The last month saw a distinct turning of the seasons with some fantastic runs of good weather. It also saw a distinct change in the focus of local anglers out in search of a fish.

This is my favourite time of year as the variety of options for fishing is enormous and the excitement amongst anglers is palpable! With quality salmon still on the back beach, squid fishing is at its annual peak and at the same time the early birds are out in search of snapper glory.

Over the last few weeks, squid, or calamari, have been the real talking point. The Mornington Peninsula offers some of the best squid fishing in Victoria, if not Australia, and so we see a lot of interest at this time of year.

So much so, that ‘squid charters’ offered by local fishing charter operators are now an annual feature on Melbourne’s fishing calendar. Along with the charter boys come legions of eager angles from all round Melbourne to get a piece of the big squid action.

Early in the month, fishing in 5-6m of water off the Sisters at Sorrento kept many punters entertained with big bags of small to medium squid being caught. In recent weeks however, the bigger squid have been caught in the more tidal water using jigs from size 3.0 to 4.0.

The moorings at Portsea have seen some big squid, as has Nepean Bay. On the other side, St Leonards down to the mouth of Swan bay has also seen some quality action in 3-5m of water. The Megabass and Gancraft jigs have proven to be flavour of the month, both ranges having a good selection of big jigs – perfect lures for big calamari!

Many anglers that we speak to have also commented on the fact that they have increased their catch rate by using a Japanese style Egi rod. These rods are made by a variety of manufacturers but really do impart an excellent action to your jigs in the water.

Land-based, some big calamari have been caught with Portsea Pier, Sorrento Pier and Flinders Pier providing the stand-out action. Jules Frank caught a cracker calamari mid afternoon at Sorrento Pier that weighed just under 2kg.

For those in search of some quality table fare, we have seen some great catches of whiting around Sorrento in front of the Yacht Club and over at St Leonards. The fish coming from St Leonards have been in massive numbers although there are many throwbacks amongst them. Sorrento has been producing fish of a better size, with the run-out tide the key.

This is the month where it all starts: snapper mayhem! As always some of the die-hard snapper fanatics have already been out there in search of a bag of reds. Brent Rietman and Joe Bruno have already caught good bags of fish from Frankston and Black Rock.

As usual the fish seem to have fired earlier further up the bay, although it is usually only 2-3 weeks before we start to see some good fish caught around the Fairway off Mt Martha.

If you have not found a fish yet, have no fear, it’s early days – we’re sure to see a plethora of fish caught in the next four weeks!