Again we have had a bit more of an extended tuna run here in Portland, with fish over 100kg coming in when the weather permits.

Unfortunately, the seas have been a bit more unkind this year than this time last year, which has pretty much stopped most tuna fishers this season. Nearly all the Melbourne charters have gone back home now, already chasing big reds and whiting around the Melbourne area.

This is a little bit off the track, but for whale watchers this year, Portland has had a fantastic run of whales around the Lee Breakwater to Dutton, quite a few whales made home for a few weeks. They were so close in this year that you could almost touch them. One thing we need to remember is the rules of protecting these magnificent animals and for them to feel safe to return to our bay each year.

For any information, you can call the Portland information centre or you can jump online and stay informed of any whale action around Portland.

As for the fishing, the area should certainly start to hot up in October.

We have seen some evidence of snapper off the Lee Breakwater in big sizes, and we generally start to see big squid off the Lee at this time of year too. Best results for the squid have come from using a float with a bait jig or a good colour jig retrieved slowly. Once you catch a few squid, you can use them as bait for the snapper.

Other fish like gurnard, pinkies, whiting, trevally, flathead and couta will also start to appear on the wall.

Now that the football is pretty much over and the weather’s improving, numbers of anglers will rise and we will see some good quality fish on the tables.

The guys will be keen to hit the deep water chasing a wide range of fish including blue-eye around the shelf and snapper, sharks and trumpeter around the 140m marks to some great flathead, school and gummy sharks around Bridgewater.

Mako sharks are a popular sportfish at this time of year and you will find them around the Nelson Lighthouse.

The bay should be firing up with flathead, pinkies, whiting and squid plus anything else that might be around on the day .

Sharks, snapper, snook and squid should be gathering around the North Shore area with plenty of spots to try your luck. The beaches in this area are also great to try for all the land-based anglers. Land-based anglers also have areas around Bridgewater and Discovery Bay that favour this style of fishing.

The Surrey and Fitzroy rivers are both worth a try at this time of year with good bream and mullet, and there’s also a good chance of the Fitzroy producing mulloway and estuary perch. These rivers are great for families to enjoy fishing time with their kids and friends.

We also have a canal in town, which is very family friendly, and the kids will enjoy catching bream, mullet, salmon, trevally sometimes whiting and pinkies.