What a start to the year! With great weather over the Christmas and holiday period here in Portland, we’ve had a big influx of tourist and boaties over the past month.

Some of the guys have been running to the shelf area on good days and bottom bouncing for blue eye, blue grenadier, knife jaw, ling and other species. Those fishers targeting a little closer have achieved good results of flathead, snapper, school and gummy sharks, with some impressive size. Fishing these offshore areas involves the use of electric reels with large circle hook set ups and large weights to get to the bottom. Squid baits seem to be very popular for this type of set up.

Fishing around Bridgewater Bay is always a great option on the better days with results of large flathead and snapper, with school and gummy sharks the prize fish for the area. Back towards Cape Nelson lighthouse we have started to see makos in the area, plus good bottom fishing around this area also. We have picked up whiting around black nose and towards the golf course in the harbour this side of Lawrence’s Rock. This area has also produced large schools of salmon up around 3kg (great on light gear), the odd large flathead and plenty of pinkies and gurnards. Closer around the harbour there has been good catches of squid and towards north shore the pinkies are in big numbers with larger fish up to 50cm.

The north shore is also a great spot for kingfish, sharks and the odd mulloway. The Lee Breakwater is still a bit unpredictable, but with the amount of people and bait in the water this time of year the area does tend to slow down –although the odd big snapper has been landed and the squid has been good also.

Around the jetties and landings there have been good catches of bream, trevally, salmon and mullet. Berley always helps around these spots to bring the fish on. The Surrey and Fitzroy rivers have fished well with some good size bream and mullet, with the bonus of a great area to go camping with the family.

The beaches around the north shore have seen mulloway captured, as well as school sharks, snapper and whiting. Bridgewater Bay to Discovery Bay are hot surf fishing spots. February should see most of the above fishing in good numbers and hopefully the kingfish will arrive in big numbers and sizes.

Let’s hope for good warm February weather to keep up the fishing that we have already seen and better.

• For all your fishing needs, look no further than Portland Compleat Angler. We have all your bait, tackle and licences. We can also help you with fishing and weather reports. Contact us on (03) 521 844 or call in at 61 Bentinck St next to the Gordon hotel. Have a great month of fishing.