This month is all about the whiting and flathead inside. With summer still in full swing and the water temperatures high, the fishing is red hot. There’s no excuse not to be out there.

Inside McLoughlins has given us some huge whiting this season and, in fact, this season has produced the largest whiting sizes in a decade with the fish averaging 42cm. Plenty are around 45cm and some have reached almost 50cm over the past month.

The top baits have been pipis and squids and the deeper waters around McLoughlins have produced a lot of whiting. Pelican Point at Manns has been as good an area to start. Both tides have fished well and you need good run in the tide, as the weeks with those small tidal movements haven’t produced many whiting at all. At Port Albert the whiting has been amazing as well with plenty caught in the Drum Channel and the Port Albert Channel near the Basket Beacon.

There are plenty of pinkies mixed in with the whiting and there are stacks of undersized ones, especially if you are fishing further inside in the shallower waters. If you want to get bigger pinkies over legal size or snapper, you need to fish closer to or in the entrance, as that seems to be where the bigger pinkies and snapper are being caught. Also the lighter gear and lighter rigs seem to be catching more fish recently, which is generally the case at this time of year. Don’t hesitate to use smaller baits such as thin squid strips and small cubes of flesh baits or pilchard cubes.

The flathead have been massive this year at McLoughlins and Manns beaches and the soft plastic anglers are doing the best. There’s a stack of big fish around over the 65cm mark and a few crackers over 70cm being caught as well.

The barracouta are in plague proportion this season. It’s making it really tough to chase fish, especially when drifting the reefs for pinkies and trying to chase kingfish around the Prom and the islands. Anglers are managing to find good sized gummy sharks around the Whale Bay area and in Bentley Harbour. There plenty of pinkies and small snapper further east past McLoughlins.

• For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 5174 8544. You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle.