As water temperatures have warmed up off the coast of St Helens so has the game fishing.

Good albacore tuna between 5-10kg have been caught regularly over the last month and there are plenty of signs indicating a strong season ahead and with reports of some yellowfin tuna already around, the marlin shouldn’t be too far behind.

Most fish action has been out on the edge of the continental shelf, approximately 14nm offshore, with water temperatures reaching 18.5C and 16.5C back in on the 100m mark. As the temperatures warm slightly, more the fish should move further inshore.

Some early catches of mako shark have also been reported with fish up to 180kg being boated, tagged and released.

Further inshore, Georges Bay has been on fire with loads of black bream covering the flats areas at high tide. This is an ideal time to target these hard fighting fish with soft plastic lures such as the Squidgy Wriggler in Wasabi colour or hardbodied bream lures such as the Strike Pro Flatz Minnow. Most areas out of water at low tide should hold good numbers of bream as the tide rises and covers the flats.

Georges Bay has also been producing some wonderful sport on silver trevally up and down the main channel areas; these fish fight hard and are great sport on light tackle.

There has also been some good squid captures still inside the bay with many calamari quite large in size as well as plenty of the usual species such as leatherjacket, mullet, mackerel, tailor, King George whiting, flathead and elephant fish.

Trout

The east coast river fishing has also been quite good with early summer seeing the willows in full colour and plenty of willow grubs hatching providing a great constant food source for the small trout but very frustrating for the fly angler.

As the month moves on we should see plenty of grasshopper action begin which will bring the fish out from under the willows and provide some great polaroiding river sport.

The one downer for the East Coast at the moment is the crayfish closure due to an algal bloom. Both the recreational and professional fisheries are closed to taking rock lobster and look like being that way for a while.

This has had a detrimental effect to the economy of the East Coast region during the holiday season.