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Favourite Time of Year
  |  First Published: April 2010



This is one of my favourite times of the year, the boat ramps are starting to empty and the water temps and fishing is still hot!

A mate and I went for a fish the other day: bagged out on calamari, did the same to the yellowtail kingfish and then had some fun on the striped tuna, and still made it to the pub for a counter meal before they closed the kitchen!

Flathead are still plentiful off shore in between 35-45m of water east of the rip. If you are unsure of where that is just look for the charter boats! A single strip of squid is all you need for these guys.

Good old pinkie snapper just keep on turning up - yes we are still catching them in good numbers. 50m of water in front of Torquay is the place to start. Be ready to try a few spots and keep an eye on your sounder for schooling up fish around reefs and hard bottoms.

The calamari are back in the bay, pushed right up to St Leonards. Look for patches of weed and sand to start your search - we have been using squid jigs in natural colours.

Whiting have started to show up in good numbers around Queenscliff.

The start of the ebb tide is the rime to start fishing for them; again, if you are not sure on where to drop the pick just have a look around for the boats.

We have also picked up some good gummy sharks in our travels. Try anchoring in 35m of water off Barwon Heads. Set a berley trail and put out some fresh baits and crack out the thermos!

More often then not you will also do well on the snapper whilst waiting for the big gummy shark. Fresh bait as always is a must and you can’t go wrong with some fresh squid - kingies love it too!

Yellowtail kingfish are still around for those willing to put in the time to find them or lucky enough to stumble over them. We have been finding the kings (whilst fishing for snapper) on reefs near Point Lonsdale and Barwon Heads but then also further a field off Torquay - you just never know where they will turn up!

Some days we have had to troll for them using white occy lures with a single strip of squid pricked through the hook once.

Other days we have caught them on squid fished on paternoster rigs mid-water; other days we have dragged occy’s around using lead lines.

Last but by no means least, we have had to use knife jigs on these hard fighting champs.

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