I can’t believe we’re nearly halfway through the year already! We are right into our tuna season now, and we’ve seen some great results coming in.

Some nice albacore have come in from those fishing the shelf, with some over 20kg, which is a great size for these great fighting fish. They have also been picking up school tuna, with some of them up to 30kg. On the real good days, the guys have bagged out on albacore and tuna and then bottom bounced for a bit and ended up with some blue eye, gemfish, knife jaw and ling just to top the days fishing off!

Other tuna have been caught around the Cape Nelson Lighthouse area from 30m of water. Some of these fish have been up around the 40kg mark, but a lot have been around the 8-15kg mark.

We have seen some big tuna landed around Port McDonald and Warrnambool, with some over the 100kg mark, so I would think that we will see some more of these big fish in the coming months. Let’s hope the weather holds out a bit longer this year to make this season great.

Inside the bay at Portland has also seen some great fishing in the last six weeks, especially around the north shore from Wallys boat ramp right down to Fitzroy. The main targets have been snapper and whiting. The snapper have been in great numbers and sizes, and the fishing has been better into the evening. Snapper up to 50cm have been common, and the whiting are ranging from 40-50cm. The odd gummy and school shark has also been getting in on the madness.

The Breakwater has been up and down, but some of the schools of salmon cruising along the wall have been massive, and the anglers have had a ball catching these fish, which are sometimes up to 3-4kg. The odd shark has also been caught by those anglers fishing at night.

There has been big schools of salmon from around The Corkscrew to Pivot Wall, with whiting and couta mixed in.

Good bags of whiting have been pulled from around Black Nose and The Rock, plus some good flathead in the 20-25m mark have also graced this area.

On the good days when weather permits, Bridgewater Bay is another great spot for flathead, gummy and school sharks in the 50-80m, and tuna will also pop in around this area if you’re lucky. The deeper water around Bridgewater Bay will produce trumpeter, sharks and snapper. Cape Nelson and Bridgewater area is also a great hot spot to berley up a mako, which is a very popular sportfish in this area.

Generally, we should still see some good whiting around, but maybe not in big numbers we’re used to in summer. The winter can certainly produce some big whiting though! Flathead out in the flats are always popular at this time of year.

The pinkies will probably slow down, but the sharks around the North Shore, while fishing either from a boat or on land, are generally a good option in the winter months.

Salmon schools are always around this time of year, so it’s always fun to find and then hook into these guys.

The rivers are always a good option with bream being the main catch, especially now the weather can turn and make it hard to fish the ocean.

The Fitzroy and Surrey rivers are the closest to the Portland area, but we are only 70km away from the Glenelg River, which is just a great place to relax, let alone experience the amazing fishing. Plus, you can always find a sheltered spot to fish.