April is a prime month for anglers living on the North West.

Most anglers fear that April is the month where most of the good fishing will end and for some die-hard trout fishos, it all does end after April, at least until the trout season opens back up in August. All this does not necessarily mean that the coast fishes badly however.

In fact, some of the best captures can occur in April when everyone is giving it one last crack. I remember last year this time there were some big yellowtail kingfish nailed off Somerset and the Australian salmon were going off just about everywhere!

On the shark front most anglers would have either used up or retired their berley logs for the season however some keen anglers will still find the occasional mako cruising about early in the month. Most offshore anglers focus on the larger sized sand flathead that can be caught in big quantities this time of year in around 25-35m of water.

This is a great time of year for Australian salmon, especially off Somerset. Often the talk of salmon will get about quickly, so check out hotspots like Table Cape, Somerset, Cooee, Wivenhoe and the mouth of the Blythe River. If you see a group of boats together in close, you can bet your bottom dollar there are salmon working in that area.

There are plenty of young, keen anglers that will be heading out to their local spots over the Easter holidays. It’s amazing on the quality and diversity of the species you can catch land based with the aid of some berley!

Red Rock in Cooee is high on the list for anglers in Burnie but Sinking Rock, Rocky Cape, Doctors Rocks and Devonport Bluff are also prime land-based spots.

If you berley on a rising tide and fish it on the way out you can catch a number of species on fly, lure or bait including large Australian salmon, squid, trevally, flathead, mullet, garfish, pike, barracouta and even the occasional black drummer.

It is however, the last month to target brown trout before the season ends in May. Many anglers including myself will strive to fish skinny water to entice that one last fish on a dry fly for the season.

If you’re after one last crack at a good fish then you can’t go past the upper reaches of any of our coastal rivers with small soft plastics.

The rivers are full of galaxias and that’s what the trout will be eating, so try Berkley 3” Power Minnows or Squidgy Flick Baits on light jigheads, as these are great galaxia imitations.