The month of May is always a little confusing for me; normally the weather has started to cool and along with it the local waters.

Do you continue to chase the ocean species such as snapper, flathead and whiting as they start to taper off or concentrate your efforts towards the freshwater rivers and lakes in the area just as they are starting to fire up?

When the sea is flat I find it hard to pass up, and if the bread-and-butter species don't want to play there is always the Australian salmon schools to have some fun with.

Trolling along Wild Dog Beach to locate the schools of salmon is almost a sure fire way to get some action at this time of year.

Once the fish have been located I prefer to drift and cast and this can be a real visual treat as they leap out of the water and fight each other to eat your lure.

Metal slices or soft plastics work great but nothing beats the aerial attacks of using a surface popper when the salmon are really thick.

If you don't have a boat then try casting metal lures from the beach or fishing bluebait on a two-hook paternoster rig and a 12ft surf rod.

When the wind is up and the sea is too rough, check out one of the river estuaries along the Great Ocean Road.

More frequent rain at this time of year means more river mouth openings which really ignites the bream and trout and with such rivers as the Aire, Kennett, Erskine, Barham and Gellibrand to choose from the options are a plenty.

Fishing small hardbodied lures for bream is a great way to spend the day and if the river is open to the sea then the fishing should be red hot.

Cast your lure along the edges of the river as the tide drops as this is where the bream will be searching for food but once the tide starts to rise concentrate your efforts in the shallows over newly flooded sandbars or weed beds. 

The trout in the upper estuaries and freshwater reaches also love the rain and will be feeding up for the spawning season.

Again casting small hardbodied lures along the banks of the river works well as does drifting an unweighted scrub worm when the water is high and dirty.

The mouths of any drains that are flowing dirty water into the river are also good places to target the feeding trout.