Bream and flathead about but Mid North Coast forecast not great for freshwater fishers

For freshwater anglers though, there were reports last week of some great Australian bass caught in the upper reaches of the Macleay and Hastings rivers.

Looking at the long-term forecast, there are a few decent showers predicted at the end of November and the first few days of December.

If the weather forecast is correct, this may put a pause on freshwater fishing until the rivers clear.

In the Hastings River this week, my pick would be bream fishing on whitebait or prawns.

Flathead should also be quite active, with live bait seeing the best results during daytime high tide.

For luderick anglers, the break wall is still holding some nice fish, with both sea cabbage and weed flies seeing the best results over the past week.

On the mulloway front; while the lower reaches have been a little slow, anglers are having more success catching school-sized fish that bit further west in the system.

On the crabbing front, locals are reporting the odd mud crab around the lower parts of the river, however better results have come from further up the river in the warmer water.

Stay persistent, as numbers of mud and blue swimmer crabs should improve as we approach the summer months.

Further south, Lake Cathie continues to produce great numbers of flathead, whiting and tailor, for local and visitor anglers.

School prawns and yabbies are the bait of choice with the eastern side of the lake towards the beach the best location for a fish.

In the Camden Haven River, flathead numbers have certainly picked up. Lures of all sorts have been predominantly successful; however, mullet strips or prawns are also worth a try if you want to use bait.

Bream fishing in the Camden Haven has been best around Henry Kendall reserve on high tide, using green prawns for bait.

In the Macleay River region, beach fishing anglers have reported decent catches of bream, whiting and school mulloway.

Gap Beach and Back Beach at South West Rocks have been fishing well with some decent sized flathead caught during the week on bait.

In the river this week, local anglers targeting flathead were hooking the odd mulloway and were having a lot of fun on their lighter gear over the weekend.

Whiting numbers are also improving throughout the system with yabbies and worms being the baits of choice.

I expect whiting numbers to increase as the water gets warmer coming into the summer months.

Not much to report offshore with challenging conditions this week. If we see an improvement in the weather, I would be heading out to South West Rocks or Hat Head FAD for a mahi mahi.