At last the cold weather has subsided and the rain has eased. We had hoped that the Marlo entrance being open wide and deep would permit many species of fish to reappear – and reappear they have! The whole estuary system has exploded into a fishing Mecca.

Bream, luderick, mullet, tailor, trevally, estuary perch and salmon are all here in big numbers. Reports of excellent catches are too numerous to mention them all. The surf beaches are the same, with catches of salmon, tailor, flathead, mullet and gummy shark. Offshore is still firing too, with catches of flathead, gurnard, squid, morwong and shark.

The heavy rain and fast running water has altered the system for the better, and bait has reappeared in lots of new places, making it easier to access.

Now for a few reports. Digger Howard ventured out for a look immediately after the rain stopped and found a school of bream near the first island. He managed to land four, all around 1kg, using frozen prawn. Ned Rickard and Colin Bailey landed 15 bream around the same size, also using frozen prawn. Colin Weir bagged out on luderick just below the Marlo Jetty, using sandworm under a float. Bob Marthick and Tom Warren caught 16 bream near the second island on sandworm and frozen prawn. Roy Herbert bagged out on bream ranging from 30-40cm, then managed to catch a dozen or so mullet, using shell and sandworm. Helmut Kummer has been having a ball catching tailor, one of his favourite fish for smoking, using Galaxia Minnow lures. There have been other unconfirmed reports of estuary perch taking deep diving lures.

Along the surf beaches Don Trelor has been getting his share of salmon and tailor at Corringle Beach using Lazer lures, bluebait and poppers. Kirk Lawrence has been getting a few good-sized gummy sharks using squid legs for bait.

There have been plenty of good reports from offshore too. Joe and Pauline Connelly fishing off Marlo have regularly been bagging out on gummy sharks. Tony Broome and crew have also been in on the act, regularly catching a couple of gummy sharks each. Peter and Glen Farley have been doing the same just off the point at Cape Conran. Allan Steel and Robert Marthick have also been getting plenty of flathead and squid, and last outing Robert bagged a 1.4m gummy shark.

Pauline Connelly with a nice pair of gummy sharks caught offshore from Marlo. The biggest was 1.7m.