After months of flooding and terrible weather, conditions have finally started to stabilise and with it has come some fantastic fishing. Offshore action has been a tad spasmodic but there are still plenty of small Albacore and larger than normal Striped Tuna in large schools. Some of the Striped Tuna have been reaching sizes in excess of 5kg and offering anglers great sport on light spin gear. Some larger Albacore to 22kg have been boated but at the time of writing this report have only been in small numbers, there has also been a number of smaller Yellowfin Tuna to 30kg landed in as close to shore as the 70m mark.

The Mako Shark have continued to stretch the arms of hard core shark anglers all up and down the coast with fish everywhere from 60kg right up to 200+kg being caught on a regular basis from as close as Elephant Rock right out to the shelf line.

The coastline around St Helens Point and Elephant rock has also produced plenty of both Calamari and Arrow Squid; large schools of Squid have also attracted quite a few Yellowtail Kingfish and very large Australian Salmon to 4kg. A couple of Anglers bottom fishing around Elephant and Skeleton Rock have also managed to hook some small Snapper on a regular basis, whilst these fish haven’t been large in comparison to other areas around the state some fish have hit the 4kg mark and offer great sport on light gear.

Further inshore Georges Bay has recovered well from recent flooding; Large Bream are feeding hard on the flats again with fish up to 46cm to the fork being landed on baits. Good sized Silver Trevally are present in good numbers are as schools of Australian Salmon to 3kg. A run of Elephant fish has also surprised many local anglers with good fish to 4kg being landed and offering yet another species available in this fantastic estuary. Just recently a young family going back to basics and fishing Pippies and Prawns managed to boat 9 different species in less than 3 hours over a 100m stretch of the channel, the fish included King George Whiting, Bream, Salmon, Trevally, Mullet, Leatherjacket, Wrasse, Flathead and Pike.

Also the winter run of Large Southern Sea Garfish has started in earnest with many anglers reporting good sized fish in excellent numbers; the next few months will see dozens of boats lining the main channel with plenty of burley trails attracting schools of fish.

The 49^th Annual St Helens Bait & Tackle Surf Angling Championship has been run once again on Swimcart Beach and attracted over 250 competitors both senior and junior. Anglers were competing for the first prize of $1000 worth of Fishing Tackle donated by St Helens Bait & Tackle. Well over 200 fish were weighed in with a Salmon weighing 1.803kg by Wayne Roberts topping the scales to take out the major prize. A wide variety of fish were caught including Salmon, Silver Trevally, Mullet, Garfish, Gurnard, Couta and 3 Skate the biggest being 38.6kg.

All in all a great weekend with some top weather all bar a light rain late Saturday night but some fantastic calm mornings and plenty of fishing action, check it out for next year for the 50^th Anniversary Competition on the 21^st and 22^nd April 2012.