With the weather starting to stabilise a little better there has been much more action offshore lately with boat anglers reporting good hauls of king flathead in 70-80m of water and appear to be quite large in size.

The striped trumpeter fishing is looking very good, with the fish having a couple of months rest from angling pressure.

Fishing has started off strongly with many anglers reporting good catches. Areas such as the Binalong Patch, the 14 Mile patch off Eddystone Point and areas down off Bicheno and Seymour have all produced fish. There has even been a handful of fish caught closer to home on Merricks Reef and the Gravel Patch

Further inshore Georges Bay has been firing hard, some good seasonal rainfall has flushed the bay well and there have been large amounts of small bait fish moving throughout the bay.

Earlier in the month anglers were witness to some amazing fishing where large Australian salmon around 2.5kg were hoarding schools into the shallow water all along the beach near the Sea Scout Hall and feeding on them in little more than half a metre of water……anglers were able to catch good fish right at their feet.

Up in the Moulting Bay area, boat anglers have been consistently catching good Australian salmon up to 2.5kg and some good tailor to around 1kg. Most of these fish have been caught using soft plastic lures with the Squidgy Flick Bait in Evil Minnow colour being very popular.

Silver trevally are also hot on the bite and are being caught all over the bay. Anglers fishing Kirwins and Parkside jetties have been rewarded by good sized fish, as have boat anglers fishing the channel and Moulting Bay areas.

Two species showing up in regularity at the moment have also been squid and King George whiting. These are both fantastic eating fish and take a little bit more searching to find but are well worth the effort.

Casting squid jigs around the weed beds should produce calamari if they are in the area and small #2 Gamakatsu Bait Keeper hooks laced with a pipi bait and cast to the edge of the weed beds should produce the whiting if they are around.

The Scamander River has the bream in full swing spawning and has been producing some fantastic fishing. One local angler from Scamander has reported some excellent fish being caught using the Squidgy Wriggler in Wasabi and fished lightly into the tree snags where the fish are schooling up.

Plenty of fish also coming deep from the rock walls on Cranka Vibe lures, as the month progresses we will see the fish move up to the surface and in amongst the snags where sight fishing with lightly weighted plastics, hardbodied lures and flies are the key.

For any more advice on where to go and what to catch just drop in and see me, Jamie, at St Helens Bait & Tackle.