With the cold conditions now well and truly with us some anglers will be leaving their boats in the shed until warmer weather returns. This is a pity as there are some great opportunities in Andersons Inlet during the cooler months.

On a recent visit to Anderson Inlet I came across visiting angler Gordon Hinge and his younger brother Terry. They had just pulled in to the beach and had a nice bag of whiting to around the 36cm mark, not huge but well worthwhile going after. They also had a silver trevally and a nice rock flathead which were all caught on Bass yabbies.

Wonthaggi angler Steve Brann always takes his son Joel to Inverloch and the young fellow seldom fails to catch a fish. This is not hard to understand as his dad is a fairly handy angler himself. On this occasion Joel managed a very nice whiting that measured 38cm. It would be fair to say that whiting are pretty well spread throughout the inlet but further up towards and Mahers Landing the royal King George whiting are a bit smaller but still well worth while going after.

Those strange looking elephant sharks are throughout the inlet, which is a bit unusual, but it is pleasing that they have been taken in the Tarwin River at the rock wall. On a recent visit I saw a visiting angler catch one that was about a metre long that took a solid squid bait. Visiting Warragul anglers Paul Murphy and Tira Warn tried their luck at the rock wall for a few mullet and were happy to be able to take home something to put on the table that night.

There are reasonable numbers of estuary perch being taken up to the boat ramp but the better fish have been above the highway bridge where they have been to the 36cm mark. Bass yabbies, sand worms and soft plastic lures have been the best of the presentations.

There is no doubt that the fishing platforms have been a huge success with anglers of all abilities and ages between the highway bridge and the hotel. There has been mainly mullet, silver trevally and eels being taken in fairly good numbers.

At the time of this report there had been good numbers of quality perch to 36cm which had been taken well above the highway bridge on Bass yabbies and soft plastic lures. On a recent visit to the area I came across a visiting angler from Frankston who said that he has been catching quite a lot of these sought after fish well above the bridge John said that the fish are around the 36cm mark which give a great workout on the light gear.

No doubt they will stick around this area until there is a flush of fresh water when there will be a downstream movement towards and into the Inlet.