Landbased anglers are still catching big hauls of salmon from the beach at Wild Dog and Marengo. It doesn’t matter whether you are casting lures or soaking bait the salmon are still jumping on.

Late in the afternoon is the prime time and if you can find a day when the high tide peaks around this same time you should have no problems finding the fish. The salmon have averaged 1kg but some big fish of 4kg have also been landed from the beach.

Some local die hard King George whiting fishermen have been landing good numbers from the Marengo point area whilst fishing from a boat. The fish have been hit and miss but those putting in the hours have had some brilliant sessions. Craig Rippon found the whiting biting recently and landed 11 fat fish to 38cm in just half an hour.

The rivers have had a good flush out from the recent rains and the fish have come out to play. Although trout season is officially closed until September for most of the rivers within Victoria, the Aire and Ford Rivers remain open to trout fishing below the Great Ocean Rd bridges all year round. With the increased water flows and cooler temperatures the trout really start to fire up and feed on the local minnow population. This makes them a prime target on small hardbodied minnow lures at this time of year. Casting your lure along the banks and using a slow retrieve should see the trout get excited about eating your offering.

For this style of fishing I like to use Rapala 5cm, Rebel or Ecogear MX lures as these represent the local minnow and don't dive to deep when fishing them in shallow water.

While fishing the Aire/Ford river system expect to catch trout around the 1kg mark but don't be surprised if they top 2kg or more. You won't catch a lot of fish but when you do get a hook up it should be of quality size.

The Aire and Barham Rivers continue to fish well for bream down around the mouths. Casting soft plastic sandworms and slowly twitching them on the sand flats has been a great way to land a few bream. These rivers fish best when open to the ocean and the tide is pushing in and out of the river. I have been having the most success around the top of the tide when the sand flats are fully covered with water. If the tide is on the way out I like to concentrate around the weed beds that normally lie between the shallow sand flats and deeper water. A small suspending hard bodied lure will work better in this situation.