All the action has been happening along the north shore at Minerva Reef and through to Julia Reef with many anglers chasing the mighty yellowtail kingfish.

There have been plenty of battles won and lost with twice as many lost due to the area being so shallow. These fish dive upon hook-up down through the reefs, so make sure you are using mono line and not braid.

The best catch methods have been using live bait under a balloon, trolling poppers, using fresh local squid under a balloon with even a few being landed with soft plastics. For those anchoring up with balloons there have also been good catches of trevally and the odd snapper while awaiting a kingfish strike. Kingfish on average have been weighing between 6-11kg amongst smaller rats ranging from 1-3kg.

For those not targeting kingfish along the north shore there have been catches of god sized whiting up to 60cm, snapper, trevally, pike, pinkie snapper, calamari squid, gummy shark and also plenty of schoolie sharks.

Local Matt Martyn along with Reece Gasden while fishing land-based along the north shore had a great night fishing from the Fitzroy River mouth with a mulloway of 6kg, a gummy shark 11.2kg and three nice snapper up to 2kg. Fishing from the Hole-In- the-Wall and the Surrey River mouth at Narrawong there have been good catches of snapper, mulloway, gummy shark and bronze whalers.

Snapper point and Maggoty Bay along the north shore have been producing catches of trevally, snapper and whiting. Fishing closer to town and off the Lee Breakwall has been producing catches of snapper to 9kg, trevally, salmon, whiting, calamari squid, gummy shark and the odd yellowtail kingfish.

The trawler wharf has had good catches of snapper to 30cm, trevally, whiting and calamari squid. Off the marina there has been a lot of calamari squid along with snapper, whiting and trevally.

Anglers heading around the back between Lawrence Rock and Cape Bridgewater have made good catches of mako shark in 65-85m of water. Anglers fishing for flathead have seen good catches off Cape Bridgewater. Other species coming from this area have been snapper, blue morwong, flying gurnard, coral perch and schoolie sharks.

As we progress into February and March many anglers thoughts will be turning towards catching southern bluefin tuna, so make sure your gear is up to scratch and ready to go when that phone call comes that the annual tuna run has begun.

Don’t forget to add the dates of January 19-20 to your calendar for the annual Portland Bait & Tackle fishing competition with great cash prizes and plenty of giveaways. Word has it that this year we will have the NRL trophy won by Melbourne Storm on display.

For all your latest fishing and weather reports be sure to give the boys at Portland Bait & Tackle a call on 0355235213, we are open from 7 till 7, 7 days a week

Another local angler, Andrew Evans and mate with a couple of good yellowtail kingfish.