The Christmas break is upon us and the holiday season has kicked off with a bang.

The downside being that more anglers and boaters will be out on the water, but with many of us having time off, does it really matter? The early bird gets the worm, so get up a tad earlier and have a nanna nap later on. There’s always a way around things, just think laterally.

The Curdies River is steady for bream to 41cm and the number one bait is live local shrimp. More shrimp bearing weed exists in the lake but this gets a flogging, so it’s potluck. The riverweed holds quality shrimp but the weed is sparse as there are more sudden drop offs rather than flats, so weed is at a premium.

Soft plastics, metal blades and minnow lures are also taking bream when fished close to the bank. The mouth has been shut since October, but last month there was still a significant flow in the river and a couple of inches is all that was needed to allow river water to flood the parking area at the Curdievale (Boggy Creek) boat ramp. This is all good for the river’s health.

The bream have finished spawning and have spread far and wide along the river’s length. From now on until any significant autumnal rains fall, many schooling bream will be found upstream of Curdievale, so don’t discount going right up the river into the bush. A good spot to concentrate your efforts is around the gas pipeline. For newcomers, this underwater pipeline is sign posted. Just allow any bait or lure to literally ‘kiss’ the edge of any weed growth hugging the bank before beginning retrieval.

The offshore scene has been hot with outer reefs lying in depths around 50m has seeing snapper and blue morwong to 60cm, gummy shark to 14kg and schoolies to 20kg.

Mako and thresher shark have turned up in reasonable numbers and although many fish are on the smaller side, the size should increase as we enter the New Year.

Off the reefs, excellent sand flathead to 1.7kg and sizeable nannygai have been caught.

Closer inshore has seen some large sweep taken in and around any water breaking over reefs as well as plenty of smaller snapper, many of which are undersize. These fish are responding to pipi and cray tail.

The King George whiting scene has yet to fully kick off, however some nice fish to 38cm have been taken off our many beaches as well as the pier at Port Campbell.