The flats fishing at Lake Tyers has have finally started to fire! Bream and flathead have been actively feeding in the shallow areas on the abundant bait and are awesome fun especially when most of the strikes are seen!

Casting hardbodied and surface lures is the best way to cover the flats and the fish hit hard. Anywhere around the Glasshouse, Blackfellows Arm and the channel markers have good sand flats that fish well at different stages of the day. The best times are early morning and late afternoon especially when the wind gets up a bit and stirs things up.

Shallow running hardbodied lures in the 40-80mm range are perfect for these situations. Bait fishers have been doing well using peeled or live prawn with no weight. There is a lot of smaller fish around but the bigger ones are certainly there.

Some great flathead have been caught on live mullet and live prawn near the glasshouse along the drop offs. The odd mega trevally and a few big tailor have been caught here too on pilchard fillets, live mullet and metal lures.

Further up the Nowa Nowa arm a few estuary perch have been caught in the snags on live shrimp and hardbodied lures and small flies like green Clousers. Its great to see numbers of these great little fish in the system after many years of absence. They have been up to about 38cm and a scrappy little fighters on light gear. Some nice bream and luderick have been taken on shrimp and sandworm. Using 8lb line with a number 4 hook and no sinker is the best technique here.

The fishing has been brilliant in the Cunningham arm. Large schools of silver trevally have been ghosting around the jetties and some are absolute thumpers. Shrimp, sandworm and bluebait fished under a float will do the job. Some nice pinkie snapper up to 40cm have been getting caught on pilchard cubes and soft plastics fished in the deeper holes near the Nautilus Restaurant. Some big flathead have been hooked in the shallows but most are being lost as they are swallowing the lures and biting through leaders.

Whiting have been very patchy but some reasonable numbers were getting caught on the sand bank opposite McDonalds on peeled prawn and mussel wound slowly back across the bottom. This will also see a few flathead hooked.

The rock walls along Kalimna, Bullock Island and under the bridges are fishing well for luderick up to 2kg. Green weed under a running float is the way to go, and the weed can be collected along the walking path in Cunningham Arm or in Eastern Beach Creek.

The North arm is still fishing well in the upper reaches for garfish and large yellow eye mullet. Sandworm under a float is deadly and a berley trail of bread crumbs and tuna oil will bring them in and hold them in the area. They make brilliant surf bait and hard to beat on the table.

The surf beaches are slowly starting to pick up again now the red weed has settled a bit. Some nice salmon have been caught at Eastern Beach on pilchards, bluebait and surf poppers, while lure anglers are still having a few issues with patches of weed but are getting some nice fish on green Lazer lures on light gear.

Gummies have been very quiet in close but the odd one is being caught on squid. Large skate have been giving anglers grief especially when there is a bit of swell.

Lake Tyers beach has been fishing well for pinkie snapper around the many small reefs that are scattered through the breakers. Some fish have been up to 4kg or so and can be caught on squid, pilchard or fresh salmon fillets. Expect to catch plenty of wrasse too, and a few surprise packages like kingfish have been hooked and lost when they smash baits and break off in the reef.

Offshore has been hit and miss. The 6 mile reef has been producing smaller fish up to about 2kg, as is the 4 mile reef and in close at the Bluff. For those putting in the miles the pipeline and stockyards have seen good snapper to 7kg mixed in with the smaller school fish. There are massive schools of slimy mackeral and yellowtail right along the coast and a few solid makos have been hooked around these schools on live baits.

Reports of Yellowtail kingfish have filtered through so the next month should be very interesting indeed. Arrow squid have also been thick in reefy areas so keep a jig rigged and ready just in case they follow a hooked fish to the surface.

Flats fishing at Lake Tyers has been fantastic.