The best time of the year

Anthony Stokman

Autumn is a great time of year, thanks to a combination of favourable temperatures, wind and good fishing. Now with all the added rain over the last couple of years, leading right up to last summer, we have seen some good spawning going on. The rain slackened off just in time for a great summer, with good fishing and prawns on the run. We had a few cooler days and a bit of rain here and there, which nearly delayed things more, but overall the sun got on top and gave the added ingredients to make a good summer.

The bonus is that the good run of fish and prawns could continue into rock ledge in the dark, with my headlamp on. The first thing was to get as much bait as possible into the rock pool before the sun rose above the horizon. This required preparing berley and rigging a set-up to catch them. Generally, there would be plenty of bait up against the ledge before first light, so this made them easy to catch. You can’t dawdle though – once it gets too light the livies move away from the ledge and out, and then you are left with rubbish fish coming to the berley. Be early!

Once there was enough bait in the pools or even before, I would send one out under a balloon to get the party started. At this time the light would be starting to creep above the horizon.

Once there were enough livies in the pool and one out under the balloon, it was time to get out my favourite casting rod and tie on a shiny silver metal with a glow belly, like the old 60g Sea Rock lure. I’d glow up its belly under the light of my headlamp, and watch it launch through the sky as it was still dark enough to see it glowing as it flew through the air. Everything was done meticulously and with precision because that first hour or two before sunrise could make the difference.

In this scenario the best outcome is to get the bite before sunrise or just on sunrise. , but if that doesn’t happen it doesn’t matter, because you’ll be prepped and ready for the next few hours or into the next tide change, and you know there’s nothing more you can do than that.

Sometimes it’s a waiting game – waiting for a school to come along, or at least a salmon or tailor. And if worse comes to worst, and the morning goes on with no bite, you can change things up a bit and go for some drummer or bream. Either way, it’s a great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday morning in autumn. good for night fishing for sharks, and sharks have also been getting caught in the estuaries into the night, which we typically see at this time of the year. Mulloway are also being targeted at night in these locations, and as the mullet start to move up the coast we might see some mulloway action on the beaches. to switch on to make an awesome autumn.

Looking ahead, with the way things are building, I’m expecting to see the ledges fire up this March and into April. We had a reasonable run last year and I’m tipping this year to be even better. Get yourself a nice 9’, 9’6” or 10’ to 10’6 rod that casts lures from 20-100g like a rocket, and a rod that has the power to handle a kingie. Match it up with a nice spinning reel like a Stradic SW or Saltist MQ spooled with 40-50lb braid and then you will really enjoy spinning off the ledge this autumn.

The other land-based option that will be red-hot this autumn is the estuaries. After such a good summer run it’s a no-brainer that this will continue. The estuaries are full of bait and prawns, and there are plenty of fish on the run. Flathead, bream, estuary perch, trevally, whiting and mulloway will be on most people’s hitlist, and it’s a list that’s very well attainable with the way the numbers are.

Then next best landbased option is our beaches, and strangely enough this has been one of the slowest areas. Beach fishing in summer catching whiting is as Aussie as wearing thongs, holding tongs and drinking a VB. However, this summer they started very slow and were a bit late to kick in. On the upside, this means we might see autumn getting some good beach whiting action.

Harry Young has been finding the bass. This one was caught on a ZMan FrogZ. autumn. The marlin have been in great numbers up and down the coast, and the mahimahi are frequenting FADs, buoys and anything floating. Kings are kicking around the place, snapper went a bit quiet, estuaries and lakes are red hot and now we wait for the wave of pelagics.

In autumn we see the pelagic fish such as bonito, mac tuna, kings, frigate or, if you are lucky, longtails rounding up slimy mackerel and yakkas off our ledges and headlands. It’s one of the highlights of the season.

I used to get up before sunrise and drive to a chosen location, armed and ready. It was like a ritual – I would arrive at the location and go through the motions down at the

The beaches have been

The offshore fishing will continue to be red-hot in the coming weeks, with a great marlin run that’s currently happening, good mahimahi at the FADs, and the odd little yellowfin tuna popping up. Now all we need is the kings

Plenty of marlin have been captured, tagged and released. Livies, skip baits and even lures have been producing the goods. There have been so many fish that we have seen a bit of a lure comeback. That means there have been tons of fish dropped because of the lure strike rate, but it doesn’t really matter when there are so many fish. The more prickly, lighter gauge lure hook is starting to become more used now, and anglers are finally starting to see it makes a difference with hook-up rates. If you are going to troll lures then using the thinner light gauge hook from VMC or BKK is definitely the go.

A tip for offshore fishing when chasing dollies at the FAD is to use 4-6m of leader if you have braid on your reel. Short leaders will pull hooks and drop fish, while long leaders will set hooks. This is a conversation I have been having in the tackle shop lately with customers having this problem. We are entering the best time of the year. Get out and soak it up. Enjoy!

• For more up-to-theminute information on what’s biting where, drop into Compleat Angler Batemans Bay and have a chat to Anthony or one of the other friendly staff. They’re located at 65A Orient St, Batemans Bay (02 4472 2559).