Spring is definitely here with longer days and warmer temperatures – it won’t be long before summer kicks in.

Spring on the south coast is a great time to be fishing. There are plenty of options for the fishers in the area and Mallacoota is no exception. The water temperature is now starting to rise and this will start to make the fish more active.

Offshore, the flathead are starting to come on the bite as the really cold-water temperatures of winter make them go dormant. Good flathead are being caught from Gabo Island through to Bastion Point and the fishing will only improve over the coming months.

Good gummy sharks are about with the best fishing happening around the sand and gravel adjacent to the reefs. Once a fish is caught you know there are more in the area. As the water warms the same areas can be food for pinkie snapper.

The salmon fishing off the beaches has been good with plenty of fish caught off both Bastion Point and Tip Beach, the average size around 1kg.

The entrance area of the lake system has been fishing well with good catches of King George whiting and silver trevally.

The whiting are being caught around the weed edges with baits of nippers, worms and prawns. Whenever they turn up they attract a bit of interest as they are such a great eating fish.

The trevally are found in similar areas and are in good numbers. And there are plenty of trevally hitting the1kg mark caught on fresh baits or soft plastic lures. Yellowfin bream and flathead are also being caught around the margins of the Bottom Lake.

Moving through the Narrows and into the Top Lake are good catches of black bream, flathead and the odd yellowfin bream – plenty of good size too.

From Genoa River Jetty to above Gypsy Point large amounts of black bream are being caught – along with a few flathead. Both soft plastic lures and bait have been working well with prawns and nippers the pick of the baits.

The water at this end of the system is still murky and, because of how good the entrance is, the entire estuary system has emptied out leaving shallower than normal conditions – so watch out for sandbars, logs, rocks and the like.