The Barwon River has cleared after the rains of the last month and is suitable for lure work along the edges.

November can see the larger redfin perch willing to take most baitfish imitation lures. Ross Virt from KAOS Cod Flies has been fishing the Moorabool River minnow lures (yes, with spin gear!) and catching brown trout around 40cm. Dylan Pace has been visiting Wurdee Buloc Reservoir near Moriac where he has tangled with redfin either side of 40cm.

Dylan also noted the presence of trout rising to black beetles refusing to take his minnow lures.

Justin Ware has been fishing Cunningham Pier with good success recently. His captures have included 15 mullet to 30cm in an hour using chicken, then another five the next day. Then with the warmer weather Justin started targeting some warehou and caught his first one, which measured in at 27cm that “fought like stink and tasted magnificent”.

Snapper season is now running full tilt in the region. Remember to have a bit of patience at the boat ramps and help out others that may be new to the sport and or struggling a bit with their boat. If you plan on joining a group of boats that look as though they are catching fish, remember to allow a bit of room when anchoring.

Supplies of pilchards can actually run low this time of year so anglers should look to either catching their own bait such as squid, garfish or trying alternatives like silver whiting which can be purchased relatively cheaply from supermarkets.

Drysdale Sportfishing Club have a new website up and running which includes member’s pics and other club information. Check it out at www.drysdalesfc.com .

The calamari run has continued out off Clifton Springs en-masse. Ross Winstanley caught 10 beauties up to 2kg in only 2.3m of water off Curlewis. The first five he caught in a frantic session right on high tide then he had to work harder for the rest over the next two hours.

Rod Ludlow from Beachlea Boat Hire says the past month has been good for flathead with clients enjoying fish around 40cm drifting in deeper water. Rod notes that the best baits were pilchards and bluebait.

The squid have been fairly inconsistent over the last month but things should improve over November along with the whiting and of course, the snapper.

Michael Moore from Q-Tackle has been getting some fair bags of whiting to 45cm cm over the last month out off Queenscliff. The squid fishing has been good with anglers enjoying good captures from Queenscliff through to Clifton Springs.

The silver trevally have really started to fire in the Queenscliff harbour with a few nice pinkie snapper mixed in with them. Michael says that the most successful plastics have been 3” gulp minnows in any colour and Damiki 4” rippers.

Chris from Queenscliff Q-Tackle had a ball catching salmon to 50cm in the channel at the top of Swan Bay amongst plenty of other boats that were all getting into them as well. Brenton Hodges has also had some great reports of silver trevally inside the Queenscliff harbour both on bait and lures. The rip has also seen some exciting salmon fishing with anglers casting artificials into big schools of fish to 1kg.

The Barwon River estuary has been absolutely pumping of late. First, there was a great run of Australian salmon up to 45cm invading the lower reaches as the tide came in. Now, there is a solid run of silver trevally available that have been keeping everyone busy.

Tib Polgar and his wife Rita tore into them recently catching rippers up to 1.5kg using pilchard fillets and pipis.

Nick Scerri from Ocean Grove Charters has been fishing for snapper over the past month and been getting plenty of fish to 2kg. Nick has caught a few drifting in 50m of water using 100mm pumpkinseed Turtleback worms when conditions are calm. Nick says they have found the snapper feeding under the schools of barracouta, which can make bait delivery difficult.

Nick has also been doing well on the calamari in Port Phillip getting them both in the Lonsdale Bight and Swan Bay with the standout jigs being orange and silver Yamashitas.

Torquay anglers have enjoyed a great run of snapper around 5kg from the local reefs. Best bet has been the run out tide on reef areas in around 20m of water. Mick Allardyce from Wahoo Shoes fished down near Wye River with his friend Luke and all their kids.

They selected a small beach with a few rock holes just past the township and they all dug up some sand hoppers for bait. Using Scotch Finger biscuits for berley, the dads sat back and watched the kids pull approximately 15 garfish onto the beach. Mick also notes that there has been a few pinkie snapper caught off Lorne at the moment with the best fish he estimated to be about 5 kg.

Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to --e-mail address hidden-- with “VFM” in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1mb (file size).