This week, the weather has shown signs of improvement as the scattered showers and heavy winds gradually began to diminish. We can expect moderate weather on Friday and Saturday, but the good news ends there. Sunday is likely to be the start of a 5-day rain event that will last until this time next week.

Sydney Harbour fished well this week; however, there is still debris floating around, so always keep an eye out. Our store manager at Minchinbury, Adam, was able to get out on the Harbour on Monday and was chasing bream on lures. He found fish stacked up in around the 5 to 9 metre mark throughout the Parramatta and caught most on smaller 35mm and 40mm blades fished slowly. Fish were also on the flats as the tide pushed up to the high around 10 am and were happy to take unweighted plastics and small crankbaits.

The offshore fishing scene is really heating up! There have been sightings of Yellowfin tuna wide of Jervis Bay and Bluefin tuna wide of Narooma. The water temperatures and currents off the southern coast are perfect right now, which has everyone buzzing with excitement. It seems like the next few weeks will bring the tuna closer to us. If you missed this week’s Tackle Talk Tuesday, don’t worry, it was a fantastic episode. We had Al McGlashan, Auds, Rushy, and Mark discussing everything you need to know about Bluefin tuna. You can catch the hour-long episode by scrolling down our Facebook page and giving it a watch.

The fishing off the coastal rock ledges has been excellent, which is common after some very average weather. Those chasing Snapper from land have been successful, with some great fish up to 70cm reported all along the coast. The go-to technique for catching these fish is creating a burley trail consisting of bread, chook pellets, and a few pillies, and then fishing unweighted or with very lightly weighted baits back into the burley trail. This week, the Blackfish have also been biting well off the stones, with them showing interest in green weed or lettuce. Flies are working well at the moment as green weed or lettuce is a little hard to come by.

The Hawkesbury River has been a great spot for Flathead fishing this week, particularly around Brooklyn and up to Milson Island during the run out tide. Anglers have had success using larger plastic baits along the deep rock walls. However, as mentioned earlier, there is still a significant amount of debris in and around the system, so boat skippers need to remain vigilant. In Pittwater and the surrounding areas, there have been good catches of Salmon, with some bonito mixed in. Anglers have had success using small metal slugs and 3 to 4 inch soft plastic jerk bait style lures around the headlands but always keep your eyes peeled for bust ups!

Anglers have reported successful squid fishing ventures near Port Hacking and Cronulla. In tranquil conditions, locations like Salmon Haul Bay, Bass and Flinders point, and the rock pool at oak park have yielded positive results. Using larger jigs to cover more ground with aggressive hops or employing the traditional squid spike have both led to successful catches.

The freshwater fishing conditions have been relatively calm, but anglers are still managing to catch trout around the Nepean River, particularly between the weir and Penrith Bridge. On the other hand, Thompsons Creek Dam hasn’t been yielding great results recently, with some lackluster days and few fish being caught. Anglers using fly have had success with glow bugs and small flashback nymphs, while those using spinning gear have had luck with tassie devils and Daiwa double clutches. As an alternative, anglers can also try using glow bugs on a dropper with a small split shot to mimic trout roe drifting on the bottom during a very slow retrieval.