Central Coast

CENTRAL COAST Jamie Robley

Spring may have officially begun last month, but October is more like the true start of a new season as far as our local fishing goes. This is the month when we normally see a real change, with noticeable improvements.

It’s always about temperature at this time of year, and although I’m referring to water temperatures, what happens below the surface is largely influenced by atmospheric temperature and how much sun or rain we end up with. The more cloud and rain around, the slower our waters are to warm. The faster it warms up, the faster the fishing improves. So the more sun and less rain, the better.

The lakes tend to warm up a bit quicker than Brisbane Waters, although if we get some decent, sunny weather it’s going to help kick our bream, flathead and whiting into gear in the coming Decent flathead like this can be expected in Brisbane Waters and Lake Macquarie this month, while numbers of smaller fish should be increasing around Tuggerah Lakes. times, particularly around the channel mouth and adjacent beach.

Speaking of the beach, we should see the usual salmon and tailor along most beaches this month. I’m very sure there has been a lot less salmon around this year. I’ve encountered a few most times I’ve fished the surf since about early June, but those really big mobs don’t seem to have shown up like they used to. One afternoon I witnessed a big mass of sambos move into a gutter further up from where I was fishing. I walked the 100m to that gutter, got one around 2kg straight away, released it, and then went back to catching the bream in

the other gutter. But that’s the only time I saw what I would call a big patch of them.

Last October I remember catching a nice mulloway one morning while chasing salmon. Mulloway, along with bream and tailor often start to show up a bit more at this time of year. Another good thing is that beach fishing becomes more comfortable from now on, especially for those anglers who don’t like wearing waders.

Rock fishing may also start to pick up a bit this month. However, I’d still be concentrating more on the traditional winter species like luderick, bream and drummer. If the seas are very calm and clear, then it becomes easier to gather a few crabs for bait and target groper. Alternatively, pilchards fished on ganged hooks are likely to score salmon and tailor.

Offshore anglers will probably find the weather becoming a bit friendlier for picking a decent day to get out there. However, October is very much an in between month for offshore fishing along our stretch of coast. It’s similar to rock or beach fishing in that we still have mainly cold currents at this

time of year, and to my way of thinking it makes more sense to fish as you would in winter, with species like snapper, morwong, silver trevally and leatherjacket in mind.

Overall, this is by no means a great month for fishing, but historically, it’s normally a lot better than the previous few months. My pick of the target species would be flathead and salmon if you simply want success, but others like bream, whiting or luderick are certainly worth considering.

weeks. As I touched on last month, flathead are probably the top target at this time of year. I’ve only just bought myself a new rod, reel and line and a few packets of soft plastics, specifically for flathead, which I intend on using a lot for the remainder of the year.

So what does the author buy when it comes to softies for local lizards? A few 100 and 120mm Squidgy Wrigglers in the white and drop bear colour were the ones I recently purchased. However, I’d still rate pretty much all of the Wrigglers from 80-120mm for flathead, as well as plenty of other soft plastics in that size range. I also definitely favour the lighter colours like white,

Bream fishing will gradually be picking up as the weather and water temperatures continue to warm up in the coming weeks. The moored boats and other structure around Woy Woy Channel are worthy of investigation for flathead this month. Woy Woy is one of our most reliable and convenient places to score a few flathead for fun or food at this time of year.

pearl, pin and chartreuse, but if the water is quite clear or shallow then watermelon, wasabi, bloodworm and the like are also top performers.

For Tuggerah Lakes flathead, I’ll mainly use 4kg fluorocarbon leader, but in Brisbane Waters or Lake Macquarie it makes more sense to use a bit heavier leader like 6kg, because bigger flathead are more common in those waterways. Having said that, the occasional flathead over 70cm still shows up around The Entrance at