The word on most anglers’ lips at the moment is snapper.

Everyone is gearing up for what hopefully will be another excellent snapper season. And this year has already started great guns for me, with some good fish taken as early as July. Not in any quantity but most trips yielding one or two fish a session with most fish being in the 6-kg range coming from the northern end of Western Port.

It has also been a good season so far for calamari and it can only get better. My tactic has been to go and do a few drifts and pick up a couple of squid and then head north and fish the deep water with fresh squid for snapper. If you put the time in with super-fresh bait, you are often rewarded with a good solid red.

There are some good quality salmon about on most beaches. On my recent trip to Williamson's Beach I managed eight fish for a three-hour session. The biggest fish went just over 3kg that really gave me some stick. Pound for pound they really do put up a great battle and contrary to their reputation as being poor table fish, they make excellent fish cakes or fish pie if you bleed them soon as they are caught. When you fillet them, remove the skin and cut out the red meat and the fishy taste disappears.

Below the bridge there is still the odd whiting about but they should start increasing in numbers as the weather warms up. Some good calamari are coming in from the Cleelands Bight area.

Above the bridge and some whiting and garfish are being caught in Dickies Bay. Calamari are about in reasonable numbers around Stoney Point, Tankerton and the Tyabb Bank just to name a few areas. A few snapper are being caught off Corinella and from Crawfish Rock right up to the Boulton Channel and a few gummies coming in off Temby Point.

Big calamari are still the main fare off Flinders. Snook are around in reasonable numbers off the reefy areas and a few whiting are starting to make their appearance.

The author with a pair of good size Australian salmon.