With the recent unprecedented late run of massive bluefin tuna on the South West coast this season, who knows what else lies around the corner for this November.

Hopefully we will see a continuation of the resurgence of mulloway that occurred last season. Last November saw good numbers of these fish being taken from the Hopkins River as well as some of the other smaller estuaries along the coast. Most fish weren’t overly large, either just under the 60cm size limit of just above, however there was enough 6-8kg fish around to keep things interesting.

Many techniques were successful from incidental captures on lures when targeting bream, to slow trolled live baits or static fished fresh baits such as spew worms and cut salmon and mullet. One easy technique we found successful was to get a block of pilchards, cube them up and fish them unweighted on light gear. Some solid bream often provided some fun while the wait for a mulloway was happening. It was great to be able to go out and specifically fish for mulloway in the Hopkins with a good chance of being successful, and hopefully this season will be the same and those smaller fish carefully released last season have grown well.

November is the month where South West anglers can really begin targeting the summer run of fish with some confidence. Snapper season here in the South West should be firing up during November, often just a little later than Port Phillip Bay. Each season more quality snapper between 3-6kg seem to be turning up amongst the prevalent pinkies.

With southern rock lobster season opening on 16 November recreational divers and hoop netters will be also looking for some flat seas to get a succulent feed of crayfish.

Throwing a few plastics around whilst waiting for the next pull on the hoop nets is a good way to cover both the cray and the snapper bases.

As well as the lure of the big tuna, many local offshore anglers have recently been capturing some excellent sized school and gummy sharks from Port Fairy right through to off Peterborough. Some of these fish have been pushing the 20kg limit, which not only provides the angler with some succulent flesh, but one hell of a good fight as well. Even though most of the big tuna were caught at Apollo bay to the east or Portland to the west some were taken locally like the 135kg fish caught by Dan Hoey from Salty Dog charters.

The local trout season has been a pretty quiet one with the lack of rain, but a cool November can still see fish taken in the deeper pools as well as some redfin.