There have been some good days, some great days and days when you’ve had to bolt the dog down so he wouldn’t blow away. Although it’s been quiet, some quality catches have still been reported.

Skeeta Whelan from Traralgon had a red-hot 4-hour session on Port Albert flathead out wide during which he bagged out. The flathead were in the 40cm to 50cm range with a couple of fish reaching 70cm. To finish the day off nicely, a 3ft gummy shark was boated.

The squid appear to be quite thick offshore at the moment with large schools being found out in 30m of water. They are so thick at times that you can’t get baits or berley bombs to the bottom.

Peter Suckling of Port Albert boated 4 nice flathead inside at Port Albert. Pilchards and bluebait seem to be working the best.

Mann’s Beach angler Tony Cassidy had a good day out, taking five nice salmon and a good feed of garfish. There are large numbers of garfish in the estuary with a lot of bigger gars amongst them. The best way to catch gars is to run a berley trail of breadcrumbs and tuna oil along the edges of weed beds. Then fish peeled prawn, pipis or small pieces of fresh flathead under a float. [See Neil Slater’s Feature this month on catching garfish – Ed.]

You all know my favourite haunt for shark. Yes, Whale Bay is still producing gummy shark to 4ft. My daughter Natalie had a great session recently, boating two gummy sharks, both around the 3ft mark. She also missed a nice seven-gill shark, pulling the hooks at the side of the boat. The gummy sharks were biting well on silver trevally cutlets and saury cubes. The seven-gill fell to a well-presented squid head on a twin hook rig.

While the big salmon are still a bit on the shy side, some plate-sized fish are starting to make an appearance. Hopefully, the coming weeks will see the bigger fish make their presence felt. Until then, let’s just get out there and have a go.

For up-to-date fishing reports on Port Albert and district, call in and have a chat with me at the Alberton Roadhouse or give me a buzz on (03) 5183 2450. Get hooked – Wheelo.