It’s the time of year when the town gets quiet and few visitors come over the winter months. After the recent bad weather, it’s been great to see some sunny days without much wind. The water in the rivers and ocean has finally cleared, which is great news for the fishing.

Along the beaches, plenty of salmon have shown up. With good gutters on the local beaches, fish are being caught at all stages of the tide. Average fish are around a kilogram, with a few bigger fish up to 2kg. Some decent tailor are also being caught on the beaches. In local estuaries, the winter months can see some big models. In most encounters, the fish gets away, takes your lure and leaves you wondering how big it was.

Water temperatures have been up and down with the low temperature around 15°C, and reaching as high as 18°C. Around Christmas it should really start to warm up. Offshore, the southern bluefin tuna have arrived. Big schools of baitfish (pilchards) are about too. Find the food, and that will put you where the fish are.

On the inshore reefs, there’s been sweet kingfish caught, which is unusual for this time of year, but there’s nothing usual about the weather we’ve experienced – some really warm winter days. Tiger flathead and sand flathead are still around and the snapper are starting to bite. Some cracker fish around 4kg have been caught.

Fishing around daybreak has seen cool snapper caught from the local headlands. Fish are moving out deeper once the sun comes up. Local rivers are running, and will do for some time yet. Fishing for black bream has been good as the fish move upstream during their annual spawning run. At times, it’s hard to catch them – they have other things on their mind. Remember with these fish, when they come on the bite they near commit suicide.

Good fishing.