The good thing with August is that it’s the month before spring!

The fishing is still reasonable at this time of year if you are willing to brave the cold and wet.

For the angler keen to chase squid, try locations like Sorrento in front of the boat ramp St Leonards, Queenscliff and Clifton Springs.

Generally they will be smaller in size now and you may occasionally find a bigger one amongst them, but they are a bit of fun on light gear.

If you are looking for a feed of whiting you will need to search around St Leonards, Sorrento and Queenscliff. At this time of year you may have to put in the time to find these fish and they do like weed and broken ground and pipis are advised for bait. Once the whiting are found they are great fun and a good feed.

The snapper have been good in the bay around the Geelong area. There has been some nice reds caught from St Helens Rock, the best one was a 10.2kg. It’s a good spot to fish and easy to get to.

There have been some humpback whales in the area just inside the heads and heading towards Sorrento. If you are out that way keep an eye open for them and just remember that you must be 300m from them at all times.

With spring just around the corner we can except to start seeing snapper offshore and larger squid in the bay and we may even start seeing some Australian salmon coming through. As for the snapper and squid, fresh flesh baits are their preference and they can be found in 20-60m of water.

The salmon enjoy a feed of white Ockies, however they made an appearance a bit later in the season last year, so it will be interesting to see how the weather goes this year and what their activity will be like this season.

So for now enjoy fishing for the winter whiting and on the windy days take the opportunity to service your boat and get it ready for the months ahead.