You’d be forgiven for lamenting the weather over the last few months. We had ordinary wind and rain. It was certainly a true Victorian winter! That said, we have now seen the first signs of spring. It’s a welcome break. Let’s hope there is a lot more of it to come. Fishing over the last four weeks has been weather interrupted, but we’ve seen pretty gummy sharks taken, and stable fishing on the squid and salmon.

I’ve been surprised with the quality and number of gummies taken in our local waters. Although a year round fish, they generally come off during the cooler months. Unfortunately, they are often replaced by legions of swell sharks, which do a good job of devouring baits and make it hard to fish. Most of the action in recent weeks has been on the local channels. Anglers soak up time with some fresh calamari or salmon in the water and have often been rewarded with good gummies up to 12kg.

This has been a quiet surf fishing season compared to recent years. While we’ve had northerly winds, usually ideal for our back beaches, we also had big swells, which make the steep peninsula back beaches a challenge to fish. Consequently, reports have been up and down. We simply haven’t got a run-on where anglers have had a clear crack at fishing for this great cool weather species.

Inside the bay, sporadic pockets of salmon have turned up at Dromana Pier, Rye Pier and Blairgowrie Marina, which have kept a few of our land-based anglers happy.

For the first time in about a year, we’ve actually seen consistent fishing for gar off our local piers. While the fish have not been huge, anglers fishing at Blairgowrie Marina, Sorrento Yacht Squadron Pier, and even at Portsea have found big schools on the flood tide. Berley is a must with gar fishing, and quality baits like maggots and fresh silver fish will have you hooked up in no time.

The nice thing about fishing for gar, is that it can be done at any time of day. Often, you only need to devote a couple of hours to get enough for dinner – a great opportunity to take the kids outdoors on a Saturday afternoon.

September is the genuine start of the fishing season. Within a month, the footy finishes and with that, many anglers return to the water after a hiatus through winter. Snapper are the name of the game, but there are many options through this period – breeder squid, offshore pinkies, gummy sharks on the channel and even good whiting returning to our local weed beds. It’s a month of change, and no doubt an exciting month for all those who love their fishing!

1

Jules Frank with a couple of nice squid from Southern Port Phillip Bay.

2

Danny Goudge took this nice Aussie salmon off Gunnamatta back beach.

3

The Broomfield kids getting in on some nice calamari!

4

Peninsula local Paul Cooney did a quick trip away to Bermagui, and landed this ripper bluefin!