When it comes to fishing a change can be as good as a holiday, and that’s definitely the approach I’ve taking with my angling of late.

With my usual hunting grounds of Middle Spit and Flinders on the slow side I’ve been hitting some of my old marks on the eastern side of the bay, and with good result. My first trip back to my old haunts saw me catching a dozen fish, while the second trip producing another solid bag of fish including whiting, gummy shark, and pinkie snapper.

Most of the whiting were just schoolies (32 to 34cm), but 2 or 3 were good ones at 40cm plus. So if you’ve been having trouble trying to find whiting, which is what I have been hearing from lots of anglers fishing Westernport, don’t be afraid to try some new areas, the results could surprise you.

There isn’t too much action happening on the beaches at this present time. Australian salmon are the mainstay at moment, as they often are, with 500gm fish making up the bulk of the catch, with the odd 2kg fish thrown in for good measure. I fished Williamsons Beach at night recently for gummies, but didn’t get a touch. This doesn’t mean that there’s no gummies there to catch, you just have to be there when they decide to come in to feed on the sand crabs.

There have been a few reports of small schools of striped tuna out wide and some kingies off Woolamai and Seal Rocks. Makos however have been very quiet, and I’ve only heard of a couple of small ones landed recently. Reasonable catches of flathead in 25 to 40m of water are being reported, along with catches of arrow squid and couta, while silver whiting are being caught by anglers fishing the 25m line off The Glasshouse.

For anglers fishing upriver of the bridge whiting are proving patchy, with the willingness to move around to find fish the key to success. The best areas have been Boys Home Channel, Dickie’s Bay, Bass River Mouth, Reef Island and Coronet Bay. Snapper have been hard to find, with the most consistent area being the location they call The Corals. Size has been on the smaller size with pinkies dominating snapper captures. There are also reports of gummies and the odd good snapper coming from the deeper water off Elisabeth Island and Corinella.

Squid are still about for those wanting to target them, while good size whiting are about in numbers. My last two trips have produced a good number of fish, but covering lots of water and constantly moving was the key to finding and staying on fish. There are also a few snook about, but size wise they are not very big at the moment.