Information from many anglers who like to try their luck in this part of the world is that there is plenty of water mixed in with the fish.

This is not surprising as we have had some of the most ordinary conditions as well as strong support towards winter sports such as football and net ball, it’s not hard to understand people taking the easy way out.

All that is gone now and we can look forward to what is predicted to be a hot summer, but of course, this is what was predicted last year and look what happened…

Last month there had been quite good numbers of pinkie snapper being bagged inside the entrance. The fish have been to the 3kg mark, which in the eyes of many anglers is just a bit shy of being called a snapper.

Dan Graham is a mad keen visitor to the area and often will go out with mate Tony Gardener from Morwell, which he says is not too far to catch a fish. On his last trip they decided to try their luck in the Franklin Channel. Now we have all heard that there are two types of boaters, those who forgot to secure the bung and those who will and Tony is now in the latter. Yes, he forgot this chore and found out some time later but fortunately there was not too much water in the boat to get excited about and the bung was secured and the bilge pump did its work. Did they catch any fish? As it turned out they managed five very nice reds that were all virtually right on the 3kg mark and they were happy. Tony said that he now has a GPS mark and will be making a return visit at the first opportunity.

Information from the local Boat Storage is that there has been reasonable numbers of whiting making an appearance in the Lewis Channel. To be fair, there hasn’t been much activity along this stretch of water owing to the cold awful conditions as well as the local sports but now that’s behind everyone. The whiting are traditionally up to the 37cm mark, which makes them well worth while going after and have been taking baits such as Bass yabbies, pipis and sand worms. Mixed in with them have been silvers, flathead and mullet that have been caught in reasonable numbers.

Graham Godding is a local legend and before this report decided to have a look in the Lewis Channel looking mainly for whiting. He missed out on the royals and then decided to throw out a soft plastic lure. He had immediate success but it was not a whiting but a big mullet. He decided that this would be all right and ended up with a very good bag of these very under rated fish and he was happy.

Outside the entrance there have been good numbers of big salmon being caught. This can be very hit and miss as the fish are in huge schools but when located there is plenty of action with the fish to the 4kg mark. Fish this size are not very good on the table but they can make good bait and fish patties. One crew who came across a big school on the water had a ball and caught so many on surface lures they had no idea of the final total but weren’t too worried. They had a great time and just kept a few fish for their immediate needs while some were destined to be frozen for shark bait later on in the season.