The town has recently come alive, with visitors to the area enjoying great weather and a variety of fishing options through the Easter and school holiday period. The past month has seen some action out wide with striped marlin and striped tuna about, and anytime now you can expect the yellowfin tuna to make an appearance.

Closer to shore there has been some great fishing on offer with big yellowtail kingfish in vast schools. There are plenty of rat kingies around, but if you find the right school you will find yourself surrounded by 1m+ models. Fish have been caught trolling and jigging; casting to a school on the surface is also a reliable way of getting in on the action. Good catches of tiger flathead and sand flathead have been had, along with the odd good-sized gummy shark. Take care when launching from the boat ramp at Bastion Point as it is shallow at the end and the waves can come up quickly.

Presently, the harbour is being dredged and this will be an ongoing process. Some good fish are still being caught around the boat ramp area. Fishing with fresh bait will catch yellowfin bream, whiting (both sand and King George), along with sand flathead. Schools of salmon have started to move along all the local beaches, with a few fish caught in the bottom lake. The coming months will see more fish showing up as the water cools. A few good gummy sharks have been caught by anglers fishing into the night; Quarry Beach is a reliable spot.

Fishing in the estuary has been awesome; it’s amazing when you see just how many fish have come out of that lake in the past two months. Yellowfin bream are about in big numbers and fish caught in the bottom lake and the top lake are taking a variety of lures. Bait fishers have also done well with prawn for bait. Mulloway are about and a number of fish around the 16kg mark were caught on a recent charter.

We were lucky enough to hook one but the 6lb trace wasn’t enough on this occasion. Plenty of eating-size flathead are about, but getting the big ones will take a bit of luck. Good-sized silver trevally are about in good numbers with fish caught around the weed patches.