Sydney South

SYDNEY SOUTH Gary Brown

gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

Coming out of the winter months fishing in September in the southern area should be much the same. The only difference is that the days will start to get a bit longer and warmer. We hope!

As for the water temperature, it will slowly increase and you will have to search around to find those warmer pockets. If you are going to target a few dusky flathead in the shallows I would suggest that you wait until the sun has been up for a bit and the tide is nearing the bottom. I have found that the dusky flathead tend to stay up on the shallow flats for longer to catch a feed while sunning themselves.

When you’re fishing these types of areas, make sure you don’t make too much noise while wading around as the flathead tend to get a bit spooky. If you’re fishing from a boat and casting up onto the shallows, don’t be afraid to flick those soft plastics up onto the sand and then slowly work them back into the deeper water. Places that are worth a look at are the end of Kogarah

Anchoring up and berleying in the deeper waters of the Port Hacking always seems to produce a good feed of fish.

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Yellow-tailed kingfish will start to show up in numbers at the end of the third runway and Trevally Alley.

Bay, Frenchmans Beach in Yarra Bay, the stretch of shoreline from Brighton to Dolls Point and Silver Beach at Kurnell.

Further up in the Georges River you could try any of the small bays that empty out into the river – places like Como, Oyster and Oatley Bays and the Georges River State Recreational area. Try the boat ramp at Burnum Burnum reserve, Stretton Lane and Washington Drive in the Woronora River.

Silver trevally, bream, pan-size snapper, yellowtail, squid and tailor should be schooling up at the end of the third runway, Trevally Alley, Bare Island, the oil wharf and the Caption Cook Bridge. Lightly-weighted half pillies, peeled prawns, strip of squid and yellowtail would be worth a try for the bream, trevally and pan-sized snapper. Whole pillies on ganged hooks are the go for the tailor, and peeled prawns for the yellowtail.

As for the squid, I have my favourite colours in the Fish Inc Egilicious squid jigs – crazy shrimp, flash back, fluoro orange and fluoro green. In the Yamashita Live Squid Jig 3.0, I like pink cloth/UV body, green tiger cloth/glow body, and sardine blue cloth/490 glow body. I’m sure that you have your own favourites, but what I’ve found is the more that I use these colours, the more I have confidence in using them.

Even though there have been a small number of kingfish feeding in various spots in the bay, September should see their numbers and sizes increase. Try the down rigging, float line trolling or just put one on a paternoster rig and send it to just off the bottom. Yellowtail, mullet, squid and slimy mackerel are good if you can get them.

You could also try slow trolling soft plastics on a 3/4-1oz jighead, 1/2-1oz blades or Rapala or Halco deep diving lures near Henry Head, Bare Island, around the edges of the runways and around the edge or the drums in the middle of the bay.

The cooler waters have also seen an increase of Port Jackson sharks and banjo rays for those who have been fishing the deeper water off Towra, Yarra Bay and the oil wharf. To evade these species, I fish as light as I can with a small ball sinker that runs down to the top of the bait. If I am still getting them, I will move to another spot.

If you are after trevally, tailor, bream, luderick and drummer they will be still in good numbers off the rocks at Kurnell, Windy Point, Marley and off Coalcliff Point. To get them on the chew I berley with white bread.

Offshore the close-in reefs north and south of the entrance to Botany Bay will produce snapper, morwong, pigfish, trevally and slimy mackerel on a rising tide. Out wider at the Peak and nearby reefs, the kingfish have been on the chew. It’s just a matter of getting that calm weather to get out there.

Sand and tiger flathead can be targeted from the 30-50m depth off Maroubra, Malabar and the point at Kurnell. Half pillies, squid, mullet and salted slimy mackerel seem to produce the best results.

Don’t forget to keep those reports coming in to gbrown1@iprimus.com.au.