We were all thinking that the fishing was on its way out for winter but boy has the last month showed us a thing or two!

The whiting turned it on once again and with masses of pinkie snapper, squid and trevally all having a crack, it’s turned out to be one hell of a month!

Some very solid reports have come out of the top end and with the arrival of elephant fish and trevally it’s time to get the family out there and teach the kids a thing or two about how to catch a fish.

The earliest reports of elephant fish have come from up around the Bouchier and Boulton channels which is pretty standard for this time of year. The run-out tide is a great time to target the elephants and with a small offering of either squid or pilchard you should have your bag in no time.

Joes Island is a fish magnet and it continues to provide anglers with endless hours of fun. The silver trevally have turned up in really good numbers and are a great fish for the kids to get stuck into. A little bit of berley and the rest will take care of itself. Ross Finnegan had a nice little afternoon around Joes and managed three nice gummys in which two were released and an elephant fish as well for good measure. Pilchards got it done on this particular day.

The Tooradin Channel has still been producing a few whiting for those anglers still searching for a few more to add to the season’s figures. Luke McCredden and local sparky Darren Payne spent a day on the port and turned over a handful of beautiful whiting to 42cm. Whiting worm and pipi were the go to baits and the high tide change got the fish fired up.

The Quail bank has still been producing some great calamari and every one will be pleased to know that the average size of the squid has crept up over the last few weeks. Ross Finnegan, who I mentioned earlier, moved over to the Quail Bank after his session off Joes and added three nice calamari to his bag. Green jigs were the stand out for Ross.

The North Arm is where most of the action has taken place this month and the whiting have gathered a second wind to keep the bags full for a little longer.

The Tyabb Bank has seen the whiting move onto the sand patches as Simon Murphy and his son Charlie found out recently. Charlie showed his old man how it’s done and landed a beast of a whiting that measured 47cm and tipped the scales at 723g.

The calamari continue to be a consistent capture off the Tyabb Bank. Drifting over the vast fields of weed beds has been the most productive method and white coloured jigs have been getting it done. It’s this time of year that transparent and light coloured jigs work very well because of the vast array of bait fish in the port at the moment. There are garfish, whiting and yakkas everywhere, all of which are very lightly coloured under water. ‘Matching the hatch’ applies to saltwater anglers too!

The Middle Spit and Eastern Channel have gone berserk and the whiting have once again called this area of Western Port home.

A couple of local charter boat operators have been putting their customers onto some lovely fish in 7-14m of water off the Middle Spit with exceptional results. Shaun has been poling in fish between 40-45 cm and Matt has seen similar results. Both guys are fishing pipi, mussels and strips of squid and berley has been a must.

The submarine around Hastings has also been a Western Port hot spot of late. There are pinkie snapper to 2kg everywhere, silver trevally doing the rounds with the tide, whiting to 45cm and even the odd snotty trevally kicking around.

For all anglers who haven’t caught snotties before, they are an exceptional fighting fish and only turn up for a very short period of time so make the make of them while they are around.

Pipi and mussels have been catching all of the above species and half pilchards have been getting it done for the pinkies.