Autumn is the time of year when you can catch anything at the Ninety-Mile Beach and this year has been no exception.

The weather has been hot and the winds intermittent, but for the most part the beach has been fishable with another good run of pinkie snapper.

McGaurans Beach and Woodside and the western end of Golden Beach are definitely the places to try. I didn’t hear any reports of monster snapper, but there were plenty of pinkie snapper to 45cm getting caught and some anglers even managed up to half a dozen fish per session just casting off the surf.

The gummy sharks have also been good and we will see good numbers caught well into April and the start of May. There are heaps of those little schools sharks and baby gummy sharks plaguing everyone, but if you persist, most nights you will catch 1-2m long gummies during an evening session.

Just recently, the tailor have started moving into the beaches and I have been hearing reports all along the Ninety Mile from Loch Sport to Reeves Beach. This is good news as they are dynamite bait when chasing sharks, so if you happen to catch one, don’t hesitate filleting it and using it for bait. The big gummy sharks love it, not to mention every other shark out there.

There are plenty of salmon mixed in as well, and they are ranging in sizes from half a kilo to the odd 2kg model. Next month we will see the really big salmon turn up and it will be worth chasing them with metal lures.

In the past week, the elephant sharks have turned up and Woodside is normally a good place to find these fish. You can also catch one or two at Golden Beach as well. These guys have turned up right on cue and they will remain until the end of April.

We have had some really hot currents and the kingfish have been off Golden Beach; some have come in really close so it wasn’t surprising to hear of a couple caught by surf anglers. It’s very rare but we usually hear of at least one king getting caught per year off the surf.

This isn’t the most interesting catch though, that award goes to Tony Dare who caught a shark that we had to get the ID books out to identify! It looked like a bronze whaler yet every fin had a black tip on it. It looked exactly like a northern black tipped reef shark and I would have called it for that until we found a shark called a long nosed grey shark that looked exactly like Tony’s rare shark. These sharks are very rare in our waters and all the info I read said they do not venture south of Sydney, but this certainly had. A great looking fish and I don’t think I will ever get to see one of these things again, so a great effort to Tony, a catch of a lifetime.

The flathead have still hung around in good numbers and are much more wide spread than earlier in the year. There are big flatties being caught down the western end around Mcloughlins Beach and Woodside yet more big flatties have been caught around McGaurans Beach and Seaspray than previously. Blue bait has been working very well, but it still always pays to use white Mister Twister style grubs and surf poppers.

• Don’t forget to keep sending in your photos guys and I will try to get them all in. For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Tune into Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s Off the Hook on 1242 to hear Will’s report on what’s going on in Gippsland!