I have fished both places, cape schanck and punch bowl number of time.
With respect to cape schanck, I suggest:
1. you bring spare change for parking and ticket machine, otherwise you may need to find a way on how to get the boom gate up smh
2. go and have a look at the place, where you want to fish, it will depend on the tides, wind, swell where you can and where you can't fish
3. if you do decide to go fishing down there, don't go on your own, god forbid you roll your ankle (like i did at punch bowl, crawling back to the top ain't easy)
4. on my first trip i took my messiah and few metal lures in the back pack, no bait fishing, as it was more about exploring and learning the place, so did not carry anything heavy. On the subsequent trips, we decided to take bait fishing equipment and even managed to get a balloon out, in hope of catching something big, this really depends on the wind you get, I'm glad we did not catch anything big, simply because carrying it back to the top would have been a nightmare.
5. make sure you wear good shoes, with good grip, can't afford to slip, or roll your ankle smh
As you can see from the photo, we fished the rocks on the right hand side of the stairs (as you are going down), halfway down we jump and descended down the hill and terrain very carefully. We fished the rocks all around until you come to the beach front or where the stairs finish at the bottom. The place had lots of potential for kingfish and anything else, but like anywhere else, it does not guarantee a catch, for me it was as much about fishing as it was about walking, exploring, sightseeing and enjoying the cliffs, waters and rock pools.
I have been thinking of going down there again in the coming weeks, to do some more spinning, but waiting for some warmer weather