Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Sydney fishing report.
On the harbour and coast today we’ve had classic winter conditions: cool, mostly clear, light westerlies early, freshening nor’easterly breeze by afternoon, and only a slight chop inside the heads. Offshore swell has sat around a couple of feet from the south‑east, clean on the early. Bureau of Meteorology had sunrise just before 7am and sunset around 4:55pm, so that short dawn and dusk window has been prime time.
Tides in Sydney Heads have run a handy pre‑dawn high, dropping to a mid‑morning low, then building back to an early evening high. That making tide this afternoon has kicked fish into gear around headlands, ferry wharves and the bridge pylons.
Inside the harbour, tailor and salmon schools have been working small whitebait and pilchard schools from Middle Head through to Bradleys and across to Clark and Shark Island. A few crews reported solid sessions casting small 20–40 g metal slugs and 3–4 inch white or pilchard‑coloured soft plastics into the bust‑ups, with fish to 60 cm pretty common and the odd bigger salmon mixed in. A couple of kingfish have shadowed the schools, mostly schoolies in the 60–75 cm range, taking live squid and 5–7 inch soft plastics worked deeper.
Bream and trevally have been steady around the usual structure: moorings in Rose Bay, Rushcutters, and Blackwattle, plus the pylons under the bridges. Best reports have come from fishos fishing light leaders with peeled prawn, chicken gut, and pilchard cubes berleyed up. Mixed bags of half a dozen to a dozen legal bream, plus a handful of plate‑size trevally, have been the norm on the making tide.
In the estuaries, the Georges and the Lane Cove have turned up some nice winter flathead and school jew. The standouts have been 3–4 inch paddle‑tail soft plastics in motor‑oil, bloodworm, and pearl colours, fished slowly along the drop‑offs. A few jewies to around 80 cm have come on soft vibes and live mullet at the tide change. Not a red‑hot run, but consistent if you put the time in.
Off the stones around South Head and Maroubra, salmon and tailor have been on for the rockhoppers tossing metal lures and whole pillies under ganged hooks. A few drummer and groper have also been taken in the washes using cabbage weed and cunje, especially on the top half of the tide.
Offshore, the close reefs off Long Reef, Bondi, and Coogee have produced a respectable mixed bag: snapper to about 50 cm, plenty of pan‑size reds, mowies, and the odd pigfish. Best bait has been squid strips, pilchard tails, and fresh cut slimy, with many crews doing well on 5–7 inch soft plastics in pink and nuclear chicken colours hopped down a berley trail. The current has been light, so lighter sinkers have done the trick.
If you’re heading out soon, here are a couple of hot spots to aim for:
- **North Head to Quarantine Bay**: Working edges and current lines for salmon, tailor, and the odd king on metals and soft plastics, especially on the last of the run‑in and first of the run‑out.
- **Wedding Cake and the Harbour Bridge pylons**: Great for bream, trevally, and the chance of a jew or king. Fish lightly weighted baits and 3 inch plastics tight to structure during the evening high tide.
Best all‑round lures today: 20–40 g chrome metals, 3–5 inch paddle‑tail and jerk‑shad plastics in natural baitfish colours, and soft vibes for the deeper holes. Best baits: fresh squid, pilchard cubes, peeled prawn, and live mullet or yakka if you’re hunting jew and kings.
That’s your Sydney fishing wrap from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report.
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