Beach fishing in the Mallacoota area has been excellent with Betka Beach, Tip Beach and Quarry Beach producing some good catches of salmon on bait and lures, with mornings and afternoons the best times.

The stage of the tide doesn’t really matter, just look for the best gutter. When looking for salmon, have a few casts and if nothing happens, move until you find fish.

The salmon have between around 2kg and there have been some good tailor amongst them to 1.3kg.

Some excellent gummy sharks have been caught into the evening with squid a good choice of bait. Shane Ibbotson and Natalie Moore had a great session off the beach, landing four gummy sharks within an hour, with the best of which was over 15kg.

One angler had a pleasant surprise while fishing the Betka River using a prawn bait. His rod was towed off the bank and after wading out fully clothed, he managed to retrieve his rod and on the end of the line was a 5kg gummy shark.

Fishing in the lake has been good with catches of trevally and sand whiting in the entrance area near the township. Squirt worm has been the gun bait.

King George Whiting are also being caught and while they have been just over the legal size, they would have to be one of the best eating fish available.

The flathead have slowed down after their recent flurry of activity with the odd big fish and a few smaller ones still being caught by those using lures. With the water warming during the coming months we should see the flathead back on the boil.

The Bottom Lake has been fishing well with tailor of around a kilo common, along with the odd snapper and yellowfin bream. Black bream have been excellent with catches of 30-plus not uncommon.

Many anglers have had little success while fishing the edges because the fish have been holding in water around 4m deep.

Bait anglers have been doing well with the best catches on squirt worms and the camo Gulp Sandworm. Bait anglers are starting to cotton on to how effective fishing with Gulp can be when rigged with a running sinker to a swivel with a short trace and a long-shank worm hook. When bait fishing, remember there is a maximum of two rods per person.

Lure fishing has been a lot trickier with plenty of lure changes needed to find the one that will work in the discoloured water. The red rum Firebait Longtail Minnow, along with the bloodworm Wriggler, have been catching some good fish.

Some nice estuary perch are being caught but they seem to be pretty spread out and finding them has been tricky.