Finding a decent feed of fish over the last month has been hard work, but there are still rewards around when the weather allows.

Anglers fishing from the rocks have found large numbers of garfish in the coastal bays along with the odd school of silver trevally. Berleying with breadcrumbs and tuna oil has tempted large numbers of garfish at Marengo and Bone Yards but some days the fish refuse to eat anything at all. When garfish shut down like this, make sure your hook is totally covered with bait and once you have cast out to the school, very slowly wind your bait back through the fish and any bites should hook themselves.

Silver trevally have also been encountered in the coastal bays and have been easily taken on pipis fished under a float. Berley has been the key to getting the fish stirred up and the best fishing has occurred on an incoming tide. October should see some consistent squid captures from the harbour along with more flathead and snapper from the boats.

Boats fishers have reported a few captures of snapper recently out from Blanket Bay but things should pick up over the next couple of weeks with flathead and gummy shark also making an appearance.

Bream have been taken from the Barham River on scrubworms when fishing at the bottom of Sallys Hill. Mullet have been taken from this river on the old bridge behind the footy oval. It was this time last year that some very large estuary perch were taken from the local estuaries on soft plastic lures. Cast your lures under overhanging trees or into thick snags and slowly twitch it back out. Hang on tight as they send a big shock up the rod when they smash the lure and dive back into the snags. The best time to do this is around nightfall and early morning.

The trout fishing has been good in the Aire and Ford rivers with fish taking a liking to Rapala lures cast from the bank. The best fishing has occurred down stream from the Great Ocean Road Bridge although some trout have been caught on soft plastics just above the bridge in the Aire River when the water level has been low.