If you like fishing offshore, now is the time to get out there and try your luck before the cold water comes along and shuts the action down for another season.

The lake fishing will be OK through Winter but rain is badly needed to get things happening elsewhere. It seems that the whole of Victoria has missed out on the rain that has fallen all over Australia in Autumn.

Offshore fishing has been very productive with anglers regularly catching their bag limits of flathead and gummy sharks.

The bigger flathead have been caught out a bit wider with plenty of small fish in closer.

The gummies have all been good fish, just under 1m, with the odd bigger fish as well. Fillets of salmon have been a good choice of bait.

Salmon are being caught by anglers trolling small metal lures around the headlands and in along the beaches.

Out at Star Banks, local anglers Charlie Bates and Tony Wood had a ball catching kingfish that were just undersized, but then a 15kg bruiser got in on the action. A fish that size takes some effort to bring to the gaff.

The pair also landed a couple of good school sharks.

Now really is the time to get out there and try your luck.

You can expect anything to turn up at this time of year – albacore, yellowfin tuna, sharks, kingfish, striped tuna and maybe even a striped marlin.

Fishing along the beaches is starting to improve with more salmon starting to show up with some up to a couple of kilos.

The entrance area of the lake has very little movement at the moment because all the sand is blocking the flow.

And a word of caution: ‘Pelican itch’ is all through the front section of the lake. For those unfamiliar with pelican itch, it is a from a louse that comes off the pelicans and can get onto your skin if you enter the water and it has happened to me.

As someone said to me, you only get it once because you won’t let it happen again!

Flathead are still being caught in the lakes with fish caught on both soft plastic lures and baits of local prawns. The fish are spread throughout the system and the best way to catch a bag limit is to cover plenty of ground.

Bream have really come on the bite over the past few weeks with bait and lure anglers getting fish. Again, keep moving until you find the fish as they can be here one day and gone the next.

Good-sized garfish have been caught around the weed beds in the Bottom Lake and the Top Lake. Berley is needed to get things firing, along with a bit of patience.

Above Gypsy Point there are still numbers of bream around 28cm to 30cm with a few good-sized dusky flathead.