It’s been a busy month of fishing down on the Peninsula, with the full gambit of fish being caught.

The only thing that has tempered the great fishing has been some periods of typical windy spring weather.

To begin with however, I thought I’d report on one of the most unusual captures I have seen from Port Phillip. Mark Flower was fishing for snapper deep off Rye when he encountered a strange little beast that we later identified as a juvenile butterfly mackerel. This was certainly a rare catch; the only other one that we had heard of had come from Portland last year.

It is that time of the year and true to the annual cycle the world has gone snapper mad! This year has followed a similar pattern to the last few with good captures coming from the Shell Bank area in 15m of water off Frankston early in the month and then fish progressing further south.

Dave O’Brien has a wonderful run fishing this area for about 4-weeks in a row taking plenty of quality fish to 5.5kg.

Some excellent soft plastics fishing was reported in the Mt Eliza shallows and around the mussel lease. Currently the first good run of snapper off Mt Martha has just begun. Over the next few weeks the area known as the Fairway, in 21-22m of water off Mt Martha will provide excellent fishing.

November also saw the whiting fishing heat up with good captures firstly coming from Tootgarook. There were plenty of fish around the 38cm mark but fish to 42cm were not uncommon.

Rosebud shallows also saw plenty of King George while anglers fishing out at the Pinnacle grounds reported some good mixed bags of smaller whiting, squid and gars. Interestingly, customer George told us his secret berley for whiting – frozen peas and corn. If you want to try something new, he swears by it!

Pretty much every pier along the peninsula saw a good run of Australian salmon over the last few weeks. From Dromana to Portsea, if you were willing to get up early and head down to your local pier, there have been plenty of salmon to target at dawn.

For the most part they were fish around 400-600g but there have also been some larger schools to keep us fishos entertained.

Both metal slugs and soft plastics have been successful with Squidgie Pilly Flickbaits in 85mm and 110mm an absolute favourite.

For those who aspire to capture a big gummy shark, my fishing diary tells me that December is a hot month to have a crack. Conversely, I find that the big gummies go a bit quiet during January, where night fishing seems to reap the best rewards.

I can only theorise that this is due to the summer crowds and increased boat traffic.

Jay Furniss caught a nice 18kg model in the last couple of weeks, so the fish are about and should get thicker through December. Try fishing the edge of the South Channel in 15m of water off Sorrento – this is a hot gummy shark destination. With a couple salmon or trevally fillets in the water for bait, it’s almost a sure thing!

For more information contact Peninsula Total Tackle at 11 Boneo Rd Rosebud or phone the shop on 5981 1994.