There were lots of solid blacks and stripes captured, caught and released over the weekend and earlier this week with far too many anglers to individually name.

Shellharbour tournament was run over the weekend with Saturday being the pick of the weekend.

The fish didn’t disappoint as boat scoured the coastline with fish in both directions but the better bite seemed to come from down around JB with some awesome numbers being thrown about from the comp.

A few local boats that didn’t fish the tournament are now wishing they did with a couple of big blues caught, a couple of yellowfin tuna and some monster dollies and sharks coming in from just over the shelf on Saturday.

If the bite continues and with weather permitting we will see some good reports from late this week.

The snapper bite improved last weekend with many boats finding some good fish in the shallows and in the deep.

Again the 50m depth line seemed to have the bigger fish with some nudging the 3kg mark and in pretty good numbers too.

For those who chased them in the shallows there were good fish about early before the sunrise but after the sun rose it turned into a hot bite of well sized sampson fish that ranged from 1kg up to 3kg.

They give such an impressive account of themselves, even on snapper gear.

Reports suggested that quite a few boats were marking some big schools of kingies but trying to get a bait through the rats seemed almost impossible.

Down rigging was the only way to get below the hordes of bait and rats and it successfully accounted for only a few solid fish over the metre mark in and around port islands and harbour.

Flathead drifts are still on fire with some excellent sized fish all up and down the coast with some big flounder and plenty of tasty gummy sharks as well.

The current had backed off a touch and the leather jackets were nowhere near as fierce as we have seen them previously.