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The Central Coast
Callum Lee & Jack Wills
The Central Coast region is located on the coast, just north of Sydney and south of the hunter region. The central coast has a population of over 300,000 people and produces magnificent fishing. It also offers a good variety of fishing environments, including estuaries, rivers, lakes, dams, streams and around 60km's of Tasman Sea coast. When fishing with TT & ZMan Lures, the central coast can produce some quality fish.
Wyong River:
Wyong River is a peaceful river that is connected to Tuggerah Lakes. It holds brackish water and a variety of structures, including pontoons, wharves, mud flats, bridge pylons, drop-offs, steep banks and weed beds. Fishing the snags with a ZMan 2.5" GrubZ rigged on a TT Lures jighead can produce nice estuary perch, quality bream and the odd flathead.
Jack spent a day fishing up close to the snags pulling in a nice bag of bream and some quality EP's all on the trusty ZMan 2.5" GrubZ in Violet Sparkle. The 4" StreakZ Curly TailZ in Bloodworm rigged on a 1/4oz TT jighead also produced a few nice flatties fishing drop-offs.
A 2-5kg spin combo will cover most of the fishing on the river, with a boat or kayak being a better to access the river, due to trees and long stretches of roadway. A lure retriever is highly recommended because you tend to snag up at times and at under $10, this fishing tool will save you much more than that. Small poppers or surface lures with a good twitch will entice a bream to hit the surface, while a 1/12oz TT Lures Ghostblade will pull bream and EP's fishing down around structure.
The Entrance:
The Entrance is a populated suburb located around the eastern part of Tuggerah Lakes. The Entrance Bridge has 34 pylons and if you throw a ZMan 2.5" GrubZ or a 4" StreakZ Curly TailZ, you would have a good chance of pulling in a big bream.
Throwing them on a small to mid-size TT jighead, straight down the pylons that feed bream via all the crustaceans on them, can be extremely effective. Let it hit the bottom and with a few little flicks of the rod tip it portrays a wounded baitfish. At times bream find it virtually impossible not to hit this little plastic.
Reel in the slack and let it sit back on the bottom, waiting and allowing the buoyancy of the tail to cause it to flutter around. If a sudden twitch or tap appears in the line, don't be afraid to pull back hard as a bream could be on the end of it and the hook will be set. After 5-10 seconds flick it up again and continue this flick and pause retrieve.
For bream fishing we both like to run a light 2-4kg graphite rod with a 1000-2500 size reel. We fit them with light braid or straight through light flurocarbon line. A light leader is a must because the bream have eyes like a cat and can be spooked by heavy line. Depending on the conditions 8lb is the heaviest we go up to, while dropping all the way down to 2lb if the bite is tough.
The Entrance Channel sand flats also produce flathead, whiting and good bream. Pelican Island is located west of the bridge and can produce some brilliant fishing at times. ZMan 3" MinnowZ have caught a lot of flathead for us, along with the occasional big bream around the weed banks and sand flats off the island. The Coastal fishing TV crew has also caught some nice bags of bream on the weed banks surrounding the entrance on ZMan Lures.
Ourimbah Creek:
Ourimbah Creek is a very exciting creek that holds the famous Australian bass! Around every corner there is a new snag and the bass there will take surface lures in the shallows, including surface plastics, cicada lures and poppers, while deep and shallow diving lures and snagless soft plastics are preferred in the deeper water and around the snags.
Spinnerbaits and soft plastics are deadly when targeting bass in medium to deeper water. Some of our go-to lures include the ZMan 3" MinnowZ, 4" StreakZ Curly TailZ and 2.5" GrubZ, along with the TT Lures Vortex Spinnerbaits.
If you are using plastics like the ZMan 2.5" GrubZ on the surface, rig them on a TT Hidden Weight System (HWS) jighead. I recommend that you cast them as close as you can to the structure that you are fishing and slow roll them with the rod tip up in the air so that the tail of the plastic twirls away on the top... that is until a bass sees it and smashes it.
If you want to fish on or near the bottom, cast a weighted plastic in or around a snag. Let it have contact with the bottom and give it a few hops off the bottom, before pausing it again. Plastics like the ZMan 4'' StreakZ Curly TailZ are effective because they will flutter and twitch, like a wounded bait fish.
Adding a bit of magic like the TT Jig Spinners in the correct size will help the bass spot the lure. The Jig Spinner is a wire frame with a spinning blade that attaches to the jighead to create flash and additional vibration that can attract fish to the lure and trigger strikes. When hopping or slow rolling the lure, the blade will spin and send a flash that can be seen miles away.
If landbased fishing creeks like Ourimbah, I would advise that you take a backpack, drink bottle, maybe some food, a camera for those magical fish, a phone just in case something happens and a load of ZMan and TT lures.
Gwandalan:
Gwandalan is found on the southern part of Lake Macquarie. It is really not touched by anglers that much, but is a paradise for water skiers and wake boarders as it is protected from the wind from most directions.
Two boat ramps allow you to access the water within 500m of each other, making it easy to cover both ends. Gwandalan is a favourite location to throw around the ZMan 3'' MinnowZ in Opening Night, rigged on a TT Lures 1/4oz jighead. The Coastal Fishing TV team have had a streak with this lure presentation.
Structure in the area consists mainly of mud and sand flats, with weed beds dropping into a nice depth of water. The main target species is the dusky flathead but we have caught many bream, tailor, Australian salmon, whiting and we're certain that Jack hooked up to a mulloway on a ZMan 4'' SwimmerZ that was lost just below the boat, with us both catching a glimpse of silver flash.
A spin combo is a must if you are flicking lures around. We use a 10lb leader, tied with a double uni to braid when we target dusky flathead.
So next time you're planning a trip with some mates or the family, check out the Central Coast. Make sure that you pack some ZMan and TT Lures, as we're certain that you will catch a fish or two.
Calum Lee & Jack Wills