The south coast was like it usually is this time of year, with changeable weather and fun fishing.

One local lake, Durras, provided a reasonable feed of flathead, tailor and a poddy mullet, all bar one of which (prawn) were caught on small, hard body lures.

Why a five-inch mullet would decide to inhale an inch-lure is anybody's guess, but the fish managed to swallow all three hooks.

A quick trip offshore in favourable weather produced morwong, medium snapper and some nice flathead on the way home that were caught on a variety of soft plastics and bait.

Proving once again that fresh is best, pieces of fresh-caught pike were the best-producing bait by a long shot while the old faithful Nuclear Chicken was the pick of the plastics.

At one stage we drifted into a school of bonito, though the school included a 465 millimetre spotted mackerel of all things. They were probably hanging out at schoolies.

While fun to catch, especially on double hook-ups, the bonito made getting a bait or lure anywhere near the bottom a bit of a chore.

The highlight of the trip was when a four- to five-foot bronze whaler shark decided to spend a bit of time cruising around the tinnie and the pecker head brother decided that it would be a good idea to try to catch the thing.

At the time the shark appeared, brother Ro was reeling in another 450mm bonito and he reckoned that it might be amusing to see if the noah could be tempted to eat his catch.

After a few half-pie interested passes by the shark, it was decided that a fairly cranky, four- to five-foot bronzy in a twelve-foot tinnie was probably a bit much.

It was also interesting to note, though, that he or she completely ignored the pillies that were tossed in his or her direction.

That's it.