I am off to New Zealand in a couple of weeks to chase the big kingies. It should be an interesting trip; hopefully I can nail a couple of big ones. I will let you know how I went in next month’s magazine.

Most surf beaches are still a bit patchy at present. There have not been many reports of fish coming in and the fish that are being caught have been in the 500g to 1kg mark.

I fished Gunnamatta Beach during the week and although conditions weren’t perfect with a big swell running and a lot of rips and stirred up sand, I still managed a couple of salmon round the 1kg mark. A slow day’s fishing is better than being at home working!

Outside the Entrance when the weather permits there have been some good catches of flathead and silver whiting on or about the 25m line, plus the odd big couta.

Things have quietened down considerably, there are still a few squid being caught on the Tyabb Bank and you can still catch a reasonable bag of whiting if you know where to fish and when to fish and you are prepared to move around a bit.

This time of year there should be some big gummies coming into the bay. It’s just a matter of targeting an area like the deep water off Cowes and Ventnor, fishing a tide change and you could land a big one.

It won’t be too long before the big calamari turn up in numbers off Flinders and the action starts up again. For some reason baited jigs usually work better in this area than artificial ones. Remember that you need to weight your jig so as it drifts close to the bottom where the squid will emerge from the weed beds and attack it.

There are some reasonable numbers of snook in the area and a slow troll over the weed beds with a lead line or deep diving lure will get you into a few snook.