Well it’s that time of year again when the red tide starts moving into the bays. Everyone will be as keen as mustard to get out there and land their first red for the season.

The diehards will be out in force at the first mention of snapper being caught. I usually like to wait until I have several confirmed reports before I start chasing the reds, especially these days with the cost of fuel. According to the experts this year should be every bit as good, if not even better, than last season.

Like many of my fellow anglers, I can’t wait for that first rod to bend over, the reel to scream in protest and to feel that tell tale ‘thump, thump, thump’ of a snapper peeling line off the reel at a good rate of knots…yep, to know that it’s all about to start for another season really gets your blood pumping!

All of the local surf beaches are fishing well with lots of salmon of 500g to 1kg being caught. I fished the Annual Oakdale Surf Competition, which is held at Venus Bay every year. The weather was pretty wild on the Saturday, but Sunday turned out fine with a light northeasterly wind blowing.

The fish came on for the last two hours of the run-in tide and the first hour of the run-off. Several anglers got their bag of 20 fish. I managed 18 and a hook in my finger to boot! The heaviest salmon weighed in was 1.23kg, and was caught by Michael Dady. The heaviest bag of 20 fish weighed in at 11.05kg was caught by Andrew Ward of the Port Albert Light Game Anglers Club. Champion Team was Tony Smith, John Douglas, Vlad Beliaeu and John Clark from the Elwood Anglers Club with a total weight of 25.47kg. The Runners-up were Russell Sheppard, myself, John Vincent and Steve Howlett from the Snapper Point Angling Club with a total weight of 24.10kg. All in all 90 anglers fished the comp with 69 weighing fish. For all those fishos who enjoy surf fishing, this is a great comp to fish. It’s well run, the prizes are great and I will definitely be back to fish it next year.

Below the bridge there are a few salmon about just outside the entrance, and some good-sized flathead out at the 40m line.

Above the bridge there are still reasonable numbers of whiting coming in from around the Bass River mouth and Reef Island.

The big squid have arrived from Flinders and can be found right up as far as Tyabb. The best method for catching squid in Western Port is to fish silver whiting on a weighted jig under a float, with the baited jig being no more than half a metre off the bottom. Every time you make a move, you need to reset your jig depth because if it’s not near the bottom you won’t catch any squid. It’s as simple as that. A lot of the squid being caught are in excess of 2kg. So if you are looking for a feed or good snapper bait, now is the time to chase them.

Tony Dalla-Rosa with a squid caught at Flinders. October is a good time to chase them – if you can leave the snapper alone!