The cold conditions have seen a bit of a slow down as far as fishing is concerned but there are still hardy souls who are out and about and returning with good bags of fish.

I always like to move around and speak to boaters and land-based anglers who can be found out trying their luck. One trip took me to Williamsons Beach just before this report where I came across three visiting anglers who were on holidays from the Dandenong Ford factory and trying their luck on the run-in tide. At the time of my visit they had a mixed bag of salmon and tommy ruff, caught on whitebait and squid.

Although not common knowledge, there are whiting to be caught off the rocks at Kilcunda near the railway bridge. The idea is to arrive on the run-out tide and this when Graham Zacalakas decided to try his luck with a mate and they managed four ripper royals that were all in excess of 40cm. The fish were all taken on small strips of squid. This is where there are also flathead around the rocks that will take a variety of presentations including Bass yabbies, whitebait and squid.

At Cape Paterson there have been good reports from land-based anglers. Wonthaggi tragic Keith Pool and a mate had a great day out and managed a very nice bag of snook on the run-in tide. Now for Keith to catch fish then they must be thick and the great man has decided to take up the sport much more seriously as he never thought it could be this easy.

Outside the entrance at Inverloch there have been some very impressive bags of flathead being taken by boaters when the conditions have allowed. Gordon Taylor and a mate ventured out a fair way and came back in behind the breakers at Venus Bay. They didn’t have to wait long before the action in the form of flathead to 1kg and taken on whitebait and squid. There have been other similar reports of flathead being caught in the same area and further out in the deeper water gummies have been in quite good numbers.

Back inside the entrance near the bathing boxes there are still good numbers of smallish salmon being taken on both sides of the low water. They are taking a variety of small baits and surface lures. As well as salmon there has been a sprinkling of flathead, mullet and silvers. Pensioners Corner has also been worth a visit where the best results have been on the last half of the run-out tide and first of the run-in flow.

There has been a fair amount of activity around the jetty at Inverloch and I came across a visiting angler, Colin from South Australia. Colin had spent a very enjoyable day on the water and was cleaning a mixed catch of salmon, silvers and mullet that had all been caught on the run-in tide.

There were also other anglers enjoying the fine condition as well as three very big stingrays that were enjoying the scraps thrown to them.

I was having a look around Mahers Landing shortly before this report and came across a couple of land-based anglers trying their luck just to the right of the boat ramp. The tide was running in and I had a chat to Rob Prentice and his son David who are locals and although not catching any fish they were hopeful that things would improve.

There was quite a crowd scattered along the beach following positive reports of good numbers of fish being caught.

Further up the entrance towards the double Islands there have been reports of salmon, silvers, mullet and flathead being bagged on natural baits and a variety of artificial lures.