Although the weather is starting to cool off the fishing has been hot with whiting featuring virtually all through Anderson Inlet.

The Beaumont brothers from Wonthaggi have been having a ball on King George whiting, which have been taking pipis, squid and Bass yabbies. They have been having most of their success around the snags on the far side of the boat ramp, which is the deepest water in the inlet.

Other anglers have been doing alright further down towards the entrance near the Bathing Boxes where whiting, silver trevally and salmon have been taken in reasonable numbers. There are exceptions though and Ken Gardner who has been fishing the area for 15 years has been having a poor run. On one occasion he caught what looked at first like one of those awful Northern Pacific sea stars. Happily it was subsequently identified as a harmless local, much to everyone’s relief.

Further up towards Stevies Gutter the whiting have been ranging from just undersize to the 38cm mark and at the top end of the scale they are worthwhile going after.

There has been a great run of whiting around Mahers Landing where they have been taken to 45cm, which is unusually large but no one is complaining. Gummies and silver trevally have also been making an appearance in the area and are taking pilchards, squid and pipis.

At the extreme end of the inlet around the islands there have been anglers in kayaks taking good numbers of perch on soft plastics. Some have been in excess of 40cm, which makes things very interesting on light gear in little craft.

The Tarwin River has been giving up a variety of fish and some anglers have found that they really like berley. One such angler was Wonthaggi legend Lex Milkins who is always out on the water when he is not playing bowls. Lex said that he decided to use dry cat food as an enticement but after what seemed like forever he had failed to trouble the weigh master. He finally landed a good-sized perch that promptly spewed up a stomach full of cat food. The penny dropped and Lex thought that maybe cat food might make a good, cheap bait for the elusive perch.

Other anglers have also been taking perch on the traditional Bass yabbies and sand worms. There is a sprinkling of silver trevally making up bags too.

There are quite a few fishing platforms that have been constructed, some very recently. Hopefully the fishing community will look them because as we all know, it only takes one dill to spoil things for everyone.