The fishing in the estuary system was good, and now is even better! The prawns are in and the fish are all here to feast, giving anglers plenty of opportunities to try out our skill.

Estuary perch seem to be holding on most structures, and are taking lures, live prawns and occasionally sandworm.

Luderick are in numbers on the rock groynes on the Second Island, and also in both the Snowy and Brodribb rivers. Most are being caught on sandworm, either under a float or using a running sinker.

Bream are up both rivers, up in the lakes, around the islands, and down in the backwater. Best baits have been black crab, sandworm, live and frozen prawn, pipis and Bass yabbies.

Flathead seem mostly to be down towards the entrance, and are taking lures, frozen prawns and most salted baits.

Salmon and tailor are still chasing lures and can be caught from the junction of the Snowy and Brodribb rivers.

The surf beaches are all fishing well, with salmon, tailor, mullet and flathead taking bluebait, whitebait and pipis, and of course surf poppers and surf grubs.

Of an evening the gummy sharks are cruising the beaches, and with some over 1m it makes good fishing. Chris Davis has managed to bag out on three out of four outings. Many other anglers, local and visitors alike, are doing likewise with the best results on squid, eel and fresh fillets of salmon.

Offshore from Cape Conran the fishing is pumping, with plenty of flathead, gurnard, leatherjacket, barracouta, squid and sharks.

With the number of reports you would think it could not get better, but many fishers are reporting slimies starting to appear in their berley trails, and when they start to school in big numbers the predators will start to appear. Stripy tuna come first then everything follows.

I can verify that the fishing is as good as reported as my crew and I have easily managed plenty of good-sized flathead, latchet and plenty of gurnard.

I have also observed a couple of first time shark captures. On one occasion Tom Brunt, a local fisher, finally landed a 1m plus mako using a barracouta fillet under a balloon. On his next outing he managed to land a gummy of almost the same size.

Another first time gummy capture came to Merv Taylor, who bagged a 1m plus gummy on a ’couta fillet. Colin Austin, Merv’s decky, caught two smaller gummy sharks, one on ’couta fillet and the other on bluebait. Both also bagged plenty of flathead.

Dick Emery caught his gummy limit on four separate occasions. Petsa Pete has also been getting his share, as have Joe and Pauline Connelly. Jungle and Sharon have been doing likewise. Outside, all baits seem to be working.

Brad Young with a big flathead from Marlo.