Spring is here and anglers are seeing red.

With the impending snapper season fast approaching most conversations and thoughts are now revolving around these great fish and why wouldn’t it when it looks like we are onto another bumper of a season?

For those anglers however who like to chase the other species there is plenty going on at present.

Mordialloc Creek and the adjoining pier just doesn’t know when to let up. There has been consistent catches of mullet and trevally on offer in the creek, with small floats and baits of peeled prawn or dough yielding results.

The pier itself has been fishing well for wall to wall garfish and the occasional salmon. The squid numbers have been down a bit over the past months, but they have definitely been on improving as each week goes by.

Best of all however it’s coming into one of its most exciting times of year. Now is the time that anglers get on the pier in search of some solid snapper that move into the shallows to feed on last light and into the night.

For the land-based anglers generally the best results come to those who are brave enough to fish the end of the pier in the strong south west winds that draw the snapper into the shallows to feed in the cover of the churned up water.

For the boat anglers the past weeks have seen better numbers of squid to be found up off Parkdale Pinnacles and through to Ricketts Point, with the Beaumaris Pier also producing some squid and garfish.

Best of all, in the past few weeks have seen some solid early season snapper starting to show up. Anglers have been taking snapper between 2-5kg from Parkdale Pinnacles to Black Rock in water ranging from 3-8m deep.

Out in deeper water we have also seen some of the keen anglers finding success on early season snapper with locations such as the hump off Mordialloc, Wedding Ring and the Two Fingers mark off Ricketts Point producing snapper to 6kg. In the upcoming weeks all areas should really fire up with snapper.

Anglers working the reef edge between Ricketts Point and Black Rock over the past weeks have also had great success on not only some good small snapper, but also some as big as 5kg. Those who have fared the best have been fishing with larger plastics or using larger baits like a squid head or whole silver whiting to keep the smaller pinkies from stealing the bait.

Exciting times for this part of the bay with some great land-based angling on offer with the breakwall at Sandringham and the rock groynes at Hampton being great locations to put the time in over the coming weeks, especially with strong onshore winds producing the best results.

Both land-based and boat-based anglers have also had some great fishing for garfish over the past weeks with the rough ground between Hampton Groynes and the large shallow reef around Green Point producing the goods.

Out deeper anglers are finding good numbers of snapper starting to school up along the edge of the shipping lane. The numbers of fish are good and there are decent amounts of reds in the 5kg size, which is typical for the early season run.

Back inshore, the Anonyma Shoal and its surrounds is a great place to be looking over the coming weeks. This area has been a top location to find good sized early season snapper over the years, especially during some rough weather or early in the morning.

Up around the Green Point area there has been a few squid on offer for the anglers willing to keep moving around until they find them. But they should really start to fire up in the coming weeks. As the water warms working the shallow reef through this area will also start to see anglers finding some decent flathead sitting in the sand holes among the rock and reef.

Up at Brighton now is the time to get serious with the long rods and casting big baits out in search of snapper. The small snapper that have been caught over the past weeks should now be rolling into bigger reds. In fact don’t be surprised if the upcoming weeks produce some truly huge fish for land-based anglers.

The shallow water of St Kilda hide big red surprises over the coming months, with the after dark hours producing memorable fishing in ultra shallow water under the lights of St Kilda, Elwood and the city. The upcoming weeks will see anglers turning their efforts to the solid run of snapper that are beginning to move into the top end of the bay in the 14-18m areas.

Closer to shore the St Kilda pier has had plenty of garfish when the water has been clear, while a larger bait cast out to deeper water has seen the occasional trevally, small pinkies and the odd decent trevally.

Further along at Kerford Road and Lagoon Piers there has been a bit of a mixed bag on offer with decent numbers of garfish with some mullet and small salmon mixed in among them. Over the coming weeks it’s also worth getting a bigger bait out off the piers in search of a solid early season snapper.