The local billfish season has yet to fully kick in, as the bite is either just north of us or down off the Shoalhaven.

This has been the case before so don’t despair as the current trend of howling nor ‘easterly winds has been pushing the warmer currents inshore, but far too slowly for some.

Between Xmas and New Year, offshore temps dropped a few degrees and the current tuned over some dirty cold green stuff from down deep and seriously, that is what crews have been waiting for.

The green murk should move on within a week or so and take the leather jackets and barracouta well away from off here.

Mick Wearing and Logan Wilson got into a few billfish down off Batemans Bay in what was described as a hot bite when they landed a beautiful striped marlin which took a liking to trolled lure made by local lure guru Jetts Lures in size 200mm and ‘insane’ colour pattern.

Reports came in indicating there were billfish hook-ups from there and as far as south as Eden.

A good study of the readily available SST charts (Sea Surface Temperature) indicate the best is on its way as some figures say 24 degrees plus up off the Hunter and Sydney wide and this warmer water will herald the small black marlin and the dolphin fish.

Crew have done a fair few speculative trips to the local FADS but report not much to get excited over just yet.

Snapper fishing has been a bit hit and miss with the water turning over but there have still been some good fish in the mix just no numbers of them.

Still the better fish have been coming from the deeper reefs at present with little to no current with soft plastics and floating baits doing most of the damage.

Flathead drifts were still holding plenty of fish and with the lack of current at present, should see you get to bag limits relatively quickly.

The Reel Deal website: realdealfishing.com.au

Email: gazwade@bigpond.com