The colder weather and water has not slowed the fishing down at Inverloch, with great results reported from the Horseshoe to an area known as ‘The Islands’ in the shallow water near the mouth of the Tarwin River.

Colin Huntley rang me to say that he is one of those mad keen fishermen who loves to chase his quarry in a kayak around The Islands. This is an aspect of our sport that seems to be catching on. On his last trip, Colin said he managed three perch to 1.5kg on a soft plastic lure worked with a slow retrieve

Traditionally the Tarwin River should come good in July and produce estuary perch to 35cm. These great sportfish will take Bass yabbies, sandworms and soft plastic lures. Silver trevally have also been active in the area and have been caught on Bass yabbies. Mullet have also been around in reasonable numbers and there are plenty of eels, which many anglers reckon are great shark bait.

Wonthaggi angler Dennis O’Donnell says he has been surprised with the good numbers of whiting from the Horseshoe, which have been to the 38cm mark and taking pipis along with Bass yabbies. Also surprising to Dennis is the appearance of red and bull-eye gurnard that have been around for quite a while and are mixed in with the whiting.

Other anglers have been taking quite good numbers of silver trevally to the 1.5kg. These are scattered through out the inlet and are mainly biting on the run-in tide.

Further back towards Mahers Landing the soft plastics are also accounting for flathead, which have been caught in the shallow water as it runs off the banks. It is here that the big predators lay in wait as the smaller baitfish are forced to move off the mud banks into the deeper water.

Screw Creek has been productive, with estuary perch taking Bass yabbies. There has also been a sprinkling of bream to 1kg. The best time has been on the last half of the run-in tide.

The area known as the Bathing Boxes, which is located just inside the entrance, has been very popular with land-based anglers although many have been finding it a bit of a struggle. The lucky ones have been taking silver trevally, salmon and a few whiting on the run-in tide. Again Bass yabbies, along with whitebait, seem to be the best of the presentations.

There have been a few garfish showing up but for some reason they have been hanging around just inside the entrance and seem to like it there. They don’t seem to be making up a high percentage of anglers bags.