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Wild Winter Whiting
  |  First Published: June 2011



Finally we have had some excellent weather! It might not be 30C but at least the winds have been light and the temperatures moderate, which means anglers have been out in force.

Again, there has been a wide range of species catch. Flathead, salmon, trevally and garfish have all been around in good numbers, but what a lot of people don’t realise is how many whiting are around. Over the colder months, many anglers put their boats away and hang the rods on the wall thinking that your more popular species disappear.

This is not the case.

Whiting have been more prevalent than they were in summer, and they probably won’t disappear anytime soon. My mate Mo and I had a ripper session where we landed 31 whiting between the two of us in a 2-hour session. We also caught a few other things like some good trevally, big flatties and a couple of cracking salmon.

My other good mate Log fishes this area a couple of times a week and he has been bagging out on whiting for the past month on every trip. Berley seems to keep the fish around a bit longer and you really do need to find some good habitat in the form of weed beds.

For bait, we have been mainly using squid, which I know a lot of anglers don’t use, but it is awesome whiting bait when cut into really small thin strips. You can tenderise it if you want, but you don’t always need to.

The sizes have been great, averaging 38cm and up to 48cm, so this really is sensational fishing.

Now I hope everyone isn’t sick of hearing about salmon yet, but they are now inside the estuary from McLoughlins Beach all the way around to Port Albert. There are some real monsters here at the moment too.

The average salmon is 55cm, there is barely anything smaller, but if you’re lucky you might get one over 80cm, which I never thought was possible. We have been getting annihilated on light gear, a few mates and I have been using 4lb gear and some of these fish are unstoppable.

We have all had plenty of jigheads straightened and I even got spooled on a fish that I never got to see. Soft plastics are the go; they have been out fishing metal lures and anyone trolling. We are drifting and casting soft plastics and it is working great.

The salmon have been jumping everywhere yet they are still feeding on the bottom. Poppers are not working as well despite the fish being active on the surface, but I think with some persistence you would get a take eventually.

A few weeks back, there was even a couple of small kingfish caught inside that must have been mixed in with the salmon. Either way, there are some huge fish inside at the minute.

Outside

It’s slowed down a bit lately outside. While there are still some ripper gummy sharks around, they are becoming a little scarce, but this always happens in the colder months. However if you do catch a gummy, you can bet it will be a good one.

Use some freshly caught bait to increase your chances. The snapper were going very well even up to a few weeks ago, however I think they might nearly be finished by the time June progresses.

The smaller ones will be left around, however you will have to travel further east for those. The better sized flathead are starting to move out wide now, and are being caught around the islands off Port Albert.

If you do a drift out here, you can bet you will end up with a swag of good sized flatties.

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and some great deals on fishing tackle.

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