Newcastle around the clock by Dean Silvester

You can fish Newcastle Harbour all day, all night and into the next morning. The only thing holding you back is your stamina or your work or family commitments.

And if you have a busy schedule and don't get the so called peak times available to go fishing, there will still always be a species for you to target no matter what time you have free.

Bream, flathead and jewfish are the main species targeted in the harbour and all are plentiful year round if you know where to look.

Fishing for all three fish at any time of the day can be of varied success, but chasing each one at their prime time is the key to consistency.

EARLY JEW

It's best to arrive on the water a few hours before sunrise - around 4am is good. Make your way over to the northern breakwall on the Stockton side of the harbour entrance and, depending on which way the tide is running, get your boat in a position so that you are working your lures with the current, giving them a more natural presentation.

I prefer to use soft plastics, which I find more successful and economical when you consider getting busted up by the bigger fish.

Most big plastics will work for jewfish. I start with a 6" shad or jerk minnow plastic or if I know smaller school jewfish are around, I'll try a 4" Atomic Guzzlerz Prong. I usually like to start off bigger and work my way down.

When it comes to jig head styles, I like the shortest hook shank possible because it allows the plastic to move more freely in the water.

Position your boat half a cast length out from the rocks facing into the flowing tide. Cast the plastic upstream at 45° to the boat, landing it hard against the rock wall edge.

As it lands, give the lure a few quick rips to get it out of the shallows before letting it sink down the face of the rocks to the bottom.

The quick retrieve as the lure lands will draw the attention of any jewfish holding shallow or facing the wall. It is amazing how many fish have belted me the moment I paused to let my plastic sink.

Once the lure reaches the bottom, start working it back towards the boat. Pause your retrieve every few winds to keep the lure deep in the water column but keep it off the bottom.

Continue this along the entire wall, paying attention to the locations where bites occurred so you can focus more in that depth of water for the rest of the wall to maximise your results.

SHADY BREAM

When the sun gets too bright bream will be lurking in the shadows, feeding among the pylons of the wharves and jetties around the port. The old steelworks jetties and loading docks are havens for fish and flicking light plastics into the shadows gets great results - as long as the current is running.