The Bega Valley is a large catchment and floods can be huge and disastrous at times although for us anglers the recent deluge has led to some very interesting fishing.

All forms of fishing have benefited, all the way out to the continental shelf.

Out wide it is tuna time with plenty of yellowfin falling to patterns of skirted or swimming lures.

Mixed in are plenty of striped tuna, the odd albacore and mahi mahi.

For those who wish to berley, tuna will respond to cubes or live baits and sharks, especially makos, will also venture into the trail.

There is plenty of light sport action around the headlands.

Bonito have been the most prolific in years, providing plenty of action. Along with salmon, kingfish, frigate mackerel and striped tuna and you’re in for a lot of fun.

Soft plastics and blades are popular now and are producing the above species along with plenty of bottom dwellers.

Snapper take a particular liking to these methods and are frequent encounters at the moment.

You can expect some decent flathead around the reef fringes as you drift on to the sand.

For traditional bottom-bashing, flathead have long been the main target out of Tathra with plenty of sandies and tigers on offer.

The sandies tend to like the shallower water while out wider those large tigers are found with the occasional gummy shark.

All the reefs are fishing well with some very decent snapper making up the bulk of the captures.

There is plenty of pelagic action around the rocks and off the local wharf.

Bonito have been around in numbers mixed with frigate mackerel, salmon, the odd kingfish and plenty of tailor, especially at night on the wharf with strip baits.

Fishing for drummer off the stones has been brilliant and never better than around Tathra. If you are using cabbage weed for bait, a few good luderick will also feature and may also be encountered from the wharf.

The beaches are consistent with plenty of salmon and you can expect some very nice tailor, the odd jewfish and at night gummy and whaler sharks. There are plenty of bream, whiting, mullet and trevally in the gutters.

Bream have been common in just about any estuary you fish and the Bega River is full of them.

Black bream, especially, like structure and there is plenty of that after the floods. Work lures around any form, no matter how small.

You also are likely to encounter estuary perch and quite often flathead.

But hurry, because the cooler months are coming fast and the estuaries will soon shut down.