The last month has seen the King George whiting really kick on and with the extension of the mild weather, the snapper have continued to bite around the peninsula.

Calamari has been a good ‘backup’species when things aren’t really happening and with all the salmon about the west coast, it looks as though we’re in for a bumper winter on these Aussie aerialists.

Kelby from Catch 22 on Melbourne Road reports the whiting were going bananas in early April around Point Wilson and Point Henry. Nothing massive, but in good numbers all the same. Decent snapper have made a second appearance in both the inner and outer harbours. Kelby found some good whiting between 35cm and 40cm straight out from the Clifton Springs boat ramp and mentioned that most anglers were driving right past some great fishing in only a few metres of water.

St. Leonards continues to pour on the whiting and some say it’s been the best year for a while. Queenscliff is also a very consistent whiting producer. There are fewer fish, but they’re often much larger pushing 45cm on occasion.

I had a crack off Portarlington in late March and managed a few medium calamari and noticed a large bunch of boats fishing in 8m off the mussel beds. After returning to the ramp, I met a gent who had done very well there and held up an impressive dozen or so King George whiting between 40cm and 45 cm. Very nice fish indeed for Portarlington!

Brendan from Ray Long’s Tackle in Pakington Street reports some decent snapper between 4.5kg and 5kg have popped their heads up in the Corio Bay outer harbour. There’s also been a great run of garfish in the Corio Bay inner harbour very recently. Brendan added that a nice school of salmon have been seen around Corio Bay of late so don’t forget to take the lures out when heading out.

Tib Polgar has been into the great run of whiting off St.Leonards. Some of these fish have been up around 40cm and taken in around 4.5m of water. Tib also reports some nice pinkies coming in off Collendina.

Sean Devlin reports that there has been some threshers and seven gill sharks in very close off Barwon Heads as well as pinkies between 35cm and 38cm for those anglers fishing early in the morning.

If you’ve got a Bellarine Peninsula catch to report, please contact me via email with the location (within reason if it’s a secret spot!), angler’s name, species, size and bait used. If it’s a beauty, I’ll come and take a pic!