It has gotten to a point where I have to admit, it’s cold and it’s wet and things have well and truly slowed down. However, you just can’t argue with reports and the reports tell us there are still great fish around.

The calamari at the moment are monstrous, the gummy sharks are still quietly sneaking under the radar and even though the cricket scores of whiting are pretty much done, their size and quality are the best we have seen all season!

I am going to open with an oddball report that I’m sure many anglers would not have seen coming. John Tanzen took full advantage of one of the super calm days that we have had and was able to tempt a cracker of a snapper that weighed in at 6.75kg. It’s a great catch for this time of year and fingers are crossed there are still a few fish like this to come.

Warneet has been one of the hottest areas of the port over the last month for a variety of different species. The gummies have been the main target out of Warneet and there have definitely been enough around to keep the people happy. Kallan Braid-Ball and his mate Thommo put in a few hours on the gummies. They spent an hour gathering a couple of fresh calamari before settling in on their gummy mark when that beautiful fresh squid was converted into one of the nicer table-worthy gummies. Well done, boys.

Vince Natarelli anchored into 22m out from Warneet and he had gummies on the mind, however, it’s so interesting how things can pan out on the water. The gummies were insanely slow, so Vince changed tactics and put down a whiting rod in the same 22m of water. It didn’t take long for the whiting rod to scream off and connected was a whopping 800g, 47.5cm King George whiting. Great capture, Vince – love it!

Not far from Warneet is a channel known as Gentle Annie. Typically this area is known as a great whiting area but Andrew Ketelaar has been doing seriously well on the gummies that are having a poke around on the flats up there. He has been fishing the incoming tide and picking off the gummies as they enter the channel to get up onto the flats. Well played Andrew!

The Quail Bank is an area that we will hear a lot from in the coming months, as some really big calamari will settle in on the weed beds for the winter. There is no real secret to getting squid here. Fishing big can be a huge benefit if you want to see what these big squid are like. 3.5 and 4.0 size jigs are the go. Really play around with your colour selection. Blacks and reds are a great option when the water is a little bit discoloured and after a nice bit of rain this is usually the case.

The hotspot for the calamari at the moment would have to be the Tyabb Bank. Local angler Peter took advantage of a nice calm day and got stuck into a number of whopping big squid. Pete had all his success on white jigs. I mentioned the use of darker jigs earlier in this report – on the flip side of that when the water is shallow and clear, as is often the case on the Tyabb Bank, white and light coloured jigs are the best place to start.

I mentioned the average size of the whiting around at the moment is the best we have seen all season. Check out these few reports from the Middle Spit.

Milla and Griffin Spierings spent a day on the Middle Spit with their dad Luke and between them they boated a dozen whiting with the smallest measuring 38cm and the biggest measuring 45cm! That is a very serious whiting and all fish were caught on fresh calamari caught earlier in the day. Well done, crew!

Chris and Shane were another couple of local anglers getting amongst the monster whiting up on the spit. Not only did they get a handful of whiting to 45cm, they also got some monster calamari too, which is insane. The Middle Spit is not generally known for its monster squid. Well done, fellas.

Hastings is still just cruising along nicely for monster whiting in the deeper water and Chris Rosenbrock put some time in out from Hastings with some freshly caught cuttlefish that he turned into a lovely bag of whiting to 40cm. Well done Chris and for those that haven’t tried cuttlefish for bait, GET ON IT!!

Rob McKenzie rounds out our monster whiting roundup this month with a recent trip to Hastings, which ended in a seven fish bag and the biggest fish measuring 46cm! Pipi was the best bait for Rob matched with a run-out tide. Well played, Rob.

Good luck to all and don’t forget to stay warm and keep those reports coming.