The ERGT Australia day weekend Surf fishing Competition was held at Golden Beach his year and there was a great turn out with well over 300 entrants.

Very good fishing weather was had on the Thursday, however the Friday proved tough with very windy conditions. Luckily, on Saturday morning the winds eased enough for everyone to get a last fish in before the last weigh in.

Over 150 fish were weighed in over the 3 days and the species included around 100 flathead of which the biggest was 1kg, nearly 40 big salmon up to 2.3kg cleaned and 21 gummy sharks. There were also quite a few hammerhead sharks caught and even a couple of very big trevally.

There were four main divisions including the largest beach caught fish, the largest paddled-out bait caught fish, the largest tinnie caught fish and the largest beach caught fish by a junior. The prizes were numerous and included fishing rod and reels, kayaks, bikes and many other prizes.

There was also a major raffle prize of a custom trailer donated by Aussie Camper trailers valued at $4500.00.

The best baits seemed to bluebait and squid, yet some of the large fish were caught on fresh fish fillets and eel. Surf poppers were another awesome lure over the week, especially on the hammerhead sharks amazingly. A lot more gummies are caught on surf poppers with a handful weighed in caught on the humble surf popper.

Some very good fish were landed over the week and the major prize winners included Brett Charelton, who won the largest beach caught fish prize with a 7.0kg clean gummy shark. He won a Snyderglas surf rod and Okuma V-system surf reel that was donated by Allways Angling in Traralgon. The Tinny section was won by Anthony Martin with a 19kg hammerhead shark, the Paddled-bait section was won by Justin Daniels with a 17kg school shark and his prize was a kayak donated by Fossies in Sale. The Junior prize went to Liam Cunningham with a 3.75kg gummy shark.

In a non-competition related report, the surf in general has been fishing well.

The flathead numbers are high, yet the sizes have dropped on comparison to November and December and the flatties seem to be averaging 35-40cm long. The gummy sharks have been good and there have been some good fish weighing over 10kg.

There are lots of hammerhead sharks around now however most of them are only around 60cm long, yet you will get the odd bigger fish especially if you paddle your baits out. You are more likely to get those bigger sharks during the day. At night however, the bigger sharks will move in close. The bait paddlers are getting some good bronze whalers up to around 1.8m, yet there are some good stories going around of anglers having there wire traces bitten clean in half by descent toothies.

Australian salmon are there too and some good ones again, and the good thing about this is you have a chance of getting fresh bait whilst you are down there.

This time of year you don’t know what you are going to get and especially with the warmth of the water, so get down there and have a go.

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