With one of the wettest summer lead-ups since 1996, the Geelong stretch of the Barwon River has remained quite dirty.

Some redfin were taken by anglers working the banks up near Queens Park and these were often better than 500g. Small bright lures worked best here.

Geelong is the place to go for a feed of flatties. There seems to be good numbers of fish around the 50cm mark that have been taken by anglers drifting with soft plastic lures in 3-5m of water.

Ross Winstanley has been into the pinkie snapper out on the Stingaree Bay spoil grounds. Ross has enjoyed bait fishing using squid and catching fish from 30-42cm as well as a few flathead and whiting.

Eleven-year-old Lachlan McDowall from Clifton Springs boated his first big snapper of 7.2kg that he caught with his dad on a pilchard fishing the outer harbour.

Clifton Springs and Portarlington continue to yield quality snapper up to 8kg for anglers fishing either side of the slack in the tide. Pilchards and fresh squid seem to be the standout bait and you often have to wade through a few small fish before you get something decent.

Brian McConnell says that the squid have also been boiling off Clifton Springs with some up around 2kg.

Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire in Indented Head says that most of the big snapper are getting caught after dark. Rod did hear of a cracking 8kg snapper taken by a lucky angler fishing from St Leonards pier and a few other medium snapper have come from Portarlington pier as well.

Anglers fishing from boats have also enjoyed quality snapper fishing out off St Leonards.

Rod’s customers are still getting great bags of calamari up to 1kg from the Indented Head and Grassy Point.

Rod had one boat fish the entrance to Swan Bay that took snapper at about 1-1.5kg and some King George whiting as well.

There are a few King George whiting in the St Leonards area from the pier round too Swan Bay and between Grassy Point and Indented head.

The flathead have been consistent in the deeper water between Indented Head and St Leonards. There are plenty of garfish in the Indented Head grass beds as well as a couple of gummy sharks taken from the west channel mark.

Offshore Barwon Heads and Torquay have provided some quality snapper fishing.

Ken Stevens from Barwon Heads Angling Club says that club members have enjoyed good snapper fishing offshore with fish either side of 3kg caught on the drift in 40m. Plenty of bream have been biting well with all the high, dirty water. Best bet has been to fish up near the Sheep wash with Bass yabbies.

Ken says there are plenty of small silver trevally, Aussie salmon and whiting around too.

Team Anaconda, Ocean Grove fishing Club and Barwon Heads Angling Club fished the Battle of the Bridge competition recently.

Team Anaconda were the winners hands down with young KJ (a junior) beating all comers with a snapper of 5.12kg and a combine bag of 6.62kg.

Young Zac Loveless from Jan Juc fished out of Torquay with his dad where they were enjoying plenty of small snapper and yakkas (yellow tailed scad) when Zac’s rod let out a squeal to the tune of a 5kg snapper that measured in at an impressive 72cm.

The Surf Coast estuaries have been high and brown and a little difficult to fish but Dylan Pace, Matt Alsop and Leon Robbins from Torquay have all done ok by working these estuaries hard. The lads have caught and released some fine bream up to 35cm using soft plastics and prawns for bait.

Dylan has also spent some time the Barwon River estuary with Carlo Muncy and his dad Aaron. Fishing from a boat with the liberal use of berley, the lads have been having a ball on the plentiful Aussie salmon infiltrating the estuary on the incoming tide.

Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to --e-mail address hidden-- with “VFM” in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1mb (file size).