After a surprise deluge along the coast last weekend continued a bleak run of weather for anglers, sunny forecasts have expectations rising, especially for a rare run at offshore opportunities.
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A drop in winds and swells, combined with mostly sunny skies, are predicted for this weekend.
"Thank God for that, because last weekend was a bit of a write-off," said Brent Hancock, from Tackle World Port Stephens.
"We copped it here in the bay, something like 90mm over the weekend. It was crazy.
"But the weather has been good during the week and this weekend looks like a typical winter's weekend.
"Offshore, there's been some good reds around this week, we've seen them from Boat Harbour to Seal Rocks. One of the boys here who works for me, Darren, he got a nice one at 8.8 kilos, so it's definitely worth a snapper bash.
"There's nice kings around the islands as well this week. I weighed one that was just over 10 kilos.
"The water on the shelf looks like it's about 22.5 degrees, the best water we've had this season, so you might want to give it a crack, depending on how much your fuel budget is. It might be worth a look for a striped marlin."
Jason Nunn, from Fisherman's Warehouse, Marks Point, said the weekend forecast was "the best in a month or so".
"It will be the first opportunity for a fair while for people to get out and go offshore," Nunn said.
"There's been a couple of reports of yellowfin north of Browns [Mountain, about 42 kilometres east of Sydney], so there's a bit of a rally up. Friday, Saturday and Sunday look pretty special, so I think there's an opportunity for guys who want to get out wide and see if there are any yellowfin.
"I think the deeper water will come into its own, after that giant swell and continual bad weather we had, which meant no one really has been out. Areas like the Texas, jigging for kings, will be interesting, with the bonus catch of longfin perch, snapper and trag."
Like Hancock, Nunn said chasing snapper on the inshore reefs would be the go.
"It's a really good tide scenario this week, with low tide at lunchtime and high tide early morning and late afternoon," he said.
"It's a good opportunity with these nor-west winds to fish in close into the evening, especially for snapper, tailor and trag. Before this bad weather, there were good snapper reports from Newcastle to Redhead and even further south to Caves and Catho, especially in that 20-30 metre mark."
They expected land-based and estuary fishing to also be spot on.
"In the bay, the luderick along the breakwalls have been going nuts," Hancock said. "There's a few bream down there as well. There's plenty of tailor, bonito and mack tuna inside the bay, feeding on small white bait.
"There's plenty of bream around the oyster racks out the back there as well, so that's definitely worth a shot.
"I reckon the beaches will fish really well this weekend. There's been some good tailor and a few salmon."
Nunn said tailor continued to be reeled in across Lake Macquarie, while luderick were also biting.
"There's a lot of big salmon on the beaches, some getting caught around the four-kilo mark, so that's something to test your shoulder out. Again, that afternoon tide is a good opportunity," he said.
LAST CHANCE
The NSW DPI wants to reminder fishos there's still time to apply for funding from the Recreational Fishing Trusts for projects which will improve and promote recreational fishing.
Anyone can apply for funding, including fishing organisations, councils, universities, community groups and individuals. Grants are available for large projects valued at more than $10,000 and small ones valued under $10,000.
Project areas to receive funding include fishing access and facilities, enhancing fisheries, fishing education and essential research. Applications close on June 29.
MEDIA RELEASE
Just a quick clarification for those concerned about the fish of the week last week.
Lake Munmorah's Robert Gill got the prize for his two 72cm flathead caught in the Hawkesbury River.
Of course, anglers are allowed to keep only one flathead over 70cm per outing.
What we didn't mention in the caption was that Robert wrote in his emailed entry that he took "a quick photo then released for someone else to catch."
The situation is a timely one given the announcement over the past week of slot limits and reduction in bag limits for dusky flathead in NSW.
From August 1, a slot limit of 35 to 70cm will be introduced for the species, effectively banning the retention of dusky flathead longer than 70cm. The bag limit for legal fish will halve from 10 to five.
Also in the announcement were changes to lobster catch laws. There was an increase in the bag/possession limit from two to three per person, comprised wholly of any single species or a combination of eastern rock or southern rock lobsters.
** The Central Coast fishing community will get a say in where a new artificial reef will be put next year.
The NSW Government has deployed nine offshore artificial reefs from Tweed Heads to Merimbula and recently announced another to be set off Forster in 2023.
DPI will do further assessments and consult with anglers and the community to determine the most suitable location off the Central Coast.