Wild Thing claimed the Champion Boat Tag and Release prize for their 25,000-point effort, which came courtesy of two black marlins.

The heaviest marlin and heaviest other game fish prizes were not won, but the heaviest shark title was taken out by Lake Macquarie boat All Zero's for a 448.50-kilogram mako.

The tournament, which was postponed last year because of bad weather then cancelled due to COVID, was changed from a two-day to single day contest this time around. In all, 34 boats competed and LMGFC was pleased with the tournament's return.

"We're pretty happy with the result," club vice president and member of the organising committee Jason "One For" Nunn said.

"We postponed from the Saturday to the Sunday because of the weather, which I think was a sensible decision.

"Sunday out on the shelf was absolutely fantastic weather-wise. We [on Fifi] were a bit north, up near the carpark, and we had five knots all day and the water temperature was 27 degrees, which is ridiculous.

"Some were down south, near Swansea, and they still had very good conditions all day. It was only the guys closer to the coast who suffered when that southerly came through a bit early, making it a little uncomfortable.

"There were some great results. Obviously the marlin were a bit more difficult to get.

"The winning boat, because we extended the boundaries because of COVID, one of the Port Stephens boats fished in his own patch, and he caught two little black marlins, which won it.

"They were just fishing on the inshore reefs somewhere between Cabbage Tree and Broughton Island I believe.

"It was well deserved and they obviously took advantage of that increase in boundary.

"We lost two and caught one, so we were in the mix but we lost a couple right at the boat, which was disappointing."

Lake Macquarie boat Katana were also among the winners, claiming the most tag and release (other game fish) title.

"They got a couple of dollies and he had a few shots on marlin as well, so he kept pretty busy," Nunn said.

He said All Zero's almost 1000-pound mako was landed by a father and son team and was a "catch of a lifetime".

Reel Screamer, one of two boats competing from the Jervis Bay club, won the champion boat capture with 20396 points, which included a 395kg tiger shark.

Charlotte M, from Lake Macquarie boat Offcourse, reeled in a striped marlin to take the champion junior crown.

Nunn said the club hoped to return to a two-day format next year for the event.

Next on the game fishing calendar is the Garmin Billfish Shootout, hosted by the Newcastle and Port Stephens club on February 19-21.

The NSW Interclub championships, which will be run without a host club this year, is on the following weekend.

While the top marlin action has moved to the NSW south coast, the extremely warm water temperatures locally are making for "fantastic fishing inshore and along the beaches", according to Nunn.

"There's some really good catches of whiting, as well as bream, flathead. A lot of the flathead are starting to move and we're seeing a lot of nice mulloway getting caught on the beaches and offshore because of these warm temps," he said.

He said bream, whiting, flathead, squid and a few cracking kingfish were the main catches in Lake Macquarie.

Good reports of mulloway keep coming in and Zac Norgard, from Freddy's Fishing World at Broadmeadow, has been among the action.

Norgard and a couple of co-workers have had some decent sessions fishing for jew off the Stockton breakwall in recent weeks, just on dark, using plastics.

"We caught a few good jew a couple of weeks ago around Stockton off the wall. The biggest one was 23-kilo, measuring 136 centimetres," Norgard said.

"And another guy who works here got another one down there as well. There's been a few caught around the entrance to the harbour.

"There's been some caught in the lake as well on live squid, there's been a lot of squid around, especially at the Dropover."

Norgard said big flathead were the other main catch in Newcastle Harbour and Hunter River, while good reports of whiting in Lake Macquarie were also coming in.

"There's been quite a few good whiting around in the flats in Lake Macquarie. I've heard whiting up to 46 centimetres on sugar pen surface lures," he said.