With krill coming in closer to shore and with it the baitfish, SBT chasers do not have to travel as far as the continental shelf to land these great fighting fish.

SBT have been coming from as close as 70-130m as well as for those venturing out to the shelf in depths of 200-600m of water. Most of the tuna have been ranging from 15-25kg along with albacore up to 25kg, with the biggest SBT landed so far weighing in at 123.3kg caught by John Pizzi with mates Paul McDonall and Ivan Moloney of Melbourne in 130m of water.

On the following day there were also two large tuna hooked in 60m of water straight out in front of the lighthouse, unfortunately for the angler both these fish were lost. On my last outing with Bob McPherson we landed 11 tuna releasing seven while fishing in 100m of water and were back by 3.30pm.

This pattern has been continuing for other anglers while weather permits. The stand out lures have been the River2Sea Killer Vibes in the new range of colours along with the Black Magic Tuna Terrors in black and purple as well as the green and yellow colours.

This can change from day to day so it pays to take a few different colours until you get the correct pattern happening on the day.

As we head into June fishing for SBT, the fishing will only get better as previous years have indicated and due to the lateness of this year’s season, but all this is totally dependant on what the weather dictates. Please get in touch with us in the shop for the latest information.

For those who have been heading out to the continental shelf and taking time out to have a go at bottom bouncing there has been good catches of blue grenadier and blue eye trevalla along with the odd striped trumpeter.

Fishing in a bit closer off Cape Bridgewater there has also been good catches of flathead, along with the odd gummy shark in depths of 60-100m. Out in front of the lighthouse in depths of 40-60m morwong, coral perch and snapper have been the main catches.

For those chasing makos and releasing them there has been some good numbers and sizes estimated from between 50-150kg between Lawrence Rock and the lighthouse.

Over along the north shore land-based and boating parties have been catching gummy shark and school shark along with snapper and the odd whiting.

Fishing off the Lee breakwater there have been some nice snapper up to 6kg along with the odd whiting and some good catches of calamari squid.

Off the marina calamari squid have also been keeping anglers entertained. The best method off the marina is to use the smaller squid jigs and fish early morning and dusk.

In and around the harbour there has been whiting, trevally and pinkie snapper. Fishing the canal there has been some good catches for those targeting bream with soft plastics being the best technique.

The Surrey and Fitzroy rivers have also been producing some good catches of black bream with the banana prawn 3” minnow proving to be the most popular soft plastic along with blade lures.

So if your heading down Portland way, give the boys at Portland Bait & Tackle a call on 0355235213, we are open 7 days a week from 7 to 7.