Warm water has really improved the fishing and it looks like it should hang around for a while yet.

The water has been around 22° and pushing hard against the coast after the big cold eddy formed off Sydney a couple of months ago. This eddy is being studied by oceanographers as it hasn’t been seen before. It is 200km across and is up to 7° cooler than the surrounding water and big enough to divert the East Coast Current.

Let’s hope some warm water gets trapped down this end of the coast and hangs around for longer than usual.

Water 3km off the coast has been around 24° and all the fish are within a stone’s throw from the shore. This is the water that usually moves by out around the continental shelf.

Schools of bait have been everywhere along with the predators – striped marlin, yellowfin tuna, big kingfish and there has even been a report of a wahoo being captured. The action on the kingies has been unbelievable with heaps of fish around 1m long but one day they will bite madly and the next they’ll be hard to catch.

Not far to the south, around Green Cape, the water has been a cooler 19°.

Inshore grounds have yielded good catches of flathead, snapper and the like for those fishing the bottom. The beaches have been fishing well for tailor, bream, whiting and the odd salmon.

With good follow-up rain, all the rivers and creeks are still flowing well and with good tidal entrances at the Kiah and Wonboyn, these rivers are a great colour and offer some good fishing.

The shallow flats in the front section at Wonboyn have been excellent for good numbers of big sand whiting. The lake has produced good catches of flathead, yellowfin and black bream, tailor and the odd school jew.

The Kiah has also been fishing well with flathead and yellowfin bream on the bite. Around this time there is always a chance of catching a good jewie, especially with all the bait inside Twofold Bay.

The bass fishing in the area will have benefited no end as a result of all the rain and fish will be able to move sufficiently for successful breeding.

All in all, this is a great time to be fishing the South Coast with plenty of options for the keen fisho.

This nice pinkie snapper succumbed to a purple Firebait in Wonboyn Lake.