The town is still as busy as ever and with Easter on its way, it’s only going to get busier. Everything slows down once Easter is over, but for now, the boat ramp at Bastion Point has been chockers when the weather is good for anglers to get offshore and catch a feed of fish, and there has been some great fishing over the past month.

Good catches of sand flathead have been coming in with fish caught at Gabo Island and down around the Ariels. Big tiger flathead have been coming in from out wide. In the same area, there have also been some big gurnard. Gummy sharks have also been caught along with a few decent mako sharks. More have been hooked, but they have managed to bite through the line and earn their freedom.

A few good snapper have been reported on first light out around the Ariels – this is rare for the area. Anglers fishing the beaches have been getting some big salmon along with a few yellowfin bream. Fishing into the night, there have been reports of gummy sharks and seven-gill sharks.

The entrance to the lake has seen schools of salmon coming and going. They are here one day and gone the next. When they are there they have been easy to catch. Some big sand whiting have been in the front section of the lake with good catches on the run-in tide in Harrisons Channel. Beach worms are the pick of the baits and a few fish have also been caught on poppers.

Good numbers of flathead are in the lake. Most of the fish are a good eating size, with a scattering of fish caught between 60-70cm. It’s worth mentioning that there is a bit of confusion amongst visiting anglers to the area about the flathead size limit. Dusky flathead (lake flathead) can be kept between 30-55cm and all others should be released. For offshore flathead, both sand and tiger, the minimum size is 27cm with no maximum size. Offshore you can keep a maximum of 20 fish per day and in the lake it’s five per person, per day.

The bream fishing in the lake is not what it should be, due to many reasons. The black bream fishery has been going downhill at a fast rate for a couple of years now. It hasn’t been fully noticed by many anglers, because the bream fishing has been propped up by a few good runs of yellowfin bream this year. Yellowfin bream haven’t turned up in great numbers. The system is too heavily fished.

Silver trevally are also being caught along with a few good-size flounder. The odd ball catch of the month was a legal-size school shark from the John Bull marker.