Reasonable weather with big tides running into a full moon suggest conditions will be pretty good for fishing this weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Sunday is looking the pick of the weekend days with a bit of a nor-easter looking likely to blow early on the Saturday.
With low likelihood of rain and predicted balmy temperatures, Jason "One For" Nunn, from Fisherman's Warehouse at Marks Point, thinks it will be green light to get outside or fish the estuary this weekend.
Particularly as we're likely to see more rain next week.
"There is a really good tide this weekend running into a full moon on Monday," he said.
"The tides are late and solid - nearly 2m on Sunday, and over 2m on Monday - with a big variance on the low, nearly a metre and a half, which means a lot of water movement.
"That means we'll get a lot of really good clean water coming into the lake.
"And on the outgoing we'll get a big drag of all this fresh water that's built up inside due to the rain."
Anglers report plenty of bream around the system - some cracking fish up to 47cm.
"Interestingly, a lot of these bream are the travelling-autumn bream," Jason said. "They have a smaller head than what I call the 'resident' fish, and a very high back. When gutted you find these fish have a lot of flesh and are very healthy."
Stunned mullet
Mullet have been very scarce and speculation remains high that we may not even get a run this year.
"They might have went early with the floods," Jason said.
"All I know is that there have been minimal commercial catches with a resultant shortage at the co-ops and a corresponding spike in price."
Mull it over
This full moon and mild weather combined with the full moon will make for ideal conditions to chase mulloway on the lake over the weekend.
"There's been a lot of tailor activity in the lake which will also help," Jason said.
"The tailor have really been varying in size - a real blend- but a lot of activity.
"That activity will set things up nicely for a crack at jew and/or flathead which will be lurking under the tailor picking up scraps.
"There's lot of bait in the south sections of the lake and also off places like Valentine and Wangi.
"We had a report this week of a big mulloway caught - registered over a metre."
Swansea channel has been holding good numbers of trevally and some decent kingfish.
Current conditions
Offshore the water and air temps will be favourable for fishing but the current is running hard.
This is likely to impact those contesting the annual Northern Zone Overnighter (NZO) competition which is on this weekend.
The NZO sees members of Northern Zone game fishing Clubs - Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie - compete against each other for club glory.
"The current might force people inshore to places like The Farm," Jason said.
"Results in Port Hacking last weekend suggest a few marlin about and it will be interesting what turns up here this weekend.
"Local reports from last weekend were slim and might have been impacted by Mother's Day commitments."
Tailor time
Beaches are fishing OK for tailor and bream.
Jason had a crack off Blacksmiths through the week and got a few nice fish, as did those around him.
"We battled the shore break a bit and with so much water moving about it was a bit hard to hold the bottom," Jason said.
"The tailor bit right on dark we found. We were using pillies.
"There was also bream, flathead and a few salmon about.
"Not that much salmon to be honest - they're pretty scattered compared to two or three weeks ago."
Get away to the Bay
Brent "Hammer" Hancock, from Tackle World Port Stephens, reports the fishing is going great guns up the bay if you can look past the wet weather this week.
"Inside the bay we've seen longtail, mulloway, bream and tailor," Brent said.
"The local reefs have been fishing well for snapper, mulloway and trag, with local charters Calypso and Pacific Blue doing well this week.
"Still a few cobia about although they've slowed down a bit from what was happening the last couple of weeks, and there's longtail about too.
"Sunday is looking like the better of the days this weekend with a bit of a northerly set to blow on Saturday.
"It will be alright in the bay but it will make it sloppy outside.
"The bay is fishing very well for bream. I got a few on the fly rod through the week and I expect we'll see them on the beaches too as they continue their migration."