The inshore fishing has still been good for a few squire and snapper in the same old haunts like Woody Head, Black Rock, Angourie and Shellys and further a field down around Wooli and Minnie Waters in that 30m mark seams to be the magic spots for them at the moment.

On the bait side of things pillies and bottle squid seam to be doing the bulk of the damage from what I hear but on the lure side of things flick baits have been accounting for quite a few quality fish getting up in the 5-7kg models.

Out wide there are still some nice kingfish and table fish like pearlies and pig fish down deep.

In the river some bream are still around in the bottom end of the river and the usual plastics and blades down deep have been working well. For the bait brigade some good bream baits are mullet flesh and any of the gut baits like chook and mullet gut.

There’s still some nice blackfish around as well. Along the walls in the lower reaches have been producing the goods.

Off the stones there have been some very nice tailor around in the 2-3kg class on spinners with better quality 4-5kg green backs on poppers and with plenty of bait around and good conditions hopefully the run of good fish will continue. My favourite pick for poppers to get in to those quality fish are the River2Sea 130 Bubble Pop as well as the Get Bent Pencil Popper. Both have accounted for plenty of quality fish for me.

On the mulloway front, there have been some nice shoolies still around the headlands and walls, and the best results have come from soft plastics. We have found the best combo for this kind of work to be a rod in the 8-9ft rated at 8-10kg with a 4000-6000 sized reel running 20-30lb line and 40-50lb leader. There have been some better quality model mulloway on the larger hardbodies again on of my favourite lures, the locally made Jewie Jewel by Croaker Lures, which has been accounting for some good size fish. Definitely upsize the gear if you’re throwing around these bigger hardbodies. And who can’t help but get excited for the season has opened on our favourite little Aussie battlers, the bass!