Before I begin, I would like to send my deepest sympathy to friends and family of Neil Tedesco. A tragic loss for the fishing community.

As the weather is cooling down the fish are not as active as we’d like. The water has been as cold as 13ºC but those who persist will take home a good feed. Around the jetties in Lakes Entrance I’ve noticed a few anglers catching good numbers of luderick using green weed and shrimp under a running float.

While not huge fish, there have been specimens up to about a kilo. Just remember that the Bank Jetty is off limits to anglers, and to be cautious of any boats operating at the jetty your fishing on.

There have also been good numbers of silver trevally around the pylons, again not huge but great fun for the kids. Shrimp, sandworm and squid strips have been the most reliable baits. Small soft plastics like the new Damiki F grubs have also been productive for those willing to throw a lure around.

The flathead have been very quiet as the water cools off but they are still around for those who put the hours in. Fish with larger soft plastics and fish them as slow as possible for best results.

Big schools of small Australian salmon have been present every morning on the run in-tide around Bullock Island and have been great sport on ultra-light spin and fly tackle. Most of these fish are been around the 500g to 1kg bracket. If you have kids then this will be the most fun they will have. Spinning with small metal slugs and soft plastics or fishing a paternoster rig with pilchard, bluebait or squid is a sure-fire way to catch a feed. Some good-sized silver trevally have also been getting in on the act.

Out at Lake Tyers the fishing has been quite good with plenty of bream moving up the system. By June the fish should be getting up towards the Nowa Nowa arm and will be holding up in the snags with the big schools of luderick that also move with them. Best baits are peeled prawn, shrimp and sandworm.

There have been big numbers of thumping luderick around the number 2 boat ramp and they have been up to 5lb, which is a very serious fish in anyone’s language. They have been taking worm and green weed, which can be gathered along the shoreline in front of the Waterwheel Tavern. There are still massive numbers of garfish in the system and make for brilliant bait and even better eating, although there are mostly smaller models, there are plenty of big eaters amongst them.

Offshore the snapper have been going crazy and anglers are bagging out with minimal effort with fish up to 4kg not uncommon. Closer in the gummies have been in good numbers, the biggest I have seen was just over 5ft long and around 18kg. Squid has been the best bait, along with snapper snatchers. Some massive schools of slimy mackerel have been sighted, especially while berleying for mako sharks. It is no great surprise that they are also great bait. If you don’t have any mackerel use a small cube of pilchard on a size 4 hook unweighted and feed it back into the school. There have been a few mako sharks taken along with school shark and bronze whalers.

The beaches have been good with salmon up to 2kg, mainly on metal Lazer lures with gummies a feature of an evening. There have also been quite a few elephant sharks taken off the beach, which adds a bit of variety. Squid strips are the best bait, especially if the crabs are thick.