The next month provides good fishing for estuary perch in the Surf Coast estuaries and, now that we have a fish ladder at the second break in the Barwon River, I wonder how long it will be until we see estuary perch caught further upstream and maybe even around Geelong?

Big redfin continue to be a popular target at Wurdi Buloc Reservoir. With anglers catching quality reddies from tiddlers to 45cm. Most fish have been caught by anglers using spoon or soft plastic lures skipped slowly along the bottom.

Land-based fishing has been pretty good inside Corio Bay with Cunningham Pier producing the odd garfish, yellow-eyed mullet and silver trevally. Limeburner’s break wall has seen sporadic captures of Australian salmon from 300g-1.1kg.

Point Henry seems to be the place for squid with depths either side of 3m the ‘sweet spot’. Drifting with the tide or wind with one rod in a rod holder and casting the other has been most effective.

This month is all about the snapper in Corio Bay and if we experience the quantity and quality of fish numbers we have in recent years, we’ll all be happy indeed! Best possies to try include Point Henry, Bird Rock, Clifton Springs and Point Wilson.

The Bellarine Peninsula should be pumping with those lovely red fish by now. Snapper draw anglers from all over the state to the region this time of year for their annual run into the bay. It can be very busy both on the water and back at the boat ramp. Please make sure you give other boats plenty of room when out fishing and help out a fisho if he needs it at the ramp.

Top possies to search for big red on the Bellarine include: Clifton Springs, Portarlington and St Leonards out wide in 20m of water.

Rod Ludlow from Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head says the flathead have been biting well around the Bellarine of late. With the water a bit discoloured, they can be caught in close and when it clears up, you are best to try depths of 5m or more. Rod says that the squid have been fantastic and saved many an angler’s day on the Bellarine Peninsula over the last month or so.

The squid are well represented from Portarlington to St Leonards with the Governor Reef the standout with slightly larger squid on offer. Rod notes that there have been king George whiting caught but anglers have worked hard for them.

Brenton Hodges from Lara Secondary Collage took his students fishing a few times down to the Surf Coast over the last month or so as part of the Year 9 Connections Fish for the Future course. Using peeled prawn and pipis in the Barwon estuary, the lads caught yellow-eyed mullet, small salmon and silver trevally with the latter also taking a liking to Berkley Gulp Turtle Back Worm soft plastic lures. They fished the estuary on three occasions catching nine different species which included: Australian salmon, yellow-eyed mullet, silver trevally, Tommy rough, King George whiting, flathead, barracouta, leather jacket and, of course, toad fish!

The group also tried Spring Creek at Torquay where they caught and released bream to 30cm using peeled prawn and bread for bait.

The students have enjoyed tying knots and rigs, bait hooks, cast a line and correct handing of fish to give it the best chance of survival on release. They also learnt about tides, weather and caring for the environment.

Ken Stevens from Barwon Heads Angling Club says the Barwon estuary has been fishing well for multiple species but he had not heard of too much offshore action. At the time of writing, the river was very brown so best fishing would be when the tide runs in bringing with it lean saltwater and fish!

Nick Scerri from Ocean Grove Charters says he had heard of at least one cracking snapper of 7kg taken offshore while those fishing the reef areas of Torquay have done well on snapper around the 4kg mark.

John Albrecht from Torquay Angling Club fished out off Torquay last month in dead calm conditions in search of King George whiting. John says the whiting were slow but managed to catch two gummy sharks using whiting tackle that were around 3kg each. Not a bad by-catch! John notes that other anglers fishing a little deeper in the 25-30m mark off Torquay last Saturday managed some better quality gummy sharks around the 6-10kg mark plus a few snapper up to 4kg.

• Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to --e-mail address hidden-- with VFM in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997 348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1mb (file size).