized fish turning up to the cleaning table. Including the 1.5kg morwong that Brett Gibson from Lakeview Hotel Fishing Club weighed in.

NSW Maritime was out on the weekend reminding anglers of the new rules for lifejackets that came into effect in November. 

The talk around the cleaning tables the past week has been the kings that are now starting to show and where the live bait have disappeared to?

The islands at Port Kembla again seem the place to troll a well rigged yakka or slimy if you can find a few for the live well. Another option is troll some deep diving lures like x raps in the early morning light to fool a few fish before they become weary as the day wears on.

Bass Pt resembled a circus on the weekend with a calamity of fisherman moving in to tangle with the bonito and salmon. Metal lures and white plastic squids behind bobby cork flew thick and fast causing all sorts of mess.

The real show started when a few anglers hooked in to some decent sized kings to 6 kg that made a meal of a few anglers tackle and reels.

The Farm and Mystics beach held good fish the past week with some nice bream and whiting being landed around the corners of the beaches.

You must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard how well Lake Illawarra has been fishing lately with some thumper whiting coming in around the main channel and the good sized flathead near the drop off. Then there are the succulent blue swimmer crabs that are full of meat and I can attest to very tasty.

Just remember if you are going to drop a few nets for crabs that there are some new regulations on how you set your gear. These are available on the NSW Fisheries website.

A bumper weekend of fishing has anglers grinning from ear to ear.

The Islands at Port Kembla are holding some good kings at the moment as well as plenty of rats, which are great on the light gear.

A few boats hooked in to kings well in to double figures landing them was a different story and the fish frames down at the cleaning tables don’t lie. A couple of fish came in around the 10kg mark. 

The bigger ones are there but the key is live bait. While the rats will swallow any lure trolled or jigged past them.

Bass Pt is bonito central with hordes of fisherman moving in to tangle with the hordes of fish moving past the rock ledges. Metal lures and ganged pilchards accounted for most fish. There were also some good salmon mixed in amongst the bonnies.

Both North and South Shellharbour have had schools of salmon moving in with the morning and evening tides. Anglers have been having fun trying to land these fish especially with the small school sharks hanging around at the moment trimming the tail of a few.

The estuary to be on at the moment is St Georges Basin with some thumper flathead being caught down there Kevin Buchan landed a big momma flathead that would have easily gone 6kg. While the whiting are nailing surface lures worked over the weedbeds.

The water out wide is continuing to warm up with some good catches of albacore being taken just outside the shelf. Another one of the Shellharbour game boats got out amongst it during the week landing some nice albies around 6 to 8kg.  

It seems the fishing is starting fire with some hot action on the water the past week.

Offshore a few of the game guys have been hooking in to some yellowfin to 15kg around the 120 fathom mark. Shellharbour game boat “Anticipation” got amongst the action hooking in to a dozen or so fish. The boys trolled them up on 8” skirts and deep divers.

Inshore, reports filtered through of a few pan sized reds being caught. They must be thick as thieves because even Chad Davison landed a couple of fish around the 1kg mark using striped tuna for bait.

Flathead are also on the chew around the drifts off Gerringong and Gerroa with some nice fish to 1kg being caught.

Things around the rocks are definitely starting to heat up with reports of good sized bonito and salmon being caught at Bass Pt. James Thompson got out amongst the action using metal lures spun up 9 bonito in quick time earlier in the week. While around Barrack Pt, trevally and bream are cruising in close looking for a feed.
 
Lake Illawarra has been a hive of activity with prawns and crab on the move. While around the entrance some monster whiting are patrolling the flats looking for an easy meal.

The Shoalhaven River is apparently running a coffee coloured black at the moment. Congregating most fish down near the entrance bream, luderick and some nice sized flathead have been landed using nippers and poddy mullet for bait.

The northern beaches following the rain have few of those silver beast patrolling the run offs and deeper holes. Benjamin McElhone who’s been a little quiet of late managed to sneak a few hours on the sand and was rewarded with a solid 14.2kg mulloway for his efforts.

Check those nets! The blue swimmer crabs are on in the lake and signs indicate the prawns won’t be far behind.
 
Large schools of salmon and bonito are keeping anglers busy at Kiama and BassPoint. Pillies, metals and white squid are all having success.

Wide offshore there have been several yellowfin in the 30kg range taken and reports of marlin are filtering in.
 
Some nice rock blackfish and trevally are being caught from the rocks at Bass Point and Kiama. Dave Lindsay nailed a few pigs to 2kg. Berleying with bread and using royal reds or cunji is the way to go.

In the lake, the flathead have been really keen to take soft plastics or whitebait. Trevally and bream are also being taken from the wall in Lake Illawarra when the current eases. Some really good catches of bream and flathead have come from St George’s Basin. Riptide mullet are again proving the go-to lure.

James Thompson tackled the Shoalhaven for a jew and came up trumps with a 7kg fish.

Those offshore fishers drifting the sand and gravel beds have been doing well on flathead, leatherjackets and good sized morwong.

What a week of contrast the weather was terrible and then great then back to terrible but at least the fishing was consistent with some good catches coming in.

The rocks at Bass Pt continue to improve with good catches of bonito being reported and the size of fish is increasing. A few anglers are even landing some just undersize kingfish along slopping rock and near the crankshaft.

Maloney’s Bay fished well for those prepared to walk in before the gates opened in the mornings for bream and trevally. Royal reds or cubes of striped tuna worked well fishing these baits on light line and unweighted produced the best results.

Offshore the flathead drifts are starting to fire with some thumper blue spot flathead being caught. Billy Lee hit the drifts off Shellharbour and landed a dozen nice fish a couple of the fish each weighed well over the 1kg mark. Reports of fish this size also came in from the ramp at Kiama.

The past weekend saw the Grand final of the Squidgy Southern Bream Series where some of the top bream anglers from the South Coast and Sydney competed in the two day event held on St Georges Basin and the Shoalhaven River.

Day 1 on Saturday saw some good bags of bream come out of St Georges Basin on surface lures and hard bodies but the talk of the day was Adrian Van’s huge 2.51kg bream.  
 
Day 2 Sunday was the crunch day with a turn in the weather the fishing was tough and those teams with a good bag the day before had the edge on the other teams but it came down to which team could capitalise and win

Team Shimano Evinrude, Alan Loftus and Ross Cannizzaro took out the boating section with a total of 10 bream bag of 6.765kg.

While the Kayak section went Jason Price whose 5 bream combined bag of 2.765kg was just enough to take top prize.

Southern Bass’s Annual Lake Yarrunga Tournament is fast approaching. This event is a lure and fly only event. Open only to canoes, kayaks and hobie’s and is being held on the 13th and 14th November, at Bendeela camping ground, Kangaroo Valley. This is fun family orientated Bass fishing tournament with some great prizes on offer.  
       
Contact Ron Croker on 0412 433 269 for further details   

The water colour may have been a bit off over the past week, but the fish didn’t seem to care as anglers landed some good bags.

The past week has seem some large schools of salmon move in around Minnamurra and Bass Pt. these hungry fish have been feeding on schools of small baitfish anglers refer to as eyes. It can be frustrating trying to land fish when you can’t match what they’re feeding on. Trolling small fly’s behind the boat or if trailing a few feet off the back of poppers is one way to entice a strike.

Of course there are other fish on offer around the rocks. James Thompson fished the rocks around Bass Pt for a truly mixed bag landing 9 different species. Using a variety of techniques James spun up bonito, salmon and tailor during the day and in the evening soaked a bait around the washes and landed bream, trevally, rock blackfish and a rather uncommon fish from the rocks a blue morwong that weighed 1.2kg.

Offshore the number of reds around the 2kg mark coming in is good sign the reefs around Kiama still seem the most productive.11y.o. Lachlan Budd enjoying his last few days of freedom before heading back to school pestered his dad to take him out fishing ( I don’t think it took to much arm twisting) Shaun and Lachlan fished the inshore reefs landing a dozen good fish between them which included a 2.1kg snapper that gave Lachlan a good workout on the light gear.

The estuaries have been fishing well with St Georges Basin starting to fire the bream are on the chew which is looking good for the upcoming grand final in the Southern Bream Series. The flathead are also getting in on the act with some decent sized fish being caught and released Fred Green has been landing some nice fish to 70cm using riptide mullets.

The Shoalhaven River is also beginning to fire and looks ready for a ripper season. 5y.o Jordan Norval landed her first fish on a soft plastic a nice dusky flathead around 40cm in length. All we know is it was a pretty black and gold coloured lure.

Best capture award has to go to Chad Davison who caught a groper that from all accounts still had the umbilical cord still attached. We didn’t know they came that small was a comment from good mate Nathan.

What a difference a change in the weather makes and the fishing was no different. There were some great catches during the week both inshore and offshore.

Jeff Risk hit the water off Kiama and around the 40 fathom mark stumbled on to a few small southern blue fin tuna to 10kg which took a liking to the small Xmas trees Jeff was trolling. From all accounts these fish went hell for leather on the spin gear. 
 
Barry Whitfield after 3 agonizing months is finally back on the water and hit the ground running landing some good fish from around Port Is. Barry certainly hasn’t lost the touch landing groper to 6kg some very good trevally; a few rock blackfish around 1.5kg and a couple of bream to top it off.

Jervis Bay is picking up Chad Davison and Nathan Egan headed down for the weekend and fished in the bay itself the boys pulled some nice fish including snapper to 2.5kg a few morwong and flathead.

Speaking of down the bay Greg Reid from Bay and Basin Charters put some clients on to some whooping big bream at St Georges Basin. Glenn Murphy was one happy customer landing his biggest bream on lures a fish that measured 50cm. other reports of flathead to 60cm are filtering through so it seems the estuaries are starting to fire.

Lake Illawarra is no exception with some anglers hooking in to XOS whiting down near the entrance the key to landing some of these big fish is live worms squirt worms have been the top contender with blood worms not a bad second option.

The Beaches up north of Wollongong have been producing a few mulloway especially after the rain knocked open a few estuaries while Windang and the Farm have some good salmon on the chew.

The rocks at Bass Pt have been holding good sized trevally and it seems the bonito are starting to return in numbers with James Thompson landing a dozen good sized bonnies on the weekend the standout lure seemed to be half by quarters.

Cool conditions have slowed the anglers down but the fishing hasn’t cooled off with some good catches coming in the past week.

Offshore the flathead drifts have been producing some good catches of decent sized fish. The Shellharbour ramp stalwarts are even more enthused about their catches because it seems the dreaded leatherjackets have disappeared (not good news for the Tackle Shop owners.)

The drifts off Shellharbour and Windang in around 40 to 60 feet seem to be were the fish are holding up at the moment.

On the rocks Barrack Pt is fishing well for luderick. While around the entrance to Little Lake the evening high tides bream and trevally have been moving in up in to the rocks searching for a feed.

Bass Pt fished well for rock blackfish with a couple anglers bagging out Shane Norman fished the washes and landed 10 good pigs for a bag of just over 10kg cleaned.

Salmon have also been around the point hitting ganged pilchards or metal lures they’re good sized fish too averaging well over 2kg.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco

Inclement weather put a dampener on the past few days keeping most anglers indoors. But the days preceding the change produced some good catches.

The rocks at Bass Pt were still teaming with trevally Grant Evans managed to score some time off from work and have a quick flick for a couple of hours and had a ball battling little trevor’s to half a kilo.

Royal red prawns flicked in to a berley trail was all that was needed to get things rolling and this  technique is not only just great fro trevally but works on bream, luderick, rock blackfish and many more species.

Brett Bailey seems to have the Midas touch when it comes to fishing for snapper, pulling fish on a regularly. With the cuttlefish about and a bit of sea the past week was no exception as Brett landed another solid fish from the rocks this red weighed 3.2kg and was a solid fat and fighting fit? 

Fresh cuttlefish candles brought this fish undone and from all accounts it went down well on the dinner table.

Offshore warmer than usual water is holding the cold water back. But the good news is the temp break is directly off the Kiama region. Trevor Lillico got out amongst it and scored a few nice fino’s to 15kg while cubing before being harassed by a big tiger shark.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco

Kingfish was the buzz for the week, with good fish putting bends in rods, straining the arm and fraying lines.

The perennial Banks was the place to be even though on the weekend it resembled a parking lot, the fish didn’t mind and were willing to scoff down a nice live bait or metal jig. Rat kings from 3kg to brutes over well 12kg being landed or busted off. It was not uncommon to bag out on the full fisheries limit of fish if you were inclined.

Chad Davison and Nathan Egan fished their on Sunday and landed 14 legal fish between them but kept only 6 for a feed. The boys also landed some horse sized bonito close to 4kg that scoffed down their live slimies.

Warilla Beach around the entrance to Little Lake fished well on the evening tides for bream with the fish moving up in amongst the rocks on the high tide unweighted royal reds or cubes of striped tuna brought these foraging fish undone.

Bass Pt has been trevally central recently with blurters what seems like covering almost every inch of water out there small baits fished around the washes in amongst a berley trail should virtually guaranteed a fish and a good fight just remember the legal size for silver trevally is 30cm   
 
Anyone who doesn’t mind a feed of squid and put up with the evening chill should get themselves down to their local haunt as the squid are on the chew and willing to take a well worked jig or a pilchard on a set of squid gangs.
Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco

Clear and calm conditions made the fishing a little tough the past week but a feed could be found for those willing to put the time in.

Offshore the flathead drifts wide of Shellharbour proved productive with some good sized lizards and bags being landed. The jackets were about but not at least in the plague proportions they have been in the past.

Craig Thrush from Lakeview hotel fishing club weighed had a perfect bakers dozen of good sized lizards as well as a few other species. Which I’m sure went down a treat on the dinner table with a few chips and salad.

Steve Rind fished both the reefs and the sand drifts for what you could describe in poker terms a full house landing almost everything including the kitchen sink! Drifting the 80 foot line Steve landed flathead, pigfish, morwong, bonito and snapper as well as a couple of other odds and ends.

The rocks at Kiama and Bass Pt have been loaded with trevally at the moment with fish up to 1kg being caught these terrors give a great showing on light line. Berleying and small flesh or prawn baits will do the trick and you may pick up a couple of bream and pigs on the side

Near perfect conditions greeted anglers last weekend and thankfully the fish were on the chew with good catches across the board.

With reports of a few tuna out wide of the canyons a few boats ventured out with varying success, but most anglers with smaller vessels stayed on the inshore reefs and landed good bags of fish.

Mark Griffiths fished the reefs off Minnamurra for a good mixed bag of fish including snapper, morwong, trevally and a few bream. Fishing floaters down the berley trail proved the most successful technique.

While the fishing at the Port Islands produced some good bags of bream and luderick for those that beat the sun up and were on the water early fishing in close to the washes. Unweighted prawn pieces and small cube baits were the key along with a good bread and bran berley mix.

Off the rocks it was a smorgasbord of fish on option at Kiama rock blackfish and trevally were on the chew, while Bass Pt it was salmon and bream. Windang Is had its fair share of salmon milling about but it was the luderick that were in abundance.

Glenn and Kane Graham and Scott May hit the rocks at Kiama and had a ball  landing and getting smoked by pigs using royal red prawns, the boys landed 11 good fish to 1.5kg Glenn also managed to snare a red morwong something that is not too common.

James Thompson fished Windang Is and apart from landing a horse of salmon weighing 4kg! James also landed a good bag of fish including bream, luderick, trevally and leatherjackets. Royal red prawns and cunjevoi again accounted for most fish.

Lake Illawarra and the Shoalhaven River are proving to be popular places these schools holidays with many anglers hitting the water in search of a feed. Luckily there are some winter whiting and big bream to be had if you’ve got the right bait.

The key to landing these fish is live nippers or squirt worms fished along the edges of the sand flats and weed beds. Col Leech showed how it was done landing a full bag of whiting earlier in the week with most fish around the 34cm mark. Good presentation of the bait and fishing a light line class helped land Col
some very tasty fish

The rocks were the place to be on the weekend as the wind laid rest to most boaters’ plans to head out on weekend.

Bream, trevally and rock blackfish were all on the chew, eager to wolf down a well presented royal red or piece of cunjevoi. While on the spinning ledges salmon and even a few kings were around gorging themselves on baitfish or the occasional metal lure.

Alan Griffiths took some time off from behind the counter at the Tackle Shop and hit the stones at Kiama with good mate Keith. Berleying with a mixture of bread and bran and using some well proven bait and techniques, the two seasoned fisho’s landed a good bag of 20 odd mixed fish including some nice bream around the 0.7kg mark and trevally that nudged 1kg.

Grant Evans also scored some time off from work and spun the stones at Kiama using raiders and some big poopers grant scored a couple of good fish including a 3.2kg kingfish and a solid 2.5kg bonito.

Offshore when the conditions prevailed good catches were available. Brett Bailey sneaked out for an evening session in around the 30m mark and landed a couple of nice sized reds the biggest was no slouch either weighing in at 5kg.

Around the Clubs.
The Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Clubs first competition of the new 2010/11 season is on this weekend 10th and 11th with the weigh in at the Ocean Beach Hotel a reminder that members need to be financial to weigh fish in.

Conditions varied the past week but good fishing could be had if you found the time and were willing to be versatile.

Offshore the majority of catches or lack of them was contributed to the hordes of leatherjackets prevalent at moment. Flathead could still be had if you were willing to search with the drifts or Windang and Warilla providing most success.

Snapper were on the chew on the inshore reefs Brett Bailey continues to land some good reds around the 3kg mark. The secret to his success is the use of ultra fresh bait of squid or if available octopus.

James Thompson was one such angler who had the time and the opportunity to be versatile, as he accounted for a number of species the past week. Making the most of some annual leave James landed a total of 3 mulloway to 5kg, salmon, bream, tailor, trevally, luderick and some solid rock blackfish over about 4 or so outings.     

Out wide the tuna have finally turned up with a couple of serious fish being landed off Shellharbour one of the charted boats managed a nice 69kg yellowfin for some very lucky clients.

While further North wide of Wollongong a couple of southern bluefin were hooked and landed with one or two pulling the scales down well over the 100kg mark.

There are also a few albacore around the shelf line for those that don’t mind a feed. Mark Griffiths and his family are ones that can attest to this. Fresh crumbed albacore, just can’t be beat!   

The weather has cooled off a little but the fishing is still red hot.

The rocks at Bass Pt fished well for a number of species. Brett Bailey landed a great catch of fish that included half a dozen black drummer, bream, snapper, luderick and thumping salmon that would have gone close to 4kg.

A thing to note of recent is that a number of black spinefoot aka “happy moments” are being caught around the rocks. These fish go hard and taste great but a word of warning don’t get spiked by them as the pain can be quite excruciating and if you do get spiked you’ll be thinking of happier moments while in agony.

Chad Davison and his mate Whitey fished around Barrack pt for a great catch of 11 bream with a couple of horses amongst the bag. The boys used the old standby royal reds as bait and burleyed with a mixture of bread and bran.

Well as predicted the recent swell stirred up the ocean and the fish one angler who wishes to remain nameless (but owns a white boat) has been doing extremely well on the reds last week in four trips he landed at least 10 good reds with about half of them weighing over the 3kg mark.

The leatherjackets are out there with reports of schools of fish between Windang and Shellharbour but at least the size is reasonable for a feed. Even though they’re literally devouring tackle with their big tooth but, you won’t hear your local tackle shop proprietor complaining.

The news off the beaches is big salmon and lots of tailor places like South Shellharbour, Werri, Bombo and Warilla beach have all been fishing well and with the moon high in the sky the fishing will only get better.   

Ganged pilchards or garfish are the way to go; fished with a grapnel sinker the fish literally hook themselves.   

Variable weather conditions during the past week made the fishing tough, but a good feed could be had if you planned your trip well and were flexible in what you chased.

Bonito continued their long run at Bass Point the numbers are thinning, but the size of the fish are larger. Tailor and salmon also patrolled the ledges and were willing to play with metal lures or mid sized poopers.

Alan Griffiths fished the washes for a couple of bream and rock blackfish using lightly weighted baits. Alan again had a run in with the beast from Bass Pt! A fish that has caused a whole lot of grief and mystery for a few anglers as it smashed through the berley and occasionally took bait before destroying gear and anglers’ hearts.

This time Alan was prepared and fished a bit a heavier and fooled the fish in to taking a bait and after a good 20min tussle and a few anxious moments, the fish washed up on the lower ledge were Al’s fishing mate manhandled the fish as it went ballistic. What was it?

Well really it was nothing to write home about it was a silver drummer that tipped the scales at 7.9kg.   

Offshore the reds were out and about not huge fish but perfect pan sized fish to 1.5kg. Steve Perry and young son Corbin fished for a good feed landing 15 reds between them. The boys almost caught there bag limits each of tailor in between reds as well as a couple or salmon and other reefies.

Superb conditions greeted anglers on the weekend and the fishing was just as superb.

The rocks again proved a popular spot with good catches of bonito, tailor and salmon. But the big news was the frigate mackerel that moved in and were willing to feed and these weren’t small fish James Thompson got amongst a few that weighed just shy of 1.5kg.

While the rocks at Kiama provided good fishing for Grant Evans. Grant managed to knock a couple of good kings on the head live baiting off the stones, his best went 7kg. Grant also managed to land a decent sized mack tuna which is a good sign.

Offshore the snapper decided to play with some big knobbies being landed. Ivor Wright fished the reefs south of Kiama and landed a couple of good fish to 5.5kg on gulp soft plastics. While Steve Perry fished fresh strip baits north of Shellharbour and landed seven good reds to the old 10lb mark.  
  
The beaches 7 mile was a popular spot with Benjamin McElhone landing a bag full of fish including bream, tailor and salmon to 3.5kg.

Lake Illawarra is still producing a good feed of crabs for those willing to put in the effort and source some good fresh bait like mullet or bonito frames

Griffo’s back from his trip to New Zealand (it’s a hard life for some) and reported that though the weather was tough; “It was windy enough to blow the wool off a sheep’s back”. Alan and fishing mate Keith managed to somehow land 106 trout on fly over the 19days.

Hot Weather and hot fishing that was the story of the past week.

Bass Pt again was jam packed with anglers trying their luck for on bonito with some good fish landed.

Steve Perry used the copious amounts of berley going in to the water around the point to his full advantage, targeting the bream and trevally that had moved in to the area for a free feed. Steve managed a good 1kg that gave the bream gear a solid workout.

The rocks at Kiama also fired the usual suspect’s bonito, salmon and a few rat kings were in attendance. Grant Evans even managed to land a couple of legal kings to 3kg off the stones on what some would call light gear.

Offshore the flathead drifts proved productive while further out wide the dolphin fish were on and a tasty feed was guaranteed.

Did someone say Kings! Reports have filtered through of some big, big kings causing anglers all sorts of grief and we’ve seen the photos to prove it. Well a couple of the ones that they managed to land that tipped the scales at around 20kg.

Those were the ones they could stop on 37kg! The other fish did them like a dinner making these anglers marlin gear look second rate. We were sworn to secrecy about the location but, let’s just say you can put your money there?    

 The Shoalhaven River is still running a coffee coloured brown, but with a little hard work and fishing the lower reaches near the entrance you could definitely catch a feed.

 Jeremy Nicol decided to take the kayak down for a bit of fun and maybe catch a feed and after a few hundred casts was able to bring home a couple of flatties and bream for the table. Jeremy was just slow rolling soft plastics around the deeper holes.

The tsunami was one thing to contend with over the weekend. But the bigger worry were the huge bonito that invaded the stones!

The rocks at Bass Pt were standing room only with some really big bonito turning up and turning it on. Fish like Grant Evans’s 3.2kg specimen were the average with some fish caught easily going 4kg and some even going 5kg.

The Farm beach proved a tailor hotspot with some good catches reported one local stalwart named Sam landed a dozen good fish to 2kg. The morning tide with the moon still high in the sky had all the boxes marked; all you needed was some gang hooks and pillies to make it happen.

Offshore out wide the current was raging with reports coming that it was pushing 4 knots, so the inshore reefs proved the better option.

Snapper were still about ready and willing to take a well presented bait or soft plastic. While the flathead drifts proved productive Emma Syme and Kim Thomas from the Sporties fishing club landed a good bag of flatties.

Hard luck story of the week has to go to Paul ….. we wont divulge his last name. Paul somehow manged while chucking soft plastic in 70 odd feet of water throws not only his plastic but G Loomis GLX rod and Saltiga reel overboard! Now  that’s one expensive fishing trip?

If you were a duck on the weekend the conditions were perfect and for some anglers it was like water off a ducks back, though they were soaked to the bone.

The rocks at Bass Pt again fired with bonito and big frigate mackerel moving in close for the pillie brigade, James Thompson got amongst the action landing a dozen good fish with his biggest frigate weighing close to 1.5kg.

Benjamin McElhone fished 7 mile beach near Shoalhaven Heads for a truly mixed bag of good fish of the beach. Benjamin landed 21 fish made up of seven species that included bream, whiting, flathead, tailor, salmon, mullet and a mulloway. This is the best all-round bag I’ve seen off a beach in a long time.

It wasn’t just the land based anglers that enjoyed the spoils. Offshore it was all hands on deck with the choice of species on the chew endless.

The F.A.D at Port Kembla produced mahi mahi with Andrew Koberlein getting amongst the action landing a solid 8kg fish which on light gear made for some fun. Striped tuna were also abundant small fish around 2kg that would make a perfect marlin bait.

At Port Kembla the kings were on the boil around the islands. Barry Whitfield, Marilyn Whitfield, Barry Miller and Chad Davison fished there on Saturday and using larger yakka’s for bait as the slimies were tough to find. This motley crew hooked and landed over 16 legal fish and got dusted up by several others!

Special mentions got to go 11y.o. Lachlan Budd who talked his dad Shaun into taking him fishing on St Georges basin for a good feed of fish though they ended up looking like drowned rats Lachlan out fished dad and landed a great bream that gave the 1kg mark a good nudge.   

Conditions were less than perfect the last week. But the rain and seas are a blessing in disguise for the coming weeks.
 
The stir up will bring in hungry fish chomping at the bit for feed. Snapper will be in close looking around and gorging them selves on smaller baits dislodged from there shelter. Bream will move in and around river and lake mouths eating prawns and small baitfish that have been washed out with the fresh.

Those that braved the conditions and fished the rocks bagged themselves a feed Sam Havilli landed a good bag of bream fishing inside the point on the morning tide, using small cubes of striped tuna, drifted down a berley trail. 
 
Shaun Budd fished the sheltered area known as the “Alley” at the Farm for a mixed bag including bream, whiting and luderick that moved in to the area taking some refuge from the pounding seas.

Bonito were still on at Bass Pt but conditions were treacherous with a report of one angler ending up in the water, thankfully a few cool heads were around and the Angel life ring was on hand and used and the angler was saved a little worse for wear but hopefully a lot wiser!

So it’s a timely reminder to keep your eyes on the water at all times and never fish alone on the rocks and if you notice the Life Buoy missing contact the number as these things help save lives.

Bonito, bonito and more bonito

Bass Pt again was alive with action as anglers chased these little speedsters, ganged pilchards and metal lures produced fish but the gun rig for the weekend was small white squids or fly’s fished behind a bobby cork.

With the large number of anglers on the rocks, just remember to be courteous to others and clean up after yourself. Bass Pt is a beautiful place, so let’s keep it that way.

Leatherjackets the only fish that makes offshore anglers cringe. Reports filtered through off these tackle chomping monsters moving in on the wider reefs.

With the warmer currents moving in and large bait schools in close. Big pelagic species like marlin are starting to turn up. Reliable sources have informed us that a few beakies have been landed out around the 50 fathom mark. While further down the coast the first couple of marlin off the rocks have been hooked.

The big morning tides had the whiting anglers out in force on the beaches with some good catches coming in on Port Kembla and Windang beaches.

The lead up to the full moon brought the kingfish on around the islands at Port Kembla slow trolled live bait down deep is proving the most productive method, Barry Whitfield and Frank Pascott got amongst some good fish to 6kg and got blown away by some bigger hoodlums.   

Milder weather conditions greeted anglers this past week. At least the action on the water was anything but mild; one angler even described it as explosive!

The Islands at Port Kembla put on a show producing kings up to 10kg. Colin Luff who was back from working overseas quickly got back in to gear landing a couple of legal rats with the biggest weighing around 5kg.

The inshore reefs are still producing good reds to 3kg; a few anglers are also getting blown away by unstoppable fish. Floating a pillie bait or cuttlefish candle down the berley trail in around 60 feet of water is proving to be the most productive method. 

Worthy mention must go to Kane Graham who reckons he can now be called a fisher instead of a boater after 84 unsuccessful trips, Kane finally landed a snapper that pulled the scales down to 2.5kg. 
 
The rocks again were standing room only with bonito, monster salmon and small kings willing to engulf metal lures. One angler brought in a few lures for an upgrade that were bent and twisted out of shape and the heavy duty trebles were crushed almost beyond recognition.   

7y.o. Taliah Roberts fished Crookhaven River and took out biggest luderick prize in the Culburra Fishing Competition which won her a new rod and reel. What was even more fun for Taliah was out fishing her dad and pop?

The past weeks fishing has been hot unfortunately the same cant be said for the weather.

Bass Pt is a hive of activity and the car parks have been full to the brim, why? The humble bonito have been cruising past the rocks in good numbers most anglers have been bagging out. A reliable source spoke of seeing a good bonnie landed that would have weighed well over 5kg!

What’s even better news is that the frigate mackerel have arrived and any fisho’s worth his salt knows these little rippers are the perfect bait for big kings and marlin.

 Metal lures or ganged pilchards have produced good fish but the most popular method is a white plastic squid behind a bobby cork.     
 
Mystics beach is the place to be if you want a whiting or two with the famed surf spot holding good numbers of fish beach worms or even plastic worms have been accounting for some good fish.

 But, if you want to have some fun head a little further down the beach and fish just inside the entrance to the Minnamurra River with small poppers over the sand flats and odds are a big whiting will monster it down.

Speaking of the Minnamurra Jeremy Nicol has the place wired landing another good bag of bream and a few tailor on pencil lures up in the river proper.

Offshore it’s good to hear that legal sized dolphin fish have finally turned up on the fads and traps. There have been a few bulls around the 10kg mark giving anglers a run for their money.

Striped tuna have also been seen around out wide of Port Islands with the fish averaging 4kg. Jeff Risk got amongst them and stocked his bait freezer up with a couple.

The flathead on the offshore drifts are proving a hit to the holiday anglers providing a bit of fun and a feed with added attraction of the occasional red or rat king scoffing baits dropped down.

It’s that time of year! Silly season the boat ramps are chaotic, the rocks are standing room only. So use a bit of common sense when launching your boat or wetting a line off the rocks.

Offshore talk about town is the unusual amount of large snapper being caught at this time of year and this past week was no exception.

Glenn DeBritt got out amongst a few and severely out fished good mate Chad Davison on the reds 5 to 2.Glenn biggest red pulled the scales down to 5kg neat. Glenn thought did believe he had a bigger fish when he hooked that went hell for leather but it only weighed 3kgs, of course he hooked it in its flank.

Chad Davison on the other hand had the most exotic catch of the week a small cobia which is a great sign. Chad let this small fish go to grow and fight again another day.

The rocks at Bass Pt are literally going off with bonito, salmon and rat kings invading the area in numbers, unfortunately you need to book 3 weeks in advance to get a spot on the highly coveted ledge.

Shaun Budd and his son Lachlan fished the Shoalhaven River a landed a good feed of fresh fish. The boys caught some ripper flathead to 1.5kg, a couple of bream, a few trevally and Shaun showed young Lachlan that his old man still had a few tricks up his sleave, landing 0.6kg whiting.

There has been some scuttlebutt that St Georges Basin is firing at the moment with bream and whiting actively hitting surface.

From all accounts the lure brigade has been having fun using surface lures like pencils, poppers and even fizzers. One report came through of 1.2kg whiting caught!  But until we see the pictures were filling that under Yeah right!

The wet Xmas weather didn’t dampen everyone’s enthusiasm though it did slow the action down a little bit keeping most anglers indoors.

Before the festivities the fish were on and in a big way, Shellharbour game club boat “Finally” hit a patch of striped marlin smashing bait schools and went 3-3-3 which is a solid effort and a catch like this would win most tournaments. What’s even better it was skipper Craig Bear landed his first marlin a fish around 80kg.

That’s not the only big fish around. The rocks at Jervis Bay are producing monster kings destroying rods, reels and lures as well as anglers minds.

When we talk of big kings 30kg doesn’t come up to often anymore but the photos I seen of a recent capture on one of JB’s famed ledges shows they’re still around!

Offshore Trevor Lillico took his dad Tom out who was visiting from down the coast and the boys had a ball landing a dozen snapper as well as being harassed by bonito in good size and numbers on the inshore reefs around Windang.

Holiday anglers have been getting amongst the flathead on the wide drifts off Shellharbour landing a tasty feed. Strips of striped tuna or fresh mullet fished on a paternoster rig or sliding sinker rig is best.

The rocks at Bass Pt have fired again with lots of rat kings and solid bonito to 2kg the early morning session producing the best results. Spinning with half b quarters and raider lures as well the old faithful ganged pilchard have been the most used methods.

Reports continue to come through of captures of good sized mulloway to 1m from the Shoalhaven River. One angler Andrew that’s been getting amongst them remarked that 7 inch gulps is at the moment the gun lure.

Monster whiting in the Minnamurra River have been terrorising Jeremy Nicol of late. Jeremy somehow has only managed to hook and land only one fish in his last 4 trips, Jeremy has on the other hand lost 4 expensive poppers and has had numerous frustrating follows without hook ups.

The word to sum up the past week would have to be ideal! It was like Christmas had come early. If you couldn’t catch a fish you were either six feet under or close enough to it.

The Islands around Port Kembla were alive with fish, kingfish that is and the number one technique being deployed to great success and sometimes utter frustration was jigging. All I know is a few good fish were caught and a couple of fish destroyed some anglers and some gear.

Kingies weren’t just at Port either James Thompson hooked on to few off the rock ledges around Kiama and managed to stop a couple of legal ones around 70cm in length while spinning.

The trouble was that James didn’t have a gaff and once the fish were near the rocks he had to try and coaxes them up on to the rocks and we all know how easy that is with a rampaging king?

Offshore that jolly red fish made an appearance old man snapper was about and was quite willing to be in Xmas photos. Richard Keen caught a couple around the 3kg mark, as well as a couple of mowies that would be right at home during the last supper.

The beaches the word is whiting South Beach Shellharbour, The Farm, Windang and Warilla have all been holding fish and you cant beat a feed of fresh sweat whiting on a balmy summers evening washed down with a cold beer.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you wouldn’t have known it but the blue swimmer crabs are on!  Lake Illawarra is teaming with them and they are a great size. I was shown a photo the other day of families outing between 4 anglers they had over 60 big sweet and juicy crabs full of meat. So they are definitely out there.

Prawns, what prawns? Oh you mean these delicious Lake Illawarra prawns I’m eating at the moment? Don’t tell anyone but there’s none anywhere, there everywhere!     

Perfect conditions greeted anglers the past weekend and the good news was that the fish were there and willing to bite.

If you could not catch a kingfish at Bass Pt. you must not have had a line in the water. Granted most of the fish were undersize these little rat kings were willing to jump on anything that swam past them. A few of the kayak anglers headed out and had a ball on these pint sized kings.

Nathan Egan and Chad Davison did a spot of late afternoon fishing around the inshore reefs off Minnamurra floating freshly caught squid and strip baits the boys landed a couple of nice reds to 2.5kg. 

Offshore finally a couple of small yellow fin to 20kg have turned up but you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got plenty of fuel as the fish are sitting out on the 1500 fathom mark.

Travis, Warren and a few of the boys from “The Fishin’ Hub”  were given day release and decided to spend it down the Shoalhaven River chasing what ever was willing to bite their soft plastics. Using riptide mullets and atomics the boys managed to land between them a dozen of so flatties that tasted great in a beer batter.

Benjamin McElhone and a few mates decided to head to a different spot one they hadn’t fished before of course all these boys chase is mulloway. All I can say is they had a ball, with almost every bait being eaten. Sharks, rays, jumbo salmon oh and a couple of jews that Benjamin landed in successive casts that each weighed around 10 or 11kg.

A super week of weather and a super week of fishing, with reports of fish coming left, right and centre.

Flathead are still on the chew in the deeper water as long as the current isn’t ripping through at a hundred mile an hour even blind Freddy could catch a feed. Ken cook reported some big tiger flathead being caught off Kiama fish well over 1.5kg.

Honeycomb rocks at Port Kembla were by appointment only with every available rock taken on the weekend. Salmon, bonito, tailor and the occasional king were the species of target metal lures or ganged pilchards were the weapons of choice.

Salmon were also on the chew on the beaches with Warilla, and Windang beach holding good schools of fish. With the water steadily on the rise a few whiting should start to make an appearance on the white sandy beaches.

Bass Point had a slight hiccup on the weekend with the gates unfortunately not opened until 7.30am due to someone breaking a key off in the lock! But the late start didn’t deter the keen fisho’s that decided to do the long walk in Dave Lindsay from Lakeview hotel fishing club was on angler that took the walk on and landed 6 trevally for a total bag weight of 2kg.

St Georges Basin is definitely the home of big flathead and “Big E” is one angler who knows how to catch them fishing his tried and tested Riptide Mullet. Ian landed and released a flathead that was huge! Let’s put it this way,” I wouldn’t let any small children swim in the area with a fish like that around.”

What angler forgot to strap his boat down on the way home from the boat ramp the past week? Then as rounding a roundabout preceded to flip his boat off the trailer causing some serious dents in his boat and dare I say pride?

Tight Lines,

Well the past two weeks have seen some mothers and wives at there wits end. With the kid’s on holidays and the weather keeping husbands at home and agitated the past weekend was a godsend with almost perfect weather.

South beach Shellharbour was a hotbed of activity with hundreds of birds dive-bombing the water and hordes of salmon, tailor and bonito underneath pushing the small whitebait to the brink.

All this happened just fifty metres from the shore, at one count there were several boats and two kayaks trying to get in amongst the action. With a few succeeding but several failing as the fish were honed in on small white tasty morsels and unless you matched the hatch it was an exercise in futility.

Two days previously the scene was the same at Kiama and Jervis Bay except at this event the fish were bigger, faster and meaner striped tuna. And only a stones throw from the rocks.

The Shoalhaven River sorely needed the rain and the fish were thankful and it was like some flicked a switch and they turned on. One angler named Scott and his mate fished a section of the river and caught and released over 20 estuary perch, a dozen bream to 35cm as well as couple of flathead. Scott’s mate also landed a bloody big thumping luderick on a bladed lure.

Glenn Sheriff fished St Georges Basin working the shallower water in his kayak into the afternoon and had a blast catching 4 bream to 38cm, half a dozen flathead around 50cm.

Glenn for his last fish in less than 2 feet of water managed to hook and fight a flathead that measured 70cm; this fish in his words went ballistic in the shallows dragging the kayak around as the fish could not go deep.

Not the most ideal conditions to fish in over the past week for anglers that is, but for the fish on the other hand they weren’t deterred.

Striped tuna were still out and about though this time the reports were that they were a little further south and with fish weighing over 4kg there was a whole lot of fun to be had on light tackle.

Jervis Bay is of course a scenic place to visit but the fishing can be at times a minefield with all the restrictions in place. But those that do their homework can land some good catches of fish.

Ivor and Gillian Wright are two such anglers that have put the time in to find fish and came up trumps landing 15 nice  reds between them. Gillian even managed a few good fish on soft plastics. All this was only a week after coming back from Crowdy Head where Gillian landed a 13kg bar cod.

The Shoalhaven River is firing on all cylinders with almost every type of bread and butter fish on the menu. Lachlan Budd showed dad Shaun how it done landing 7 fish to 3. Young Lachlan nailed a bream, trevally, whiting as well as 4 flathead which he caught on soft plastics.

 The beaches around Shellharbour have some good gutters at the moment and fish taking up residence, salmon and a few tailor have been moving in at night.

While one Shellharbour local known as “Fruity” landed some thumper whiting using worms and we’re talking forearm sized fish to 0.5kg.

There’s been scuttlebutt going around of a couple of local anglers that went up north chasing that elusive but well fed Qld carp and managed to land a couple of fat specimens. One of which went 1.36m. of course now we just need the photographic evidence.

Hordes of mutton birds and gannets and striped tuna have heralded the arrival of warmer currents, so we can expect the fishing to absolutely explode in the coming month. For those anglers fishing out wide there is a great chance of albacore and yellowfin.

On the rocks, catches of bream, trevally and rock blackfish are increasing. Already the reds are back, with Jason Kautz taking a nice 6kg fish and good catches of fish in the 1-2kg range being reported.

The beaches are improving with a few tailor and salmon taking pillies and whiting starting to show up.

Lake Illawarra continues to produce flathead mainly on soft plastics with Gulps or Riptide Mullet being most popular. Anglers drifting with whitebait are also getting good results. Bream, luderick and good whiting are also on the hit list for those fishing with nippers or squirt worms. Good sized prawns and blue swimmer crabs are also being taken.

Minnamurra River and St George’s Basin are also producing some quality lizards, bream and tailor. Many fish have fallen to soft plastics and blades. Fish are starting to move into the shallower water as the water warms so some popper action is not far away.

A combination of snow, rain and cold conditions greeted trout anglers for the opening of the season but the rising levels in the lakes should  provide good conditions in the coming months.

Good fishing

Alan GRIFFITHS

The weather is sure starting to warm up and the fish are on the chew, what more could you ask for?

The rocks at Bass Pt have a lot to offer anglers of all persuasions from the lure tosser to the bait soaker. Salmon and bonito are around in good numbers with the sambo’s averaging 2kg and the bonnies a wee bit smaller.

Dave Lindsay got out amongst it landing some good fish; Dave soaked a few lightly presented baits for a couple of feisty trevally. Bream are also starting to poke their heads about with reports of a few good fish being caught.

Offshore its still the stalwart of the piscatorial world keeping anglers well fed, the humble flathead is available and ready to play when all else fails with anglers landing around a dozen fish each.

Snapper are starting to fire again with whispers of a few good sized reds being brought ashore. Fish to about 3kg, of course it’s a national secret on where they’re being caught. With anglers’ lips being tighter than a……………!

The Shoalhaven River is producing bream, whiting and for the lure brigade estuary perch. Blades lures have by far been the best weapon to target and land ep’s, as they get down to the depth and their aggressive action proves irresistible to these elusive fish.

Speaking of rivers the Minnamurra River is currently holding some thumper whiting up around the bend, live nippers or squirt worms have been the key to landing these fish. One angler who thankfully has gone to Qld for 3 weeks and would kill me for reporting this has been hooking in to some of these monsters and thoroughly enjoying the feed.   

If you could use one word to sum up the past week, it would surely have to be the word sublime. The sun was shining the wind was minimal and the fish came out to play. Which to any fisho is music to the ears?

Grant Harltey and one of his mates fished the Shoalhaven River for what you called almost call a grand slam of fish species. Using live nippers Grant and company landed bream to 1kg, luderick, whiting, mulloway and Grant also landed his personal best estuary perch which measured 43cm fork length which most likely weighed around 1.5kg.

The rocks at Bass Pt when not closed by a total fire ban. Offered bread and butter fish like trevally and bream for those after a feed.

Griffo from the tackle shop is one such angler who doesn’t mind a feed of fresh fish. Fishing the washes around the southern side using unweighted or very lightly weighted baits on fairly thin line and berleying was the key to some good fish.

Offshore the local groper fisho’s found conditions almost too perfect and the fish were around and hungry of course the bait of choice is red crabs but those that cant find them or too lazy to look can do quite well with large green prawns.

Barry Whitfield and Chad Davison are a couple of angler who don’t mind the tussle with these beefy fish and the two faired alright landing a couple of blues around the 5kg mark.

Richard Keen is up to his old tricks again chasing old man snapper around Jervis Bay, we don’t know what his secret is but Richard somehow manages to land some quality fish that average between 2kg to 3kg, which by the way proved a treat at good mate Glenn’s 50th birthday party.

Offshore the word is that a few yellow fin tuna are starting to show again though they were out wide of the 1000’s the fish were hungry and averaging between 30 to 50kg.
Off course for those that want to play fish that have teeth there are plenty of makos around out in the deep blue to have fun with!

You can tell its September the fishing’s been quiet but more due to a lack of anglers and the fact that footy finals are on.

But those that did get out and fish found either the good the bad or the ugly! But at least the westerlies have abated.

The good side of it is Minnamurra River. The river is literally teaming with fish, luderick are milling around the bridges, there some thumper whiting on the flats and Chad Davison reported on a few bullish trevallies cruising the channel.

Griffo fished the rocks around Kiama for a couple of nice blurters, while fishing mate and son in law Jeremy caught the ugly for the week the mother in law fish the old boot.

Offshore the flathead are about with reports of smaller sized fish being caught Steve Rhind persisted with the drifts and found that the larger fish came on later in the day. Steve landed some nice sandies that averaged around the kilo mark.

Few reds are starting to show up they must be starting head back from their holidays north a couple of the boaties have reported fish to 1.5kg and they’ve been landing a couple per trip.

While off the rocks Pugsley from Warilla hotel has been landing a feed on one of his favourite rock spots.

Mako sharks are still around with a few encounters reported over the weekend they are even hitting soft plastics now which would be a shock to anyone throwing them for reds.

The recent swell and rain should improve the fishing ten fold as the water need a good stir up so if these conditions persist the next few weeks should be good.

The past week even had the boxed kite flyers indoors with the wind just too blustery to fly a kite. So the fishing conditions as you know have been tough.

A few anglers have been using the down time off the water to do some well needed services and repairs to boats and fishing gear for the upcoming summer months and the fish that arrive with the warm water.

It’s interesting to note that the estuaries are starting to fire with flathead coming on the chew St Georges Basin has been turning on what its famous for big mama flathead. With anglers recently catching and releasing fish up to 80 plus cm.

Trevally have moved in around the rocks as well as the dreaded sweep. The calm and clear conditions aren’t making fishing easy but those that don’t mind the cold fishing at night has produced some good bream and fair sized drummer.

When the winds die down the local game fisho’s will be out and about chasing those fish with big sharp teeth. The shark fishing at the moment is firing with some big mako’s about.

Griffo and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Oaks Hotel Fishing Club presentation night. We would both like to thank the pub and fishing club for a memorable evening as well as a great feed. Congratulations goes out to all the winners, and all the best for this fishing year.

It was a bit quiet on the eastern front with ultra clear and calm conditions making catching a feed quite tough.

Those eager enough to hit the rocks before first light managed a few bream but as the big yellow ball slowly rose in the sky the sweep moved in and gulped down everything that hit the water especially around Bass Pt.

Minnamurra River did produce fish but perseverance was the key with most luderick fisherman waiting until the last hour before sundown before they started getting downs. Fish on the average were around the ¾ of a kilo mark.

Offshore the flathead were still around but conflicting reports came through on whether the jackets were out and about with some saying they couldn’t get any baits through while others didn’t loose one rig and scored with some tasty flattie tails.

Big fish with big teeth was the talk amongst most anglers the past week. Yep, that’s right the bities are back. Mako sharks and blue sharks were sliding up to the back of boats and woofing down fish that were destined for somewhere else, the dinner table.

 The members of Shellharbour Game Fishing Club got out amongst it tangling with these brutes landing some decent at times frightening fish. With a lot of fish tagged for research the guy and gals had some fun though the work was hard.

The real bottom bombers those dedicated anglers that drop over 2 pounds of lead down some 300m were out and about hauling in some solid gemfish as well as other denizens of the deep for a well earned feed.

The water has definitely cooled with trevally turning up around the rocks some nice fish were to be had and on light gear around cunje infested rocks can be a lot of fun small strip baits or royal red prawns were the way to go. The usual haunts of Bass Pt, Barrack Pt and the stones around Kiama were all holding fish.

Talking to divers can help in finding where the fish are and a couple of spearfisherman let on that the rocks around Gerringong at present were teaming with big schools of bream. The size of the schools and the fish size were in there words “huge!”

Which seasoned angler from Warilla Hotel Fishing Club didn’t secure his fishing rods to his roof racks to well on the way back from Jervis Bay on the weekend? Needless to say travelling at speeds of around 100km doesn’t leave a sight any anglers want to see.

Well it seems winter is here to stay. The fishing is starting to get tougher with most fish bunkering down now until spring. But a few good fish can be had if you know where to look.

There are a few bright sparks though in winter it’s the time of year that groper are active and the seas calm enough to fish off and around the rocks. Chad Davison tussled with a nice 5kg blue over the weekend which was a sucker for a red crab nicely served up on 30ld line.

The interesting thing to note of lately is the surprising number of decent flathead coming in off the drifts, good solid 1kg fish with anglers easily securing a feed. Ivor and Gillian Wright aren’t one to shy away from a good feed get a few tasty morsels for the dinner plate.

Off the rocks the bonito just seem to keep hanging on not willing to move. After a late start to season over summer the bonnies though a lot smaller are still hungry as ever James Thompson spun a few up over the weekend for bait and a bit of fun.

Winter whiting is an option with some thumpers coming in from the lakes and rivers locally and down the coast. Live nippers or squirt worms fished in the evenings are the best bait but the metal blades are accounting for a few good fish by the lure fisho’s especially down at St Georges Basin.

Variable conditions the past week made for variable catches of fish with some doing well and others just scraping a feed.

The news on the offshore drifts is some decent sized flathead are being caught fish in the 50+cm range in reasonable numbers with most fisho’s at least landing a dozen for a good feed.

Off the rocks James Thompson has been messing around with drummer scoring a few nice 1.5kg fish for the pan. Royal reds and cunje were the main baits that brought these fish undone. Just remember to sparingly take the cunje from any area and there is a bag limit on them as well.

Early mornings and late evenings on the beaches have been a little cold of late. The fishing has slowed some good fish can be had with salmon and a few tailor milling around, closer to the headlands bream are also on offer. It’s just a matter of putting up with frozen hands and noses!

The ultra clear and calm conditions haven’t helped the luderick fisho’s around the rocks but Lake Illawarra has made up for that with some good fish being caught, greenweed is getting more prevalent. The upper reaches of the channel has been the pick of the spots, while the rocks walls during the turn of the tides have been holding good fish also.

If the past weeks warmer weather was the effects of global warming, I say bring it on! The conditions were perfect and even the fish got into the action.

Up on the northern beaches tailor made showing with fish around the 1kg mark being caught. Alan Griffiths up that way chasing those sometimes elusive mulloway got harassed by the choppers snipping at baits. A quick gear change to gang hooks soon sorted a few nice fish out for the smoker.

It’s good to see some solid rock blackfish turn up finally these feisty pigs can on occasions bring grown men to tears. James Thompson got amongst some good fish around the rocks at Shellharbour landing some great eating size fish to 1.5kg.

Andrew Koberlein has shown recently that he’s a jack of all trades mowies and flathead one week to southern blue fin this week landing a nice 43kg fish. Word has it that they were everywhere this past weekend with some serious 100kg plus fish being landed. This is seriously the year of the blue fin.

Anyone interested in a feed of succulent cephalopods, can’t go past throwing a jig around their usual haunts with some solid squid being landed lately. Any colour works but the most popular with anglers has definitely been the brighter colours of late.    

 
Tight Lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop Shellharbour

Very few fish have an aura about them? Something so mysterious that sends some anglers weak at the knees. Well in the Illawarra that fish is got be the mighty mulloway and some anglers spend many of a cold long night on the beach for a big one.

One angler with a load of perseverance and has spent such a many a cold night looking for “Mr Big” is one Benjamin McElhone. Well the other night Benjamin’s dream came to fruition when that fish of lifetime woofed down a well presented slab bait and preceded to slog it out for the next 40mins, before it flopped up on the beach. How big was it? Well bloody huge! This monster fish weighed 31kg and was as thick as a front rower through the shoulders.  
 
Emma Symes and Kim Thomas fished the weekend competing in the Warilla Sporties monthly bash. Emma and Kim fished the drifts around Shellharbour for a good bag of 25 flathead between them as well as a few other fish for good measure.

Andrew Koberlein new nickname has to be “Mowie Man” not because he slightly resembles one but because he’s been weighing in some absolute screamers of fish. The latest big blubber lip weighed a very healthy 1.6kg.

Bream are still milling around the rocks at Bass Pt but it’s good to see some big pigs showing up Chad Davison had a bit of fun and some tense moments landing some serious fish, you know those fish that get the heart racing. Chad knocked two good Big fat pigs that weighed 3kg cleaned from the rocks.

Tight Lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop Shellharbour

If there was one word to describe the past week, that word would have to be sublime!

It couldn’t have been better, the weather was perfect, the seas were comfortable and the fish were on! Whether it was the rocks or out in the briny if you didn’t catch a fish you didn’t have a line in the water.

Chris Fosteris and Jason Czornobej fished “The Banks” and described the experience like being stuck in the bush in summer with the cicadas in full song. That how it was with the ratchets going off left right and centre.

What was causing the ruckus kingfish again they were on the chew hitting jigs and livies basically whatever was thrown at them fish ranging from 3kg to 10kg were being landed and some bigger fish lost. Chris and Jason easily bagged out on these hoodlums in less than two hours.

The news around the Bass Pt was bonito were holding just wide of the “Crankshaft” and small skirted trolling lures were the go Jeff Risk and Glenn DeBritt stocked up their bait supplies for the coming winter season landing several fish each.

Alan Griffiths fished his old haunts around the rocks at Shellharbour and bagged out on some succulent pigs to 1kg as well as a few delectable luderick. Fishing lightly weighted baits on fairly light line was the key to success.

Bass Pt is still holding some good fish with a few bream coming in that were worth bragging about fish over the old fashioned 2 pound mark with one angler who wishes to remain nameless landing one that went over 2.5lb this fish fell victim to a cube of striped tuna floating in a berley trail of pilchards and bread.

Tailor were on the chew around Port Kembla beached with the some nice fish to 1.2kg being landed.     

Last but not least we can’t fail to mention the southern blue fin that rocked the scales at Shellharbour Game Clubs gantry on the weekend this wine barrel of a fish weighed an astonishing 99.2 kg and the boys aboard “Benchmark” certainly know how to set a benchmark! Well Done!!
 

  Tight Lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop Shellharbour

Winter weather, it can be down right frustrating at times and perfect the next. The past weekend was the frustrating kind.

Strong westerly winds, clear water and zero swell made the going tough, but fish could be had for those willing. You just had to be prepared to tough it out and persevere.

Dave Lindsay fished the rocks around Bass Pt in the early morning low light periods for a couple of fat 0.7kg bream. Berley and lightly presented baits was the key to success.

Grant Evans spent some long hours down on the rocks at Jervis Bay hoping to tangle with a few of the kings that have been causing havoc of late. Unfortunately the kings didn’t show but Grant whiled away the time having fun spinning up bonito on metal lures.

Jeff Risk another that goes to great lengths to catch fish headed out at 4am mid week to land a few for the table fishing around Port Is. Jeff landed a couple of nice bream and drummer before doing a prop blade on a submerged rock after which the trip back to Shellharbour took a couple hours longer than normal.

Tight Lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop Shellharbour

Near Perfect conditions greeted anglers on the weekend. The big question though, was there any fish?

The answer a resounding yes! It was a virtual smorgasbord out on the water.

The water had cooled slightly and this was welcome news to those that like to chase pigs around the rocks. The three Barry’s hit Spot X for a solid bag of fish including the aforementioned pigs to 2kg, some seriously chunky luderick to 0.7kg as well as trevally and jackets to add to the mix.
 
Glenn DeBritt and Jeff risk threatened to throttle me if I mentioned the quality snapper they caught around the 3kg mark! So I won’t, but I mention they caught some great mowies to 1kg on the wider reefs off Shellharbour.

Winter kings seem to be making a splash with it being standing room only out on the banks on the weekend fish between 5kg and 10kg were being hooked and landed with the occasional unstoppable brute jumping on live bait or jigs the fish didn’t mind either fraying lines and nerves of some.

Off the rocks Dave Steele hooked into a good feed of pigs and bream using the old staple of royal red prawns fished in the washes spiced with a hint of berley.

Bass Pt is still holding a few pelagic fish for the spin brigade. Tailor, salmon and bonito are still holding while the baitfish are still there but as the water cools and the food moves of so will they.

Minnamurra River the quiet little estuary that at times amazes in what it produces a few anglers keen enough to brave the cool evenings and sandflies hooked into some serious luderick around the 40cm mark as well as bream to 1kg using live nippers.

Anyone wanting a feed of squid rings should head down to their local haunts as the telltale signs are starting to show black ink on the rocks and jetties. It’s not a bad way to spend an hour and fun for the kids as they try their hardest to get inked.

  Tight Lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop Shellharbour

Welcome to this the first edition of “The Illawarra’s Quilters Weekly” as most anglers stayed hidden under their blankets on this weekend. To start off we’ll be discussing the difference between a quilt and doona.

Winter has moved in and with a bang. The conditions have been woeful but the fish are still around for those keen (crazy) enough to brave the cold and rain.

The rocks have produced the best catches of late with Bass Pt still holding bonito for those that love to spin for these little speedsters. Metal lures like 40g knights and psyko’s have been producing the goods while the lazier anglers floating a pillie under a bobby cork are accounting for a few larger fish.

Snapper are in close with the stir up and Griffo from the Tackle Shop Shellharbour has been out targeting them landing some nice eating sized pannies to 2.5kg. Using fresh strips of tuna or squid on a paternoster rig and bit of berley helps bring these hungry fish in a bit closer and holds them there.

Offshore apart from the current and the leatherjackets news has been a bit quiet of late. Billy and Les Lee got out amongst it and pulled a few reds from Spot X but that’s been about the most of it.

A fair few anglers will be heading down to the Snowies for this the final weekend for chasing trout in the streams. Reports have filtered through of some good browns being caught.

 “Mr. Flathead” Ian Phillips has been down that way proving that he’s not a one fish man landing some decent browns on blades is there anything these lures wont catch?

Keep that rod loaded
Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

It was a good weekend to fly a kite!
The fishing conditions were pretty ordinary the past week; a few brave souls endured the conditions for a mixed bag of results.

The rocks were a non-event with the large swell that lashed the coast; the conditions were just too dangerous. But as the swell abated the fishing picked up with fish moving in to forage in close to the rocks feeding on a vast array of morsels dislodged from the seas.

Alan Griffiths picked the perfect afternoon to hit the rocks and bagged himself a feed of reds to 2kg. Alan fished a very striped back approach just floating baits out off the rocks at Bass Pt. to great success landing a 3 good fish.

The recent rain activity pushed most of the fish in the estuaries down near the mouths. Bream and flathead were already lying in wait for the baitfish to be washed down and a couple of keen anglers who didn’t mind getting wet came home with a feed.

Hopefully conditions settle and few of the offshore fisho’s can get out and wet a line as a few are going stir crazy at the moment. With reports of yellow fin harassing anglers a couple of weeks ago a lot of the game fisherman are itching to get a crack at them.

The bad news is that leatherjackets were making an appearance on the flathead grounds causing a boom in sinker sales for the tackle shops and frustrating the bottom bombers, we can only hope the seas that stirred up pushed them further out and dispersed these hungry hordes.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

The Easter Bunny just didn’t deliver eggs this weekend; he had a full swag of fish for those that hit the water.

Holiday anglers made the most of the conditions hitting all the local spots and almost all grabbed a feed. The most popular spot was the rocks around the harbour at Shellharbour. Armed with squid jigs these hungry travelers landed some succulent squid for a weekend feed.

While Bass Point seen the bonito return for a short stint as the water temperature increased slightly. But the talk about town was luderick with some serious pinstriped bandits causing havoc in the shallow water. Chad Davison got amongst it and had a battle on his hands when he caught a bruiser luderick in less than 2 feet of jagged rocky water, after a torrid battle the fish succumbed and weighed a whopping 1.25kg!

Daniel Grey from Warilla Sports Fishing Club got amongst the reds on the reefs south of Kiama landing a fair feed for him and his family these pannies averaged around 1.5kg.
Tailor were also around frustrating some while providing fun for others. The fish milled around the entrance to Little Lake at high tide with most falling to a ganged pillie or metal lure.

Windang and Port Beach also turned on these toothy terrors.
Wider off Windang Is. Rat kings were scoffing down yacka’s and gars most fish unfortunately were undersized but for those that took the bream gear had a ball on these future hoodlums
The one fish that strikes fear in to most anglers made a return during the week. The dreaded leatherjacket made a return causing heart palpitations amongst the flattie bombers. Snipping every bait, sinker and swivel that went past. Those that persevered and changed positions did manage a feed of sweet flathead fillets.

The Shoalhaven River resembled peak hour in Sydney with the power with the amount of boats on the water it was nearly impossible to have line out. But those that did find a quiet spot landed a few good bream on fresh local prawns and live nippers.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

What a scorcher of a weekend and I just don’t mean the heat! The fishing action was on fire with the warmer water creating a fisherman’s paradise.
Lake Illawarra had the mullet literally jumping into the boat as these little sportsters were on the boil and scoffing down peeled prawns and worm baits. Whiting were cruising the channel and flats in preparation for a night time dining, on the prawns that were on the run as the moon, stars and tides were in perfect alignment.
The action on the rocks just seems to be getting better with anglers fatigued from the extended fights! With some solid fish being caught and lost. Serious salmon, terrorizing tailor and colossal kings have been fraying anglers’ nerves and lines, with a few people losing a lot of lures as these piscatorial pirates come around in waves, raiding anglers of their shiny metal lures.
Thankfully the flathead kept most boaties stomachs full with some good catches coming in at most ramps. Fish ranging between 40cm and 50cm were the norm, and if you ask me, are the sweetest size to eat both in portions and taste.
The best part of flathead fishing is that it’s easy to find some nice patches of sand and gravel, drop a line over with a fresh bit of mullet or slimey and drift. Wait for that slow draw or rattle and set the hook and wind in. Simple as that!

Keep crankin’ them in

It’s definitely a fishy new year, with the local fish stocks enjoying the festivities and partying with local and holiday anglers alike.

7-year-old Corban Perry has been making the most of his school holidays dragging dad Steve out on to the water chasing the fish that abound and Corban had a blast trolling up tailor around Bass Pt. These fish weren’t slouches especially the solid 2.5kg tailor that Corban tussled with for several minutes.

Local anglers Barry Whitfield and Glenn DeBritt hit the water not wanting to let the tourist have all the fun, Barry and Glenn headed out to grab a feed of fresh fish fishing wide of Kiama the boys grabbed a good haul of fish including snapper and morwong to 2kg as well as some succulent flathead on the drifts.

The fishing is that good at moment several visitors to the area are considering not returning home. Most boats returning to the cleaning tables have been cleaning up on some quality flathead with a majority of boats bagging out. The deeper drifts have been the most productive.

The waters around Killalea State Park are teaming with salmon and tailor with either the beaches or the rocks producing fish the early morning or late evenings producing best results with some of the fish lately giving some real curry to anglers decimating reels, snapping gang hooks and down right frustrating anglers.

The Shoalhaven River though at present looks like the princess highway on a public holiday is still producing some good fish with the lower reaches turning on flathead and bream live nippers and poddy’s are the go. In the upper reaches Leon Budd had some fun tussling with the local populations of bass and estuary perch using stick baits during the low light and blades midday. 
 
Tight lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

It looks like the tide is turning and the weather is starting to stabilise? Fingers crossed?

With the warmer weather the beach is really the only place to be and why not wet a line. Grab some beach worms your light long rod a couple of cold drinks and throw a bait out just beyond the breakers.

Now’s the time for whiting and reports coming through is there are good schools of fish milling around “The Farm,” Windang and Warilla Beach with fish to 40cm being caught and seriously, you really cant beat fresh whiting fillets.

Bream are also on the chew with John Ovendon picking up a few off the beaches around Minnamurra again worms or fresh pipi’s the are the way to go to catch a feed.

The rocks around Bass Pt continue to be hot and cold with mixed reports of success a couple of visitors to this picturesque area hit the jackpot and helped themselves to a fine feed of snapper to 2kg.  While the salmon and tailor are making and appearance around the outer tip the bonito haven’t shown and the high-speed spin brigade are starting to get jittery with the lack of action.

Kingfish, Darrel Brisbane has been having a torrid tussle with some serious hoodlums around the reefs of Greenwell Pt. Darrel landed a few nice hoodlums to 15kg, while seeing some absolute brutes cruising under the boat. They don’t grow that big by being nice these kings do know how to reef you and have frayed the nerves and lines of many anglers.

Lake Illawarra will be prawn central over the next week or so with the tides pretty much perfect, just remember that this being the festive season you’ll surely run in to a jolly fisheries officers so remember to make sure your licence is up to date and your gear is with in regulations.

The staff at The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour would like to wish everyone very Merry Christmas, hopefully the guy in the red suit might leave a new toy to tangle with the big one.

Tight lines,
Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop,
Shellharbour

If a few people could ask Santa for some good weather for January it would be greatly appreciated by all. As like most I’m over this shocking weather.
Even though the conditions have been wet, windy and wild there are fish about, the recent rain has stirred the estuaries up pushing the bait towards the entrances as they look for saltier water and this congregation of bait is bringing in some bigger hungrier predators.
Flathead are firing in the Shoalhaven with Grant Evans scoring some nice fish to 70cm on plastics. While Col Leech targeted luderick around Comerong Is. using live squirt worms. Reports also filtered through of some nice mulloway being landed but I’ve been sworn to secrecy on the location though I can say it was stretch of water east of the bridge.
The rocks haven’t been producing of late though some of the recent short-lived swells have fired up things. Tailor have been terrorizing anglers at Bass Pt, chomping down on metal lures and ganged pilchards.
The bigger morning tides have also been a boon to those that pot hole. Mick Dalimore landed some nice bream and drummer to 2kg recently.
The news from the boat ramps has been a bit quiet with the weather and conditions not conducive to good or safe fishing. Prior to the bad weather the cleaning tables at Shellharbour had a mix of fine tasting flathead and snapper being prepped for the table.
Jervis Bay one of the places you can get refuge from the bad seas and respite from the wind is producing some good fish. Richard Keen spent some time down there recently tangling with a few of the locals. Richard landed some prime reds to 4kg as well tussling with rat kings to 6kg.   

Tight lines,

Though conditions the past week have been ordinary to say the least, the fishing on the other hand for those who got out was fantastic!
Snapper are out and about on the shallower reefs (less than 40m) with some good fish coming in to the ramps. Billy Lee who had been off the water for some time didn’t miss a beat landing several nice pan sized reds as well as a nice 4.5kg bruiser to top it off.

While one angler we’ll call “Bush fly” fished the reefs up north of Port Kembla for a couple of good reds and had an epic battle with the mother of all Maori wrasses (Butcher’s Prick) that went hell for leather on light line

The Shoalhaven River is the place to go if you’re after a feed of bream and whiting. Grant Harley and his uncle Ken and mate Rob from Sydney hit the picturesque waters for a relaxing fish and hopefully a good feed.

Fishing the evening tide change and using the humble nipper the boy’s scored well landing a dozen bream to 35cm as well as a couple of monster whiting that weighed well over 0.5kg each. Ken unfortunately lost a ripper of a flathead at the boat and of course copped the ribbing that most do when a good fish gets away.

Speaking of monster flathead if that floats your boat the hit St Georges Basin a few of the boys from “The Fishin’ Hub” headed down for a weekend away armed with a couple of fishing rods, soft plastics and I’m sure a few beers for medicinal purposes.
Of course they spent most of the time fishing and boy did they get a couple with several landed over 80cm, while Lewis landed his personal best just a small lizard only about 95cm long.    
Tight lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

With the onset of summer, people’s minds turn towards spending some fun times at the beach, and of course while enjoying the sun, surf and sand don’t forget to pack the fishing rod because summers the time for the fighting whiting and their isn’t a better feed than fresh whiting fillets some chips and salad.

Fishing the edge of gutters and just behind the shore breaks where there is a lot of churned up water is the go as the whiting search for a feed of worms and pipis dislodged by the waves. Running either a mid sized ball sinker or a light paternoster rig using live worms or freshly caught pipis is a great recipe for success and may also pick up a bream or two that seem to always lurk around.
The most popular and productive beaches include Perkins Beach, The farm, Seven Mile and South Beach Shellharbour. Combine a rising tide around the low light periods and don’t forget the sunscreen.

Kingfish are they here yet? A question we’ve been asked recently well the answer is yes and no! There are some good fish available but a few anglers have reported that the schools of small undersized fish are at times being a pain in the rear. Reports have filtered through of some fish landed to 8kg, and most of these fish being taken on live baits slow trolled down deep.

Fisheries have advised that the F.A.D.s are back out on the water. So hopefully with the warmer water moving in the ever-popular dolphin fish will be back and in good numbers. Just remember there is a bag limit of 10 fish with the minimum size limit of 60cm and only 1 fish over 110cm.

The coordinates for Wollongong are as follows 34,27.321 S and 151,04.308 E while off Kiama it’s 34,41.000 S and 151,59.500 E. 

Tight lines,

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Tough conditions made for tough fishing but those that persisted were rewarded with some good catches.
Conditions offshore on the weekend kept most anglers off the water, those that did head out kept in the lee of places like the Port Is. and Bass Pt. came up trumps on some good fish who where also taking respite from the average conditions.
Rob Hardy and Brad Williams fished in the lee of Bass Pt, trolling small skirted jet heads the boys landed several stripey’s for the bait freezer as well as a couple of 8 kg yellowfin for the BBQ.
Don’t tell anyone but the kingfish are about. The fish are ranging from annoying little rats that devour everything and anything frustrating most. But a few anglers have been tussling with some nice fish to 10kg. Good live bait is the key.
The rocks have been a mixed bag of late with trevally the main stay of late. While tailor and bream have been on the chew around the break walls at Lake Illawarra. While Alan Griffiths who attracts fish like a magnet hit the rocks around Gerroa for a couple of reds to 1.5kg.  
 A couple of local anglers headed up to Lake Windamere home of the mega yellowbelly. The keen anglers fished the Golden Classic Tournament taking on some very high profile and experienced anglers. With conditions going from stinking hot and blustery winds to cold and wet it was an interesting and challenging weekend.
Using bladed lures and jackals the fish thankfully were on the chew hitting hard and fighting even harder. The format; a teams catch and release event on lure and fly only with the best 10 fish counting. The south coast boys did us all proud placing 5 teams in the top 10! Grant Evans took the biggest fish a fat yellowbelly that went 611mm on the lie detector that fish scored Grant a new reel valued at $500 (lucky bastard).
Anyone wanting to explore the heart of NSW and sample the fine fishing that Windamere has to offer not to mention the food and wines that Mudgee has to offer contact Cudegong Waters Park on 02-  6358 8462   
 

Hayden Capobianco,

All you had to do to catch a fish on the weekend was add water! Everywhere was firing and on all cylinders.

Offshore the word was striped tuna, albacore, yellowfin and marlin! The striped tuna were anywhere from 30 fathoms to the shelf, while the albacore were wider they were a good size with a lot of fish coming in weighing around 8 to 10kg’s and tasting great in the fry pan, just ask Chris and James Huk who tangled with a few on the weekend.

The yellowfin have been something of a lucky dip with a few fish landed lucky to weigh 2kg something not often seen, while others have been modestly pulling the scales down to 30kg. Reports filtered through of a couple of striped marlin being caught on the weekend, which has all the game fisho’s salivating.

The Estuary’s are a smorgasbord of fish with the Shoalhaven River, St Georges Basin and Lake Illawarra throwing on a feed of flathead, whiting, bream and tailor. The catch of the weekend must go to 9 year old Lachlan Budd who landed a 620g monster whiting on a ganged pilchard while fishing for tailor, Lachlan also out fished Dad Shaun with a bag of 10 quality fish.

Col Leech doing some preliminary work for an upcoming tournament fished the Shoalhaven River and landed what he said “were the best quality and well conditioned luderick he’s seen this season” Col fished a variety of methods landing a total of 42 fish including bream, tailor, luderick, flathead and some serious whiting.

And for those who like a feed of reds, they were on with the best catches coming from places like Kiama, Jervis Bay and Gerringong.

Hayley Gassman and Luke Pascott made the most of a weekend away and fished the pristine waters of JB and having a blast with both Hayley and Luke bagging out on snapper. Hayley won bragging rights with the biggest fish.

Warilla Beach has a few tailor in the suds terrorizing anglers chasing bream and flathead using whitebait.

While up north Ben McElhone and Jennifer Martin have been tangling with the fabled mulloway unfortunately I’ve been sworn to secrecy on the location!  

 If a spot of freshwater is the your cup of tea? Eucumbene is the place to be turning on some succulent trout Billy Lee just got back from a recent trip and regaled us of stories of fish “That didn’t get away” Billy landed some nice conditioned and very tasty brown and rainbow trout, his biggest was a well round brown that weighed 3.75kg and was 61cm in length. 

Hayden Capobianco,
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

With the warmer water the albacore have thinned out but there are still plenty of striped tuna and a few yellowfin. Anglers trolling small flies have done very well taking stripies to 6kg.

The yellowfin have been taken on small skirts and deep divers. Andrew Koberlein and wife Kerrie, trolled up a 14kg yellowfin and a 6kg albacore on deep divers. A few striped marlin have also started to show up.

The rocks are producing some good mixed species catches. Tailor and trevally have been consistent captures on the south side of Bass Point. Some nice bream, snapper and rock blackfish have been taken in small numbers.

The estuaries are really starting to fire. Bream continue to be the target of anglers using the highly successful “blade” type metal lures. Good flathead are showing up in the Shoalhaven and St George’s Basin. Estuary perch have been almost a pest for anglers chasing bream and bass in the Shoalhaven. Most fish have been taken using blades, soft plastics and whitebait.
 
Inshore there have been some really good flathead taken from the sand and gravel patches in about 60 metres. Nice morwong, and snapper around the kilo are also being taken on the reef sections.

Prawners are have been out on the lake prospecting and are getting a feed. Indications are it could well be a good prawning season.

Alan GRIFFITHS

“Tuna in a can!”, was one way an angler described the scenes out on the water. "They were so thick it was not a matter of when and if? It was matter of how many?". The reason for this, the albacore have turned up and these chickens of the sea are out on the shelf in big numbers and are hungry devouring anything and everything!
James Huk made the most of the last days of his school holidays dragging his dad Chris out. The boys hit the water and had fun on some great little fish! On light line they can't be beat, and of course on the plate there may be no better. The boys kept 3 fish out of a countless many for a feed.
For those that don’t know the NSW Fisheries limit for tuna that includes albacore, yellowfin, big-eye and bluefin, etc. The maximum bag limit that can be kept is 5 fish combined under 90cm as well as only 2 fish combined over 90cm.
Still with tuna the boys aboard “Fishaholic” did it again landing some nice fish on succumbing to Rob Bird favorite lure! This time Rob Hardy was on the rod landing a hefty 45kg yellowfin, while trying not to laugh as he weaved the fish around the hydraulic outriggers that were acting up dancing around like something out of a Jane Fonda workout! 
Richard Keen must have the Midas touch as lately he just keeps producing some seriously good fish.
Fishing around Greenwell Pt and the Banks, Richard landed a bag that included 6 red’s between 2 and 4kg’s, two 5kg kingfish and to top it off some 6 well conditioned flathead to 1.5kg.  Unfortunately he won't let on to his secret formula that is keeping everybody guessing down the ramp.
Col Leech needed a scenery change so he headed down and took in the magnificent sites and fishing the Shoalhaven River has to offer.
Fishing the weekend Col landed what would be many a keen fisho’s dream bag of fish. The bag included species like luderick; bream, tailor, whiting and how many fish did Col land 45 in total! Not to mention all the throwbacks. Most anglers would be over the moon with a quarter of that catch.
4 year Jordyn Norval was not too happy with her dad on the weekend when they arrived a bit late for their fishing clubs weigh-in. Jordyn had a nice catch of “slimy fish” as she called it which were actually a couple of nice sized dusky flathead.
Windang beach was awash with salmon on the weekend, if you couldn’t catch a fish you must not have had a fishing rod in your hand. As reports came through of the fish clamouring over everything and anything.

It’s tuna time. The waters turned up with some good fish being taken out wide.
Reports have filtered through from some keen game fisho’s that yellowfin to 30kg have turned up on the shelf as well as the sweat tasting albacore. Though there are not huge numbers of fish busting up everywhere some of the boats are landing 4 or 5 fish.
 The best way to find the fish is to troll a mixed pattern of lures including skirts divers and big metal vides until the ratchet screams on one of your reels and than start cubing because if there’s one fish another couple will be lurking nearby.
The beaches are still producing salmon and with the midday high tides it’s the perfect excuse to take the kids down the beach to enjoy the sun and catch some fish on the school holidays the best gutters of late have been off Warilla beach, Windang beach and the Farm.
Alan Griffiths dusted the cobwebs of the old wooden Alvey and hit the rocks at Bass Pt fishing the rising tide Alan and his son in law Jeremy landed some nice bream and trevally and where blown away by something called a USO (unidentified swimming object) that scorched 50meters of line of the reel before busting them up.
Flathead are on the menu down the Shoalhaven River with most anglers working soft plastics the lower reaches of the river is producing best with it’s slightly warmer water helping to concentrate the baitfish in the area.
Lake Illawarra has bream and trevally hanging along the rock walls and with the solid current that now rages through their the best time to fish is the slack periods of water between tides live nippers or squirt worms should pick you up a good feed While the shallower sand banks on high tide have whiting cruising the flats looking for a feed. 

Hayden Capobianco,
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

It’s certainly warming up outside and so is the fishing. 
Schools of salmon have been marauding around the Port Is. and Windang Is. and they’re hungry engulfing anything thrown at them. The best fun is throw metal lures out amongst them and wind fast, with fish to 2.5kg willing to jump all over and devour the lure. What better fun could be had?
Grant Evans after a hard week at work decided to get away for a bit of R & R and headed down to Jervis Bay fishing of the rocks grant didn’t have much time to relax hooking in to some good groper and a couple of nice reds to 1.5kg.
Flathead are making a splash this spring with some solid fish turning up at the cleaning tables. Fish well over 1kg are schooling up in good numbers along the deeper water drifts wide of Shellharbour and Windang.
Trevally and small sweep have been harassing anglers around Bass Pt. stealing bait meant for other more succulent fish. The bream and drummer are there but the key is patience and if the pickers are hounding your bait relentlessly move further along, also use tougher baits like cunjevoi or mullet gut.
With the season reopening a lot of keen bass anglers have been out at their favorite freshwater hole getting a fix on these great little Aussie battlers! And the reports of some good fish have been coming through the biggest we’ve heard so far and it’s only early, is 53cm! Unfortunately I’ve been sworn to secrecy on the location but I can say is it’s a river somewhere?
With the upcoming long weekend and opening of the trout season it’s also time when local DPI Fisheries officers will be out enforcing the rules and regulations so don’t forget to check your licence is valid and grab a copy of the updated regulations. 
 

Hayden Capobianco,
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Well what can you say about the weather other than it hasn’t been kind to us fisho’s! But things should start to turn around from here and the warm water and sunny days shouldn’t be to far away.
The recent seas and blustering southerly winds will benefit the deep-sea anglers stirring the water up and adding a bit of colour. This should bring the reds out to play as they move in to feed on the inshore reefs.
For land-based anglers the rocks should turn on a slew of fish and maybe a couple of decent reds, for those keen to fish the upcoming morning tides, but remember as always to keep your eyes on the water.
Before the swell reports came through of some good flathead captures on the inshore drifts. Jeff Risk did well scoring half a bag of succulent flatties around the 40cm mark.
The Barry’s crew has been invaded with a Marilyn jumping on board taking over the boat and from the looks of it Marilyn is also taking all the fish! Marilyn on her first trip out landed a groper that weighed 7.5kg, some snapper to 1kg and a couple of flathead, while husband Barry could only manage a 1kg leatherjacket and one solitary flathead.
Peter Dent had some time off work and made the most of it fishing the Shoalhaven River. Peter is in to his bream fishing and wanted to give the new blade style lures a run to refine the technique and hopefully catch some fish.
Well, Peter certainly hit the winning formula fishing on the shallower banks and casting in to the deeper water. Peter literally had bream jumping all over the lure as they followed the lure up out of the depths fighting to devour it. In one small section Peter landed half a dozen bream ranging between 30 to 40cm and seen bigger fish chase them up.    

Hayden Capobianco,
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Bring on summer; frustrated anglers are baying for the warmer water and sunny days that summer brings, not to mention the fish.

Those few that did find time to hit the water did it tough, Windang beach was the place to be with salmon and tailor honing in on everything that went in to the water.

Metal lures like “Gyro’s” and “Psyko’s” with their wounded bait fish actions proved irresistible to these psyched up and hungry fish. One angler frustrated with the recent conditions, fished Windang in the early morning on the wrong tide just to get a fix and relieve the jitters came up trumps on some nice sambo’s to 3kg’s.

Andrew Crook was one fisho’s who braved the cold winter waters and was seriously rewarded with a serious fish one thumping snapper that weighed 6.5kg! Andrew wouldn’t let on with exactly where he got it other than the area had a mixture of sand and reef bottom.

The Barry’s were another crew that needed that fishing fix. The boy’s fished the inshore areas around Shellharbour and with 14-degree water temperature did it extremely tough landing a few small reds and some hungry flathead.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco

The cold weather kept most indoors but a few mad anglers braved the conditions for some hard won fish.

Groper was the fish of choice for most boaties before the swell came up. Joe McNamara fished the area around Minnamurra for a nice blue around 6.5kg. Red crabs and a good berley of urchins is the key to tangling with these hard pulling fish.

Alan Glover fished the rocks around Shellharbour for a feed of bream; conditions were extremely tough with clear and calm water. Persistence paid off and Alan was rewarded with some nice fish to 1kg.

Grant Evans and Grant Hartley were foolhardy enough to head up to fish Fitzroy Falls Reservoir at night. Using lures Grant Hartley took great pleasure in out fishing his good mate by landing the only fish of the evening a very skinny rainbow trout buck that weighed 2.8kg’s.

Windang Beach and the entrance to Lake Illawarra have been teaming with salmon and anglers have been having a ball with fish to 2.5kg hitting metal lures and ganged pilchards.

Squid have been out and about. With the full moon bringing in some good-sized cephalopods, a few keen young anglers who don’t mind the cold of the evening are throwing squid jigs or spikes and coming up trumps. Usual haunts like the base of the gravel loaded and the rocks around Shellharbour Harbour or any weedy area will produce a feed. 

With the increasing swell and a warmer change predicted the upcoming weekend looks good for a feed of fish. The water may finally be turning and things will hopefully pickup from here, reds will be on the minds of most anglers with a few fish recently showing up at the cleaning tables.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco

The rocks were the most productive areas to fish the past week.

Barrack Point though only small seemed to hold most of the fish. Luderick and rock blackfish were the mainstay, it was just a matter of who was keen enough to fish the low light periods and put up with the cold.

Alan Glover and his boys Wade and Rory were just a few of the keen anglers who were willing to put their limbs on the line for a feed of fish. The boys landed some nice luderick and drummer to 1kg while Alan bagged a solid 4kg groper.

Alan Griffiths did it tough around Bass Pt; Alan had to use his many years of local knowledge to scrounge out a few fish. Alan went through several areas and a bucket full of berley to land some nice pigs.

Reports from the beaches were salmon on the chew just head out and throw some pillies into any gutter on South Beach Shellharbour or Windang beach for a bit of fun.

The story out on the deep blue was subdued with not many anglers venturing out. Jeff risk and Glen DeBritt fished around Minnamurra reef for a mixed bag of fish that included trevally, luderick, tarwhine, bream and drummer but from all accounts the fishing was tough.

The boys did mention that the dreaded barracouta are around snipping off baits and being a general pain.

Word came through from Richard Keen who fished the pristine waters of Jervis Bay that the action was hot. Richard landed several solid fish that included several reds to 2kg a couple of kingfish to 4kg, bream and luderick to 1kg now that is truly a mixed bag.

Tight Lines,
Hayden Capobianco

It was just a matter of grin and bear it as we experienced several seasons in on week.

The beaches when the swell abated provided plenty of action with salmon freely feeding. The beaches that reported most of the action were South Beach Shellharbour and Windang Beach.

Grant Evans got amongst the action during a bit of down time from work and had a ball throwing metal slugs at these aerobatic sport fish.

Sunday proved the best day for those who wanted to get the boat wet. Even though the conditions out wide were still quite lumpy most decided to stay on the inshore reefs and sand patches drifting for a nice feed of fresh fish.

Flathead where on the chew around the Warilla and Windang while on the reefs around Bass Pt a few small reds and mowies were taken, it seems we are having a respite from the hordes of leatherjackets, which for the time being look like they have moved on.

Steve Rhind decided to head further north and fish the reefs around Wollongong and Bellambi, drifting over the broken reef Steve landed a few nice mowies as well as a couple of well conditioned pigfish to 1.2kg.

Lake Illawarra is the place to go if your searching for a bream they have moved back in to the lake and with the recent rain it will help stir the water up a bit, make the fish less shy and willing to bite down on a well presented bait or lure.

Luderick are also schooling along the northern side of the bridge, though they have been extremely finicky the key is to find yourself some squirt worms and fish them near the bottom.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

There was action a plenty out on the water the past week.

Snapper have moved in to the inshore reefs chasing a feed of cuttlefish that have moved in for their annual spawning run. With fish in the shallower water the key to good success is fresh bait and a very quiet boat any noise can shut the fish down so softly does it.

Tailor and Salmon are still milling around Windang Beach taking in the great views under the moonlit sky. Fishing in to the night or early in the morning on the rising tide is the best bet. Just remember to rug up, as it gets cold down on the beach at night.

The southern end of Warilla Beach has had bream schooling near the entrance to little lake with some nice deep gutters, grab some strips of mullet and fish them on the edges of the gutters for best results.

Alan Griffiths making the most of his semi-retirement fished Bass Pt during the week for a mixed bag of fish that included luderick, trevally and drummer.  With the calm conditions Alan found the areas that had a little bit of wash to help stir things up as the fish sit in wait for a tasty morsel being flailing about in the subs. Royal red prawns are the perfect bait for this kind of fishing.

Another retiree Jeff Risk spent almost every day out on the water last week. If Jeff’s on the water you know there is fish around. Fishing several locations and techniques Jeff landed several different species in good numbers

Bream, luderick, pigs, trevally, bonito and salmon all fell prey to Jeff who is always thinking continually adjusts rigs to better refine his technique and improve his catch results.  

Lake Illawarra has been frustrating for some anglers of late chasing luderick with weed, the most likely reason for this is that they’re feeding on something else in this case squirt worms.So best bet is to grab the nipper pump and head down at low tide and pump some squirties. You may even pick up some bream that are starting to move back in to the lake in good numbers.

Hayden Capobianco

What an absolute cracker of a weekend, everyone was out to play on the weekend and the fish came to the party. With the moon and tides falling in sync the fishing action was hot all over the ocean and on the rocks

Richard Keen fished early in the morning on the inshore reefs around Kiama for a great mixed bag of fish that included a 4kg kingfish, bream, morwong and snapper. Richard was not afraid to try some new techniques and was rewarded with a good mixed bag.

Jason Czornobej did well on the drifts but fished the afternoon and into the evening for another fine mixed bag of fish including flathead, snapper and when the leatherjackets moved in Jason changed tact and hit the inshore washes for rock blackfish and bream.

Bonito are about and it’s either an early start to the new season or an extremely late and fashionable arrival for the last. The marker buoy’s around Bass Pt are proving to be extremely good F.A.D.s holding these fun little sport fish.

Jeff Risk and Glen DeBritt fished the area trolling small green skirted lures and came up trumps landing a good dozen fish before the seal moved in.

The word for those that are stuck on solid ground is Windang Beach. If you don’t mind getting your toes wet is to head down to the beach as there are several good gutters holding salmon and tailor arm yourself with some pilchards or metal spinners for some good fun.

Col Leech did just that and came up solid on some very good fish it’s not often you hear tailor weighing more than salmon but Col managed to land some hefty tailor to2.5kg while the best salmon he could manage only tipped the scales to 2.2kg.

Col also landed some monster winter whiting off the beach two of the fish weighed just under 600 grams.

Alan Griffiths took time out from the shop to fish the evening tide at Barrack Pt. anyone who knows Alan knows he likes to keep it simple.

Armed with a bucket of bread for berley and a few royal reds and some striped tuna for bait Alan fished the top of the tide for a mixed bag of bread and butter fish to 1kg that included luderick, rock blackfish, trevally and bream to 1kg.
 
Word has filtered through of a few mulloway being taken in the Shoalhaven River during the day in the deeper holes as well as some nice flathead to 3kg that are sitting in the shallows sunning themselves.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

What a weekend to be on the water and if you weren’t the excuse must be a good one because from all accounts it was standing room only at a lot of boat ramps and rocky headlands.

Chad Davison and Glen DeBritt fished away from their usual haunts, heading down the boys sampled the fishing the waters off Kiama has to offer. Fishing the deeper reefs, Glen and Chad had great success on a mixed bag of reefies landing snapper and morwong to 1kg as well as a few sweet tasting pigfish for the table.

Billy and Les Lee fished one of the wider reefs off Shellharbour and had good success on the reds, fishing baits floated down the berley trail Billy and Les managed 7 fish with the average weight around 2.5kg’s. Billy however did win bragging rights for the day landing the biggest snapper that was a very thick and well-conditioned specimen that weighed 4.68kg.

Phil Spencer did some scouting around the rocks at Bass Pt seeing what was on offer and though pickings were slow due to the ultra clear conditions.

 Phil did manage to pull some good fish, flicking royal red prawns in to the washy areas after peppering the area with a bread and bran berley mixture. Phil landed some nice luderick to 0.7kg as well as having some fun on hard pulling trevally.

Wade Glover got into some serious action on the weekend. Fishing the rocks Wade tangled with some serious pigs and these fish weren’t for the faint hearted. After getting absolutely bricked by a couple of hefty fish, Wade wrestled one out of the water the pulled the scales down to 3.1kg. now that is one mean and fit pig.      
 

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Picture perfect had local fisho’s jumping out of their skin to hit the water on the weekend and who could blame them.

Robert Bird lived up to his boats name “Fishaholic” hitting the wide grounds for some serious fish as he calls it. After a few hours after burning some fuel and just before the boys decided to cube one rod went off, 20secs later another rod went off, then another then 2 more went off, a quintuple hookup!

After some serious twisting a weaving the 3 boys on board managed to land all 5 fish and the weren’t yellowfin but the much sought after and highly prized southern blue fin tuna, the fish averaged between 15-30kg. The fish were taken on a mixture of hard body and skirted lures.

Jeff Risk has been at it again fishing the inshore waters around Port Kembla for a mix of fish that included bream, trevally, pigs and bonito that have turned up. Hopefully their visit wont be brief and these prime bait and sport fish will have an extended stay.

Tony Whitfield’s finally hit the water again after an extended break due to tearing his Achilles heel, and what a return, Tony out fished everyone on board the boat including his dad. Tony chimed back into the ring with a 5.4kg groper, a couple of nice bream and trevally as well as drummer to 1.3kg and salmon to finish a well rounded bag out.    

Wal Garvie from Lakeview fishing club fished the rocks around Bass Pt for a nice bag of luderick around the 0.8kg mark, the main area of action lately has been below and around the gravel loader with fish and fisherman schooling up for a feed.

Lake Illawarra is still pulling some surprises out at this time of year with some good flathead still being caught. Fish up to 50cm have been landed which is very strange! As these lizards usually join their land loving namesakes and hibernate during the cooler months.

This upcoming weekend St Georges Basin will host the Sussex Bream Classic. Some of the countries best bream lure fisherman will be down there over the weekend. Applying all their skills and tricks to fool the Basin’s weary bream and take out the top prize, some big dollars and bragging rights.

Hayden Capobianco

Those that made it out midweek had the pick of the weather, the tides and the fish.

Jeff Risk fished the Port Is. for a good mixed bag of luderick, rock blackfish and bream. The early morning tides were almost perfect to anchor up in close to the islands. And fish small un-weighted baits into a good berley trail.

The full moon during the week had a few of the underground mulloway fisherman jumping at the bit to hit the beaches, the good sized evening tides and a reasonable swell were almost the perfect jew fishing conditions. Reports did filter back of some nice catches, but this cagey lot of fisho’s don’t let too much out of the bag on when, where or how!

Reports of reds on the chew after the swell died down enough for anglers to get out on the water. Ryan Brown fished the rocks around Shellharbour and came agonizingly close to landing a good red, losing it in the last stages of the fight at his feet.

Lake Illawarra is still producing some good flathead and big winter whiting for those willing to put in the hard yards. With the water temperature cooling anglers that are taking the time to catch live bait and search for areas with a bit warmer water like shallower sand banks have been scoring some good fish.

Mark Helson and Harry Butler have been out on the tiles searching for good weed and have been rewarded with there persistence bagging out on luderick during a few mid week session. Ledges around Bass Pt, underneath the gravel loaded and Cowries have been the hot spots during the week depending on the prevailing wind.

The east coast low had most fisho’s down in the dumps over the weekend. The best remedy I could suggest for this to fisho’s as they came through the door on the weekend was to take up flying kites!

The good news though is the resulting seas will stir things up a treat be prepared for some good fishing on the inshore reefs for species like the ever popular and highly prized snapper which will move in and feed on the tasty morsels dislodged from their homes.

Hopefully the stir up will also move the leatherjackets on for a while and give a reprieve to some very frustrated fisho’s.

The rocks will also fire with luderick moving into the more sheltered spots schooling and hungry they’ll gladly down a float. Bream and drummer will also be on the chew feeding in those washy areas on small crustaceans and the like. There’s no better excuse to go soak lightly weighted bait in the washes.

Just remember if you are fishing the stones to keep a watchful eye on the water as it only takes one wave to wash you in. if it looks and feels too dangerous it is!

Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Shellharbour held their final weigh in for the year and the weather didn’t help especially for Chad Davison and Richard Keen who were fighting it out for top honours in the Deep Sea section, the boys did manage to get out and fish.

Richard fished the more sheltered waters of Jervis Bay that in the end was the decisive move. Richard bagged out on snapper had a good few morwong, 2 kingfish to 5kg which in the end was enough to take out the monthly comp as well as the overall yearly comp by a meager 8.2% points which pretty much equates to 1 fish.

Phil Spencer fished the sheltered rocks around Bass and Barrack Pt for a catch of fish that included pigs, bream and luderick the 20 fish Phil caught in the not so ideal conditions was enough to just to take out the monthly comp in the BRE section. Overall winner in both BRE and the club in general Col Leech had a good bag of fish from Lake Illawarra but the fishing was tough in those winds. 

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

The rocks have been the place to be with plenty of action for those chasing luderick. The usual haunts around Bass Point have produced good fish but the washy areas around Barrack Pt and Windang Island are also worth a go.

There have been some good tailor around the rocks, which are being taken on pilchards, metal lures and poppers. Fish to 1.5kg have not been uncommon. Bream, rock blackfish and trevally have also been keen to take lightly presented baits around the washes. Best baits being royal reds and striped tuna cubes.

Lake Illawarra is well worth a go for bream, We saw plenty of fish above the bridge on a recent trip. Reports are that one angler has been doing very nicely using Shoalhaven prawns.

Yellowfin are still around terrorizing and frustrating plenty of game fishermen. Anglers have had to dig deep for fuel, as the fish are a long way out. But the effort of tangling with these speed machines is worth it!

Alan GRIFFITHS
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Winter is here and so are the winter fish.

Those fishing in and around rock headlands have been rewarded with some quality fine eating fresh fish.

Sean Heath has been throwing soft plastic around the rocks at Kiama for a slight change of pace and has been hooking some solid fish. Earlier in the week Sean landed his personal best bream a 0.9kg big bruising blue nose on plastics in not the easiest of places to pull a fish out, especially on a 7-foot bream spinning stick.

Chad Davison fished around the Windang Is. for a large variety of fish using royal reds Chad and his mate Andrew hooked into everything from drummer and luderick to salmon and tailor which is not a bad way to spend the early morning hours.     

A few of the boys from Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Shellharbour headed out west to Lake Lyle for some therapeutic trout fishing and a couple of cleansing ale’s. Grant Evans, Darryl Wardman and Angelo Garcia found the fishing a little tough landing a few trout to 1kg and dropping some as Grant calls it “whoppers”.

Robert Bird and the crew aboard “Fishaholic” were at it again terrorizing the local yellowfin population.

Anyone who knows Rob knows he doesn’t like to cube so the boys set out the proven lure pattern that has accounted for some serious fish this season and they trolled from Shellharbour down to Nowra and didn’t turn a reel. Until they turned to move in and head back, it was on!

One rod went off for a fish about 30kg and then a double hook up and then a quadruple hook up as fin busted out of the water! Engulfing the lures, all up they landed 9 yellowfin between 15 and 35kg. The boys also raised a marlin on the trip down unfortunately it didn’t want to play ball.

Yellowfin out wide, that’s all we’ve been hearing for the past week!

The local game fisho’s have been reel game this week heading out even wider. Fishing between the 500 –1500 fathom mark (that’s deep!) the guys and gals have been rewarded with some serious fish.

 Andrew Koeberlein started things off with a nice 50kg fish while Grant Hartley and Joey Formosa had fun on 40kg fin and 15kg albacore. A few other boats out late on Sunday hooked up and were fighting fish late into the night one boat landed a fish that in the old scale easily went 150lbs.

Alan Griffiths and Keith Goodfrey fished around Barrack Pt mid week for a swag of tailor measuring 35cm plus that were chomping down every lure known to man. Except for soft plastics in a lumo colour now if only the leatherjackets would do the same.

Speaking of leatherjackets these scourge of the seas have moved on to the inshore areas like a group of bikers on their yearly road trip running local fisho’s off the water. The size of fish has ranged from and annoying 10cm up to some nice eating size fish over 40cm long.

The local estuary scene down south is still going strong. Alan McIlquham has been doing some R & R down at St Georges Basin chasing and tangling with some good healthy bream around the lake and the rocks. Using the humble royal red prawn as bait you Alan reckons you cant’ go wrong.

Billy Lee enjoying his retirement from work has been out and about around the rocks at Bass Pt. chasing luderick. Billy has been getting in to some good fish really putting a bend in his rod the biggest so far this season and it’s only early is 1.25kg.

While local luderick stalwart Stan Neaves has been doing the same. Though we’ve heard from fishing mate Des, Stan is setting his float out halfway to New Zealand. He must be going for those big luderick with yellow fins.

Salmon are harassing anglers around the entrance to Lake Illawarra with only small fish between 1kg and 2kg jumping on every bait. Grant Evans has been out there chasing a few slowly working his way up to some serious fish hopefully someday soon. 

Winter gave a warning it was just round the corner as cold windy conditions tormented anglers over the weekend.

Boating conditions deteriorated considerably and few anglers showed rewards for their efforts. Leatherjackets, flathead and a few small snapper were the main captures.

The rocks were able to provide some action for those chasing rock blackfish, bream and trevally. Luderick have become the main target fish especially from the washy areas around Bass Pt, Barrack Pt and Windang Island.

Tailor and salmon continue to be taken on pilchards and metal lures from most beaches. Rod White nailed a solid 2.5kg salmon from the lake entrance.

Squid have been a good alternative for anglers in the flat conditions. Many a feed of calamari was caught from Shellharbour and Kiama harbours using squid jigs or squid spikes.

News has filtered through from the Bermagui game fishing tournament where a severe weather change created havoc for anglers. However, some great fish were landed.

Dave Hall, fishing aboard Fishaholic, took the honours with a staggering 75kg yellowfin. There were many fish in the 15kg range taken and albacore to 22kg were also in the mix. Richard Keen was one of our local anglers to do well.

Some interesting captures were also reported. Daniel Bennett landed a 208kg thresher shark and Trevor Lillico caught a 37cm luderick on a piece of yellowfin!

Clear and clam conditions hampered inshore fishing but made for a pleasant change for those out wide.

Those that decided to h the deep blue waters of the shelf were rewarded with some spectacular catches. Yellowfin tuna have turned up in numbers where it may now be worth the fuel costs to head out.

The charter boats from Kiama have been getting into schools of fish ranging between 10kg -25kg.
These were not the only fish being boated because the boys have also been bottom dropping landing some sweet tasting gemfish and big blue eyes to 15kg+.

The rocks at Bass Pt were a challenge with the northern side flat as a tack, while the southern side was rough and in some places dangerous.

Though a few of those spinning in the early morning hit fish that were unstoppable even spooling one poor bloke of a spool of 15lb braid.

Alan Griffiths fished inside Maloney’s Bay for a truly mixed bag that included bream, trevally, tailor, luderick and pike. This catch as well as a few drummer taken from the ledges of Barrack Pt was enough for Alan to take the clean sweep of Biggest Bag, Heaviest Fish and Fish of the Month in the BRE section of Ocean Beach Fishing Club’s monthly competition.

The sea conditions made it hard for the boaties who fished the inshore grounds with some areas like Port Is. fishing hot and cold.

Chad Davison avoided the leatherjackets on the flathead grounds and fished a variety of inshore washes flicking royal reds back into a berley trail, landing a groper and a few succulent drummer as well as bream and tailor. This catch was enough for Chad to take line honours just a nose infront of Richard Keen in the Deep Sea section of Ocean Beach’s Fishing Club monthly comp.

Minnamurra fished well for flathead with the action best further up the river. It was a lot of fun for a few of the boys from the Fishin’ Hub except Harry who somehow lost a rod overboard! 

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

The weather hasn’t let up for a week and most fisho’s stayed home and tendered to gear or chores around the house gaining brownie points for when the weather turns.

The offshore scene has been quiet with only a few larger boats heading out wide and wide they went. Fishing the 500 fathom mark their was only one thing on their mind and that’s tuna of the kind John West wont reject! Yellowfin and few beasts were caught.

The boys on “ Dirty Berty” snagged a few prime fish in the 40kg range while some of the other boats out of Kiama managed fish in the 60kg range a great start to the season.

Hapuka and blue eyes are also on the go with the season starting off with a bang. A couple of charter boats out of Kiama have been putting some clients on to truly monstrous fish with some trevalla being hauled on board weighing over 20kg’s. while other fish are coming up scaled!

The rock fishing has slowed down but mainly due to the dangerous conditions. Those that did fish the stones took time in choosing the spots carefully and watching the water with due diligence. Bream were to be had as well as luderick who moved into sheltered locations where they could have respite from the currents as well as feed on the bait that was being washed into these areas.

With the rain and hefty seas as well as the tail end of a full moon a few anglers who headed up to the northern beaches of Wollongong were rewarded with putting up with the cold and rain by landing a few mulloway. Brett Bailey fished up that way and took a few nice fish to 5kg’s while his friend hooked onto a fish that was just unstoppable after a good 30mins and several thumping headshakes the fish using the conditions that prevailed won it’s freedom.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

The very wet and windy week kept most anglers at home, but those foolhardy enough to head out into the wild were rewarded with some quality fish.

The picturesque water of Lake Illawarra was the venue on the weekend for the 2nd round of the Southern Bream Series run by the Basin Lure and Fly Club. 25 very keen anglers put up with less than ideal conditions to battle it out for glory and prize money.

The task, land the biggest bag of 5 live bream using fly and lure only. No simple feet considering the amount of fresh and unhelpful tides. Only 3 teams managed their bag while many teams went fishless. Team McCallums took out the competition with a bag weight of just over 2kg on a mixture of hard body and soft plastic techniques. Chopper tailor were in plague proportions making it a costly adventure for some anglers myself included!

Ivor and Gillian Wright competed in the Deep Sea event of the NSW Fishing Clubs convention held down at Sussex Inlet during the past week. The competition waters stretched from Shellharbour in the north to Ulladulla in the south.

 Ivor and Gillian had a bag that included salmon, tuna and a hefty king that was enough for them to win their respective divisions as well as taking the individual prizes and championship.

Bass Point fished well in the early mornings with some solid bream caught Alan Griffiths and Keith Godfrey hit the rocks on a few occasions for a mixture of fish including bream, mullet as well as being smoked on the spinning gear by a good fish that took 80m of braid off Keith’s reel in 10sec before spitting the lure. 
 
    

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Lake Illawarra still firing.

Col Leech made the most of his weekend chasing luderick around the lake, the hardest part was finding some quality weed, Col did say that things are looking promising with some good growth around the place.

It must have been pretty good because Col nailed one of the biggest luderick I have seen in a long time. This thing was bigger than those big dinner plates you see in restaurants! It weighed 1.56kg more than twice the weigh of your average fish. Col did manage a few bream as a side dish. 

Lachlan Budd has started the school holidays off with a bang! Fishing Lake Illawarra on Saturday for a few bream and mullet and tailor. On Sunday Lachlan talked dad into taking the boat out around Kiama trolling up tailor to 0.7kg on small-skirted lures.

Marilyn Whitfield somehow got a spot on husband Barry’s boat over the weekend (must have been some serious arm twisting.) Marilyn not only went out fishing, she out fished the Barry and the rest of the crew. Landing trevally, mullet, bream and samson fish. Marilyn of course didn’t miss a beat letting the boys know who caught the fish, especially down at the local watering hole afterwards.

Grant Hartley who fished the Bass Pt Classic landed a nice 38kg yellowfin, which is a great sign for the upcoming season. The tournament had a few other memorable catches also! A thumping big tiger shark that weighed around 400+kg being the stand out.

Steve Trott fished the rocks and beaches around Sussex Inlet in the NSW Fishing Clubs, fishing convention on the weekend. Steve and the team from Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Ivor, Gillian and John took out the mixed team event for the second year running. This victorious team of dedicated anglers had a good mixed bag of trevally, tarwhine, tailor, salmon and bream as well as a few other species. Which is a great effort as conditions were reportedly tough down the coast.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Marlin are still on out wide, Mark and the boys on “Anticipation” have been out doing some preliminary field work the during the week tangling with some marlin up to 120kg. The fish were eager too, taking live slimies and fighting hard.

This is great news for the guys and gals fishing the “Bass Point Classic Tournament” this coming weekend. Anyone interested in seeing what’s been caught. The weigh in will be from 4pm on Saturday and between 2pm and 4.30om Sunday down at Shellharbour Boat Ramp.

On the inshore grounds the news isn’t good the leatherjackets are back and with a vengeance devouring everything sent over the side (so watch your toes.)

 Now they are a great fish to eat and if you want a couple for the table there are few tricks to get them use long shank hooks and just enough bait on the shank, squid is good! Use wire traces and try not to handle the line too much especially after you’ve had your hands in the bait.

Glenn Sheriff had a ball on a quick session before work on the weekend, fishing the washes around Barrack Pt, Glenn managed to knock over several bream, 4 drummer and a couple of thumping luderick. What makes this catch more remarkable was Glenn was using soft plastic instead of bait!

The fishing at Bass Pt has slowed a little but the main reason is no ones getting out early enough. Those that have been on the rocks before dawn have been having a ball with tailor and bonito ripping through everything and turning the water to foam.

The reason for this the amount of small baitfish around yakka’s and slimies no bigger than you hand have been schooling up with the garfish making an irresistible meal to those big predatory fish.

It’s funny how you only hear the good stories on “The Fishing Hub”?

It’s been over a week now and two members haven’t regailed us on there story of catching several good reds off Kiama only to loose every fish with in sight of the boat!

Now it wasn’t bad knot tying, which brought these members undone. No, it was a pesky little seal, I’m sure you can just imagine the looks on their faces when this mammal whipped out of nowhere stole their fish and then preceded to play with it in front of them. 3kg snapper being thrown about like a rag doll!   

So come on boys pipe up which two of you was it?

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Richard Keen had a couple of days R and R down at Jervis Bay and made the most of it out on the water. Richard fished the deeper reefs and came up trumps on some very serious reds.

Richard bagged out on snapper with every fish weighing between 2.5kg and 4kg now that’s what I call a great fishing session!

Nathan Egan and girlfriend Carina fished around Windang Is for a mixed bag of tailor and bream as well as a thumping 8kg groper that took a liking to the royal red prawns used for bait. After a torrid battle the fish was boated for a few quick photos before being released.

Col Leech hit Lake Illawarra the other night, fishing with live nippers and a few hard found live squirt worms. Col worked extremely hard shifting positions several times but with perseverance and some local knowledge Col was able to bag out on whiting.

After landing a 116kg striped marlin last week, Trevor Lillico was back on the water looking for another billfish to have some fun with. Trevor found one; only this time the fish was after revenge. After engulfing a skip bait the marlin then preceded to charge the boat jumping and shaking precariously close to the boat.

Trevor did his best to maneuver the boat away but the fish still was on his tail when with one last leap the marlin crashed straight down onto the outrigger pole snapping it clean and the line to win it’s freedom.
 

Around The Clubs

Well d-day finally arrived for the fisho’s at Ocean Beach and Warilla Hotel. After some serious preparation the game plans were in hand, it was only a matter of who could carry it out and not drop the ball! 

Warilla winners for the previous last 2 yrs were mildly confident of a 3peat with the guys and gals from Ocean Beach desperately wanting to regain the trophy and bragging rights.

With the system that was introduced last year the boys from Ocean Beach didn’t hold back and worked superbly as a team. Landing the bags limits of 10 of the 14 available species, while Warilla only managed 9. The final points difference would come down to weight.

After some serious calculations Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Shellharbour landed the quality fish for a total 2668.9pts to take out the title.

The boys were humble in victory while the boisterous crowd at Warilla hotel quieted down to console themselves in a few beers and reflect on where they went wrong in their plans, they vowed to be back next year raring to go. 

Tailor made for fishing.

If you didn’t pick up a fish on the weekend you definitely weren’t on the water. Because the humble chopper tailor were everywhere!

Barry Whitfield literally couldn’t fish for anything else around the Port Is. the tailor were jumping on to everything that was thrown in the water! The fish were all solid fit specimens around the 1.5kg mark.

The tailor bite wasn’t just confined up around the northern reaches Lake Illawarra break wall in the low light periods was a fish a cast with ganged pillies being devoured to the anglers joy.

The same reports came in from Bass Pt. also with frantic phone calls made to friends and family to get down here and grab some bait on the way! The bonito are still doing the rounds but they have become a little bit choosy.

Alan Griffiths hit the water to snare a couple for snapper baits and they would not hit metal lures or bait. Alan being an ever resourceful fisho’ searched through his bag of tricks and gave a popper a go! The fish jumped all over it 5 fish in 5 casts which isn’t too bad.

Trevally were also on the chew around Bass Pt with some hefty trevally that headed down south for a vacation ending up on the lines of some unsuspecting anglers. These fish can pull hard!

Speaking of pulling hard, the mother-in-law fish has turned up too. The dreaded silver drummer is hanging around the washes giving all sorts of curry to the bream fisho’s hitting prawn baits like sledge hammer to face! Some of these silvers have been in the 7kg plus range and are great sport on light gear off the rocks or out of a boat.

There’s marlin on the high seas, after a couple of weeks absence, reports flowed thick and fast of marlin hitting lures with some boats having multiple strikes and hookups, a couple of boats from Shellharbour Game Fishing Club hit the canyons around Jervis Bay and had a ball on striped marlin in the 80-100kg range.

Rien Pawlowski fished for trout around Eucumbene over the week; the trout were more active in the night. Rien the fish were well conditioned, rosy cheeked and feisty crashing flies like there was no tomorrow. Some fish even broke the 9lb tippet; Rien biggest for the week was 2.5kg     
 

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

What a ripper of a weekend. Sunny, not much wind, barely any seas and fish everywhere!

Jervis Bay and south seemed the place to be with some solid surface fish action. Striped tuna were on the boil out wide and reds were on the chew around the Bay.

Richard Keen was at it again landing 8 solid snapper with not one of them weighing under 3kg’s as well as an albacore which is strange for this time of year.

Grant Evans, Col Leech and Grant Hartley made the most of the conditions and pulled an all nighter out on the South East Grounds chasing reds and what ever else might have jumped on board. The boys did manage some nice fish for a feed.

Shaun Budd fished the grounds around Kiama for a truly mixed bag of fish that included striped tuna, tailor, snapper and trevally.

Steve and Monica Trott decided to get away for a few days, heading down to St Georges Basin. The fishing’s been great with Monica showing Steve how it’s done landing some solid bream, flatties and whiting 50 meters from their doorstep!

Steve has been getting into the crabs picking up a few every day as well as a few kilos of prawns at night.

Bass Pt is proving popular with the bobby corkers and that’s because of one fish, the humble bonito is still loitering around feasting on pilchards. That’s not the only fish around with word coming through that kings have been on the boil as well tormenting the fisho’s. A few solid fish were landed too, with one going 85cm.

The bonito are here!

After what seemed like an eternity the bonito have finally made an appearance around the ledges and it didn’t take long for the word to get out!

Bass Point by lunchtime Saturday was covered in anglers chasing these little speedsters using all types of rigs and lures. Chad Davison got out amongst it and had a ball on 2kg line with the fish averaging 1kg in weight makes a fun and interesting fight.

By now everyone’s heard about the 9kg snapper taken in a boat somewhere off Bass Pt. Well folks the reds are still there with some nice solid fish being landed. One angler named Adam, down from Sydney stopped into the shop to put a fish on the good old lie detector and this red went 2.5kg cleaned, which if you ask me is perfect eating size.

Dorado are still hanging out around with a lot of just legal fish hanging around the fad. The boys on Dirty Berty had fun on some light gear and were kind enough to drop me in a feed.

New Zealand, I know it’s not local, but Alan Griffiths who’s been given time off for good behavior from the shop is over there with good mate Keith Goodfrey tangling with trout down on the south island.

Alan reported back that the weathers been a bit ordinary with the wind making it hard going with the fly gear, yet they're still managing 10 fish to 2kg between them a day. 

What fish would you like for dinner?

That could have been the question put to family members over the past week, with every possible species on the menu and keen to take a bait.

The Barry’s were around Port Is tangling with tailor and salmon. Trolling small skirted lures the fish were literally jumping on for the ride.

Nathan Egan took time out from busy city life and fished with Chad Davison for a extremely mixed bag of quality fish. The boys landed 7 different species. Fish like groper to 6.5kg, snapper to 2kg, bream to 1kg, drummer, tailor, salmon, solid trevally as well as a couple of others. It’s amazing that the bait that knocked all but the tailor over was the humble royal red prawn.

Ivor and Gillian Wright decided to make the most of the fine conditions and head down to Jervis Bay and fish around the southern point landing some nice kings on the troll. Gillian again out did Ivor with the biggest king at 5.5kg cleaned.

Ivor also mentioned that the rock ledges on the southern headland were full of anglers looking for that big one and making the most of the perfect weather and ocean conditions.

Around the Clubs

Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Shellharbour held their monthly competition over the weekend and what a weigh in it was with several anglers weighing some good mixed bags.

Richard Keen took the honors in the Snr. Deep Sea section with a bag that included 6 good solid reds to 3.6kg.

Col Leech again showed his versatility fishing Lake Illawarra for a mixed bag that included bream to 1.2kg, tailor over 1kg, several good whiting and a couple of salmon to take out the Snr. BRE it good to see the Lake producing some good fish again after the rain.

Cameron Holz won Jnr. BRE catching 4 fish (4 more than dad) and they were good fish too, bream, luderick and drummer.

What fish would you like for dinner?

That could have been the question put to family members over the past week, with every possible species on the menu and keen to take a bait.

The Barry’s were around Port Is tangling with tailor and salmon. Trolling small skirted lures the fish were literally jumping on for the ride.

Nathan Egan took time out from busy city life and fished with Chad Davison for a extremely mixed bag of quality fish. The boys landed 7 different species. Fish like groper to 6.5kg, snapper to 2kg, bream to 1kg, drummer, tailor, salmon, solid trevally as well as a couple of others. It’s amazing that the bait that knocked all but the tailor over was the humble royal red prawn.

Ivor and Gillian Wright decided to make the most of the fine conditions and head down to Jervis Bay and fish around the southern point landing some nice kings on the troll. Gillian again out did Ivor with the biggest king at 5.5kg cleaned.

Ivor also mentioned that the rock ledges on the southern headland were full of anglers looking for that big one and making the most of the perfect weather and ocean conditions.

Around the Clubs

Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Shellharbour held their monthly competition over the weekend and what a weigh in it was with several anglers weighing some good mixed bags.

Richard Keen took the honors in the Snr. Deep Sea section with a bag that included 6 good solid reds to 3.6kg.

Col Leech again showed his versatility fishing Lake Illawarra for a mixed bag that included bream to 1.2kg, tailor over 1kg, several good whiting and a couple of salmon to take out the Snr. BRE it good to see the Lake producing some good fish again after the rain.

Cameron Holz won Jnr. BRE catching 4 fish (4 more than dad) and they were good fish too, bream, luderick and drummer.
 
  

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

The fish are there; just get out on the water. That was the catch cry.

Snapper was the number one menu pick for anglers the past week with good reports of solid fish being taken right across the board. Glen DeBritt has been doing his best to keep a low profile but spies have been telling me that Glen has been getting into some solid 3kg fish in relatively shallow water.

The boys on “Dirty Berty” have been getting amongst the action around Ulladulla tangling with a marlin estimated at over 300kg with the fight going well over 5hrs before the fish one the battle and its freedom. Angler Justin Eather was exhausted after the battle. The boys did manage to a boat a few nice yellowfin for the trip.
  

Bass Pt has been producing tailor with Alan Griffiths making most of his time off and catching a few 1.5kg fish during the early morning high tides. These fish taste absolutely delicious smoked and go down a treat with a nice beer in the evening.

Flathead fisho’s might not like this, but reports of leatherjackets making a not so welcomed return have been making the rounds around Shellharbour boat ramp. With fish reported to be harassing anglers both on the inshore and the wider grounds.

Anyone interested in improving his or her fishing strike rate should head down to Warilla Bowling Club on February 12th at 7pm. Guest speaker is world-renowned lure maker and game fisherman Peter Pakula. Peter will be talking about the advancement in lure technology and how to get the most out of lure fishing so whether you chase marlin and tuna or catch flathead and bream there will be some valuable information that can be gained for all anglers (and who doesn’t want to catch more fish?). Entry is FREE!

Things are starting to warm up, action aplenty from the long weekend.

Australia day festivities were not just for those on land, the myriad of anglers that hit the water joined in on the fun that fishing has to offer. Everything was on the menu and a few also turned up on the BBQ!

Mark Halllings and the boys on “Anticipation” had a great day on the water fishing wide off Kiama, Mark and the boys hit onto some great dolphin fish action catching some solid fish to 14kg and nothing under 5kg, Mark also tagged and released a striped marlin around 90kg, which is a great sign especially for the up and coming Shellharbour Game Fish Tournament on the 9th and 10th of February.

Bass Pt has warmed up with the appearance of rainbow runner; these beautiful looking speedster related to kings are great fun especially on light gear. Young Mat Davison got into the action last Thursday and had an absolute ball throwing light lures in amongst the schooling fish.

Nathan Egan who is getting his monies worth out of his new boat Nathan and girlfriend Carina have been getting into the stripy action out wide of Shellharbour, landing some prime snapper baits to 3kg. Nathan trolled small-skirted lures and some deadly looking flies to land these fun hard fighting fish.

Bass Pt rock fisho’s have been getting onto some good trevally late in the afternoon; even some tourists who don’t know the area have been getting into the action. Royal reds fished light as possible flicked in to the washes on the deeper ledges is turning up the best results.

The beaches around Port Kembla have been turning on some great whiting and bream action with good catches being reported live worms are the best bet while pipis are close second the top half of the tide is the best with fish moving right in behind the shore dump.

Keith Godfrey has been getting into the action on the Minnamurra River, landing some solid luderick around the bridges as well as picking up some good whiting to add to the mix, live squirt worms and nippers are proving absolutely lethal the hard bit is finding them.

Wet and windy conditions not the best, but good fishing was still on offer for those who put the hard yards in.

With the wettest summer we’ve had in a long time deterring most fisho’s the old salts that have braved the weather are being rewarded with good catches.

Bream and tailor are on offer around the rocks on the early morning high tide. Alan Griffiths has made the most of it chasing some very nice and lively tailor around Bass Pt using ganged pillies with a cast and slow retrieve technique. Alan managed to land 6 nice tailor to 1.5kg in a quick 1hr session.

Windang Is. and Barrack Pt. have the been the pick for the bream fisho’s with the freshwater runoff coming out of both Little Lake and Lake Illawarra pushing the bait out and into open water. The bream have moved in for a free feed. Fresh prawns or perennial favorites royal reds fished as light and naturally as possible is the key to landing a few good fish and a feed.

Trevor Lillico had time out wide before the weather turned sour. While chasing marlin slow trolling live baits Trevor and his mates onboard “The Ultimate” had a visit from and inquisitive tiger shark around 300kg, the boys not wanting to miss the opportunity threw out a bait rigged on a short wire trace, the then held on as the shark took off on a long hard slog after 2hrs the fish eventually one the battle busting off.

Mulloway will be on the minds of a few keen anglers as this rain flushes out some lagoons and rivers up and down the coast. These big predatory fish will soon be moving in and chomping at the bit to feast on all the unsuspecting bait that has been pushed out into the open.      

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Wet and windy conditions not the best, but good fishing was still on offer for those who put the hard yards in.

With the wettest summer we’ve had in a long time deterring most fisho’s the old salts that have braved the weather are being rewarded with good catches.

Bream and tailor are on offer around the rocks on the early morning high tide. Alan Griffiths has made the most of it chasing some very nice and lively tailor around Bass Pt using ganged pillies with a cast and slow retrieve technique. Alan managed to land 6 nice tailor to 1.5kg in a quick 1hr session.

Windang Is. and Barrack Pt. have the been the pick for the bream fisho’s with the freshwater runoff coming out of both Little Lake and Lake Illawarra pushing the bait out and into open water. The bream have moved in for a free feed. Fresh prawns or perennial favorites royal reds fished as light and naturally as possible is the key to landing a few good fish and a feed.

Trevor Lillico had time out wide before the weather turned sour. While chasing marlin slow trolling live baits Trevor and his mates onboard “The Ultimate” had a visit from and inquisitive tiger shark around 300kg, the boys not wanting to miss the opportunity threw out a bait rigged on a short wire trace, the then held on as the shark took off on a long hard slog after 2hrs the fish eventually one the battle busting off.

Mulloway will be on the minds of a few keen anglers as this rain flushes out some lagoons and rivers up and down the coast. These big predatory fish will soon be moving in and chomping at the bit to feast on all the unsuspecting bait that has been pushed out into the open.   

Perfect Weather and Perfect Fishing!
As predicted in last weeks report the snapper did turn it on, good reports came in of solid fish being taken up and down the coast.

Glen DeBritt fished the inshore reefs off Minnamurra for a few nice reds as well as a couple of fish that were unstoppable! Using fresh slimy mackerel, Glen fished into the evening landing a couple of solid reds to 4kg as well as some thumping trevally to 1.7kg.

The 3 Barry’s were at it again this time fishing the wider reefs off Port Kembla for some nice 2kg reds as well a couple of kings to 3kg just to mix things up.

Hayley Gassman out fished boyfriend Luke for a solid king that was taken wide of Windang, it was not a small fish and definitely nothing to be sneezed at pulling the scales down to 8kg. Luke did manage a fish and not a bad one at that a bonito that weighed in 4kg. Now that’s a big bonnie and hopefully a good sign of the fishing to come.

Alan Griffiths took some time out from behind the counter to hit the stones at Bass Pt. Dusting the cobwebs of the fishing gear and armed with a bag full of berley and royal reds and a couple of stripy fillets. Alan fished the deeper ledges in the evening for a couple of nice reds to 2kg and as the last rays of light disappeared flicked around royal reds in the washes for some nice drummer and a couple of bream to 1.1kg

Being the school holidays I don’t think it’s taking much arm-twisting for dads to take the kids out fishing. Cameron Holz took a whole 10 sec to persuade dad in to hitting the water.

 Fishing in the sheltered waters around the Farm, it didn’t take Cameron long to get into some action catching a myriad of species including mullet, trevally, tarwhine and bream as well as your usual horde of throw backs.

Hayden Capobianco

The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

The big seas kept most boat anglers at home over the last week but as the sea abates some good catches, particularly snapper, are anticipated.

Experienced anglers who fished Bass Point last week caught bream, tarwhine and rock blackfish using royal reds for bait. Snapper should be sniffing around in close and are well worth a throw on the top of the tide. Tailor and salmon should also reward anglers throwing pilchards or lures but be prepared for some torrid encounters with the kingfish.

Port islands will be the place to be for kingfish as the seas ease. Good numbers of fish to 8kg have been taken mainly by slow trolling live slimey mackerel.  Downriggers have been a great asset.

The Shoalhaven River has continued to produce fish for the holiday angler with reports of good numbers of flathead. Most of the fish are being taken on plastics and whitebait fish on small gangs with long leaders.

Lake Illawarra is the place to be for whiting. Squirt worms are the number one choice for bait but nippers, beachworms and some of the soft plastic worms are also proving effective. Flathead have been a bit quiet but Zachariah Day fished with his dad to catch a nice 600g fish for tea. There have been some good bream caught on live prawns at night. Prawners are getting a feed each night as well as collecting some great bait.

Game fishers heading wide this week should be able to find a few beakies as the warmer currents push in closer to the coast. One lucky land based angler was able to nail a marlin of 130kg before the seas came up.

The recent Xmas festivities have not just been confined to land, with those getting out on the water having fun times on some great fish.

Bass Point has been producing some whopper salmon with fish well over 3.5kg being caught as well as heaps of rat kings; Nathan Egan hit the water for a post Xmas fish and was blown away with the action that the salmon are providing especially on light bream gear.

The recent interest in fishing out of kayaks has skyrocketed recently. These keen paddlers are hooking into kings and bream fishing around Bass Pt, which provides perfect shelter to whatever wind decides to blow. The great things is that you can troll a small skirted lures of fly behind the kayak hook a fish and get fit all in one outing!
 

The Shoalhaven River has turned on the fish for the holiday angler with reports of solid and good numbers of flathead being taken on plastics and bait. With the amount of traffic on the water keep a vigilant eye on the water and those around and don’t forget to heed to all the speed restrictions and regulations on the river they’re there for a reason.

Glen Sheriff had a couple of days down on St Georges Basin with his brother, fishing soft plastic. Glen hooked a solid flathead which put a torrid fight on light gear when it came to the boat, Glen nearly fell over the fish after being netted promptly spat the hook out, this big female measured 78cm before being released.

The warmer water out wide is starting to produce with some reports of bigger pelagic fish moving in Angelo Garcia fished with the boys on “Dirty Berty” out wide of Kiama Angelo was on strike when a marlin moved in on the lures and scoffed down a pusher unfortunately after half an hour fight the fish threw the hooks.

Angelo was rewarded later in the day having a ball on the small yellowfin that turned up though only around 10kg the fish were so thick that they were actually jigging for them. Radio chatter had other boats hooked up on fin as well as reports of some solid mahi mahi to 20kg being caught. 

Have a Fishy and Safe New Year!

Hayden Capobianco

Not too many fish will make grown men weak at the knees with fear and trepidation or make them shake from pure excitement and giddiness. But one such fish does and that’s the mighty king!

With ever growing reports of fish turning up a few anglers were out midweek to take on the challenge. Dave Frances showed that the old boys still had the mettle to take on these hoodlums. In relatively shallow water around Port Kembla Dave landed a couple of solid and respectable 9kg fish.

While young Luke Pascot was back on board after a broken wrist and really put the arm to task on 8kg fish. The key to getting these fish was live slimy mackerel trolled down deep.

Wal Garvie fished the rocks around Bass Pt for a few solid fish including bream, tarwhine and luderick that weighed 1.2kg cleaned. Wal had to give the game away when a heap of rat kings moved in and scoffed every bait that was thrown out.

Richard Keen been at it again fishing down off Jervis Bay, Richard had a mixed bag of fish which included some nice reds to 3kg as well as other delectable reefies, but these fish all paled in comparison to the thumping bass groper Richard landed when he decided to go out wide and fish the deep marks. The fish weighed in at a mere 18.5kg cleaned.

Alan Griffiths has been fishing Lake Illawarra the past week passing his wisdom onto the school kids from Warilla High during their end of year activities. The lake was a bit subdued for most part until one morning when it turned on; fish were busting up everywhere tailor and salmon moved in and where chomping at the bit to eat anything and everything they could. Not small fish either with a few of the salmon around the 2kg mark.       

The Lake also turned on some interesting captures also with reports that gurnard have moved in and infesting the flattie grounds they’ve only been small fish but it is a great sign that the lake is going from strength to strength.

Merry Xmas to all, hopefully you’ve all been good and Santa puts some new fishing gear under the tree for you!

The $1000 Slimy! I bet you don’t hear that too often.Yep that’s right, there is a slimy mackerel out there that cost someone $1000. One poor unfortunate and nameless angler was fishing around Bass Pt from his boat, lost overboard a G Loomis rod and a not so cheap Shimano reel overboard when a twist of fate saw the fish hit the rod just as this very unlucky chap was changing hands on the rod. The fish and rod where last seen heading north.

Ivor Wright, Fished around Jervis Bay for some nice snapper to 3.5kg’s using pencil mackerel as bait. There were also some very reliable reports of a 33kg king that was caught down that way during the week, now that’s a solid fish.

Port Islands are starting to fire again after that slime that infested the water has cleared up; bream and drummer are being taken in close to toothbrush, while some nice kings are on the chew if you can find some live bait.

The farm is starting to turn on some good whiting and bream are also around in good numbers, at the eastern end of the beach, live worms are the best option followed by pipis.

The story around the traps was the Lake Illawarra and its king prawns. People were out in droves during the dark on the weekend scurrying to get a feed of the tastiest prawns in the world. Anyone planning on doing some prawning over the coming months, check your nets as the regulations have recently changed, with regards to handle lengths and mesh size.

Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club Shellharbour, held their Xmas Weigh in on Sunday and what a turn out it was, with over 80 members in attendance out to enjoy the festivities, eat some delicious Lake prawns, share a beer and a laugh and oh! Weigh in some fish.

Richard Keen took out the Snr Deep Sea section with a good catch of reds, mowies and albacore to 8kg; Chad Davison was runner up Chad caught 7 different species.

Col Leech won the Snr BRE with a bag that included bream, whiting and luderick. Angelo Garcia was runner up with a brace of whiting.

Lachlan Budd won the Jnr. BRE with a nice bream Toby Peters was a close second with a flathead. James Huk weighed the only king for the comp a solid 3.5kg specimen to win the Jnr. Deep Sea. While Brooke Griffiths in her first competition tussled with a salmon that went 3kg cleaned!

Kurt Spowart made the most of his time off from work heading down the Shoalhaven River. Fishing into the night Kurt used live yakka’s to land a nice 9.5kg jewie and wrestle the bragging rights over good friend and fishing mate Nathan in what’s been a long ongoing saga.  

Not to be outdone by her brother Claire Spowart hit the rocks around Bass Pt using red crabs for bait Claire out fought a very pugnacious and determined groper that weighed a sprightly 4.7kg.

A lot more anglers are using kayaks to fish from out in the ocean. Chad Davison is just one of the ever increasing paddle power group. Using light gear and the stealth approach Chad has been knocking over some good bream to 1kg and luderick around Bass Pt. even sight casting to the fish.

Well the secret out about the whiting in Lake Illawarra, Glen DeBritt who is much more at home out in the deep blue chasing pigs and kings, quite easily managed to bag out on whiting with the average size fish being 32cm. Imagine if he knew what he was doing and had the right bait.

South Beach Shellharbour has started to fire with bream and whiting being taken in the morning while at night near the lagoon tailor have been moving in chomping on the mullet that are milling around.

It looks like the Fisheries Fad’s are back so the dollies wont be too far away, the following data is in WGS84 Datum; Kiama 34.41.000 S, 150.59.500 E. Wollongong 34.27.321 S, 151.04.308 E. Jervis Bay 34.56.200 S, 150.58.200 E. Depth is on average 110m.

The kings are on,

After much banter and unbridled expectations, the kings have finally made an appearance and as usual it’s the hoodlums that have turned up first and causing all the havoc!

The place to be over the past week was the Banks down off Nowra, anglers have been tussling with fish ranging from 10 to 30kg and most fisho’s have been coming off second best!

One local angler, who would like to be only known as Peter, has been targeting the monster fish using jigs as well as live squid fished deep. Peter has so far lost 5 jigs and countless live bait rigs for just a total of 3 fish landed with the biggest being a small fish around 18kg.

The islands around Port Kembla have been a mixed bag of late. Tailor have been moving in and out sniping at everything that drifts past. While on Saturday an algal bloom occurred which left the water black and on the nose. Hopefully this bloom should disperse over the next few days.

Bass Point was a popular spot on Sunday, with good weather on offer and large tide; the fishing was always going to be good. Nathan Egan couldn’t wait to hit the water and have a shakedown cruise in his new fishing rig. Nathan managed to land a few nice bream and tarwhine for a feed and troll up some rat kings.

South Beach Shellharbour and the Farm are starting to produce whiting in good size and numbers. Fresh pippies are accounting for the bigger fish as well as the occasional bream. While those that have live worms are catching larger bags of 10 or more whiting in a session.    

It was almost standing room only out on the water over the weekend. With Shellharbour and many other boat ramps awash with boats.

Steve Dach and Linda Purse fished the inshore reefs for a brace of reds each. The fish fell to some nice fresh makeral baits fished down a good berley trail.

Billy Lee also got out on the water mid week and came home with ½ dozen good reds all ranging between 2 and 3.5kg’s.

The Shoalhaven River is producing the goods at the moment with some good quality fish coming in. Richard Keen fished into the night landing some good flathead as well as nice mulloway weighing 10.5kg cleaned.

Grant Evans and Darryl Wardman also fished the Shoalhaven catching a bag of fish that included bream flathead and estuary perch. Darryl managed to land his biggest flathead which measured in at 85cm and went 4.5 kg on the digital scales before being released.

Windang Beach is starting to fire with whiting finally turning up in good numbers and chomping at the bit looking for some good fresh beach worms. Tailor have also been milling around the entrance to the lake and off the front of Windang Is. hitting metal lures and ganged pilchards.

Bass Pt is home to some stud bream and tarwhine at the moment with fish coming in around the 1kg mark, the Shallows area is producing the fish at the moment. Lightly or un weighted royal red prawns fished with some berley is the key to a nice feed.

The yellowfin are still about with a few more marlin being hooked also. It looks like the coming game fishing season may be a ripper.

Action a plenty out on the water over the weekend.

Shaun Budd took his son Lachlan down to St Georges Basin on the weekend and the boys came up trumps on some good fish. Lachlan did well catching 6 keepers including some nice luderick, mullet and bream. While dad Shaun chimed in with a few tailor to 1kg, flathead and some bream.

Lake Illawarra produced some good catches also, Angelo Garcia fished the evening tides for bream and luderick using nippers and squirt worms Angelo also managed a few nice whiting also.

The beaches are starting to turn on some good fishing. A few spots were almost wall to wall with anglers. Alan Griffiths managed to get out on the water and knock a nice 8.5kg mulloway on the head.

Windang Beach is also starting to fire with a few whiting scurrying around the shore break, and salmon sitting in the deeper holes. Windang Is. fished well with Jamie Thompson scoring a few nice rock blackfish around the 1.5kg mark, as well as bream and a couple of leatherjackets.

Chad Davison and Nathan Egan hit the rocks around Bass Point throwing royal reds into the washes for some solid tarwhine to 1kg as well as mullet and trevally. 

Richard Keen had a truly mixed bag of fish over the weekend. Richard fished the Jervis Bay area including out wide for a solid bag of 20 fish which included deep sea trevalla snapper to 3.5kg, kingfish and flathead.

The flathead drifts produced a few fish over the week. Barry Whitfield and Glen DeBritt landed 20 nice fish to 1kg between them.

Barry Whitfield and Barry Kime fished the early morning tides mid week around the Port Is. for a good bag that consisted of bream and drummer.

The two Barry’s fished a spot that is only accessible on a large tide with relatively flat seas. Using royal red prawns the boys tussled with some stout pigs, which weighed in at 1.5kg and were busted off by countless other bigger fish.

Nathan Egan, Chad Davison and Glenn DeBritt headed down to Durras for the weekend. Hoping to get a spot of fishing in. The early morning fish though not that early, due to the evening session the night before. Proved the most productive producing red’s to 2.1kg as well as some extremely golden coloured bream.

Everyone bagged Nathan for going soft! Soft plastics that is, and Nathan had the last laugh landing the biggest snapper on the ever-productive Nuclear Chicken colour.

The rocks around southern Kiama are teaming with trevally, and not small one’s neither. The boy’s from Kiama fishing club have been getting stuck into fish around the 1.5kg mark!

Bass Pt is starting to pick up with reports of Kings milling around the Crank and the Peg. Jason a regular lurker on the rocks has been landing a few rats around the 64cm mark (still undersized) on Gyro’s.

A few boy’s from “The Fishin Hub” headed down to Sussex Inlet on Saturday to take some lesson’s from Mr. Flathead himself  “Big E”. From all accounts the day was a blast with some monster flatties caught and released and some even bigger fish dropped, so close to the boat you could swear you heard the fish laughing! Not to mention tailor to 3.6kg! Now that’s a chopper.

Yellowfin are still out and around the shelf with several boats making the most of Saturday’s perfect weather. The boys on Dirty Berty did well with a mix of fin to 30kg as well as some tasty albacore to 8kg.

One boat that we won’t mention the name off lost the fish of a lifetime (a fin estimated to be 80+kg) when it somehow after being subdued. Miraculously while on the deck kicked and managed to open the rear door and then somehow slid out the back and off the marlin board. You, could hear a pin drop as the fish slowly sank away into the dark depths.  

Bream are making an appearance again with good reports of catches coming in from the rocks.

Glen DeBritt and Jeff Risk fished around Barrack Pt for a good bag of solid bream and trevally as well as a couple of luderick thrown into the mix. Glen and Jeff anchored up off the back of the washes, berleyed up with bread and bran mixed with tuna oil and fished the ever-productive royal reds down the trail. Glenn ended up with the bragging rights for the trip, landing two bream over 0.85kg.

Barry Miller flew solo over the weekend out chasing a feed of flathead. Barry let slip the fish were still there but in slightly deeper water around 180+ feet; they are slightly smaller averaging around 40cm in length but still as succulent as ever. With the deeper water and current, braided lines were an advantage with the flatties as they were more inclined in sucking on the bait instead of engulfing it.

Tailor are back. James Thompson fished around Windang Is. on the early morning tides for a feed of fish that included some solid 6 spine leatherjackets to tailor to 0.7kg, more reports have filtered through of tailor harassing anglers around Lake Illawarra, snipping of soft plastic lures and baits meant for other fish.

Salmon and tailor are on the chew around the headlands, jumping on small metal lures or Xmas tree skirts being trolled. Which headland? All of them! Nathan Egan picked up tailor to 1.8kg as well as landing a 64cm kingfish around Bass Pt while Chad Davison landed a few around Windang Is.

The pick of the spots was Port Is. Steve Barrington, Barry Whitfield, Barry Miller and Barry Kime easily caught 20 plus salmon as well as striped tuna all within an hour of hitting the water. “They were literally jumping into the boat”.

Bass Pt is starting to hot up too, Phil Spencer hit the stones around the point on Saturday for a good mixed bag of fish which included bream, tarwhine, pigs and trevally. Phil used royal reds fished lightly weighted through a good berley trail. 

Leon Budd has been at it again this time in the Shoalhaven River. Leon hit the water on one of the warm afternoons this past week for a quick 3hr session with lures, Leon total was 15 bass with 3 over 43cm and the rest between 35 and 40cm’s.

Flathead are still being caught on the drifts though the bite has slowed down a little the size and quality of the fish is still good. Glenn DeBritt hit the water on Sunday and landed 14 lizards to 1.3kg.

Around the Clubs
Col Leech again proved too strong in BRE section of the Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Clubs monthly comp landing a staggering 40 fish made up of luderick and bream.

The Deep Sea section was hotly contested with several anglers vying for top spot. Steve Barrington took it out in the end but only just with one fish being the difference.
  
Lachlan Budd won the Jnr BRE section with a bag of fish that included luderick, tarwhine and mullet. 

If your not getting a feed of fish, you’re not on the water.

Fisho’s drifting the sand and gravel beds off Windang Beach, Bass Point and Minnamurra are landing good solid flathead. With several anglers bagging out!

These flatties aren’t small neither, with most fish being around the 1kg mark. Glenn and Wendy DeBritt decided to get out and spend some quality time on the water as well as catch a feed. Glenn nailed a thumping 1.8kg eastern blue spot flathead, Wendy not to be out done next cast took one that was that close that Glenn had to get the scales out to decide who got bragging rights.

Yellowfin are on the bite again Richard Hartley and the crew aboard “Dirty Berty” headed out to the Jervis Bay Canyons trolling and cubing up a storm landing a dozen fin to 30kg as well as albacore.

Reports have also filtered through of some solid early season dolly’s to 10kg being taken, looks like a promising season ahead. Just a reminder Dolphin fish now have new size and bag limits applied to them.
 

The southern estuaries are starting to fire with reports from anglers coming in that flathead and big flathead are on the chew around the Basin and Conjola, there has already been a few fish landed that have gone the magic ton! I dare say it won’t be to long before Lake Illawarra really starts to fire.

Alan Griffiths has managed to get some time out on the water chasing big fish up around the northern beaches using soft plastics. Alan though yet to land that big one, did say that salmon are pretty much getting in the way and jumping on everything that’s been thrown out to the point where they're becoming a pest. Which isn’t a bad problem to have at times.

Several of the South Coasts finest anglers competed in the NSW Fishing Clubs Interdivisional Deep Sea Tournament up at Crowdy Head recently. The guys and gals did us all proud by taking out the event by a whopping 900 points. Well done ! Terry Cronin from Gerringong fishing club also has new pending NSWFCA record for a thumping 9.8kg striped tuna.    

    With the long weekend just around the corner, the place to be is on the water.

    There’s plenty of action to be had too, the warm water is slowly moving in and with the warm water the fish as well.

    Reports of solid yellowfin to 30+ kg on Kiama canyons, and striped tuna hanging around the 30 fathom mark are great signs that things are starting to heat up out wide.

    Don’t worry though the inshore fishing is just as good with reports of solid flathead coming in on the drifts off Windang Beach. Barry Lonergan headed up from Albury  a week early to beat the holiday crowds landed several good flatties to 1kg.

    Leatherjackets are also about. Don’t cringe, these solid chinaman jackets are solid and by solid I mean well over 1kg we’ve had several come in with Jeff Risk weighed one just under 1.5kg (that’s a big jacket).Daniel Spremo from Oak Flats Bowls Fishing Club had a few in the esky as well.

    The rocks are finally firing with trevally in abundance, bream making an appearance and groper on the chew. Salmon are also causing all sorts of havoc off the rocks around Kiama with fish well over 3kg harassing poor unsuspecting fisho’s.

    Just a note to remind everyone that to make sure your up to date on the new fisheries rules and regulations, and your licence is current because officers from NSW Fisheries will be around during the long weekend and school holidays.

 
Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Luderick are on off the rocks. The south easterly swell has pushed the luderick in to some of the favorite rock hoping haunts during the past week, the only issue is finding weed especially after the rain we’ve had.

Local luderick legend Stan, couldn’t take a trick last week fishing with Des Dalimore. Stan was outclassed and outgunned 25 fish to 4 in a session that lasted only 2hrs. 

Des nailed every down and landed every fish whilst Stan has forgotten more than most will ever know about the art of catching luderick was busted off, missed downs, you name it he did it! Des was quoted as saying “ It’s time you got yourself a seeing Eye dog! Stan”.

Trevally are still prolific around Bass Pt with these hard fighters scoffing baits meant for tastier morsels. Anglers fishing royal reds cant keep the bait in the water long enough before these hungry and energetic fish wolf them down.

The leatherjackets are back, and "the scourge of the sea" as some call them are back sitting on most the flathead drifts. People have been asking what’s the best solution for getting baits and rigs past them for the flatties? The only advice we can offer is to move locations, try somewhere different and if you can handle your fishing line as little as possible especially after you’ve had your fingers in the bait.
 

Correction; in last weeks column, we inadvertently reported that Dale Edwards had the misfortune to fish with Grant Evans it was actually Dean Edwards who was the unlucky sole.

Glen DeBritt and Jeff Risk fished around Bass Pt for a couple of early morning sessions. Glen and Jeff managed a good haul of fish that included trevally, leatherjackets and a couple of bream.

Tailor have been causing havoc around the entrance to Lake Illawarra biting off hooks and even chopping a few caught fish in half! Those out there using ganged hooks and pillies have been nailing a few fish and some of the are almost at the stage of what the old timers called them “greenbacks” yep that’s right tailor around the 3kg mark are being landed.

Dave Riddington hit North Shellharbour beach during the week throwing a few soft plastics around the gutters that had formed. Not the best-known beach for good fishing Dave landed two nice 40cm flathead in the ½ hour session.

Yellowfin are out there if your willing to head out to the 1000 fathom mark with a few boats out of Kiama taking fish to 72kg over the past week. 

Reports of mulloway are filtering through for those who are willing to brave the cool nights and early mornings on a beach, fresh squid or fish fillets are the key and fish to 10kg’s being landed, especially judging from the frames left down at local cleaning tables.

Winter whiting are biting in Lake Illawarra, a few clued in anglers have been targeting the whiting in the lake over the past week using a variety of techniques for some outstanding success.

Fishing over freshly covered sand banks on the incoming tides, using either live squirt worms some anglers are even using soft plastics by flicking them across the bank then letting them sink and slowly drift along with the current. The occasional bump on the bottom and pulsating wriggling mass of the bait is proving irresistible to the whiting with fish up to ½ kg being taken.

The best session we’ve heard of so far is 24 fish in 3hrs unfortunately these guys are a bit publicity shy and want it kept a secret, so don’t tell anyone.

Grant Hartley and Col Leech had an evening session around the southern parts of Kiama or what some anglers refer to as the Kiama bends. Launching the boat from Kiama harbour the boys headed south in search of reds. Although they didn’t snag any that night, they did manage some nice mowies to 1kg, a few solid biker fish (leatherjackets) as well as a couple of pigfish which in the opinion of some are better eating then reds.

The beaches around Gerroa are producing flathead and bream if you're willing to put up with the chilly mornings, while Windang beach still has it’s what now seems permanent residence of tailor causing all sorts of havoc.

The rocks around Bass Pt have been quiet with only reports of trevally and a few pigs hitting royal red prawns, the lack of wash and extremely clear water isn’t helping matters with the best times being just before sun up or after sundown.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Glen DeBritt and Jeff Risk fished around Bass Pt for a couple of early morning sessions. Glen and Jeff managed a good haul of fish that included trevally, leatherjackets and a couple of bream.

Tailor have been causing havoc around the entrance to Lake Illawarra biting off hooks and even chopping a few caught fish in half! Those out there using ganged hooks and pillies have been nailing a few fish and some of the are almost at the stage of what the old timers called them “greenbacks” yep that’s right tailor around the 3kg mark are being landed.

Dave Riddington hit North Shellharbour beach during the week throwing a few soft plastics around the gutters that had formed. Not the best-known beach for good fishing Dave landed two nice 40cm flathead in the ½ hour session.

Yellowfin are out there if your willing to head out to the 1000 fathom mark with a few boats out of Kiama taking fish to 72kg over the past week.
 

Reports of mulloway are filtering through for those who are willing to brave the cool nights and early mornings on a beach, fresh squid or fish fillets are the key and fish to 10kg’s being landed, especially judging from the frames left down at local cleaning tables.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

It looks like the bad weather finally took the weekend off, with conditions near perfect on Sunday to wet a line.

Jeff Risk got the boat out and around the Port Islands in the morning. Jeff couldn’t fish his usual haunts as the swell was still up, but he did mange to try a few new and different spots landing some good drummer to 2.2kg as well as a heap of trevally.

The entrance to Lake Illawarra seems to improve with each passing week, anglers fishing the southern break wall are still landing great catches of luderick, trevally, tailor and bream. Reports have even come through of some soapies being taken on the bigger tides it’s only a matter of time before a solid mulloway gets taken there.

Warilla Beach around the entrance to Little Lake has a great hole that has formed recently with anglers fishing prawn or mullet strip baits tangling with solid bream, especially in the evenings.

The news form the boat ramp is that it’s fairly quiet with people even complaining there are no jackets around, but those that are fishing the shallower drifts for flathead have had good catches and are taking home a feed.

Nick Drougas had an unexpected but highly welcomed catch out of Shellharbour Harbour last week, a 1.3kg thumping bream!

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Glen and Wayne Sheriff fished Jervis Bay out of a two-man kayak and had a ball catching and releasing over 50 legal fish. The boys did keep a couple for the table, though the highlight of the day in between catching bucket loads of trevally, rock blackfish and bream to 40cm as well as tarwhine was when Glen landed a not often seen blue weed whiting on a soft plastic!

Steve Hamilton and Brett Bailey fished the rocks at Bass Point on Sunday, armed with some quality squid and striped tuna fillets. Steve was primed to give his new Shimano overhead a workout and what a workout it received, Steve’s maiden fish for the new reel was a 5kg snapper cleaned. What a way to christen a new piece of gear!

Ryan Brown made the most of the last couple of days of his school holidays fishing the break wall at the entrance to the lake; Ryan fished along the wall landing some nice luderick to ½ kg.

Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club, Shellharbour held there first competition for the new season over the weekend.

Col Leech braved the cold of night fishing down the Shoalhaven River, for a bag that included 2 soapies, 4 thumper whiting that each went over ½ kg, 6 bream and a couple of dusky flathead to 2.5kg to take out Snr. BRE comp.

But, Col only scraped through by ½ of a point over Allan McIlquham who fished the rocks around Bass Point for a bag that included bream and trevally to 1kg, as well as luderick and rock blackfish.

Barry Whitfield triumphed in the Snr. Deep Sea section with a bag that included snapper and bream. Chad Davison was runner up with a bag that consisted of luderick and rock blackfish.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Alan Griffiths took time out from The Tackle Shop during the past week to wet a line and wash a few cobwebs off the gear, Alan fished with Keith Godfrey around Bass Point using royal red prawns for bag of fish, which included bream to 0.6kg, trevally, mullet, rock blackfish to 2kg, leatherjackets and luderick.
 

Alan and Keith fished lightly weighted baits into the washes and when an area didn’t produce or the bite slowed down they changed locations and berleying with bread and bran soaked in tuna oil.

The story out wide was not overly a lot of action with not many anglers venturing out. Jeff Risk did head out one morning and hit some nice sized trevally fishing around the islands at Port Kembla, while news is still coming through of reds being taken off the inshore reefs around Kiama.

A few boys from Warilla Hotel Fishing Club also fished around the islands and did well earlier in the week landing pigs, squire, bream and trevally.
 

The new Lake Illawarra break walls and entrance have proved to be a resounding success over the school holidays with anglers enjoying the early morning and evening action provided by schools of marauding tailor and salmon with reports of some fish to 3kg causing havoc in close around the rocks. Just remember to be careful amongst the stones and don’t forget to clean up after yourself.

Luderick have been the mainstay of action in the Minnamurra River with the hardest part finding some weed. Those that could score some weed were rewarded with fish literally jumping onto the hooks.

Hayden Capobianco
The Tackle Shop, Shellharbour

Trevor Lillico and Tom Ellams have been making the most of there time off from work, and have been out nailing what seems to be the start of the winter king run. Tom and Trevor have been slow trolling livies somewhere (and they wont let on exactly where) around Bass Pt. The boys have so far had a dozen hookups for 5 fish landed ranging from 5kg to12kg