What a month fishing! Finally, some good weather has warmed the waters and we are starting to see those spring and summer species roll in.

Everyone wants to know about the whiting and calamari, but I’ll get to them soon enough! Let’s start at Mcloughlins beach. Firstly, we had huge numbers of salmon caught over the past month. The Mcloughlins entrance did not produce many of them, most of the salmon were out of the Manns entrance. There weren’t many huge ones but there were plenty of salmon to around 45cm caught and you could catch as many as you liked on any metal lures and soft plastics. Recently however, the water has warmed to almost 15°C. Anglers are now targeting flathead as they have come on the bite earlier than expected with catches up to 65cm already with plenty of good 45cm models along for the ride as well. Some anglers are now using vibes lures on the sand flats and are doing very well, however the best bet has been 3” and 4”soft plastics.

Now let’s get to the whiting and squid. Firstly, the whiting went strong all winter and spring has continued this trend. Anglers are still consistently getting their bag of whiting at Port Albert and both the incoming and outgoing tide are fishing as well as each other. Pippis and squid have been the best baits and there have been some good fish mixed in amongst them with big whiting big up to 43cm as thick as your wrist. The calamari are just now really coming on the bite and entering the system in big numbers. We are seeing those large spawning calamari now with some squid measuring over 40cm hood lengths and weighing well over a kilo. Areas around the basket beacon have been the most popular and size 3” squid jigs have been the best.

The flathead have been nothing short of sensational out wide with anglers drifting in 30m+ of water bagging big flathead to 55cm quite often. There have been some good catches in closer around 22m as well. Some anglers have been catching massive gummy sharks to 20kg as bycatch, mostly while on the drift. There has also been some really big 7gill sharks caught as a bycatch as well. Lastly we’ve just started seeing decent numbers of snapper turn up in Corner Inlet so far. This indicates that the snapper will be inside Port Albert as well now and also out on the Mcloughlins beach reefs as well so get out there and give them a go.

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544.

You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle.

Tune into Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s “Off the Hook” on 1242 to hear Will’s report on what’s going on in Gippsland!