All along the north shore at Minerva Reef and through to Julia Reef have seen many anglers chasing the powerful yellowtail kingfish.

There have been many battles won with twice as many lost due to the area being so shallow, with these fish diving on hook up and heading down through the reefs.

Always make sure you are using good mono line and not braid. The best methods have been using live bait under a balloon and the trolling of poppers, with a few also being caught with squid under a balloon and the casting soft plastics, such as the Lipstiks and the Bozo range.

For those anchoring up with balloons there has also been good catches of snapper and trevally while they have been waiting for the kingies to strike. Wayne Klingberg from Allestree Holiday units landed two kingies at 9kg and 11.3kg while trolling poppers.

Bob McPherson landed one at 11kg using fresh squid under a balloon and lost three on a four way hook-up while out fishing with his friends. Luke Buttigieig from Melbourne landed a beauty and the heaviest so far to date that went 16.8kg on 15kg line.

Youngster Miles Donally landed a nice kingie at 9kg, which cost me another hat to add to his collection.

Marty Montalto of Melbourne caught a nice kingie at 12kg while fishing the town reef, other kingfish coming in between 6-13kg.

For those who are not targeting kingfish along the north shore there has been some good sized whiting up to 60cm. One lucky boat brought in 27 whiting with other boats also bringing in plenty.

Other fish coming from this area while out boating are snapper, trevally, pike, gummy shark, schoolies and the odd bronzie shark.

For those land based along the north shore Peter Chase had a good nights fishing from the Fitzroy River mouth with a mulloway at 6.9kg, gummy shark at 6.2kgs and three nice snapper up to 2kg.

Fishing from the Hole in the Wall and the Surrey River mouth at Narrawong there has been good catches of snapper, mulloway, gummy and bronze whaler sharks. Fishing from Snapper Point and Maggoty Bay along the north shore catches of trevally, snapper and whiting have been coming from this area.

Fishing closer to town off the Lee Breakwater it has been particularly quiet over recent times mainly due to there only being two tides (dodgy tides). As soon as we got back into four tides, fishing along the Lee picked up again with catches of snapper, trevally, salmon, whiting and calamari squid. Tim Alberts caught a nice snapper of 5kg and Ian Moger caught a nice gummy at 4.7kg.

Fishing in and around the harbour, the trawler wharf has had good catches of snapper to 30cm, trevally and whiting. Off the marina there has been a lot of calamari squid along with snapper, whiting and trevally. In the canal slimy mackerel, mullet and black bream have been the main catches.

For those heading around the back between Lawrence Rock and Cape Bridgewater there has been good catches of mako shark between the 65-85m of water with Game On Charters bringing in a whopper weighing in at 178kg after a 3 ½ hour fight, with other mako catches ranging from 40-70kg.

There have been good catches of flathead off Cape Bridgewater with local Gary McDonald and crew bagging out on flathead and also amongst their bag two nice gummy sharks. Other catches have also included snapper, blue morwong, flying gurnard, coral perch and the odd school shark.

As we progress into February all thoughts will be turning towards the southern bluefin tuna, so make sure all your gear is up to scratch and ready to go for that phone call. That will most certainly happen in the not to distant future, as there have been early reports of tuna seen heading our way.

So give us a call at Portland Bait & Tackle for all your latest information on what’s being caught and where and all the up to date weather reports, we are open 7 days a week from 7 to 7, we can be reached on 0355235213.