With the winter months upon us the town has quietened down. You wouldn't know it was winter though with warm days and mild nights for the past few weeks.

The water temperature has been up and down over the past month and it’s currently sitting at around 16ºC. As the water is cooling the salmon on all the local beaches and headlands are really starting to fire up and their numbers will only increase over the coming months. And with some big seas over the past month there are plenty of good gutters on all the local beaches.

Boats heading out fishing the inshore reefs are still having to put up with pesky leatherjackets biting everything that moves, resulting in plenty of sinkers and hooks bitten off. Thankfully they aren't as bad as they were a month ago.

The snapper have come on in the past few weeks with catches coming from all the inshore reefs. Fish to 2kg are being caught by anglers fishing with fresh bait, while other anglers catching fish with soft plastics. Good catches of sand flathead have been taken, and tiger flathead are also being caught by the boats venturing out a bit further. The calm days allow boats to head down towards Disaster Bay where there can be some great fishing.

Reports of kingfish being caught around the reefs are still coming in, with some big yellowfin tuna out on the shelf. As yet there have been no reports of southern bluefin tuna turning up.

At this time of year you can expect some big tailor to turn up along the local beaches and in the estuaries. I have heard a few reports of some big fish hooked but none have made it to the net.

Yellowfin bream and sand whiting are being caught around the front section of the local estuaries with some big blackfish also being caught. Fresh worms and nippers have been the go for the bream and whiting, with anglers using green weed fished under a float to get amongst the blackfish.

Dusky flathead are about with fish caught on both soft plastics and blades. Black bream are also being caught along the rocky edges further upstream. The water has cleared after the recent rains and this will see some great fishing over the coming month.