Kingfish are the heavyweights of the harbour, and will leave you standing on the boat broken line in hand, fly gone thinking “What was that?”.  These fish are not a light tackle exercise and will need at least an 8wt with a 10wt being a much safer bet.  Twenty-pound leader is standard and expect to be towelled up frequently, though the excitement of landing one of these beast is worth every lost fly.

Fish structure like rock ledges and drop offs such as North and South Head, or one of the many navigational markers in the harbour which hold good numbers of kings.  It is also worth keeping an eye out for bust ups and bird movement along the lower harbour edges.  These bait balls will have kingfish following them and make for a very exciting and visual fly fishing experience.

The go to flies for Kingfish are squid patterns and large Clousers for fishing structure, with weight being important to get the fly down to the fish quickly. If they are up on the surface and chasing bait school eye flies and surf candies are the go.  Try flies in sizes 4 through to 2/0 depending on the bait in the water, it a case of match the hatch. 

In recent years, Kingfish have even  been landed on fly from the shore of the Parramatta river by a group of dedicated fly fishers.

The favoured winter sport fish of the harbour and for good reason.  They are fun, put a decent bend in an 8wt and aren’t hard to find.  Not always easy to fool the Australian Salmon call for leaders around the 12lb mark and nothing works better than eye flies, surf candies and small surface poppers.

During the winter months large schools of salmon move up the coast, venturing into the harbours and bays around Sydney.  They will feed for long periods on the surface attracting flocks of mutton birds and are not hard to locate.  They are a hard fighting fish on fly gear and if you get taken to the bottom and reefed you won’t be the first to think you just hooked a Kingfish.  Eight-weight gear is enough on most days and leaders don’t need to be super strong as they are generally in open water, but at times you do need small flies.

Nothing works better than eye flies, surf candies and small surface poppers and the best cast is to the edge of the feeding school where the fish are picking up the scraps from the chaos happening in the centre.  Your fly is better presented here, a slow sinking and erratic stripped fly, like a wounded baitfish is just what the salmon on the edge are looking for.

Pack a permanent marker because when Salmon are on ‘eyes’, tiny bait or jelly prawns, you can use the marker to cover your fly in black dots and your single fly now looks like a little bait ball of “eyes” and it will get eaten.

Flathead have been a classic "go to" fish to chase for novice and expert alike.  They are accessible, fooled by basic techniques and a lot of fun.  A morning or afternoon chasing crocs on the flats between the sand and weed beds will leave you very happy.

Areas to chase Flathead are varied, good places to start are the sand flats and drop offs of the rivers feeding Sydney Harbour such as Lane Cove River, Middle Harbour Creek and the bays of Parramatta River around Rhodes, Putney, Abbotsford and Tennyson Point.  The Port Hacking and Sans Souci areas to the south and Narrabeen Lake and its feeder creeks are also good places to look.

Methods that work well for Flathead are bringing the fly parallel to the bank and working it back in short sharp strips and bouncing a weighted fly over the bottom during the retrieve.  Clousers, fat boys and weighted rabbit fur flies are popular.  Keep in mind the tide movement, a dropping tide will find Flathead waiting to ambush prey at the edges of drop offs.  A high tide will find them close to weed beds and mangroves waiting for a prawn or baitfish to venture out.

Bream are an iconic saltwater target for fly fishers.  It can take a bit of time and effort to catch these fish, but the effort is worth it as Bream are so wide spread within the salt water environment you can target them anywhere.  They are a fish of many moods, a great challenge on fly, super spooky in the shallows and aggressive surface feeders, a hard fighting fish that will go for cover should it be close by.  Persist at a local spot, try different times of the day and tides until you find their feeding time.

Try short strips and long pauses with a fly that has plenty of natural movement, rabbit fur is a favourite, or a small bait fish pattern stripped thru some current around a bit of structure.  Shrimp patterns are a favourite and in summer try a slow surface popper for explosive strikes.

The poor man’s bonefish, but better eating.  Find some sand flats and go spotting.  Small poppers in summer are great and the secret with Whiting is stripping, keep the fly moving…double hand if you have to.  They will look like they are flat out chasing the fly and you’ll want to stop stripping and let them take it.  Try it …and watch them swim away.  So keep striping or strip even faster and they will accelerate and hit the fly.

Sight fish for them with a light rod over sand flats.  Flies need to be small and a little Crazy Charlie of rabbit or craft fur are good.  A good fly for those clear sandy flats is a lightly dressed fly of translucent Hi Vis, light white or tan flash with just a hint of orange, sand flea patterns are also popular.