Now the weather is cooling down and the footy is in full swing, the surf is still producing good numbers of big fish to make it worth the effort braving the cold.

Salmon have made their presence felt in most areas with fish up to 2kg being taken. The most consistent spots have been from Loch Sport to Golden Beach, and Pettmans Beach (near Lake Tyers) to Eastern Beach at Lakes Entrance. The fish have been taking bluebait, salted pilchards and red and blue surf poppers. Metal lures have also accounted for their fair share of fish, with Raider and Lazer lures a good choice.

There have been several other species encountered by anglers chasing salmon, most notably tailor. These have been up to 1kg and have been travelling with the schools of salmon. They have been taking both baits and lures.

Trevally and mullet have also been taking baits of bluebait, whitebait and pipis. These fish are generally found at the back of the wash, where they have shelter under the breaking waves and an easily accessible food supply.

There is still the odd flathead being encountered, however most fish are only just size and not worth keeping.

The occasional yellowtail kingfish has been caught in Lakes Entrance area too, with one confirmed fish weighing 3-4kg. Most of these kingfish have taken metal lures while anglers have been targeting salmon.

Elephant fish to 3.5kg made a run in the Golden Beach and Lakes Entrance area for a few weeks, but the majority of these deep water species would be gone by now.

Gummy sharks are still being caught, however they are smaller in size than the summer run of sharks. Most have been around 1-1.2m and 4-5kg. Some anglers have been catching up to 10 sharks a night. Don’t forget that the bag limit is two per angler, with a minimum length of 45cm from the last gill to the tail wrist. Most of the gummies have been taking squid, bluebait, pilchards and fresh fish fillets.

Seven-gilled sharks will become more common as the water cools, with some of these reaching over 2m in length. They tend to prefer fresh squid and fish fillets. It is recommended that a wire trace of at least 1m be used as the seven-gilleds have sharp teeth and will make short work of a monofilament trace.

Even though the weather is cool the fishing is still at least warm, so it is well worth a trip to the beach for a couple of hours.