YEAR after year, for as long as I can remember October is the month when we fishers prepare ourselves for the summer invasion.

Here they come!

Thumping great summer whiting, marching along Stockton Beach on their annual northern pilgrimage.

One of our very best kitchen fish, a crumbed fillet of snowy white whiting is hard to beat.

Indications are that the whiting will reach Fingal Beach right on Christmas and continue to pour along the coast and into the port throughout the summer months.

The best bait to catch a whiting is without doubt a wriggling, savage sea worm.

Sit the worm comfortably on a No 4 long shank hook and toss it out just behind the shore break, then prepare yourself for a battle as whiting do not give in easily.

Inside the heads, cracker dusky flathead are waiting in ambush in the warm shallows that fringe the port. Pilchards, soft plastics and hard bodied lures are deadly and will be eagerly attacked particularly early morning on a rising tide.

Best spots include Shoal Bay, Little Beach, Bagnalls Beach and Wanda.

Snapper are out of control over the shallow reefs, from Fishermen’s Bay to Broughton Island.

Soft plastics are being preferred to top baits of fresh squid and bonito fillet.

Try Fingal in front of the Outer Light just on sunrise or sundown. |

You will probably see me out there.

Say g’day.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE