Another month rolls by and the weather over the past months still continues to hamper fishing efforts for anglers in spite of the great fishing to be had.

Fingers crossed that April will give us good weather so anglers can get among the fish before the onset of winter.

April is a great time to find some of the better quality fish with the odd big snapper and some solid late season whiting there for the taking.

Mordialloc Pier has been fishing well over the past month with good numbers of garfish during the day and numbers of pinkies of an evening. While lots of them are in the 30cm size there has been the odd one up over the 40cm mark. The coming month should see them really heat up with better numbers of bigger fish moving into the shallows.

The pier has also held some whiting over the past weeks and while the numbers haven’t been huge, the size of the fish makes it well worthwhile, with several anglers reporting that they have been getting King George whiting around 40cm.

April will see squid starting to make their presence felt once again as they start to invade the area surrounding the pier and any other bit of reef between Ricketts Point and Mordialloc.

March saw some great snapper fishing on offer out on the mud in 18m and on several of the deeper reef areas with the mark known as the wedding ring holding solid reds between 2.5-6kg.

This fishing should continue in April.

In Beaumaris Bay the pinkies have been in and around all the usual areas with Parkdale Pinnacles, Brickies and the back of the mussel farms well worth a look. And just like the pinkies on the pier, anglers should expect to see some better numbers of bigger fish over the coming weeks.

Beaumaris Pier has started to produce some squid and it will only be a matter of time before this is once again a top area to be throwing squid jigs off late in the afternoon and early morning.

Ricketts Point has been producing scattered catches of whiting with plenty of small pinkies thrown in to keep anglers busy re-baiting and releasing undersized fish.

However as a bonus to the whiting and pinkies there has also been some nice Australian salmon around, with anglers who are lucky enough to find them reporting fish in the 1-2kg bracket.

Just when you thought it may be too late for the kingfish, don’t pack away the heavier gear yet as a few of them will hang around through April.

Out deep there has still been the odd good catch of snapper reported with the T1,T2 area on the edge of the channel seeming to produce the goods. Among the reds there has also been the odd gummy in the 3-8kg size.

Reports clearly indicate that the deeper water out here is also holding those big garfish with some anglers specifically heading out to the 16-18m line between Ricketts Point and the Fawkner Beacon to specifically target them.

Inshore, the end of Sandringham Breakwall and the rock Groynes off Hampton are producing pinkies to both land-based and boat anglers, along with the odd whiting and squid, which should also get better in this area over the next month.

The coming months are also a great time to start fishing the public pier at Sandringham Yacht Club with unweighted baits of peeled prawn, Bass yabbies or small crabs or shrimp producing some quality bream for the patient angler.

Down at Brighton there has been some excellent fishing on offer with big numbers of pinkies and plenty of good ones among them.

One of our good customers at Fishing Fever had some red hot fishing during March on bags of pinkies in the 40-45cm size with most of them being taken at dawn or dusk in 4-7m of water. Needless to say it should only get better this month.

The breakwall itself has been producing an assortment of species on any given day, although some anglers are reporting it’s hot and cold, with each day being different with the species that are biting best. It really pays to take a couple of rods to cover your options with the pinkies, squid and whiting.

Further along at the North Road ramp, anglers will be happy to see that their has been a small but very handy cleaning table constructed for anglers next to the ramp. To ensure that we can continue to get more of these fish cleaning facilities around the place in the future please remember to discard fish frames back into the water or bins provided so as not to leave the place stinking of fish.

Off the North Road area itself the fishing has been good with anglers finding some good patches of whiting in the 30-40cm size with baits of mussel proving dynamite.

It amazes me how quickly the fishing comes back – especially when it stops raining for just long enough to let the water clear and the top part of the bay to stop flowing like a river.

Whiting have made an appearance back on the local reefs off St Kilda along with pinkies and some decent schools of Australian salmon, with some anglers reporting that it’s the best fishing they’ve seen for a few months.

I haven’t heard a lot about St Kilda Breakwall but one local says he was getting some really nice flathead off the end of the wall during March with fish in the 40-50cm size coming in almost every trip.

Up at Kerford Road and Lagoon piers the odd pinkie snapper and some garfish are moving in with each week seeing more and more fish being caught. Now is also the time to start thinking of mulloway in the area, so always put out a live or fresh dead bait if you are fishing here at night.

Station Pier has also been producing the odd decent flathead, small salmon and some pinkies with rumours of big mulloway in the area, with one customer being almost spooled before being busted off.

Don’t pack the gear away yet its one of the best times of year to catch big fish.