We’ve just had a great few weeks of snapper fishing and everyone is hoping the action keeps up this month.

In recent times there have been plenty of reds coming to the ramp that were pushing close to the magical 10kg mark and there was one day a few weeks back when two 11kg-plus fish came in on the same day!

A lot of these quality snapper are being taken on plastics fished over the shallower inshore reefs but there have been some days with little or no current in close so heading to the deeper water is the best option to find a bit of movement.

I spoke to a mate recently who fished around the 50-fathom mark to find the current and during a tide change in the middle of the day scored a great bag of snapper, teraglin and pearl perch all in about an hour.

I have also heard reports of quality pearlies coming from some of the inshore southern reefs, where they have been taken on plastics in water as shallow as 15m.

The game fishos haven’t had it too bad lately, either.

Two of our reliable locals, Troy and Mark, fishing from The Edge managed a little striped marlin off Coffs in August.

Troy was a little more reluctant to spill a lot of info about this capture than he was about his solo billfish a few weeks earlier.

However, I did hear that the latest fish was taken on one of the new Polu-Kai skirted lures, a 7” Tailpipe. It looks like they will make a big impact on the game fishing scene – keep an eye out for them.

Even though it’s still quite early in the bass season, the fish seem to be spread fairly well right through the systems already.

It’s possible that a lot of these bass either didn’t travel to the salt this year or they got the jump on us, spawned early and got back up the river ASAP – or maybe a mixture of the two!

When they want to travel and they get the right water conditions, bass can move hundreds of kilometres in only a few days. With the rains we had not long ago it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of the fish that are back up in the higher reaches of the rivers have done just that.

However, I’m sure it’s a mixture of travellers and resident fish that stayed in their pools all Winter.

The trout season opens on the October long weekend, which I’m looking forward to, although the early season crowds are something I try to avoid for the first few weeks. But hey, if your idea of chasing trout is being packed in like sardines into all the good camping areas along the riverbanks then early October is the time to head into the hills!

I like to have a little water to myself so I’m going to let it quiet down a bit and in a few weeks I’ll venture up and grab a couple to stick in the smoker.

This month I’ll be focusing a lot of my efforts on bass and eagerly awaiting daylight saving to start – it also kicks in over the long weekend.

I also have a breamin’ trip to Victoria ahead of me at the end of the month so I’ll see what trouble I can get myself into on that journey.