You may have noticed I will regularly write about wandering the beaches with a spin stick and a handful of lures, and why? Well it is a lot of fun and on these beautiful sunny days in mid-winter. You can often find yourself alone on some of these beaches that surround Tathra.

To the south you have Bournda Beach south of Wallagoot Lake. Here you can walk the beach casting to schools of passing salmon, often providing hours of entertainment. At the south end of the beach you will find Bournda Island, and fishing adjacent or on the island try using some of the salmon you caught for both bait and berley. You are likely to encounter some sizeable bream, trevally, garfish and mullet while if you are berleying from the stones.

North of Tathra you have Gillards, Cowdroys and Nelsons beaches on offer, and here you’re likely to encounter more of the same fishing with the added bonus of more rock platforms on offer for targeting other species like drummer, luderick or those hard-pulling blue groper.

Speaking of platforms, Tathra Wharf is a very popular place in the winter that’s easily accessed where there’s an array of species available. The ever-present yellow tail or slimy mackerel is usually a sure bet with some very solid silver trevally. Long casts with heavy sinkers may put some juicy sand flathead in the bag too.

Closer to the rocks, schools of luderick may be sighted as the- roll, grazing on the weed and clinging to the stones, where anglers can float a piece of cabbage weed out to gain a hook up.

With one of my favourite fish to chase here being the humble garfish, which will respond to a good berley trail. Another added bonus at this time of year is the amount of squid around the wharf that provide plenty of entertainment as well as a great meal.

Out at sea, expect some early good flathead fishing with both sand and tigers on offer. Mixing with them are gummy sharks, gurnard and the occasional large flounder. On the reefs, snapper are definitely on the chew, with some excellent morwong both jackass and blues.

Speaking of blues, for the game fishos take advantage of the good weather head wide over the Continental Shelf and you may find yourself attached to one of the many southern bluefin tuna which can often be in abundance at this time of year.