THE fishing is heating up in the Hastings River.
Bream are active, with good results coming from the breakwalls and Settlement Point using mullet strips and brined prawns. Flathead numbers are consistent, with anglers having success using lures and whitebait.
For whiting, focus on Limeburners, Blackmans Point, and the back channel where surface lures are working well.
Luderick are being caught on the breakwalls with sea cabbage and weed flies.
Last weekend saw some great size mulloway caught on live bait in the lower reaches.
With mud crab season officially here, it’s the perfect time to dust off the traps.
Off the rocks, a few smaller tailor have appeared around Point Plomer.
If you’re fishing the evening bite, reasonable bream and school mulloway can be found at Big Hill and Point Plomer. Offshore, the rewards have been substantial.
Snapper numbers are healthy, and they’re responding to both bait and soft plastics, especially on the reefs off Point Plomer. Targeting kingfish on the wider reefs with live bait and knife jigs could also be a promising adventure.
In the Camden Haven, anglers are finding success on the beaches.
Whiting numbers are steadily increasing on the shallower sandbars during a rising tide, with prawns and white-bait being the preferred baits.
Bream have also been caught at Grants Beach.
For night-time anglers, school mulloway remain a viable target, with the beaches south of Lake Cathie offering the best chances.
Last week saw locals net in Lake Cathie and bag some good kilos of school prawns.
A few days after the full moon is a good time to try for prawns, so mark the dates in your calendars for October.
Further north in the Macleay River, bream numbers remain excellent, with the best reports coming from those fishing with bait during the day.
The river is also producing good catches of mud crabs further upstream.
Offshore, anglers have reported decent numbers of kingfish around the local FADs and Fish Rock.
By Kate SHELTON
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