Mallacoota has experienced some great fishing over the past few months with locals and tourists enjoying some memorable offshore trips.

Three or four big schools of kingfish have been moving around Gabo Island and the airport. A local diver jumped into the middle of one of these schools and estimated that there were at least 1,000 fish from 3 to 10kg. These fish have been eating anything tossed at them, including metal lures and soft plastics.

Salmon, mostly around 3kg, have also shoaled in some of the areas mixed among the kingfish.

Out around the Star Banks, yellowfin and striped tuna have been there one day and gone the next. If you’re after consistent fishing, it’s hard to go past the kingfish schools.

Anglers fishing the local beaches from dusk to dawn have caught plenty of gummy sharks with the odd seven-gilled shark thrown in.

Inside the lake system there has been good fishing for all the main species. Excellent catches of flathead, yellowfin bream and black bream have been reported. Plenty of school-sized flathead have been caught on fresh prawns, nippers, mullet and soft plastics around the Joho Bull marker.

Bigger flathead have been spread throughout the entire system with fish showing up in the back bays of the Main Lake. The new Firebait Excel Minnow, in colour 46, has been really effective on the flathead. Rig it on a 2/0 Bassmaster 1/4oz stand-up jighead. When hopped across the bottom it has proved irresistible.

Good-sized yellowfin and black bream have been caught with one group of clients enjoying excellent sight casting to fish of 1.3kg with light jigheads rigged with PowerBait 3” Minnows and Firebait Longtail Minnows. Also effective have been surface presentations of soft plastics or poppers like the Juro Rack Popper or the River 2 Sea Bubble Pop.

The rivers have had plenty of small bream with only the odd big fish among them.

Estuary perch have been quiet through the day with the night providing some great fish on surface lures. Prawns are still on the move in the front lake and will be until about May before winter sets in.