Visitors and locals have been enjoying some great Autumn weather and good fishing, but it won’t be long before Winter is here, leaving the town quiet and the locals looking forward to warmer weather.

The offshore fishing is just about come to an end with the water recently dropping to as low as 15°. It has come back up to 19º but there is obviously more cold water just around the corner.

There have been good flathead offshore with decent tigers and sandies but that is about it. Unfortunately, there are very few kingfish gracing the cleaning tables, or gummy sharks.

But every year is different so maybe next season will provide better.

This year we should see the start of the new boat ramp at Bastion Point, which has finally got the go-ahead, and it should be completed by 2015.

The beach fishing has been a bit slow with the salmon yet to put in an appearance, but some good-sized tailor have been a drawcard.

The best action has come from around the entrance, for sand whiting and yellowfin bream. The top baits have been the local beach worms and prawns.

The lake fishing for bream has been tough. I haven’t seen it this bad before, but I fish with lures and this estuary is always under a lot of lure-fishing pressure.

The fish are there, judging by the numbers of quality yellowfin and black bream at the cleaning table, but it’s the bait fishers who are winning. Best bait has been fresh or frozen prawns.

Both the Bottom and the Top lakes and upstream to Gypsy Point have been fishing well for flathead. Plenty of small fish have been caught and a legal bag of fish (30cm-55cm) is not hard to catch. Soft plastics fished on light jig heads have been the way to get fish.

Those fishing for mulloway have been getting some action with the average size around 10kg-12kg. You need to put in a lot of time to catch mulloway but patience and persistence are eventually rewarded.

In the Betka River good flathead and bream are still being caught around the bridge. The entrance remains open to the ocean but for how much longer it’s hard to say, as the sand is moving in and it looks like closing.