What a month it’s been for our South Gippsland estuaries.

With a sudden rise of water temperature within a matter of a week, the fish have come on very strongly in recent weeks.

It has been an interesting month with the snapper. Some anglers were catching decent numbers of pinkies and snapper early, whilst other anglers were putting in 3-4 days for none. Many of the successful anglers catching snapper were only having success using pilchards, especially those anglers fishing Corner Inlet.

Locations such as from the entrance down to the Blue Hole fished very well. I also heard of a few snapper coming from around the Basket Beacon area.

In Corner Inlet, the Franklin Channel really copped a hammering. It wasn’t uncommon to see what looked like 100 boats sitting in the Channel, all chasing snapper. However it soon became apparent that those who got there late missed the fish and caught nothing other than rays and flathead.

Some anglers were on the water at 3am to get there before everyone else; this seemed to be the way to catch a bag of snapper. Many anglers reported that it was all over after about 30 minutes of fishing.

Hopefully the snapper will be less finicky once they have spawned and you will be able to get snapper at a friendlier hour.

Gulp Nuclear Chicken soft plastics fished on a 1oz jighead have been quite successful. Cast your plastic up current as far as you can and then let your plastic hit the bottom and bounce it back towards you. This is perhaps the most fun way to catch snapper possible, especially on a lightweight graphite soft plastics rod.

Some massive gummy sharks have been caught – some as large as 30kg. There’s been very large flathead caught around the islands by anglers chasing gummies, and some of these flathead have been measuring up to 75cm in length.

The gummy sharks are also being caught in very good numbers in Corner Inlet. Franklin and Toora channels are producing lots of gummies up to 4ft in length and the odd beauty of around 5ft in length. Snapper snatcher rigs and running sinker rigs are both working very well. Squid and pilchard are working equally as well.

There have been lots of squid caught off the south Gippsland jetties, especially the Port Albert jetty and Port Welshpool long jetty. Both squid jigs in 3-4” size range and also squid spikes with a pilchard on it have been working very well. Some of the squid have been huge and have been able to break 4kg line.

At the time of writing the whiting have been patchy. On certain days anglers are catching a good bag of perfect eating size fish up to 38cm in length, and then other days they seem to be off the bite.

However they should really come on the bite shortly as the weather heats up more. The drum channel and snake channel have been fishing well for whiting and the Lewis channel in corner inlet has been producing good amounts as well. Pipis have been the best bait to use fished on a light paternoster of running sinker rig.

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon, your fishing tackle specialists. You’ll get expert advice and excellent advice on all the best fishing tackle brands.