After a pretty poor Summer, as we head into Autumn all signs point towards a long Winter.

Unlike other areas, Mallacoota missed the rain and as a result the water is a good colour throughout the system.

The past month has provided anglers with some good fishing in the lake and offshore.

Anglers heading offshore have enjoyed good days on the kingfish with action coming straight out in front of Bastion Point on fish averaging 4kg to 5kg.

This is the best time of year for the kingfish, which should hang around for a couple of months.

Finding the fish can be tricky. Look for the diving birds and also keep your ear to the ground to hear where they are being caught.

It can pay to make the effort and get some live bait because at times the fish have been fussy, refusing to eat lures.

With the warm water the flathead fishing offshore is in full swing with good catches of sandies around Gabo Island and tigers out a bit wider.

Gummy sharks have been a bit quiet lately, with the best fishing around the full moon, but things can only improve.

The beaches have been slow with not too many salmon and only the odd gummy shark.

The lakes and rivers have been providing anglers with some great fishing.

As usual for this time of year, the fish are spread out and finding them can be hard. Just keep moving and don’t expect the find the fish where you found them the day before.

The Bottom Lake has been fishing well with some yellowfin bream, black bream, flathead and 30cm-plus pinkie snapper.

Those using prawns have been doing well, which is no surprise because there are plenty of prawns in the lake at present.

In fact some good catches of prawns have been taken near the entrance on the dark of the moon.

A few anglers have been putting in time chasing the jewies. Things have been a bit slow, with the most recent a 6kg fish reported from the Bottom Lake on a soft plastic lure meant for a flathead.

The Top Lake has been a bit slow with the action improving as you head up to Gypsy Point.

Good numbers of bream around 30cm are in the rivers. These are great fun on lures and a real challenge to catch.

Some good flathead are also in the rivers with the section near Gypsy Point jetty going well.

The Betka River has good numbers of flathead and bream.

The prawning has all but finished. There are big prawns there but not enough to be worth the effort.