The fishing has been reasonably productive with signs showing that we’re in for a great season on the Gippsland lakes after all the recent freshwater in the system. The water is reasonably dirty but clearing quite quickly.

The town wharfs have been productive with locals and tourists having a great time. There’s been some great catches of silver trevally, yellow-eye mullet and a few bream. These fish have mostly been caught on blue bait or local sand worm.

A key to success is having fresh bait, which is easy to get your hands on by either collecting it yourself, or buying it locally. These baits are best fished under a float or on paternoster rig.

Lure fishing has been extremely productive. The most consistent pattern has been to fish lightly weighted soft plastics such as the ever-popular Berkley Sandworm or Nemesis, allowing it to drift down to the bottom before being worked back with slow hops across the bottom. A mayor key to success has been to cast your lure or bait as close to structure as possible, and most of the time the plastic is intercepted before reaching the bottom, making for some great light tackle sportfishing.

The offshore fishing has been really productive with the weather allowing access to the offshores reefs. There’s been large schools of pinkie snapper on the Six-Mile reef along with a mix morwong and nannygai. Most of these fish have been taken on blue bait and squid fished on a paternoster rig. With not long before summer kicks in, we should begin to see a mix of species travelling down with the warm currents

The lake has been fishing well, epically further up the system where the sheltered banks allow the water to warm and keep a good edge bit nearly all year round. Recently, I have experienced consistent sessions with 15 or more bream plus other by-catch for the day.

The most productive pattern lately has been to work bankside snags with small grubs with 1/16oz jigheads and small jerkbaits fished deep in the timber.

The flats fishing has kicked off with many mud banks and flats holding quality bream and flathead, and one of the most consistent patterns is to throw chubby style hardbodies across them.

Many baitfishers have been catching quality fish using unweighted peeled prawn cast on to the flats, and this often produces plenty of fish and is great for kids.

The main lake has been fairly patchy, and making use of a quality fish finder has been critical to consistent success with schools of bream, estuary perch and silver trevally scattered throughout the main lake. A lot of fish have been taken on deep diving hardbodies worked off rocky points throughout the main lake. Another great method has been drifting the many deeper drops offs and hopping a vibe tight to the bottom, giving it plenty of time to sit motionless at the bottom.

With the weather picking up and lake temperature rising, we should begin to see good numbers of bream, flathead and whiting moving up into the shallow lake margins. Making the switch to much shallower diving hardbodies will be a good idea in October.

The very anticipated gamefishing season is fast approaching, and it won’t be long before the warm currents work their way down to this part of the coast.

Make sure to get on board with National Gone Fishing Day on 16 October, where our local fishing club Lakes Entrance Game & Sport Fishing Club Inc will be holding an event at the Apex Park in Lakes Entrance. This will be the first National Gone Fishing Day, with thousands of Australians going fishing and plenty of events promoting recreational fishing being held across the nation.

If you have been out for fish lately and have a great picture or two, you can send it to --e-mail address hidden-- with a short description, and you could be featured in the mag!