With the Billfish Bonanza starting this week all the hype around town has been towards this weekend's comp. Sails have been there one day, gone the next but there have been promising schools of baitfish throughout the gulf. Good luck to all the competitors this weekend we will give a full report next week.

Crabs have been quiet down in the Bay of Rest but there have been plenty of squid reported down there with some big ones amongst them. With the warmer water we would expect the mangrove jack to start to be a regular catch along with the numerous cod that live in the mangroves.

Barracuda on Cubera for Eddie

Queenies have been raiding the bait schools at old Bundegi along with small trevally and mackerel. During the week Ben and Eddie from the shop went out in the boat to throw some poppers around. It was pretty quiet but Eddie did land a rather large barracuda on a Black Jack Cubera popper.

Brad from the shop and a mate took his dinghy out and got into some longtails, the biggest a six kilo fish taken on a Tango Dancer. The bottom fishing was hampered by the local shark population, the biggest being a two-metre-plus bronze whaler taken on 20lb.

Young Hayden Michaels caught a beautiful cobia just outside the marina during the week. The smile on his face was priceless. Great to see the younger generation getting into a few fish. The Bundegi boat ramp was officially opened on Thursday much to the delight of the locals, and the competitors in this weekend's competition. With all the new work being done around the ramp it has good congregations of bait around it during the week. We had a report of a bonefish caught on a squid bait, along with some big queenies and school trevally. The whiting have also been abundant in the area