‘Steady as she goes’ is the theme for this month’s report. I wouldn’t say the fishing has been outstanding, but it’s far from being horrible. That’s what is keeping a heap of boats piling into the boat ramps of Western Port. Gummies and whiting are the main captures with pinkies and elephant fish also showing their faces.

I will start with the land-based guys and they are showing the way when it comes to catching an elephant fish. Grantville Jetty has welcomed anglers, especially those that are prepared to sit it out during the night, and it’s producing some beautiful elephants. High tide has definitely been the key with half pilchards or strips of squid being the deadly baits.

There have also been great elephants coming in from Stockyard Point. Low tide is an absolute must, as it requires a bit of a walk down to the water to access the main channel where these fish like to sit and wait for the mud flats to fill with water. Again, pilchards and squid are by far the best baits.

There are some really nice gummies right throughout the top end of the port and there seems to be plenty of them! The key to catching them is fresh bait. The port is stacked with salmon, yakkas, slimys and calamari, so no matter where you stop, have a fine surface berley to bring these baitfish right to the back of your boat. Smaller salmon and yakkas are best turned into chunk baits while fishing either a nice strip or tentacle of calamari. This is just irresistible to a passing gummy.

Lachie Sheridan was another keen angler who spent some time on the gummies throughout the top end and he was rewarded with an absolute beast! Fresh bait was again the key and his big gummy would have been every bit of 20kg!

Kallan Braid-Ball and his mate Thommo have been coming across some massive schools of salmon busting up just outside of Warneet. He has been getting them by chucking around 25-35g metal lures. Keep this in mind and keep your eyes peeled on the way to your gummy marks, as salmon are exactly the type of fresh bait you want.

Local legend Tom has been finding some really nice patches of whiting sitting just off Eagle Rock. They were there soaking some fresh slimy mackerel for a passing gummy when a school of whiting to 45cm started chewing on the gummy baits! You got to love that. Well played, Tom!

One of the cooler reports has come from the North Arm of Western Port this month with a beautiful 87cm yellowtail kingfish taken off Lysaughts. John McInerney was putting in a few hours on the snapper when one of the rods took off. I love it when this sort of stuff happens! After the excitement of this cracker kingy, John pushed on and also ended up taking a couple of nice snapper too! Well done, John, great effort!

The Middle Spit is still the place to be if you want a solid bag of whiting. Pipi and mussels are great baits. Chris Rosenbrock had a cracker day on the whiting off the Middle Spit recently which resulted in him going home with a couple of handfuls of solid whiting. Most of Chris’ fish went over 40cm and cuttlefish did all of the damage in the bait department.

For those that have not tried cuttlefish for whiting bait, you are missing out! They’re becoming easier to find in tackle stores as bait now and we are slowly working out how to consistently catch them. It’s a great bait for all species and whiting just can’t help themselves when a strip of cuttlefish is presented to them.

Hastings has been doing its usual ‘spot of all species’ trick with plenty of pinkies and whiting schooling up in the deeper areas. Young five year old Murphy Johnson landed his first ever snapper and the smile on his face says a lot about what he thought of his catch! These are the moments that young fishos in the making never forget. Good on ya Murphy you little legend!

It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens in the coming months as we inch closer to cooler weather. I would expect the last little run of nice snapper in the next month and the whiting just simply to refuse to go anywhere, which is great news.

Good luck on your next outing and keep those reports coming!