Some talk has been had as to the validity of weekly footy tips involving the Storm, with some suggesting that Melbourne's wins not be counted.

This will not be the case, though, as all winners get the point, so to speak, even the cheats.

The long weekend produced the proverbial mixed bag, with Saturday being warm with northerly winds, Sunday wet and windy, and Monday blowing south-west.

James Thomas and Murray Wright went out on Saturday morning and used freshly cooked prawns to catch half a dozen legal bream and four whiting.

The boys did complain, though, about the undersized fish that were being kept by a couple of blokes in a nearby tinnie. When the boys said something to them, they were impolitely told where to go!

Hook, Line and Sinker ventured out onto the lake courtesy of Fred Roberts on a windy Sunday morning and while no records were set, a feed of flathead was caught using various soft plastic lures.

A session using Vibe-style lures was an interesting time with Fred's lure, fitted with a red tail pipe and jig-style 'W' hooks catching whiting and leatherjacket, while my standard model failed to raise a fish.

Fred's definitely got a sense of humour, though. When discussing his newish boat I enquired as to the type of hull the thing had. After the briefest of pauses, Fred replied "Aluminium!"

Crabs are around in some numbers, although it appears that the northern end of the lake is producing better catches.

It seems that the Pasha Bulka floods a few years back signified the start of the crab drought, with crab numbers only now starting to get back to something like normal.

Only time will tell if they get back to the sort of numbers seen previously.

Remember, some areas of Lake Macquarie are closed to the use of witches hat-style crab traps. These areas include Lake Petite (little lake) and Lake Eraring (muddy lake) although you can still catch them with line and bait and the keeping of pregnant female crabs (check for eggs underneath tail flap) is also prohibited.

That's it.