With a change of season comes a change in tactics, and although the hot weather is behind us now the fishing should maintain the heat. The facts are that if we rethink our strategies and take advantage of less traffic on our waters we should expect some pretty hot action locally; the first people to adjust should see the best results.

The action around Lakes has been consistent. We have seen a good number of flathead in the deeper holes taken on both soft plastics and bait. If you are looking for a bag of flathead around Lakes look for water deeper than 8ft and drift as wide of an area you can until you can localise where the fish are feeding as this can change on any given day. Using prawn or pilchard fished under a running sinker has been the choice for most successful baitfishers, and prawn style plastics fished to a 1/8oz jighead for the lure army have caught the best of the bags.

Some nice bream to over 40cm have been haunting the rock walls in the early mornings, and if you can match the time with a rising tide you are almost certain to find fish feeding. Plenty of legal pinkie snapper have been taken in the same areas by unsuspecting bream anglers and they are more than a welcome by-catch to top up the morning bag.

Around the jetties has been a little quiet, although some nice luderick have started to show up and it won’t be long before these fish become active and consistent on the bite. Kalimna rock wall has seen some thumping luderick taken in the past week both on weed and peeled prawn, fished under a float. It is fantastic to have large fish back in the area as their presence has been somewhat lacklustre in recent years.

The gummy fishing has been very good offshore with some great sharks taken over the full moon period. Whole squid has been the pick of the bait, with boats choosing to fish close to the beaches rather than out on the deeper reefs achieving better results. The snapper fishing off the reefs has been hot and cold and I have had no reports of large snapper caught for a few weeks, but on any given day boats are filling their bag of pinkies very quickly. Some anglers at the local ramp that went wide last week reported that they managed to tag two small marlin close to the rigs. Although the fishing has been slow out there, if you put in the time, results will follow.

The sand has been very inconsistent, although some nice sharks have been landed. Some healthy gummies were tagged last week on Lake Tyers beach using eel for bait, and the same crew reportedly lost a bronzie in the breakers that was over 10ft. The salmon have been slow at best but we are all waiting for the water to cool just a little more with high anticipation of a cracking season on the sand, considering last year’s winter months were poor for the local and visiting salmon anglers.

Salmon fishing the 90-Mile draws many anglers far and wide to the area and I just cannot see us having two poor seasons in a row, so those who missed out last year should not be disheartened this year – fingers crossed 2016 will be much better.

The great local Lake has fished consistently for bream and flathead. The fish have just started to move off the shallow sand flats and head out to the deeper water, but those large female flathead have started to bite more often once again and this is a renowned time of year to catch a large flathead, just before the water and the action cool down for the upcoming winter months. The main Lake around the channel markers, Fishermans Landing, Mill Point and high in the Nowa Nowa arm have been the pick of the spots for large flathead in recent weeks, and most fish have been taken on large bright flick baits or prawn style plastics.

The bream fishing has been great along the lake’s many weed edges and drop-offs, and those anglers who target these areas with fresh prawns or hardbody lures have had some great success recently. Some very large tailor have been caught recently and have stolen many a lure off the unsuspecting lure fisher, but have also provided some great sport on light gear for those lucky enough to land these fish before they bite through the leader.

Well, that’s a wrap from Lakes Entrance this month and with the water seeing less traffic and the fish heading out a little deeper but still very active we hope to see a few people around enjoying this lovely part of Victoria over the cooler months.