On the rocks if you are subjected to flat condition’s, search for the area with the most white water- that will be easy to find because a lot of areas will have white water with a depth of only 3/4 of a metre or less. Look for areas with a water depth of around 2.5m plus and with a slither of white water. In these areas the most likely species to be found are Rock Blackfish, Luderick, Bream, Trevally, and Groper. Fish light, right in close and burley consistently in small amounts.
On the Beach September and even October can be tough, especially in flat conditions with limited species. In spite of that, Salmon, Bream and some Whiting are available during the day, with Tailer for the night angler. Once again if the conditions are flat try the shallow gutters rather than the deeper ones because once the tide gets up (which is prime time) there is a really good chance that it may not produce in the deeper areas.
Salmon, Whiting, and some bream are available with some beaches producing tailer after dark. The Whiting have hung around in small volumes in beaches like Narrabeen, Mona Vale and Dee Why. Baits like live beach worms and tube worms are the preferred bait with the occasional Bream being the bi-catch. There are also some great Salmon before dark being caught on 40-80g snipers and after dark use your gang hooks rigged with pilchards for tailor to 2kg.
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Gavin and Nicholas Jennings got amongst the salmon on a really flat day off Dee Why beach. Finding fish proved difficult, but we fished the shallow gutters for the best results. The size of the salmon were up to 4kg, stripping up to 60m of line plus which was an absolute thrill for the father and son team.
On the rocks there is a chance for a Snapper. The preferred method is to cast out to the gravel/sand areas off the rocks generally between 50 to 100 metres. This will get you out to the right spots at most of our locations. After a big swell is a safer bet for a Snapper at this time of the year, and for the ever reliable “Pig” a even safer bet. A great example is a client outing recently with my regular John Halford and Manly’s ‘Hat’ area. He caught 11 pigs to 4.5kg (4 pigs over 3kg) , 2 Bream and 1 trevally. The trevs were thick enough to bag out if we continued fishing, but the topic of the day was Rock Blackfish. Half of all the fish we caught were released. Surprisingly there were no fish lost, which is a testimony to John’s advanced abilities. The bait we used was the ever reliable Cunjevoi and several fish caught on peeled endeavour prawns. Bread burley was a must but in small amounts released consistently. Another notable bag of ‘pigs’ was with Chris Thomas on North Avalon Headland. His first outing for this species turned up 6 Rock Blackfish from 1kg to 2.5kg, and the last two fish were caught on consecutive casts. There was a sizable swell increasing even though there was a falling tide, and once again peeled Endeavour prawns were used with success. There were quiet times, so it was essential to vary the sinker size to suit.
On those flat days remember to look for your washes on the rocks in that 2.5m plus deep water for the species mentioned above and from the beaches fish the shallow gutters. Alternatively fish the deeper gutters when the seas are up and from the rocks fish your safer locations that are out of the full impact of the swell.
Alex Bellissimo
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