In January there are sure to be a lot of lucky people out there on holiday, relaxing and intending to do a spot of fishing. Summer is a great time of year to do exactly that!

Here are a few tips to make it a bit easier for you. It’s always a good idea to fish early in the morning or late in the evening. If you are beach fishing, try to coincide your fishing time with a rising tide. If you are fishing the bays, fishing during a change of tide is usually productive. In Port Phillip any tide change is good, however in Western Port fishing through to low tide, and a bit beyond, is best. Try to target the fish species that you are after, and fish the right areas. For example, fish the deeper water for snapper and the bank edges for whiting. Whenever possible, use fresh bait.

There have been some good reports from Woolamai Beach, with salmon of around 1kg coming in. Kilcunda has been patchy, with mullet to 500g, salmon to 1kg, and the odd gummy shark. Williamsons and Baxters beaches have been producing bigger fish, with some salmon to 2kg. Fishing the top of the tide and the first bit of the run-out has been the most productive.

Outside the Eastern Entrance, good numbers of flathead to 1kg have been caught drifting the 25m line. There are also some very big barracouta and quite a few squid in the same areas. For the shark fishos, the makos are back!

Below the bridge there are salmon, pinky snapper and some big whiting (50cm plus) in the Cleland Bight area. Above the Bridge there are good numbers of whiting, as well as garfish in excess of 40cm that have been caught in the Dickies Bay area.

Good bags of snapper to 8kg have been coming in from the Corals and Elizabeth Island. There are some big schools of pinkies in Western Port too. If you get onto a school, berley up to keep them there and the action will be fast and furious. It won’t take too long to bag out.

The Tortoise Head bank is fishing well, with good bags of whiting to 40cm, and the Long Reef area off Lysaughts has been very productive for both large and small snapper.

Good whiting about in reasonable numbers from Flinders to Somers, and in the Cat Bay area as well. There are still some big squid off Flinders.

All in all, the current fishing scene is pretty hot. Get out there and catch a few!

An odd catch: Lance Medwin with a southern saw shark he caught off Point Leo.