The Big Fish Bonanza was restricted to a one-day contest last year because of wild weather and it was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year the event was also held without a weigh-in, with boats returning to their home port, because of COVID restrictions.

This year social distancing and other precautions remain but the weigh-in and two-day format return.

Prizes and cash rewards are on offer across categories such as heaviest shark and marlin, and leading boats in capture and tag and release pointscores.

Jason "One For" Nunn, from Fishermans Warehouse, Marks Point, will be among those competing and said anglers were keen to get back to normal competition.

"Most guys I've spoken to about the event the last few days are quite excited," Nunn said.

"There's a lot of hype around it, because this is the third attempt to run a two-day event, after COVID and bad weather the last two years.

"Hopefully we're going to get two good days. There's a bit of east-nor-easter on Saturday, but it doesn't look too bad. Maybe 15-20 knots. Then we're probably going to have a wind shift on Sunday, maybe a bit of sou-east in it, but that's down to 10-15 knots."

Nunn also believed the race for prizes was wide open because of the lack of reliable fishing spots in recent times.

"It's probably going to be one of the most evenly contested comps we've seen in a while because there's no real hotspot at the moment," he said.

"The currents are certainly trending warm but they are doing strange things at the moment, and the offshore current is up.

"There doesn't seem to be big volumes of fish and they seem to be scattered through a vast area of coastline.

"It just puts everyone on an even keel. I reckon if luck is on your side, you'll win.

"Shark and big marlin-wise, there's not a lot, because the current is running quite swiftly, so it's going to be an event where one fish in the capture will likely win it, and one or two in the release could win it. Then it could come back to line class, where the lighter line wins."

Despite the excitement around the event, Nunn did not expect a bumper fleet to compete, partly because of the dangers for larger boats trying to navigate sandbars into Lake Macquarie.

He called on local and state governments to do more to solve the problem.

"I'm hoping we get 30 to 35 boats," he said.

"In years gone by we've had sometimes 50 to 60 boats but people aren't travelling as much because of the COVID situation.

"One of the other issues those with big boats face is we have a real problem with accessing Lake Macquarie.

"Swansea Channel is the worst it's been in decades, in my mind. It's become very testing, and almost unnavigable in certain spots.

"We've had guys say to us that they would love to compete, but we're not going to risk bringing the boat up the channel after all the reports we've had."

Nunn said high tides at the start and end of each day will help alleviate the problem, however a lower high in the afternoon meant "40 footers and above" would still struggle to find safe entry.

While reports of marlin have been scarce and scattered, there's been an increase this week in other offshore species, including rare sightings of striped tuna.

"Bottom fishing-wise, there's been some changes the last week, where we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of trag along the coastline," Nunn said.

"There's a lot of them all along the inshore reefs because the water is around the 22 degrees mark.

"And for the first time in a while, there's an increase in bonito offshore.

"They haven't been there since last year basically, and now they are showing up. Mixed in with the bonito is some tailor and, surprisingly, some striped tuna.

"We used to get striped tuna 35-40 years ago in close and suddenly they vanished. Now we're seeing patches of striped tuna mixed in with the bonito around places like Moon Island and down towards Mawson's Breakwall.

"It's been a big period of change, and quite unusual."

He said snapper were also a popular catch offshore this week, while beaches were still fishing well for whiting, dart, bream, salmon and tailor.

In Lake Macquarie, tailor, some over one kilo, had been caught.

Nunn expected the season's last prawn run, which started on Wednesday night, to spark fishing for squid, bream and jew in the estuaries.

Dave Frame, from TackleWorld Port Stephens, said whiting, bream and flathead continued to provide on the inshore areas up his way, while dolphin fish and bonito were biting offshore and kingfish and snapper were on the reefs.