This is the time of the year when you should be able to catch both summer and winter species. The last of the schools of kingfish, amber jacks and bonito before they move off to warmer waters, mixing in with winter fish such as Australian salmon ,Taylor and Trevally.

Kingfish and amber jacks should be holding deep around markers and structures. The best way to catch these is on live bait, dropped down to the depth they are holding. Another method is to deepwater jig using slugo metal jigs or a combo of metal and plastic. But do not give the surface lures away all together there will always be a kingfish looking up for tasty morsels. I always throw a few top water lures at the structure before going deep.
I have upgraded all my rods on the boat to G Loomis and have been using a couple of pearler’s great for casting poppers, Yum dingers, slugos on the top and deep water metal jigs and weight soft plastic for working the deeper water. The rods I have been using are G Loomis Pro Blue PBR843S, these are the toughest graphite rod on the market and stand up to all the abuse that my clients can hand out I usually break a few rods in the course of a season but I have not broken one of these rods (touch wood).
I have these rods teamed up with Sustain 6000 and 20lb braid and 20 to 30lb fluorocarbon leader.
When I approach the marker or structure I will cast the top water lure as close as I can then work it back to the boat. Most of the time you will pull a strike in the first dozen casts, if I do not get a strike or I miss a fish I will then work the deeper water.

I use my 97 Matrix sounder to locate the deeper fish, noting how deep they are holding. You can either anchor or drift over them depending on the wind and current. I then lower the jig to the bottom, keeping in contact with the jig on the decent as often fish will strike on the drop.
When your lure hits bottom, wind it a few turns up and jig it up and down with the rod a few times. Often fish will strike. If it doesn’t, I wind at high speed, with a pause or two on the way up. On many occasions you will be nailed on the pause or just as you start to retrieve.
Often when we are jigging I will cast a unweighted slugo out, put the rod into a rod holder and let it slowly sink, let it sit there only moving up and down with the boat movement from the waves. This will often hook up without any input by the angler, but if it does not after 10 minutes work it up slowly, putting action into it with the rod and retrieve then repeat the process.
It also pays to get a burly going as often Bait fish and fish will follow it right back to the boat. I often pin live bait and send it down as a back up. Burly is also handy when deep water fly fishing. Get a good trail going, cast your fly let its sink and retrieve it back through the trail.
The Bass and Estuary Perch should also be caught in good numbers in May as they should be schooled up in good number in the Sackville to Wisemans ferry area.
This is the time of year that a lot of bigger bass are caught. Soft plastic and flies
Worked around drop offs and eddies should work well. Most of these fish will be Hanging in the deeper water. So make sure you get your lure down near the bottom

Use coloured braid so you can see when your line has reached the bottom then work your lure back with a lift and fall retrieve.
The winter is also a good time to work surface lures in the back eddies were all the floating weeds, sticks and every other thing that floats in the river comes together
On cold frosty mornings John Bethune and I have cast surface lures and shallow jerk baits in these areas and pulled some of the largest bass from under floating debris in these large back eddies.