With the town a lot quieter after the busy Christmas holiday period, the coming months really sees all forms of fishing fire up. The game fishing, the beach, and the estuaries are at their best.

The past month has seen some good catches coming in from the inshore reefs and flathead grounds. Once again, an early start has been necessary to avoid the wind. Some good-sized sand flathead have been caught (58cm), and that's a big sandie. Out wider, good numbers of tiger flathead are available too. Snapper, morwong and leatherjackets are being landed from the inshore reefs, and wherever you find baitfish is the spot to drop.

The fishing for kingies has been pretty ordinary this year, with rats to just legal size making up the bulk of the catch. The bigger fish seem to have travelled by, but hopefully will turn up again in a couple of months.

Fishing the local beaches has been good. The water temperature is around 20 degrees, with sand whiting and yellowfin bream being caught. Fresh worms and prawns are the best choice of bait. The odd salmon has been beached, with bigger numbers of fish expected when the water cools in the winter months.

Keen anglers chasing mulloway from now through until Easter know it is well worth putting in the time, particularly around the new and full moon. The beaches inside Twofold Bay are a known spot for fish.

The next few months are when you can expect the prawns to start running, and everyone loves a feed of prawns — especially if they are fresh. The local estuaries have been fishing well, with plenty of dusky flathead caught. Anglers fishing soft plastics have had a ball, but the fish are taking a variety of lures.

Whiting have been on the go for anglers in the know. They’re getting amongst the fish with surface lures, but those using bait have had best success on live nippers or worms. Some good blackfish are also in the local estuaries, with anglers fishing with weed under a float getting amongst them.

The recent rain has kept everything flowing, which has been great for those heading upstream chasing bass.

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Matthew with a surface caught bream. The lure is a Bent Minnow.

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Ivan with a black bream caught on a soft plastic.