In memory of Mex Williams, who penned the Merimbula fishing report some years ago, each year's winner of this fun event is added to the beautiful perpetual trophy that was hand crafted by Jeff Knox.

This year Stephanie Shaw won with a lovely 555mm dusky taken from Merrily Bell's boat on the Bermagui River. Merrily won the largest other fish category with a 410mm trevally and seven-year-old Lachlan Wilkins won the junior prize with a 365mm trevally.

Whales are less common now but lots of dolphins are about in large groups, none the least at Dolphin Cove, north Tura Beach. The dolphins are feeding on bait balls and Australian salmon which are plentiful.

The salmon also enter local estuaries and in the Merimbula Channel gather at the bridge in large schools together with tailor where they can feed on whitebait travelling down from the Top Lake. Salmon respond to soft plastics, silver spinners and pilchard baits. Try the local beaches for salmon and tailor especially at dusk. Good salmon and tailor are also available from the headlands. Good size luderick are also gathering about the Merimbula bridge and may be taken with stingy weed or artificial flies that look like the weed.

Ocean flathead are biting well off Kianinny, Tura Headland and off the Pinnacles at Haycock Beach. Best results from 15 fathoms while drifting. Some small mako sharks have been taken on the flathead grounds. Keep your rigs ready for gummy shark just north of Long Point and at the inner edge of Horseshoe reef.

Good snapper and morwong remain off Long Point at 20 fathoms and north of Haycock Point at 22 fathoms. Try also the Horseshoe reef, Lennards Island and further south past Boyds Tower at Eden.

At Pambula, troll the stretch between the entrance and the Shark Hole mainly for tailor and the occasional salmon. Fishing the Bega River remains difficult due to local flooding.

November has arrived and the Melbourne Cup already run and won!

November is also the month of the Tri-Estuary Challenge which takes its name from the three areas that can be fished - the Bega River Estuary, Merimbula Lake including Merimbula Back Lake, and Pambula Lake and Rivers.

Scheduled for the weekend of November 26-27, the Tri-Estuary is the club's major estuary event.

Look up the club's website for entry details.

This year there are six species on the list and over $5000 in prizes to be won.

The club will be open on Friday, November 4, from 6pm. Visitors are very welcome.

Membership details and information about local fishing is available on the club's website, mbglac.com.au.