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  |  First Published: December 2012



The busy time is here again. Christmas to the end of January is the peak period with bookings essential and the town will remain busy until after Easter.

Those spending a day on the lake, be it fishing or general boating, are well catered for with numerous barbecue areas, picnic tables and toilets provided. Anglers need to be aware that a Victorian fishing licence is needed and there are plenty of Fisheries officers about checking size limits and catches.

People fishing the beaches have been catching salmon from Bastion Beach right down to Shipwreck Beach on pilchards and chrome lures.

The same gutters are also the ones to fish at night for a gummy sharks or seven-gill sharks.

Some yellowfin bream have also been caught and as the water warms bream and even sand whiting will become more common from the local beaches.

Offshore, a few flathead are being caught and things are set to improve over coming months. Gummy sharks are also in the area, with the best spot to try out around Gabo Island.

Last year plenty of just-legal (60cm) kingfish turned up right over the peak holiday period. No doubt everyone has their fingers crossed that it happens again this season.

In the lake the flathead have come on the bite but over the holidays I expect the same poor performance as last year.

You can’t keep freezing fish and taking them home in an esky and expect them to be here next year. It’s not rocket science what is happening to the fishery.

Bream have been good with yellowfin and blacks caught but an early start is an advantage. Good fish are also being caught towards dusk.

The Betka River starts to fish well at this time of year with decent bream and flathead from the road bridge right to the entrance.

And with the big opening to the ocean after the rains earlier in the year, it’s fingers crossed that the prawns have found their way into the estuaries to create good prawning in the months to come.

Ray used a blade to catch this bream in deeper water.

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