With the school holidays, plenty of visitors have come to the far south coast and this time of year is one of the best times to visit. The warm water encourages a variety of fishing options and the weather is still warm. Another month will see the cold winter weather.

The offshore fishing has been excellent, with the water temperature at about 20°C in close and getting warmer as you go out wider. The game fishers have had a ball chasing the striped marlin, and plenty of fish are about. Striped tuna have also been caught, and once the water cools the yellowfin tuna shouldn’t be far away. With any luck, the bluefin tuna will show up in the months ahead.

Kingfish are about in good numbers with fish caught down towards Green Cape. They seem to be on the move as fish will be caught one day and not seen the next. Tiger and sand flathead have been caught and snapper and morwong from the local reefs. Some good gummy shark and school shark have also been caught. When heading offshore keep an eye on the weather, as it doesn’t take much for it to turn pear-shaped.

Good fishing has been had on the local beaches with salmon starting to show up in numbers. Bream and whiting are also being caught and beach worms are the number one bait. The Easter period is always a great time to fish for mulloway with the beaches and estuaries all fishing well over the full moon cycle. The rocky headlands have also fished well with drummer, snapper and groper all caught. There are plenty of rocky headlands and gutters to fish so getting a good fishing spot to yourself is no problem.

The salmon are also caught from the headlands and with the use of berley some good snapper can be caught, with the early morning the best time to fish. Good fishing has been had in the local estuaries with flathead, bream, trevally and sand whiting all available. The water is clear and little rain has fallen on the far south coast. As we head into winter the bass fishing slows down once again and the rain is needed to allow the fish to move back to the estuary to breed.