Funny Twists And Turns

By Dan Trotter on June 28, 2011 in Sport

Life throws some funny twists, doesn’t it? From one moment to the next, things can spin up or down. It’s great when things go up but it’s a new lesson in life when they go in other directions. And you just never know when it’s coming.

Fishing is much the same and I guess that’s why those of us afflicted with the addiction love it so much. Some days on the water leave you wondering where your fishing mojo has gone, while others are so jammed with fish, screaming reels and chaotic action that you just can’t move quickly enough.

July is always a finicky month on the water off Sydney. The jumbo tuna of winter can be feeding hard one day and the next it seems impossible to get even a bite. The current can turn just as quickly and change the inshore fishing from desolate barrens to fish-rich waters full of snapper, XOS yellowtail kingfish and acres of Australian salmon.

For me, any day on the water is a good day – some are diamonds and others just dirt, blood and guts under the fingernails. Personally, I’ll be working hard this month to catch snapper on soft-plastics, kingfish on the 100-meter reefs, tuna out wide and deepwater bottom fish along the shelf.

Off the beaches you can expect the Australian salmon to get active. A great location to target these is in the gutters of Bondi’s famous beach or off the proud rocky headland between Tamarama and Bronte. Whiting should also be active at dawn and dusk in the beach corners, with live bloodworms or beach worms the best bet for scoring a feed.

In the harbour, the trick is to use a fine, misty, oily berley, fish lightly-weighted strip baits in the berley trail and swim live yellowtail scad a touch wider. It is also worth catching the smallest live baits you can and suspending them just off the bottom in the hope an early John Dory might be hunting around. Of course the omnipresent kingfish will be lurking too. Looking upriver of the Harbour Bridge and Spit Bridge would be my tip if you want to find solid kings. Live squid and well-presented soft plastics seem to be the best option looking back across the years.

Another option at this time of year is to head to a far flung tropical destination. Samoa, Fiji, the Northern Territory and Central America all offer great fishing, fantastic weather and some awesome adventures.

A note to anyone who’s keen to catch a sailfish: Kuala Rompin, Malaysia is perhaps one of the hottest places on the globe to catch Indo Pacific Sailfish. When the bite is on boats can enjoy 20 to 30 hookups a day, and from July through to late October is the peak season. If you’re interested, read my article in August’s edition of Modern Fishing magazine (on stands July 24), or for more details contact me on dant@2dansfishing.com.au.

For now, rug up, get on the water and enjoy the freshness only winter’s colder water and fresh winds can deliver.

Need more fishy facts in your weekly informational diet? Tune in every Sunday morning at 5am to 107.7, 2GO to listen to 2Dans Fishing.