Cold days have really heralded the onset of winter.

Small windows of good weather will allow anglers to have a ball catching some of the species that love to bite their heads off at this time of year.

The past month has seen the pier fish well for Australian salmon and pinkies when the weather has been ordinary, which has been a fair bit over the past weeks.

For the bait guys, the pinkies have been going well of an afternoon and into the evening with numbers of smaller sized fish on offer in the 28-32cm size. However among the smaller pinkies there have also been some nice fish around 40-45cm with the best baits being pilchard tails or small squid strips fished on paternoster rigs.

While the salmon haven’t been overly big they have certainly provided plenty of fun for those anglers casting small metal lures around when the winds are stirring up the water surrounding the pier.

Best lures have definitely been the Samaki Torpedo in blue mackerel and the River2Sea Sea Rock jigs in the oil white finish. Another great lure colour has been gold, which has really produced the goods when the water has been stirred up: 14-25g have been dynamite.

In the creek, mullet should be in full swing over the coming month and provide plenty of fun when you target them with light tackle.

For the boat anglers there are plenty of options on offer at present and best of all you don’t need to go far to find fish with the shallow reefs around the Parkdale Pinnacles and between the Scout Hall pier and Ricketts Point producing good numbers of pinkie snapper and solid squid to over 1kg. It’s also worth keeping your eyes peeled as the local salmon population are still around and providing anglers with plenty of action when they stick their heads up.

Fishing Fever staff member Pete Alevizopolous has been getting into the salmon and some great flathead through this same area.

As for Beaumaris Pier, the squid are back on and should hopefully continue for the rest of winter. If you are after a good spot to fish, especially in a northerly, then it’s well worth taking a look at this area. And while the pier is great, the rocks either side of it also produce good squid.

Ricketts Point to Black Rock has also seen plenty of pinkie action with some solid specimens to over 2kg being taken. Adding to this have been some solid squid and a good number of snook to 80cm in length for those anglers trolling small diving lures.

On another note it’s great to see Fisheries making their presence felt with some serious busts taking place last month at Mordialloc Boat ramp with two separate groups of anglers getting caught with well in excess of their limit and numbers of undersized pinkies.

I think it’s great to see and hope they can continue to catch those who just can’t seem to obey the laws.

It seems amazing that there are still some solid snapper to be found, but right through May we continued to hear reports of snapper to 5kg being taken at locations such as the Gasso and through to the T1 and T2 areas of the shipping channel. The real surprise however has been the numbers of gummy sharks that are popping up on anglers’ lines, with more than the occasional capture of fish in the 3-8kg size. Best baits for the gummies have been the good old pilly or Californian squid. The best areas are the 15-18m areas off Black Rock and down to Brighton.

Back inshore the fishing has been good with the rock groynes at Hampton producing garfish and squid along with a few pinkies. However the best run of pinkies that I have heard of for the land-based anglers is the Brighton Breakwall with plenty of fish on offer, especially when the south or west winds blow. Best of all, this by all rights should only get better over this month as the pinkies really move into this area in droves to feed on the ample food that is available through this reef system.

Just out a little wider, anglers in boats are also reporting some solid flathead in the 6-9m area.

Working the shallow reef areas between Brighton and St Kilda have also been producing some solid squid for anglers who are prepared to put the effort in. And while they aren’t in as big numbers as they are further south they are certainly making up for it with their size. Anglers are reporting the average-sized squid is up between 500g-1.2kg, which is a really solid calamari.

For anglers chasing squid are reporting that working the reef edge where it drops away into deeper water – usually 3-6m deep – is producing the goods, especially with larger 3.5 sized jigs in red, brown or pink colours.

It can be a great time at this end of the bay if we don’t get big floods to stir the water up. This area can produce good fishing as it will often be just a touch warmer in water temperature. This can produce some solid snapper for those anglers fishing at night over the cunjevoi reefs that run between St Kilda and Station pier in 5-8m of water.

In addition, I have also started to hear of some nice ling being taken in the cooler water, with this area being one of the best to target them in the bay – great eating and well worth targeting.

For the land-based anglers, St Kilda Pier and breakwall have been producing some small salmon over the past weeks and while there are plenty of whitebait in the area the salmon should stick around.

Off Kerford Road and Lagoon piers there has been salmon, garfish and pinkies on offer with each day lately being a bit of a lucky dip as to what will bite best. If heading down that way it may pay to take a few rods or at least different tackle to accommodate whatever is on the bite.

As for Station and Lagoon piers they have been producing pinkies and flathead over the past weeks and will continue to do so this month.

These areas should also start to turn up some nice trevally around the pylons this month so try floating a small bait down into the shadows of the pier.