November spells the start of some hot action around southern Port Phillip and Bass Strait.

Before I get into that I would like to congratulate Mick Kaksa and Cam Whittam on finishing first in the Vic Bream Classic Grand Final. I used to partner Mick and am happy to say I taught him everything he knows - good job boys!

Salmon have started to do their thing in and around The Rip. The start of the ebb tide is the time to start trolling for the salmon. Point Nepean is where we always start our search and then work our way to The Rip.

Keep an eye out for birds working bait schools, and on your sounder for schools of fish working bait below the surface. There have been quite a few small fish in the schools, which make great bait for the squid which are plentiful in the Lonsdale Bight.

Clear water and a flood tide is about all that is needed to catch the squid and there have been some stonkers of up to 5kg caught so they are well worth a look.

Lonsdale Bay has also been fishing well for snapper on the start of the flood tide. Sound around and look for hard bottom and depth changes to anchor - we have been catching a mixed bag of fish while doing this.

Offshore has been fishing well with good numbers of large snapper being taken right along the coast from Ocean Grove to Torquay. 35m of water off Barwon Heads seems to be producing a lot of fish up to 7kg and the odd gummy shark.

We have also been catching good numbers of nannygai whist fishing for the snapper. Good numbers of trevalla have been taken in 50m of water off Torquay and there have been fish of up to 2kg caught. Trevalla are great sport and fight hard!

Some warmer currents of water have started to appear and it is worth laying a shark trail in any temperature change. Often the early season mako sharks are monsters and can be quite crafty once they come up a trail and near impossible to get to take a bait. If you do mange to hook one of these big guys, remove the hook and let them go to fight another day.

Flathead have been plentiful both off shore and in the bay. 35m of water down to the east has been fishing really well for these guys. Keep the boat on the drift while fishing strips of squid on the bottom until you come across a patch of fish. Once you have found them, getting a feed of flatty tails is as easy as taking candy from a baby.

If you have any reports or cool pictures you can contact me at --e-mail address hidden--