Some great fish have been caught during the Christmas holidays in Mallacoota, the highlight being a sensational 4.5kg flathead landed by Darren Grainger on Christmas Eve in Harrison’s Channel. Caught on a yellow head Mr Twister with a size 4 Garry Glitter Squidgy, it’s a Christmas present we’d all like to have received. The yellow head jighead is a firm favourite with many Mallacoota fishers and I’d recommend you grab a few if you’re headed that way.

Just before this fish was landed I was lucky enough to catch a 4kg model in the Genoa River near Cape Horn. This beast ate a lure meant for a bream (a Firebait Longtail Minnow in green) and put on quite a show. On this day the water was coloured from recent rain making for patchy fishing. If you found the fish you would catch a few, but otherwise it was pretty hard work.

Another fish worthy of mention is Enzo Pieropan’s capture of an 8.5kg mulloway while fishing for flathead. This fish was caught on a live mullet in The Narrows. There will be more mulloway captured in the coming months and you just need to be prepared and put in the time to get the reward.

The front section of the main lake around the weedbeds is still yielding some King George whiting. There have been yellowfin and black bream caught in the front lake from Goodwin Sands right down to the Howe Bight. These fish have been caught in shallow water as they hunt around for a feed. There are still plenty of garfish being caught over the weedbeds at Gypsy Point and early morning tailor sessions will see a bigger variety of fish in the bag rather than the hundreds of tiny tailor that plague soft plastic anglers during the day.

The prawns are still non-existent but to the south the Betka River has been the spot for anglers wanting to collect a tasty feed or some bait.

The Wallagaraugh and Genoa rivers have had a good flow after the December and early January rains and this has meant the bass in the upper reaches and the estuary perch and bream lower down have been a little hard to find. Anglers putting in the time are getting amongst them though, so it’s well worth a bit of serious effort as some of these fish have been rippers.

Off the beaches the salmon and tailor are being taken but the gummy sharks are yet to come in close. Those venturing offshore have been rewarded with good sand and tiger flathead captures as well as some good trolling results on tailor and salmon in a bit closer.