Land-based beach anglers have been seeing plenty action with schools of salmon frequenting the beaches at Marengo and Wild Dog most mornings and nights.

The dark shapes of the salmon schools can be seen with a good pair of polarised sunglasses and once they move within casting distance of the beach it's just a matter of tossing out a metal lure and winding.

They have varied in size from 1-3kg and have been putting up a real scrap in the breaking waves so make sure your drag is set. Boats can also target the salmon schools with trolled or cast lures and this can make for some very exciting fishing. I prefer to pull up along side the salmon school and cast metal lures just ahead of the feeding fish. Don't drive your boat through the middle of the school or get too close to them as they will dive deep and stop feeding.

If there are other boats in the area keep your distance and work together leap frogging each other to get ahead of the moving school and always keep an eye open for unexpected waves.

The King George whiting are still around in good numbers on the inshore reefs with the golf course and Marengo being the hot spots. Use pipis for bait and concentrate your efforts along the edges of the reef and sand. Small amounts of berley help to keep the fish around and will also attract any trevally that might be in the area. Some of the King George whiting have been thumpers with fish up to 50cm on offer.

Shark anglers have been hooking plenty of mako sharks out in 75m of water. This season we have seen many more makos then normal and I believe this is due to the high water temperatures we have experienced which have been as warm as 20C. Lots of berley is the key to attracting them and a squid head is good bait.

Use a heavy wire trace of 300lb as there have been a few reports of anglers having their traces bitten through. Squid can be caught on location as there have been huge numbers of arrow squid out in the deep water. Prawn style jigs will work but a baited jig is much more productive for these big aggressive squid.

The warm water has brought a few schools of striped tuna along with it so keep an eye open when fishing out wide. While on the subject of tuna, the bluefin should be around by now, so make sure your gear and boat are up to the challenge and I'll see you out on the water somewhere.

Dan Mackrell landed this small thresher shark while fishing in 60m off Smythes Creek. Bigger sharks such as mako and blue sharks can be found in large numbers further out to sea.