With the gradual warming of the water temperature over at the North Shore, yellowtail kingfish have been weighed in at an average of 9-11kg. The heaviest weighed in so far was 14.8kg, which was one of seven fish that Nathan McKinley and Mark Gercovich caught while fishing early one morning.

Trevor Mackie of Melbourne was also rapt with his first kingfish (11kg), which has taken him four seasons to land. There have been reports of numerous other kingfish being caught by a select few, as again these fish are proving very elusive, with more sightings and bust offs than landings in the shallow waters around Minerva Reef.

Over at the North Shore there have also been good catches of whiting to 1kg, snapper, trevally, gummy sharks, threshers, bronzies and the odd mulloway. One prized mulloway of over 15kg was caught by Andrew Ryan while surf fishing out in front of the abalone farm.

There have also been plenty of salmon all along the coast, weighing up to 2kg. The best catches have come from between Point Danger and Pivot Beach, with reports of yellowtail kingfish coming up behind. Good-sized whiting have also been coming from 3-4m of water in this area.

In the world-class fishing grounds of 60-100m between Cape Nelson Lighthouse and Lawrence Rock there has been a lot of mako sharks. Charlie Santillo of Melbourne landed a nice 80kg mako. Julian Dickeson and Cameron Ordner also landed a 58kg mako, with local Steven Atkinson releasing a great 100kg plus specimen. Some of the aerial displays of the makos have featured in the Herald Sun, with fantastic photos taken by Bob McPherson who delights in taking photos of these fine fighting fish.

For those fishing off Cape Bridgewater in 60-100m, good catches of flathead and gummy sharks have been made. For those not chasing makos, in front of the lighthouse in 40-60m good numbers of snapper, queen morwong to 5kg, coral perch and gurnard have been available.

For those fishing off the Lee Breakwater there have been plenty of good-sized whiting, along with the odd calamari and snapper. Wayne and Jacob Millard had a good catch of four snapper, with the heaviest being 3kg. Steve Zivcec of Melbourne had a nice 6kg snapper and Ray Pryor, fishing on the inside of the Lee in a boat, landed a whopping 10kg snapper, which just goes to show what is cruising around inside the harbour.

Fishing within the harbour has produced good catches of snapper, whiting, trevally and mullet for both land-based anglers and boaties. For those land-based fishing along Bridgewater, there have been good catches of gummy sharks and salmon.

There have been two sightings of large schools of southern bluefin tuna, containing tuna estimated at 100-150kgs, covering two acres of water. These have been sighted by a local trawler fisherman from the sea, and also by the pilot of helicopter flying out to the oil rig at Swan Lake. Watch this space for more details concerning these mighty fish.

For all your fishing and weather updates, give the boys at Portland Bait & Tackle a call on 03 5523 5213. We are open 7 days a week from 7am until 7am.

Trevor Mackie with an 11kg kingfish. The kingies around, but landing them is a different matter altogether.