I can’t believe one of my favourite times of year to fish has arrived already. Yes it’s a bit cold in the mornings, but now is the time if you want to catch one of Victoria’s premier sport fish off the beach on lures; yes I’m talking about the Australian salmon.

One of my favourite forms of fishing on the Ninety Mile Beach is to grab my 9’ graphite spin rod, a small 3000-4000 sized spin reel loaded with 10lb braid, a box of metal slugs and walk the beach spinning. You can have some serious fun!

May and June are the best months if you want the chance of catching some really big salmon. As I’m writing this, the big salmon of 55cm and over have just arrived in moderate numbers and it’s only going to get better from here on.

I often get asked, where the best place to go is and it’s a hard question to answer as the salmon move constantly. However, Woodside gets big salmon at this time of year but you don’t usually get hundreds of them. Mcloughlins Beach, is good as you can make a day of it and walk all the way to the entrance and fish both the surf and the entrance on the same day.

Further East, Golden Beach is a great beach to get numbers. You can have days where you get big salmon and other days where you get smaller salmon, either way you’ll catch so many you’ll be sick of them.

Loch Sport is another big salmon beach and often this is the place to get your double figure fish.

I haven’t forgotten about you bait anglers either, this time of year is good to throw a paternoster rig on as well.

Over the past week there have still been a few nice 3’ gummy sharks caught at night. Yes I know it’s cold, and it’s only going to get colder, but it’s still worth a shot. July is the latest I’ve caught a gummy off the surf (or earliest, whichever way you look at it). However, the draughtboard sharks drive you insane while you’re trying to catch a gummy this time of year, which is usually why I only chase the salmon now.

Night fishing is also good for salmon. I always run a surf popper on the top dropper and a blue bait, pilchard or piece of squid on the bottom. I put a bit of scent on the popper, such as Halco catch scent.

Over the past 2 weeks during the day, the bait anglers have been out fishing the lure boys for salmon. This is only because the salmon numbers haven’t reached large enough numbers yet, but as I said earlier, now is the time.

• 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.