Flathead aplenty for keen young anglers

We have reports from Foster, Wollongong, St Georges Basin and Bermagui.

The word from up north was the abundance of Flathead that have been caught.

Glen Steadman and his grandchildren have been fishing in granddad's boat and were rewarded with some nice Flathead around the 45cm length.

The grandkids have taken a liking to battered Flathead tails.

To those that have not had them before, Flathead can be one of the best fish to eat and one of the easiest to catch.

On Boxing Day, plenty of families got Santa's presents out of the wrapping and onto the water.

One family in particular had granddad show them the ropes on Lake Illawarra, with the kids showing up many locals and tourists.

The kids caught four Flathead, two small Snapper and four Whiting in a two?hour session.

Granddad Ron Kuhna will be in demand from many present, with those around struggling to keep up.

I have had updates from Scott Lear and Anthony Norval at St Georges Basin who had a session on fishing plastics that landed over a dozen Bream and many Flathead.

But the bycatch was a Jewfish around 15kg that was lost at the boat after Anthony had thought he was snagged.

Both boys were left gobsmacked after seeing this monster swim back into the depths.

When fishing plastics you never know what you will hook up!

Another report from Nathen and Diana Kolega fishing at St Georges Basin from New Years Eve.

They set traps for live bait and were happy when they caught six poddy Mullet.

When they got out to the fishing spot they found that the live bait was no longer alive, and they decided to use the dead poddy Mullet.

Diana was rewarded with her biggest Flathead, and I must say this beats my biggest.

It measured 111cm long and after a couple of photos this big female was released to continue her breeding.

Most of the big Flathead you will catch are female's so these should be released.

Bermagui has been known for many years as a game fish capital of Australia.

I have been staying here for as long as I can remember, and the fishing here varies widely from inshore reef fishing to deep water game fish.

During the Christmas break I saw plenty of Flathead, Snapper, Mowong and many other species being brought back to the cleaning tables.

Along with this there have been some early season Marlin that have many people talking about heading wide to capture one of the most revered fish of the sea.

I also took the chance on one of the better days to head up to Montague Island, which in itself is a beautiful place to visit, but it also harbours some of the best fishing in NSW.

My wife and I tried many methods in our attempt to catch our first King Fish of the day but the method that worked best was jigging.

We managed to hook up over 20 fish in a three?hour session landing 12 - the legal size is 65cm and we hooked many bigger than this.

However, there is a unique obstacle in this pristine location and that is the local seal population.

They managed to wrestle at least eight of our fish from our lines - many right beside the boat.

Apart from the King Fish there has also been some early Marlin caught with six striped Marlin being tagged over the last week.

Tight lines.