Despite winter’s clutches having been around for ages there haven’t been any massive dumps of rain to get the rivers really flowing hard and brown. Although this might seem a bad thing for many angling prospects, there are some interesting angling options available when this occurs. Many keen trout anglers wait for these heavy flows of dirty water to get the trout up and into feeding on the shallow runs. It takes persistence and dedication to blindly and relentlessly flog a lure or large wet fly in the dirty water, but when a big brown smashes a lure unexpectedly at your feet it keeps you motivated to persist until the next time.

The Merri had been fairly poor for trout in the early part of this season but a few decent fish to 2kg have shown themselves recently. Hopefully this month we’ll see some good browns caught in the river sections that remain open during the closed season.

If trout fishing in dirty water isn’t your thing and you’re looking for a few more bites and a bit more action in a session, you can have plenty of fun around some of the local piers and jetties during the cooler months. Port Campbell Pier, the Moyne River near the boat ramp and the harbour area at Warrnambool can all produce a bit of fun for the kids or some good bait for dad. There are schools of mullet, small salmon, sliver trevally and couta. On those days when the weather puts a dampener on most fishing options, you’ll find that some light gear and a little berley can result in plenty of fun for everyone.

If the local estuaries are high and dirty you can use your sounder to easily locate fish in the deeper areas towards the river mouth. The fish can be difficult to tempt in the cold water but on some days they turn it on. At such times you can have memorable sessions on good-sized bream and perch, with even the odd mulloway thrown in.

In the windows of good weather there have been still plenty of school-sized tuna caught off Port Fairy and Warrnambool. It still amazes me that on a good day you can do a quick dash out a couple of kays and find yourself casting stickbaits into churning schools of tuna in no time at all. I grew up thinking this was the sort of fishing you had to travel interstate for, but not anymore. August is definitely the tail end of the tuna season but the last few years have seen fish present at this time.