Great spring rains have made for some of the best trout fishing this region has experienced for many years.

High, clear flows coming from the Otway Ranges have given the rivers a much needed flush out and really fired up the trout.

The Aire and Ford rivers have been a popular choice amongst freshwater anglers, and rightly so as they continue to produce regular catches of trout over the 1kg mark. Fishing around the Great Ocean Road Bridge on the Aire River with small hard bodied lures or soft plastics has been working for me, with captures of two or three fish over 1kg each trip I have made.

I have also seen a couple of bigger 2kg plus fish chasing my lures but haven't been able to tempt them into biting. The river here is very snaggy and hard to fish but keep persevering as there is plenty of trout hiding amongst the timber.

You will lose a few lures to snags so stick to cheap soft plastics if you don't want to lose your favourite and expensive hardbodies. Other rivers in the region such as the Kennett, Wild Dog and Skenes Creek are also producing trout with unweighted scrub worms, with flyfishing becoming popular. Small dry flies such as Red Tags or Klinkhammers work well and if you rig a small nymph on a dropper below your dry fly you will have the water column covered.

Keep an eye on your dry fly as if the trout don't take it off the surface it will act as an indicator for any takes on the nymph below.

Some good catches of snapper and morwong are occurring down off Cape Otway when the sea has been flat.

Squid baits fished along the edges of reef in 40m of water has been working well around the top of the tide. Most of the snapper and morwong have been around 1kg but there is still a good chance of landing some much bigger specimens. 

Gummy sharks are often caught in this same area and love fresh squid heads or fish fillets. If you do happen to catch a gummy shark mark the spot on the GPS and keep fishing in that same area. They are often encountered here in big schools so release any unwanted fish and remember the bag limit is only two per person.

Mid November will see the crayfish season open and I for one will be out there trying to dive up a tasty feed. The coastline from Lorne to Port Campbell is home to plenty of crays and offers some excellent diving when the conditions are flat.

Remember your bag and size limits and be very careful whilst diving. Always dive with a partner and if the conditions aren’t suitable then give it a miss altogether.