One angler who did just that was Greg Barea, who instead of chasing his usual pelagic quarry and those with big teeth, went old school and back to his roots, targeting groper.

He proved he still has the skills with a 9 kilo groper put on the scales.

With school holidays in full swing it’s good to see plenty of junior anglers out wetting line and catching fish including Layla McIlquham.

Layla fished with her dad Jay offshore on the weekend and caught a bevy of fish, including snapper to 1kg, bream and trevally despite the pre-dawn start.

Meantime, nippers Teliah and Issack McElhone dragged dad Ben out of bed to take them beach fishing off Windang where the two tackle rats managed a couple of salmon and a whiting.

Lake Illawarra is luderick central and is starting to fire again. Those weed-eating fish have started to turn up in good numbers and sizes recently.

Green weed fished under a float on the runout tide is always a safe bet.

The recent full moon has shut the tuna fishing down with very little action, unless you braved the cold night out on the shelf down south to target the night feeders.

The moon phase will change to more favourable this weekend.

Looking at the charts the tuna could turn up anywhere between Ulladulla and Eden so if you hear the tuna have arrived, maybe call in a workplace sickie.