Off the beaches this week there were plenty of juvenile mulloway caught, particularly around the mouth of Lake Cathie and even a few fish caught in the Lake. These fish are great fun on lighter gear, but you do need to be careful when releasing undersize fish. To maximise a fish's survival use techniques and rigs that increase the frequency of mouth hooked fish (rather than gut hooked).
If the fish is hooked deeply, cut the line as close as possible to the fish's mouth rather than removing the hook. Compared to removing swallowed hooks from bream and mulloway, simply cutting the line increases their short-term survival. Studies have shown in most cases the released line-cut, gut-hooked bream shed their hooks within around three weeks. Also reducing the length of time the fish is out of the water and preferably unhooking the fish while it is still in the water will increase the survival rate of released fish.
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Off the rocks, conditions have been challenging with consistent big swell. As such, the protected corners have been the most secure locations to fish. Drummer are currently plentiful along with a few decent bream and tailor catches. With the swell hanging around fishing the rock washes around Shelly Beach and Lighthouse Beach are well worth taking a look.
In the rivers some decent bream are hanging around the lower Hastings River and flathead are abundant around the Coal Wharf and in Limeburners Creek. You'll also find a few whiting schooling in Lake Cathie and the Camden Haven River.
It seems like most weekends the weather for offshore fishing hasn't been favourable but for those lucky enough to head out for a fish on weekdays, there was some great catches of snapper on the inshore reefs and if you're after a feed of fish you'll find leatherjacket on the deeper offshore reefs.
From the 1 st August 2022, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is implementing new recreational fishing rules for Rock Lobster and Dusky Flathead in NSW. This is an exciting development in the recreational fishing space for Rock Lobster on the Mid North Coast, with the combined bag limit set to increase from two to three per person. DPI has also responded to the ongoing calls from the fishing community for rule changes to Dusky Flathead, this is to help boost the stock of bigger fish and ultimately provide better fishing opportunities.
DPI have changed the bag limit of Dusky Flathead per person from ten to five and introduced a 'slot limit' of thirty-six to seventy centimetres for recreational fisherpeople. These changes are designed to increase the number of spawning fish and boost egg production, which will in turn improve fishing opportunities. The changes will provide for greater protection of large and reproductively important female fish. For more information on these new rules, visit www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fishing-rules-and-regs.
