There’s been some great fishing in the lake and offshore and it looks like it will continue this month.

Usually over the Summer the winds are strong but this year seems more settled, with many days of excellent boating and fishing conditions. The best times have been early and late each day to avoid the hot midday sun.

Offshore, good catches of flathead are continuing to come in while gummy sharks are also on the chew and many anglers are reaching their bag limits. These fish are biting from Gabo Island down to the Ariels.

The kingfish are still hitting bigger plastics and metal lures and these fish should fire in February and beyond.

The beaches are still producing a lot of salmon and these amazing, leaping sportfish are proving great fun for the locals and visitors alike.

Yellowfin bream are popping up in the gutters where metal lures and surf poppers have been popular to catch these fish. Bethro and Tip beaches have the best gutters at the moment and hold a lot of fish.

The lake fishing this Summer has been exceptional. With the system still closed to the sea, there is no way out for the fish.

Big schools of salmon are turning up all over the lake at any time. You might be soaking a bait, and then it’s action everywhere with the salmon busting the surface chasing small baitfish.

Some of these salmon are over 2kg so throwing small 20g metal slugs at them can be exciting. Just cast, then wind back as fast as you can and wait to get whacked and into a great fight.

Pinkie snapper are also trapped in the lake with fish over 40cm grabbing baits and lures from those targeting bream and flathead.

Jewfish are also becoming regular catches over recent times. These fish bite best after dark and the Narrows has been providing the best action. Best baits are fresh strips of tailor or even better, a small live tailor. Most of these jewfish have been from 6kg to 12kg.

Big tailor are also in the lake. The bigger fish are biting off a lot of gear but most fish caught have been to 2kg.

Flathead are a very popular fish to target and are biting well.

I’m a bit concerned at how many of these fish are being kept by anglers. Victorian Fisheries is currently doing studies on flathead and would love people top return frozen fish frames after the fillets are removed.

There are the remains of more than one fish over 1m long waiting for them to collect. It is worth remembering that these fish are far more important to the fishery than they are a feed, so take a few 45cm fish for a meal and let the bigger breeders swim away.

By doing this we will all have flathead to catch for many years to come.

The flathead have been spread throughout the system and right up above Gypsy Point and it’s normal for this time of the year for the fish to be full of roe.

For the bream lurers there has been great fishing all over the lake.

Deeper water has been a popular option with metal vibes and plastics. Mario Vucik had an amazing day with me aboard Wilderness Fishing Tours, catching over 20 bream in an amazing bite over a few hours.

The smallest fish was 800g and the biggest topped 1.5kg and took the lure 3m from the boat, so we got to see all the action of the take.

Even the very old, smart bream cant resist a well-presented lure!