Settled conditions after much rain has allowed boaters and land-based anglers to get out and about; many have been taking home some very good bags of fish.

The Anderson Inlet, even though the water temperature has been well down, has fished well with very good numbers of salmon to the 2kg mark being taken on a variety of baits and lures.

As has been the case for some time, quite good numbers of gummies have also been taken along with yellow kingfish.

Snapper have also been in fairly good numbers but there are plenty undersize, which are a nuisance but it’s a good sign for the future.

The dirty water has spread out about 2km outside the entrance but there are still good reports coming from the area.

On one of my recent visits I came across Mark and a mate who had just returned but could only show a reasonable size whiting and a flathead for their efforts but they were happy.

There had been quite a few locals and visitors fishing from the jetty as there had been good numbers of garfish making an appearance. Although they were not all that big they are providing plenty of entertainment.

Shallow Inlet has been going along very well where whiting to the 40cm mark have been taken on pipis, squid, pilchards and Bass yabbies. There have also been quite good numbers of salmon making an appearance and when these fellows arrive in their traditional numbers they can reach the magical 4kg mark, which is just on 10lb on the old scale.

These fish are renowned for their fighting qualities but are not much as far as table fare is concerned and are probably best let go to swim and fight another day.

Local legend Greg Buckland and a crew did something different recently when they went out looking for whatever might come along in Waratah Bay. Not much happened for a while when suddenly two rods took off at a great pace. There was a fair bit of panic as the fish took the lines everywhere, which included around the anchor rope but after a long battle they landed a very impressive king fish that was to drag the scales way down to 13kg.

There was more to come as the other line was still going crazy and the battle continued for quite a while until another monster king fish was landed but this time it was even better and weighed in at 18kg.

Fish this size are rarely caught in this area; for some reason they usually won’t take baits but there is always the exception to the rule and this seems to be one of those exceptions.

Naturally Greg and his mates had bragging rights for quite some time.