Unfortunately as the temperature drops so do the amount of fishing reports and at times it has felt as though there is more water falling from the sky then there is in Western Port as a whole, but there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Even with the rain and lack of reports, the fishing has still been really quite good.

Squid and gummies have been the staple from this end of Western Port in recent times and it’s these species that keep us going through the colder months.

The Quail Bank has been the calamari hot spot and is one of the more consistent spots in to get a good feed. Peter Ferguson has still been calling the top end of Western Port his home away from home and getting stuck into a heap of calamari. A number of different methods have been working with some days artificial jigs resulting in more success and other days baited jigs set out under floats are seeing a better return so it pays to cover all bases to ensure maximum return for your efforts.

Squid have not been the only capture from this part of the port lately as Michael and Ben have experienced. They put in a few hours soaking fresh calamari in the deeper water on the run-out tide and ended up with a couple of beautiful gummy sharks between 2-5kg.

Grantville is another area that the gummies have been poking around recently. Brendan Wing took the family out for gummy bash and found some quality fish using pilchards for bait. Word is that Brendon’s kids, Billie and Fin out-fished their old man so I think he better bring his A game next time!

Josh Fields is another who found success around Grantville and his capture will surprise many keen anglers around the traps. On a recent gummy trip Josh bagged a spectacular 5.41kg winter snapper. Not bad for the middle of winter!

The north arm has clearly failed to read the script and has forgotten to stop producing whiting, which has been an absolute blessing for all anglers. With the amount of whiting reports filtering through, anyone would think we are in the middle of December!

The Middle Spit has been a gold mine for whiting and hopefully it’s something that can hold out through the rest of winter.

Steve Johnson has been one of those charter operators getting a heap of customers stuck into a few whiting. Steve has been focusing most of his attentions around the run-in tide and found both mussels and pipis taking their fair share of fish. The most exciting thing about Steve’s report is that most fish were over 40cm with the biggest stretching out at a whopping 49cm!

Ivon Irvine is another who loves getting amongst the winter whiting and he hasn’t had to try too hard to get a good bag either. Again, the run-in tide has been the best but Ivon’s secret to success was a cocktail bait consisting of both pipi and pilchard fillet.

Not all of the winter fun has been had by boat based anglers either, which is always good to hear. Joal Joalson tried his luck off the Hastings Pier and despite all of the work being done on the pier he still managed to find a corner to himself and drag in a nice 40cm salmon that scoffed a small live tommy ruff at the top of the high tide.

A word of caution to all who plan on fishing both the Hastings and Stoney Point piers, both piers have been mostly closed for upgrades and repairs so please be careful and stay away from any sectioned off parts to ensure every ones’ safety.

We are pretty much into the home stretch now in the countdown to snapper season so it’s time to start filling up the bait freezer. We are in the middle of our squid season and it doesn’t have to be a chore to get a few for beautiful fresh snapper baits. In amongst the rain there is still the odd break in weather where the days are actually quite nice.

A couple of hours in the boat on a tide change, or a couple of hours land-based from one of the piers can be a nice excuse to get out of the house and gather few baits.

Get the family involved, stock up on a few jigs and get amongst a few calamari!