Shortly before compiling this report I received news from the boat storage that there had been good numbers of kingfish caught out wide. The first report was that fish were in good numbers but many were under the minimum 60cm size limit. Later reports were that the size seemed to have increased somewhat and there were many bag limits of these ripper fish taking a variety of lures and live baits.

The kingfish have been caught on lures but there have also been big pike jumping in and making a bit of a nuisance of them-selves. Of course the fish are being caught in the good conditions, which hopefully will stick around for a while yet.

Locals have also caught schools of big garfish. At times the schools have been smashed by couta and pike, which is a bit of a nuisance for anglers trying to bag some gars.

Local angler Graham Godding has been doing fairly well and concentrating on quality flathead that he has been catching in good numbers.

The local jetties have been going along fairly well where salmon have been round in fairly good numbers with best results being on the run in tide. There have also been quality garfish, flathead and coutta making up very presentable bags.

I received a call from a visiting boater John Donington who likes to get away from the city traffic whenever he can. He had just bought a new 6m run about and was keen to try it out and brought along a couple of mates to share the experience. He says that the drive from Dandenong is worth the effort and in around 2 hours he is just about on the water. This was the case on his last effort and it was a perfect sunny day with virtually no wind.

The crew headed to the Lewis Channel looking for a whiting or whatever might come along but after an hour they had failed to trouble the weigh master and pulled up looking for another sport. They decided to head outside the entrance and threw out a berley trail, which attracted a big school of hungry gar fish and soon they were into the ‘mini’ marlin. After a short time they had some more visitors in the form of much larger pike, which were ripping into the school fish and there was plenty of entertainment for quite a while and eventually they had enough fish to call a successful trip.

The beach at Waratah Bay has been going along fairly well especially as far as salmon are concerned. They are usually around the 600g mark, which is great as far as the table is concerned but recent reports indicate that they are almost double this size for some reason but no one is complaining.

The best time has been on the run-in tide and as well as salmon there have been good numbers of flathead that have been taking soft plastic lures and a variety of natural baits. Like many other places there have been very good numbers of small gummies that are well under size but certainly a great sign for the future.

The great thing about this spot is that there is a car park right on the beach and, after just a short 50m walk to the water, fishing can begin.

Remember there are always plenty of those feathered thieves that will only too quickly pounce on any unattended fish on the beach and your hard earned catch will quickly disappear into the sky, leaving you to do it all again.