After months of fantastic winter weather, August saw some decent rain but not enough to deter trout anglers from early season trips.

Some isolated rain saw the north east rivers fire up and some great sport was had. The Georges River fished well opening weekend and only got better as the month went on as did the South Esk with some decent brown trout as well as the odd Rainbow of a a kilo or so.

Further along the north coast, Blackmans Lagoon and Big Waterhouse Lagoon were brimming with water, at levels not seen in a long time, and whilst Waterhouse proved difficult and only rewarded a few with trout up to 2.5kg, Blackmans produces some of the best early season fishing in years with 4.5kg+ fish being caught on both bait and fly methods.

The Scamander River has started to fire up with a healthy run of big bream moving into the lower reaches and slowly making their way up stream to prepare for the next few months of spawning. Some excellent fishing has been had around the bridge pylons at the bottom of the river by bait and lure anglers as well as some great success by one angler using fly tackle and casting to fish whilst standing on the pylon bases themselves.

Bream have been well dispersed throughout the lower reaches of the river and the mudflats just down stream from the upper ramp have also produced some great action on hardbodied lures. The next month will see the fish well into their schooling up in the mid to upper reaches of the river preparing to spawn.

Georges Bay is still producing some great garfish action with plenty of anglers still able to catch a bag of nice sized gars for a feed as well as the welcome addition of the odd squid or two.

Squid are usually attracted by the schools of mullet that swarm around the berley pot meant for the garfish. A small squid jig left under a squid float on a spare rod off the back of the boat will often yield a nice calamari.

Offshore the last month has seen plenty of small sized striped trumpeter being caught close to St Helens Point on the outside edge of Merricks Reef. This area seems to be getting better and better every year since the annual season closure was implemented where anglers cannot catch striped trumpeter during September and October.

Some of the deeper reefs off Eddystone Point have also been producing some great fish up to 9kg and now anglers will have to wait another two months before being able to target these fish once again.