It’s been another seriously hot month and with it has been some seriously hot fishing! The whiting have been crazy, the gummies have been nuts and all the little bits and pieces that go with that have fired as well.

We have witnessed some seriously good consistent fishing in the top end of late, and over the last month it has been no different.

I will kick things off this month with a little bit of land-based action. Most of the top end piers have fished quite well, which is great news for the family. The Tooradin and Warneet piers have been the pick with plenty of family friendly fishing on offer. There have been a lot of small salmon, silver trevally, flathead and the odd whiting around, and once up and running they are not the hardest fish in the world to catch. Plenty of berley is necessary and focus your attentions around the high tide change, as there is a lot more water around to get the fish coming to you. Small pieces of blue bait and pipi are the go-to baits.

For the boat-based anglers it is all about whiting and gummies. The whiting are still very wide spread but there a couple of key areas to target if you want to take home an exceptional bag for a feed.

The Warneet Channel has been full of fish and even the kayak anglers are getting amongst the action. The whiting haven’t been too far away from the actual pier and a few kayak anglers have been sitting up on the edges of the main channel and getting whiting to a healthy 38cm consistently on pipi and mussel.

The other hot spot for the whiting has been up the Gently Annie Channel. Staff member of Tackle World Cranbourne, Nathan Peterson, put in a few good sessions up the channel and has been finding fish to a whopping 48cm. He has been catching the fish coming off the banks during the run-out tide and picking them off with a bit of pipi laced with squid hanging from one of the many ‘whiting snatchers’ on the market.

If it’s a gummy that you are after then I would be making my way over to the waters around Joes Island. Our very own Aussie cricketers in Cam White and James Pattinson fished in one of their little honey holes recently and had a ridiculously good session on the gummies. They landed six gummies in one session with the biggest tipping the scales at 10kg.

A little bit of everything is going on in the North Arm at the moment. The whiting are absolutely everywhere and a lot of the local charter boats are dominating the whiting in the area. Most of the charter boats have been up on the Tyabb Bank, the top end of the Middle Spit and also fishing the deeper water at the top of the run way and getting a solid bag. There have been some really big whiting to 48cm caught but the average size of the fish have been hovering between the 32-34cm mark.

The Middle Spit has been one long fish beacon. It’s not just whiting that have been pulled in from off the spit, there have been yakkas, slimy mackerel, flathead to 50cm, gummy sharks to 5kg and an absolute truck load of whiting being caught off the banks. So if you are not quite sure what you want to target, I suggest you make your way over to the spit and start berleying!

Before we talk gummies, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about bait. Kingfish are on the mind and so are big gummies and the amount of bait on the Port at the moment is out of control. The kingfish brigade will find a heap of yakkas and slimy mackerel for live baits and the grounds here are so rich at the moment that while catching fresh bait you can also collect a nice bag of whiting and pinkies at the same time!

The gummy fishing is another species that have exploded in recent times. Just out from Hastings and off the banks of the Middle Spit have been the most productive. Good mates, Ned and Zoran fished off Hastings and managed a couple of gummies ranging from 12-16kg. There have also been a couple of nice ones caught to 11kg by fishos chucking out a big bait while fishing for whiting in the deeper water. Fresh bait are best, making a couple of nice chunk baits out of the local yakkas has been a winner along with some nice fresh fillets of trevally.

Good luck to all who venture out for a fish in the not too distant future and, like always, keep the reports coming!