Northern Beaches beach fishing?

[gianniz]

Hi,

My mates and I have been fishing on the boat but lately due to timing issue, we have not been able to launch the boat.

We live in forestville and do tradie work and generally finish around noon so we decided to buy a beach rod combo and thinking of hitting the beach as we often work in northern beachs area.

As we are relatively new to beach fishing we would like to get some raider tips

We have few questions,

First is the time. Is it worth fishing around noon? Has anyone tried fishing during the day and caught many fish? If it similar to rock fishing, then day time isn't the best...

Second is location, we looked at Narabeen to Deewhy and it didn't look promising. (mind you, as I check now, it was low tide at half metre!)

Any northern beach would be ok.

We aren't targeting any specific fish but salmon, tailors are good fun Well I like flounders and in the past I use to catch them from North curl curl rock pools (but getting dranched!), would I be able to catch these from off the beach?

Anyway thanks in advance and looking forward to your replies.

Mark

[rjc123]

I would have to recommend Whale Beach with Mullet strips and beach worms during spring and summer for whiting, Big bream, Flathead, sal on and tailor. If you find a nice looking gutter just cast straight into it and your all good! Make sure you get a rod spike or holder too. If you can then i would suggest getting another beach combo or use a normal rod as the more baits you fish the better your chances are and this will help you understand what the fish feed on in your area. Even though your breaks seem to be around noon i would recommend getting out very early morning or late arvo here and if you can target a jewie from the beach. Big mullet strips, Bonito Strips and Tailor strips are ideal. These baits can be purchased from the tackle store in narrabeen. You get the odd flounder off the beach but they arent exactly the most common target. Good luck!

[gianniz]

thanks for the kind reply.

I will look into whale beach next time.

We did go out to narrabeen last night. It was high tide at 6pm but we started fishing around 7:30 and it was pitch black.

We used gang and salted pilchards and throw at some gutters but nothing for half hour and bait wasn't touched so we packed it.

We had new rods and cause it's so dark, we couldn't tell where it was casting. With our old tackle we can comfortably cast with limited visibility as we got acustom to it....

Anyway thanks for the advice.

Mark

[rjc123]

keep trying mate, narrabeen seems to best best at first light with ganged pillies for flathead, tailor, salmon and bream at this time fo year. This is another good beach and i know a guy who fishes this beach and has caught multiple jewfish to 30kg here!

[humesy]

G'day.

I lived right on narrabeen beach for 3 years and pulled some nice fish from there in that time. Being a tradie, I would suggest afternoons/evenings are your prime times. You will get tailor, salmon and Jew into the night especially on a rising tide. Come summer, you will need to stake out your spot early as competition for prime gutters is fierce. Don't be scared to chuck out a livie either. Grab some yakkas in an aerated bucket from Roseville, lob one out and hang on. Even dead fresh yakkas are a gun bait. Don't limit yourself to narrabeen though. Plenty of beaches that fish equally well both north and south of there with less people. Take a drive and search for the best gutter,

Good luck

[gianniz]

thanks for the feedback.

We will try it soon. I like the idea of yakka at roseville as we live 2 minutes from the bridge.

Went to palm beach for squidding and lost 2 pretty good condition but squid musnt be hungry.

Going back this monring for earily morning (5hours from now!) session and catch those 2 we lost.

Anyway thanks for the feedbacks, gotta get my limited sleep now.

ciao

Mark

[ginko]

The northern beaches vary alot based on the height of the tides when you're fishin, and the recent swell activity. High tides near the full moon and new moon seem to produce bigger fish in close. The gutters are pretty inconsistent week on week because of swell action and long stretches of soft sand and hard rock close to the surface. Try checking out a surfcam website to find the best gutters, or drive up and down during the daylight to find a beach with good gutters.(this is also good to avoid beaches clogged with kelp).

In big southern swells, I find the exposed beaches are just too rough to fish effectively, so hit the southern corners of beaches that are protected by long headlands, e.g. north side of long-reef, or the headland at the south end of dee why. In my experience, just after a big swell and on high seems to offer the best fishing. The only beach I've had limited success on is Curl-Curl. Dee Why is pretty busy with people walking up and down during the daytime.

At midday, I think you'll need to be casting into a bit of foam to catch anything near the shore.

There are loads of sharks at night on the livies. Circle hooks mostly hook up outside the range of their teeth and may save you a few bust-offs.

You can get great bread from a bakery in Dee Why: it's open very early, and the fresh white bread was incredibly good on the hook - a loaf is $2.50. Last weekend I picked up the attached near long reef using the bread: a 36cm bream (caught on a super-small size 12 hook aimed at blackfish by some weed-covered rocks) and a 35 cm blackfish (caught on the bread and a bit of worm with a size 4 hook, aimed at bream/flatties behind the beach break).